Using Older Documents for Historical
Research: Serial Set & Congressional Record
Judith M. Feller
East Stroudsburg University
East Stroudsburg, PA
The idea for this presentation was prompted by reference
questions posted to GOVDOC-L over
the last few years. With so much of our energy focused on
electronic sources and access, itþs
sometimes easy to forget that almost 200 years' worth of U.S.
government publications are still
in non-electronic format, and some can only be identified through
printed indexes, or in some
cases, through the knowledge of the librarian.
In 1986, Steven D. Zink wrote an excellent article discussing the
reasons why historians often
fail to use United States government documents in their
research.
1 Among the possible reasons,
he cites: inadequate e0ducation in their use; inadequate indexing
of the documents themselves;
reluctance to ask librarians for help.
2 From my own experience,
I would speculate that many
librarians, particularly those who donþt work with government
documents, have precisely the
same problems as the historians. I wasn't born a documents
librarian. Much of my knowledge was acquired on the job, thanks
to the mentoring of
more experienced colleagues.
With those thoughts in mind, my goals this afternoon are:
1) to
provide an overview of the Serial
Set and Congressional Record as sources for historical research;
2) to suggest some strategies for
getting access to the material.
Serial Set
What is the Serial Set? In simplest terms, it is the
cumulation of House and Senate reports and
documents, in bound volumes, if your library selects the hard
copy version, or divided by those
numbered 4x6 plastic guide cards if you select microfiche. For a
thorough description of the
Serial Set, including an explanation of serial numbering, I
recommend the User Handbook for
the Congressional Information Serviceþs Serial Set Index.3
The Serial Set which depository libraries currently receive is
composed of large numbers of
House and Senate reports. We also receive a much smaller number
of publications with the
designation þDocument,þ including treaty documents. The
þDocuments,þ though few in
number, are extremely useful--so much so that they are often
issued to all depository libraries in
hard copy. Two of my favorites are The Constitution of the
United States: Analysis and
Interpretation and the Biographical Directory of the United
States Congress, 1774-1989.4
The Constitution... Analysis and Interpretation is an article by
article discussion of the
Constitution, in the context of landmark Supreme Court cases.
Its index of cases has been a life-
saver for us when someone has a case name but no U.S. Reports
citation. High school students
and graduate students alike use it as a starting point for
background on Constitutional issues.
The Biographical Directory is a convenient, one-volume source of
information on all senators
and representatives, 11,000 of them, from the Continental
Congress (1774) to 1989. Formerly
titled Biographical Directory of the American Congress, it was
first issued in 1949 as a House
Document, and is a revision of several earlier biographical
directories. The brief biographies
take up most of the book, but thereþs some handy prefatory
material, including a list of
presidents and their cabinets, Senators and Representatives, by
state, for each session of
Congress, and delegates to the Continental Congress.
The House and Senate documents currently issued are a drop in the
bucket compared to what
was issued before 1900, the halcyon days of the Serial Set. A
gradual decline in the scope of
the Serial Set resulted from more stringent regulation of
government printing, under the Printing
Act of 1895.5 The Serial Set and the changes it has undergone
are described in a recent article
by Suzanne DeLong.6
In my quick tour of the Serial Set, I'm going to focus on
þdocumentsþ issued before 1900 when
the Set was quite different from what we see today. During the
early twentieth century, it still
contained some types of publications rarely found there now, but
its real heyday was before
1900. It contains a wealth of information often overlooked by
historians, as well as librarians.
American State Papers (ASP)
The American State Papers are that part of the Serial Set
encompassing the earliest
administrations. It was originally to cover only the 1st through
13th Congresses, but the project
was extended to include some publications through the 25th
Congress--the Military Affairs class,
for example. Systematic numbering of Congressional publications
did not begin until the 15th
Congress, and the compilation of the ASP was not completed until
1838. Thatþs why the serial
numbers of the volumes are always preceded by a 0 to distinguish
them from the serial volumes
published beginning in 1817.7
Here's an example of publications included. Parts of the Lewis
and Clark expedition include
Historical sketch of tribes, Geographical description of the
Red River and adjacent country,
and Meteorological observations. Other interesting titles:
Troops, including militia, furnished
by the several states during Revolutionary War and Enlisting
minors in army, improving
condition of rank and file, by establishing schools, retaining
whisky ration, and exempting those
serving four years from militia duty. Just to show that times
haven't changed, there's this one:
Complaints by cadets against military academy at West Point.
The American State Papers are not complete. In fact, many
documents of the War Department
to 1800 are missing. In November, 1800, a fire at the office of
Secretary of War Samuel Dexter
destroyed all of the department's records. I mention this
because East Stroudsburg University is
home to a project to restore those records from scattered copies.
The goal of the project,
entitled Papers of the War Department, 1784-1800, is to produce a
searchable CD-ROM with
the full text of newly-discovered documents. Dr. Theodore J.
Crackel, retired Army officer and
history professor, is the project director and editor. He and
his assistant editor are thoroughly
scouring libraries and archives throughout the United States for
pertinent materials, but would
like to hear about any documents they might have missed. These
would probably be letters to
or from one of the secretaries of war--Henry Knox, Timothy
Pickering, James McHenry, or
Samuel Dexter--and would most likely be in a library's special
collections department. I've
included the name of the project director and his address in the
bibliography.8
Serial Set, 1817-1900
As you've seen from the quick exploration of the American State
Papers, some fascinating
documents are found there. My motto is, If you're looking for
an old U.S. document, think
Serial Set. A good way to get acquainted is to simply browse
the Finding Lists found in the
CIS Serial Set Index. If your library doesn't have that, you
might use one of the older indexes
such as Poore or Ames.9 You'll see titles as diverse as
Contributions to North American
Ethnology, Congressional Directory, Report of the American
Historical Association, Geological
Survey Bulletins, Foreign Relations of the U.S., and Consular
Reports published as House or
Senate documents. A request recently posted to GOVDOC-L was for
the loan of Annual Report
of Commerce and Navigation of U.S. from the 1880's, and a quick
check showed that they were
all included in the Serial Set as House Executive Documents.
Monographs on some rather
unexpected subjects are included: British Military and Naval
Operations in Egypt, 1882; War
between Chile, Peru, and Bolivia, 1879-1881; Reports on Labor in
America, Asia, Africa,
Australasia, and Polynesia; Notes on Reindeer.
Before leaving the Serial Set, I want to discuss two gems: the
Rebellion Records and the Census.
The Rebellion Records document a tragic episode in our history.
My library has many volumes
in hard copy, but in the 1970's, some were sent away for
rebinding and perished when the
bindery was flooded (ironically, they were the Naval Records).
It was our acquisitions librarian
who told me that the entire series was included in the Serial
Set, which we have in Readex
Microprint.
The Rebellion Records are a vast compendium which includes a
general index and atlas. Each
series has multiple volumes and parts, too much to include on the
transparency. If youþre
interested in greater detail, CIS Serial Set Index lists the
separate volumes and parts in the subject
index under the heading, Rebellion Records.
Last but not least, the Serial Set includes the 7th through 11th
Census. These provide statistics
on population, transportation, agriculture, manufacturing, and
even vital statistics--an enormous
resource for charting the growth of our country. Final volumes
of the Census for 1880 and 1890
cover some intriguing subjects not found there today.10 Here are
some examples:
1880 (10th, published 1883-85)
v. 8 - The newspaper and periodical press; population,
industries, and resources of Alaska;
seal islands of Alaska; shipbuilding industry in U.S.
v. 9 - Report on the forests of North America (exclusive of
Mexico)
v. 12 - Report on mortality...:Pt. 2, Statistics of deaths,
by locality, cause, etc.
v.21 - Report on the defective, dependent, and delinquent
classes; statistics of the insane,
idiotic, blind, deaf and dumb, homeless children, paupers,
and criminals.
1890 (11th, published 1891-96)
Churches in U.S. 1890; Crime, pauperism, and benevolence;
Insane, feeble-minded, deaf
and dumb, and blind; Real-estate mortgages in the U.S.
These publications are worth looking at just to see how
demographic concepts have changed
over the century. For example, in the Population section of
the 10th Census (1880), there are
tables showing population distribution by drainage basins, mean
temperature, and maximum
temperature.
Of course these early Census compilations don't contain the
þPopulation Schedules, the
personal names sought by people doing their family genealogies.
Many people are referred to
our library because we have The Census and are disappointed to
hear that we only have
numbers, not names.
Subject Indexes to the Serial Set
If the Harvard Guide to American History is still considered the
historian's bible, it's easy to
understand why they are so reluctant to tackle government
documents, especially in the Serial
Set.11 The current edition of the Guide was published in 1974.
It notes that the Serial Set and
hearings are available in microform and cites the CIS Index
(which only began in 1970).
Unfortunately, the CIS Serial Set Index was not published until
1977, so historians-in-the-making
must look beyond the Harvard Guide to learn about that great
index.
The Serial Set Index is easy to use. Each part covers a range of
Congresses, with a 2-volume
subject index and one-volume of Finding Lists. The subjects and
keyword terms are taken from
the publication titles. Once you find your subject, you will
also find all of the information you
need to locate the publication in the Serial Set.
The Finding Lists include:
1. An Index of Names of Individuals and Organizations
which have been the subject of
private laws and other Congressional action. These names
are not included in the
subject volumes;
2. Numerical List of Reports and Documents;
3. Schedule of Serial Volumes.
If you get genealogy questions in your library, the Index of
Names may be useful if someone
knows that an ancestor was the subject of a claim or petition. I
was trying to find a genealogy
connection for this presentation, and one practically fell into
my lap. My stepmother has been
working for years on her family genealogy. She's a very
experienced researcher, but on rare
occasions, I've found sources of use to her. This time, she
called to asked me about some
citations she didn't understand. As she read Congress numbers,
references to Senate bills, and
House Journal pages, I really got excited and asked her to send
me copies of what she was
reading. What I received was from the Digested Summary and
Alphabetical List of private
claims presented to the House of Representatives...from the 1st
to the 31st Congress, exhibiting
the action of Congress on each claim with references to the
journals, reports, bills, etc. This
publication, reprinted in 1970, was originally a House document.
The Preface to the reprinted
edition has some helpful information, including the fact that
records relating to the private
claims cited are in the National Archives, in the records of the
House of Representatives. I
needed to find out more about the records of the House.
Documents to the rescue again:
everything I wanted to know was in a depository publication weþd
put in the Reference
Department: Guide to the Records of the United States House of
Representatives at the National
Archives, 1789-1989.12 Chapter one, An introduction to research
in the Records of Congress is
must reading for anyone doing research in United States
history. It has an excellent discussion
of how to use the Congressional Record and House and Senate
journals to search for petitions or
private claims. There's a parallel volume for the Senate, and
both of these publications were
issued as House and Senate documents.13
The Schedule of Serial Volumes is of particular value if you have
a citation from a footnote or
bibliography and need to find the Serial Set volume number. Of
course the citation must
include at least the Congress number.
What did we do before the Serial Set Index? What do you do if
your library doesn't have it? As
you can see, the choice is rather limited. Poore's Descriptive
Catalogue covers the longest
period. It has a subject index (which is defective according
to the Harvard Guide).14 What
that means, in my experience, is blind references which are not
on the page you're sent to.
Publications are arranged chronologically, so although there may
be reference to many pages
under a subject, no subheadings are given. If you don't know the
publication year, you have to
scan each page, a tedious process. That would not be so bad, but
the double columns of fine
print are particularly hard on old eyes like mine. There are
citations to the State Papers with
the Class (e.g., Public Lands), volume number, pages, Congress,
and session. Congressional
documents and reports are cited with numbers, Congress, and
session. With that information,
you go to the Schedule of Serial Volumes which will give you
the Serial Set volume number.
Ames's Comprehensive Index is a magnificent work, and it's a
shame we don't have anything
comparable for the earlier part of the century. Its coverage is
said to be complete for the Serial
Set during that period, although it does not have complete
coverage of departmental documents.
Arrangement is by subject, with authors in a column on the left,
and House or Senate document
or report numbers to the right. An especially useful feature of
Ames is that many of the
periodicals cited are also analyzed. For example, Grape culture
and wine making in Russia is
an article in the Consular Reports, and many other unusual
articles can be found.
Unfortunately, the CIS Serial Set Index does not index to that
level.
The Catalog of the Public Documents...1893-1940 and Monthly
Catalog, 1895- are of limited
use, simply because they begin so late in the century.
A User Education Problem
In recent years, I find that increasing numbers of undergraduate
and graduate students are
unable to distinguish between book citations and periodical
citations. As you might imagine,
something that begins, United States. Congress. Senate and ends
with incomprehensible
numbers and letters presents real problems. Several years ago,
it dawned on me that the jargon
of legislation is a foreign language in need of basic
translation.15 A simple guide explaining
what the common citation means and the location of the material
represented helps demystify
þgovernment documentsþ and leads students to materials such as
the Serial Set. I suspect that
some students omit mention of documents they've actually read
because they don't know how
to cite them in a bibliography. Any time I take students or
other researchers to Congressional
publications, I give them the call number for the Complete Guide
to Citing Government
Information Resources.16
Congressional Record and Its Predecessors
Congressional Record
Like the Serial Set, the Congressional Record and its
predecessors must be mined to yield their
historical treasure. What is the Congressional Record? It's
certainly not the verbatim record of
the proceedings in Congress some people think it is. Since its
earliest years, it has been so
heavily edited that newspaper accounts of what was said in
Congress are sometimes more
accurate than whatþs printed in the Record.17 Stories abound
about remarks edited or censored.
For a discussion of that problem, I suggest Schmeckebier and
Eastin.18
As you can see, the Record is only the latest in a succession of
serials purporting to report the
proceeding in Congress. The Record actually began as a
government publication, unlike the
earlier titles, which were printed by commercial printers and
simply sold to the government. For
the century under discussion, we donþt have to worry about daily
issues and bi-weekly indexes.
From its inception, annual indexes of the Record are similar to
those we receive today
(eventually!).
As you know if you use the Record index, the most detailed
subject information is under the
names of the legislators. This lack of specific subject headings
can be frustrating, but for the
subjects that are covered, the Congressional Record can be a
useful source of information about
contemporary issues and problems. The fact that it has an annual
index is a definite advantage.
The index to the New York Times for the same period is quarterly
or semi-annual through the
19th century, which doubles or quadruples your searching.
Two especially useful sections of the Congressional Record index
are the Histories of House
Bills and Resolutions and Histories of Senate Bills and
Resolutions.þ These list all bills
introduced and give the histories in concise form, including the
date on which the bill was
introduced and the committee to which it was referred. If youþre
doing a legislative history, this
is certainly the place to begin.
Congressional Globe
In its early years, the Congressional Globe was (like its
predecessors, the Register of Debates and
Annals of Congress) more of an abstract than a verbatim report of
the proceedings. Each volume
has an Appendix which includes materials such as messages of the
President and reports of
department heads. Beginning in 1853, the text of public laws was
included.19
There are two indexes: one for the Senate, one for the House.
It's not an ideal arrangement, but
it works. I was trying to decipher some unpublished letters
written from Washington in 1873 by
a lobbyist. The handwriting was eye-killing, but a phrase that
looked like, Poland bill kept
turning up. Checking the Globe indexes, I found Vermont
Representative Luke Poland, and a
lengthy speech by him on the subject of the bill.
Register of Debates
To quote one authority, The publication...was contemporaneous
with the proceedings, but the
series does not pretend to be a verbatim account.20 Our library
doesnþt have them, I've never
used the Register, so Iþm not going to waste time pretending that
I know something about them.
Annals of Congress
The Annals weren't published until 1834. Their publisher, Gales
and Seaton, compiled them
from newspapers and other sources, the debates from October 1800
being take from the
National Intelligencer. The text therefore represents abstracts
of the proceedings, rather than
verbatim accounts. That probably accounts for the fact that,
within each session, there are
separate running accounts for the Senate and House.
Senate and House have their own indexes, and within those,
separate alphabetical listings by
session--by modern standards, a rather primitive and tedious
arrangement. I've found browsing
more fruitful than using the indexes.
.Alternative indexes
The House and Senate Journals, included in the Serial Set for
each session of Congress, have
subject and bill number indexes. Although the journals donþt
give detail, they do give dates of
action, enabling a researcher to find the information in the
Congressional Globe or Record.
Practical use
I wanted this presentation to be something more than an annotated
bibliography, and our local
newspaper provided an excellent opportunity to illustrate
practical application. The story I'm
going to summarize appeared on April 2nd, and since it was from
the Associated Press, I assume
other newspapers may have run it, as well. The headline was,
Trader's kin seek
compensation.21 The trader in question was Jean Louis Legare,
a Canadian fur trader who
þrisked his life and nearly bankrupted himself getting Chief
Sitting Bull to surrender. Legare's
descendants are now trying to get reimbursement from the U.S. and
Canadian governments for
providing, food, supplies, horses, and wagons to Sitting Bull
and his 50 to 60 followers.
When I read the article to my husband, his reaction was, a likely
story. Was it? Here was a
great way to use what I'd just been writing about. It was the
kind of question that could be
asked in a public or academic library. I had good search keys:
the names Legare and Sitting
Bull and a surrender date of 1881. It took me about five minutes
to find verification of the basic
information with the Serial Set Index and Congressional Record.
Ames also has the same
information as the Serial Set Index. I'll leave the details to
anyone interested in looking further--
or post them on GOVDOC-L.
.Access - More Than Just Indexes
If you want more detail than my sketchy presentation provided,
there's no shortage of good
books and articles explaining the details of the Serial Set and
the Congressional Record. You'll
find some of them in the bibliography I've handed out. From the
standpoint of service, there are
some intangible factors which are also important:
1. Know your library's entire collection, not just what's in
government documents.
Although your library may only have become a depository in the
last decade or two, you
probably have lots of U.S. government documents. Case in point:
The series U.S. Army in
World War II. Although these were issued years before our
library became a depository, we
still have most of the series, and the commemorative reprints
issued in the past year are
duplicates. Don't take anything for granted--check your
holdings. Our online catalogs make it
(potentially) easier to identify government documents in our
collections--but you have to
remember to check!
2. Know what your library has available in microform. The
larger your library--the more
departmentalized it is--the more likely you'll overlook these
things. Our library became a
depository in 1966, but we have the Serial Set, 1789-1969 in
Readex Microprint and hearings
on microfiche. Work closely with whoever does interlibrary loan:
it's an inconvenience to your
own library users and an unnecessary burden on the lending
library if you request something
you already have.
3. Educate your library staff, especially everyone who works
at the reference desk, where
many history research questions begin. Keep copies of your
bibliographic instruction handouts
there, and emphasize the availability of documents in microform
collections. GOVDOC-L is a
fantastic medium for sharing our expertise, but I believe we need
to publicize the wealth of
information in government documents within our own libraries.
4. Last, know what's available in area libraries. It seems
obvious, but libraries which are not
depositories may have good documents collections in hard copy or
microform. Informal
partnership can be helpful: in Pennsylvania's State System of
Higher Education (which includes
East Stroudsburg University), DOMA, the Documents and Map
Librarians, compiled a directory
which includes what libraries have documents collections in
microform: Serial Set, hearings,
American Statistics Index and Congressional Information Service
microfiche. Ten of the fourteen
libraries are now depositories, but even those which aren't have
some valuable resources. Since
our libraries are scattered across the state, we believe we are
providing a service to our
Congressional districts, not just to the institutions students
and faculty.
Conclusion
In this era of hard times for libraries, we need to make the most
of our collections. Older
government documents are an untapped resource, not just for
scholar-historians, but for students
looking for interesting term paper topics, creative writers
seeking background information for
novels or plays, or sociologists in search of comparative data.
Many of the documents on
scientific or technical subjects are still useful. Make U.S.
history come alive for your library
users: introduce them to the Serial Set and Congressional Record.
1. Steven D. Zink, Clio's Blindspot, Government Publications
Review, 13 (Jan./Feb.1986), 67-
78.
2. Ibid., 73-75.
3. Congressional Information Service. User Handbook: CIS U.S.
Serial Set Index, 1789-1969.
(Bethesda, MD., 1980).
4. United States. Constitution of the United States of America:
analysis and interpretation... J. H.
Killian, ed. (Washington, DC, 1988).
99th Congress, 1st session, S. Doc. no. 99-16 (Y 1.1/3:99-16,
Ser. no. 13611); Biographical
directory of the United States Congress, 1774-1989: the
Continental Congress, September 5,
1774, to October 21, 1788, and the Congress of the United States,
from the First through the
One Hundredth Congresses, March 4, 1789, to January 3, 1989,
inclusive. Bicentennial ed.
(Washington, DC, 1989). S. Doc. 100-34, 100th Cong., 2nd sess.
(Y.1/3:100-34)
5. Printing Act of 1895, Statutes-at-Large, 28, Chap. 23,
601-24 (1895).
6. Suzanne DeLong, What Is In the United States Serial Set?
Journal of Government
Information, 23 (1996), 123-135.
7. Congressional Information Service, vi-x.
8. Address inquiries to: Theodore J. Crackel, Papers of the War
Department, 1784-1800,
McGarry Communication Center, East Stroudsburg University, East
Stroudsburg, PA 18301.
9. B. P. Poore, ed. Descriptive Catalogue of the Government
Publications of the United States,
1774-1881 (G.P.O., 1885), S. Misc. Doc. 67, 48th Cong., 2nd sess.
; J.G. Ames, ed.
Comprehensive Index to the Publications of the United States
Government, 1881-1893
(Washington, DC, 1905), H. Doc. 754, 58th Cong., 2nd. sess.
10. All published as House Misc. Documents.
11. Harvard Guide to American History. F. Freidel, ed. 2 vols.
(Cambridge, MA, 1995).
.12. United States. National Archives and Records Administration.
Guide to the Records of the
United States House of Representatives at the National Archives,
1789-1989. Bicentennial ed.
(Washington, DC, 1989). H. Doc.100-245, 100th Cong., 2nd sess.
13. United States. National Archives and Records Administration.
Guide to the Records of the
United States Senate at the National Archives, 1789-1989.
Bicentennial ed. (Washington, DC,
1989). S. Doc. 100-42, 100th Cong.
14. Ibid., 1:69.
15. Judith M. Feller, Teaching Legislation as a Second Language,þ
PLA Bulletin (October 1993),
9-10.
16. Diane L. Garner and Debora Cheney. Complete Guide to Citing
Government Information
Resources. (Bethesda, MD, 1994)
17. Harvard Guide, 1:72
18. Laurence F. Schmeckebier & Roy B. Eastin, Government
Publications and Their Uses.
(Washington, DC, 1969), 139-142.
19. Ibid., 138-139.
20. Ibid., 138.
21. Pocono Record, Apr. 2, 1996, A3.
[ Back to the Table of
Contents
]
.The Internet as a Shared
Community/Library
Experience
Carolyn Gaswick
Albion College
Albion, MI
Albion College has received a five year grant from the Kellogg
Foundation to develop an Internet
network within the Albion area. The local network will be tied
to other groups to form a
countywide freenet. Goals of the grant include the enhancement
of communications and the
sharing of information resources between the college and the
community. It is my responsibility
as the depository librarian to determine how government
information can best be made available
and useful within this local network.
Albion is a private liberal arts college with 1,600 students. We
select 28 percent of the
depository items. There is one other depository library in our
congressional district; Jackson
District Library, an 8 percent selective. However, the Albion
College/Community grant is one of
several grants tied to Calhoun County, and because the Jackson
library is in a different county,
Albion College is the only depository presence in both the local
and countywide networks. As
additional background, the city of Albion has a population of
11,000, and the county population
is 136,000.
We are involved in this collaborative Internet project because
John Kondelik, our library
director, took the time to coordinate the writing of a grant
proposal. We librarians all planned
and wrote, but he saw to it that the parts fit together, and that
we all kept to our writing
schedules.
The overall planning for Internet access and training in our
county has been too shared to be
very efficient. Several groups have received grants, each
providing some part of the necessary
infrastructure or playing a role in Internet access for a
specific group; and all these groups are
involved in the governing body which plans and coordinates the
structure and activities of the
countywide network. Every step seems slow with so many people
making each decision. When
I agreed to speak today, I certainly thought we would be closer
to having the Albion project in
place and complete than we are. A related HUD grant brought
everything to a halt for six
months, and until HUD issues were resolved none of the money
could be spent. The major
Internet groups within the county which I need to keep in mind as
I plan for depository contacts
include:
The Great Lakes FreeNet which provides connectivity throughout
the county by means of e-mail
and bulletin board services.
DIAL, Distance Interaction and Learning, provides a countywide
enhanced fiber optic network.
It includes representatives from the countywide intermediate
school district, libraries, colleges
and universities, and public service agencies. DIAL will fund
interactive studios at high schools
and colleges, will establish distance learning to enrich
secondary education, and will see that
satellite downlinking for teleconferencing is made available.
Albion College is a member of this
group, and I see depository opportunities for distance learning
with classes and demonstrations
about government resources.
CCHIP, the Calhoun County Health Improvement Program, focuses on
health and other public
service agencies, hospitals, government units, and the transfer
of medical and employment
service information. It overlaps somewhat with the Albion
College/Community group,
particularly with respect to the community hospital and
governmental agencies, and I'm not
clear how to best mesh assistance with government information for
this group with support for
the fourth group, the Albion College/Community Project.
This project provides for the enhancement of communications and
educational processes within
and between the community of Albion and Albion College by use of
the Internet. The mission
for Albion College is to provide leadership and a model for
resource sharing within the
community. Clearly, there is a role here for a Federal
depository library. The questions center
on how to best fulfill that role.
The Albion College/Community resource sharing centers on several
groups, the kinds I think one
would expect in most communities:
1) The Chamber of Commerce
2) The community hospital
3) The Volunteer Center
4) City hall
5) Schools
6) The college
7) Libraries, including public, school and college libraries
which will share their databases
using the Z39.50 standard.
No decision has been made about where public access television
will fit into this plan, only that
there will be a spot for it.
I'll briefly mention two somewhat related activities. The Albion
College Library, as a depository
library, has for some time provided Internet access to Federal
publications for patrons who come
to the library for assistance or who connect to our library home
page; I've maintained a
depository home page for some time. However, these services are
much more limited than
those which will be available when the Albion project is in
place.
We are also in the process of adding five years of retrospective
documents cataloging records to
our online catalog as well as ongoing shipping list and MARC
record services. In the past, users
weren't able to tell which publications were in our library
without actually searching through the
collections. With the shared library databases and this
cataloging project, access to the
materials in our depository collection will be improved and the
information will be readily
available to many more people.
Initially the college/community grant provides for three public
access sites for the Internet: the
Albion Public Library, the Volunteer Center and the Chamber of
Commerce. The college isn't
included in this list because we already have Internet access.
Computer equipment and phone
lines are provided at those public sites as is user support. A
Computer Support Coordinator has
been hired to provide leadership for training and the
coordination of these activities. Through
the training it is hoped that we can build a core of local
residents who are knowledgeable about
the Internet and who can take advantage of it.
Each of the community access locations serves unique purposes.
Thus far I've been providing
user guides at the public access sites, the same kinds that I
prepare for students, outlining ways
to search the Internet for government information. I've compiled
instructions outlining the steps
to take to get to the documents home page, and I've recommended
that people use a guide like
Bill Taylor's "GPO Access Searching Tips" which I've listed on
our home page.
At the public library members of the community (rather loosely
defined to include the
surrounding agricultural and residential areas) can sign up for
Great Lakes FreeNet accounts and
passwords. The public library has two computers which can be
used for Internet searches, and
on weekends in particular the sign-up sheets are filled. The
library also provides in-library and
call-in help, provides handouts with computer set-up
instructions, and at cost sells First Class
software for the FreeNet.
In conjunction with this project the Friends of the Public
Library have made a substantial
donation so the public library can provide free Internet classes.
The three-session classes
include information about basic applications, hardware and
software needs, and guidance in
using e-mail and exploring the Internet and the World Wide Web.
These classes have been very
popular; nine series have been given and more are scheduled.
The second site, the Chamber of Commerce, provides an Internet
public access point for small
businesses to encourage economic development and will, at least
initially, serve as a site for
small business home pages. Companies that choose to develop home
pages at the chamber can
transfer them to their own computer equipment when they feel
comfortable with the new
technology.
The Chamber also plans to serve as a site for a consortium of
local businesses where Albion can
be advertised as a business setting and where businesses can also
advertise their employment
needs. Businesses are encouraged to use this site to get the
business news and information they
need.
I think that in addition to popular government sources like
Commerce Business Daily and the
Federal Register, STAT-USA would also be useful, but I don't see
how I can provide depository
access at the Chamber. I understand that STAT-USA needs to make
money, but I also wonder
just where the figurative walls of an electronic depository
library stand.
We've heard this issue raised time and time again this week, and
the position I would like to
take is supported in the Draft Report to Congress which clearly
states in the first goal of the
"Mission and Goals Statement, "...ensure that the public has
equitable, no fee, local access to
Government information."
The Community Volunteer Center will provide the same kinds of
access services for agencies
and community volunteer groups. As at the other two public
access sites, funds will be
available to train people in the use of the Internet, but not for
maintenance or repair of
equipment. It is hoped that in all three locations individuals
will form user groups within the
community; the initiatives funded by the grant are intended to
provide the stimulus to get people
started.
The Community Support Coordinator and I have been working
together to see that Federal
information can be found and used at the public access Internet
sites, and by extension from
personal PCs, as well as in our depository library. There are
community members who simply
don't want to take time to go to the college library to find
government information, so I'm trying
to make the information accessible at locations which are
convenient for them. This is one of
the real benefits of electronic access for users, although it
makes my in-house community user
statistics look rather slim.
I can see that this outreach plan could expand my job as a
depository librarian beyond my
limits. Our Community Support Coordinator is particularly
enthusiastic about having residents e-
mail me questions when they aren't able to find the answers. I
know I'm not the only
depository librarian who already has more responsibilities than I
can keep up with, I've heard
others express the same concern this week. Still, as we become
more electronically connected
to each other I think we will have to be flexible about adapting
if we are to remain relevant. I
certainly haven't worked out all the implications, and I'd like
to hear what other librarians think
about the issues these potential changes raise.
[ Back to the Table of
Contents
]
.Internet as a Shared Community/Library
Experience in Michigan
Carolyn Price
Flint Public Library
Flint, MI
FLINT PUBLIC LIBRARY COMMUNITY NETWORKING CENTER
The Vision
The Director of the Flint Public Library and the Michigan
Mideastern Library Cooperative
collaborated on the best way to provide the Flint community with
the state of the art networked
digital information. Together the ideas of these individuals
helped create the living Internet
laboratory at the Flint Public Library.
Funding
The following organizations participated in the funding of the
Internet lab at our library:
University of Michigan School of Library and Information Science
Crystal Ed Project, W.K.
Kellogg Foundation, Apple Library of Tomorrow Project, Flint
Public Library, Mideastern
Michigan Library Cooperative, Library of Michigan, and the
Community Stabilization and
Revitalization Project.
.Training
The training syllabus included advanced strategies for effective
use of e-mail, mastery of various
protocols such as Gopher, WAIS, and FTP. The librarians
identified projects with local focus to
practice their new skills. The production and mounting of their
projects on the WWW was the
end result. The projects included local recycling information,
local government officials, local
resources of funding for small business, and sources of financial
aid on a local level.
Accomplishments
Thirty librarians trained in the use of Internet, volunteers
trained to assist patrons on use of
Internet, development of an information infrastructure at the
library necessary for WWW access.
[ Back to the Table of
Contents
]
.FinanceNet and U.S. Business Advisor
Glynis Long
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
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