New Resources at the State Library of Ohio
Minutes Spring Meeting May 7, 1999
Around the State (and Around the World)
Crime in the United States CD-ROM--Mae N. Schreiber
Forget the Millennium: Prepare for the Self -Study!--Heidi Good
Constitution Revision Vote at Fall Meeting
As some of you might know, I have a 3-year old son who allows me the opportunity to read and watch the Arthur stories written by Marc Brown. In a recent story Arthur's 4-year old sister D.W. worked hard learning to sign her name so that she could get her library card. With her library card finally in hand she stated "now I know what power really feels like." I realize I'm "preaching to the choir" but sometimes I believe it is important to be reminded of the important role libraries and librarians play in society. In this age of technology when more information is available than ever, especially government information, this role is more important as we help our users navigate through all of it. As Grace York and others pointed out during her presentation to our group several years ago, the questions we receive at reference desks haven't decreased but, rather, have increased in their complexity. This, I believe, is indicative of the continuing importance of our roles as government information resource people. In my case, this increased role of technology and its particular impact on my position as Government Information Librarian has caused me to be shifted to the position of Electronic Services Librarian at the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law Library. This change, however, will not impact my GODORT involvement.
During our spring meeting we had an extensive discussion about revisions to the Ohio GODORT Constitution. The suggestions and recommendations have been incorporated into a final draft of the Constitution and approved by the Executive Board at our October 1, 1999 meeting. This version is available for your review prior to our fall meeting at:
http://www.law.csuohio.edu/lawlibrary /godort/constitution.html.
Our fall meeting will be held at Hiram College on November 19, 1999. We are finishing up the details for the programs, which will focus on state documents, and will be posting the information on the web site. Among the business items will be consideration by the membership of the revised Constitution. The Executive Board will also be asking the membership to consider an increase for the dues. We will also begin soliciting volunteers to serve on the nominating committee. I hope you will plan to attend the meeting and I look forward to seeing you at Hiram.
Just a short note of thanks to all the contributors to this issue. I hope other members will be inspired to share their ideas and insights in future issues. New voices are always welcome!
The State Library now subscribes to the IHS Military Specifications and Standards Web service. The package includes:
They will be glad to supply Ohio libraries with specs and standards by fax or through OhioLINK delivery. Fair use copyright rules apply. (For example, a company should be advised that it would be illegal for them to make multiple copies to hand out.)
The State Library is also adding to its collection the U.S. Executive Branch Documents, 1910-1932, both the index volumes and the microfiche. Only part of the set has been received so far, but the full set will be arriving.
They have also purchased the Geolytics Census CD+. More information about that product will be forthcoming.
Barabara Kussow, the Government Information Consultant, is available to do workshops or presenta- tions on government and/or legal resources on the Web for libraries or library organizations. For example, she did a workshop for the Medical Library Association of Northeast Ohio not long ago. Generally, her services are free, but if an overnight stay is required at a rate that exceeds what the state will reimburse for lodging, then she asks that the organization. reimburse her for the difference.
How to contact the State Library of Ohio:
Barbara Kussow, Government Information Consultant
telephone: (614) 644-1971
email: bkussow@winslo.state.oh.us
- or -
bkussow@sloma.state.oh.us
Government Information Reference:
telephone: (614) 644-7051
Email: govinfo@winslo.state.oh.us
The meeting was called to order at 2:20 PM. by Barbara Bell.
I. Minutes of the Fall 1998 business meeting held on November 6, 1998 at the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County were approved.
II. Treasurer's Report (Nicole Eby).
COMMITTEE REPORTS
Annual Review of Committees (Standing and Ad Hoc Committees).
Membership Committee (Standing): Diane May (Ch.), Vicky Schmarr, Coleen
Parmer reporting.
This committee was very productive this year. A new brochure was mailed to all
depositories. (Barbara Kussow has some of these brochures at the State Library.)
For any content, word changes, or suggestions, please mail them to Diane May.
Surveys (dealing with training and service issues) were mailed by the State Library. The Ohio GODORT survey is designed to learn the names of the persons responsible for government documents departments.
Coleen Parmer would like to keep the committee active.
Access to State Government Information and Publications (Standing):
Coleen Parmer (Ch.)
This year there doesn't seem to have been any problem with reproducible state
tax forms.
The depository program and Ohio GODORT need to be publicized. It was suggested to invite people from various agencies to come and speak to us. Coleen recommended that the group write a letter or draft an official document to be sent to the various agencies explaining the depository program and Ohio GODORT and reminding them that, by law, agencies are required to furnish information. While on sabbatical Coleen will make lots of contacts. Barbara Bell will take Coleen's recommendation into consideration. Coleen would like to keep the committee active.
Newsletter (Standing): Karen Kimber (Ch.)
87 copies of the newsletter were mailed. Of those, 58 were sent to actual members;
the rest to depositories who do not have a connection to Ohio GODORT. (Cost
of mailing: $64.00.)
Karen requested articles on any subject (depository conference, interesting documents, etc.) New e-mail address: karen.kimber@ wright.edu.
OhioLINK Issues: Karen Kottsy (Ch.)
Nothing has been done lately although there is still an interest. There should
be a standard for entering records. OhioLINK records do not match government
documents. Tables should be standardized.
OhioLINK Committee is changing into focus groups. There are 3 members on this committee: Kimber, Gooch and Kottsy. New members are welcome.
State Plan: Barbara Kussow (conv.)
Barbara reported on the meeting held on March 23, 1999, at the State Library.
Members present: Kottsy, Bell, Prophet, Powell. Evron Collins has volunteered
to help with maps whenever needed. New member of this committee: Nani Ball.
An outline for the state plan has been drawn. More ideas are needed. Input from public libraries is especially needed. A draft should be ready by the Fall meeting. This plan should be no more than 5 pages long and should explain state initiatives (e.g., 5 colleges retrospective conversion, major accomplishments). E-mail suggestions should be mailed to Barbara.
GODORT of Ohio E-mail List and Homepage: Mark Gooch (Ch.)
According to Mark Gooch nothing much has been done with the web site except
some housekeeping. Docs Prescriptions is now online. Please forward ideas
and suggestions to Mark (links, etc.).
There are 46 subscribers to the mailing list which is working quite well. Archives can be accessed. New people would be welcome.
Legislative Action (Ad Hoc): Barbara Kussow (Conv.)
S.B.2288 failed in the 105th Congress. There was strong opposition from special
groups.
This is an Ad Hoc committee. It was decided to disband it until it is necessary to reactivate it. The Chairperson will be kept.
Ohio GODORT Constitution (Ad Hoc): Evron Collins (Coord.)
A report was distributed to the members present. Committee members are: Powell,
Singer and Collins. Margie Powell rewrote the Constitution with suggestions
from other Committee members. The following procedure was adopted; there will
be discussion on the proposal, which will go back to the committee, and the
draft will be brought to the Executive Board and then back to the membership.
It was decided to include Barbara Kussow in the Executive Board. Barbara agreed to be included.
OLD BUSINESS
Discussion of the proposed changes of the Constitution
The actual method of choosing officers will be kept. The Nominating Committee
will be changed to "By-law nr. 6 - Elections proce- dures." One-person committees
will become "liaisons." (Newsletter Committee will now be a one-person liaison.)
The newsletter, elections, discussion list, home page will now be known as "Ohio
GODORT Electronic Communication Committee." State Plan Revision Committee will
now be a standing committee. Clyde Award Committee: the Executive Board should
be part of this committee. Membership dues will be paid from Spring meeting
to Spring meeting. It was recommended minutes be posted within 6 weeks of the
meeting. Coleen Parmer suggested there should be a separate document for job
description of each office. This information would be pulled from the by-laws.
Coleen also suggested that an official letter be sent to people appointed or
who volunteered for a task. This letter would remind them of the nature of the
task.
As agreed earlier, Committee will reconvene to make adjustments to the proposed Constitution/ By-laws. This will be posted on the Web. These revised documents will then go to the Executive Board. A vote will be taken at the Fall meeting.
Status of affiliation with ALA GODORT
A liaison will be appointed to explore ALA GODORT affiliation.
Letter sent to the State Library of Ohio
A letter was sent in support of Barbara Kussow, now the official Government
Information Consultant (new title) (printed
in Docs Prescriptions).
NEW BUSINESS
Nominating Committee Report (Karen Kottsy (Convenor), Bev Gage, Audrey
Hall, Evron Collins, Cynthia Hall.
The committee recommended Margie Powell be nominated to be Program Chair/President
Elect. Recommendation accepted and nomination seconded by Mary Prophet. Motion
carried.
Report on the Federal Depository Library Conference, Bethesda (Sherry
Engle, John Graham).
Several very interesting sessions. NTDB CD ROM is not Y2K compliant. John Graham
also reported that the GPO is looking for partnership sites. This seems to be
the way of the future.
New Developments at the State Library of Ohio (Barbara Kussow)
They still don't know when they will be moving into their new facilities. The
state needs/offers going online; information about it appeared on the listserv.
They hope to have the first lists up soon. Their department web page is a "work
in progress." State survey: several have been received, but not all.
CIRM Committee for OhioLINK (Marlene Bundy) (Mark Gooch spoke in place
of Marlene Bundy who had to leave).
A form was passed out to submit requests for consideration of new databases.
OPAL depository libraries (Jane Wu, Linda Warren)
OPAL includes 117 private academic libraries, including 9 depositories. These
libraries joined OhioLINK in January. They are interested in the cooperative
cataloguing project of the Five Colleges of Ohio and are still in the study
stage for their own project. For them, a vendor is a better option so they hope
to have a MARCIVE contract next month.
Clyde Award
Barbara Bell presented the Clyde award to Julia Baldwin of the University of
Toledo in absentia. (Julia was ill and could not attend the meeting.)
Venue, program ideas, and date for Ohio GODORT's fall meeting Jeff Wanser volunteered Hiram College, and Barbara Kussow volunteered the State Library. Nothing is definite at this time but we will most likely meet at Hiram College.
Other
Bowling Green State University is becoming a selective Canadian depository.
The gavel was turned over to Mark Gooch, incoming President, at around 4:30 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Nicole Eby, Secretary/Treasurer
The title of the usual "Around the State" column has been modified in honor of Margie Powell (College of Wooster), our Program Chair/President Elect, who gave a presentation at the IFLA Conference in Bangkok in August. You can read her paper, "The U.S. Federal Depository Library Program and U.S. Government Information in an Electronic Environment: Issues for the Transition and the Millennium," at: http://142.78.40.27:80/ IV/ifla65/papers/053-83e.htm
Familiar Ohio names also appear in the Proceedings of the 8th Annual Federal Depository Library Conference. John Graham (Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County) spoke about reference service, and George Barnum spoke both about GPO's partnership program with libraries and about Nuclear Regulatory Commission documents. See the Proceedings at: http://www.access.gpo.gov/ su_docs/dpos/99pro.html
George Barnum, of course, is our colleague who went to GPO on a temporary assignment as an Electronic Transition Specialist. He has now taken a position there as LPS's first Electronic Collection Manager.
Closer to home, Sherry Engle (Ohio State) has written two new guides to compiling legislative histories, one on federal and one on Ohio legislation. They are aimed at OSU students (and so include call numbers for books on that campus, for example), but they present much useful information, including definitions of terms, in an organized way that will make them valuable to many other researchers. See "Resources for Compiling a Legislative History (Federal Law)" (http://www.lib.ohio-state.edu/refweb/govdocs/leghis.htm) and "Resources for Compiling Legislative History of an Ohio Law" (http://www.lib.ohio-state.edu/refweb/govdocs/ohleghis.htm).
We all join in wishing a happy retirement to Julia Baldwin, the 1999 recipient of the Clyde Award. She has just retired from the University of Toledo after long and distinguished service, much of it spent in government documents.
Crime in the United States (CIUS) (Uniform Crime Reports) includes statistics on crime broken down in a variety of ways such as murder, rape, robbery, property crime, and hate crimes. It is a nationwide statistical effort of over 17,000 city, county, and state law enforcement agencies voluntarily reporting data on crimes brought to their attention. It requires the Adobe Acrobat software and is a Windows based program. This particular CD includes statistics for 1995 to 1997.
To begin:
To summarize, the CIUS CD-ROM is user-friendly with a terrible search engine. You can print and save files easily, but the saved files do not display in columns and you need to look at the paper edition to see what the headers are. However, if you want data in an electronic format, it allows you the downloading option. This CD has room for improvement but it is usable. The paper edition is easier to understand.
Was your depository last inspected in 1994? If so, be prepared to submit a self-study by January 15, 2000. Notification was given earlier this year (Admin Notes, v. 20, no. 4) that depositories in several states, Ohio among them, would be required to fill out the study. Even if you haven't received official notification, now is a good time to start your mental preparation.
One of the most useful places to start is at the Library Programs Service page for the self-study. The URL is: http://www.access. gpo.gov/su_docs/dpos/selfstudy/ Not only is there a link to the self-study template, but this page also contains links to other self studies and related publications.
The related publication links can provide assistance in organizing your efforts to complete the self-study. LPS inspector Gail Snider and regional depository librarian Stephen Henson spoke on this topic at the 1998 and 1999 Federal Depository Library conferences, and their session papers are available online. The URL for the latest version is: http://www.access.gpo.gov/ su_docs/dpos/99pro40.html
Titled "Writing the Depository Self-Study," their paper contains a number of useful suggestions, from a time line for completing the study to hints about preparing for and writing the study (including useful addenda), as well as common errors to avoid. Snider and Henson emphasize that it is never too early to start reviewing-and revising, if needed-material related to the self-study, as copies will need to be submitted with the study. These items include the library's collection development policy for U.S. depository documents, policy statements and procedures related to depository operations, and selective housing agreements for depository materials.
In addition to gathering the appropriate documentation, communication and goal setting are important aspects in preparing to write the self-study. Snider and Henson point out that appropriate stakeholders should be notified, as they can provide help in writing the self-study; such assistance can come from the library administration, documents support staff, the regional depository, and nearby depositories. Moreover, since it will take longer than a week to gather materials and communicate with everyone much less write the report itself, it is important to allow for enough time to finish. Rushing this project only results in incomplete answers, ignored questions, and answering "yes" or "no" without explanation, some of the more common mistakes made on the study.
Although the final effort and responsibility for completing the self-study remains with the depository librarian, there is information available to help make the process a bit less confusing and overwhelming. As a librarian who will be writing her first self-study, I am grateful for any bit of assistance.
Constitution Revision Vote at Fall Meeting
Don't forget that in the business portion of the November 19 meeting we will vote on the proposed revision to the Ohio GODORT Constitution. Many thanks to Margie Powell, Evron Collins, and Carol Singer for their hard work on this project. There will be copies of the document available at the meeting, but you can access it on the Web so that you will have time to consider it more carefully in advance: http://www.law.csuohio.edu/lawlibrary/ godort/constitution.html
9:30 Registration and refreshments
10:00 Program: The theme is State Documents, with speakers Barbara Kussow, Audrey
Hall, Nicole Berendsen, Coleen Parmer, and Mary Prophet.
11:30 Lunch: On your own. (List of on and off campus possibilities available
at the meeting.)
1:30 Business meeting
Directions
Hiram is found at the crossroads of Routes 82, 700, and 305 in northeastern Portage County.
You can also see directions on the college's web page: http://www.hiram.edu/general/directions.asp
Parking
Parking is free, but at a premium right now because of construction of a new science building in front of the library. You can park anywhere on the street (except for Route 82). There is some parking behind the bank (now closed), and there is a small lot on Bancroft Street. You can also park in the lot at the Hiram Christian Church, or at the Gym, if you want some exercise. Those staying at the Hiram Inn have it easy, because there is a parking lot there reserved for guests.
Accommodations
Hiram Inn (1-888-447-2646). Range from double rooms at $98 to "whirlpool" rooms at $139. For pictures, see: http://143.206.107.71/www/hiraminn/index.shtml
Further away (about a half hour drive to Hiram):
In Aurora (about 9 mi. west on Route 82):
Aurora Inn (330-562-6121)
In Kent:
Knights Inn (1-800-843-5644) - Right off I-76
Alden Inn (1-800-678-2003) - On Route 43.
Days Inn (1-800-DAYSINN)
See the Ohio GODORT Web page (http://www.law.csuohio.edu/lawlibrary/godort/) for details of times for any updates to this information.
Docs Prescriptions
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Last revised: 12/22/99
http://www2.kenyon.edu/people/goochm/godort/docsrx/fall1999.html