SLA Government Information Division

State Governments & Social Media: Survey Results

Friends, Followers, and Feeds: A National Survey of Social Media Use in State Government [PDF] reports the results of a survey of forty-three states and territories. Released this week by the National Association of State CIO's (NASCIO), the report's findings include:

• Social media adoption rates are broad across state governments, whether controlled by CIO offices or not.
• Two-thirds of survey respondents lack enterprise policies addressing social media.
• One-third of the states responding do have enterprise policy frameworks, guidance, and standards, and a sizable number of states are in the process of developing these. (Models are available.)

The report includes a table of links to state social media policies, standards, or guidelines on the Web.

Richard Huffine elected to SLA Board of Directors

Richard Huffine, founding chair of the Government Information Division, has been elected to serve as Division Cabinet Chair-Elect for the Special Libraries Association.

Richard is a third-generation librarian and currently serves as the national library coordinator for the U.S. Geological Survey in Reston, Virginia. He has been active in SLA since 2004. Richard has served on SLA’s Public Policy Advisory Council since 2007 and has been an active member of the Environment and Resource Management Division, the Information Technology Division, and the Knowledge Management Division.

In his personal life, Richard supports public libraries in the District of Columbia. As president of the Friends of the Mount Pleasant Library and treasurer of the Federation of Friends of the D.C. Public Library, he helps coordinate library support and advocacy across the city. Richard was president of the federation from 2005 to 2009 and he is currently president-elect of the District of Columbia Library Association (DCLA).

Congratulations, Richard!

IMLS Grant for Libraries & E-Government Resource

Just noticed this new grant awarded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS.gov):

American Library Association - Chicago, IL
Award Amount: $581,609; Matching: $583,155
Grant Category: Demonstration

Contact: Ms. Jessica McGilvray
Assistant Director, ALA-OGR

Project Title: "Libraries and E-Government: New Partnerships in Public Service"
The American Library Association will partner with the University of Illinois, the University of Maryland, and Florida State University to develop a Web-based resource to help libraries and governments provide better e-government–related services such as filing taxes, applying for citizenship, enrolling children in schools, and applying for social services. This project will enable greater coordination between government agencies and libraries, reduce costly duplication of effort, and provide a more comprehensive model for serving users of e-government. The Web-based resource will include useful content, tutorials, best practice recommendations, an embedded government information digital reference service, guidance on the provision of e-government services, an online forum for service providers to share and exchange information, and tools to facilitate local customization of e-government services provision in libraries. The project will design, develop, and test the Web-based resource in coordination with multiple states and public libraries.

Full list of grantees is provided in the 27 September 2010 press release, IMLS Awards National Leadership Grants to 34 Institutions.

New Database of Award-Winning Local Government Programs

The University of Michigan's Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP) has launched a new resource, the CLOSUP Public Sector Excellence Database. The database compiles information on government projects and programs that have won awards from organizations like the National League of Cities (NLC) and the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) from 2006 to the present. Search for sample programs by keyword, broad topic, year, U.S. region, and jurisdiction level (town, county, state), and population size. Topic areas include criminal justice, finance, civic/public participation, and health and human services, as well as a catch-all environment/green issues category. Each database entry includes a description of the award-winning program.

New: Notifications.USA.gov

USA.gov has launched a new site, Government Notifications Dashboard, at http://notifications.usa.gov/. The site was previously available in a beta version. The Notifications Dashboard is designed to make it easier for you to find and subscribe to government news feeds via email, text, or RSS. Particularly exciting: a real-time search of current federal government notifications. (Try 'eggs' or 'health insurance' or your city  name.)

We have not put this new tool through any rigorous testing yet. For a light spin on the service, see the Vanity Fair (for a gov website?) blog post Improving the Federal Government's Online Presence.

Federal Depository Library Conference 2010

The annual Federal Depository Library Conference fall meeting will be held on 18-20 October 2010 at the Doubletree Hotel (300 Army Navy Drive) in Arlington, VA. As described on the site:

The Conference and Council meeting are open to everyone, and there is [registration but] no registration fee. The programs provide Federal depository library staff, information professionals, and all others interested in Federal Government information dissemination the opportunity to stay current with Federal Depository Library Program activities, provide input into the planning process, and exchange ideas among colleagues.

• Preliminary Agenda
• Online Registration

Colorado Law Week Honors Director of Native American Law Library

David Selden, Director of the National Indian Law Library in Boulder, Colorado (http://www.narf.org/nill/), has been honored as one of Law Week Colorado's Outstanding Legal Professionals of 2010.

The National Indian Law Library is a public law library devoted to federal Indian and tribal law. Its collection consists of Native American legal materials ranging from books and journal articles to tribal self-governance documents, such as tribal codes and constitutions.

Selden was featured in the August 23 print issue of Law Week Colorado. In the article, Jamie Cotten writes:

Next door to the Native American Rights Fund in Boulder is the National Indian Law Library - a small building filled with Native American law books and codes.

The former fraternity house is now a nationally recognized Native American law library, run for the past 12 years by law librarian David Selden, one of Law Week Colorado's picks for our 2010 Outstanding Legal Professionals issue.

Earlier this year, Selden received the Roy M. Merskey Spirit of Law Librarianship Award, given to nationally recognized people in librarianship.

It's an award for [someone] who's done a lot for community service outside of their profession, so it related to my environmental work that I've been doing and volunteerism for the Colorado Indian Bar," Selden said.

"The award generally goes to the big names in the field, so for him to receive that is quite an honor," said Robert Linz, associate director and head of public service for the Colorado Association of Law Libraries.

"He's really passionate about his work with the tribes, and in making that material available. He's also known as the expert researcher in that area."

Selden, who spent five years in Uganda as a child with his family, was exposed to cultures and tribes not many 7-year-olds, or adults for that matter, will see. Selden's father is an anthropologist.

"I gained a respect and interest in other people's values, and even though in many ways we're so different, we have a lot in common," he said.

David's work to promote sustainability in libraries and communities was highlighted in the announcement of the Merskey award, given by the University of Texas School of Law. The Special Libraries Association named him a Knowledge to Go Green Champion in 2009.

You've Heard of Adopt-a-Highway But What About Adopt-a-Doc?

I'm sure you've heard of adopt-a-highway programs but have you heard of OSTI's adopt-a-doc program?

 OSTI, the US Dept. of Energy's Office of Scientific and Technical Information, provides public access to over 2.6 million science research reports and citations published by Department of Energy (and predecessor) organizations.  These include technical reports, journal articles, conference papers and other materials.

OSTI's done a great job of digitizing copies of the technical reports published by its National Labs and other organizations.  (Journal articles and conference papers are generally excluded due to copyright restrictions).

But it hasn't scanned them all.  There are more than 250,000 DOE technical reports in need of digitization, and that's where adopt-a-doc comes into play. 

If you find reference to a non-digitized technical report (not journal article or conference paper) in, for example, the Energy Citations Database, you can search for that title on the adopt-a-doc page to confirm it is "adoptable", and then sponsor the digitization of that report for $85, the cost of ordering a hard copy.   

In this way the report becomes available not just to you but also to all other researchers and members of the public.  If you'd like, an electronic  sponsor certificate or acknowledgement in honor of someone else will become part of the document for all to see.

What a great way to make important research available to those who need it! --Nora

 

Administrative Conference of the U.S. is ACUS.gov

The newly funded and revived Administrative Conference of the United States now has a website at www.acus.gov. The site opens with a condensed history of the agency:

With the Senate's confirmation of Paul Verkuil as Chairman, the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS) has been re-established after an absence of over 14 years. ACUS was created in 1968 as an independent agency of the federal government, for the purpose of developing recommendations to improve the fairness and effectiveness of the rulemaking, adjudication, licensing, and investigative functions of federal agency programs. Funding was suspended by Congress in late 1995.

I miss the usual statement of mission, but the site links to Title V, section 591 for this purpose.

Currently, the Web site is strong on historical information. It features a bibliography [PDF] of works for 1968-1995 and Code of Federal Regulations citations to historic ACUS recommendations (courtesy the American Bar Association archive at Florida State University College of Law).

We will watch this space.

Related DGI Bog post, The Administrative Conference of the U.S. is Back.

Federal Records Management Perspective on Social Media

Today the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) released their first report on the topic of Web 2.0 and social media. A NARA records management team talked with representatives from 25 federal agencies about their use of these tools; their findings are the basis for A Report on Federal Web 2.0 Use and Record Value [PDF]. The report provides a succinct and insightful analysis of federal agencies' internal and external use of Web 2.0 tools, and it enumerates issues in need of attention. From the report:

The study identifies characteristics of the information that is found in web 2.0 formats and how those characteristics affect the value of the information. It also provides a basis for determining whether Federal records created using web 2.0 tools should be retained for a temporary period of time or are permanent and ultimately transferred to the National Archives.

This study does not describe or dictate how to schedule or manage web 2.0 records. It does not focus on specific technological issues, identify permanent web 2.0 records, or assess any specific NARA or agency policy or guidance. This study does note key management issues that participating agencies addressed through the course of the study.