Teaching U.S. Govt. & International Docs

Library Instruction Sessions: U.S. Govt. & International Docs. Chella Vaidyanathan

History, Political Science, and U.S. Government &

International DocumentsUniversity of Miami

LibrariesALA Conference, June 2008

Why Teach About Documents?

• Highly valuable sources of information• Teaches critical thinking and evaluation• Issues of global concern – global

warming, human rights, drug trafficking, etc

• Interdisciplinary nature of information • Recent information is available• Available for free

Discipline Specific Uses: History, Political Science, International Studies, & Latin American Studies

• Primary source materials• Legislative history • Domestic and public policy issues• Hot international issues • Concerns of present administration• Government viewpoints • Introduction to American and

international governments

Few Examples from U.S. Govt.

• The National Security Archive – http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/

• Central Intelligence Agency – http://www.foia.cia.gov/special_collections.asp

• U.S. Department of State – http://www.state.gov/

• U.S. Agency for International Development – http://www.usaid.gov/

• The White House – http://www.whitehouse.gov/• World War II – http://worldwar2.smu.edu/• Library of Congress –

http://www.loc.gov/library/libarch-digital.html• Foreign Relations of the United States –

http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/FRUS/

International Examples• United Nations – http://www.un.org/english/• Portals to the World: Library of Congress –

http://www.loc.gov/rr/international/portals.html• The World Bank – http://www.worldbank.org/• Asian Development Bank – http://www.adb.org/• Europa: Gateway to the European Union – http://

europa.eu/index_en.htm• Inter-American Development Bank –

http://www.iadb.org/• Organization of American States –

http://www.oas.org/main/english/• OPEC Online Library –

http://www.opec.org/library/

Starting Points• GPO Access – http://www.gpoaccess.gov/• USA.gov – http://www.usa.gov/• Open CRS – http://opencrs.com/• GODORT Handout Exchange and Clearing House

– http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/godort.html• U.S. Government Accountability Office –

http://www.gao.gov/• Foreign Governments: Northwestern University –

http://www.library.northwestern.edu/govinfo/resource/internat/foreign.html

• Foreign Governments: University of Michigan – http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/foreign.html

Promoting Use of Documents

• Marketing e-mails to faculty• Word of mouth publicity by faculty• Workshops on government documents• Team-teach with other subject

librarians• Present at departmental meetings • Student spokesperson• Research consultations• Reaching local community users• Exhibits

Results at the University of Miami Libraries

• Increased visibility of documents collection

• Research consultations – approximately 177

• Course-related instruction sessions – approximately 70