Web site allows students to question government

Finding answers to some of life’s toughest questions is now easier thanks to an online site that allows users to ask questions about the government.\n“Government Information Online: Ask a Librarian” allows users to chat online with or e-mail questions to librarians – including IU employees – who specialize in government documents. The librarians provide information concerning all levels of government. The Web site’s address is http://govtinfo.org/.\n“Any citizen anywhere can log into that site and ask for information about the government,” said Eric Bartheld, director of communications at IU-Bloomington Libraries. \nBartheld said IU has a very strong collection of government records because it’s a federal depository. \n“Everybody asks everything,” said John Shuler, an associate professor and government documents librarian at the University of Illinois at Chicago.\nShuler, who created the project, said because the government affects so many aspects of life, the librarians are asked about local, state, national and sometimes international law. \nShuler said he’s fielded questions ranging from the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963 to how to register a small business in the state of California. \nShuler said he had two goals when he created the project. The first was to enable documents librarians to answer questions through the Web. The second was to make it easier for people to find government documents librarians. He said his underlying goal was to see how the Web affects librarianship. \nGovernment documents librarians at IU began answering questions with the program a few weeks ago. \nLou Malcomb, head of Government Information at the Herman B Wells Library, said she can give out URLs or links to historical documents over the Internet. If the answer is not on the Internet, Malcomb can direct that person to a library that would have the document they need. She also said their local library can ask for the information from another library. \n“There’s not just anyone answering this question,” Malcomb said.\nShe said most of the librarians she knows that are answering the questions have 5 to 15 years of experience with government documents. \nShe said the documents can be complicated and it takes special expertise, experience and knowledge of the government lingo to journey through the volumes of documents and find what is needed. \nMalcomb said the biggest difficulty is many of the questions are complicated and legal in nature. \nMalcomb said government documents librarians at IU answer questions for about four hours a week. She said serving the students of IU comes before the project, but students can benefit from the site, too. \nCurrently, 21 institutions participate in the project. The project began in 2004 and is managed through a collaboration between nine universities from the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, which participate in the project. The other schools, Shuler said, contribute resources and expertise.