gundyj's blog

The branches and agencies of the US Government produce a wealth of information. Here are a few of the newest titles accessible through the Miami University Libraries and the internet.

Recent events in Pakistan may have you interested in international geography. If so you may want to check out the most recent Central Intelligence Agency produced maps of Pakistan. These maps cover geography, administrative divisions, and physiography and are available at the Science Library and Online. For general information on Pakistan and any other country the best place to start is another CIA title, The World Fact Book (MU Libraries / online).

Some recent Congressional Hearings focusing on international cooperation, US involvement in other nations and post conflict reconstruction:

• Agent Orange in Vietnam : recent developments in remediation - House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific, and the Global Environment
• Nuclear cooperation and non-proliferation after Khan and Iran - House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
• Bosnia-Herzegovina : outstanding issues in post-conflict recovery and reconciliation - Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe

For some reading on historical events and conflicts there is the new title Engineers at War by Adrian G. Traas from the US Army Center of Military History.

For some quieter reading try Rain Gardens: Capturing and Using the Rains of the Great Plains (.pdf), available online from the US Natural Resources Conservation Service.

If none of these titles are of interest but are something you wouldn't have thought would be produced by the United States Government, you can browse all of the Government Information & Law Department's newest acquisitions through the library catalog.

NASA recently announced that Voyagers I and II are now at the edge of Earth's solar system and moving outward into interstellar space.

The Miami University Libraries Government Information and Law Department has several NASA publications from and about the Voyager Project covering it's more than 30 year history.

In addition to expanding humanities knowledge of the outer planets of our solar system, Voyager I and II both carry gold records containing images and sounds of life on Earth. Designed by a team lead by Carl Sagan, the "murmurs of Earth" include:

"...118 photographs; 90 minutes of music; greetings in 55 human languages and one whale language; an audio essay featuring everything from burbling mud pots to barking dogs to a roaring Saturn 5 liftoff; a remarkably poetic salutation from the Secretary General of the United Nations; and the brain waves of a young women in love."

The records were intended to be an introduction from the human race to any alien species that could find and decipher them. Neither of the Voyager probes will pass by another star for about 40,000 years, making it incredibly unlikely that an alien race would find them any time soon (unless of course one of them decides to come home). Carl Sagan wrote the book Murmurs of Earth : the Voyager interstellar record (available in the MU Libraries) detailing the creation of the records. The full contents of the golden records can be found on the Jet Propulsion Laboratory website.

Monday, April 18th is the last day to file Federal Income Taxes this year. If you prefer to use paper forms the Government Information & Law department at King Library still has the basic forms, though at this late date you may want to file electronically.

If you are interested in just where your Federal tax dollars go you should take a look at the White Houses' 2010 Tax Receipt page. By entering your 2010 information you can get a break down of how your Federal tax dollars were spent.

If you'd like to know more about tax law then you should visit the library.

The Internal Revenue Code of the United States is spelled out in Title 26 of the United States Code (being the general and permanent laws of the United States). The IRC has seen plenty of revision over the last 80 years. If you are interested in the history of tax law reform over the course of the 20th century the Miami University Libraries have publications of the major revisions of the tax code. The library also has the current edition of the United States Code if you would like to take a look at the current tax laws (the current edition being published in 2006). If you would prefer to look up the USC in electronic format it is available in a verified version from the Government Printing Office on FDsys.gov

If you do use the code on line for legal research it is still good practice to verify your findings by the current printed version, as noted by the GPO on the USC page of FDsys.gov.

The USC is the official codification of the laws of the United States and is compiled every six years from laws passed in each session of Congress, called Slip Laws (referring to how they are printed). Slip Laws are compiled after each session of Congress into the US Statutes at Large (MU Libraries / FDsys.gov), and every six years these laws are entered into the new edition of the USC. While Slip Laws are just as legal as any passed law, it is still good practice to check the USC if the law you are looking for has been compiled.

The USC is the law, but it isn't the absolute final word in how laws are enforced. The Code of Federal Regulations (MU Libraries / FDsys.gov) contains the regulations passed by the Federal Executive Agencies which are broadly responsibly for determining how the laws in the USC will be enforced.

Both the USC and the CFR are organized into 50 titles each of which correspond to each other (title 26 of the USC is the Internal Revenue Code with title 26 of the CRF being the regulations stemming from those laws). If you are researching taxes, you'll want to check both the laws and regulations.

April 16-24, 2011 is National Parks Week in the United States. During this week you may want to take advantage of special programs and free admission to some of our National Parks, including those right here in Ohio.

The Library might not be the first place you would think to look for information on national parks. Sure, if you were doing some historical or sociological research on parks of the National Parks Service, you'd be wise to start with our catalog and vast array of electronic resources. But what can the library do for you if you want to visit a national park or if you want to learn more about the agencies and people who are responsible for our nations protected historical and natural areas?

Fortunately for you, the Miami University Libraries are part of the Federal Depository Library Program. King Library receives publications directly from the Government Printing Office, the official publishing body of the United States Government. We have handbooks, maps, and other official publications of the National Parks Service and the Department of the Interior.

As a part of the Federal Executive Branch of the United States Government, the Department of the Interior (DOI) is responsible for the U.S. National Park Service. Both agencies publish official government documents about the history, services, organization, and features of our national parks system as well as have works published about them by other areas of the government.

Update 2: O'reilly Radar provides a good rundown of the topic. Basically, no one really knows exactly how a government shutdown will affect government websites... yet.

Updated: While more than 800,000 federal employees face a furlough beginning today, it appears that government websites will only stay online in a limited number of circumstances. The Office of the President has issued a memorandum with further instructions for agencies (16pgs. 8.06 mb .pdf).

The material from the memorandum relevant to government websites:

Q3: What is the guidance on keeping Government websites up during a lapse in appropriations if the costs of maintaining the website are funded by a lapsed appropriations source?

A3: The same standards described above would apply. The mere benefit of continued access by the public to information about the agency's activities would not warrant the retention of personnel or the obligation of funds to maintain (or update) the agency's website during such a lapse. However, if maintenance of the website is necessary to avoid significant damage to the execution of authorized or excepted activities (e.g., maintenance of the IRS website may be necessary to allow for tax filings and tax collection, which are activities that continue during an appropriations lapse), then the website should remain operational even if its costs are funded through appropriations that have lapsed. If it becomes necessary to incur obligations to ensure that a website remains available in support of excepted activities, it should be maintained at the lowest possible level. For example, in the IRS case above, the IRS website would remain active, but the entire Treasury Department website would not, absent a separate justification or a determination that the two sites cannot not feasibly be operated separately.

Q4: What notice should agencies provide to the public regarding the status of their websites during a lapse of appropriations?

A4: If an agency's website is shut down, users should be directed to a standard notice that the website is unavailable during the period of government shutdown. If any part of an agency's website is available, agencies should include a standard notice on their landing pages that notifies the public of the following: (a) information on the website may not be up to date, (b) transactions submitted via the website might not be processed until appropriations are enacted, and (c) the agency may not be able to respond to inquiries until appropriations are enacted.

QS: What if the cost of shutting down a website exceeds the cost of,maintaining services?

AS: The determination of which services continue during an appropriations lapse is not affected by whether the costs of shutdown exceed the costs of maintaining services.

Q6: If websites are down, will agencies be able to extend deadlines for applications that would otherwise have been due during the lapse in appropriations?

A6: To the extent permitted by law, agencies may extend deadlines for activities, as necessary to compensate for the period of the lapse in appropriations and the unavailability of the website.

...

The United States may find out at the end of this week if a budget agreement can not be reached. For more than 100 years the Federal Depository Library Program has provided American citizens with information and publications from and about their government. As more and more of the information produced by the United States Federal Government is available online and is born digital, citizens and the libraries that make up the FDLP are more and more dependent on government websites to access and preserve information.

Neither the GPO (responsible for the distribution of authentic government information through FDsys.gov) or the FDLP have issued official statements as to how a government shutdown might affect electronic services. Different agencies are reporting different plans and overall there is no clear picture of what will happen. According to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management individual agencies will determine who works and who doesn't during a furlough of government employees. What that means for the employees responsible for branch and agency websites is unknown.

It is likely that static pages will remain functional, however, dynamic content, updates, and responses to the public may not continue in the event of a furlough.

The only thing for certain at this point is that the Federal Government is much more reliant on the internet as a means of distributing information and services today than it was during the government shutdowns of the mid 1990s. How a government shut down will affect the dissemination of government information is unknown, but we might be on the verge of finding out how it should be handled.

While US Government agencies like the Bureau of Economic Analysis issue a near constant stream of useful information, the gold standard of demographic information for the United States has always been the Census.

While continued funding for the Statistical Abstract of the United States is still up in the air, the Census Bureau has begun releasing information from the 2010 United States Census. Data is available on the Census Bureau website, and in the American Fact Finder.

Interesting analysis of the data has already begun.

As mandated by Article 1, Section 2 of The Constitution of the United States of America, the Census has been collected since 1790.

If you are looking to do some hands on data crunching, The Miami University Libraries Government Information & Law department has the United States Census in print all the way back to the very first.

As mentioned yesterday funding for the Statistical Compendia Branch of the US Census Bureau is not currently in the budget for 2012. This will mean that the Statistical Abstract of the United States and it's companion titles will no longer be published in print or online, and that the information these source contain will no longer even be collated by the Census Bureau.

If you found yesterday's post on the Statistical Abstract of the United States interesting and are looking for ways you can help continue the publication of this valuable resource, here are a few things you can do:

Join the Save the US Statistical Abstract! group on Facebook.

Consider contacting the Census Bureau directly.

If you haven't already contacted your Senator and Representatives, consider using the form and letter available from Free Government Information.

For some reactions to the possible loss of the Statistical Abstract of the United States see: here, here, and here.

10,388 (quantity in 1,000 pounds) (.pdf)

This exciting information, as well as statistics on agriculture, education, prices, and Federal Government finances & employment can all be found in the The Statistical Abstract of the United States

The Statistical Abstract of the United States has been a valuable research resource for more than 130 years, and represents the most comprehensive collection of statistics about the United States of America ever assembled. Valued not just as a source of raw data, but also as a starting point for locating information among the vast amount of data collected by U.S. Federal Government and private bodies.

The Statistical Abstract compiles information from more than 60 sources in and outside of the U.S. Federal Government, from the Bureau of Economic Analysis and Department of State to the National Marine Manufacturers Association and the World Health Organization, covering social, political, and economic information. The Statistical Abstract is organized into 30 categories including agriculture, education, elections, forestry fishing and mining, income, population and prices.

The Statistical Abstract has been published annually without interruption since 1878 (available online from 1878, and in the Miami Libraries from 1882) and has spun off the State and Metropolitan Area Data Book (MU Libraries) and the County and City Data Book (MU Libraries).

If you would like a copy for yourself or your organization, print versions can be purchased through the U.S. Government Bookstore.

You might want to take the opportunity to acquire a copy.

2011 may be your last chance as funding for the Census Bureau in the 2012 U.S. budget does not currently include funds for the Statistical Compendia Branch which compiles The Statistical Abstract. Some plans are in place for a rushed publication of the 2012 edition, but without continued funding, 2011 could mark the end of a 133 year tradition of statistical compilation in the United States.

If you feel the The Statistical Abstract is a resource that deserves continued funding, please consider contacting your congressional representatives. Check back for more information on other efforts to continue the publication of this valuable source of information.

Contact your Senator

Contact your Representative

NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) maintains the National Data Buoy Center The NDBC website's new functionality allows users to monitor tsunami warning buoy data in real time.

The Miami University Government Documents collection also has information available in print and on line relating to government tsunami warnings, planning, history and recovery.