1. Six State Virtual Government Information Conference  August 11-13 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

2. Six State Virtual Government Information Conference  August 11-13 and 16-17, 2010 Multi-state effort Debra Van Tassel University of Colorado - Boulder

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

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

5. 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

6. 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”

7. 93% of Current Government Information is published electronically

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 5 State Coordinators Arizona State Library University of Colorado, Boulder New Mexico State Library University of Utah Wyoming State Library

11. Gov Info Specialists by State 18 5 11 5 9 TOTAL 48

12. Gi21 Trainees TOTAL 731 83 sessions Average: 8.8 176 90 120 111 234

14. Six State Virtual Government Information Conference  August 11-13 and 16-17, 2010 Transitions: What comes next? Janet Fisher Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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.”

19. Others offering related training and publications WebJunction archive includes: – Webinar “Re-tooling Frontline Staff with E- government Resources” (Florida focus) (http://www.webjunction.org/events/webinars/w ebinar-archives/-/articles/content/98612509)http://www.webjunction.org/events/webinars/w ebinar-archives/-/articles/content/98612509 – Best Practices for Government Libraries 2010: The New Face of Value (collaborative document; downloadable (http://www.webjunction.org/gi21/- /resources/discussion/99201998)http://www.webjunction.org/gi21/- /resources/discussion/99201998

20. 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 (http://www.ala.org/ala/research/initiatives/plftas/i ndex.cfm)http://www.ala.org/ala/research/initiatives/plftas/i ndex.cfm

21. 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?????

22. Six State Virtual Government Information Conference  August 11-13 and 16-17, 2010 Portals to Federal Government Information Camille O’Neill Arizona Western College

23. 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%

24. Start at our Library’s web site: http://www.azwestern.edu/library/ Click on “Government Information” link Click through transition page to “Government Information” Libguide--Research Help Guide: http://libguides.azwestern.edu/gov_info

27. 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 http://www.libguides.comhttp://www.libguides.com

29. “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

30. RSS Feed from USA.gov Quick Links

31. 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.

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

33. FDLP Basic Collection

34. Selected Portals to Federal Information Federal Information Online tab

35. More of “Federal Information” Online page

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

37. 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

38. Explore Topics Most Popular

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

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

41. Usa.gov en espanol

42. 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”

45. Government Information in the 21 st Century

46. Modules

47. Government Information on the Web Subject Index

48. 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.”

49. Create your own search or use subject list

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

55. Thomas.gov Legislative Information

56. Current Activity Weekly Top Five items searched

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

58. Government portals from Library of Congress

60. Selected Statistical Resources

61. Fedstats.gov: Data from over 100 agencies

62. 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

63. Census.gov

64. American Factfinder

65. New resource – data sets from the Executive Branch

70. Thank you! Contact us at: Debra Van Tassel Debra.VanTassel@Colorado.edu Janet Fisher JFisher@lib.az.us Camille O’Neill Camille.Oneill@azwestern.edu Debra.VanTassel@Colorado.edu JFisher@lib.az.us Camille.Oneill@azwestern.edu Six State Virtual Government Information Conference  August 11-13 and 16-17, 2010