Alabama Library Association Government Documents Roundtable September 2019 Volume 2, Issue 3
GODORT Connection Moderator’s Corner I hope everyone had a nice summer. According to the academic and school calendars, fall is already here. Before too long we will actually see fall arrive in terms of the calendar year. As Editor Kelly Wilson pointed out earlier, 2019 is a year of many important anniversaries. This time around you will find articles concerning the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, the fiftieth anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, and the hundredth anniversary of the passage of prohibition. The world of government documents/information continues to provide important and fascinating primary sources concerning these important historical anniversaries. Whether it is high school students, university students, academic researchers, or members of the general public who are looking for information on these topics (and others), government documents remain a vital, authoritative, and very relevant resource. As the History and Political Science Librarian at my library, I very frequently make use of government documents whether it is helping a student or faculty member locate relevant information or teaching a library instruction session. As we all know, government information of a more current nature and going far beyond the fields of History or Political Science is very relevant as we help our patrons locate information on everything from health care to career information to retirement and disability income, and so much more. Still in the early planning stages, but we are hoping to present a webinar either later this fall or early 2020. We are also investigating a possible program concerning the U.S. Census for the ALLA annual convention to be held in Birmingham in April next year. GODORT is presently a rather small round table, but things are happening and there are opportunities to participate. I encourage ALLA members who are not yet members of GODORT to come and join us and become a GODORT member. You DO NOT need to have a background in Government Documents to participate. The world of government information is vast and it really does touch on a wide variety of library issues. Tim Dodge ALLA Moderator
This is an image of Apollo 11 Spacecraft Commander Neil Armstrong (front) and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin E. Aldrin (rear). Retrieved from https:// www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2019635073/resource/
Inside this issue ALLA GODORT Steering Committee….….…….2 50th Anniversary of Apollo 11 Moon Landing..…3 25th Anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide....…...4 100th Anniversary of Prohibition…….…….……..5 Questions for the Community…………………….6 What’s Happening?.................................................6
Officers
Tim Dodge, GODORT Moderator 2019 - 2020 He has been employed at Auburn University Libraries since 1992, starting out as a government documents reference librarian. Since 2000, he has worked in the Reference Department at Auburn University. He began working as AU's History librarian in 2000 and as their Political Science subject specialist in 2008. Tim held previous positions as a special collections librarian and archivist, serials librarian, and reference librarian at the University of New Hampshire (twice) and at Barry University (Miami, FL). Tim has held numerous offices in the Alabama Library Association including President (2004-2005) and Moderator-
Elect and Moderator of GODORT in 1994-1996. He has also held numerous offices in the Alabama Association of College and Research Libraries including President (20002001 and 2008-2009), and is currently President of the Southeastern Library Association. Under the name Dr. Hepcat, Tim Dodge has hosted the Golden Oldies radio show on WEGL – Auburn FM 91.1 since May 1998. His radio career extends back to 1975, and Tim is the author of The School of Arizona Dranes: Gospel Music Pioneer (Lexington Books, 2013). He is also the author of Rhythm and Blues Goes Calypso (Lexington Books, 2019).
OPEN POSITION: GODORT Moderator-Elect, 20192020 We are currently looking for someone to volunteer for the Alabama Library Association’s GODORT Moderator-Elect position. According to the GODORT Bylaws, the official role of the Moderator-Elect is as follows: “The Moderator-elect shall perform the duties of the Moderator in the absence of the Moderator; shall be a member of the Steering Committee; shall be responsible for the program at
the annual meeting; shall serve as Membership Chairperson; and shall serve as an aide to the Moderator.” Furthermore, the Moderator-Elect takes part in the Steering Committee which provides leadership for the round table, which includes meeting regularly. For more information, please contact Tim Dodge at dodgeti@auburn.edu.
OPEN POSITION: GODORT Secretary 2019 - 2020 We are currently looking for someone to volunteer for the Alabama Library Association’s GODORT Secretary position. According to the GODORT Bylaws, the official role of the secretary is as follows: “The Secretary-Treasurer shall handle correspondence, keep minutes of general and Steering Committee meetings, be empowered to receive and authorize the disbursement of funds as approved
2
by the Association treasurer, and keep necessary and proper records.” Furthermore, the Secretary takes part in the Steering Committee which provides leadership for the round table, which includes meeting regularly. For more information, please contact Tim Dodge at dodgeti@auburn.edu.
Fifty Years Ago: The Apollo 11 Moon Landing
By: Tim Dodge, Auburn University at Montgomery For many of us, it is hard to believe that the Apollo 11 expedition, which saw the arrival of human beings on the moon for the very first time, took place fifty years ago on July 20, 1969. I was 12 years old and I remember my father waking me up to see the great event on our family’s black-and-white television set. At first I was irritated (even as a kid, I suffered from insomnia) but then, as it dawned on me just what I was watching, I recall a sense of amazement and excitement. The moon landing was one of the few occasions for national pride and unity in a time of serious division and turmoil when the country was engulfed in the increasingly unpopular Vietnam War, racial unrest, and the countercultural revolution which pitted older and younger generations against one another. Personal nostalgia aside, the Apollo 11 moon landing was a significant event in American and world history representing the culmination of President John F. Kennedy’s vision set forth in his May 25, 1961, address to Congress. Looking at the Congressional Record, it is important to note the Cold War background of the space race. In his address, President Kennedy introduces his vision for a moon landing by setting the context: “Finally, if we are to win the battle that is going on around the world between freedom and tyranny…” noting the 1957 launch of the Sputnik satellite by the Soviet Union as a competing factor in “the determination of which road they [the populations of the Southern Hemisphere] should take.”1 Perhaps the most famous line in the address is, “First, I believe that this Nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth.”2 This ambitious goal was achieved although, sadly, Kennedy did not live to see it accomplished. The space race between the United States and the Soviet Union started in response to the October 4, 1957, launch of the Sputnik satellite which drew both fear and admiration. The Soviet Union once again beat the United States to the punch when, in 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space, and to also orbit the earth. With the exploits of Alan Shepard as the first American in space later in 1961 (he also later went to the moon in 1971) and John Glenn in 1962 as the first American to orbit the earth, the space race was fully engaged and the American space program began its rapid development in the 1960s. NASA (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration) introduced several programs to develop the technology needed for such an ambitious project as reaching the moon including Projects Mercury and Gemini. Aside from huge expense, the space race always entailed a level of danger. Tragically, the first Apollo launch, Apollo 1, was cut short by a fire on January 27, 1967, that killed the three astronauts on board and destroyed the command module. Congress launched a formal investigation over 3000 pages long in several volumes: Subcommittee on NASA Oversight of the Committee on Science and Astronautics, U.S. House of Representatives: Investigation into Apollo 204 Accident (Washington: U.S. Government Printing office, 1967). Despite this disaster, the Apollo program continued setting the stage for the July 20, 1969, moon landing. The official Apollo 11 Mission Report published by NASA in 1971 (NASA – SP 238) provides a highly technical record of events. Consulting Chapter 16 “Anomaly Summary,” there
were 28 problems or “anomalies” described, some with illustrations provided, ranging from minor irritations such as an odor of burned wire insulation in the docking tunnel and small spurts of water into one of the space suits to rather alarming situations such as a service propulsion nitrogen leak. Every anomaly described ends with the statement, “This anomaly is closed.”3 The most serious anomaly faced by the crew of Apollo 11 was the one listed as “Computer Alarms during Descent.” The fairly dense technical description begins with the statement, “The alarms were of the Executive overflow type, which signify that the guidance computer cannot accomplish all of the data processing requested in a computation cycle…”4 The significance of this statement is likely lost on most non-technological readers (including me), however, this anomaly was actually a serious threat to the success of the mission and could have resulted in the death of astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. The third astronaut, Michael Collins, remained safely aboard the command vessel while Armstrong and Aldrin made the final descent to the moon’s surface by a separate vessel, the moon lander, the Eagle of “the Eagle has landed” fame. As the Eagle was rapidly descending, Aldrin and Armstrong were required to take new altitude measurements to ensure a smooth and accurate landing. However, when Aldrin entered a request to compare the landing craft’s calculated position to its actual position on the radar, instead of an answer, he was met by an emergency tone plus a message displayed as “error code 1202.” Armstrong radioed Mission Control back on earth in Houston who clarified that this meant the Eagle’s computer had saved navigation data but had, otherwise, essentially crashed which meant that Aldrin and Armstrong were left to navigate the Eagle lacking crucial information to ensure a safe landing. This scenario was repeated five times in four minutes. It was a case of the computer’s information processing power being overloaded.5 While not obvious at the time in 1969, this “anomaly” reveals just how dangerous and heroic the mission of Apollo 11 was. There are a number of government documents pertaining to the Apollo 11 mission available both in print and, in some cases, freely online produced by or under the auspices of NASA, the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, and Congress, some of which are referenced here. Quite a few newspaper and journal articles are available as well as books including First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong by Auburn University History Professor Emeritus James Hansen. References: 1. President John F. Kennedy. “Urgent National Needs – Address of the President of the United States,” Congressional Record 107: 7 (May 25, 1961. Daily ed., H8881. 2. Ibid, H 8881 3. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Apollo 11 Mission Report .Washington, D.C.: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1971. (NASA SP-238), 178-201. 4. Ibid,190. 5. Stephen Witt. “Mission Out of Control,” Wired, Vol. 27, Issue 87 (July/August 2019), 144-150.
3
Further Reading: Illinois Holocaust & Genocide Commission Statement by the President on 1994 Rwanda Genocide (George W. Bush) U.S. Embassy in Rwanda— Rwandan Genocide USAID—History of USAID/ Rwanda [Article] Rwanda – lasting imprints of a genocide: trauma, mental health and psychosocial conditions in survivors, former prisoners and their children Editorial: Rwanda Genocide
25th Anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide
By: Kelly Wilson, Troy University
Twenty-five years ago, during the Summer of 1994, I was 8 years old. I do not remember exactly what I did that Summer, as it passed like so many others. While I spent my days playing outside, reading books, or watching TV, almost 8,000 miles away, in a small country in Central Africa, hundreds of thousands of people were fighting for their lives. Struggling to survive. Hiding. Praying. Pleading for help. But help took its sweet time to arrive. Nations around the world turned their backs on Rwanda. Turned their backs on their screams and their cries. Like so many other nations, Rwanda experienced a civil war. In 1990, their civil war began “when refugee Tutsis and their allies under the banner of the Rwandan Patriotic Front launched a more aggressive military campaign” which was used to “demonize all Tutsis and massacred Tutsi civilians on several occasions over the next few years” (Texas Holocaust and Genocide Commission). The United Nations (UN) attempted to help, but their peace agreement fell through when, in April 1994, the plane carrying President Habyarimana was shot down. Seeing this as an opportunity, the Hutu extremists began their genocidal violence not only on the Tutsi people, but on Hutu who were suspected of being Tutsi sympathizers. According to Lemarchand, it is believed that this violence stemmed from a straightforward rational choice, dictated by
the logic of survival: Either we kill them first, or else we’ll be killed. Thus framed, the logic of the ‘security dilemma’ left no alternative but to annihilate the enemies of the nation, the Tutsi” (p. 491). Over the next few months, upwards of 800,000 men, women, and children were slaughtered. In some instances, women were even raped in front of their children before being murdered. As I mentioned earlier, nations turned their backs on the suffering in Rwanda. According to the Texas Holocaust and Genocide Commission (THGC), “Although UN armed forces under General Romeo Dallaire had been in Rwanda at the start of the genocide, the international body had actually prevented them from taking necessary action to stop the violence.” In the U.S., “many prominent figures wholly refused to label the events collectively as genocide, for fear that the UN Genocide Convention would then require a more direct intervention” (THGC). Many Western nations went so far as to “recall their own citizens from Rwanda via an emergency airlift” (THGC). The Rwandan Genocide lasted 100 days. To date, several of those who led the genocide are still at large. INTERPOL and many other organizations are constantly seeking new information. Lists of the fugitives can be found around the internet and across multiple government sites.
Reference Lemarchand, Rene. (2008). The 1994 Rwanda genocide. In S. Totten & W. S. Parsons (Eds.), Century of genocide: Critical essays and eyewitness accounts (483-504). New York, NY: Routledge.
This is a partial image taken at the Kigali Memorial Centre in Rwanda. Image retrieved from: https:// commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/ File:Kigali_Memorial_Centre_5.jpg
4 Image retrieved from: https://gdb.voanews.com/E43D9ED3-1918-42EC-A6A01F8C958A9352_w1023_r1_s.jpg
One Hundred Years Ago: The Volstead Act Is Passed, Leads to Prohibition
By Tim Dodge, Auburn University at Montgomery
On October 28, 1919, the Senate, following the House of Representatives on October 27, voted to override President Woodrow Wilson’s veto of H.R. 6810, “An Act to Prohibit Intoxicating Beverages, and to Regulate Manufacture, Production, Use, and Sale of High-Proof Spirits, for Other than Beverage Purposes…” (more commonly known as the Volstead Act after its sponsor, Rep. Andrew J. Volstead, Republican–MN). Public Law 66-66 was now official.1 The law went into effect on January 16, 1920, ushering in the decade known to posterity as the Roaring Twenties, thanks, in part, to the American public’s response to the prohibition placed on alcohol. Although there had been some sentiment for eliminating alcohol or at least moderating its availability from early colonial times, it was not until the 1820’s and 1830’s that an actual temperance movement began. This was an era of reform and concern over social ills ranging from criminality (and the rise of imprisonment as a solution) to the abolition of slavery, and to a growing interest in women’s rights. Evangelical Protestant Christianity contributed to the growing interest in temperance, which led to prohibition over the course of the 19th century. One of the most effective prohibition advocates was Carry Nation, famous to this day for wielding a hatchet as she and her supporters engaged in violent destruction of saloons and bars. This sensationalistic approach to prohibition turned out to be effective and helped persuade public opinion. Nation’s vigorous approach to temperance and prohibition was informed by personal experience: her first husband was an alcoholic who died after two years of marriage, leaving her with an infant daughter and a mother-in-law to support on her own.2 To enact prohibition on a national level, prohibitionists realized the U.S. Constitution would need to be amended. The first attempt was made by U.S. Representative Henry Blair (Republican–NH) in 1876.3 It was not until 1913 that the influential Anti-Saloon League began a concentrated effort which resulted in success in 1919. Some of the congressional testimony makes for interesting reading. One good example is found in hearings held before the Subcommittee of the Committee on the Judiciary (Senate) April 16, 25, and May 1, 1914. Starting things off on April 16, the Rev. Edwin C. Dinwiddie, Legislative Superintendent of the National Anti-saloon [sic] League introduced Senator Morris Sheppard (Democrat—TX), sponsor of the prohibition amendment. Sen. Sheppard made his case: “The liquor traffic is a permanent menace to the Nation. It is the distribution for profit of a habit-producing drug in liquid form, a seductive poison that breaks down the vital processes of the body, destroys the capacity to resist disease, undermines intelligence, strength and health, impairs the moral senses, composes the chief source of poverty, insanity, feeble-mindedness, sickness, crime, and transmits an hereditary taint that seriously handicaps posterity. It is the enemy of virtue, honor, manhood, all that life holds sacred, all that life holds true.”4 Although the proposed 18th Amendment was defeated in the House of Representatives in 1914, efforts to introduce it continued and Sen. Sheppard successfully reintroduced the amendment on June 11, 1917, as S.J. Res. 17. After going through the usual procedure of amendments and passage by both the Senate and the House, S.J. Res. 17 was passed by the House on Dec. 17, 1917, and then the Senate on Dec. 18 before then being sent to the states for ratification. 5 A handful of states either rejected ratification or did not act on it before the 18th Amendment was certified for adoption on January 29, 1919. 6 Prohibition went into effect on January 17, 1920. The victory of the prohibitionists did not last long. Promptly, drinking went underground, bootleggers flourished, and organized crime took off as gangsters such as Al Capone stepped in to meet the demand for alcohol. Numerous enterprising individuals operated whiskey stills or engaged in the homemade production of “bathtub gin” to circumvent the law and meet the alcohol demand. Another ironic side-effect of prohibition was the public health risks taken by individuals who sought to meet their thirst for alcohol through the consumption of dangerous substitutes for the beer and spirits they might have purchased legitimately before 1920. Jamaica Ginger, a heavily alcoholic patent medicine, remained legal (as a prescription) but its heavy consumption by some resulted in genuine health
problems rather than well-being. Some corrupt entrepreneurs added adulterations to Jamaica Ginger and this led to tens of thousands of consumers suffering from partial paralysis, sometimes as a permanent condition.7 A condition popularly known as “jake leg” (partial paralysis with a distinctive limp) was the result. The band Mississippi Sheiks recorded the very topical “Jake Leg Blues” for the Okeh label in 1930. Tommy Johnson recorded “Canned Heat Blues” in 1928 on the Victor label. “Canned heat” referred to the alcohol that could be strained out of Sterno, a heating fuel. Sadly, “Canned Heat” reflected Johnson’s reality as an alcoholic but he did live until 1956, dying at age 60.8 Numerous other examples of musical recordings inspired by, and sometimes mocking, prohibition were produced during this era. Congress initiated hearings as the public began registering its disagreement with prohibition. Organized groups such as the Association Against the Prohibition Amendment, the Moderation League, and the Constitutional Liberty League of Massachusetts expressed their opposition to prohibition or at least sought compromise legislation to decrease the strictness of the Volstead Act. 9 Starting in 1920, lawsuits reached the U.S. Supreme Court arguing against the constitutionality of the 18th Amendment without success. Finally, the beginning of the Great Depression in 1929, followed by the election of 1932 that brought Democrats to power, helped anti-prohibitionists push through the 21st Amendment which abolished the 18th Amendment. (The states then ratified this amendment). The federal government, under desperate financial pressure from the Great Depression, began to view alcohol as a source of revenue and employment. Most Democrats by this point were strongly associated with the effort to repeal prohibition and with their election to both Congress and the presidency, most Republican supporters of prohibition gave up the effort to maintain prohibition in the face of public disapproval. 10 President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in signing the proclamation of the 21st Amendment on December 5, 1933, felt obliged to acknowledge the concerns of prohibition supporters. Roosevelt declared, “The policy of the Government will be to see to it that the social and political evils that have existed in the pre-prohibition era shall not be revived nor permitted again to exist. We must remove forever from our midst the menace of the bootlegger and such others as would profit at the expense of good government, law and order.”11 References 1. “An Act to Prohibit Intoxicating Beverages, and to Regulate Manufacture, Production, Use…” (P.L. 66-66, Oct. 28, 1919). United States at Large, 41 (1919). 305-323. 2. Jack S. Blocker, Jr. “Carry Nation” in John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes, General Editors. A merican National Biography (New York: Oxford University press, 1999), Vol. 16, 249. 3. “Eighteenth Amendment,” John R. Vile, ed. Encyclopedia of Constitutional Amendments, Proposed Amendments and Amending Issues, 1789-2015 (Santa Barbara, Ca: ABC-CLIO, 2015), Vol. 1, 155. 4. U.S. Senate, Subcommittee of the Committee on the Judiciary. A mendment to the Constitution Prohibiting Intoxicating Liquors. April 16 and 25 and May 1, 1914. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1914. (Y4.J89/2:L66/3/rev.ed) 4. 5. U.S. Senate. Subcommittee on the Constitution. Committee on the Judiciary. A mendments to the Constitution: A Brief Legislative History. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1985, 51-52. 6. Ibid., 53 and “Certificate of Adoption of the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution.” (January 28, 1919). United States Statutes at Large, 40, 1941. 7. John Parascandola. “The Public health Service and Jamaica Ginger Paralysis in the 1930s.” Public Health Reports, v. 110, no. 3 (May-June 1995), 362. 8. Paul Oliver. “Tommy Johnson” in H. Wiley Hitchcock and Stanley Saide, eds. The New Grove Dictionary of A merican Music (New York: Grove’s Dictionaries of American Music, 1986), v. 2, 586. 9. U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary. 1924. Proposed Modification of the Prohibition Law to Permit the Manufacture, Sale, and Use of 2.75 Per Cent Beverages, Part 1. April 21-22, 30, May 8, 14, 21, 1924. Washington: Government Printing Office, 5. 10.“Twenty—First Amendment,” Vile, ed. Encyclopedia of Constitutional Amendments, Vol. 2, 484-485. 11.“Date of Repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment by the President of the United States of America.” (December 5, 1933). United States at Large, 48, 1721-1722.
Questions for the Government Documents Community! Alabama Library Association GODORT Provides a forum for librarians working with government documents. Objectives also include the promotion of availability, use and bibliographic control of documents; and the promotion of communication between documents librarians and other librarians. GODORT is an affiliate of the American Library Association. Membership is open to any member of the Association who subscribes to the objectives of the roundtable.
Submit Your Work Do you have an interesting experience with local, state or federal government information? Write up an article and share it with us! You can send it to: Tim Dodge: dodgeti@auburn.edu
Kelly Wilson: kelly.m.wilson2011@gmail.com
Edited by Jessica Platt jplatt@alasu.edu
Please feel free to answer one, two, or all of the questions! Questions Posed for this issue: 1. What topics would you like to read about in upcoming issues of the GODORT Connection? 2. What question(s) would you like to pose to the Alabama government documents community? (These will appear in the Summer 2019 issue around July.) Access the Google Form here: https://forms.gle/4EeCYjqSSZVrKeHbA.
What’s Happening? We are currently seeking volunteers for both the
Moderator-Elect and Secretary positions for ALLA GODORT. Please contact Tim Dodge (dodgeti@auburn.edu) for more information. The Troy University Library in Troy, AL, is currently housing the Remnant Trust. It will be there until the week of Thanksgiving. It is open to the public during the library’s normal open hours. Some of the artifacts currently at Troy include the following: The Federalist (1st ed.) Leviathan (1st ed.) The Prince (1st American ed.) Quran Manuscript (from the late 18th Century) Torah (Scroll from the 16th Century) Magna Carta (Manuscript from ca. 1350) Fables of Aesop (1st ed.) And much more!!!