OnGuardOnline.gov is a new website created by the Federal Trade Commission in partnership with the Young Adult Library Services Association, and several federal agencies to teach users about Internet fraud, secruing computers, and protecting person information.  The site is intended for parents, teachers and teens.  It is a site of many different media–videos, tutorials, activities, text information, curriculum guides, buttons, and banners.  Topics range from spyware, social networking, wireless acccess, laptop security, file-sharing, and phishing, both online and off.  Spanish versions are available.  Be sure to check out the publication, Stop Think Click: 7 Practices for Safer Computing, which is the brochure offered from the Order Publications link.

OnGuardOnline.gov should prove to be a very important resource for reliable information about safety in using the Internet.

If you ever had to thumb through a pile of old newspapers to find an article you meant to read or save, you know how frustrating it can be.  What you thought was in yesterday’s State newspaper was actually three days ago, or maybe it was in a different paper altogether.

We have a great solution for you.  Search online through the State Library and get full-text articles for free!  State agency employees with a State Library card have access to the text of over 800 newspapers around the country in the NewsBank database.  Included are nine South Carolina papers:  Anderson Independent-Mail, Bluffton Today, Greenville News, (Rock Hill) Herald, (Spartanburg) Herald-Journal, Newberry Observer, The State (Columbia), Sun News (Myrtle Beach), and Union Daily Times.    You can browse newspapers by date or search for relevant terms in a range of dates.  The years covered varies with each paper, with The State going back the farthest, to December 1987.  Start your search by going to Online Resources, then choose NewsBank: America’s Newspapers.

The (Charleston) Post and Courier is also available online, in another database called  Custom Newspapers.  Custom Newspapers also includes over 100 other newspapers from around the US and the world.

Not a state employee?  Residents of South Carolina have access to Custom Newspapers and to The State and Greenville News on NewsBank through the State Library’s DISCUS program.  Check the website of your local public library for information on how to access the DISCUS databases.  

If you’re having trouble using any of our online resources or would like additional information, call the Information Desk at (803) 734-8026, email reference@statelibrary.sc.gov  or click on Ask a Librarian for live chat.

Although the Federal Documents Depository Library Program has been fairly successful in making publications of the many federal agencies available in libraries throughout the nation, most of the federal agencies have collections of their own publications that have been available only to their own employees and to the public only onsite.  These publications may be brochures, reports, photos, etc that tell something about a time gone by.  The general public or researchers would not see these unless they made a visit to the agency library.

Recent developments in technology may be changing the inaccessibility of agency publications, however.  There are several federal agencies that are developing digital collections of their publications and are making them available at their websites.  The publications usually present in pdf and, since they are images, are larger than text documents in another format.  However, the resolutions are good and the information is unique.  Some of the agencies with digital libraries include: 

• History of Medicine Digital Collections (National Library of Medicine)  NLM has several historical collections that include digitized material (prints, photographs, films and videos, exchibition material, manuscripts and books) covering a spectrum of centuries and cultures from medieval Islam to contemporary biomedical research.  For instance, there is a collection on patent medicines; innovators in science, medicine and public health; Islamic medical manuscripts at the NLM, rare medical books, and historical anatomical illustrations.  A Prints and Photographs collection of the history of medicine has about 100,000 images dating from the 15th century to the present covering pandemics, portraits, historical images of hospitals and institutions and procedures, drawings, wood cuts, caricatures, etc.
• Wirtz Labor Digital Library (Department of Labor) is a history of labor through trade union and labor history materials, labor leaders’ biographies, statistical abstracts and Department of Labor publications.  The project is in its infancy, so only about 45 documents are available currently.  However, more than 400 items have been scanned and are being added.  The collection is interesting as it presents publications that reflect customs, laws, and policies of times gone by.  A document, complete with drawings, on riding the trains during wartime urged women to be prepared for rough and crowded rides, as passengers often shared trains with military needs. 
• Library of Congress Digital Collections (Library of Congress).  LC is possibly the largest library and has developed several multimedia collections of digitized documents, photographs, recorded sound, motion pictures, and text from the American historical collections of the Library and other institutions. American Memory collections now offer more than 7.5 million digital items from more than 100 historical collections. For a special treat, choose something from the Performing Arts and Music collection and hear sea chanties and view dance steps to ragtime music.
• BEA Digital Library (Bureau of Economic Analysis, Department of Commerce) has begun its collection with reproductions of the Survey of Current Business publication 1930 to 1999.  These can be browsed or searched by Optical Character Recognition.  Highlighted articles include the introduction of the pollution abatement expenditures series and an explanation of the national income and product accounts from the 1970s.  Other documents in the collection are the Survey of Current Business Annual Reviews (1937 - 1975), which cover economic trends in different sectors, and other documents such as a 1977 report on improving gross national product.

            The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have developed a guide on the fuel economy and fuel-efficiency of the 2008 model year cars, sport utility vehicles, and light trucks.  Information on diesel, hybrid-electric, ethanol flexible-fuel, and compressed natural gas vehicles is included. 

This year’s guide contains fuel economy estimates based on updated EPA calculation methods that better represent current real-world driving conditions.  City and highway estimates will include higher speeds, faster acceleration, air conditioner use, and cold temperature operation. Thus, estimates for the 2008 models will be lower than those for previous years, although fuel economy may be the same.

The guide also provides fuel cost estimates, based upon representative total miles driven, an estimate of cost for fuel, and percentages of city/highway driving.  Of course, individual vehicle fuel economy, use, and costs will vary.

            The guide is available in both print and electronic format.  Print guides may be borrowed from the State Library.  You can also request one or more copies at http://www.eere.nrel.gov/afdc/vehicles/fuel_economy_order_form.html.  Downloadable copies are posted at the Fuel Economy website at www.fueleconomy.gov.

State and County Profiles on South Carolina State Agency Webpages

Many of the state agencies of South Carolina are posting both statistical and narrative profiles of the state and counties for the areas they address.  Once these profiles were only made available in print format, possibly monthly or quarterly, but more often only annually.  Now, however, the information can be posted quickly to the website, so that current information is more readily available.  Usually the data is presented in a format that is easy to print or download.  Some of the agencies that post state and/or county profiles include:

South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control

            SC DHEC reports on the status of health and presence of disease or risky behaviors at http://www.scdhec.gov/hs/epidata/county_reports.htm.  The page allows a user to choose a county or region and then view a list of reports.   The disease reports are color graphs for a region or trends in mortality for the state.

South Carolina Employment Security Commission

            SC ESC has three pages of county or labor area profiles.  County Spotlights (http://www.sces.org/lmi/Spotlights/index.asp ) are single page descriptions of the population, labor force, income, location and climate.  Workforce Investment Area (WIA) reports (http://www.sces.org/lmi/Spotlights/WIA/index.asp ) are similar to county spotlights, but are on 12 areas in South Carolina.  Information includes extended demographic and labor statistics.  Summary workforce information is reported monthly at http://www.sces.org/lmi/news/news.asp#Labor_Force_Data_by_Workforce_Investment_Area .

South Carolina Department of Commerce

            SC Department of Commerce has county and city profiles giving information for prospective businesses at http://www.sccommerce.com/SearchCommunityProfiles.aspx.   Simple search yields information by name or county.  Advanced search allows a user to specify ports or interstate locations or to limit reports by population or labor market.  Short reports on labor markets by place are also available (http://www.sccommerce.com/Searchlaborprofiles.aspx ).

South Carolina Department of Education

            SC Department of Education reports on the status of schools in the counties at http://ed.sc.gov/topics/researchandstats/schoolreportcard/ .  Choose the year desired, then the county.  On the county page there will be a links to a Printable pdf Report Card for the County  and to links for specific school reports.  Reports give enrollment and summary reports on annual exams.

South Carolina Office of Research and Statistics

            SC ORS receives information both from the state agencies and from the US Census Bureau.  Their page of Community Profiles (http://www.sccommunityprofiles.org/ ) provides statistical profiles at the state, county, place, zip code, and census tract levels.

These profiles of the state and counties provide valuable information.  However, in most cases only current information is available, as reports are merely updated as new information is acquired.  Because the agencies opt to update existing documents instead of creating new documents that can be saved for comparison, they create the risk that vital information about the state may be lost.  Agencies are encouraged to cooperate with the South Carolina State Library Depository System in efforts to identify and preserve the information about South Carolina and its residents.

Winter is on its way, and with it comes thoughts of warm fires, hot chocolate, and maybe even snow here in the South. But for people working with the homeless, winter is an even more stressful time, making sure everyone has someplace warm to sleep on cold nights.

 The federal Substance Abuse and Mental Services Administration (SAMSHA) has a new website called the Homelessness Resource Center, designed to share ”state-of-the art knowledge and promising practices to prevent and end homelessness through”:

•    Training and technical assistance.
•    Publications and materials.
•    On-line learning opportunities.
•    Networking and collaboration.

The website currently has a Knowledge Base of over 2,000 articles, reports, research, and resources on many different aspects of homelessness.  They also have newsletter you can subscribe to and a list of upcoming training opportunities and events.

The Homelessness Research Center also has a rotating feature section, which highlights news, current research, tools and assessments, and other resources for specific topics. Features have included youth, trauma, self-care, and health.

Homelessness Research Center: http://homeless.samhsa.gov/