Month: September 2017

Fiona Laing

Northern Ireland Official Publications Archive now freely available online

The Library at Queen’s University Belfast has been developing an online archive, known as the Northern Ireland Official Publications Archive (NIOPA).

They  are delighted to announce that this archive is now freely available at the following address: http://niopa.qub.ac.uk/

NIOPA is fully searchable with browsing and full text functionality and, as a digital archive of Northern Ireland official publications, makes documents available to support the research community, government departments and the wider public.

They welcome your feedback and any enquiries that you may have

please contact niopaenquiries@qub.ac.uk

For your information, NIOPA records and documents are deposited with the British Library under the Legal Deposit Libraries (Non-Print Works) Regulations 2013.

A formal launch of NIOPA is planned for early 2018.

 

 

Fiona Laing

Standing Committee on Official Publications – Report from meeting – 13th Sept. 17

Report from Steven Hartshorne, Secretary, SCOOP

This was Andy Zelinger’s first meeting as Chair and one of the first orders of business was the unanimous election of Fiona Laing of the National Library of Scotland (and SWOP, the Scottish Working Forum on Official Publications) as Vice-Chair.

gig-leafletKaren George, the chair of the Government Information Group spoke  to the committee about the work of GIG, which represents the interests of knowledge and information management  specialists working in government departments and agencies, parliamentary and national libraries. Especially of interest were the ways in which the groups could work more closely together, particularly in the areas of training in working with Official Publications and government information. Since there are areas of mutual interest for members of GIG and SCOOP, another area of cooperation would  be the promotion of each other’s events and projects.

The committee also discussed the launch of SCOOP’s Print Still Matters questionnaire which will help SCOOP decide on the future development of the PSM project. The original project aims to give an overview of the print Official Publications collections held in libraries in the UK, however the database (and website) have not been updated since 2013. Since keeping it maintained and updated is onerous and undertaking a full and proper revision will incur costs, we devised a short survey to try and find out how much it used and to help us make an informed decision as to whether and how to continue it.

The questionnaire is available here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/H72NZ3C

The committee then went on to discuss the drafting of a further questionnaire for SCOOP members on the future development of the committee and future projects for the committee to work on, such as additions to our very well received Relegation Guides (available here: https://officialpapersuk.wordpress.com/relegation-guides/).

Part of the process of consulting with its members will be a new constitution for the committee which will clearly set out its aims and objectives.

 

 

 

Fiona Laing

Cyber bullying, Offensive Behaviour at Football and Waste Management – Newly published Official Publications 25.09.17

University of Glasgow Library Blog

Newly published official publications from :

Westminster and the UK Government

Big Ben Image copyright: UK Parliament / Jessica Taylor

Scotland: Public spending and revenue. “Public spending and taxation in Scotland was a hotly debated issue in the run up to the Scottish independence referendum, and has remained so since. A range of statistics exist on the subject: here we look at what these say and how they are measured.”

Online harassment and cyber bullying. “There have been calls to review the law covering online harassment and cyber bullying. The Conservative and Labour manifestos both contained proposals to deal with the issue. So will the law change? This Briefing Paper focusses mainly on England and Wales, but also touches on the law and relevant guidance in Scotland and Northern Ireland.”

The European Union

Towards a circular economy-Waste management in the EU. “This STOA (Science and Technology Options Assessment) study…

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Fiona Laing

DISPOSABLE HOUSEHOLD INCOME IN SCOTLAND 2015

Disposable household income in Scotland in 2015

Check what the average disposable income is for your area

Gross Disposable Household Income (GDHI) is the total amount of money households have available for spending or saving after tax and National Insurance contributions. This is the money individuals have to spend on household bills, food and other items.

Scotland currently has the fifth highest level of GDHI per person at £18,315, which is just below the UK average of £19,106 per person.  Key information is also avaiable from the latest release from the Office for National Statistics (ONS),Regional Gross Disposable Household Income from 1997 to 2015.1

 

Fiona Laing

New iLibrary platforms for international publications

These sites are free to use, but you’ll need a subscription if you wish to download, save or copy any information – or if you want to take advantage of the time saving features.  You can find a list of sales partners here for further information on costs etc.

Meanwhile explore the sites for free
United Nations iLibrary

International Telecommunication Union iLibrary

Nordic iLibrary

The Commonwealth iLibrary

OECD iLibrary  

The National Library of Scotland has a subscripion for the OECD iLibrary which gives increased functionality to this site. It accessible remotely to anyone in Scotland with a Library reader’s card.

 

Fiona Laing

State of the Union Address 2017

EU Official Publications Information

Every September the President of the European Commission President gives his State of the Union Address to the European Parliament.

On Wednesday Jean-Claude Juncker delivered the State of the Union Address for 2017 and took stock of the achievements of the past year,  presented his priorities for the coming year and outlined his vision of how the EU might evolve by 2025.

The text of his speech is available here.

Other useful documents include:

The Roadmap for a more unite, stronger and more democratic Union.

Factsheets on the topics covered in the State of the Union address:

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Fiona Laing

Visit to National Library of Scotland’s Map Collections 20th Oct 2.30pm

CILIP’s Government Information Group has organised a visit to the National Library of Scotland  Map Library on the 20th Oct. maps-of-scotland

The National Library of Scotland Map Library is one of the ten largest map collections in the World, holding around 2 million maps, as well as atlases, gazetteers, and a growing collection of digital map datasets. This visit will include a talk describing the main highlights of the map collections, their users, and the growing ways the content is delivered online through http://maps.nls.uk, as well as a brief tour to view maps themselves and storage facilities. Chris Fleet is Map Curator at the Library, where he has worked since 1994, with particular responsibilities for digital mapping.

This visit is open to SWOP members and their colleagues

Reserve your place here

Fiona Laing

Impeachment

Reformation to Referendum: Writing a New History of Parliament

I is for impeachment, a parliamentary prosecution in which classically the lower House of the legislature acts to present the alleged malefactor for trial, and the upper House sits in judgement. 

Much has been heard about the procedure in recent years, first because of its deployment in Brazil against the President, Dilma Rousseff, resulting in her removal from office in August 2017, and secondly because of the much-discussed (but remote) possibility of impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump in the United States. In both the latter cases, impeachment has been embedded within a written constitution and recognised procedures. Although the origins of impeachment lie in English politics, impeachments were highly unusual, and always subject to intense political and legal argument about procedure and fairness. In almost each case the procedures were reinvented and argued over (a summary of the procedure here reasonably explains the broadly outlines, but conveys a rather…

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Fiona Laing

Introduction to the UK Parliament: People, Processes and Public Participation – Free course

From the 18th September Future Learn is offering  a 3 week course which will cover

• the difference between Parliament and Government including differing roles and responsibilities
• the three parts of Parliament and the role Parliament plays in scrutinising the work of the Government
• an introduction to the work of the House of Commons and the House of Lords
• how Parliamentary Questions are used by MPs and members of the House of Lords to hold the Government to account
• the difference between oral and written questions, and how questions can be used to seek immediate answers on urgent or important matters
• what happens during Prime Minister’s Questions and public perceptions of PMQs
• debates in Parliament, including some of the rules and conventions
• the role and work of select committees
• the different types of Bill, and the process of how a Bill becomes a law
• the effect that changes in the law can have on individuals and on society, with reference to specific case studies
• the different ways the public can input in the work of the UK Parliament.