Veterans, Government Headstones and Markers for Private Cemeteries, and National

Cemeteries. However keyword searches can produce some strange results. On a search for

Kentucky and Free Lunch there were hits such as Kentucky School Breakfast and Lunch

Program and Special Milk Program, but also among the results were National Cemeteries, Tax

Counseling, National Library Service for the Blind, and Gulf War Agent Orange and Ionizing

Radiation Registry Program. There seemed to be no logical reason why these appeared.

Overall, it is a well managed, well organized, and much needed site. GovBenefits.gov should

be the first place users go when searching for information about federal and state government

benefits.

Claudene Sproles

Government Documents Reference Librarian,

Ekstrom Library, University of Louisville,

Louisville, KY 40292, USA

E-mail address: caspro01@louisville.edu.

11 July 2005

Government Innovators Network

Visited 4/11/2005. Managed by the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and

Innovation, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, 79 John F.

Kennedy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138. http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/.

The Government Innovators Network, produced by the Ash Institute for Democratic

Governance and Innovation at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, is a portal

aimed at local, state, federal and international government employees Its purpose is to

connect to practitioners with policy makers in order to share information about innovative

methods of governance around the country.

Features include a calendar of events, awards for innovative projects, discussion boards,

expert chats, webcasts and news articles on innovative projects. Rather than just referring to

the newspaper article, they reproduce it in full so that users are not forced to register with

several newspapers in order to obtain comprehensive coverage. The best feature is its

complete coverage of all levels of government. Also, they’ve provided an RSS feed so that

users may get the latest headlines delivered to them rather than having to remember to go

check the site.

While the Government Innovators Network usefulness at the reference would be low, it

appears to be meeting the needs of its intended audience at least in part. The discussion

boards are almost empty, but the calendar events and news articles are up to date and there

have been numerous webcasts.

doi:10.1016/j.giq.2005.07.004

Reviews 147

Amy West

Electronic Government Publications Librarian,

University of Minnesota,10 Wilson Library,

309-19th Avenue South, Minneapolis,

MN 55455-0414, USA

E-mail address: westx045@umn.edu.

Lobbying for Libraries and Public’s Access to Government Information:

An Insider’s ViewBernadine E. Abbott-Hoduski Lanham, MD: (2003). Scarecrow Press, 2003. v, 289

pp. $39.95 ISBN: 0 8108 4585 7.

Bernadine E. Abbott-Hoduski was there to help found the American Library Association’s

(ALA’s) Government Documents Roundtable (GODORT) in 1972. She was there when

librarians lobbied to get microfiche distributed to the Federal Depository Library Program. She

was there when the Office of Management and Budget was invited to the legislative table to

help reform federal printing and publishing. She participated in brainstorming sessions leading

to the creation of basic bibliographic indexes and databases in government information

librarianship. She was at the table when small changes brought big consequences (when the

Library of Congress began adding Cataloging-in-Publication data to federal documents, when

the Government Printing Office began cataloging government documents using MARC and

AACR2 standards). Abbott-Hoduski has a truly unique perspective as an academic and public

librarian turned Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) librarian, turned long-time Congres-

sional employee and impassioned ALA member. She possesses a Forrest Gump-like ability to

be in the right place at the right time in the library world, not by accident, but rather through

good career decisions and a shrewd sense of who the players are and the causes worth

pursuing. Abbott-Hoduski, hired in 1974 by the US Congressional Joint Committee on

Printing, prepared herself for work in Congress by studying organizational process and

committee structure within ALA. A few years earlier, she had perceived the need for a distinct

ALA roundtable on government documents and successfully petitioned the ALA Council and

the ALA Executive Board for such. It is fortunate for the library community that she has

collected her career memoirs, along with well-considered strategies for lobbying, into a

concise, readable volume.

Lobbying for Libraries has a number of possible audiences. The most satisfied readers

will be those considering initiating policy change at the local, state or federal level, who are

looking for a narrative with plenty of personal anecdotes thrown in. The ideal niche market

would be those seeking a primer in late 20th-century changes in US federal documents

distribution to libraries, as well as the personalities and passions behind those changes.

Throughout her story, the author describes circumstances in which individuals see a problem

or inequity and have to convince others to act. Sometimes the convincing goes smoothly and

doi:10.1016/j.giq.2005.07.006

Reviews148