Reference Questions for UCLA 455 “Government Information”

Spring 2012

INSTRUCTIONS: This assignment is designed to give you practical experience using the variety of access tools (including retrospective tools such as Ames, Greeley, Poore, the DI/DC, and the Monthly Catalog as well as current resources such as Catalog of US Government Publications, FDSys, publications.usa.gov, and others). Feel free to use print, microformats as well as other online tools such as Google in tandem with official sources. Be sure to cite the title of the source of your answer and any relevant pagination.

1. An antiquarian book collector has heard that the first (and only) authorized Bible printed in the United States was the Aitken’s Bible of 1782. Could you kindly find the official Report of the Chaplain of Congress which recommended this version?

2. An American historian needs to find the substance of a document (1810s) relating to the Natchez Trace; keeping it in repair; and the importance of ready communication with New Orleans.

3. A beginning student of library history wants to see the landmark 1890s (is that correct?) study on the state of public libraries in the United States. He doesn’t want a reprint, just in case something was deleted (like the illustrations).

4. A political scientist is fascinated that Work in America (which is classified as 331.0973/W8925s in public libraries, but is in the YRL stacks under HD5723/W892) was published by MIT Press for $10 on issue in 1973; but, a review in the New York Review of Books suggests that it was a report issued by HEW. Can you find the original GPO imprint? And, how much was it on issue from GPO directly? Any difference between the two imprints?

5. Find the MoCat citation to the U.S. Department of State’s Biographical Directory. What does it mean that it is “for official use only”?

6. An ecologist was told that Lamson’s 1988 work on logging damage in Appalachian hardwood forests is a non-depository title. Nonetheless, she would like to see it; what would you recommend?

7. Similarly, a biologist comes to you saying that Google Books has “Measurement of Reaeration Coefficients of Selected Streams,” but can’t seem to read it online; is there a copy close by, or what if he wants to buy a copy? Is it still available?

8. Can you provide the official casualties (dead and wounded) for the Persian Gulf War and Desert Storm operations in the 1990s?

9. A hiker needs a topographic map of the Scotts Valley in Oregon. She says that even a provisional edition at the scale of 1:24,000 and NAD84 would be fine.

10. After 9/11, I want to understand the difference between a Sunni and a Shite; is there an official publication from the government? I worry that Wikipedia isn’t a really authoritative source for an answer to this question.

11. As one of your colleagues, I am thinking of writing my MLIS thesis about information literacy in the context of higher education. Is there something which might give me abstracts and guidance on authors I should read—it would be really cool, if you could tell me how many articles I might have to read (am I looking at a dozen or a thousand or what) and who the top five-to-seven authors are in this field…

Revised: 24 April 2012