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This Week's Facts:
Public Printer Promotes GPO Initiatives
FDSys employed to its full potential will be an invaluable tool for librarians and patrons. Not only will it allow for easier searching capabilities on a wide variety of government publications, but it will be another avenue to allow citizens to participate in the democratic process.
------------------------------- Friday Facts Editorial Team:
Katharine Springer Join the FDPL listserv to get the latest government information |
National Archives Offers Daily History Tidbits Every
day,
Today’s Documents
from the
National Archives
features a different document that represents an event that
occurred that day in history. All documents displayed are
relevant to American history. However, this is not your
traditional Constitution and Gettysburg Address version of
history. Rather, it includes pieces of Americana and coverage of
other events that citizens may not know about. For example,
March 24th featured Elvis Presley’s
Acknowledgement of Service Obligation,
when he joined the Army in 1958.
Each item in Today’s Document has been digitized, so viewers can see the actual record as it originally appeared. The website also includes links to related documents. In addition to Elvis’s Army agreement, the March 24th page lets viewers access a letter from Elvis fans to President Eisenhower and also gives tips on researching military records. There are also Classroom Resources available. While you can check in every day to see
the latest documents, you can also sign up for updates via their
RSS feed.
 According to the Library of Congress American Memory project’s
Today in History website,
“On March 27, 1912, First Lady Helen Herron Taft and the Viscountess Chinda,
wife of the Japanese ambassador, planted two Yoshino cherry trees on the
northern bank of the Potomac River” in Washington, D.C. This event began
the idea that grew into the
National Cherry Blossom
Festival, which takes place every Spring. The trees bloom at a different
time every year, but the
Peak
Bloom Period usually covers late March to early April. Visitors plan
their visit around these dates annually.
You can find a history of the festival on its official website. For historical photographs of the festival, use the search box on the American Memory website to search all Library of Congress online collections for “cherry blossom festival”.
DNR Seeks Entries for Annual
Photo Contest The deadline to submit a photo is April 15th. You can view the contest guidelines to learn more about the contest. You can also get some good ideas by looking at the photos from previous contest winners. These photos are on display at the Indiana Statehouse and other historic state sites, as well as viewable online. Census Bureau Releases 2007 Economic Data  Earlier this month, the first data from the
2007 Economic Census was released
by the U.S. Census Bureau.
According to a
March 17 press release, “The economic
census is conducted every five years and is the most comprehensive and detailed
profile of the U.S. economy, covering millions of businesses representing more
than 1,000 industries. The census provides the foundation and benchmark for
gross domestic product, monthly retail sales and other indicators of economic
performance.”
The report findings include an increase of more than $1.4 trillion in manufacturers’ shipments from 2002 to 2007, the largest increase of all sectors covered. Manufacturers also experienced the largest decrease of all sectors - in employment - during the same period. More information about specific statistics may be found by viewing the 2007 Economic Census (through 2011) data release schedule. |
