Government Information : GovDoc Kids

Gov Doc Kids Group is a national group of government information librarians formed in 2006.  Members are primarily from the Johnson County Library, Wichita State University, the Eisenhower Presidential Library (all KS), Visiting Library Service and Muskingum University (both OH).

MISSION:

Our goal is to promote government information in order to engage K-12 students in learning about history, culture, science, and government through games and other interactive activities; to assist teachers and school librarians with locating teaching aids, lesson plans, and exciting tools to enhance students' learning, and to provide librarians with a collection of free government resources to advance their reference interview and collection development decisions.

Gov Doc Kids Group’s current projects are 1) creating links to government information resources useful to K-12 students via its wiki at http://govdocs4children.pbworks.com/, and 2) the Annual Constitution Day Poster Design Contest.  Members also make presentations at the state, regional, and national level and write articles about how to promote use of government resources to students and teachers.

VISIT US ONLINE:

Gov Doc Kids Group has an online presence in three sites:

 Gov Doc Kids Group wiki
 ALA GODORT wiki
FDLP Community site 

HISTORY

The Gov Doc Kids Group is a subgroup of the Kansas Library Association Government

Documents Round Table (KLA GODORT) and is composed of government documents librarians, a youth services librarian, and an archivist.

The group was conceived in July 2006 at a KLA GODORT workshop when a presenter was talking about promoting government documents to children. Spontaneously two librarians said to each other “Let’s do this!”

The group’s activities have grown dramatically since that moment. Group members have make presentations locally and nationally, write professional articles, and conduct an annual Constitution Day Poster Contest that draws thousands of entries from children throughout the nation and the world.

Constitution Day Poster Contest - http://jocokids.org/