Posts Tagged ‘Government Publications’

ETC (Enhancements, Training and Content): Overview and 2010 Update 4

Tuesday, September 7th, 2010

ETC (Enhancements, Training and Content) is an ongoing, multifaceted program that provides Readex customers with one-of-a-kind historical content unavailable online elsewhere. In addition, the ETC program ensures the latest and most useful features and functionality, and provides guidance and suggestions for making the most of your Readex collections. ETC also covers online access and storage support.

Just as Readex is committed to providing its customers with the highest level of ongoing support and maintenance, it is also committed to ensuring that its definitive and comprehensive digital collections continue to grow through the addition of highly relevant new content and features. The ETC program enables you to be certain that you are providing your users and patrons with the most complete and robust digital edition of every Readex collection available at your institution. Through ETC, new content that brings significant enrichment and up-to-date interface functionalities and features will be added periodically. In this manner, ETC will continuously enrich your Readex collections by providing added value and content for your users and patrons for years to come.

The fourth ETC release for 2010 was completed in August and included:

Early American Newspapers: up to 300 additional issues in seven series;

U.S. Congressional Serial Set: House and Senate Journals from 1964, 88th Congress, 2nd Session;

Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Daily Reports, 1974-1996: 25 issues of the Central Eurasia and Soviet Union Report.

Releases will continue throughout 2010 on a bi-monthly basis, including additional content for Early American Newspapers, 1690-1922, U.S. Congressional Serial Set, 1817-1994 and Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Daily Reports, 1974-1996.

America's Historical Imprints

In addition, as of June 30, 2010, Readex’s Early American Imprints, Series I and II and American Broadsides and Ephemera have transitioned to a new America’s Historical Imprints platform that makes searching more productive for novice and experienced users alike. Its intuitive new interface provides more powerful search capabilities, including the ability to simultaneously search the full text or metadata of any combination of two or more of these previously separate collections.

Also as part of this update the image viewer page has also been updated for Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans, 1639-1800 and Early American Imprints, Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker, 1801-1819. This update allows users to drag and position images as well as reset the image view.

Questions or comments? Please feel free to post them here or email me directly at bkolcun@readex.com.

MARC Records for the U.S. Congressional Serial Set and American State Papers

Tuesday, August 10th, 2010

Readex offers MARC records for the documents and reports of the U.S. Congressional Serial Set, 1817-1994 based on the high level of indexing found in the full citations of the Readex digital edition. MARC records are also available for every publication in Readex’s American State Papers, 1789-1838.

To convert its indexing to MARC records, the Readex government publications cataloguing team worked with an expert advisory board that included Terry Reese, Gray Chair for Innovative Library Services, Oregon State University Library; Becky Culbertson, Shared Cataloging Program Manager, California Digital Library; and Leona Faust, Senate Librarian, United States Senate Library. Three sample records are available here.

Sample MARC Records

Readex’s cataloging includes: 

  1. Description, which may include the title, statement of responsibility, edition, material specific details, publication information, series, notes, and standard bibliographic numerical data specific to the Reports, and Documents of the U.S. Congressional Serial Set as well as to the publications of American State Papers.
  2. Main entry (either the “United States Congress. Senate” or “United States Congress. House of Representatives”) and added entries (full official committee name).
  3. Subject headings, based on the following authorities:
    1. Legislative Indexing Vocabulary of the Congressional
    2. Research Service of the Library of Congress
    3. Library of Congress Subject Headings
    4. United States Congressional Biographical Directory for names of Senators and Representatives
    5. Getty Thesaurus of Geographical Names.

For the duration of the U.S. Congressional Serial Set, 1817-1994 project, new catalog records are added quarterly to our MARC Records portal.

MARC records currently available include:

American State Papers: covering the 1st through 25th Congresses (1789-1838): 6,278 records

U.S. Congressional Serial Set: covering the 15th through 98th Congresses (1817-1984): 353,240 records.

HMS Titanic and Deepwater Horizon: Lessons of Limited Liability Lost to History

Thursday, August 5th, 2010

The Titanic (AP)

Nearly a century after the Titanic struck an iceberg and sank, scientists are planning to revisit the site of the wreckage in mid-August with today’s most powerful imaging technology. Expedition leaders hope to create a three-dimensional map of the Titanic remains and surrounding area. From a forensic perspective, this upcoming expedition will focus on the decay of the ship’s structure caused by deep ocean currents, salt water and the intense pressure. According to David Gallo, an expedition leader and Woods Hole scientist, the team is “actually treating it like a crime scene.”

In a 1912 speech before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Senator Isidor Rayner could not have agreed more with Gallo’s approach. The Committee on Commerce had been directed by (62) S.Res. 283 to investigate the causes of the disaster in its immediate aftermath. The U.S. Congressional Serial Set contains over 1,100 pages of testimony taken during the investigation by survivors of and eyewitnesses to the Titanic disaster.

From their testimony we discover numerous incidents of potential negligence and overconfidence by Titanic officers and crew that may have contributed to its sinking and the subsequent loss of life. However, it was the lack of recourse for survivors and the families of those who perished that seemed to most anger Rayner.

Speaking to the committee, the senator framed the discussion in terms of what has been a perennial issue in American politics, the relationship between powerful corporations, in this case shipping lines, and individuals. In terms of the limited liability of shipping lines he said,

From the U.S. Congressional Serial Set

Rayner not only argued that the potential benefits of granting economic incentives such as limited liability to industry are outweighed by the potential cost to the public at large but went on to say,

From the U.S. Congressional Serial Set

Nearly 100 years after the sinking of the Titanic—billed as the most technologically advanced ship of her timethe notion of limited liability for certain industries and corporate responsibility has resurfaced. Mere months after the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon and subsequent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, we are left to wonder if the lessons referred to by Senator Rayner have been lost to history.

Announcing the Winners of the 2010 GODORT Silent Auction

Wednesday, July 21st, 2010

Congratulations to Esther Crawford, Rice University, and Michelle McKnelly, University of Wisconsin-River Falls, winners of the 2010 GODORT Silent Auction for the W. David Rozkuszka Scholarship. Esther had the winning bid for the seven-day stay in Chester, Vermont, and Michelle won the four-day stay in Naples, Florida. Enjoy the getaways!

Over $1,600 was raised to support the Rozkuszka Scholarship, which since 1994 has provided financial assistance to an individual currently working with government documents in a library and completing a master’s degree in library science.

GODORT and Readex would like to thank all the participants for their support of this worthy cause.

ETC (Enhancements, Training and Content): Overview and 2010 Update 3

Tuesday, July 20th, 2010

FBIS Central Eurasia Report

ETC (Enhancements, Training and Content) is an ongoing, multifaceted program that provides Readex customers with one-of-a-kind historical content unavailable online elsewhere. In addition, the ETC program ensures the latest and most useful features and functionality, and provides guidance and suggestions for making the most of your Readex collections. ETC also covers online access and storage support.

Emporia Gazette (Kansas) - Sept. 1, 1898

Just as Readex is committed to providing its customers with the highest level of ongoing support and maintenance, it is also committed to ensuring that its definitive and comprehensive digital collections continue to grow through the addition of highly relevant new content and features. The ETC program enables you to be certain that you are providing your users and patrons with the most complete and robust digital edition of every Readex collection available at your institution. Through ETC, new content that brings significant enrichment and up-to-date interface functionalities and features will be added periodically. In this manner, ETC will continuously enrich your Readex collections by providing added value and content for your users and patrons for years to come. (more…)

Bismarck’s Birthday Verses: The Chicago Latin Version

Wednesday, July 7th, 2010

From America's Historical Newspapers

When one thinks of Prince Otto von Bismarck, 19th-century Germany’s Iron Chancellor, birthday cakes and greetings do not first come to mind. But they did — at least the birthday greetings — in perhaps an unexpected place and certainly in a most unusual way in a Chicago newspaper in 1874.

On April 1, 1874, Bismarck — still not fully recovered from a serious illness contracted the year before (not nervous exhaustion from overwork in redesigning the European continent but rather a case of gout) — celebrated his 60th birthday in Berlin amid much adulation from the new Germany, his enthusiastic nationalist supporters, and foreign dignitaries. Just a little more than a month later, the Chicago Inter Ocean newspaper published on May 2, 1874 a macaronic poem [i.e. a poem, usually in Latin, interspersed with vernacular words or phrases] celebrating Bismarck’s birthday. It is, I think, a poem which raises at least a couple of questions. (more…)

Dredges, Gunboats, and Mosquitoes: The U.S. Congressional Serial Set and the Building of the Panama Canal

Tuesday, July 6th, 2010

A Readex breakfast event during the 2010 American Library Association annual conference included a presentation by Steve Daniel, an internationally known authority on government documents.

In “Dredges, Gunboats, and Mosquitoes,” Daniel traced the history of the idea of a water route through Central America as it is documented in the U.S. Congressional Serial Set. Daniel writes:

“The building of the Panama Canal was without doubt one of the great engineering and technological achievements of the modern era, equal in every respect to the first transcontinental railroad and putting a man on the moon. Its completion in 1914 was the realization of a dream that dates back to the early years of European settlement in the New World. (more…)

The Pope’s Stone, Part Two: The Bloody Bedini Background

Monday, June 14th, 2010

[The Pope’s Stone, Part One discussed the theft and destruction of a block of marble sent by Pope Pius IX in 1853 to be placed in the Washington Monument, under construction on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. This Part Two recounts some inflammatory background to that embarrassing episode in American history in the form of the perilous visit of a Vatican prelate just before the destruction of the stone.]

The announcement of his upcoming visit was short and succinct, in no way foreshadowing the waves of bigotry, chaos, and violence, which over the following seven months would accompany his progress through America. Baltimore’s Sun of June 27, 1853 reported simply:

“Monsignor Bedini, Archbishop of Thebes, former Commissary Extraordinary of the Pontifical Government to the Legations, has left Rome as special Envoy of His Holiness to the United States. He is charged by the Holy Father to pay a visit to the government at Washington, and also to hold interviews with different Prelates of the Church in the United States, and to acquire the most exact information respecting the interests and condition of the Catholic Church in this country.

After making as along a visit as may be of advantage in the United States, Monsignor Bedini will go to Brazil, where he is to reside as Apostolic Nuncio near that Government.”

(more…)

The Personal and Poignant Stories of Civil War Soldiers: Uncovering the Claims of Veterans and Their Survivors in Government Publications

Monday, June 7th, 2010

First Lt. Alonzo Cushing, shown in an undated photo provided by the Wisconsin Historical Society, is expected to get the nation's highest military decoration this summer--the Medal of Honor--nearly 150 years after he died at the battle of Gettysburg. (AP Photo/Wisconsin Historical Society)

On May 19, 2010, the Associated Press (AP) released a news story about a U.S. Civil War soldier being awarded the Medal of Honor by the U.S. Army 147 years after sacrificing his life at the Battle of Gettysburg on July 3, 1863. This belated recognition of First Lt. Alonzo Cushing was made possible by the determined lobbying of several people, including 90-year-old Margaret Zerwekh who lives on the Wisconsin land where Cushing was born and an admirer who created the Facebook page “Give Alonzo Cushing the Medal of Honor.”

A particularly poignant class of publications in the U.S. Congressional Serial Set is the extensive collection of claims made by Civil War veterans and their survivors. These claimants were seeking promised benefits based on their injuries or their status as survivors of men who died either in the war or subsequently as a result of incurred injuries. There are thousands of these claims and, often, they are shockingly detailed in describing wounds inflicted, diseases suffered, and pain endured. These claims were still being submitted as late as 1955. In 1890, Lt. Cushing’s widowed mother submitted a claim seeking an increase in the $17-a-month pension she received as Alonzo’s survivor.

The AP article briefly describes Lt. Cushing’s situation:

“Cushing was wounded in the shoulder and groin, and his battery was left with two guns and no long-range ammunition. His stricken battery should have been withdrawn and replaced with reserve forces…but Cushing shouted that he would take his guns to the front lines….Within minutes, he was killed by a Confederate bullet to the head.”

When we turn to the Readex digital edition of the Serial Set and search in Citation text for Alonzo Cushing, we find two documents, one House Report and one Senate Report, which are responses to Mary Cushing’s claim. The text of these claims gives us vivid details. Alonzo is described as:

 ”…holding his lacerated bowels in one hand and firing a cannon with the other having already been ordered to retire on account of his wounds, but answering, ‘Let me give them one more shot.’”

We learn more. Alonzo’s mother is the “widow of a direct descendant of Mr. Justice Cushing of the first Supreme Court of the United States.” After her husband’s death in 1850 she raised her children as a single mother. Another of her sons, an officer in the U.S. Cavalry, was killed in a battle with Indians in Arizona in 1871, while yet another son died serving in the U.S. Navy. And a fourth son, William, was a commander in the Navy during the Civil War “who received the thanks of Congress for his most brilliant exploit in destroying the Confederate ram Albemarle in 1864.” And we discover that in 1890, Mary Cushing was 83 years old, and “in her great age and infirmity is living with and dependent upon a daughter for her support.”

The AP story will catch the attention of anyone interested in American history, in the Civil War, in the courage of our warriors, and in justice delayed. But the Serial Set allows us to expand this story, to have a more vivid appreciation of Alonzo Cushing’s valor and his mother’s suffering. The full weight of this single tragedy is magnified by the thousands of similar claims, many of them even more graphic in the descriptions of wounds and disease. These first-hand accounts of the experiences of so many Civil War veterans bring the era strikingly to life in our time.

Silent auction for the GODORT Rozkuszka Scholarship: Enjoy a vacation in Naples, Florida or Chester, Vermont

Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010

Established in 1994, the W. David Rozkuszka Scholarship provides financial assistance to an individual who is 1) currently working with government documents in a library and 2) trying to complete a master’s degree in library science.

Sponsored by Readex and GODORT (American Library Association’s Government Documents Round Table), the award is named after W. David Rozkuszka, a former Documents Librarian at Stanford University whose talent, work ethic and personality left an indelible mark on the profession. The scholarship award is $3,000, and has assisted twelve students with their library education since 1995.

Place your bid today to stay in beautiful Naples, Florida or charming Chester, Vermont.  Auction bidding ends at noon on July 12, 2010.

 Thank you for supporting the GODORT W. David Rozkuszka Scholarship!