This Just In From the FDLP Desktop…

What are you doing Spring Break? Federal Depository Library Council Meeting, Spring 2008–from GPO: “The Federal Depository Library Council Meeting will be held at the Westin Crown Center Hotel in Kansas City, MO, from Monday, March 31 to Wednesday, April 2. The meeting will begin on Monday with registration at 8:00 a.m. and wrap up Wednesday, April 2 at 5:00 p.m. An educational track will be run in conjunction with the council sessions to provide an opportunity for peer sessions on topics of interest to the depository community. ..For additional event information, including links for the educational programs proposal form and vendor information, go to the FDLP Desktop at <http://www.fdlp.gov/events/spring08dlc.html.”

Coming soon, or check the FDLP Desktop if you want to know immediately: 

Get Your FDLP Account: New Registration Process

Want More Access to National Technical and Science Reports? NTIS Expanding DARTS

Not just in, but close enough: What’s Your Handle?

EPA wants comments: endocrine disruptors

Comments Sought: Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program Draft Procedures

Contacts: (Media only) Dale Kemery, (202) 564-4355 / kemery.dale@epa.gov
(Other inquries) William (Bill) Wooge, (202) 564-8476 / wooge.william@epa.gov

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is calling for comments about draft policies and procedures for the initial screening of pesticide chemicals under the agency’s Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program (EDSP). The comments should focus on the specific policies and related procedures that EPA will follow to impose data requirements, minimize duplicate testing, promote equitable cost-sharing, and protect confidential business information.

The EDSP was established in response to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, which requires EPA to develop a screening program to identify pesticide chemicals that may have effects on the endocrine system. This provision was enacted in response to growing scientific evidence that humans, domestic animals, and fish and wildlife species have exhibited adverse health consequences from exposure to environmental chemicals that interact with their endocrine systems.

EPA will require the use of validated assays to screen pesticides, commercial chemicals, and environmental contaminants in relation to estrogen, androgen, and thyroid hormones.

EPA will also be holding a public meeting to discuss the draft policies and procedures on Monday, Dec. 17, 2007 at its Crystal City facility in Arlington, Va.

For more information: http://www.epa.gov/scipoly/oscpendo/pubs/regaspects/index.htm

New Resource

 

Hi all, I want to alert you to a site that pulls together information that I think we all may find useful and interesting for our patrons. The message below is the email I received today through the site’s subscription service.

There are reports on privacy and public access, criminal victimization, Attorney General firings, a Homeland Security Achievements fact sheet, and Military Base closures information. The site as a whole has consistently good legal, government and technical information. If you know of a similiar site, I would be interested in knowing about it.

Thanks!

Anastasia

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Bureau of Justice Statistics: Criminal Victimization, 2006Press release: “Violent and property crime rates in United States urban and suburban communities remained stable between 2005 and 2006, the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) announced today. Last year BJS introduced a new sample of households and adopted automated data collection procedures that limited comparisons to urban and suburban areas.” The report, Criminal Victimization, 2006 (NCJ-219413) was written by BJS statisticians Michael Rand and Shannan Catalano. Topic(s): Government Documents, E-Government   Fact Sheet: Select Department of Homeland Security 2007 Achievements Fact Sheet: Select Department of Homeland Security 2007 Achievements, December 12, 2007: Protecting the Nation from Dangerous People Topic(s): Government Documents, E-Government   ABA Journal Names Gonzales, Mukasey Lawyers of the Year for 2007 and 2008 Press release: “Former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has been named 2007’s Lawyer of the Year by the ABA Journal, the flagship publication of the American Bar Association.” “The top legal story of 2007 was unquestionably the unraveling of support for the Bush administration’s expansive view of presidential power during wartime, and with it, the slow-motion destruction of Alberto Gonzales’ reign as U.S. attorney general,” according to the magazine’s January cover story. “Add to that the controversy over whether the administration fired eight U.S. attorneys for political reasons, and no single lawyer made more news in 2007 than Gonzales.” Related postings on U.S. Attorney firings Topic(s): Legal Research, Government Documents   CBO Reports: Historical Effective Federal Tax Rates: 1979 to 2005 Historical Effective Federal Tax Rates: 1979 to 2005, December 2007 and Supplemental Tables Topic(s): E-Government, Government Documents   Homeland Security Institute Releases Reports on Strategic Planning, Terrorist Attacks Homeland Security Strategic Planning: Mission Area Analysis, March 28, 2007 Underlying Reasons for Success and Failure of Terrorist Attacks: Selected Case Studies, June 4, 2007 2007 Homeland Security Science and Technology Stakeholders Conference, held May 21–24, 2007 -Available presentations Topic(s): Government Documents, E-Government   Privacy, Public Access and Policymaking in State Redaction Practices Government Technology: “A new white paper designed to help public officials develop policies for removing Social Security numbers and other sensitive information from public documents is now available online. The National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS), in collaboration with the National Electronic Commerce Coordinating Council (eC3), today released a joint white paper on redaction entitled Privacy, Public Access & Policymaking in State Redaction Practices. Developed with input from leading experts in government, academia and the private sector, the paper is the first national report specifically written for state and local leaders coping with data security issues in public records.” Topic(s): Government Documents, E-Government, E-Records   New GAO Reports: Military Base Realignments and Closures, Toxic Chemical Releases Military Base Realignments and Closures: Estimated Costs Have Increased and Estimated Savings Have Decreased, GAO-08-341T, December 12, 2007 Smithsonian Institution: Status of Efforts to Address a Range of Funding and Governance Challenges, GAO-08-250T, December 12, 2007 Toxic Chemical Releases: EPA Actions Could Reduce Environmental Information Available to Many Communities, GAO-08-128, November 30, 2007 Toxic Chemical Releases: Survey of State Toxics Release Inventory Coordinators (GAO-08-129SP), an E-supplement to GAO-08-128 GAO-08-129SP, November 30, 2007 Topic(s): Government Documents, E-Government   Committee Report: White House Engaged in Systematic Effort to Manipulate Climate Change Science “For the past 16 months, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has been investigating allegations of political interference with government climate change science under the Bush Administration. During the course of this investigation, the Committee obtained over 27,000 pages of documents from the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) and the Commerce Department, held two investigative hearings, and deposed or interviewed key officials. Much of the information made available to the Committee has never been publicly disclosed. This report presents the findings of the Committee’s investigation. The evidence before the Committee leads to one inescapable conclusion: the Bush Administration has engaged in a systematic effort to manipulate climate change science and mislead policymakers and the public about the dangers of global warming.” Report: Political Interference with Climate Change Science Under the Bush Administration (38 pages, PDF) Supporting Documents, Part 1 (148 pages, PDF) Supporting Documents, Part 2 (26 pages, PDF) Supporting Documents, Part 3 (144 pages, PDF) Related postings on climate change Topic(s): Congress, E-Government, Government Documents   DOJ Annual Financial Statement FY2007 U.S. Department of Justice Annual Financial Statement Fiscal Year 2007, Audit Report 08-01, December 2007 (Commentary and Summary Only) Topic(s): Government Documents, E-Government   FCC Response to GAO Report on the DTV Transition Follow up to the GAO report, Digital Television Transition: Increased Federal Planning and Risk Management Could Further Facilitate the DTV Transition, GAO-08-43, November 19, 2007, the FCC Written Response to the GAO Report on DTV, December 11, 2007. “One of the most important responsibilities of the Commission, with respect to the nation’s transition to digital television, has been to shepherd the transformation of television stations from analog broadcasting to digital broadcasting. Currently, 95% of all full power television stations (1,636 stations) are broadcasting in digital, and over 99% of stations (1,706 stations) have been assigned a final post-transition channel for operations. [Note: The GAO’s Draft Report incorrectly states that “approximately 90 percent” of television stations are providing a broadcast signal. (p. 14)] It has taken a series of complicated steps, spanning over two decades, in order to get to this point.” Topic(s): Government Documents, E-Government Search beSpacific archives back to September 2002 at http://www.beSpacific.com Copyright ©2002-2007 BeSpacific® LLC. All Rights Reserved. BeSpacific® LLC, P.O. Box 3554, Silver Spring, Maryland 20918

Law of the Sea 25th Anniversary

For a report on the United Nations Law of the Sea convention, link here.

For in-depth publications, link here.

New page: Digital Posterity

What is your depository’s preservation plan? What formats do you store and what are the options for those formats? Our blog’s newly created Digital Preservation page has potential to be a very useful resource for sharing resources and strategies among Alaska depositories. I have posted a few resources and have pointed out some of the features I find useful in understanding formats and options and for formulating a plan. In the interest of preserving knowledge for future generations, we need to get this discussion going.