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The Princeton Review 371 Best Colleges

Library Newsletter - February, 2007

Vol. 11, No. 4

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Word from the Director

Maurice G. Fortin, Library Director

Not counting a few icy patches and time out to build snow people (or at least as best we can with the limited snowfall of this area in Texas), the spring semester is off to a fast start. The Library continues to be in a planning mode while providing its usual services.

A new Library task force will be working to update the Library's web pages and the Library's tab on RamPort. As RamPort becomes the primary means to access the Universitys and Librarys resources and services, it is becoming increasingly more difficult to maintain links on both the web pages and tabs in RamPort. One of the main assignments for the new task force will be to determine which resources and services need to have links on both the Library's web pages and the tab in RamPort. An additional assignment will be to update the image of the Library's web pages to provide an easier layout to the resources on the RamPort tab.

Planning is also underway for a complete redesign of the public areas on the Library's First Floor. This includes expanding the Juvenile and Curriculum Collections area, building a larger Circulation Desk, and creating an Information Commons along the south side of the floor. The Information Commons is a joint venture between Information Technology and the Library. Many academic libraries are moving in this direction, to integrate print and electronic information resources with human expertise while providing space for users to interact with the resources, expertise, and each other to better facilitate the learning process. An information commons should help to develop lifelong skills in the retrieval, evaluation, and use of information. Personnel from both units will be making site visits over the next several weeks. They plan to gather information on best practices, services, resources, and equipment. I will provide more information on the project in future issues of the Newsletter.

The University Library Committee (ULC) appointed a small subcommittee to examine the Library's Materials Budget allocation formula. I will chair this group and hope to have recommendations ready by the April meeting of the ULC. As the University grows, new programs come online, and academic departments grow and/or split into new, independent units, the Library Committee wants to make sure the allocation formula is responsive to the changing needs of all Library users.

Elsewhere in this issue, we've included information on the annual Friends of the Library book sale, on the next display at the West Texas Collection (in conjunction with The Railway Museum at the Historic Orient-Santa Fe Depot), on some new equipment available in the Library, and on the 6th annual genealogical workshop (being held in March this year). (A registration form for the workshop can be found on page 7.) We've also included information on how to follow a bill through the Texas Legislature and some additional news from the world of "government information."

Friends of the Library Book Sale!

woman on top of stacks of booksCome one, come all! To the annual Friends of the Porter Henderson Library and West Texas Collection Book Sale.

Preview – Friday night, January 26, from 5:00-8:00
(Cost for admission on Friday night: $5)
Saturday, January 27, from 9:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.

Prices (for most)? $1 for hardbacks, 50¢ for paperbacks
College Hills Baptist Church Fellowship Hall,
2102 Johnson Street (across from the ASU campus)

Joint Display on the History of the Kansas City, Mexico, & Orient Railway

The West Texas Collection (WTC) and The Railway Museum at the Historic Orient-Santa Fe Depot will sponsor a joint display on the history of the Kansas City, Mexico & Orient Railway. The display will feature original documents dating to the inception of the railroad by Arthur Stillwell. This will be the first time these documents have been seen as a group. The collection is a gift from Robert Pounds of Temple, Texas.

An opening reception is planned for March 1, 2007, from 6:00-9:00 p.m. at the WTC (on the second floor of the University Center), as well as at the Depot at 703 S. Chadbourne. The Depot, which houses numerous railroad displays and models as well as historic photographs, will be open at the same time, without charge. The display will remain available for viewing at the WTC through May.

For more information contact the WTC at (325) 942-2164.

New Copier for Faculty and Staff Use

The Library has acquired a new Xerox lease copier for Library staff and ASU departmental staff and faculty use. The copier, located just outside the Juvenile Collection room, has some minor changes and additional features. The biggest change in the operation of the copier is in logging off the copier when finished.

Please read the screens carefully or ask the Circulation Staff for assistance when using the new copier for the first time. You will still need your password and then must press "Enter" to access the copier. When you have finished making your copies, you will need to press the "Access" button and then select "Logout" on the touch screen to exit.

For further information or assistance, please contact the Circulation staff ((325) 942-2051) or Dia Reynolds, Library Secretary ((325) 942-2222, Ext. 221).

Two New Scanners for Student Use

The Reference Area of the Library now has THREE scanners available for student use. Two new scanners are located in the Reference Area next to the West windows; the old scanner is still available in the Information Alcove (formerly known as the Quick Lab). Individuals needing to scan materials have priority with regards to the use of the PCs attached to the scanners; other individuals not utilizing the scanning function can be asked to relocate to another PC without a scanner attached.

How to Follow a Bill Using Texas Legislature Online

The Texas Legislature Online (TLO) web site is one of the best ones to use for tracking legislative bills and actions in the Texas Legislature. The following information comes from "How to Follow a Bill Using TLO". If you want to know more detailed information on the Texas legislative process, see the Texas Legislative Council's web site Guide to Texas Legislative Information (GTLI) and click on "Legislative Process."

Below are the basic steps involved in passing a bill into law. Links to information available on TLO are provided at the end of the article to aid in following these steps.

Idea

The process for creating a new law starts when a legislator first begins to formulate an idea. An idea for a new law may be suggested by anyone: concerned citizens, special interest groups, state agencies, or the governor, for example. If you have an idea you would like to suggest to your legislator, use the "Who Represents Me" web site to determine your representative or senator and to find his or her contact information.

Introduction

During a legislative session, members may introduce new legislation until filing deadlines identified on the TLO "Dates of Interest" page. When the legislature is in session, the TLO home page will include the time that the House and Senate are scheduled to convene each day.

Methods to view introduced legislation include:

Using the "My TLO" page, you can create a personal bill list and receive e-mail notification as the status changes on bills you chose to watch. You can also use "My TLO" to access RSS feeds or legislative content on your cell phone or PDA. (The service is free of charge, but registration is required.)

Referral to House/Senate Committee

Bills that have been referred to committee may be viewed using "Legislative Reports" or "Bill Search."

Considered in House/Senate Committee

When a bill is scheduled to be heard by a House or Senate committee, public notice is made to allow public participation in the committee process. View House committee meeting notices (on "House Committee Meetings") and Senate committee meeting notices (on "Senate Committee Meetings" to see which bills are scheduled to be considered at a particular committee meeting.

Minutes are created by committee clerks after each public hearing. Use the same "House Committee Meetings" and "Senate Committee Meetings" sites to view meeting minutes.

Most committee meetings are available for viewing over the Internet on the House web site's "Video/Audio" web page and the Senate web site's "RealMedia Live Broadcasts" web page.

You can receive notice of upcoming House and Senate committee meetings through e-mail, using "My TLO."

Placed on House/Senate Calendar

After a bill has been reported favorably by a committee and the committee report has been printed, the bill is available for placement on a calendar. A calendar is a list of bills and resolutions that are scheduled to be considered by the full house or senate. Use TLO to view "House Calendars" and "Senate Calendars."

Considered on House/Senate Floor

Journals are records of activity that occurs on the House or Senate floor and include actions that are taken on a bill and any amendments added to the bill. Use TLO to view "House Journals" and "Senate Journal Online."

View "Amendment Search" to search for amendments based on chamber, author, bill, reading, and date.

Proceedings on the House and Senate chamber floor may be viewed over the Internet at the House's "Video/Audio" page and the Senate’s "RealMedia Live Broadcasts" page.

Signed/Vetoed by Governor

If a bill passes both the House and Senate, it may be signed or vetoed by the governor or pass without signature. View the "Legislative Reports" ("General Reports") to see a list of all bills passed or vetoed.

Laws of Texas

Once legislation becomes law, it becomes codified as a statute. Statutes may be viewed and searched at the "Texas Statutes" web site.

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Links:

Authorization vs. Appropriation

With the 110th U.S. Congress beginning its work in January, we can expect to hear and read more about the congressional budget process. But do you understand the difference between "appropriation" and "authorization"? If you would like to know more, LLRX.com includes a discussion of these two terms in Paul Jenks' "CongressLine" column in the January 15, 2007, issue. Read "Authorization and Appropriation" online at http://www.llrx.com/congress/authorization.htm.

Selected New U.S. Government Publications

Government documents staff members have cataloged over 2,000 new federal and state government publications since September 1, 2006. Many of these are available online only, through links in RamCat. Others are available in paper (or microfiche) for check out. Some of the new titles added in December and January are highlighted below.

GPO eagle logo on computer screenNew electronic-only titles from the Department of Agriculture's "Economic research report" series and the "Economic information bulletin" series include: Environmental effects of agricultural land-use change: the role of economics and policy; Cost of living and the geographic distribution of poverty; Rural America at a glance (2005 and 2006); Let's eat out: Americans weigh taste, convenience and nutrition; and What factors account for state-to-state differences in food security? These and other titles from the same series can be found in RamCat. Search by "call number browse" to find all of the titles cataloged from these series. The call numbers begin A 93.73: and A 93.73/2:.

Do you ever wonder why your natural gas bill continues to rise? A short, 4-page, online-only publication produced by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission provides some information on these natural gas prices. To access this title, search RamCat for High natural gas prices: the basics.

Some of the new publications from the Education Department cataloged by the government documents staff members include: Student financing of undergraduate education--2003-04: with a special analysis of the net price of attendance and federal education tax benefits; Projections of education statistics to 2015; A closer look at charter schools using hierarchical linear modeling; Student financing of graduate and first-professional education--2003-04: profiles of students in selected degree programs and part-time students; and Degree completions in areas of national need, 1996-97 and 2001-02.

The Interior Department has digitized some of its older, out-of-print publications and made them available on the Internet. These include Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico; Fort Davis National Historic Site, Texas; Where a hundred thousand fell: the Battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, the Wilderness, and Spotsylvania Court House (now Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County Battlefields Memorial National Military Park); Beehives of invention: Edison and his laboratories; and Historic resources study: the Civil War defenses of Washington: parts I and II.

If you are looking for documents that concern topics on various current world situations, the United States Institute of Peace publishes titles that should prove useful. A number of these cover topics found in the news every day, on Lebanon, the Palestinian question, Afghanistan, Sudan, and Somalia, among others. These include: Afghanistan Reconstruction Group: an experiment with future potential; Crisis in Lebanon: is peacekeeping possible; Dollars and diplomacy: foreign aid and the Palestinian question; Understanding the Iran-Hezbollah connection; Prospects for mediation of the Lebanon crisis; Peacemaking and peacebuilding in eastern Sudan; How to respond to Somalia's current crisis; Islamists at the ballot box: findings from Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, and Turkey; and Religion-state relationship and the right to freedom of religion or belief: a comparative textual analysis of the constitutions of predominantly Muslim countries.

The types of documents that the Congressional Budget Office publishes include reports needed for the budget process; analytical studies, which explore economic and budgetary issues involving the federal government; briefs, which provide short analyses of policy issues; and background papers and related documents, which describe the assumptions and technical methods underlying various aspects of CBO's analyses. A number of these publications are available in the Library, both in print as well as online. Some of the more recent ones cataloged for the Library's US Documents Collection include: Recruiting, retention, and future levels of military personnel; The effects of reserve call-ups on civilian employers; Changes in low-wage labor markets between 1979 and 2005; Updated long-term projections for social security; A description of the immigrant population; Implications of past currency crises for the U.S. current account adjustment; CBO's online guide to tax incentives for retirement saving; and Valuing the student loan consolidation option.

New documents received initially in a tangible format, and available for checkout, include Researching Japanese war crimes records: introductory essays (AE 1.102:W 19/2); Keys to soil taxonomy (A 57.2:K 52/2006); Regional farm bill field hearing: Lubbock, Texas … September 8, 2006 (Y 4.AG 8/3:S.HRG.109-645); Women in the labor force: a databook (2006 ed.) (L 2.71:996); Subterranean termites: their prevention and control in buildings (A 1.77:64/2006); and 200 notable days: Senate stories, 1787 to 2002 (Y 1.3:ST 7). With the exception of 200 notable days and Subterranean termites, all of these are also available online via links in RamCat.

Some databases have also been cataloged and are accessible through RamCat. These include: Drugs@FDA, PubChem, and Tox town. Drugs@FDA is a database from the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Center for Drug and Evaluation Research. It lists most brand name and generic drug products approved by the FDA since 1939, including prescription and over-the-counter human drugs currently approved for sale in the United States, as well as discontinued drugs. PubChem, from the National Center for Biotechnology Information at the National Library of Medicine, contains the chemical structures of small organic molecules and information on their biological activities. The database includes substance information, compound structures, and bioactivity data in three primary databases, PCSubstance, PCCompound, and PCBioAssay, respectively. Tox town: toxic chemicals and environmental health risks where you live and work, developed by Specialized Information Services at the National Library of Medicine, provides an introduction to toxic chemicals and environmental health risks you might encounter in everyday life, in everyday places.

If you have any questions about these or other government publications, please contact Janetta Paschal, Government Documents/Reference Librarian at (325) 942-2300, ext. 230, or via E-mail at Janetta.Paschal@angelo.edu.

FirstGov.gov Becomes USA.gov

The official portal of the U.S. government is changing its name – to USA.gov. FirstGov.gov is now USA.gov; and FirstGov en español.gov is GobiernoUSA.gov. USA.gov and Web Best Practices (Office of Citizen Services and Communications, U.S. General Services Administration) soft launched these changes on January 11, 2007, and launched it for the media on Thursday, January 18. Check out both portals at http://www.usa.gov.

USAGov logoUSA.gov continues to offer the same great government services:

USAgobierno logoThe Office chose the names "USA.gov" and "GobiernoUSA.gov" because:

Both links are included in the Library's "United States Government Information" web page at http://www.angelo.edu/services/library/govdocs/us.htm, under "en Español" ("Government Information en Español") and "Other Information Resources, Web Sites, and Search Engines."

6th Annual Genealogical Workshop

About the Speaker:

Our speaker is Dr. George Schweitzer, Distinguished Professor at the University of Tennessee. He holds BA, MS, and PhD degrees in chemistry, an MA in the History of Religion, a PhD in History, and a ScD (Doctor of Science) in Philosophy of Science. He is Phi Beta Kappa and is listed in Who's Who in America.

He has authored 220 publications including 19 genealogical guidebooks. Professor Schweitzer uses historical reenactment to teach genealogy. He has lectured to over 300 genealogical and historical societies in the US, Canada, England and Germany.

For more information about Dr. Schweitzer's genealogical lectures and seminars, see his web site, "Genealogical Sources," at http://www.gensources.com/gensources/lectures.htm.

Registration for the Workshop is $35. The lunch cost is $10. Lunch reservations must be made by March 15. Contact the West Texas Collection at (325) 942-2164 for more information.

[For additional information on the Genealogical Workshop, see page 7 of the printer-friendly version of the Newsletter or retrieve the form online from Registration form 2007]