NIDL Annual Report for 1999

Annual Report for 1999

Submitted by Linda J. Chia

Getting together to share the news of its members and to discuss new developments in the world of government documents for 1999, was the ongoing objective of the Northeastern Illinois Documents Librarians group.

Linda Chia, Loyola University Chicago, served as Coordinator. Paula Contreras, University of Illinois at Chicago, served as Secretary.

The NIDL group met twice during the year: May 7 at Northern Illinois University, Founders Memorial Library, and November 5 at DePaul University, Rinn School of Law Library.

Each participating member had a lot of news to report. The round-robin component of the meetings continues to be a valuable tool for keeping each other informed. Members shared their experiences ranging from GPO inspections, self-study, biennial survey, DRA, FDLP conference, as well as other events happening in their own depository library.

At the spring meeting, Dr. Brian Harger, Director, Illinois State Data Center, Northern Illinois University, spoke to the group about the Center's data products compiled for clients ranging from U.S. Department of Education, Illinois State Board of Education, Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission, City of DeKalb, Commonwealth Edison, Inc., etc. He impressed the group with sample publications of project reports, policy profiles, and annual series such as "Northwest Illinois Market Facts."

Also at the spring meeting, Sandy Fritz of the Illinois State Library discussed the new Illinois Legislative Services web page The site, which contains the Compiled Statutes, Public Acts, and House and Senate bills and resolutions, generated a lot of excitement among the librarians present.

At the November 5 meeting, Ms. Dorothee McGrier of the U.S. Census Bureau, gave a demo of the American Factfinder, the new tool that will house census population and housing data, economic census, periodic survey reports and publications, and the American Community Survey. This product will replace many paper reports for the 2000 census.

After the American Factfinder demo, the meeting consisted of other business including the election of officers: Dan Blewett from Loyola and Luke Griffin from IIT were elected Coordinator-elect and Secretary.

The Web Page Committee and the Congressional District Information Committee activities were tabled for now. Members agreed that John Brandt's web site provided a great model for replication:

Many thanks to Joan Coogan and Tony Adams of Northwestern University Library who continues to maintain the NIDL website.

The incoming officers for 2000 are Earl Shumaker, Head, Government Publications, Northern Illinois University, as Coordinator, and Luke Griffin, Government Publications, Illinois Institute of Technology, as Secretary.

Many thanks to everyone who participated to make 1999 another fine year.

The next meeting will be held on Friday, April 28, 2000, at Valparaiso University of Indiana.