Learn to find Government Information on the Web

Bufkinite@evpl — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 19:53:00 GMT

Interested in finding out about govenment jobs? Wonder where you can find the latest consumer product safety information? Ever wanted to look at surplus government property, and maybe bid on some of it? Want to get information on financial planning? On October 21st there will be a free workshop on how to access all of this information and more through the premier government web portal - USA.gov.

Led by Government Documents Librarian Teresa Loeffler, this workshop will help you search and find the specific information you want, by showing you some concrete examples, and then letting you search the web site yourself, with supervision and assistance.

The workshop takes place at Central Library's Tech Center, and is limited to 15 people, so that everyone will have their own computer for searching for the information that interests them. Call the library Reference Desk at 428-8218 to sign up, or IM us via the AskEVPL page and let us know that you'd like to sign up for the Finding Government Information workshop.

Would you like to work for the federal government?

SuDocQueen@evpl — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 17:04:00 GMT

If so, take a look at www.usajobs.gov.

This is a great resource for people interested in working for our federal government. On their main page this morning they showed 33,530 jobs available worldwide with the United States government. Now before your jaw hits the floor and you start drooling on your keyboard, let's do a reality check and remember that none of us are qualified for all 33,000 jobs. They're sure not going to hire me as a NASA engineer. And, I don't think I want to fill a librarian position in Timbuktu - okay, when I did a search for librarian positions, I didn't see any in Timbuktu, but you get the picture. :-)

The search was easy as pie. I just typed librarian into the search box right under "Search Jobs" on the main page and hit "Run Search." 14 positions popped up. With the exception of a couple all were positions looking for actual librarians, and even the two that weren't were for positions with the Library of Congress. For example, one was for a General Engineer working out of the Office of the Librarian; maybe a position similar to EVPL's building manager?

That was the simplest search. You can customize your search by clicking on the "Search Jobs" tab on the main page. From there, you can narrow your search by choices like agency, occupation, and location, to name a few.

Say you'd like a job with the government, but you don't know what job you'd enjoy. They have an area to help you with that as well. I couldn't find a direct link from the main page, but I saw links to it from the Search page and the Information Center page. Once you're on either page, look for the Career Interest Center and click on the "learn more." From there you'll find a list of subjects that lead to interactive questionnaires that will help you figure out what job would be right for you.

What else? Too much to go over everything in what's supposed to be a "short" blog. :-) But, two last things I've got to mention before I go. Be sure to check out the "My USAJOBS" tab. You'll be able to create your own account which will allow you to post your resume (I thought I read somewhere on the site you could post even more than one), apply for the jobs online, and receive email updates tailored to jobs that you're interested in.

And the other "thing," be sure to play around with the "Information Center" page. Among the many services it offers, it provides help in understanding the convoluted federal hiring process. You can get help creating your resume. There's also an area where you can find out about the top agencies hiring, the most popular jobs, the areas in the country looking for the most jobs, etc.

Research Blog : websites, government, United States Government

Learn to find Government Information on the Web

Would you like to work for the federal government?