GODORT 2025 Annual Meetings

Government Information for Children Committee

June 10, 2025 | 10:00am PDT / 11:00am MDT / 12:00pm CDT / 1:00pm EDT

The Government Information for Children Committee promotes government information in order to engage K-12 students in learning about history, culture, science, and government through games and other interactive activities. They assist teachers, school librarians, public librarians, academic librarians, parents, and the general public with locating teaching aids, lesson plans, and exciting tools to enhance students' learning. The committee provides all populations with a collection of free government resources – designed for children – to advance their personal and professional needs.

Agenda:

1. Welcome and Introductions
   Current Committee Members
   
   Jenny Groome, Connecticut State Library
   Lauren Hall, California State University, Stanislaus
   Kamaria Nurse, Queens Public Library
   Patricia Siska, Queens Public Library
   Laura Tadena, Austin Public Library
    

2. Approval of January 17, 2025 and May 7, 2025 Meeting Minutes

3. New Policy and Procedure Manual
    
   • New PPMs have been submitted to Steering
      
4. History Day Guide

• • The guide has been made public, but more work needs to be done.

7. Promoting Government Information for Children
   • Issue for the committee to discuss next year, but help is needed.
     
8. Announcements
   
9. New Business
    

Adjournment

Meeting Recording

Steering Committee

June 10, 2025 | 11:00 am PDT/ 12:00 pm MDT/ 1:00 CDT/ 2:00 pm EDT

Agenda:

Call to Order

Approval of Minutes by Steering Members (no motion required)

Approval of the Agenda by Steering Members (no motion required)

Announcements

1. Steering Meetings and GODORT Chats update

2. June 9 -13, 2025 GODORT Virtual ALA Annual Meeting week https://godort.libguides.com/2025godortannual 

3. GODORT Events at 2025 ALA Annual Conference in Philadelphia - https://godort.libguides.com/c.php?g=1463648&p=10887198 

   1. Getting to Know the Government Documents Round Table (GODORT 101) on Friday June 27 from 3-4 PM

   2. GODORT/PPIRS Happy Hour sponsored by HeinOnline on Friday June 27 from 7-9 PM - RSVP at https://forms.gle/tpSCHnA5wLVHSsZP7

   3. GODORT Tour of the Free Library of Philadelphia on Saturday June 28 from 9:30 AM - 11 AM EST. MAX of 15 people for tour.

      1. Register for the tour: GODORT/Free Library of Philadelphia Tour: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1HXtaUWgbc3eJZrxE8c4T08I0HmpgRBMQ2k3zzV5Wi4s/edit?ts=68228a25

   4. GODORT Chairs program “America at 250: Celebrating Freedom, Confronting Inequities, and Considering a New Constitutional Era” on Saturday June 28 from 2:30-3:30 PM

   5. GODORT Awards Ceremony & Reception sponsored by PolicyMap on Saturday June 28 from 6-8 PM - Please RSVP here: bit.ly/godortannual 

   6. GODORT will have 4 PowerPoint slides displayed on the ALA Annual main stage screen between sessions

   7. GODORT will be participating at the Round Table Counter

Committee Reports

• Treasurer

• Awards/Conference

• Bylaws – VACANT through 2025

• Cataloging

• Development

• Education

• GIC (Government Information for Children)

• Legislation

• Membership/Nominating

• Programming/Help!/Kenya Flash

• Publications

• Rare & Endangered

• Social Media, Outreach & Technology

• International Documents Task Force

• Federal Information Interest Group
• State & Local Documents Interest Group

• ALA Council

Older Business

1. Looking ahead to Committees & Interest Groups Memberships for 2025-2026

2. Check over your PPM's (Policy & Procedure Manuals)

New Business

1. Any?

Next Meeting - TBD by incoming Chair

Meeting Recording

International Documents Task Force

June 10, 2025 | 12:00pm PDT / 1:00pm MDT / 2:00pm CDT / 3:00pm EDT

The International Documents Taskforce (IDTF) focuses attention on problems and concerns related to international and foreign national government information. The IDTF provides a forum for the discussion of ideas, problems, and news in the field; serves as a force for initiating and supporting programs to increase the accessibility and use of this information; and works to improve bibliographic control and collection development for these information resources.

Agenda:

The session will focus on efforts to preserve international information products, as well as on how cuts to U.S. government agencies like the USAID and Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) have affected these agencies' documents and data. There will be presentations discussing data-saving projects by the Institute for Development Impact's DECfinder archive, Coherent Digital's Open Collection, and the ICPSR's DataLumos archive. 

There will also be a presentation by the former Technical Director of the now-terminated Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) program. Presentations will be followed by an open discussion of presented projects as well as about the general state of international information. This session is officially non-partisan, and all viewpoints are welcome.

Meeting Recording

Cataloging Committee

June 10, 2025 | 1:00 pm PDT/ 2:00 pm MDT/ 3:00 pm CDT / 4:00 pm EDT

GODORT's Cataloging Committee has four main purposes:

1. To provide a forum for technical discussions on policies and practices for government document cataloging.
2. To serve as an interface for information exchange between documents catalogers and documents users in government agencies, various types of libraries, and bibliographic networks.
3. To comment upon matters which affect the cataloging of government documents and to raise such issues as appropriate.
4. To serve as liaison with other groups within ALA and through GODORT, with Federal agencies, other library associations, and bibliographic networks.

Agenda: 

The primary topic of discussion during the Cataloging Committee's meeting will be an exploration of expanding the scope of the committee to cover other technical services topics, including acquisition and preservation. If there is time, we will also discuss strategies for managing cataloging backlogs. 

Meeting Recording