Author Archives: Hans Raum

About Hans Raum

Reference and Instruction Librarian; Government Documents Librarian; Library Liaison: United States History, European History, Medieval History, Classics and Geography

White House report and website on campus sexual assault receives national press coverage

On April 29 the White House released a report by the Task Force to Protect Students From Sexual Assault which received widespread coverage in the national news media.  The report, Not Alone, included a number of very specific recommendations.  In addition, a new government website, NotAlone.gov, provides information how to respond to and prevent sexual assaults on campus and  on finding a crisis service, finding out about your rights and how to file a complaint.

Webinar on “Strategies for Pizazz”

On Monday afternoon Richard Jenkins and Hans attended a one hour webinar on “Strategies for Pizazz: Rebuilding One-Shots into Engaging Instruction Sessions” and here is the link to the 28 slides in the PowerPoint presentation that were used during the webinar: http://www.slideshare.net/trishaprevett/prevett-rusa-strategies-for-pizazz

The webinar is built on the success of the presenter’s article in C&RL  News, “Razzle and dazzle’em,” which  is available free on the ALA website and can be found on the internet at   http://crln.acrl.org/content/74/6/317.full .    Prevett’s LibGuides webpage on The Successful Research Process is available online at http://nova.campusguides.com/researchsteps and includes some useful and interesting content that might be worth emulating.

Let Hans know if you are interested in a summary of the audio portion of the webinar.

Tis the season: tornadoes and hurricanes

Hurricane season has officially started and the tornado season isn’t over.  To stay informed about severe weather conditions the following government websites are worth checking:

Storm Prediction Center

National Hurricane Center

National Weather Service — Type in your ZIP code to get local weather forecasts.

President Obama’s latest budget is now online

The just released Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2014 will no doubt get a lot of news coverage in the next few days and you can view it online at  http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS2343.  The Appendix to the Budget, which is much more detailed than the Budget itself, is available online at http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS862

National Child Traumatic Stress Network

Children who survived the mass shooting in Connecticut last Friday may be traumatized by the event and a federally funded online resource, the National Child Traumatic Stress Network , may provide helpful information to parents, caregivers and others who might be concerned about the long-term implications for children who survived the tragic event and similar events elsewhere.

Contributions to the Candidates: How much money are they raising and who are the donors?

     The Federal Election Commission has created a Campaign Finance Disclosure Portal which provides detailed financial information on how much money has been raised by the presidential candidates and candidates for the House and Senate in all 50 states.  The database includes the names of individual donors and political action committees and how much money they have given.  Most of the money contributed to Vermont candidates for the U. S. House and Senate seats comes from out of state and the list of PAC contributions is both fascinating and surprising.

     The Vermont Campaign Finance Disclosure Reports  website provides data on contributions to the campaigns of Vermont House and Senate candidates and other elected state officials.

New Portal for Congressional Information

This week the Library of Congress, in collaboration with the U. S. Senate, House of Representatives and the Government Printing Office unveiled a new portal for accessing free, fact-based Congresional information.  Congress.gov features platform mobility, comprehensive information and user-friendly presentation.  The site includes live video from the floor of the House and Senate, as well as information about members of Congress, current legislation, and how your Congressman voted on each bill.

Congress.gov will replace Thomas.gov, which has been the main gateway to Congressional information resources for the past 17 years.