Transcript mladocs - University of Michigan

Government
Documents Made
Easy?
Or Just Easier?
Federal Documents on the
Internet
90% since 2000
 Retrospective
conversion projects
 Search engines often
DO work

Limitations to Search Engines
Too Many Hits
•No subject headings or
thesaurus terms
•Overuse of common
words
•Antiquated terms in
state law
Is it?

Economic recovery act?

Economic stimulus package?

Economic stimulus bill?

American Recovery and
Assistance Act
Documents Question Clues
•Legal Material
•Statistics
•Government Official or Agency Mentioned
in Question
•Obvious government publication
(e.g. Duelfer or 9/11 Commission report)
• Expert on the subject is a government
employee (not always obvious)
Expert on Subject?
Some are obvious
- State Dept. for passports
- INS for naturalization
- Census Bureau for Census
Some are unclear, e.g. baby cribs
- Consumer Reports (commercial)
- Consumer Product Safety
Commission (government)
Secret Techniques
Browse Agency likely to publish the
information
Use specialized indexes for that level of
government (e.g. USA.gov)
Specialized free databases for each level
of government
Documents Center web site
Many places for help
Handouts
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Key Government Document Reference
Tools
Statistical Reference Tools
UMich Documents Site
http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs
Federal Web Pages
http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/federal.html
Google’s Uncle Sam
http://www.google.com/unclesam
Results ranked with most important at top
Advanced search link from main screen – can change domain
USA.gov
http://www.usa.gov/
Must do simple search before advanced search
Narrow search down by topics and agencies
USA.gov
http://www.usa.gov/
Use for browsing agency names
Federal Web Pages
http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/federal.html


Several Docs web portals consist of several pages
Cumulative frames index for section
Hathi Trust
http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/federal.html

First source for retrospective digitized documents
Hathi Trust
http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/federal.html

Use pdf version to download 10 pages at a time
Legislative Branch
http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/fedlegis.html
Thomas for Bills
http://thomas.loc.gov/
Thomas for Bills
http://thomas.loc.gov/
Hearings via GPO’s FDSys
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/search/advanced/advsearchpage.action
Hearings via GPO’s FDSys
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/search/advanced/advsearchpage.action
Laws and Regulations
Michigan Pages
http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/mich.html
Includes specialized Google index and links to local
governments
Other States
http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/state.html
Links to state laws and regulations, comparative
state laws, tax forms, governors
International Agencies
http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/intl.html
Special IGO and NGO indexes across agencies
Large number of United Nations documents are free
Foreign Governments
http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/foreign.html
Individual Foreign Countries
http://ucblibraries.colorado.edu/govpubs/for/foreigngo
vt.htm
Statistics
http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/stats.html
Historic Census Publications
http://guides.lib.umich.edu/content.php?pid=37625&sid=276640
News Items
America’s War Against Terrorism
http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/usterror.html
Iraq War Debate
http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/iraqwar.html
Elections 2008
http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/elec2008.html
Getting Help
University of Michigan Documents Center
(734) 764-0410 (M-F, 1-4)
[email protected] (most of the time)
Library of Michigan
(517) 373-1300
http://www.michigan.gov/hal/0,1607,7-16017445_19270---,00.html
Government Information Online
http://131.193.153.128/
Federal Depository Library for the Area
http://catalog.gpo.gov/fdlpdir/FDLPdir.jsp
Problems with Current Site
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Known better outside the University
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Old-fashioned graphics
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Labor intensive – hard to keep updated
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Future after Grace retires
Future Plans
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Content management system and
database by August 3, 2009
Advantages: search results integrated
with main library web page and easier
to update URLs
Possible disadvantages: difficulty
browsing and loss of incompatible
formats (e.g. tables)
Hedge: backup DVD of current site and
old/new URL equivalent tables
Grace York, Coordinator, Documents Center,
University of Michigan Library
[email protected]
(734) 936-2378
Michigan Library Association I-Trends Seminar
June 26 2009
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~graceyor/doctemp/mladocs.ppt