Monday, March 09, 2009

Guide of the Week: U.S. Intelligence Community. Today's Guide of the Week from the ALA GODORT Handout Exchange Wiki is for people wanting history and background relating to the US intelligence community: U.S. Intelligence Community (Jerry Breeze, Columbia University, 1999) Last updated 1/29/2008 This guide starts out with an introduction worth quoting: This is a selective guide to resources at Columbia University Libraries and on the Internet, for conducting research on U.S. government agencies involved in intelligence activities, the classification and declassification of government documents related to intelligence activities, and Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. Some of the items included may also have information about commercial espionage or intelligence activities of foreign governments, but that is not the focus of this guide. Please consult CLIO [Columbia's catalog] for other materials in the Columbia University Libraries. For a selective guide, it is chock full of print and internet resources relating to the intelligence community. The guide contains links to secondary and primary intelligence materials and is divided into the following sections: General Background Information Bibliographies & Indexes Periodicals/News/Blogs Intelligence Reform Congressional Oversight & Budget Classified/Declassified FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) Other Web Sources Agency Specific Office of the Director of National Intelligence Central Intelligence Agency Defense Intelligence Agency Department of Energy Department of State Federal Bureau of Investigation National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency National Reconnaissance Office National Security Agency National Security Council Other Agencies One feature I particularly like about this guide that I hope others emulate is the clear way the author distinguishes resources only available to the campus community. Anything with a key next to it can only be accessed by the Columbia University community. But that still leaves dozens and dozens of other resources for the rest of us to explore. If you have an interest in spies or foreign relations, check out this guide. And if you're a librarian with a guide of your own on this or any other subject, please link it to the ALA GODORT Handout Exchange Wiki. [Free Government Information (FGI) blogs] 2:48:30 PM     New Online Tool for Small Business Owners I teach guitar lessons to some friends every other week. It's very informal but if I ever decide to make it a small business, I'd probably go to the Business.gov online community for help. Later this week, Business.gov will officially launch their online business community which offers business owners a forum to interact with the government and each other. The site has been live since late February and has been featured in a BusinessWeek article. According to the article this may be the first government sponsored online community for small business owners. As of last Friday, the site had 680 users. Amongst other things, the community offers various forums and four blogs: In The Loop, Small Business Matters, The Business Law Advisor and The Loans and Grants Advisor. What do you think of the business community? In what other areas do you think the government should have communities like this?   - Jake [Gov Gab: Your U.S. Government Blog] 2:47:48 PM

© Copyright 2009 Jocelyn Shaw. Last update: 4/1/2009; 2:33:33 PM. Photo curtesy of Marjorie O'Brien