FAFLRT President

The National Resource Directory, a collaboration of DoD, Labor, and VA has been created to provide info, access, services, and resources.  Check it out and refer wounded, ill, and injured service members and veterans, their families and families of the fallen, and those who support them in recovery, rehabilitation, and community integration to this site.

You’ll want to be aware of the ALA activities and resources made available recently for veterans and their families to help them better understand the education benefits under the new post 9/11 GI bill.  For information, see the ALA wiki page Veteran’s Information at Your Library.

A federal librarian is running to be the next ALA President.  Roberta Stevens is currently Outreach Projects and Partnerships Officer at the Library of Congress.  You may know of her work managing the National Book Festival and planning the Lincoln Bicentennial.    She’s actively seeking friends on her Facebook page so she can hear your ideas about platforms, issues, and the ALA organization as a whole. 

Anyone know if ALA ever had a federal librarian as president?

We’ve had between 300-400 people attend the Careers in Federal Libraries events.  In an effort to continue the dialogue with library school students and job seekers, federal librarians have set up an online group to share advice, tips, and resources on how to land that great federal job.  SLA’s Military Libraries Division and SLA Government Information Division are also participating in this group.

Join the group here.   And if you are a federal information professional who would like to liaison with a library school, please take the online survey to participate in the national network being formed.

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is eliminating the time-in-grade restriction on advancement to competitive service positions in the General Schedule for GS-05 positions and above.  As published in the Federal Register (Nov 7, 2008), “The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is eliminating the time-in-grade restriction on advancement to competitive service positions in the General Schedule. The rule eliminates the 52-week time-in-grade requirement for promotions. Employees must continue to meet occupational qualification standard requirements and any additional job related qualification requirements established for the position.”

You are invited to comment on EPA’s Draft Information Access Strategy by November 14.  The draft strategy can be found online at http://www.epa.gov/nationaldialogue/index.html.

DOE still operates libraries in the various laboratories.  There are ongoing efforts in different parts of the agency to expand access to information virtually. See this page on the virtual Energy Library published on DOE’s Office of Management, Administrative Services page.

This December 8, 2008 workshop at FLICC, sponsored by CENDI and NFAIS, seeks to demonstrate how the Web has the potential to revolutionize how we conduct scientific research, interactive communication, global collaboration, real-time data sharing, and analysis of test results.   Are information professionals and researchers stretching to leverage the full potential of the Web?  Registration information found here.