Tag Archives: Government Publications and You

Full-text of Inaugural Available Through FDsys

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The Government Printing Office (GPO) released FDsys to the public last Thursday  at the same time that Mike Wash, GPO’s chief technical officer, announced it in his Washboard blog.

FDsys: http://fdsys.gpo.gov/

One spankin’ new government publication it includes is the Daily Compilation of Presidential Documents from The Office of the Federal Register (OFR). This publication appeared on January 20, 2009 to coincide with the incoming President’s term of office. The online Daily Compilation will replace the printed Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents. The OFR has partnered with the Government Printing Office to make the Daily Compilation the first publication specifically engineered for the new FDsys platform. More new web services will be added throughout 2009 allowing FDsys to gradually replace GPO Access. For more information see the FDsys project website.

FDsys has the full-text of the presidential inaugural ceremony as printed in the Senate pages of the January 20, 2009 Congressional Record, pages S667 through S670 (PDF). Enjoy!   

New Service for Choosing a Nursing Home

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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has begun a five-star quality rating system for each of the nation’s 15,800 nursing homes that participate in Medicare or Medicaid. It’s the first-ever U.S. federal government website to help  with the difficult and emotional task of choosing a nursing home.

Nursing Home Compare : Find and Compare Nursing Homes (web site):

http://www.medicare.gov/nhcompare

To search the system simply enter a Zip Code to get star ratings of nursing homes in that area.

Facilities are assigned star ratings from a low of one star to a high of five stars based on health inspection surveys, staffing information, and quality of care measures. The site will be updated monthly and indicates whether the facility is for-profit or not-for-profit.

In this first round of quality ratings, about 12% of the nation’s nursing homes received a full five-star rating while 22 % scored at the low end with one star. Many of Utah’s nursing homes score below or much below average in the new quality ratings system. Of the 93 Utah nursing homes reviewed by the government, 22 ranked below average (two stars) and 17 have an overall quality rating of one star, the lowest score possible.

Utah nursing home provider lists (without ratings) specific to counties, cities, or zip codes can be retrieved using:

Utah Cares (website): https://utahcares.utah.gov/

If you would like information regarding other Certified or Licensed provider types not listed in the above resources please contact the Utah Health Facility Licensing, Certification and Resident Assessment Bureau at (801) 538-6158 or toll free at 1-800-662-4157.

Some helpful government publications designed to help you choose a nursing home include:

Nursing Homes : Making the Right Choice National Institute on Aging. (2007). Nursing Homes: Making the Right Choice. (also available as a PDF, 6 p., and in Spanish.

Guide to Choosing a Nursing Home Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Guide to Choosing a Nursing Home (PDF, 68 p. Also available in Spanish.

National Center for Assisted Living, American Health Care Association. (2003). Planning Ahead: A Consumer’s Guide to Nursing Facilities.

For additional helpful government resources and publications please visit the
MedlinePlus topic: Nursing Homes :
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/nursinghomes.html

Checklists for making a nursing home selection, along with Utah-specific facility brochures and other background information, are available at the Utah Health Care Association’s Web site, http://www.uthca.org/Programs/.

Get an Early Start on Your Taxes

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The IRS has placed its comprehensive free tax guide for individuals online.

Publication 17 has been updated with important changes for 2008, including information on the new recovery rebate credit, new first-time-home buyer credit, and an additional standard deduction for real estate taxes.

As in prior years, the publication provides information on how to file an individual tax return, what to include as income, how to calculate capital gains and losses, how IRAs and other expenses can affect how much income to report, whether to take the standard deduction or itemize, and how to figure taxes and credits.

It has been published annually by the IRS for more than 65 years and has been available on the IRS Web site since 1996.

Download Publication 17: Your Federal Income Tax : For Use in Preparing 2008 Returns (PDF, 299 p.).

Your Federal Income Tax (2008)

Please help reduce the cost to government and save trees in the process by accessing it online. The bonus to you is that the PDF version is searchable and the online version contains more than 900 interactive links.

For those who do not have access to the Internet can call 1-800-829-3676 to request a free copy from the IRS.Printed copies will be available in January 2009.

Utah Photos in Online Government Digital Libraries

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Wilson Arch south of Moab, UtahAre you in need of that perfect Utah photo for your library website?   Did you know that U.S. Federal government agencies offer some of the richest collections of photos relating to Utah?  If you rely on Google Images for finding photos of Utah, you’re missing the big picture.     

The Bureau of Land Management, for example, has recently launched an enhanced version of their BLM Photo Library, http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/bpd.html, that contains 60,000 digital photographs in the public domain of landscapes and historical images that primarily of public lands in 12 Western state including Utah. The Utah photos include those of arches, rock formations, scenery, rangeland, wild mustangs, cowboys, Indian rock art, and oil and mineral extraction.  The collection cannot be browsed and retrieving images using the search is dicey because search terms have to match those in the limited metadata associated with each photo.  Searches for features and places seem to retrieve the best results.  Because the photos are in the public domain, this may be a great resource for teachers, webmasters, local governments, and those needing photos for tourism and related needs.  A shopping cart feature allows users to collect several images and then download them in a compressed folder.
Some other federal government agencies that have large public collections of photographs of scenes in Utah include:

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