SECRETS OF THE SUPER SEARCHERS

Chris Brown is the Government Documents Coordinator at the University of Denver and the author of Mastering United States Government Information: Sources and Services.

Getting started with government information searching;

• Limit to a domain by adding "site:.gov" to a search. Keep in mind that the federal government also uses .com (usps), .mil. .us, and .org at times, and some states/cities use ".gov".
• Make a list of what government agencies would care about the question, then search that particular agency- e.g., "site:dea.gov".
• Use data catalogs to get started- what stats are being collected by who- data.gov, census.data.gov (used to be American Factfinder), etc. 
• Hathitrust has a catalog of historical statistics from 1925.
•  Guide to U.S. Government Publications (known as Andriot) can help you find old SuDoc stems.
• Historical Statistics of the United States.
• Statistical Programs of the United States Government.
• MetaLib

Although most government information is online, some things are hard to search for. It may be best at times to refer patrons to paid databases that make searching easier. The University of Minnesota has the following, which patrons should be able to search in person:

• Historical Statistics of the United States Online- newer stats than the print version and more search options.
• ProQuest Congressional- allows you to search both congressional and executive publications.
• ProQuest Legislative Insight- the best for searching for legislative history- every bill version, all Congressional Record references in full text, reports (legislative intent), hearings, committee prints, presidental signing statement.
• HeinOnline - makes it easy to get to Congressional records.

Specific questions:

• How do you find grandpa's census records?
• A:  Only the Census data is available as government information. Census data is the collected info, records are the individual forms- the latter you can only see up to 1940 for privacy reasons- you have to have Ancestry Library or something similar.
• How do you find old federal regulations before they started publishing the Federal Register in 1936?
• A:Search Andriot for SuDoc stems or try the Monthly Catalog of US Government Publications (goes back to 1895).
• How do you search for legislative history?
• A: If you don't have the ProQuest databases, hard to find. The last page of each public law has a brief legislative history. Public law libraries may also have resources. The Legislative Reference Library has legislative history for State of Minnesota laws. 
• How do you find patents?
• A: Pre-1976 patents are not full-text in uspto.gov- have to search Google Patents. 
• How do you search the National Archives?
• A: There are two ways- the National Archive catalog- find out where the records are-and the Access to Archival Databases- search in specific collections by name- find famous people, relatives.
• How do I find if a building is in the National Register of Historic Places? 
• A: https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nationalregister/database-research.htm#table
• How do I find government web sites that no longer exist? 
• A:  Use the Wayback Machine or End of Term Web Archive.

 

• Webinar recording
• Slides

--Andrea H. @GLCL

SECRETS OF THE SUPER SEARCHERS II: STATISTICAL BOOGALOO

Susanne Caro of  New Mexico State Library shares her tips and tricks for statistic searching with federal government web sites.

Susanne's go-to sources for statistics:

• The Census 
• Congressional Research Service reports-good for background info.
• Historical Statistics of the United States- if you need to go back in time a ways.
• Statistical Programs of the US Government- somewhat a replacement for Statistical Abstracts, which is no longer being published by the government (ProQuest has a paid version)-a place to find out what department collects which stats. 

Strategy questions before you get started:

• What agencies have the info?
• What level of info do I need?
• How far back do I need to go?
• What tool will point me in the right direction?
• Can I contact the agency for questions ? (Usually you can)
• What limits are there to access?

Tips and tricks:

• Look at the reports that come with the statistics for context.
• Terms change -e.g., the term STEM was created in the 2000s. Questions asked and the way data is collected also change.
• If you are not sure, contact the agency to confirm what data is available.
• Make sure to check what is NOT included!
• Statistics may no longer be collected due to budget cuts. Only the Census, which is required by the Constitution, will never be cut.
• Look for a codebook or other area that defines terms- each agency may have different terminology- e.g. "educational attainment" for what degrees people have.
• Check what dates are covered.
• You may have to combined tables to get your data-e.g. if you want vaccination rates by political alignment, combine 1 table vaccination rates and 1 table with political party affiliation.
• URLs are often standardized so you can change the year in the URL for another year's data.
• Keep in mind "point of view"-e.g., EPA will deal with pesticides as an environmental problem, USDA as an expense for farmers. 

Some of Susanne's favorite web sites:

• FRED- a lot of great economic data.
• BEARFACTS- personal income and gross domestic product.
• NCES DataLab- a lot of ways to combine educational statistics (requires free registration).
• Data.gov- large number of searchable datasets- just the data with no reports for context.
• Census Bureau Upcoming Releases-- check what datasets are coming soon to census.gov.
• OMB Historical Tables- past budgets of the United States.
• Bureau of Labor Statistics- economic and employment data.
• CDE- Crime data.

Whether or not you watch the webinar recording, you can get good practice by downloading the slides and trying some of the searches. The handout has a list of what departments collect which statistics.

• Webinar recording
• Slides
• Handout
• Recording of part 1 of the series

--Andrea H. @GLCL

Creating a Personal Archiving Program and Do-It-Yourself Memory Lab for Library Patrons

Heather Zbinden (hzbinden@cals.org) works for the Central Arkansas Library System serving Little Rock, AR and environs.  The memory lab she works in is part of their genealogy library.  They received a grant for a memory lab from IMLS- had to buy certain equipment and have it open to everyone without requiring a library card/ID- got to attend a free memory lab bootcamp.

Why personal archiving/memory lab?

• Papers of regular people can be more important to show how things used to be than those of famous people.
• Patrons like having an expert there to help.
• Precious papers/photos can be lost in natural disasters/fires/etc.

How does the memory lab work?

• All DIY except for a 30-minute training and tech troubleshooting from staff. 
• Room for 2 patrons on photos and 2 patrons on AV
• No digitization of copyrighted materials.
• Have to switch cables when switching formats-done by staff- intake form asks what format.
• Everything is labeled and there are step-by-step instructions.
• Monthly personal archiving program via Zoom- latest version on YouTube.
• Patrons are encouraged, but not required to attend the Zoom or watch the recorded version before their first appointment. 

Memory Lab equipment/software:

• $9000 for equipment for memory lab, mobile lab and Mac Mini computer (also used existing PCs).
• Very high-resolution scanner ($3699)
• Betamax player.
• Book scanner- good for fragile items like scrapbooks
• Black Magic Media Express for video capture.
• Computers wipe all files at night for privacy.
• No editing software- they encourage patrons to use free, open-source software at home.
• No CD/DVD burning, copies are too easy to damage.
• Handbrake to covert video to MP4.
• Portable film scanner- does 110 film.

Some of the equipment was purchased on eBay. They didn't have any luck asking patrons for donations.

Tips for libraries planning a memory lab/personal archiving programs:

• Lighting for the space is very important.
• Use YouTube videos to learn how to hook up equipment.
• Make sure patrons know their appointment will take at least as long as the item takes to play.
• Apple products can be problematic if your IT department isn't used to them. 
• Have a mobile memory lab to take to events for a few hours- can digitize up to 20 items for each patron- photos and documents only, AV takes too long.
• Promote memory lab on social media.
• You may not have to babysit as much as you think you will.
• Staff can learn how to re-house VHS and cassettes. 

Tips for patrons doing personal archiving:

• Don't store items in a humid place.
• Store files in at least 2 digital locations- cloud storage & external hard drive- CDs/DVDs, floppy drives, flash drives are not recommended because they fail too often. 
• Store photos as .jpg no more than 600 dpi.
• Use archival-quality boxes & envelopes for hard copies.
• Organize by creating folders within folders.
• Name your photo files! Be consistent and informative!- e.g. naming photos after facial features, clothes.
• Tag your scans.

Plans for future equipment (would have to find camcorders on eBay or get donations):

• Mini -DVD
• U-matic
• High-8
• Digital-8
• Clearclick video digitizer for a take-home digitization kit.

CALS also has oral history toolkits that can be checked out and Zoom training on doing an oral history. 

Memory lab handout 

Memory lab slideshow

Webinar chat

--Andrea H. @GLCL

CHRONICLING AMERICA: USING HISTORICAL NEWSPAPERS

Chronicling America includes newspapers from 1777-1963. Digital content is submitted via the National Digital Newspaper Program.  State partners choose titles to digitize- not all states have the same dates/amount of content. It includes non-English newspapers.

Digitization is mostly from microfilm- old hard-copy papers are not in good shape. Optical character recognition can be bad for newspapers because original is bad- varies by title. OCR has improved since the project started, so not all newspapers are the same quality. 

Searching tips:

• Browse calendar view to see what dates are available.
• Make sure you have dates and locations in addition to names, especially common names.
• When doing genealogy. think about why your ancestors would be in the newspaper.
• Death notices are not always in the same location. 
• Papers sometimes had neighborhood news columns, but they can be hard to find- different names and locations.
• Stories sometimes use first and middle initials, titles like Mr/Mrs/Dr/Judge/Colonel/Reverend - married women by husband's name, no first name for children.
• Content is always being added, so it's worth it to check back. 
• There is a clipping tool to just print/save the article you want.
• Click "Text" to download text- can put in a translation tool to get a rough translation.
• May have to use older terminology--e.g. "suffrage" vs "women's rights".
• Check a couple days after an event happens to see how a story evolves. 
• Political cartoons are hard to find-hand-written text that OCR can't read, or no text- helps if you know cartoonists names- contact LOC, they have staff who can help.
• Topic guides are available. 
• Each newspaper has a title essay with information about the paper. 

Future plans:

• Correcting old OCR.
• Creating a way to search all African-American newspapers at once.

Subscribe via email or RSS to learn about training, recently added titles, and more.

Remember, newspapers are the "first draft of history" and are great primary sources for History Day and other research. A recording is available on using historical newspapers for History Day. 

A recording of this webinar is available here.

Links from the Q & A are here.

--Andrea H. @GLCL

Fix-it, Repair, and Recycle Programs at your Library

Webinar presented by Erin Gray (gray@amigos.org), Library Services and Technology Trainer, Amigos Library Services. 

"Right to repair" is a global movement to have greater access to parts and tools to fix things around the house and avoid waste, including tools and manuals used by manufacturers. More and more states are considering right to repair laws. Fix-it clinics are a way for libraries to be part of this movement.

Fixit resources:

• Ifixit- repair guides, answers forum, teardowns of trending gadgets
• Repair.org
• Repair Cafe-ready to go guides on how to get started with fixit events, attract volunteers, etc.
• Fixit Austin--samples of forms, supplies, signage, volunteer recuitment tips, etc. for your own fixit clinic
• Fix-it DC- coaches and training centers

Types of fixit clinics:

• All-day fixit fair
• Series of workshops
• Specific focus- clothes, bicycles, even coffee!
• Patrons drop-off items
• Patron and volunteers work together to fix items
• Take-apart or teardown programs
• Pop-up events offsite

Clinic tips:

• Let patrons know what items will and will not be accepted.
• Partner with local fixit organizations or tool libraries.
• if you have the capacity, record clinics for patrons to learn from later.
• Let patrons know if there are limits. Some clinics limit to one item per person.
• Have sign-up sheets for volunteers.
• Promote your home repair collections, whether books, databases, or kits.
• Create a directory of your volunteer fixers to promote local businesses.

Handout is here.

-Andrea H. @GLCL

PLAY MAKE LEARN CONFERENCE, DAY 2

 

 

Keynote by Cassidy Puckett:

 

The stereotype is you are born a geek, but that’s not true, everyone can learn. What does it mean to be good at technology?

Five habits key to learning:

·         Being willing to fail- celebrate failure loudly and use it to get better

·         Being able to manage frustration

·         Using other people as models

·         Understanding design logic

·         Creating efficiencies- understanding that there are short and long pathways and figuring out shortcuts--e.g., keyboard commands

 

These habits exist in every group but are not being recognized. Black and female computer pioneers are forgotten. Telling people that they are good with tech can help. We need everyone’s ideas in these trying times.

 

Escape Rooms for Education:

Kari Kozak of University of Iowa created a virtual escape room called “Capture the Creature” to teach undergrads about Library of Congress. It was presented as a live event on Zoom.

 

Escape room creation:

·         Made a storyboard

·         Set up clues and hints in a virtual world

·         Used Wordpress for the web site

·         Used VYOND for video creation

·         Used Libanswers to answer chat questions

·         Hired a voice actor for the voiceover from the theater department

·         Created a fake library record and put it on Google Sites

·         Pre-trained three helpers for breakout rooms- sometimes hard to get people who don’t know each other to work together

·         Had an exit survey

 

They will do it in person next time with a fake physical book.

 

Improving Equity in Makerspaces:

 

Abigail Phillips, UW-Milwaukee, former public librarian, received a grant from IMLS to improve accessibility in makerspaces.

 

Key takeaways:

·         Disabilities can be visible or invisible

·         Reading off the slides for a presentation is more accessible

·         Libraries need to hear from the disability community

·         Offer ASL interpreters and speech-to-text

·         Create a focus group

·         Have a variety of desks and chair options- stools do not accommodate all bodies

·         Create new relationships- once word is out in the community, more and more will come

·         Vet the library web site for accessibility

·         Think of different events for different communities-e.g. pottery for the visually impaired.

 

We can use making as a way toward social inclusion--disabled patrons are often isolated. It is about welcoming them to the space, not giving them a “ticket” to the dominant culture.

 

Social Emotional Learning in Maker Education:

 

BitSpace is a youth-only makerspace in Chicago that uses the CASEL framework for learning.

 

CASEL principles:

·         Use setbacks as part of learning

·         Help students increase frustration tolerance

·         Focus on the experience with your questions, not results

·         Create random pairings

·         Give groups social structure - e.g., engineer, designer, draftsman, observer/notetaker, etc.

·         Create space for appreciation and acknowledgments at the end

PLAY MAKE LEARN CONFERENCE, DAY 1

 

Here are some highlights from day one of the 2022 Play Make Learn conference in Madison, Wisconsin.

 

Making Making Happen:

 

The Peoria Playhouse is a children’s museum in Illinois that includes a makerspace for teaching tool literacy. The National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium is in Dubuque, Iowa with a makerspace open to visitors all museum hours.

Makerspace tips:

·         Have a great advisory board

·         Ask for help!

·         Passive activities are great- encourage patrons to self-explore with open-ended questions

·         Cast a wide net when looking for staff- skills, not degrees

·         To help patrons be creators and explorers, staff need to see themselves as creators and explorers - give staff a chance to learn & work on projects

·         Makers in the Library has a good toolkit

·         Maker Ed offers professional development for makerspace staff

 

Building with the Bauhaus:

 

The Bauhaus was an art school in Germany in the early 20^th Century. Its principles are much like the makerspace movement today.

Bauhaus principles:

·         Materials should be chosen for their function- form follows function

·         Union of art and craft

·         Students and teachers learn from each other

·         Peer to peer learning and problem solving

·         Learn how materials behave before creating, then create your own thing--everyone doesn’t have to have the same outcome

 

Sarah Nagle used these principles when creating the makerspace at Miami University in Ohio.

 

Maker-centered learning:

·         Shift from consumer to creator--students think about how things are designed--how they can make things better

·         Empowerment and civic-mindedness --e.g global makerspace community creating COVID protection, 3D printed prosthetics

·         Intro maker activities for students who don’t know what to make in the makerspace--introduces them to materials

·         Bauhaus-inspired exercises

 

Transformed Reality: Using VR to create empathetic soft skill training:

 

DePaul University created trauma-informed virtual-reality training for members of law enforcement interviewing sexual assault victims.

 

Advantages of VR training:

·         Cost effective

·         Can be accessed remotely

·         Easy to customize

·         Can’t be distracted by emails when wearing a headset

·         More emotional connection

·         Users were more confident applying lessons

·         Low-stakes environment --can say what you think without being judged

·         Victims aren’t re-traumatized by going through their experiences

·         Can create a wide variety of scenarios

 

VR training tips:

·         Many narrative choices make the experience more real – mind mapping tools like Mind Meister

·         At least 3 paths: best, mixed, bad--write the good path first

·         Have a table read

·         CoPilot Designer good for software- can also do browser-based if user doesn’t have VR access

·         Meta Quest 2 for headsets-wireless – requires a Facebook account

 

Creative Collaborations with Cardboard: Developing community informed maker events

The Science Museum of Minnesota was looking for a way to attract more diverse families. They had to think outside the box, as it is hard to get satisfaction surveys from people who don’t use the museum.

 

BIPOC family listening sessions:

·         Gave families wearable GoPro cameras to use as they went through the museum and then had a conversation with the family

·         Partnered with community organizations like American Indian Family Center, Phyllis Wheatley Community Center, Hmong American Partnership, St. Paul Promise Neighborhood

·         Asked what is preventing families from attending- families wanted transit help, translation- didn’t want to tell museum what activities to have

·         Closed building to the rest of the public and provided a meal

 

Results:

·         Created cardboard city maker activity

·         had attendees take polaroid pictures and add “today I made”, “What is it?” “I make _at home” “I am _ years old”- hung it on laundry line

·         Joined cohort of 3 other museums for in-house events and pop-ups

 

Presenters:

·         Nora Beckemeyer

·         Laura Geake

·         Robby Callahan Schreiber

PLAYfest 2021 Virtual Conference

 

PLAYfest 2021 — The Playful Learning Lab

Playfest was a 2-day virtual conference that included short talks from interesting people, "hands on" workshops, and discussion groups. In one of the promotions for the conference it said: "The goal is to provide a joyful, whimsical experience, with a few surprises, and lots of new people and ideas." It is difficult to describe the conference since it was so varied to give participants a chance to explore new topics and ideas. Participants and speakers tuned into PLAYfest from around the world. There were people from New York, India, England, South Africa, etc. 

Speakers covered many different topics including: children's museums,  Wakanheza, zoom movies, LEGOs, robotics, OK GO music group, marine biology, data analysis, history of children's toys, deaf theater, sleep science, etc. 

Here are some of the takeaways from the speakers.

Sarah Fornace: Manual Cinema Manual Cinema 

A company based out of Chicago makes live zoom silent films, with props made of paper. When making online live movies think about perspective, scale, and play with camera angles and props to change perspectives and create different movie shots. Magic can happen (even live magic!) without expensive materials.

Jess Turgeon: 

Wahkanza (we have talked about this in SPPL but it is a good reminder). Joy and learning can't happen if parents feel judged and like they don't have any power. Example if a child is having a tantrum don't have staff just stand nearby. If they do, they become part of the group of people staring at the family making the parent feel judged and uncomfortable. Empathize, say things like "This happens all the time" or find ways to help the parent feel that they are not a bad parent for their child having a tantrum. Expectations about being a parent in a public place and 'controlling' their children are unrealistic. Keep the basics of Wakanheza in mind at all times; joy can't happen when parents feel judged and if we can help step in before caregivers "lose their power," we can create more peaceful, welcoming communities.

John Goodwin: LEGO Foundation: The LEGO Foundation: Frontpage

LEGO Foundation: 6-piece LEGO build-a-duck challenge Build a Duck – LEGO Engineering

Give everyone the same 6 LEGO pieces and have everyone build a duck. They will be so different and the challenge is pretty stress free. This was partly to show how everyone has a different perspective. This could be a fun icebreaker in future meetings. 

John Goodwin from the LEGO Foundation also talked about the importance of social-emotional learning and the characteristics of playful learning: joyful, socially interactive, actively engaging, iterative, and meaningful. Children learn through playing, and from 2020, we have learned we need to be agile--and not to have prefixed ideas in our minds but be willing to have learning opportunities in any environment. The presentation, in summation: 1- there is a need for us to continue to think in an agile way, 2- continue to bring creativity into learning opportunities, 3- continued focus on social-emotional learning--prior to covid, there was too much focus on regurgitation of knowledge. There are a lot of different activities where children can learn through playing at home that are posted on the LEGO website here: Fun learning activities & educational activities for kids - Playlist (legofoundation.com)

Helen Leigh: Helen Leigh (@helenleigh_makes) • Instagram photos and videos

Hardware Hacker-Robotics (a self-taught individual who "made things do what they weren't designed to do originally"): intentionally making imperfect robots/creations takes a lot of pressure off kids to create their own masterpieces. It makes them say "I can do that!" and encourages creativity. The gist was that joy can be brought into unexpected places. Imperfection brings joy; it is an incredible tool and a wonderful hook for kids to go on and improve what you have made. 

Band: OK Go

OK Go Soundbox is a collaboration between the Playful Learning Lab at St. Thomas and the band OK Go. On the OK Go Sandbox Website, they have lesson plans and videos that show all the math and science and creativity that went into creating the OK Go music videos that are so popular on YouTube. There is also an option for anyone to submit artwork or music that will become part of OK Go's new music video. More information here: OK Go Sandbox

George Matsumoto: https://www.go-bgc.org/outreach/adopt-a-float 

GO-BGC is looking for teachers and classrooms to partner with them by adopting a float. The floats are devices that will be shipped throughout the world's oceans. Floats are devices that collect data about oceans and climates and sends the data to be collected. The classrooms can name the float and decorate it. It's all free and they will come to your classroom and explain how it works. All the data is public. Adopt-a-Float | GO-BGC (go-bgc.org)

Jer Thorp: Living in Data | jerthorp 

The question was raised: "are we being too polite with data?" The instructor talked about "data performance" -- how it humanized statistics and allowed for people to use their own experience as an instrument to read data. Some examples: piles of rice were used to represent all people born in the U.S. today as well as all people who will die in the U.S. today. Another example is a map of a city in which kids were instructed to circle "safe places." A redlining map was then placed over that map, which provoked conversation and learning. It ended up being more engaging, participatory, place and play-based, and got people (kids) to pay attention to data who wouldn't normally. 

Roxanne Prichard:  What We Can Learn From Nightmares (thriveglobal.com)

Sleep Science: How we sleep has changed dramatically in the last 100 years with changes in technology (electric lighting, alarm clocks). We used to go to sleep when we were tired and wake up when we naturally woke up. This new sleep situation causes a lot of health problems including anxiety and depression. Also, in this sleep science presentation they discussed Nightmares. Nightmares can be useful. They are a way for the brain to rehearse stressful/dangerous situations. "When’s the last time you ran away from a predator? Still, it’s an important survival skill, and your brain wants make sure the neural circuits are practiced and prepared."

Godwin Morris, Peter Hoh: In the News (dazzlingdiscoveries.com)

You can do a lot with paper, scissors, and tape/glue. Using basic shapes you can build toys, games, whatever you want. Here is link to how to make a roller coaster with newspaper: D.I.Y Roller Coaster Activity - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

A big takeaway from this workshop was that it is best to spend most of the instruction time (with kids especially) on the fundamentals. How to make the basic shapes. Then let them explore. Most of the cases of kids saying, " I don't want to do that" really means " I don't know how to do that". Focusing on the basics helps with that issue and then give very little direction after the fundamentals allows kids to be the most creative. You don't need expensive materials to play.

Shine a Light Then Share it 

A workshop in which different light sources were shone on objects causing interesting shadows to be cast. Participants were prompted to manipulate the lights/objects however they want and to draw the image on paper. The gist of this workshop was that so much is going on in the brain when we are playful and including the five characteristics--this activity involves creative thinking, perspective taking, cognitive flexibility, tolerance for ambiguity, iteration, and tinkering mindset. There is an opportunity for adults: explain after, not before, to avoid limiting exploration. Children do influence adult flexibility and persist less when adults take over. They are not willing to keep trying if they know you can bail them out. Most important: most times we think it's just play, but all the functions of it are so important to illustrate and document the value it brings--the neuroscience behind it.

Write a Postcard and send it to Space

This workshop introduced Club for The Future, a space mail program in which children are encouraged to draw or write their vision for why earth needs space, and mail in a post card with their return address. Club for the Future then launches it on a rocket, sends it to space, and then returns it! Over 50 thousand cards were sent during the last program. Club for the Future is a nonprofit founded by Blue Origin, whose mission is to imagine the future of life in space to benefit earth and to inspire youth to explore STEM careers. The overall goal being engaging kids by inspiring them to dream and learn more about space/STEM.  www.clubforfuture.org

Shawna Young: Scratch Foundation: Scratch Foundation 

This presentation was pretty short, but Scratch is a tool to teach kids programming. The Scratch Jr app is frequently used in classrooms. The Scratch Foundation is launching new software that looks to be a mix between programming and the fun snapchat video filters (ex: giving someone cat ears). More information here:  Scratch Foundation

--Aura S. and Andrea R.