Six State Virtual Government Information Conference  August and 16-17, 2010 Making Documents Accessible Deb Van Tassel, University of Colorado Janet Fisher, Arizona State Library and Archives Camille O’Neill, Arizona Western College

Six State Virtual Government Information Conference  August and 16-17, 2010 Multi-state effort Debra Van Tassel University of Colorado - Boulder

A continuing education program to train reference and public services librarians and library workers in the use of electronic government information

G i 21 is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute Of Museum and Library Services.

Identified Issues For help with a variety of common problems, more people turn to the Internet than consult experts or family Most Americans (70%) expect to be able to get info or services from a government agency website Reliance on a commercial search engine misses “a lot” of government information

More Issues 4 in 5 (78%) have visited government websites to seek info Assistance from library staff vital to finding info General “lack of awareness and skills” to make effective use of online gov info among librarians - Pew Internet & American Life Project “Information Searches that Solve Problems”

93% of Current Government Information is published electronically

Goals Goal 1: Develop a group of government information professionals who are available to train and support non-government information professionals in their use of electronic government information. Goal 2: Expand the base of library professionals and library workers who have knowledge of and experience with electronic government information resources among our various states.

Goals Goal 3: Increase their level of satisfaction with government information resources in meeting the information needs of their specific user communities. Goal 4: Develop a new model for the support and training of participants of the Federal Depository Libraries in the 5 state region that can be adopted nationally.

5 State Coordinators Arizona State Library University of Colorado, Boulder New Mexico State Library University of Utah Wyoming State Library

Gov Info Specialists by State TOTAL 48

Gi21 Trainees TOTAL sessions Average:

Six State Virtual Government Information Conference  August and 16-17, 2010 Transitions: What comes next? Janet Fisher Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records

Transitioning from Gi21 In addition to training during grant period – Depository Librarians continued talking about the project and headway made during grant period Fall 2008 Federal Depository Conference Librarians used and referred patrons to subject modules – First project coordinator volunteered time from Fall 2008 through early this year to update pages and investigate involv more states in this project – Arizona took on responsibility to keep site up-to-date Checking every link Content will be updated and additional information added

Difficulties in creating sustainable project No champion emerged within 5 states as we were coping with the economy and our own libraries Services of a grant writer no longer available to identify and write another grant -- librarians completing training commitments of first grant

Others still refer to project ALA Open Forum for all Divisions in Summer 2009 – e-government information is important for all librarians to know OCLC WebJunction’s newsletter, Crossroads - February 2010 issue featured the Government Information in the 21 st Century site

CROSSROADS Newsletter February 2010 Patrons Seek E-Government Resources More than Ever “Public libraries are relied upon to provide access to e-government resources, and to help patrons find and use the information there. With such high demand, how do library staff keep current with federal, state, and local government agency websites? For starters, check out Government Information in the 21st Century which provides guidance and hundreds of links to federal e- government resources. We'll be adding more content throughout the month, so stay tuned. And if you have resources to share, please let us know.”

Others offering related training and publications WebJunction archive includes: – Webinar “Re-tooling Frontline Staff with E- government Resources” (Florida focus) ( ebinar-archives/-/articles/content/ ) ebinar-archives/-/articles/content/ – Best Practices for Government Libraries 2010: The New Face of Value (collaborative document; downloadable ( /resources/discussion/ ) /resources/discussion/

Others offering related training and publications (continued) University of Maryland, College of Information Studies – E-Government Concentration ALA publication, Libraries Connect Communities: Public Library Funding & Technology Access Study 2009–2010, references importance of e-government ( ndex.cfm) ndex.cfm

Library decision-makers using Gi21 as foundation for other efforts Arizona applied for Broadband Stimulus grant – Included training on e-government sources related to job and business-related tools, based on modules in Gi21 Other ideas?????

Six State Virtual Government Information Conference  August and 16-17, 2010 Portals to Federal Government Information Camille O’Neill Arizona Western College

Academic Library A partnership library Serves Arizona Western College (community college service region includes Yuma & La Paz Counties) Serves Northern Arizona University--Yuma Branch Campus Uses a library catalog shared with the Yuma County Library District Serves as a Federal Depository Library for the western portion of the 7 th U.S. Congressional District Located in SW corner of Arizona near borders with Mexico and California Nearest other depository is 160 miles away Yuma County unemployment rate is over 20%

Start at our Library’s web site: Click on “Government Information” link Click through transition page to “Government Information” Libguide--Research Help Guide:

About the Libguide Format Recent library objective was to update our formerly print research guides Saw Libguides demonstrated at American Library Association conference It’s a very user-friendly way for novices to incorporate Web 2.0 tools, update content We already had Government Documents web pages, migrated them to Libguide format Ann Ewbank, Arizona State University-West campus, came to Yuma for Libguide training & shared ASU’s “Best Practices” More info at

“Home” page includes basic information about the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) “Quick Links” to government information Government RSS feeds of current interest Ask A Librarian services

RSS Feed from USA.gov Quick Links

Catalog of Government Publications “The finding tool for federal publications that includes descriptive records for historical and current publications,” some with full text links. Can find nearby libraries with holdings.

Finding Government Information All depository libraries are required to provide access to the Basic Collection

FDLP Basic Collection

Selected Portals to Federal Information Federal Information Online tab

More of “Federal Information” Online page

Selected Portals to Federal Information USA.gov: the official web portal of the U. S. Government

Usa.gov The official web portal of the U.S. Government. Use it to access health, consumer, educational, career, and many other types of information. Recently revised Available in Spanish version

Explore Topics Most Popular

Usa.gov: Explore by Topic or Audience, or Search

Usa.gov Web 2.0 & Mobile apps Web 2.0 & mobile tools

Usa.gov en espanol

GPO Access & FDsys Provides “online access to the official published information of the Federal Government” Will transition to FDsys.gov in the near future FDsys “provides public access to Government information submitted by Congress and Federal agencies and preserved as technology changes”

Government Information in the 21 st Century

Modules

Government Information on the Web Subject Index

St. Mary’s University Partnership project with the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) Provides “starting points for browsing subject areas, bringing both broad and detailed subject listings from many libraries together in one index.”

Create your own search or use subject list

Federal Information portals from Arizona State Library, Archives & Public Records

Thomas.gov Legislative Information

Current Activity Weekly Top Five items searched

Government portals selected by Library of Congress Ben’s Guide to the U.S. Government for Kids includes resources for educators

Government portals from Library of Congress

Selected Statistical Resources

Fedstats.gov: Data from over 100 agencies

Census.gov Census.gov is a comprehensive site for statistical data about the United States, its population, and much more Includes business & industry data Includes American Factfinder, a user-friendly interface. Users can create their own tables & maps

Census.gov

American Factfinder

New resource – data sets from the Executive Branch

Thank you! Contact us at: Debra Van Tassel Janet Fisher Camille O’Neill Six State Virtual Government Information Conference  August and 16-17, 2010