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Have the Feds at Your Fingertips: An Afternoon of Canadian Government Resources ( and especially statistics! )

Have the Feds at Your Fingertips: An Afternoon of Canadian Government Resources ( and especially statistics! ) . Amanda Wakaruk (amanda.wakaruk@ualberta.ca) and Anna Bombak (anna.bombak@ualberta.ca) University of Alberta Libraries March 15, 2010. Outline.

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Have the Feds at Your Fingertips: An Afternoon of Canadian Government Resources ( and especially statistics! )

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  1. Have the Feds at Your Fingertips: An Afternoon of Canadian Government Resources (and especially statistics!) Amanda Wakaruk (amanda.wakaruk@ualberta.ca) and Anna Bombak (anna.bombak@ualberta.ca) University of Alberta Libraries March 15, 2010

  2. Outline • Overview of Canadian Government Structure (Amanda) • Accessing Canadian Government Information (Amanda) • Exercise Break 2:15-2:45pm • Statistics Canada Resources (Anna) • Exercise • Wrap-Up (Amanda)

  3. What is information? Anything published by or for a governmental body as part of the operation of governing. • Laws & Legislative Materials (e.g., Canadian Environmental Protection Act) • Patents (e.g., CA 2382464, High-Affinity Choline Transporter) • Reports (e.g., Building on Values, Royal Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada aka Romanow Report) • Data & Statistics (e.g., Census of Canada and related PUMF) • Maps (e.g., National Topographic System (NTS) maps) • Ephemera (e.g., posters, pamphlets, etc.)

  4. Federal Government Structure Legislative Branch main deliberative body • Parliament of Canada http://www.parl.gc.ca/ • LegisInfohttp://www2.parl.gc.ca/Sites/LOP/LEGISINFO/index.asp?Language=E

  5. Federal Government Structure Judicial Branch administers court system • Supreme Court of Canada http://www.scc-csc.gc.ca/

  6. Federal Government Structure Executive Branch interprets and implements legislation • departmental web siteshttp://www.gc.ca/ • White Papers (policy) • Green Papers (discussion) • Google search with site limit(e.g., site=gc.ca) • library catalogues and other databases

  7. Intellectual Access to Canadian Government Information NEOS Catalogue / UA WorldCat Local • Author = Canada (use stable elements of the agency name; e.g., Canada Finance NOT Canada Department of Finance) • Subject Headings to Know: • government policy • *** policy (e.g., environmental policy, fiscal policy, housing policy, industrial policy, labor policy, language policy, military policy, social policy, urban policy, etc.) • Canada (especially to broaden to non-governmental pubs about government policy) • WorldCat Local topic facet: “government documents”

  8. Free Intellectual Access to Canadian Government Information • Depository Services Program Catalogue http://publications.gc.ca/ • AMICUS (Library and Archives Canada) Federal Publications Locator http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/7/5/index-e.html • Internet Archive (mostly historical)http://www.archive.org • UofA Government Information LibGuidehttp://guides.library.ualberta.ca/govtinfo

  9. Fee-Based Intellectual Access to Canadian Government Information • Canadian Research Index (Microlog) $$ http://www.library.ualberta.ca/databases_help/cri/index.cfm • Early Canadiana Online (CIHM) $$/some free http://www.canadiana.org/ECO

  10. Exercise Find resources to help answer the following question posed by an undergraduate student taking a first year environmental studies course: What is Canada doing about climate change? Note: all demonstrated resources linked from http://www.library.ualberta.ca/ - Browse by Type – All Types - Government Information – Canada - Federal

  11. Other Resources to Know (all linked via UofALibGuide) • Budget Cycle • Speech From the Throne • Budget • Estimates (RPPs and DPRs) • Public Accounts • Government Databases on the Internet • Statistics Canada

  12. Challenges • Migration issues: important microfiche and paper collections not digitized, some digital collections unstable. • Fugitive materials: not everything published by Canadian government agencies is disseminated in a systematic way. • Disappearing materials: stability cannot be assumed. • Moving target: governing parties and policies change.

  13. Professional Resources • Associations • ALA, Government Documents Round Table (GODORT) • CLA, Access to Government Information Interest Group (AGIIG) • SLA, Government Information Division • Listservs • GOVINFO • AGIIG • INTL-DOC • UofTiSchool 2136 Course: • Government Information http://mccaffrey.ischool.utoronto.ca/2136/

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