Friday, February 27, 2009

Documents of the Week: NASA

We're showcasing some of our NASA documents this week. Be sure to take a look at the spacelab poster!
  • NASA Pocket Statistics (1997)
  • United States NASA Academy
  • Living with a Star
  • Discovering Jupiter
  • Discovering Mars
  • Human Physiology in Space
  • The National Aeronautics and Space Administration: First Semiannual Report to Congress (Oct. 1958-March 1959)
  • "Before this Decade is Out..." Personal Reflections on the Apollo Program
  • Realizing the Dream of Flight
  • ICESat: Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite
  • The First Lunar Landing as Told by the Astronauts: 20th Anniversary
  • Spinoff, 1981
  • Space Settlements: A Design Study
  • Crew of Space Shuttle, Mission 61-B
  • Viking Orbiter 1 Mars Mosaic
  • Shuttle-Mir: The United States and Russia Share History's Highest Stage
Enjoy!

Thursday, February 26, 2009

A New Era of Responsibility

For more information about A New Era of Responsibility (the budget), see the Briefing Room section of whitehouse.gov. GPOAccess has an electronic version available. Soon, we'll have it in our catalog.

Yesterday, I spoke with a student about her difficulties with finding Obama's inaugural address on the White House website. Evidently, libraries aren't the only ones that use weird terms. Briefing Room didn't exactly translate to "click here to locate speeches, a blog, the latest news and more." All of this is to say, you will find a lot of timely and relevant information about the president, his speeches and events in the Briefing Room.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Federal Grants

Need a federal grant? You can search the Federal Register for announcements or Grants.gov.

Grants.gov offers tools for applicants such as a way to track your application, resources and FAQs.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Census Product Update and Your Taxes & the Stimulus Package

Do you find yourself intrigued by fascinating facts? Are you always looking for a topic to ease social situations? (You know, those parties where you're supposed to mingle AND be interesting.) Do you love statistics? You should consider signing up for the Census Product Update.

The IRS has released Tax Provisions in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. This release includes information about:
  • your payroll checks (with new withholding tables for employers)
  • Social Security recipients, veterans and railroad retirees
  • getting money back for new vehicle purchases

Monday, February 23, 2009

Latest & Greatest Document!

The Air Force Office of Special Investigations, 1948-2000 is a fascinating look at the history of the OSI. The epilogue includes the War on Terror. This document may be checked out for your reading or research pleasure.

Declassified Oral History Interviews Released from the National Security Agency

The NSA has released the following declassified oral history interviews:
  • Arthur J. Levenson
  • Dr. Solomon Kullback
  • Oliver R. Kirby
  • Benson K. Buffham

Friday, February 20, 2009

Documents of the Week: National Foundation of the Arts and the Humanities

National Endowment for the Arts

Design America: Projects Created by State Arts Agencies
The Art of City Design
The Art of Landscape Architecture
From Commas to Cathedrals: Design at Work
One America Indivisible: A National Conversation on American Pluralism and Identity
Picturing America
Rediscovering America
Places as Art
My History Is America's History: 15 Things You Can Do to Save America's Stories
The Changing Faces of Tradition: A Report on the Folk and Traditional Arts in the United States
1997 Annual Report, National Endowment for the Arts

The National Endowment for the Arts 1965 - 2000: A Brief Chronology of Federal Support for the Arts

Audio & Video **New

Stimulus Watch

Stimulus Watch isn't a government site but I thought you all might be interested since the city of Birmingham is included. Be sure to read the FAQs since they give more information about the folks that put this site together and why.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

ARRA

Would you like to comment on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009? Provided by the White House with links to the final text.

Don't forget to follow the money at Recovery.gov.

Friday, February 13, 2009

Documents of the Week: National Science Foundation

For the week of February 15-20, we will display documents from the National Science Foundation.


  • Science and engineering indicators 2000, vol. 1
  • Federal support to universities, colleges and selected nonprofit institutions, Fiscal Year 1977
  • Arctic research of the United States, vol. 8
  • MOSAIC, vol. 23 no. 3 fall 1992
  • Antarctic journal of the United States, vol. 31
  • Survival in Antarctica
  • The first annual report of the national science foundation, 1950-51
  • Annual report, 1986
  • Climate change impacts on the United States: The potential consequences of climate variability and change
  • Science and engineering statistics (Division of science resources statistics)
  • Multimedia gallery **check out the worm grunting and the human anagen scalp hair follicle


The Gavel

On Nancy Pelosi's blog, The Gavel, you will find links to the text of the conference report of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Monday, February 9, 2009

Liber8

The latest issue of Liber8 includes "What is a recession" and a map showing the current economic indicators.

Thanks to Katrina Stierholz, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, for bringing this to our attention.

Friday, February 6, 2009

Documents of the Week: Peace Corps

The following documents are on display in the Government Documents area:

At Home in the World: The Peace Corps Story
To Touch the World: The Peace Corps Experience
The Great Adventure: Volunteer Stories of Life Overseas
A Life Inspired: Tales of the Peace Corps Service
Older Americans and the Peace Corps
Peace Corps Volunteer Handbook
Peace Corps on the Home Front: A Handbook for the Families of Volunteers
Destination: Poland
Career Resource Manual
Peace Corps Times 1994 no.1
Culture Matters: The Peace Corps Cross-Cultural Workbook

GPO's Federal Digital System (FDsys) Available

GPO's Federal Digital System (FDsys) is now available. From the about page:

GPO’s Federal Digital System (FDsys) is an advanced digital system that will enable GPO to manage Government information in a digital form. FDsys will enable GPO to manage information from all three branches of the U.S. Government. As a state-of-the-art digital content management system, FDsys will contain information gathered through three methods:

*Files submitted by Congress and Federal agencies;
*Information gathered from Federal agencies’ web sites (often referred to as “harvesting” information);
*Digital files created by scanning previously printed publication

Techline offers more information regarding the FDsys

Thursday, February 5, 2009

4 More Months!

Congress has given us 4 more months to prepare for the digital transition.

Congress gives nation four more months to prepare for switch to digital TV broadcasts

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Emergency Economic Stabilization Act

The U.S. Department of the Treasury has created an Emergency Economic Stabilization Act website. Be sure to subscribe to the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act e-mail updates.

Monday, February 2, 2009