Along with many other agencies and groups, the American Library Association has handed in its recommendations/plans for the future to the Obama transition team. Selected other plans are : Center for Democracy and Technology’s Transition Materials for President Obama; the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s A Transition Plan for Securing America’s Energy Future; 21st Century Right to Know Project’s Moving Toward a 21st Century Right-to-Know Agenda; Sunshine in Government Initiative’s Media Coalition Recommendations…to Strengthen Transparency and Integrity in Government; the American Civil Liberties Union’s Action for Restoring America; the Third Way’s Protecting the Homeland From Day One: A Transition Plan; and the Criminal Justice Transition Coalition’s Smart on Crime.
Archive for December, 2008
Complete Report of Obama Transition Staff Contacts with Illnois Governor Blagojevich
The title says it all. Read the complete text here.
Women in the Labor Force: 2008 Databook
This new Census Bureau publication highlights the strides women have made in the workplace. But still much needs to be done: in 1979, women working full time earned 62% of what men did; in 2007, it had risen to 80%. For additional insights, consult: Changing Trends in the Labor Force: A Survey(2008); Trends in Labor Force Participation of Married Mothers of Infants(2007); A New Look at Long-term Labor Force Projections to 2050(2006); The Spatial Diffusion of the Female Labor Force Participation: Evidence from U.S. Counties(2004?); The Labor Supply of Married Women: Why Does It Differ Across U.S. Cities?(2007); Changes in the Labor Supply Behavior of Married Women: 1980-2000(2006); and Culture as Learning: The Evolution of Female Labor Force Participation Over a Century(2007).
Quality of Nursing Home Care
This comprehensive site allows you to search for nursing homes within a specific state, county, city, or zip code. Rankings are based on a five-star system, and information is given justifying the individual rankings. A valuable tool.
The Disabled Population in America
This snapshot of the disabled poulation, based on the 2005 Census Bureau survey reveals, among other things, that: 19% or 54.4 million Americans reported some disability in 2005; only 46% of the disabled population between 21 and 64 were employed; 3.3 million use a wheelchair; and 4.7 million children have a disability. More information on disabilities can be found here. And do not forget the New Jersey Division of Disability Services.
Clinton Foundation Releases Donor List
As a pre-condition to Hillary Clinton being vetted as our next Secretary of State, her husband, former President Bill Clinton, needed to publish a list of all donors to his charitable foundation to avoid any apparent conflictc of inetrest. This searchable accounting contains some of the most recognizable names and institutions in the world: the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, along with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, each gave between $10 million and $25 million to the William J Clinton Foundation. Among those giving $1 million to $5 million were:the governments of Norway, Kuwait, Oman, Taiwan, Qatar as well as the Friends of Saudi Arabia, the Elton John AIDS Foundation, and the Streisand Foundation. Donors down to the $250 to $1000 level are included.
Statistical Abstract of the United States
The vade mecum of every good reference librarian, the Statistical Abstract for 2009 has just been released. Containing over 1300 tables, this annual title presents a numerical portrait of this country with figures ranging from “Members of Congress-Selected Characteristics: 1993-2007″(Table 390) to “Farm Income 2005 and 2006″(Table 805) which reports that one of the principal commodities that New Jersey produces is “horses/mules.” We wish the index were interactive, but it only requires a little backing and forthing to retrieve the needed data. This is well worth a look. And don’t forget that Statistical Abstracts back to 1878 are here.
President-elect Obama Is Time’s Person of the Year
Time Magazine has chosen Barack Obama as its “Person of the Year.” You can also read about the four runners-up including Nicolas Sarkozi, along with the seventeen “people who mattered” including Hillary Clinton and Robert Downey, Jr. View previous selections back to 1928 here. You can read a brief history of this award and get some interesting facts as well.
Library Hours for Christmas/Winter Intersession
In order to prevent a mind-numbing enumeration of the opening and closings of the Library, we are gonna make it simple. Between Monday, 12/22 and Monday, 1/19, the Library will be open from 8:30am to 4:30pm on the following days: Monday 12/22 to Wednesday 12/24; Friday, 1/2/09; Monday, 1/5 to Friday, 1/9; Monday, 1/12 to Friday, 1/16. We are closed all the other days, and we will resume our regular schedule at 7:30am on Tuesday, 1/20.
Rebuilding Iraq: What Went Wrong?
In this unpublished 500+ page report , called Hard Lessons, which is making its away through the corridors of power, incompetency and political in-fighting figure prominently. Over $100 billion have already been spent and Iraq is still considered a fragile state. Other reports of interest include: Cost of the Wars in Irag and Afghanistan, and Other Military Operations Through 2008(Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments); Status of Forces Agreement between the U.S. and Iraq; The Kurds in Post-Saddam Iraq(CRS); More Freedom, Less Terror?: Liberalization and Violence in the Arab World(RAND Corporation); Iraq: Post-Saddam Governance and Security(CRS); Iraq: Assessing the Surge(Council on Foreign Relations); U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction(SIGIR); the Ground Truth Project; International Reconstruction Fund Facility for Iraq(World Bank); Reconstruction Under Adversity: Rebuilding Iraq – Lessons for the Future(U.S. Army War College); and Topic Collection: Iraq and Afghanistan(Government Accountability Office).
Future of the Internet III
The Pew Internet and American Life Project’s third report on this topic asks almost 1200 participants to envision the Internet’s impact in 2020. Among some of the predictions: a mobile device will be the primary tool for accessing the Internet; transparency will increase but this may not necessarily encourage more responsible activities from either people or government; and intellectual property law will become much harder to enforce. Previous reports from Pew on this topic are here. For another take on the future, look at this PBS site.
Best Careers 2009: Librarian
Yes, that is what U.S. News and World Report says. This year it profiled 30 careers; librarian was one of them. The article gives a brief summation of what a librarian is and a typical workday is outlined. Do not forget to look at the link for library school rankings. For one thing, it is a graduate degree, and for another thing, there are very few library school programs that are accredited by the American Library Association. In fact, New Jersey has only one program – Rutgers. If you have ever overheard librarians whispering about “cutter numbers” or other recondite phrases, you can always consult the Online Dictionary for Library and Information Science(ODLIS). And let’s not forget the Library of Congress and its Library and Information Science: A Guide to Online Resources. For a fuller description of a librarian career, please consult the Occupational Outlook Handbook. If you want to see the bewildering array of job titles that librarians hold, visit here. Here are some recent reports to reflect upon: 2008 State of America’s Libraries; Academic Libraries 2006(released in July 2008); and New Skills for a Digital Era.
Atlantic Slave Trade Database
This remarkable site details over 35,000 voyages carrying millions of slaves across the Atlantic. Where possible, the ship’s name, its captain, year of voyage, and the number of slaves each trip carried are enumerated. As an example, the ship Pastora de Lima captained by Manoel Jose Dias set sail from Rio de Janeiro on August 4, 1816 bound for Mozambique where 404 slaves were embarked. The ship returned and arrived at Bahia, Brazil after a round-trip voyage of 165 days. Of the 404 slaves, 114 died during the passage, a 28.2% mortality rate. For some slave runs, there are breakdowns according to sex and age. Embedded within this site is the “African Names Database” which identifies 67,000 slaves by name and supplies addditional information; i.e., age, height, sex, voyage ID, etc. Accompanying all this, there are also informative essays, web resources, and lesson plans geared for grades 6-12. There are so many excellent online resources on slavery available; here are some of the best: The Atlantic Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas: A Visual Record (over 1200 images arranged according to subject); Documents on Slavery(Avalon Project); The African American: A Journey from Slavery to Freedom(with an extensive subject-arranged bibliography); Samuel J May Anti-Slavery Collection(from Cornell University with hundreds of digital texts); Slavery in the United States(from the always dependable Spartacus Educational); The Antislavery Literature Project(arranged by type; i.e. poetry, travel accounts, etc); Born in Slavery(contains 2300 first-hand accounts of slavery) and the Frederick Douglass Papers(both from the Library of Congress); Documenting the American South; and Slavery(Encyclopaedia Britannica). Do you want to know how many slaves were held in New Jersey between 1790 and 1860 according to the census? Or what county in New Jersey accounted for most of the slaves? Try the Historical Census Browser. Hundreds of books on this topic can be read here. The American Anti-Slavery Society was foremost in decrying this “peculiar institution”; you may read their literature here.
Make me a grave wher’er you will,
In a lowly plain, or a loft hill;
Make it among earth’s humblest graves,
But not in a land where men are slaves.
Frances Harper. Bury Me in a Free Land.(1845)
2007 TIMSS
TIMSS, short for Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, is an international test to gauge how well 4th and 8th graders do in science and math. This report, from the National Center for Education Statistics, profiles how well the United States did on this test. It would appear that we have marginally improved our math skills, but as far as science goes, we have not progressed over the years. The full international reports can be read here,but beware as the reports are both over 75MB. The TIMSS 2007 Encyclopedia provides an overview of each participating country’s(there were 59 this go-round) educational system, focusing on education through the eighth grade. It also presents the science and math curricula and instruction, teacher education requirements, and what assessment tools are employed. A good briefing on the results is found in the New York Times. The National Science Teachers Association(NSTA) states that “Science scores…have remained flat since 1995 and scores for minority students are dismal.” The National Council for Teachers of Mathematics(NCTM) opinion is also available. Needless to say, newspaper articles vary depending on where the country finished in the rankings; you can read hundreds of them here.
Google Now Has Full Text Magazine Articles
Having undertaken the digitization of books, Google has now turned its attention to magazines. At the moment, full text archives, mostly ending in the late 1990s, can be accessed for New York Magazine, Popular Science, Jet, Ebony, and the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Google promises hundreds more titles in the near future. To search just for magazine articles, go the advanced book search screen and check off the “magazines” button. Update as of 12/12: Here is a list of more magazines scanned and indexed.
Top Ten of Everything for 2008
Thanks to Time and CNN, there is no longer any need to wade through dozens of magazines or web sites to come up with top ten lists. Here in one spot, every possible category known to man resides with a suitable year-end list.
Infrastructure Jobs in Cities, Second Report
This second report by the U.S. Conference of Mayors identifies additional projects that would stimulate the urban economies. This time around, 427 cities have listed over 11,000 projects costing over $73 billion and creating almost 850,000 jobs in 2009 and 2010. Again, New Jersey is well-represented. An interesting side note: the water sector, here listed as “water and wastewater infrastructure,” has the most projects – 2536 – and the second highest costing -$15 billion – further reinforcing the views of many that the water infrastructure in this country is in dire peril.
Extended Library Hours for Finals
The Library will be open from 7:30am to 11pm, Monday, December 15 to Thursday, December 18.
Measuring Up 2008
As has been mentioned previously in this blog, the state support for higher education in New Jersey is shockingly abysmal. A new report – Measuring Up 2008 – further reinforces that bleak outlook. This report which examines national numbers as well as state figures, paints a very disturbing picture of the state of higher education in this country. As the United States must compete on the world stage, it is sending out fewer people well-equipped with the tools which colleges impart. There is a distinct possibility that for the first time in decades, this present generation will be less educated than the previous one. New Jersey’s profile looks like this: A- for college preparation; A- for residents with bachelor’s degrees; C for college opportunities(explaining why so many qualified students leave the state for college); F for affordability(but only one state, California, even received a passing grade, the other 49 received F); and C+ for completion(61% attained a bachelor’s degree in 6 years). Please read this article “College out of reach?” detailing the cost of colleges in New Jersey, and this New York Times piece – “College May Become Unaffordable for Most in U.S.”. Which is why we need to point out that New Jersey City University has the lowest tuition/fees in the state for colleges/universities.
Government Bailout of Auto Companies
As the CEOs of the Big Three proceed to Washington(this time in fuel-efficient hybrids) to appear before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, they have already submitted their business plans which provide for restructuring and divestiture. The New York Times has an excellent section on the bailout, including a very lucid historical overview. Other resources include: Congress Eyes Big Three Automakers’ Plans(NPR); Federal Loans to the Auto Industry Under the Energy Independence and Security Act(CRS); Auto Bailout Gains Little Traction(CQ Politics); [Speaker of the House] Pelosi, [Senate Majority Leader] Reid Call on [Treasury Secretary] Paulson to Use Authority to Provide Aid to Auto Industry (letter); Impact on the U.S. Economy of a Major Contraction of the Detroit Three Automakers(Center for Automotive Research); Say No to the Auto Bailout(Cato Institute); Offer the Big Three Automakers a Helping Hand, with Conditions(Brookings); Auto Bailout(U S News and World Report); Detroit’s Downfall(CNN); Detroit in Crisis(wsj.com); Americans Divided on Aid to Big Three Automakers(Gallup); and 61% Oppose Auto Bailout(CNN).
Congressman Frank J. Guarini Library Blog 