Monday, April 30, 2007

Harris County Joint Elections - May 12, 2007

According to Harris Votes May 12, 2007 is the date of "authority conducting elections" for the City of Houston, Channelview ISD, Goose Creek CISD, City of Baytown, City of Hilshire Village, City of Pasadena,City of South Houston, Harris County ESD No. 50, Woodcreek MUD, W. Harris County MUD Nos. 9 & 17, and WCID-Fondren Road. Early voting sites are available according to the following schedule:

    8:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. April 30 - May 4
    7:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m. May 5
    1:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. May 6
    7:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m. May 7-8

For a map of polling locations, access the Election 2007 icon on the Harris Votes elections page.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Malaria Awareness Day

Today is Malaria Awareness Day. For information about why and where malaria is a problem especially to young children, pregnant women, and people with HIV/AIDS, access the following sites:

Ask the White House for April 25, 2007

President and Mrs. Bush Discuss Malaria Awareness Day

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

USDA Help for Exposed Social Security Numbers

The United States Department of Agriculture has set up an information page to help individuals whose social security numbers were inadvertently posted on a government website. The Social Security numbers escaped security notice because they were embedded in a larger number. The Department of Agriculture is offering free credit monitoring service for a year to individuals (corporations/organizations were not effected) who received Farm Services Agency and Rural Development funding. Funding recipients with additional questions may also call 1-800-333-4636 (1-800-FED-INFO) from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. (EDT), Monday-Friday,

Monday, April 16, 2007

School Violence Prevention

In view of the horrific mass shooting at Virginia Tech, other campuses will be evaluating their own security measures. Documents resulting from a collaboration between the United States Department of Education and the National Threat Assessment Center of the United States Secret Service can help in that evaluation. Their 2001 report Implications for Prevention of School Attacks in the United States: Final Report and Findings recommends threat assessment as a promising strategy for preventing school violence. Threat assessment is a fact-based analytical approach that focuses not on what a potential shooter looks like, but on what he/she does or says. The second report, Threat Assessment in Schools: A Guide to Managing Threatening Situations and to Creating Safe School Climates, details how to conduct a school threat assessment, manage a threatening situation, and create action plans to maintain a safe school climate.

Friday, April 06, 2007

Alaskan King Crab

I realized last night as I was watching television how much working in government publications can affect your everyday outlook. For instance, I was watching a show on Alaskan King Crab fishing, and discovered that, because of regulations and weather, the fishing season for crabs can be a short as four days in length. Being a government publications librarian, I immediately wondered what those regulations were and who issued and enforced them. Turns out, the restrictions are handled by a complex mix of federal and state regulatory agencies. Here is a brief history of the situation from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Additionally, the Being Sea/Aleutian Islands Crab Rationalization Committee has several reports of interest at this site. Regulations affecting Alaskan King Crabs are available here.

Thursday, April 05, 2007

Copyright Renewal Database

Orphan works, books printed between 1923 and 1963 that have no apparent owner, cause real problems for institutions that want permission to digitize titles. Now Stanford University has created the Copyright Renewal Database to make it easier to identify orphans. The database consists of renewal records received by the U.S. Copyright Office between 1950 and 1993 for books published between 1923 and 1963. Be forewarned, however, that it only covers renewals (not original registrations) of books (Class A registrations) that were published in the United States.

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Homeland Security and Health Reports

The Thurgood Marshall Law Library has made available a collection of reports related to terrorism and homeland security and health law and policy. The reports were created by the Congressional Research Service (CRS), part of the Library of Congress.