1. Have the Feds at Your Fingertips: An Afternoon of Canadian Government Resources (and especially statistics!) Amanda Wakaruk (amanda.wakaruk@ualberta.ca) and Anna Bombak (anna.bombak@ualberta.ca) University of Alberta Libraries March 15, 2010

2. Outline Overview of Canadian Government Structure (Amanda) Accessing Canadian Government Information (Amanda) Exercise Break 2:15-2:45pm Statistics Canada Resources (Anna) Exercise Wrap-Up (Amanda)

3. What is information? Anything published by or for a governmental body as part of the operation of governing.  Laws & Legislative Materials (e.g., Canadian Environmental Protection Act)  Patents (e.g., CA 2382464, High-Affinity Choline Transporter)  Reports (e.g., Building on Values, Royal Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada aka Romanow Report)  Data & Statistics (e.g., Census of Canada and related PUMF)  Maps (e.g., National Topographic System (NTS) maps)  Ephemera (e.g., posters, pamphlets, etc.)

4. Federal Government Structure Legislative Branch main deliberative body  Parliament of Canada http://www.parl.gc.ca/ http://www.parl.gc.ca/  LegisInfo http://www2.parl.gc.ca/Sites/LOP/LE GISINFO/index.asp?Language=E http://www2.parl.gc.ca/Sites/LOP/LE GISINFO/index.asp?Language=E

5. Federal Government Structure Judicial Branch administers court system  Supreme Court of Canada http://www.scc-csc.gc.ca/

6. Federal Government Structure Executive Branch interprets and implements legislation  departmental web sites http://www.gc.ca/ http://www.gc.ca/  White Papers (policy) White Papers  Green Papers (discussion) Green Papers  Google search with site limit (e.g., site=gc.ca) Google search  library catalogues and other databases

7. Intellectual Access to Canadian Government Information NEOS Catalogue / UA WorldCat Local Author = Canada (use stable elements of the agency name; e.g., Canada Finance NOT Canada Department of Finance) Subject Headings to Know: – government policy – *** policy (e.g., environmental policy, fiscal policy, housing policy, industrial policy, labor policy, language policy, military policy, social policy, urban policy, etc.) – Canada (especially to broaden to non-governmental pubs about government policy) WorldCat Local topic facet: “government documents”

8. Free Intellectual Access to Canadian Government Information Depository Services Program Catalogue http://publications.gc.ca/ AMICUS (Library and Archives Canada) Federal Publications Locator http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/7/5/index-e.html Internet Archive (mostly historical) http://www.archive.org http://www.archive.org UofA Government Information LibGuide http://guides.library.ualberta.ca/govtinfo http://guides.library.ualberta.ca/govtinfo

9. Fee-Based Intellectual Access to Canadian Government Information Canadian Research Index (Microlog) $$ http://www.library.ualberta.ca/databases_help/cri/index.cfm Early Canadiana Online (CIHM) $$/some free http://www.canadiana.org/ECO

10. Exercise Find resources to help answer the following question posed by an undergraduate student taking a first year environmental studies course: What is Canada doing about climate change? Note: all demonstrated resources linked from http://www.library.ualberta.ca/ - Browse by Type – All Types - Government Information – Canada - Federal http://www.library.ualberta.ca/

11. Other Resources to Know (all linked via UofA LibGuide) Budget Cycle – Speech From the Throne – Budget – Estimates (RPPs and DPRs) – Public Accounts Government Databases on the Internet Statistics Canada

12. Challenges Migration issues: important microfiche and paper collections not digitized, some digital collections unstable. Fugitive materials: not everything published by Canadian government agencies is disseminated in a systematic way. Disappearing materials: stability cannot be assumed. Moving target: governing parties and policies change.

13. Professional Resources Associations – ALA, Government Documents Round Table (GODORT) – CLA, Access to Government Information Interest Group (AGIIG) – SLA, Government Information Division Listservs – GOVINFO – AGIIG – INTL-DOC UofT iSchool 2136 Course: – Government Information http://mccaffrey.ischool.utoronto.ca/2136/ http://mccaffrey.ischool.utoronto.ca/2136/