Category Archives: What’s Up Doc / Govdocs

When I attended the annual Nebraska State Data Center Conference  at UNO last week we were given a DVD copy of the 2011 Statistical Abstract of the United States, with the comment that it’s a $150 value and the 2012 edition will be the last one produced.   

Robert Samuelson pleads “don’t kill America’s data book”  in his  column in the August 21 Washington Post.  Samuelson notes that the Census Bureau’s  2012 budget would eliminate the Statistical Compendia Branch, which produces the Statistical Abstract, County and City Data Book, and other publications.  The cut would eliminate 24 jobs and save $2.9 million dollars.   Samuelson suggests that the Census Bureau could seek a private funder for the Abstract like the Gates or McArthur foundations.  

I’m not optomistic.

The 2010-2011 Nebraska Blue Book has been published.   Each public, academic and state institutional library in Nebraska will be receiving a free copy.  It is also available online at http://nebraskalegislature.gov/about/blue-book.php  .

The Blue Book  is Nebraska’s official reference manual, and is a gold mine of  information about the state’s government, geography, economy, history and culture. 

Bound, printed copies of the 2010-11 Nebraska Blue Book are available for purchase through the Clerk of the Legislature’s Office and may be ordered by calling (402) 471-2271. The cost is $15 plus postage and sales tax as applicable.

The U.S. Census Bureau today released new, detailed demographic information from the 2010 Census for Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Nebraska and North Carolina.

Tables are available for states, counties, county subdivisions, places, census tracts, ZIP code tabulation areas, congressional districts for the 111th Congress and, where applicable, American Indian and Alaska Native areas and Hawaiian home lands. For most subjects, statistics for census block groups and blocks are also shown.

The Summary File 1 tables can be found on the Census Bureau’s American FactFinder website at <http://factfinder2.census.gov/>. A good place to start is the quick tables (noted as “QT” in the search results list), which show a summary of a particular topic for one geographic area at a time. The geographic comparison tables (noted as “GCT”) are a good place to start for a first look at a topic across geographies, such as all places within a state.

Click here  to read the full press release.

If statistics about Nebraska people, places and economics are something you often need,  you may already have been using a resource on the Department of Economic Development web site called the Nebraska Databook.   The agency web site has been redesigned and the old Databook link is inactive.   Don’t panic–it’s all still available via the  Data and Research Division  section of the site.  Topical headings on the left open lists of tables in the center of the page.    There is also a Get Help From Our Experts  link at the bottom linking to Business development staff and research consultants including two folks we contact frequently, Steve Williams and Mike Lundeen.

The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) has released volumes 95-115 of the United States Statutes at Large, which spans from 1981 through 2002 (97th-107th Congresses). FDsys now provides access to all available United States Statutes at Large content from 1951 through 2007 (82nd – 110th Congresses).  

The United States Statutes at Large is the official source for the laws and resolutions passed by Congress. Publication began in 1845 by the private firm of Little, Brown and Company under authority granted by a joint resolution of Congress. In 1874, Congress transferred the authority to publish the Statutes at Large to the Government Printing Office, which has been responsible for producing the set since that time. Every law, public and private, ever enacted by the Congress is published in the Statutes at Large in order of the date of its passage. Until 1948, all treaties and international agreements approved by the Senate were also published in the set.

A new report providing a statistical picture of women in America was released in March.  This report, Women in America: Indicators of Social and Economic Well-Being, was prepared for the White House Council on Women and Girls and presents selected indicators of women’s social and economic well-being currently and over time. The report is intended for a general audience with the hope that it will be useful to policymakers, policy analysts, journalists, policy advocates, and all those interested in women’s issues.  By presenting a quantitative snapshot of the well-being of American women based on data compiled from varying Federal statistical agencies, the report greatly enhances our understanding how far American women have come and the areas where there is still work to be done.  It presents this data in five critical areas: demographic and family changes, education, employment, health, and crime and violence.

Here’s a great source for info on the people your library serves! The Atlas of Rural and Small-Town America from the Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture provides maps and charts of county-level data on

• people (using newly released demographic data from the American Community Survey, including age, race and ethnicity, migration and immigration, education, household size and family composition),
• jobs (using economic data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and other sources, including information on employment trends, unemployment, industrial composition, and household income),
• agriculture (using indicators from the 2007 Census of Agriculture, including number and size of farms, operator characteristics, off-farm income, and government payments), and
• county classifications (using typologies such as the rural-urban continuum, economic dependence, persistent poverty, population loss, and other ERS county codes).

Maps are interactive and also provided for download; raw data are provided for download.

One of the goals of the Government Printing Office is to digitize the “legacy” collection of key Congressional publications. This week Mary Alice Baish, the new GPO Superintendant of Documents, announced that GPO will be collaborating with the Library of Congress to digitize portions of the Statutes at Large and Congressional Record, and to provide enhanced online access to the Constitution of the United States: Analysis and Interpretation (CONAN).
From the announcement:
” The digitization project will include the public and private laws, and proposed constitutional amendments passed by Congress as published in the official Statutes at Large from 1951-2002. GPO and LOC will also work on digitizing official debates of Congress from the permanent volumes of the Congressional Record from 1873-1998. These laws and documents will be authenticated and available to the public on GPO’s Federal Digital System (FDsys) www.gpo.gov/fdsys and the Library of Congress’s THOMAS legislative information system www.thomas.gov.
The other project will provide enhanced public online access to the Constitution of the United States: Analysis and Interpretation (CONAN), a Senate Document that analyzes Supreme Court cases relevant to the Constitution. The project involves creating an enhanced version of CONAN, where updates to the publication will be made available on FDsys as soon as they are prepared. In addition to more timely access to these updates, new online features will also be added, including greater ease of searching and authentication.
GPO authenticates the documents on FDsys by digital signature and these authenticated documents are also available on the Library’s THOMAS system. This signature assures the public that the document has not been changed or altered since receipt by GPO. This digital signature, viewed through the GPO Seal of Authenticity, verifies the document’s integrity and authenticity.”

The Federal Depository Library Program now has one of it’s own in charge of the program. Public Printer Bill Boarman has named librarian Mary Alice Baish as Superintendent of Documents for the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO).
http://www.fdlp.gov/component/content/article/19-general/880-libraryadvocatesudoc
Mary Alice will oversee GPO’s Library Services & Content Management unit, Publication & Information Sales unit, and the management of GPO’s Federal Digital System (FDsys). She will work with 1,200 Federal depository libraries through the FDLP to ensure Government information is available in all forms to the public.
I see this as good news for the future of the program.

Today Governor Heinemann delivered his State of the State Address to the Nebraska Legislature. His budget recommendations for the 2011-2013 biennium have also been released. The entire budget document and summary documents are available at the Department of Administrative Service Budget Division web site.
http://www.budget.ne.gov/
This just one step in the budget process. Legislative hearings will be held, the Appropriations Committee will release it’s recommendations, and the final document will be approved before the Legislative session ends in May or June.
More information on how the budget process works is available on the Unicameral web site
http://nebraskalegislature.gov/about/budget_process.php

Who knew roads, viaducts, and bridges were this cool? The Nebraska Department of Roads has posted a 3 1/2 minute rock video on their web site called On Ramp
http://www.vimeo.com/17765904
The video was produced entirely within the NDOR, without spending extra funds. On Ramp features “John O and the Roadtones”, AKA employee and composer Zach Broshears dressed in work gear and hard hat, playing guitar. Photos and video clips of road projects like the Blair Roundabout, Columbus Viaduct, Platte River Bridge, and Yankton Bridge accompany the music. The videographer is fellow NDOR employee Clint Mangen.
The NDOR plans to use the video for promotion and recruiting. Rock on!

A 69-page Legislative report, titled LR 542 Listing of Options was released in December and is available on the Nebraska Legislature’s web site http://nebraskalegislature.gov/pdf/reports/committee/select_special/lr542final.pdf

LR 542, adopted by the Legislature on April 13, 2010, created an ad hoc committee chaired by the Speaker of the Legislature, and comprised of the Executive Board Chairman and the chairs of the Legislature’s fourteen standing committees to review all programs of state government and each agency’s budget authority. Each committee was charged with identifying programs within their subject-matter jurisdiction that should be considered for reduction or elimination during the Legislature’s enactment of a budget for the following biennium during the 2011 Session.

Speaker Mike Flood notes in his introduction to the report that
“these lists are not recommendations of the committees, but, just as their title implies, are “options”—items that the committees believe need to be carefully considered when the Legislature crafts a budget during the 2011 session”.

The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) and Google have entered a partnership to offer the public, for the first time, Federal Government titles in an e-book format. The titles will appear on Google’s recently launched Google ebookstore http://books.google.com/ebooks
which can be searched, purchased and read on any connected device with a capable browser. Currently the public can search for titles such as the appendix for the “Budget of the United States, Fiscal Year 2011”, “Remembering the Space Age”, and “Borden’s Dream” (a history of Walter Reed Army Medical Center). GPO has about 100 titles in the catalog and will continue to add titles in the next several months.
Read more about GPO’s partnership with Google on the FDLP Desktop http://www.fdlp.gov/component/content/article/19-general/864-gpogoogle