The Government Information Interest Group

Mission Statement

The Government Information Interest Group (GIIG) explores current and developing trends in the delivery of government information from all levels - international, federal, state and local. The Group seeks to provide Maryland Librarians, and other interested persons, with quality programming and professional development in this fast-changing field. The Group welcomes all members of the library community who are interested in the use and dissemination of government information.

News

GIIG offers two programs at this year's MLA Conference

On Thursday, May 5, at 11:00 AM, GIIG and the Children’s Services Division will offer FEDERAL GOVERNMENT RESOURCES FOR KIDS: Fun for Families and Future Citizens: Our federal government is the largest producer of Internet content in the world, from documents to databases, from rocket science to resources for children. It is an abundant free resource of valuable and interesting material. With "just a click away," public librarians and school media specialists can find subjects like Arts, Math, and History for grades K-8. Arlene Hernandez, General Services Administration, will present Kids.gov, the portal to a fascinating trove of federal government resources for kids and students. NOTE: John Dowgiallo from the U.S. Government Printing Office, who was to present on Ben’s Guide to the Federal Government, has been forced to cancel due to budget cutbacks at GPO.

On Friday, May 6, at 11:15 AM, GIIG will offer TREASURES FOR TRYING TIMES: Helping Library Users Find Federal Financial Resources in Education and Business: In a turbulent and fast-changing economy, people in all walks of life seek to gain new resources and make the most of what they earn. Yet scams or misleading promises abound along with legitimate risks, while genuinely useful resources can be difficult to find. Cindy Forbes Cameron is an experienced presenter on federal financial aid, and Carol Kando-Pineda regularly speaks to the public and can give librarians free tips and tools to help patrons manage their money and avoid scams in difficult times. NOTE: As if to underscore the parlous nature of our times, Carol Kando-Pineda will give her talk remotely by speakerphone.

This year the Delaware Library Association will also attend in a joint conference with MLA, and will sponsor CONNECTING TO GOVERNMENT: Trends. Greg Hughes, Director of the Delaware Government Information Center, heads the development of the award-winning site, Delaware.gov. His program will explore current and future trends in connecting to local, state and federal government information and the implications for libraries, librarians and library patrons. The program is scheduled for Thursday at 4:00 PM.

The chair encourages all GIIG members to attend the conference. This year has a good selection of programs for everyone interested in government information.

March 9, 2011 - Round Table Discussion co-sponsored by Technical Services Division and the Government Information Interest Group

Sixteen librarians and technicians gathered in Denton, MD on February 18th, 2011 at the central branch of Caroline County Public Library to take part in one of TSD's regular series of round table discussions. The Government Information Interest Group took part, and attendance was about even between the two groups. Martha Zimmerman gave a presentation on what a document is, how a selective government depository operates within a library, and the continuing challenge of promoting awareness of documents and their value to library patrons. Paper documents are being increasingly consigned to the basements of library buildings; to counteract this, Ms. Zimmerman emails her colleagues with a "document of the month", as well as new arrivals in email and by a paper newsletter placed at the reference desk. Carl Olson of Towson University recounted the Albert S. Cook Library's long transition from depository, to receiving documents electronically and back to an all-electronic depository. Cook Library was a very small selective depository for only twenty years, but it still took fifteen people almost four years to finally dispose of its collection. Some time later, the library elected to take part in Documents Without Walls, a program of the University of Maryland College Park's regional depository. Through this program, Cook Library loads document records into its catalog, each bearing a "PURL" or permanent URL, through which the library user can access the full text of the document or access to the government’s database. In the discussion that followed, some finer points of PURL access and services from MARCIVE, a bibliographic utility that specializes in documents, came forward. Martha Zimmerman related how Documents Without Walls had to be discontinued at Salisbury State, since too many documents were cluttering user searches. Towson University, by contrast, has found them much more useful, due to their programs in education and health sciences, and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, with its strong focus on agriculture, likewise found it a strong addition to their collection. Jim Gillespie of Johns Hopkins added a description of a digitization project involving Baltimore City maps, and invited attendees to participate if they possessed such material. Documents librarians discussed various discovery tools such as the GPO Catalog, the FDSys (Federal Digital System), and the FDLP Desktop, with many resources for depository activities, as well as public library finders such as Kids.gov. All of these are good sources of government publications for those without formal delivery systems or membership in the FDLP.

Contacts

Carl Olson, Chairperson
Librarian III
Albert S. Cook Library
Towson University
Towson, MD
410-704-3267
colson@towson.edu

Last updated 13 August 2010.