GODORT Midwinter Committee Updates

Find below recaps provided by committee chairs of their committees’ meetings at the 2024 GODORT Midwinter Meetings, held virtually the week of January 8.

Awards

The awards committee met to review numerous impressive nomination materials. A full panel of GODORT awardees were selected.

Conference

The Conference Committee meeting’s primary focus was on selecting an appropriate venue for the 2024 GODORT Award Reception, considering multiple options. In an effort to minimize costs, the committee explored potential sponsorships to support the reception. Additionally, a thorough review of the Policies and Procedures Manual (PPM) was conducted to identify any sections requiring updates. The meeting encapsulated discussions ranging from venue selection strategies to financial considerations and procedural revisions within the PPM.

Development

At the meeting, the Development Committee finalized the data request for the creation of an aggregated demographic profile of GODORT membership. This is for use in the media kit/sponsorship solicitations that the committee will complete this year. The committee also worked on Preservation Grant information for potential donors.

Education

The GODORT Education Committee met virtually on Thursday, January 11, 2024, at noon CST. Committee members provided working group updates about Sunshine Week, the GODORT Advocacy Plan, and the GODORT Voter and Elections Toolkit. Several state Voter and Election Lib Guides require updates. More information regarding states in need of editors will be posted on the GODORT Homepage of ALA Connect after February 1, 2024. The committee will provide further updates on their work at their next virtual meeting, scheduled for March 8, 2024, at noon CST.

Government Information for Children (GIC)

The Government Information for Children’s Committee discussed the creation of a new History Day Guide and is currently seeking volunteers to assist with the project. This guide will be an expansive guide for History Day and will discuss archives, have a page for each state, and more. Volunteers do not need to be a member of GODORT to assist with the History Day Guide. In addition, the GIC is exploring ways to promote government information for children through participating in webinars or other presentations. We also continue to monitor and update our current guides.

Legislation

The Legislation Committee hosted Gavin Baker, Deputy Director of ALA’s Public Policy and Government Relations Office, who gave a presentation about the work of that office, including Gavin’s own involvement with issues related to government publications, the Federal Depository Library Program, ALA’s Committee on Legislation (COL). Prior to this year, there was a Government Information Subcommittee within the COL. However, it sunsetted last year. The current Chair of COL, Ed Garcia, created a liaison position between COL and GODORT. Lisa Pritchard will serve in this position through 2025. The Legislation Committee recommended to the Steering Committee that the FDLP Advocacy Plan for GODORT be updated to reflect the recent changes made to the program by the Government Publishing Office and offered to create draft language for consideration.

Program

Reported that two GODORT-supported program proposals for ALA 2024 Annual were not accepted by the ALA Juries, but that one of those proposals is expected to be supported as a GODORT Chairs Program per our PPM. Some good discussions took place on a number of questions: what kinds of program formats are preferred in light that some may have limitations in attending conferences, having more broad programs on government information resources that would appeal to more than just government information specific librarians.

Publications

The GODORT Publications Committee held its public midwinter meeting on January 8, 2024, during which updates were delivered and new projects for the upcoming year were discussed. Jennifer Castle, editor of DttP: Documents to the People, reported that the Winter issue was released, and the Spring issue is underway. The DttP editorial team also celebrated the recent publication of Occasional Paper #10: Presidential Task Force on Missing and Murdered American Indians and Alaska Natives Publications, 2020-2021 by Elizabeth Sanders. The editor of the Notable Documents Panel, Emily Alford, submitted a report that numerous volunteers have offered to serve on the judging panel this year. The list of selected Notable Documents will likely be included in the print and digital June issues of Library Journal. Finally, the Publications Committee is completing the search for a new DttP editor, and the final selection will be announced in the Spring. Proposed new projects include: creating a published list of all previous Notable Documents, petitioning the Directory of Open Access Journals to include DttP, and the creation of a new monograph-length guide to citing government information.

Rare & Endangered

The major discussion item at the Rare and Endangered Government Publications Committee meeting focused on the need to easily identify item-level holdings data for historic government serials. In the current depository landscape—notably as GPO moves to a Digital-first depository program where the number of print titles and the number of copies of the print titles will decrease—it will be important to easily locate holdings data. The main action items for REGP’s future meetings will be to (1) identify tools or sites (such as the GPO Preservation Steward Partnership and ASERL Center of Excellence Collections pages) with item-level or holdings statements from libraries with extensive runs of print government serials titles, and (2) link these sources at the committee’s At-Risk guide. The committee will also look for opportunities to align historic titles with the new GODORT Preservation Grant.

Social Media & Outreach

The GODORT Social Media & Outreach Committee was excited to launch its new Instagram account (@godort_ala) this past November—now featured as a widget on the homepage of the GODORT website thanks to the GODORT Technology Committee. During this committee’s Midwinter meeting, attendees discussed the possibilities of leveraging Instagram (both posts and stories) to reach out to library professionals who might not already be familiar with GODORT, friends of GODORT, and those generally interested in the world of government information and data (and related news). Also discussed was how GODORT socials can be used as a channel to not only talk about GODORT-centric matters, but to also promote, advertise, and share stories about the variety of government information-related events, projects, and initiatives happening at GODORT members’ workplaces and respective communities. Lots of social media content suggestions were talked about including but not limited to: the Voting and Election Toolkit, state agency databases, resurfacing older DttP articles.

Federal Information Interest Group (FIIG)

The Federal Information Interest Group (FIIG) meeting included a presentation by Scott Matheson, the Superintendent of Documents and Cindy Etkin of the Government Publishing Office (GPO) in which they shared information on the future state of the federal depository library program, updates on the limited print distribution framework and national collection service area model, as well as general GPO and Library Services and Content Management (LSCM) updates.

State & Local

In August and December the interest group met along with the State Documents Collaborative Group. Recordings can be found at https://godort.libguides.com/c.php?g=1035038&p=9498572.

Mid-year meeting was a discussion of possible topics for 2024 meetings.