Government Information in Canada/Information gouvernementale au Canada, Volume 4, number/numéro 1 (Summer/été 1997)

The University of British Columbia School of Library, Archival and Information Studies has offered a one-term course on government publications for many years. Since 1984, the course has been taught by a practicing government publications librarian, rather than by School faculty. The content reflects this, emphasizing a knowledge of basics, but extending to the Internet and other electronic sources, which are of growing importance. Demand for computer- and Internet related courses means that this course will now be taught only every second year.

Le Service de l'information et des archive de la bibliothèque scolaire de l'Université de la Colombie-Britannique a offert, pendant plusieurs années, un cours d'un trimestre sur les publications officielles. Depuis 1984, le cours a été enseigné par un bibliothécaire praticien dans la publication officielle plutôt que par la faculté. Le contenu souligne une connaissance des principes et s'étend à d'autres sources électroniques d'importance croissante. La demande pour des cours visant l'informatique et l'Internet fait que ce cours sera dorénavent enseigné qu'à tous les deux ans seulement.

The University of British Columbia's School of Library, Archival and Information Studies has offered a one-term course on government publications for many years. The course was formerly taught by school faculty, but Suzanne Dodson, long- time head of UBC's Government Publications and Microforms Divisions, took over in 1984 and has continued to teach it to this day. Suzanne and I have split the teaching duties for the past five years, since she left Government Publications to become Facilities and Preservation Manager.

The structure and content of the course reflect the involvement of active government publications librarians. It is geared towards the acquisition of a practical body of knowledge so that students are acquainted with government catalogues and national bibliographies, directories, basic statistical sources, and statutory and parliamentary publishing practices. We concentrate on the reference use of this material, identifying essential titles and how to use them, with a heavy emphasis on Canadian federal and provincial content.

The course outline takes the form of a bibliography, currently 25 pages long, amended from year to year as new sources appear and others become less relevant. Major sections of the bibliography cover general works such as specialized journals and histories of government information; Canada; Canadian provinces; municipalities; U.S. federal and state governments; other foreign governments, primarily Great Britain; and intergovernmental organizations, emphasizing those of the United Nations system.

Each section includes historical and contemporary bibliographies. For Canada, this ranges from Marion Higgins' 1935 Canadian Government Publications: a Manual for Librarians and Government of Canada Publications to the checklists issued by the Depository Services Program (DSP), both in paper and on the DSP website. This is usually the students' first introduction to the idea of depository libraries. We next examine government directories, telephone books, guides to government programs, and commercial almanacs. We spend a fair amount of time on Canadian statistical sources, both current and retrospective, emphasizing Statistics Canada titles, the historical and current catalogues, and selected electronic titles and the Statistics Canada Web site (http://www.statcan.ca). The electronic component has grown to include discussion of the CANSIM database and the Data Liberation Initiative.

Sections for other governments follow a similar pattern -- bibliographies, directories, statistical sources. The bibliographic sections for the United Nations, the U.S., and Great Britain are longer than most others because of their relative importance, the large numbers of sources, and ties to microform collections. We also acquaint students with the historical riches to be found in sessional papers, parliamentary papers, and the American serial set, as well as large comprehensive microform collections such as Microlog, The American Statistics Index, the Readex GPO collections, and the League of Nations microfilm.

To supplement the bibliography we have a four-page annotated list of locally-owned government electronic titles, most of which are CD-ROMs. Names of government Web sites and other electronic sources are now scattered throughout the main bibliography as well. The essential sites are the Government of Canada Primary Internet Site (or Canada Site), (canada.gc.ca/), the Parliamentary Internet Parlementaire (www.parl.gc.ca/ ), the Depository Services Program (dsp-psd.pwgsc.gc.ca/dsp-psd/), Statistics Canada (www.statcan.ca/), and the United Nations (www.un.org/). Every government has a presence on the Web now, of course, but so far we have confined the discussion to these selected few.

Throughout the term students complete several short sets of reference questions. Marks granted for these assignments are minimal since the work is usually collaborative. The questions are as straightforward as possible, and very simple for an experienced reference librarian but more challenging for those still learning the difference between Historical Statistics of Canada and Statistics Canada Historical Catalogue. Some examples:

"I need to know who the Canadian Minister for External Affairs was during the Second World War. Where can I look?"

"I know that there is now a law regulating ownership of guns in Canada. Where can I find out when this law came into effect? I know this happened fairly recently. What is the act called?"

"I'm looking for the report done in 1852 of a British committee on public libraries. I believe that the commissioner's name was Ewart. Does the library have this report?" (Students have to locate a copy in the parliamentary papers to complete this question.)

The major assignment is an annotated bibliography, discussed at length during the first class so students have plenty of time to choose a suitable topic and to watch for items as they examine bibliographies and descriptive material during the term. The choice of subject is wide open, and has included in recent years Canadian filmmaking, heritage architecture, needlework and glassware, barns, blueberries, Canadian war art, poverty, and the Kurdish people. These three-page bibliographies are sometimes plain and sometimes fancy; but marks are given for composition of the work, for an appropriate topic and a relevant and varied selection of materials, for accuracy, organization, and for consistent bibliographic form. It is always interesting to see them on the last day of our class. The finished bibliographies reveal a lot about what the students have learned. They are worth 40% of the final mark.

The final examination is also worth 40% and consists of a large set of reference questions. There has normally not been a mid-term exam, but this year's class practically demanded one in order to gauge their own progress in the course.

UBC Library and Archival courses meet weekly for a three-hour class, an efficient and very concentrated format (very tiring, too). That is a lot of time in which to transmit the fruit of one's years of experience; at the same time, it never seems to be enough. The whole area of government publishing is complex and currently in a state of transition everywhere because of the possibilities for electronic distribution of information. Nonetheless, our course is competing for space in the curriculum with growing numbers of computer- and Internet-related courses, and will be taught every second year from now on.

Notes

[1] May be cited as/On peut citer comme suit:

Mary Luebbe. "Teaching Government Publications: A Reference Librarian's Perspective," Government Information in Canada/Information gouvernementale au Canada 4, no. 1 (1997). [http://www.usask.ca/library/gic/v4n1/luebbe/luebbe.html]
Back to text.

[2]