2021 Virtual Poster Presentation

Suzanne Ebanues, Government Publishing Office, Projects and Systems, Supervisory Management Analyst, [email protected]

The U.S. Congressional Serial Set contains primary source material for much of American history. Through a joint effort with the Law Library of Congress, digitized Serial Set volumes are now available through govinfo. While the collection will continue to grow as digitization continues, users can start searching and browsing the collection now. GPO would also appreciate your feedback on the collection.

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Dr. Michael Lorenzen, Professor, Western Illinois University, University Libraries, [email protected]

The ongoing COVID pandemic has reignited student interest in the CDC Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse program. This is a Government educational initiative that uses zombie examples to help people prepare for disasters. A poster was created that was distributed in the library and also on social media to educate students on how to find resources from this program.

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Kate McNamara, Data Curation Specialist, Center for Enterprise Dissemination, U.S. Census Bureau, [email protected]

The Census Bureau is building a comprehensive inventory of all restricted-use data available to researchers to meet the requirements of the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018. The Evidence Act requires federal agencies covered under the Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act (CIPSEA) to establish a common process for applying for restricted data access, scheduled to go live in 2022. Census contracted with the Mitre Corporation to set up a data inventory populated with robust metadata and documentation for researchers and data users. The project began with an assessment of metadata standards to create a schema for the inventory. The next step is to create a detailed entry for each of the over 200 datasets, which requires gathering information from a variety of sources and interviewing data owners and stakeholders. The poster will present challenges and lessons learned from this ongoing metadata design project.

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Bill Sleeman, Asst. Librarian for Technical Services and Special Collections Supreme Court of the United States,[email protected]

In April 2019, the Supreme Court of the United States Library experienced a flood in the basement storage area for part of our FDLP documents collection. Although the damage was extensive a well-organized disaster response plan, committed staff and the support of Court administrators ensured that many of the documents were rescued! This poster will review the incident but focus primarily on the three key steps we took that both highlight the importance of planning for a disaster and the necessity of having the resources at hand to respond effectively.

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James Rhoades, Social Sciences Librarian, Old Dominion University Perry Library, [email protected]

Increasingly, there’s a push for libraries to do more with less, which has been true for many years in libraries and depositories. Often, depository coordinators, with few or no direct reports, are asked to accomplish large projects that require the help and assistance of many. But what do you do when this happens to you? In 2018, this happened at my University selective depository, as the Library administration decided we needed to reduce our FDLP footprint. In essence, they expected the entire collection to weeded by more than half. Reality set in quickly, this huge task would require the help of many and fall squarely on my shoulders as the coordinator.

Successful completion of projects, especially large projects, requires a great deal of persuasion, strategy, and tactics to encourage the participation of others. This poster will highlight the techniques used to address the opportunities, challenges, and rewards of leading a large project. It will demonstrate strategies on how to get people excited about helping and recognizing a project’s value. It will stress and show the great importance of encouraging those not usually involved with depository work to help you.

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View a recording of the poster presenter (2 minutes).

Download a PDF of the recording transcript.

Martha Young, Technical Services Assistant, Indiana University Kokomo Library, [email protected]

The IU Kokomo Library along with IU Kokomo Table Talks hosted an event together talking about the Constitution. This event took place on September 15th, 2021 and pocket constitutions were passed out to all attendees. The pocket constitutions were provided by the FDLP.

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Listen to a recording of the poster presenter (1 minute).

Download a PDF of the recording transcript.

Ellen Terrell, Business Reference and Research Specialist, Library of Congress Serial and Government Publications Division, [email protected]

The Science, Business and Technology Division at the Library of Congress has a wide range of print and electronic collections. This poster will depict the various resources and services available at the Library of Congress for federal employees, from our virtual research assistance, to our book lending program, to planning a visit to use our on-site resources.

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Elisabeth Garner, Interim Coordinator-Government Resources, University of North Carolina, Wilmington William M. Randall Library, [email protected]

Gary Moore, Coordinator Library Cataloging, University of North Carolina, Wilmington William M. Randall Library, [email protected]

Through the course of collection assessments and weeding projects, our library discovered that numerous depository items were shelved among collections that were not a part of the designated government document collection. Additionally, there were non-depository titles shelved in the government document collection that are not part of the state or federal depository item selection profile. As libraries increase digital offerings and reduce print collections, having an understanding of these “mixed” collections is crucial. To identify and better understand common document shelving practices among depository libraries, we surveyed (21) libraries - intentionally including public libraries, public academic libraries, and private academic libraries - to ask about their collection arrangements. Our questions focused on the policies and practices for interfiling of federal and state documents with other collections versus maintaining separate collections, and what implications those decisions are for collection management processes.

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Katie Yelinek, Coordinator of Government Documents, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania Harvey A. Andruss Library, [email protected]

In 2015, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania (0514A) entered into a Selective Housing Agreement with the Bloomsburg Public Library. This poster will look at the steps both parties took to carry out that agreement and will examine the benefits and challenges of such a "town-gown" partnership.

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View a recording of the poster presenter (2 minutes).

Download a PDF of the recording transcript

Teresa Nesbitt, Reference Services Librarian, University of North Georgia, [email protected]

Kristine Stilwell, Reference Services Librarian, University of North Georgia, [email protected]

Part of our job as information literacy instructors is centered on encouraging students to interact directly with library databases. The hard truth is that students will often just Google anyway. If our students are relying on this familiar, comfortable, and easily accessible search tool to find government Information, it is our responsibility to teach them how to use Google expertly by employing search strategies that best suit their information needs and identifying quality sources.

With this goal in mind, the presenters intentionally incorporate Google search strategies into their instruction on finding government information, focusing in particular on top- and second-level domain search filters to prompt discussions of authority, ownership, credibility, and targeted searching. Beyond serving as a useful search tool and prompt for discussion of information literacy concepts, teaching students advanced Google search strategies also has the benefit of providing an immediate useful takeaway. Demonstrating a new, useful feature of a familiar platform could shake students' confidence in their own searching abilities, making them more receptive to further library and research instruction.

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Kelly Bilz, Reference/Government Documents Librarian, Thomas More University Benedictine Library, [email protected]

Government information provides a wealth of reliable, free-to-use resources, including lesson plans, which cover topics from geology to astronomy, from conservation to literature. School and academic libraries can promote incorporating these resources into affordable learning efforts at their institutions. This poster will highlight the variety of resources available and point out several benefits of using government information in affordable learning projects.

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View a recording of the poster presenter (1 minute).

Download a PDF of the recording transcript.

Laura Baker, User Experience and Assessment Librarian, Abilene Christian University Brown Library, [email protected]

Librarians go to great lengths to promote our collections to patrons, but what about to our directors and co-workers? When our library had a change of leadership, our status as a depository was questioned. In the book The Machiavellian Librarian by Aho and Bennet, the editors contend that librarians need to boost their ability to influence decision makers. They suggest that, minus his misanthropic extremes, Machiavelli – a master at politics—has many things to teach others about the fine art of influence and leadership. This poster outlines lessons learned about how to communicate the value of one's depository, not through nefarious and unscrupulous means, but through intentionality, strategic thinking, and maybe a bit of psychology. Promotion, we learned, begins at home.

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Paul Kauppila, San Jose State University, [email protected]

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