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38 DttP 8 (2010)
Government Calculators: What Are They Worth to you

handle is hein.journals/dttp38 and id is 58 raw text is: Get to Know ... Get to Know ... Chella Vaidyanathan Julia Stewart Maintaining access to depository government documents housed within academic libraries has become a struggle for some deposi- tory coordinators and government information librarians. When weeding and space issues are men- tioned regularly at administrative library meetings in all types of libraries, and when most 18 to 23-year-old patrons are leery of any print document over ten pages long, this struggle can seem insurmountable. But Chella Vaidyanthan, United States government and international documents librarian at the University of Miami, has found a way to open the door to accessing government documents by students and other patrons by creating research guides, or LibGuides, accessible through her library's homepage. I have been creating research guides, or LibGuides, since 2008, said Vaidyanthan. With my guides, I am able to easily show students and faculty how to subscribe to blogs and RSS feeds, or how to find YouTube channels from federal or inter- national organizations. The guides are dynamic in nature, and patrons can easily contact me with questions. Patrons, espe- cially college students, like that the information is available 'at their fingertips' through clicking on links. Providing access to documents that were otherwise unknown to patrons has been the biggest benefit, according to Vaidyanthan. Most students and faculty at the University of Miami want to use recent government documents that focus on contemporary events. Since several current collections are available online, patrons can rely more heavily on links that I provide on the guides. Particularly, students and faculty find the declassified documents, Congressional Research Service reports, Central Intelligence Agency reports, and Government Printing Office Access resources very useful. According to Vaidyanthan, teaching patrons how to use the guides has been an excellent way to increase awareness about government documents on the University of Miami campus. I regularly integrate government information into my library instruction sessions for history and politi- cal science, or whenever it is appropriate or relevant to the course content. Because government documents are cross- disciplinary, I have been able to team teach with other subject 8 DttP: Documents to the People Summer 2010 librarians. Particularly, I have team taught many classes with my colleague, Mei Mendez, the International Studies and Latin American and Caribbean Studies librarian. I have also team taught for the School of Communication, the Master of International Administration program, the Department of Psychology, the School of Education, and the African- American Studies Program. The time it takes to create a research guide can vary. Guides can be course-specific or theme-specific, said Vaidyanthan. It took about a week to create my first research guide. Now it doesn't take that long to create a new one-at the most, a day or two depending on my other library duties. Plus, I spend an hour or so every month to fix the broken links on my guides. What will research guides look like in the future? I think that research guides should become more interactive, like wikis. I can easily see the guides serving as a platform that incorporates Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, and other social net- working sites to disseminate government information. Chella's most current research guides to a wide range of government information resources can be accessed through the URLs listed below: . Federal Government Information-libguides.miami.edu/ federalgovernmentinformation . Florida State Documents-libguides.miami.edu/ floridastatedocuments . International Documents and NGO Resources-libguides .miami.edu/internationaldocumentsandngoresources Federal Documents Focus Government Calculators: What Are They Worth to You? Rebecca Hyde and Lucia Orlando We all know that the U.S. government produces a voluminous amount of high-quality information-an amount that can be overwhelming and confusing for the average person. However, in the current age of interactivity, many government agencies are striving to make their data and information more mean- ingful and accessible to everyone. A prime example is online calculator tools that allow anyone to interact with government resources in new and helpful ways. There is an astonishing

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