GODORT (Government Documents Round Table)

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last person joined: 11 days ago 

The mission of the Government Documents Round Table (GODORT) is to (1) To provide a forum for discussion of problems, concerns, and for exchange of ideas by librarians working with government documents; (2) to provide a force for initiating and supporting programs to increase availability, use, and bibliographic control of documents; (3) to increase communication between documents librarians and other librarians; (4) to contribute to the extension and improvement of education and training of documents librarians.

Learn more about GODORT on the ALA website.

  • 1.  GODORT Steering Committee Draft Minutes. April 9, 2024 Meeting

    Posted 13 days ago

     

    GODORT Colleagues,

     

    GODORT Steering's April 9, 2024, Draft Minutes are here:

     

    https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KS4mzg5Zbj6nMntzcoXbnPXS1TMb4MZ3ge9nN9QNafY/edit?usp=sharing

     

    Comments, corrections welcome.

     

    Thanks

     

    Brett Cloyd
    GODORT Secretary

    Social Sciences and Public Policy Librarian
    University of Iowa Libraries

    100 Main Library

    Iowa City, Iowa 52242
    Office: 319-335-5743

    brett-cloyd@uiowa.edu

    Schedule Appointment

    University of Iowa Acknowledgement of Land and Sovereignty

    University of Iowa Logo

     



  • 2.  RE: GODORT Steering Committee Draft Minutes. April 9, 2024 Meeting

    Posted 13 days ago

    Okay – you asked for comments.

    This does not mean I have my mind made up and set. These are  only comments and questions.

     

    PPMs are already written up? Does this mean it is a done deal? If so – the URL for GIC resources is incorrect.

     

    Looking at proposed changes to committees – I don't see an option for additional (non-ALA member) volunteers to contribute to ongoing projects (especially research guides).

     

    I also don't see how Education and Government Information for Children (GIC) can maintain their level of work if the size of committees are reduced and/or merged. GIC has just enough members to get our work done – and we tend to have experience with teachers and K-12 students. This is very different than academic students and faculty.

    How could Education keep the Voting & Election toolkit current if their members now have to also work on GIC guides?

     

    Speaking ONLY for myself – as a member of GIC, I have my hands full working on our current guides and the new collaborative History Day guide that Steering approved. I have gotten feedback from NHD affiliates/teachers/students who are excited to give us user feedback (and a few who volunteered to send me content). I would hate to lose momentum on this project.

     

    I would not be able to work on the Education Committee guides as well as the GIC guides. I have to do much of the GODORT work on my free time (i.e. at home) and have been told not to work on the larger Education Committee projects at all, especially at work.

     

    I do see the overlap of the groups – but we also have different target audiences. Perhaps target audiences for Education & Programming have more in common?

     

    If GIC merges with another committee, how will our committee-specific Best Practices be used? GIC works hard to reduce duplicate assets – which plague GODORT LibGuides.

     

    Again – asking questions, expressing concern, and speaking ONLY for myself.

     

    Just my two cents.

     

    Jenny

     

     

     

    Jenny Groome | Reference Librarian
    Connecticut State Library | 231 Capitol Ave | Hartford, CT  06106
    Tel.: 860-757-6568
    jenny.groome@ct.gov

    Pronouns: she, her, hers




    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: GODORT Steering Committee Draft Minutes. April 9, 2024 Meeting

    Posted 12 days ago

    Hi Jenny,

    Thank you for your feedback! These proposed PPM changes or any of the proposed committee mergers are not done deals. We are still in the process of drafting the PPMs, requesting feedback from committee chairs and members, responding to that feedback, and adjusting our recommendations accordingly. We will take your feedback into consideration as we prepare proposed PPM changes for the May Steering meeting.

    Best,

    Kian



    ------------------------------
    Kian Flynn
    Geography & Global Studies Librarian
    University of Washington Libraries
    He/Him/His
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: GODORT Steering Committee Draft Minutes. April 9, 2024 Meeting

    Posted 5 days ago
    My apologies, as I was unable to attend this Steering Committee meeting and have not yet been contacted as a Chair of an impacted committee, but I'm curious about a couple of things:

    There is the mention that "Based on Steering's feedback, we've proposed the consolidations outlined on Slide 9" - but I can't figure out where the Steering feedback has been documented. 

    As a longtime GODORT member that hasn't necessarily been paying attention to governance in the past few years, it helped me to revisit the bylaws and see that members no longer need to vote on the creation or dissolution of committees. Given that, could someone please remind me (and others) - if these PPM changes are approved in May, will they take effect starting in July? That could impact recruitment for the Chair position of all of these new committees, not just membership.

    thanks,
    valerie



    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: GODORT Steering Committee Draft Minutes. April 9, 2024 Meeting

    Posted 5 days ago

    Hi Valerie,

    Thanks for these questions! At the start of this year, we had Steering members participate in a card-sorting activity where they paired committees together based on the language in the "Purpose" section of their PPM. The results of that card-sorting activity are shown on slide 4 of February Steering Presentation slide deck. Using that feedback, we created our initial set of proposals (Slides 5-8) and then asked for another round of feedback through the following Google form and ALA Connect thread (which were both also open to general membership): https://forms.gle/LEJPrBjMJf42FTc8A. We used both the original feedback from the card-sorting activity and the Google form to start crafting the proposed PPM changes, and are continuing to adjust our proposals as additional feedback comes in.

    As for the timeline, if these changes are approved, then the goal would be for them to be in place for the new committee cycle starting in July 2024.  This would impact recruitment of new members and new committee chairs, but hopefully in a positive way! One of the challenges these past few years, and the major impetus for this committee size and composition reorg, has been filling vacant committee spots to the point where we have not been able to fill spots on a number of committees these past few years. If changes are approved in time for this next committee cycle, we will have fewer vacancies to fill. For committee chairs, the existing committee chairs will serve out the remainder of their term and/or serve as co-chairs of any combined committees that have multiple returning chairs until the expiration of their terms.

    Hope that helps clear things up and let us know if you (or anyone else) has any follow-up questions!

    Kian



    ------------------------------
    Kian Flynn
    Geography & Global Studies Librarian
    University of Washington Libraries
    He/Him/His
    ------------------------------

    Original Message