Government Info Pro

2008 New Year's Resolutions

USA.gov has some help for you in putting together your 2008 New Year's resolutions and making them happen. They've got a whole list of popular New Year's resolutions and some government sites to get you started. For instance, do you want to reduce stress? USA.gov points you to helpful resources from National Institute of Health (NIH) and and National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NOISH).

Popular Resolutions include:

• Losing Weight
• Saving Money
• Getting Fit
• Eating Right
• Paying Off Debt
• Volunteering to Help Others

and more.

Click here to visit the USA.gov's Popular New Year's Resolutions's page.

Two Top Ten Lists

The Blogging Section of SLA-IT's Blog had two recent posts by Jill Hurst-Wall regarding top 10 lists that are worth checking out:

Ten Technologies and Ideas to Improve Library Productivity

and

Top 10 New and Improved Apps of 2007.

State Library Agencies: Fiscal Year 2006 Report

As seen on the SLA Government Information Blog: the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) has recently released a statistical report - State Library Agencies: Fiscal Year 2006. The 159-page report is available in PDF and provides tables of data related to these seven topics:

• Governance, Allied Operations, Electronic Services, and Internet Access
• Service to Libraries and Cooperatives
• Outlets and User Groups, Public Service Hours, and Collections
• Service Transactions
• Staff
• Revenue
• Expenditures.

Using the Citation Format Assistant on Lexis.com

You have a citation but you aren't sure of the correct format to use with Get a Document or Shepard’s® on lexis.com. No worries.

Sometimes the most difficult task about using Get a Document or Shepard’s® is knowing the correct format. The LexisNexis® Citation Format Assistant ("CFA") takes the guesswork out of the job. Not only can you quickly find the correct format, you can also locate the coverage for specific Law Reviews and Journals.

You can access the CFA from the main tab for either Get a Document or Shepard’s by clicking the Citation Formats hyperlink. Clicking the hyperlink opens the CFA. The CFA contains 2 options. Option 1 allows you to search for a source by name, Option 2 provides you with an alphabetical index...

Read the full article from In the Know for State and Local Government Customers by clicking here.

Barney CAM VI: Holiday in the National Parks

Barney and Miss Beazley delight us again with their most recent White House video, just in time for the holidays. The video showcases the beauty of the White House during the holiday season and teaches the viewer a little something about our National Parks too. By the way, did you know that the White House grounds are a national park? Pretty cool!

Click here to check out prior Barney Cam holiday videos. You'll see them all listed on the right sidebar. Enjoy!

White House Tour 2007

Being in Washington, D.C. during the holidays has its perfect moments. Driving by the beautiful National Christmas tree shining so brightly in the dark December nights and getting to visit the White House decorated for the holidays are two of them.

This year, I did both of these things with my family - actually it's a family tradition. My husband, kids, and I pile into the car, and with holiday music playing on the car stereo, head downtown for a White House Tour. Afterwards, we have a nice leisurely dinner out together. It's always a special family time for us.

This White House Library is warm and inviting.

The decorations this year were spectacular - everything was done in golden tones.

Even as we were heading out the door at the end of the tour, we were dazzling by the beauty of the White House to the very last second of our visit.

On the way home, we passed the National Christmas Tree.

I hope that over this holiday season you have some special moments with family and friends and that you carry a little bit of the spirit of the season with you throughout the year.

Holiday Resources

Leave it to USA.gov to put together a special page of holiday resources that covers the gamut of information you might need during this festive and hective season. Their Happy Holidays page covers:

• FTC's Tips on Charitable Giving
• Background and Symbols for Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa
• CPSC's Tips on Decorating Safely
• Food for the Holidays
• USFA's Holiday Fire Prevention
• Holiday Season Safety
• Holiday Shopping Tips
• Holidays at the White House
• Support U.S. Troops
• Track Santa Claus
• Volunteer in Your Community

And much more! Click here to check out all USA.gov holidays links.

Window Exhibits at FSI

Priscilla Lujan, FSI Head Librarian, George P. Shultz National Foreign Affairs Training Center, U.S. Department of State, shared her very successful series of window exhibits in this year's Best Practices. You can see details of all of the exhibits in the full article in the 2007 Best Practices, which begins on page 72. Read on...

All of the window exhibits, especially with our very large monitor (46” x 22”) displaying spectacular Power Point photos, draw many of the FSI students and staff to the Library.

Those who are drawn to the displays are not only educated but stop to consider how they contribute to the mission of the Department of State. Consequently, the Library receives requests from FSI staff who are inspired to collaborate with us on a display of their own.

Peace on Earth
Display Date: December 2006

Every December the FSI library exhibits a holiday display entitled “Peace on Earth”.  On PowerPoint slides and hanging snowflakes, the phrase ‘Peace on Earth’ is shown translated into many of the languages taught at FSI. With help from FSI language instructors, we have now translated ‘Peace on Earth’ into 65 languages.

Director’s Shelf
Display Date: January 2007

In January the Library featured in a window display its new book collection called the “Director’s Shelf”. The collection was started by incoming Director Ruth Whiteside, who requested a special collection of books written by Department of State authors. Our collection includes books by:

• Secretaries of State
• Ambassadors
• Foreign Service Officers
• Director’s of the Foreign Service Institute
  
  For the display, we created a PowerPoint presentation featuring photographs of our “Director’s Shelf” books, and displayed a number of the books on our display table.   

Other Displays in the article include:

• Distance Learning Showcase
• Distinguished American Diplomats
• Honoring FSI Language & Culture Experts & Publication of their Dictionaries
• “Emancipation of Tunisian Women”
• Norouz HolidaySports & Diplomacy

Check out all of the exhibits in the full article in the 2007 Best Practices, starting on page 72.

Draft Report: Future of Bibliographic Control Webcast

The SLA Division of Government Information Blog recently pointed to the webcast of the November 2008 presentation: Draft Final Report: Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control.

In November 2006, Deanna Marcum, associate librarian for Library Services at the Library of Congress, convened a Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control to examine the future of bibliographic description in the 21st century in light of advances in search engine technology, the popularity of the Internet and the influx of electronic information resources.

After a year of careful and comprehensive study, the group presented its draft report to Library of Congress managers and staff in the Coolidge Auditorium. The draft report will be made available on or about Nov. 30, and a comment period on the draft report will last until Dec. 15, 2007. [Library of Congress Webcasts, Draft Report: Future of Bibliographic Control]

Serendipity

Rhonda Keaton, LexisNexis Librarian Research Consultant shares her thoughts on serendipity from both a personal and professional perspective in the December 2008 Monthly Column over at the LexisNexis Info Pro site. As usual, Rhonda writes an interesting column in which she shares herself and her ideas in a highly readable way.

Here's an excerpt:

And the advent of digital libraries is truly exciting.  No longer limited to a space or to physical objects like books and journals, law librarians can amplify the opportunity for serendipity to occur any time and any place a person has a network connection.  Non-legal resources and current awareness stories can spark an idea, create stimulation and cross pollinization that can trigger active minds to make important connections from seemingly unrelated information.   A new term for the process has been christened, “digitdipity.”

CLICK HERE to read it all!