Thursday, February 28, 2013

What's new in Government Information

By Kathy Karn-Carmichael

Happy New Year.  The beginning of a new year always brings change and for many of us a chance for improvements, along that note I thought this would be an opportune time to share what is new in government information.


American Job Center
Another new federal site is the American job Center not be confused with USAjobs.gov. This site has information from several federal agencies. It has compiled education & training, job searching and career exploration information, along with information specific to Veterans, Businesses, and Youth.

Congress.gov
Congress.gov is a new website created by the Library of Congress which is in beta testing for the next two years. It will, at the end of the beta test replace Thomas.gov and all information available on Thomas will have been migrated to Congress.gov. It is a more robust website with many great new features including video of the House and Senate. Links are available for the Congressional Record, Teachers Resources, links to state websites and much more. The link below is a webinar which gives an overview of the new site.

Congressional Timeline
This is not a government site but a site created by the Dirksen Center. It is a great tool for those who are teaching Congressional History. It provides the highlights of each Congressional session going back to 1933.
http://www.congressionaltimeline.org    

Census
For those who are unhappy with the newest version of American Fact Finder some changes are coming, which should make using the web site much easier.


Community Facts"* - the easy tools on the Census homepage and AFF homepage of "Quick Facts" and "Population Finder" will be merged and replaced by a new tool called "Community Facts". Just enter the name of a state, county, city, town, or zip code in the search box to get summary data about that geography.

Guided Search"* will be the /new /second choice, and consists of easy-to-work through prompted searches for these choices -

     I'm looking for information about 
  • people
  • housing
  • businesses or industries" a specific dataset
  •  table number or a table title"

The user clicks their choice, then follows prompts to their data. As you can see the order is from the most general to the most specific, and can be used by the entire range of Census data users, novices to experts.
/"Guided Search" is the topic approach to AFF that the Census Bureau and its former director Dr. Groves has been promising to develop for us since the redesign of AFF began in 2010./ You and your customers are really going to like it.

USC Aiken Library is hosting a workshop on American FactFinder on Friday, March 22nd at 1pm. If you are interested in learning about the changes and about how to use AFF contact Kathy Karn-Carmichael at kathyk@usca.edu or 803-641-3320 to make a reservation.

OTHER NEWS

I will be chairing the committee again this year assisted by Vice-Chair Ruth Castillo, and Secretary Bernadette Johnson.
Remember when renewing your membership to add the GODORT Round Table to your selections.

Congratulations to Bernadette Johnson, whose article "Government Documents Documents Usage and Awareness in Higher Education was published in DTTP.