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Veterans, Government Headstones and Markers for Private Cemeteries, and National
Cemeteries. However keyword searches can produce some strange results. On a search for
Kentucky and Free Lunch there were hits such as Kentucky School Breakfast and Lunch
Program and Special Milk Program, but also among the results were National Cemeteries, Tax
Counseling, National Library Service for the Blind, and Gulf War Agent Orange and Ionizing
Radiation Registry Program. There seemed to be no logical reason why these appeared.
Overall, it is a well managed, well organized, and much needed site. GovBenefits.gov should
be the first place users go when searching for information about federal and state government
benefits.
Claudene Sproles
Government Documents Reference Librarian,
Ekstrom Library, University of Louisville,
Louisville, KY 40292, USA
E-mail address: [email protected].
11 July 2005
Government Innovators Network
Visited 4/11/2005. Managed by the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and
Innovation, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, 79 John F.
Kennedy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138. http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/.
The Government Innovators Network, produced by the Ash Institute for Democratic
Governance and Innovation at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, is a portal
aimed at local, state, federal and international government employees Its purpose is to
connect to practitioners with policy makers in order to share information about innovative
methods of governance around the country.
Features include a calendar of events, awards for innovative projects, discussion boards,
expert chats, webcasts and news articles on innovative projects. Rather than just referring to
the newspaper article, they reproduce it in full so that users are not forced to register with
several newspapers in order to obtain comprehensive coverage. The best feature is its
complete coverage of all levels of government. Also, they’ve provided an RSS feed so that
users may get the latest headlines delivered to them rather than having to remember to go
check the site.
While the Government Innovators Network usefulness at the reference would be low, it
appears to be meeting the needs of its intended audience at least in part. The discussion
boards are almost empty, but the calendar events and news articles are up to date and there
have been numerous webcasts.
doi:10.1016/j.giq.2005.07.004
Reviews 147
Amy West
Electronic Government Publications Librarian,
University of Minnesota,10 Wilson Library,
309-19th Avenue South, Minneapolis,
MN 55455-0414, USA
E-mail address: [email protected].
Lobbying for Libraries and Public’s Access to Government Information:
An Insider’s ViewBernadine E. Abbott-Hoduski Lanham, MD: (2003). Scarecrow Press, 2003. v, 289
pp. $39.95 ISBN: 0 8108 4585 7.
Bernadine E. Abbott-Hoduski was there to help found the American Library Association’s
(ALA’s) Government Documents Roundtable (GODORT) in 1972. She was there when
librarians lobbied to get microfiche distributed to the Federal Depository Library Program. She
was there when the Office of Management and Budget was invited to the legislative table to
help reform federal printing and publishing. She participated in brainstorming sessions leading
to the creation of basic bibliographic indexes and databases in government information
librarianship. She was at the table when small changes brought big consequences (when the
Library of Congress began adding Cataloging-in-Publication data to federal documents, when
the Government Printing Office began cataloging government documents using MARC and
AACR2 standards). Abbott-Hoduski has a truly unique perspective as an academic and public
librarian turned Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) librarian, turned long-time Congres-
sional employee and impassioned ALA member. She possesses a Forrest Gump-like ability to
be in the right place at the right time in the library world, not by accident, but rather through
good career decisions and a shrewd sense of who the players are and the causes worth
pursuing. Abbott-Hoduski, hired in 1974 by the US Congressional Joint Committee on
Printing, prepared herself for work in Congress by studying organizational process and
committee structure within ALA. A few years earlier, she had perceived the need for a distinct
ALA roundtable on government documents and successfully petitioned the ALA Council and
the ALA Executive Board for such. It is fortunate for the library community that she has
collected her career memoirs, along with well-considered strategies for lobbying, into a
concise, readable volume.
Lobbying for Libraries has a number of possible audiences. The most satisfied readers
will be those considering initiating policy change at the local, state or federal level, who are
looking for a narrative with plenty of personal anecdotes thrown in. The ideal niche market
would be those seeking a primer in late 20th-century changes in US federal documents
distribution to libraries, as well as the personalities and passions behind those changes.
Throughout her story, the author describes circumstances in which individuals see a problem
or inequity and have to convince others to act. Sometimes the convincing goes smoothly and
doi:10.1016/j.giq.2005.07.006
Reviews148