[CASL-L] Action Requested regarding STEM sources of information for students

[Shelley Stedman]

Shelley Stedman, MLS
Vice President 
Connecticut Association of School Librarians
Check out the upcoming CECA/CASL conference and register at: http://conta.cc/1meCc5U




Begin forwarded message:

From: Connie Williams <chwms at mac.com>
Subject: [aaslforum] NTIS needs our help
Date: July 29, 2014 at 5:55:29 PM EDT
To: calib <calibk12 at googlegroups.com>, LM_NET subscribe <LM_NET at LISTSERV.SYR.EDU>, AASL Forum <aaslforum at ala.org>
Reply-To: aaslforum at ala.org

Hello all!
As a co-chair of the GODORT Government Information for Children committee, I've been learning so much about the different agencies that provide us with government based info. 
One of those agencies: NTIS [The National Technical Information Service] provides government based research information. Science research as done by high school students usually starts and ends using google - we all know that... so pointing them to  agencies like NITS will help them locate government funded scientific, technical, engineering and business related information.

Because these are technical reports and studies, most K-12 student use will be in high school - but that said, using primary sources, and knowing where/how to find government information is more important than ever, and knowing that these agencies exist and what kind of info resides there will be a boon to our kids leaving high school. Especially all those budding engineers, scientists, doctors and the like - those who will need to know what kinds of research is being funded and facilitated by the government. 

So... here's the problem.   

SB 2206, introduced by Tom Coburn and backed by a few more Senators,l titled:  the "Let Me Google That for You Act" , aims to do away with NTIS.  This means, that much of the government based scientific information will not be housed in a central location, may or may not be available to the public in any easy-to-locate way, and all the information currently housed under the NTIS auspices will have no home base for hosting online. 

Currently, when looking for federally funded research using a standard search engine like google what usually happens is: you get pointed to the NTIS site.  If that site no longer exists, many if not most of the documents will disappear from the easily discoverable digital universe.   

The current model for NTIS isn't perfect - a lot of their documents are fee-based [by Congressional directive] - but there are solutions for keeping it alive, viable and more accessible to all. Getting rid of it is no solution at all. 

Please take a moment to give your Senators a call - 
here's an excellent discussion about the bill: http://freegovinfo.info/node/8547

Here's how to contact your Senators:  http://www.opencongress.org/people/zipcodelookup
All it takes is a few moments of your time for a phone call. 
It will help!

Connie



Connie Williams
National Board Certified
Teacher Librarian

School Library Advocate

chwms at mac.com
707-778-7524

"They always say time changes things, 
but you actually have to change them yourself." 
Andy Warhol








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