Two U.S. federal libraries and two federal librarians will be recognized by the Library of Congress Federal Library and Information Network (FEDLINK) in a ceremony next week. The honorees were announced in a May 15 press release.

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve Research Library is singled out for its “leadership role in initiating new data services (including sophisticated data-discovery tools) and its rapidly growing data-reference service.”

The RAF Alconbury Base Library, 423d Force Support Squadron, U.S. Air Force, Huntingdon, England, is recognized for outstanding service in support of the base’s 38 education degrees offered by five accredited schools.

Joyce C. Greene, George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, is FEDLINK’s 2012 Federal Librarian of the Year. Among her leadership achievements, Joyce “championed the development of a new Content Management Office, which has increased the center’s momentum toward organizational change, and developed a digital library and repository with six unique collections.”

Tiffany Hughey, U.S. Army Garrison Kaiserslautern Library, Landstuhl, Germany, is the 2012 Federal Library Technician of the Year. She “has seamlessly combined her professional technician skills with a thorough knowledge of Army policies and procedures, allowing her to improve programming and services in the garrison and in Army Europe Libraries.”

Congratulations to the award winnners! Your accomplishments demonstrate the great variety of  service and innovation happening in federal libraries.

Kevin Adams, Chair of and DGI liaison to SLA’s Online Content Advisory Board (OCAC), invites you to chat. From Kevin:

The next in the OCAC twitter talks is nearly upon us. So please see below the topics and instructions on how to join etc. I look forward to you joining us.

Please mark your calendars for our May 14th Twitter chat, and share with colleagues you collaborate with as well!

In this installment, we’ll discuss collaborating to achieve better results and greater impact:

1. In your experience, what are some skills or tricks of the trade for successful collaboration?
2. What online or in-person resources or technologies are key to successfully collaborating on a project?
3. How do you handle difficult, slacking, or reluctant to engage group members?
4. Without disclosing proprietary information, what were the outcomes of the most successful collaboration you’ve had?

When:
2 choices on Tuesday, May 14th:
Session #1 at 17:30 UTC <http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/city.html?n=1440>  (1:30 p.m. Eastern / 10:30 a.m. Pacific)
Great Britain/United Kingdom is one hour ahead of UTC during summer.

Session #2 at 03:00 UTC <http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/city.html?n=1440>  (11:00 p.m. Eastern / 8:00 p.m. Pacific)
[Wednesday, 15 May - 13:00 Canberra / 11:00 Perth / 08:30 New Delhi]

Full details: http://bit.ly/ZPrzte <http://bit.ly/ZPrzte>
We look forward to a great discussion!

New to Twitter or Twitter chats? Check out the instructions on How to #SLAtalk <http://www.sla.org/how-to-slatalk/>.

Thank you to the outstanding vendor sponsors who are supporting SLA Government Information Division programming at the 2013 SLA conference in San Diego:

Platinum Level ($2,500 and over)

LexisNexis

Gold ($751 to $1,250)

CQ Press, an imprint of Sage

Elsevier

Leadership Directories

Springer

WT.Cox Information Services

Silver ($501 to $750)

Gale Cengage Learning

ProQuest Dialog

Bronze ($500 and under)

Basch Subscriptions, Inc.

For more information on Government Information Division sponsorships, please visit http://govinfo.sla.org/sponsorship/ on our division website!

Every year, the Catholic University School of Library and Information Science in Washington, DC hosts the Elizabeth R. Stone lecture in memory of the former dean. DGI member Kathy Kelly kindly reported on the 2013 program for us. Thanks, Kathy!

UPDATE: Slides have been posted.

Submitted by Kathy Kelly:

Blane Dessy, Executive Director of the Federal Library and Information Network (FEDLINK) at the Library of Congress, focused attention on the impressive scope of the Federal government’s information ecosystem at the Catholic University School of Library and Information Science (SLIS) 23^rd annual Elizabeth W. Stone Lecture on April 5th.  The lecture, “The Federal Government’s Information Sphere & The Myth of Federal Information Policy,” was an invitation for attendees to explore the research potential of the hypothesis that the world’s largest  consumer/creator/manager/disseminator of information has no single information policy nor will there ever be one, since Federal policies have something other than information as their intention (e.g. national security).

But Blane also explored alternatives to a single information policy in the information realm such as law and directives, while lecture attendees pitched in with proposals about best practices in federal information management.

Blane proposed that Library and Information Science schools are an appropriate place for the type of research needed on public sector information – such as how much information originally created by the Federal government is bought from the private sector.  He also explored the formats, dissemination methods, synthesis/analysis services, and types of acquisition or original creation of Federal information which takes places via external sources and inter-agency processes.

Blane noted the range includes all branches of Government, all formats and security levels, all time periods of its existence, and everything acquired, created, synthesized, and all information and data disseminated internally and externally.

Attendees gave many specific examples of Government creation, purchasing, management, and dissemination of information, and ideas for how to better track it.

The Government Information Division (DGI) is pleased to announce this year’s essay contest.

Library students:

Would you like to win a student registration to attend the SLA Annual Conference in San Diego?
Here is your chance!

The Division of Government Information is a community of knowledgeable information professionals who share an interest in government information.  Everyone uses government information.  From unemployment numbers to climate change, government resources help local governments, businesses and families to make decisions that affect us all.  We are interested in hearing new and innovative ideas about how governments can improve access to their information, especially to the public. Governments can include local, state, provincial or federal.  Current MLIS students, present your thoughts and ideas to us.

Here are the rules:

• Word Count: 1500 or less
• Deadline: May 1^st, 2013
• Winner must be eligible for a student registration (current student in a library & information science program such as MLS, MLIS, information management, human computer interaction etc), and must be a member of DGI by April 15, 2013. To become a DGI member, please see http://www.sla.org/content/membership/unitchange.cfm.
• Please remember, DGI cannot take political positions and can only accept apolitical postings. Political entries will be disqualified.
• Only one entry per participant. The winner should plan to attend the DGI Business Meeting at the 2013 Annual Conference.
• The winning essay will be published on the DGI blog http://govinfo.sla.org/blog/
• Should the winner be unable to attend the conference, an alternate winner will be selected.
• The division will reimburse the winner for the student registration cost on presentation of a receipt. Additional ticketed events, if desired, can be purchased at the winner’s expense.
• DGI cannot cover travel, lodging, food, or any other additional conference expenses.

Submit questions and entries to jennifer_klang@ios.doi.gov

The SLA Government Information Division is proud to share that news that our current chair, Aileen Marshall, has been selected as a 2013 SLA Rising Star. According to the SLA announcement, the Rising Star Award “is presented annually to information professionals who show exceptional promise of leadership and contribution to their profession and to SLA.” We’ve already seen that in her work as DGI chair-elect and chair.

Congratulations, Aileen!

It’s exciting to see DGI member Naomi House featured in the Library Journal, in the 22 February article Nine Questions with Naomi House, founder of I Need A Library Job.

I Need A Library Job (INALJ.com) is a mega-site for library and archives job postings and resources in the U.S., Canada, and other countries. The site grew out of Naomi’s own job-hunting experience and is now her hobby and passion:

My hope was to help at least one person find a job and now we are nearing 800 success stories and those are just the people who shared their success with me. There are many more.

Naomi started out solo and now has 150 volunteers helping. Some other figures:

 I had 3,700 [subscribers] to the daily email which transitioned to the INALJ Jobs pages in 2013. I have nearly 800 subscribers to the blog, and I will reach 1 million page views in the next month or two. In 2012 fans from 151 countries visited INALJ.com.

But this is just what she does in her spare time. Naomi has a full-time day job as a federal librarian, a job she found on a listserv.

In response to a petition filed on the White House We the People site, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy on Friday released a policy memorandum (PDF) supporting free public access to the results of federally-funded research. The policy mandates that, within six months, “each Federal agency with over $100 million in annual conduct of research and development expenditures…develop a [draft] plan to support increased public access to the results of research funded by the Federal Government.” Of particular interest to librarians and other information professionals, required features of the draft agency plans include “a strategy for improving the public’s ability to locate and access digital data resulting from federally funded scientific research” and “an approach for optimizing search, archival, and dissemination features that encourages innovation in accessibility and interoperability, while ensuring long-term stewardship of the results of federally funded research.”

Meanwhile, legislation recently introduced in Congress (H.R. 708) calls on federal agencies “to develop public access policies relating to research conducted by employees of that agency or from funds administered by that agency.” The bill is commonly called the FASTR bill, short for “Fair Access to Science and Technology Research.”

Open access expert Peter Suber succinctly describes the key differences between the White House policy and the legislation–and explains why he welcomes both–in his Google+ post Second shoe drops: new White House Directive mandates OA.

While the bill may or may not pass, the directive is already in force. How will this affect your work? Let us know in the comments.

Another Leadership Summit has concluded … and what a great summit it was!

First and foremost I would like to thank the Texas Chapter for hosting us in “Big D”. I am sure that I speak for all of us when I say that we had a great time and enjoyed the company, restaurants and attractions such as the Dallas World Aquarium and the Sixth Floor Museum. Thanks to the staff who stayed late to let us in (and out) of the building, and who took time to show us their lovely and super-interesting reading room that contains all things Kennedy.

Thank you, SLA Fellows, for sharing their stories about how their involvement in SLA helped them in their careers as leaders and also enriched them personally: Richard Huffine, Ulla de Stricker, Sara Tompson, Stacey Greenwell and librarian/retired law enforcement officer Tom Rink (the “guncarryinglibrarian” … gotta love this guy even if you are (like me) not a fan of guns).

Despite the great weather in Dallas, we spent most of our time in conference rooms; but I haven’t heard anybody complain about it. The sessions were too interesting to do so. True to our current challenges, we heard and talked a lot about budget, membership retention and engagement, developing leadership skills etc. Listening and talking to fellow librarians and other professionals as well as the SLA Board and staff was truly inspiring and eye-opening!

I think I speak for all of us by saying that the news that we all were most excited about is the upcoming launch of the new SLA web site (thanks for the picture, Chris). It has a wonderfully clean look … way to go, HQ!

Although I liked all the sessions and presentations, I’d like to highlight the fantastic job that My Jeffra Bussman (Physics, Astronomy and Mathematics Division) and Valerie Ryder (Philadelphia Chapter) did; they presented their division’s/chapter’s brand new strategic plans, and thanks to their hard work, other divisions (like mine) don’t have to reinvent the wheel but can use these documents as template to create their own plans for the future. Thanks, ladies and everyone involved in this effort!

Finally, this year’s Fellows and Rising Stars were announced by President Deb Hunt:

2013 Fellows: David Cappoli, Dennie Heye, Martha Foote, Mary Talley, Rebecca Vargha
2013 Rising Stars: Alyson Avery, Kendra Levine, Amy Sarola, Rachel Bates Wilfahrt, Aileen Marshall.

Thank you all for making the Leadership Summit a memorable experience. Hope to see you all in San Diego!

Aileen
DGI Chair

News from the U.S. Government Printing Office:

As part of the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) and the U.S. Department of Treasury pilot project to provide permanent public access to the Treasury Library’s digital content, the Official Register of the United States is now available on GPO’s Federal Digital System (FDsys) at <www.fdsys.gov <http://www.fdsys.gov> >. The Official Register of the United States: 1829, 1835-1837, 1841-1861; 1879-1891, 1895-1907, 1911-1921, 1925-1926, 1929-1934, 1936-1959, contains information about the Federal workforce, including the name of every employee, their job title, state or country of birth, the location of their post, and their annual salary.

Three additional historical U.S. Government information titles will be released in Fiscal Year 2013. These titles are:

*  An Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of the United States: 1793; 1797; 1805-06; 1808-09; 1812-1828; 1830-1890. This publication documents detailed statements of receipts and expenditures of the U.S. Government appropriations, including balances of the current and previous fiscal years, payments during the year, sums carried to surplus funds, and balances unexpended at the end of the year.

*  Combined Statement of the Receipts and Expenditures of the United States: 1872-1983, which contains fiscal year receipts and expenditures of the Government by appropriations.

*  Internal Revenue Cumulative Bulletins: 1919-2008. This is a consolidation of all items of permanent nature published in the Internal Revenue Bulletins (IRB). IRBs are the authoritative instrument of announcing official rulings and procedures of the Internal Revenue Service and Treasury Decisions, Executive Orders, Tax Conventions, legislation, court decisions, and other items of general interest.