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Meeting Minutes & Resources for Major Microform
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NIDL Call to order Minutes read Election of new officers: Anne Abramson elected by acclimation as Secretary Amendment to agenda: Presentation by Tim Sutherland of Indiana University
Northwest was moved from 1:15 p.m. to 10:30 a.m. Promoting Use of the Library and Government Publications
at Indiana University Northwest Tim from Indiana University at Gary gave a presentation on promotion of governmental publications. He handed a publicity packet to attendees. About five years ago, his library received a grant, which provided start up funds for gathering data on his region. A library community grants center was created. This is an example of how a library can initiate new services, even when the institution of which it is a part, has limited funds. There are 3 depository libraries in one congressional district in the Gary, Indiana area. The IU libraries are all linked together via their online catalog. Some 15 million titles are available and the ILL turn around is quick. A cooperative publicity campaign was started to inform and educate faculty, staff, students and the public concerning the use and distribution of governmental information housed in these facilities. Tim noted a drop in reference statistics due to online services. The library then initiated a "cafe" proposal. Proceeds from the Café are divided up. The library receives funds from the café, which can be as much as $5000 to $10,000 per year. Census 2000 Phone: 312.353.8815 The 2000 Census disseminates year 2000 data. There were no questions regarding religion or pets. In rural areas, 1 of 6 households received the long form. In urban areas, 1 of 8 households received the long form. Everyone received the short form. Every question on the short or long form is required by law. Answers to these questions help determine how funds are allocated, for example, to children. There are questions regarding literacy and homelessness, for example. The data is available as a pdf file. Adobe Acrobat is one of the essential programs needed if one would like to download information from Census 2000 to spread sheet.programs like Excel. Using Census Web page at www.census.gov, select American Fact Finder.
Definitions on screen to describe data on site RACE We saw the Quick Table and the Geographic Comparison Table, which provided data down to the block level. Blocks have codes. Understand the geographic units: block, state, county, and tract. The download limit is 5 Meg. Comparisons can be made within a State only. The State is the "shell". State by state summaries are available. There is a supplemental summary survey, but it is not the Census, just a sample. The questions are similar to those asked on the long form, but are asked of far fewer people. The American Community Survey will be used in 2003, if funded. Funding for the Census is tied to funding for the UN and the State Dept. The Census Dept. is looking for $159 million for this new program, a hard sell right now. In 2004, all data will be loaded. Look at the release schedule. Announcement League of Nations Digitization Project Northwestern University Web Page links to a League of Nations Project
that includes the Statistical Yearbook as well as armaments documents.
Round Robin Earl Shumaker reported from Northern Illinois University. He indicated that the Library there is busy downloading marchive records. They are 25% finished, having already downloaded 250,000 records. Their microform holdings are indicated on the NIDL website, including papers of the National Security Council. Bob Pruter reported from Lewis University. He is new at Lewis and is taking over a badly neglected government documents collection there. He is devoting his energies to many basic tasks including discarding superseded documents, filing documents and putting up a web page. Lewis University has a Criminal Justice, Nursing and Education Departments and hence good collections in those areas. Tim Sutherland of IU Northwest reported briefly. He indicated that students are now increasingly interested in international documents and wonders if other libraries have received similar inquiries in light of the terrorist attack on Sept. 11. Beth Clausen of Northwestern University is searching for a new Government Documents Librarian to replace her. Aimee Quinn of University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) reported that the number of postings to the DOSFAN (Dept. of State Foreign Affairs Network) site have jumped to many hundreds of emails per day. The Foreign Relations of the United States is currently being digitized and will be posted at the Library's home page. A local community Chicago fact book and Urban Documents going 10 years back are also being digitized. Look for a link from the UIC home page. Pegeen Bassett of Northwestern University School of Law Library reported that Irene Berkey, the Foreign and International Law Librarian, has created a website on terrorism at www.lawlibr.northwestern.edu Gloria Hamilton of Regenstein Library at the University of Chicago introduced herself. She works in the Acquisitions Dept. at Regenstein. She oversees receipts of periodicals. She used to work at Northwestern. Regenstein is no longer a UN depository but does receive EU documents. The law library is a separate depository. Patricia of the John Marshall Law School, Louis L. Biro Library, reported that she has been working on the School's microforms inventory and the Library's more unique holdings should be up on the NIDL website shortly. Anne Abramson, also of The John Marshall Law School, Louis L. Biro Library,
reported that the library just completed an electronic migration project
for its government documents, using WebTech Notes and inserting URLs and
PURLs into the catalog records. She is working on the Illinois State Library
and GPO Biannual Surveys. Faculty members at John Marshall recently put
on a program entitled "Legal Responses to Terrorism", which
is now available on videotape. The Library is implementing a new security
system, which was in the works before Sept. 11. Much to her surprise,
she learned that Aimee Quinn of UIC was refused admittance when she tried
to enter the Library recently. Anne said that she would have to speak
with the person in charge of the Security Desk to make sure that this
did not happen again. Paulette Harding of Poplar Creek Public Library in Streamwood, Illinois reported that they have been experiencing a lot of turnover and training. They are now looking to hire a full-time clerk. The Library received a suspicious looking envelope from GPO and one of the staff called 911. Patrice Stearley of Northeastern Illinois University reported that her Library is migrating to the voyager platform. The weeding project is in the Ds. They have made space in the Cs for forthcoming Census materials. Open Floor Discussions Earl spoke about the accessibility of government information and Bush's recent executive order. He is concerned about the impact of this order on research and thinking of writing his Congressman. The Academic Research Libraries ("ARL") are looking at the issue of disappearing information and long-term access to web based information. OMB and USGS sites have been removed. Jeannie stated that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission ("NRC") asked their library to remove some materials on second hand smoke from the collection, for national security. Bob asked the group about using student help to file government documents. Patrice indicated that at her library, they train the students by giving them a cart and don't let them file on their own, until they have produced one error free cart. Aimee said that at her library, they use different color flags for different students. Earl said that he assigns students different areas of the collection and asks them to shelf read and file at the same time. There will be an IACRL conference in Oak Brook. Papers and programs are being sought by January. There will be a preconference on April 3 on "costing it out", library resources in a new century. There is also a project on collaborative digital reference service. The next NIDL meeting has been tentatively scheduled at UIC in April, pending its transition to Endeavor. Meeting adjourned. Minutes by Jeannie Struna and Anne Abramson
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