Business and Government Documents Center

In honor of the start of the 2008 Olympics it seems fitting to post information on the new comic strip published by The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Called "The Case of the "Spoilsports", it's inspired by UNESCO's International Convention against Doping in Sport, and will highlight UNESCO’s role in promoting the elimination of drug use in sports.

It will feature the adventures of two protagonists - detectives Rattus Holmes and Felis Watson - in their quest against drug use. The comic is published weekly in English, French and Spanish.

This week, read Chapter 1: Sport, Glorious Sport [PDF]: The Baker Street Kids are enthralled by a great cycle race. Their hero has a good chance of winning again. There is cause for great excitement and celebrations...

A Podcast from the NY Times CityRoom recently reflected on the the 1978 law that required New York State (this means New York City as well!) residents to pick up after their dogs. Its an interesting piece and it also provides a great opportunity to show how easy it is to find information on New York State laws, both via the free web and through subscription sites available only to NYU students.

First, lets take a look at how you can use Lexisnexis Academic Universe to find this law.

Once you are in Lexisnexis select "Legal" from the Tabs at the top. The select "Federal and State Codes" from the list. Once in this section, type in "Public Health Law 1310" -- make sure to search using "Natural Language" and select "NY. . ." from the source list. The first hit should bring up the law. Not only does Lexisnexis provide the text of the law, but it also has a history of its existence as well as Case Notes.

For those without access to Lexisnexis, here is another option:

The New York State Legislature

From there, you can search through a variety of New York State bills, resolutions and laws. By selecting "Laws of New York" and then typing in "Public Health Law 1310". The record from this site simply provides the text of the law.

And, this is the big difference between paid and free sites. With Lexisnexis you get a better overall picture of what the law is about, its history and context. The NYS Legislature site provides access to the text, but it definitely does not give the extra details that Lexisnexis offers.

ReliefWeb is part of the United Nations Humanitarian Affairs division.

The website aggregates information on humantarian efforts, natural disasters, and emergency situations from various government agencies, and non-governmental organizations. It is frequently updated and users can search by countries, emergencies, funding, policies and issues.

From the website:

ReliefWeb is the world’s leading on-line gateway to information (documents and maps) on humanitarian emergencies and disasters. An independent vehicle of information, designed specifically to assist the international humanitarian community in effective delivery of emergency assistance, it provides timely, reliable and relevant information as events unfold, while emphasizing the coverage of "forgotten emergencies" at the same time.

This new database from the PRS Group provides access to one of the world's best commercial sources of country risk ratings and forecasts. Data is available for more than 150 countries, including risk ratings and economic data from International Country Risk Guide, as well as forecasts, economic, political, geographic, and social data from Political Risk Services. CountryData is updated monthly and is the gateway to all current and historical data from The PRS Group.

You can find it in the Economic and Statistical or Country sections of the Virtual Business Library.

Full title: "Old Maids, Policeman, and Social Rejects: Mass Media Representations and Public Perceptions of Librarians".

This article investigates the relationships between mass media representations of librarians and users’ perceptions and consequent use of librarians and libraries by asking three questions: 1. How are librarians depicted by the mass media? 2. How does the public perceive librarians and how might these views relate to mass media representations? 3. What are the potential effects of these representations and perceptions?

The article appears in: the
Electronic Journal of Academic and Special Librarianship, v. 9 no. 1 (Spring
2008). Click on:
http://southernlibrarianship.icaap.org/content/v09n01/seale_m01.html

Access the journal here: http://southernlibrarianship.icaap.org/

Interested in issues on global warming and climate changes? Check out the EPA website:

http://epa.gov/

The EPA website is a great place to find up-to-date information on climate change and global warming. Interestingly, the EPA no longer updates their global warming page, but maintains the archive for historical purposes.

You can also find iformation on:
US climate policy,
Federal regulations governing environmental issues
Clean Air Act (PDF)
Clean Water Act (PDF)
Grants
Recycling

Recently, the New York Times ran an op-ed piece on the publication of "A Nation at Risk" on its 25th anniversary.

Here is a link to the original document and here is a link to the New York Times article, "A Nation at a Loss."

The Business and Government Documents Center invites you to our new exhibit featuring documents and images from Hurricane Katrina. Spanning across various collections at Bobst Library, we have assembled a range of print, video, and online items that help put this disaster into perspective.

From US government documents to Spike Lee's poetic documentary "When The Levees Broke," this exhibit offers a glimpse at the extraordinary response to this disaster.

Here is a sample of the titles with links to either full-text or the item record.

US Government Documents:
The Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina: Lessons Learned

Hurricane Katrina : the roles of U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Agency leadership : hearing before the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

Lessons Learned: EPA’s Response to Hurricane Katrina

Books:
Come hell or high water : Hurricane Katrina and the color of disaster by Michael Eric Dyson:
Click here for Bobcat Record
Click here for Google Books

Films:

When the Levees Broke: a requiem in four acts
Click here for Bobcat Record

Hurricane Katrina storm that drowned a city
Click here for Bobcat record
Click here for PBS site

Images:
Select the Accunet/AP Photo Archive from our Databases A to Z list.

Journal articles:

Special issue of The Journal of American History
Special issue of Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science

Websites:

Hurricane Katrina Advisory Archive: The National Weather Service compiled this detailed archive of advisories, as well as a graphic display of the Hurricane's path.

The Hurricane Digital Memory Bank: the largest free public archive of Katrina and Rita with over 25,000 items in the collection.

We welcome you to the newly created blog for the Business and Government Documents Center at NYU's Bobst Library.

This blog will keep you updated on important developments to our database collections, research guides, print collections, related-events, and the Virtual Business Library. We will also highlight the multifaceted research that takes advantage of our unique collections by featuring select FAQ's and interesting questions from students, faculty and patrons that we help to facilitate at our Reference Desk. In addition, we will feature posts on recently acquired books and documents and historically important and interesting past titles.

Most importantly, this is also a place for you to offer your feedback and comments!