University Daily Kansan, April 22, 1982
Page 8
U.S. government documents has something for everyone
TRACEY THOMPSON/Kansan Staff
TRACE THEMATIC MARION Howey, supervisor of the government documents department at the Spencer Research Library, helps Jeff Flottman, Lawrence junior, trace recent congressional action through the Congressional Index.
By DOUG CUNNINGHAM Staff Reporter
Pick any topic, and the U.S. government probably publishes a document about it.
From a report on tornado deaths in Kansas to one on air leakage in refrigerated vans to census statistics from 1855, the KU libraries' government office provides students and faculty with information on almost any subject.
"A lot of things appear in government documents that can't be found elsewhere," George McCleary, Jr., associate professor of geography, said yesterday. McCleary is one of a number of professors who have their students enrolled in the department's business in the basement of the Kenneth Knennery Research Library.
Marion Howey, who supervises the department, said it was one of 18 regional depositories for government documents. History, economics and management were the 843,364 government documents and 225,384 pieces of microfilm deal with.
"We have such a wide scope that there should be something for almost any class." Howey said.
THE DEPARTMENT gets every document the Government Printing Office prints for the depository system, she said.
"We have a fine British collection," she said.
The most popular material is the U.S. Census Bureau data, she said. The department has census data from 1855 to the present, although it is missing the 1800 census, because that data burned before copies could be distributed.
KU's depository, started in 1869, is one of the oldest in the country, she said.
"Therefore, our collections is both historical and very current," she said.
Diplomatic records from the State Department go back to 1899, and congressional documents date back to 1789.
But not everything in the documents department is old. The latest issue of the Congressional Record is never more than a few days old. Howey said.
Tracing legislation through the congressional process, from introduction as a bill to bearings and passage, has grown in recent years. Howard said.
"I enjoy helping people trace legislation because of the current awareness," she said.
The world food problem and military
unrest are some of the things that have made people more aware, she said.
Translations of foreign newspaper articles and journals give students a different viewpoint on other countries, she said.
"It's their slant," Howey said.
THESE TRANSLATIONS, published by the Joint Publications Research Service, are quite popular, she said. The magazine Papers, are strangely neglected.
"They've never been asked for," she said.
The department also has more unusual documents.
"We have documents on infant care, we have recipes from the Department of Agriculture, we even have comic books written by our U.S. government, of course."
Except for duplicates and material later placed on microfilm, the department cannot throw anything away.
"We have to maintain one copy of everything that comes in here," she said.
The department stopped cataloging documents from the U.S. government, and it wasn't until 1986 that hein. Howey said. Instead of a standard library catalog, library patrons
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must use a special book index to find the U.S. material they need.
"I could measure the empty shelves, but that wouldn't do any good. There's no way to tell what the government's going to issue," she said.
But she said there was no way to predict what documents the federal government would issue, except for certain periodicals and journals. "We have to speculate on when the documents department will run out of space."
At the present rate material is coming in, the department should have enough room for five more years.
The documents department has been getting more use in recent years, she said.
With the end of the semester nearing, many students are working on term papers and doing other research in the field. I think it's time they've been there. Howey said.
"Every year I have students tell me, I wish I had known about this place last year," she said.
By JIM LEHNER Staff Reporter
Analyst predicts change in Venezuela
Venezuela will join its neighbors in Latin America by becoming an authoritarian state after nearly 25 years of democracy, a Latin American analyst told a University of Miami audience of about 30 yesterday.
James Maloy, who has spent some time in Venezuela for the University Field Staff International, titled his speech "Venezuela in the '80s."
He said that Venezuela was able to remain a democracy during the '60s and '70s, while the other Latin American countries fell prey to dictatorships, because it had oil as a deterrent.
"The price boom of oil in the mid-70s kept Venezuela's capital accumulations above water," Maloy said. "The critical features of their system were their consumption rate versus their capital assets.
"They followed a state capitalism
model, and their gross national product grew 5.4 percent from 1958-79."
He said that the most dynamic growth rate occurred in the manufacturing and the service industry, which accounted for 18.5 percent of the gross product.
"The service sector had played a vital role," he said. However, the agricultural sector had not grown.
"The dominant influence on the economy was the export sector and the petroleum sector," he said. "The key to Venezuela's well-being was not the oil growth but the increase in prices it was getting for its oil."
"State capitalism is dependent on oil revenue and borrowing. There was a dramatic increase in per capita income. It now has been declining," he said.
Maloy said that in the '80s Venezuela would join the rest of the countries suffering the same kind of downward economic trends.
"Its government will become more authoritarian as a result of its
Main problems in the system are that the consumption rate had dramatically increased while the capital assets declined.
exhaustion of import substitute growth," he said.
A problem in the system was that the creation of income distribution had not been spread equally throughout the masses. He said that it had excluded the large rural population and the people who were marginally surviving in the urban areas.
He said that the large dropoff in the price of oil was hurting them immensely and that production in general had declined.
Maley saw troubled times for Venezuela over the next five years. He said that the outcome would be a strengthened executive branch, with the corporate structure getting stronger as well.
He said that the elites would be hard-pressed in trying to keep their policy with the likelihood of a military coup in the offing.
Students save with all-sports tickets
The athletic department staff is getting a head start selling next year's all-sports ticket package to KU students.
In the past three days, the athletic department has been able to sell 172 tickets, Richard Konzem, ticket manager, said yesterday.
Konzem he said he hoped to sell more tickets at Wescoe Hall today and tomorrow because he thought the cooler weather this week might be better for him, by the booth. However, Konzem said he was pleased with sales so far:
"I'm fairly pleased because this is the first time we've ever done something like this," he said. "If students continue to buy, we worth it."
to raise prices.
This summer, tickets will be sold in the ticket office at Allen Field House.
the air-sports package costs $45 and includes a student season football ticket, a student season basketball ticket, a student season golf ticket, the special package saves students $12.
Separately, the football ticket is $25.50, the basketball ticket is $28 and the Kansas Relays ticket is $3.50. The total price for all three would be $57.
Konzem said the lower ticket prices were designed to attract the students who "were on the fringe."
He said that some students were really interested in the sports and would go to the games regardless of the prices charged for tickets, but that
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other students were more cost-conscious.
But Konem said the athletic department had tried to use the incoming freshmen as their target group, whom they wanted the most sales.
"Freshmen buy every KUT shirt and mug they can get their hands on," Konzem said.
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WOMEN'S RECOGNITION 1982
APRIL 26 8:00 P.M. KANSAS ROOM, UNION
Speaker: Kayla Stroup, Vice President for Academic Affairs Emporia State University, former Dean of Women University of Kansas
Awards: Outstanding Woman Student Athletics
International Woman Student
Women's Rights/Women's Awareness
Non-Traditional Woman Student
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Outstanding Woman Staff Member Outstanding Woman Teacher
HALL OF FAME
Reception: Watkins Room, Union
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Paid for by Student Activity Fee