Got Oklahoma Gov't Info?

Since August I've been spending my Monday evenings at the OU SLIS instructing graduate students on Government Information.

Since this is my first time teaching the course I can only hope the students are getting as much out of it as I am (for the record - I'm really enjoying it). If their Mid Term is any indication they are at least discovering a few things. They've been working on a wiki project for ALA/GODORT

GODORT provides a forum for the discussion of problems and concerns and for the exchange of ideas among librarians working with government documents...

The project is the State Agency Databases

In every US State and the District of Columbia, agencies are creating databases of useful information - information on businesses, licensed professionals, plots of land, even dates of fish stocking. Some of this content is available on search engines, but much of it is part of the invisible web.

In any event, no resource we're aware of has tried to pull together all publicly accessible state agency databases until now....

The OU SLIS class has been collecting the entries for the Oklahoma Page.

The finds include everything Oklahoma related - Lottery numbers, Doctor inqueries, County Accessor information, and the list goes on. The Mid Term work is due next week Monday by midnight -- but I think you will agree with a little less than a week left they've compiled an impressive list of state databases available to the public.

I'll mentioned this project to the Oklahoma State Webmanagers Group yesterday, during the meeting at ODL. They seemed interested to know if all their hard work is actually able to be located by the public. What do you think?

New Members of Museum and Library Services Board Confirmed - Okie among them

The U.S. Senate on May 25 confirmed three presidential nominees to serve as members of the National Museum and Library Services Board, which advises the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The 24-member board includes the director and deputy directors of IMLS, the chair of the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, and 20 presidentially appointed members of the general public.

* Lotsee Patterson, Ph.D., professor in the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Oklahoma, whose research interests focus on library and information services to indigenous populations. She has received the Oklahoma Library Association’s Distinguished Service Award and has been honored by the American Library Association for her work with tribal libraries and for recruiting and mentoring American Indian librarians.

Nominations needed

Shari C sends out this request.

The Alumni Association of the OU School of Library and Information Studies is seeking nominations for the 2007 Outstanding Alumni Award.

Award criteria are:
• An M.L.I.S. degree from the University of Oklahoma School of Library and Information Studies
• An active interest in the School by the nominee AND/OR
• An effective and innovative contribution to the library profession by the nominee AND/OR
• Contributions to the professional literature by the nominee.

The recipient’s name will be engraved on a plaque kept in the OU School of Library and Information Studies. A certificate of award will be presented to the recipient, and a $50 donation to the Irma Tomberlin Scholarship Fund will be made in the name of the recipient.

Submit the name of your nominee for Outstanding OU School of Library and Information Studies Alumnus along with documentation addressing the above criteria to Shari. Nominations must be received by March 20, 2007.

Thank you for your help in locating an outstanding alumnus to honor!