September 13th, 2007 Brian Herzog
I recently received this announcement in email. Free to public libraries, this is a Federally-produced citizen toolkit, geared to immigrants working towards American citizenship.
September 12, 2007
To: Public Libraries serving New Immigrants/Newcomer Populations
The Task Force on New Americans, a federal interagency effort to help immigrants learn English has developed The Civics and Citizenship Toolkit. This free toolkit is designed to serve as a self-study resource for immigrants but can also be useful for librarians and adult educators in a classroom or community literacy setting. Included in the kit are guides in English and Spanish, Welcome to the United States, that contain a wide range of practical information as well as basic civics information introducing newcomers to the U.S. system of government. Also included are Civics Flash cards for individual study or instructional use and Learn about the United States: Quick Civics lessons. In addition, the kit includes a Citizen’s Almanac and Pocket size Declaration of Independence, copy of the U.S. Constitution and a DVD covering an introduction to U.S. History and Civics.
Interested? Please go to http://www.citizenshiptoolkit.gov/ and register for a FREE copy of the Civics and Citizenship Toolkit.
Eligibility Requirements:
- Registration limited to PUBLIC LIBRARIES ONLY.
- Please DO NOT REGISTER IF YOUR LIBRARY IS PART OF THE FEDERAL DEPOSITORY LIBRARY PROGRAM (FDLP)*. Registration is subject to review to ensure eligibility.
- If eligible, registrants will receive a copy of the Toolkit on a first come, first served basis.
- Resources are limited. Registrants will receive one Toolkit at no charge.
- Registration for the toolkit is now open and will be available while supplies last.
The Toolkit is a joint effort of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the U.S. Government Printing Office.
All questions about the toolkit should be directed to the federal office at the above website.
citizenship, government, immigrant, immigrants, immigration, librarian, librarians, libraries, library, public libraries, public library, resource
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August 28th, 2007 Brian Herzog
& 
This has been kicking around for the last week, but I’m still looking forward to it: NASA and Internet Archive are partnering to digitize and make freely available 50 years of NASA photographs, historic film and video.
The sheer amount of data must be staggering. I can easily see this as being one of the most interesting websites on the internet, but at the same time, it can also be the most boring. Hopefully it will be heavily annotated and have a great search function, so people can find and make sense of what’s there.
A few links about this:
archive, government, internet archive, libraries, library, nasa, space
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December 2nd, 2006 Brian Herzog
About 9:15 a.m. yesterday morning, December 1st, the reference desk phone rings:
Me: Reference desk, can I help you?
Patron: I get my social security check every month on the third except sometimes it comes on the same day as the SSI check and for other people the checks come together if you are disabled instead of retired when the checks come together but this month the third is on a Sunday and my mailbox is a P.O. box in the city next door because I live with my daughter now and whenever the third falls on a Sunday they send the check out on the first which means it comes with the SSI check for the disabled people and it’s quite a drive for me to check my mailbox and I don’t want to go into the city if my check isn’t going to be there and can you tell me if my check is in my mailbox can you do that for me do you understand what I’m asking you?
Me: You’re asking if I can find out the mailing schedule for social security checks?
Patron: No, that’s not what I’m asking you at all see my check always arrives on the third and I want to know if it is in my mailbox before I drive to the city because the third is a Sunday so they usually mail it on the first which is today can you find that out?
Me: Well, I can try, but it might take me a little while. Can I call you back when I find it?
Patron: You don’t know it right now is ten minutes enough I’ll call you back in ten minutes. [click]
Okay, at this point, I’m only about 10% sure I even know what this patron wants, let alone if I’ll be able to find it. And of course, since I’m under a deadline, three patrons all walk to the desk at this point and ask questions.
After helping each of them, I’m back on the case. I can’t remember the URL of the Social Security Administration (which I have since remembered is very cleverly ssa.gov), so I go to Firstgov.gov, search for social security, and the first search result links to http://www.socialsecurity.gov.
Very happily, front and center on their homepage is a “Questions about:” dropdown box, and the third option is “Checks and Payments.” That links to an FAQ, and question two is “When are benefit checks paid?“
This page kind of answers the patron’s question, but I hit real pay dirt when I notice a link for a Schedule of Social Security Benefit Payments 2006. This page turns out to be a calendar, with each day a checks are mailed highlights (taking Sundays into account).
How great is that? Here is a somewhat obscure question, on a topic I knew nothing about, and yet I was able to find the answer on a government website in about 3 clicks. When the patron called back (twenty minutes later), I was able to tell her with confidence that her check should have been mailed that day (but I couldn’t promise it was in her mailbox). And she was happy.
Who says our government is inept?
firstgov.gov, government, patron, reference question, social security
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