Are you aware that the Nashua Public Library is a Federal Depository Library? The Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) was established by Congress to ensure that the American public has access to its government's information. Since 1813, depository libraries have collected, organized, maintained and preserved information from the Federal Government, and have assisted users with that information. The FDLP provides Government information at no cost to designated depository libraries throughout the country and territories. These depository libraries, in turn, provide local, no-fee access to the information. There are currently nearly 1,250 depository libraries.

The collections consist of information on careers, business opportunities, consumer information, health and nutrition, homeland security, legal and regulatory information, demographics, census and numerous other subjects. Some recent additions to our government document collection are:

American Military History – The United States Army and the Forging of a Nation, 1775-1917
FDA Consumer, Medical Use and Older Adults (v. 40 no.4 Jul-Aug, 2006)

Innovative Workplaces: Benefits and Best Practices

Public papers of the Presidents of the United States, George W. Bush : 2001-
(We have these books of presidential papers for all presidents beginning with Harry Truman)

Did you know that the largest earthquake in New Hampshire occurred in 1940, having a magnitude of 5.50. The epicenter was at Ossipee Lake, near Whittier. For comparison, the largest earthquake in California (San Andreas fault, 1857) had a magnitude of 7.9. The most recent earthquake in New Hampshire occurred on August 28, 2004. It was thirty miles NNW of Nashua with a magnitude of 2.1.

Earthquakes have sparked man's curiosity since ancient times. They have also disrupted lives, destroyed great monuments and cities and created great tidal waves. The National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) was created to determine rapidly the location and size of potentially destructive earthquakes worldwide and to report this information immediately to the appropriate national and international agencies, scientists, and the general public. On this website, you can do such things as:

• read up all about earthquakes,
• search for earthquakes by state or by region,
• find information about the most recent earthquakes.

Another interesting site is Understanding Earthquakes. Here you can read excerpts from renowned people who have been witness to an earthquake, look at earthquake locations on a revolving globe, take an earthquake “quiz” and more….

Related Library Books:
When the Mississippi ran backwards : empire, intrigue, murder, and the New Madrid earthquakes by Jay Feldman.
A crack in the edge of the world : America and the great California earthquake of 1906 by Simon Winchester.

Terrorism, terrorists and "The War on Terror" in local, national and international news on a daily basis. Yet to what degree do we really understand what terrorism is and what terrorists really want? Well, the library's print and electronic collections contain plenty of informative material.

Books to take home
What terrorists want : understanding the enemy, containing the threat / Louise Richardson.
Knowing the enemy : jihadist ideology and the War on Terror / Mary R. Habeck.
Perfect soldiers : the hijackers : who they were, why they did it / Terry McDermott.
Dying to win : the strategic logic of suicide terrorism / Robert A. Pape.

Reference Books
Terrorism: a documentary and reference guide
Encyclopedia of World Terrorism

Government Documents
Country reports on terrorism 2005

Articles in Library Databses
"The New Boys of Terror" by Ajami Fouad
U.S. News & World Report; 10/9/2006, Vol. 141 Issue 13, p33-33, 1p, 2c
Available in the Library's EBSCO database.

Although I can hardly deal with my own spending, I decided to visit a federal government website on federal spending recommended by another NPL librarian. At FedSpending.org you can find out how the federal government spends your money. This website was created by OMB Watch, a nonprofit government watchdog organization whose mission, as stated on their home page, is "to promote open government, accountability and citizen participation". According to OMB Watch, the data is largely from two sources:
- the Federal Procurement Data System provides information about federal contracts;
- the Federal Assistance Award Data System provides information about federal financial assistance such as grants, loans, insurance and such direct subsidies as Social Security.

FedSpending.org allows you to take the information it provides and select and organize it to your own specifications such as recipient, congressional district and state At first glance the site appears enormously complex, but you can begin by reading such provided documentation along the left sidebar as Tutorials, Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), Abouts... and the Site Map.

But if you are like me, I preferred to delve right in and select the Contracts database (center tab at the top of the sidebar). I then proceeded to enter the infamous "Halliburton" in the Search text box and found a good deal of information about our government's 2005 contracts with Halliburton:

Full and open competition $5,601,262,543
Full and open competition, but only one bid $275,745,935
Competition after exclusion of sources $13,685,008
Follow-on contract $437,000
Not available for competition $23,403
Not competed $16,160,344
Unknown $0

And, as you can see, you may request various levels of detail, bring up another year or change your output format in the drop-down list boxes on the top right of the page.

I then selected Top 100 Contractors (2006) and I found Halliburton to be #6 on the list with a whopping over $4 billion of contracts. The Lockheed Martin Corporation is #1 on the list with almost $20 billion of contracts.

As you browse around this site, you will notice you can research grants as well as contracts. You can also retrieve your information by state, congressional district or major agency. Try finding the company BAE's contract information. If you go to the detail level (or use this link), you will see that of the more than $5 billion BAE Systems won in government contracts in 2005, $532 million of the work was performed in New Hampshire's Congressional District #2 (us)!

We have several resources here at the library if you are interested in procuring a grant or contract from the federal government:

Proposals that win federal contracts : how to plan, price, write, and negotiate to get your fair share of government business by Barry L. McVay.

Win government contracts for your small business by John DiGiacomo, James Kleckner.

Catalog of federal domestic assistance or online.

Getting started in federal contracting : a guide through the federal procurement maze by Barry L. McVay.

Federal acquisition regulation [electronic resource].

For other online resources look no more than at the University of Michigan's terrific website
University of Michigan Documents Center Federal Government Resources.

As you can see, there is a good deal of money out there!

I can write this blog in good humor because I am heading to Aruba in two days. However, I had a rough couple of weeks, unsure if I would actually be able to go. I have not traveled extensively outside of the United States. On previous trips to the Caribbean, I only needed a birth certificate and driver's license, so I did not have a passport. Since my last visit to the Caribbean, the law has changed. As a result of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, travelers must have a passport to enter the United States. In 2006, Congress amended portions of the act and developed the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI). According to the Department of State, "the goal of the Initiative is to strengthen border security and facilitate entry into the United States for US citizens and legitimate foreign visitors by providing standardized, secure, and reliable documentation to allow the Department of Homeland Security to quickly, reliably and accurately identify a traveler." This means that as of January 23, 2007, all US citizens flying to Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, Central and South America, and other foreign countries, are required to present a passport, Air NEXUS card, or US Coast Guard Merchant Mariner Document. As early as January 1, 2008, those document "may be required" for land and sea travel as well.

This initiative has resulted in an unprecedented number of passport applications. When I applied for my passport in early March, I was told that it would take about 8 weeks. "No problem," I thought, "I have 13 weeks." Surely my passport would arrive with time to spare. Shortly after I applied, the news reported that people should expedite their applications due to the high volume. It was too late for me, but, as I mentioned, I had plenty of time. Meanwhile, my grandmother, who is traveling in July, expedited her application and received her passport by Easter.

As the weeks passed and April turned into May, I checked the status of my application online. The website indicated that my application was being processed. In mid-May, it had been 10 weeks (now the site indicates that it may take that long), and I still had not received my passport. Panic set in. I began hearing passport horror stories; one person was leaving in three days and hadn't received his. My vacation was in jeopardy, but my hands were tied. The Department of State will only respond if your trip is within 14 days.

I cheated. I tried to call 15 days before my trip because I need to have my passport the day before my flight, and I knew I would lose a day with the holiday. I could not get through. The automated appointment line is available 24 hours a day, and the customer service line is available 6:00 a.m.-12:00 a.m. Eastern time. So, in the middle of the night (I was stressed out and not sleeping) I called and made a June 1 appointment at the regional passport agency in Boston. I also assumed that my passport was being processed there. I set my alarm for 6 a.m. (I was awake anyway) and called again to speak with a live person. I was told that my passport would be rushed, and if I didn't receive it by May 31 to call back. The representative informed me that my passport was being processed in Charleston, SC (SC!?!), and she could not guarantee that I would receive it in time for my vacation. That did not help the stress level! I asked my sister, who lives at home, to pick up an additional copy of my birth certificate so I could reapply in Boston on June 1, less than a week before my trip, if necessary.

After a week had passed, and the entire reference department and a few others in the library had heard my story of woe, I took Tina's (in circulation) advice and got some higher authorities involved. My brother formerly worked for a senator, so I asked if he could help me. He said that senators do this regularly, and let the office know I would be calling. Thanks to a staff person in the senator's office, I received my passport on May 31. I did not have to go to Boston. Unfortunately, I could not cancel the appointment because I could not get through on the phone, even at 6:30 in the morning.

So, the moral of this story (and it is abridged) is to apply for your passport early, and expedite it. Expediting costs more, but what you lose in money you will save in sanity. For information on how to apply for your passport, visit the US Department of State at http://www.travel.state.gov. You can complete an online application and bring it, along with 2 passport photos, proof of citizenship (i.e., birth certificate), a picture ID, and payment, to the Nashua Post Office, one of 8,000 passport acceptance centers throughout the country. If you have already applied and need your passport within the next two weeks, call the National Passport Information Center. If you still have no luck, contact your US Senator or Representative.

Update: On June 8 (and yes, I heard about this when I was in Aruba), the US Departments of State and Homeland Security announced that citizens traveling to Canada, Mexico, Bermuda or countries in the Caribbean region, who have applied for, but not yet received passports, can re-enter the United States by air. Through September 30, adults may present government-issued photo identification and an official proof of application from the U.S. Department of State. You still have to apply, but if you do not receive your passport prior to travel, you will be able to re-enter the United States. Be sure to check the requirements of the country you are visiting also. For more information on this travel accommodation, please visit http://www.travel.state.gov/travel/cbpmc/cbpmc_2223.html.

Last weekend, with a mixture of trepidation and anticipation, I returned to college for a class reunion. A little more wrinkled (or "well-seasoned" as I like to think of it), we cautiously peered at each other, checked out the name tags, and tried to figure out what we had in common. Once we'd nailed down how we'd known each other (or given up trying), the conversation moved on to "what are you up to these days?"

It was fascinating to hear what changes a few years had brought: new careers, children, home buying, weddings. I should probably disclose here that I went to a women's college, and was fortunate to graduate at a time when women were mostly free to choose their own paths. So it is not surprising that classmates have gone on to become doctors, lawyers, hedge fund partners, stay-at-home moms, librarians, voice teachers, college professors, social workers, and more. Even now, though, the issue of working mothers is still debated in some circles. In fact, we have a number of articles on both sides of the argument in an excellent database called "Opposing Viewpoints." There's even an article or two on stay-at-home dads. You can reach the database by going to our home page, www.nashualibrary.org, then looking in the banner under "Databases"-->"Most Popular"-->"Opposing Viewpoints."

You can also read more about the work-family balance in magazine articles such as "Why Moms Should Work" (Ladies Home Journal, April 2007) in the EBSCO database, again available through our web site. (For direct access to the alphabetical list of databases, go to http://www.nashua.lib.nh.us/IbrowseAdultAlpha.htm.)

If you'd rather have a book on the career/family balance, there's a collection of essays from a variety of perspectives, "Mommy wars: stay-at-home and career moms face off on their choices, their lives, their families", edited by Leslie Morgan Steiner. You'll find this on the parenting shelf in the children's department.

Some of my classmates always knew what they wanted to do; others had changed paths along the way. For those considering a change of career, a good place to start is the classic career guide, "What color is your parachute?: a practical manual for job-hunters & career changers", by Richard Nelson Bolles.

Another career book that caught my eye looks more at changing trends in how people approach their careers: "The opt-out revolt : why people are leaving companies to create kaleidoscope careers," by Lisa A. Mainiero & Sherry E. Sullivan. Library Journal describes this one as "the results of a five-year-long quantitative and qualitative research study examining how and why the career patterns of both men and women have changed from the traditional ever upward model to a path with multiple forks and rest stops."

If you're more interested in stories about others who have made life changes, there's "U-turn: what if you woke up one morning and realized you were living the wrong life?," by Bruce Grierson.

Those seeking a new career might also want to check out the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook, online at http://www.bls.gov/oco/ or in paper at the library. This handbook gives information about what various jobs entail, what working conditions to expect, what the outlook for growth in the field is, what salaries are typical, and what training or education is required.

Have you ever browsed the State of New Hampshire's website? If not, you should. The answers to a lot of day-to-day questions can be found here. The website is divided into three categories, executive, legislative and judicial. This blog is about the Judicial Branch. The New Hampshire Judicial System has developed a new book which should make the New Hampshire Court system more user friendly. This book, Your guide to the New Hampshire Courts , is currently available to be read on the Judicial System website. It was produced with the assistance of the New Hampshire Bar Association, and will soon be available for use by state residents in print.

When dealing with any judicial system, questions arise that can be difficult to answer. This book should begin to provide the answers. It contains a map which will help to locate courts in the state. It also details the structure of the courts and the work done in each kind of court. For instance, did you know that:
New Hampshire Superior Courts are the only courts in New Hampshire where jury trials are
held
New Hampshire has a Supreme Court which hears appeals from all other courts
New Hampshire Probate Courts not only deal with estates and trusts, but also with name
changes and involuntary commitments
New Hampshire has a special court called Family Division which deals with all family
matters
New Hampshire District Court handles all traffic violations

If you have wondered about the rights of the crime victim or of the accused, the information is in this book. Also, there is a discussion of mediation, a way to settle differences without going to court. In the legal resources for the public section, you learn about the State Law Library in Concord which provides free internet access to the public as well as assistance with legal research. LexisNexis can be used for free on the public computers at the State Law Library.

If you feel that you would like to represent yourself in court, if the need should arise, the Judicial Branch website has a Self-help Center which will get you started. Those who feel that they would fare better with the assistance of a legal professional can obtain low-cost legal help through the New Hampshire Bar Association or New Hampshire Legal Services - Legal Assistance, Information and Support

Don't hesitate to make use of this online book and the Judicial Branch website. Valuable information regarding your legal rights can be found there, and you never know when you might need it.