June 1976 RAIN Page 11 --------------------------------••• • ~.La The Vancouver Book Chuck Davis, Ed. 109-525 Seymour St. Vancouver, BC, Canada Chuck Davis wrote saying the Book would be out in about 3 weeks (from April 23). It is a uniquely designed venture involving the work of around 200 Vancouver writers. Covers a gamut of information about Vancouver, and by all indications should be a model for other cities. Supported by the City of Vancouver, the catalog includes history, government and administration, climate, soil, birds, architecture, map sources, history of corporations, crafts directory, legal, health, energy resources-even "comic books in Vancouver." It may also be the first "Peoples Yellow Pages" type catalog supported by a city government. Chuck reports there are already plans for a Toronto Book. 500-plus pages. $10.95 (SJ) B.C. Alternative Alternative Community Group 1520 West 6th Ave. Vancouver, BC, Canada This, along with the Vancouver Book (odd they are both from B.C. area), are examples of what is a natural evolutionary trend, the consolidation of phone book type directory with magazine and/ or whole earth catalog supplements (or now: Co-Evolution Quarterly). Very fine job. Access to British Columbia. $2. (SJ) North Idaho Access Box 8367 Moscow, ID 83843 An excellent informative access patalog to Idaho. $1.94. (SJ) Peoples Yellow Pages, Seattle Community Information Center Box 12002 Seattle, WA 98112 Probably the best overall guide to Seattle. $1.89 (SJ) Spokane Resource Handbook, prepared by: University Year in Action Eastern Washington State College Cheney, WA 99004 A 71-page directory to social services in the Spokane area. (SJ) Bureau of Governmental Research & Service University of Oregon Box 3177 Eugene, OR 97403 They publish comprehensive bibliographies, related to community/city management and design, mostly keyed to Oregon, but some general, and with an emphasis on cataloging of state reports and papers. (SJ) 1nnn11 COMMUNITY INVENTORIES Tnnnn ,~mmJJ ~''m~m .m.,1, , ::~,m nRhpm ,~rn~~,, °\'.;,111~m ,,, ,,, Eugene Contact: A Directory of Community Information Resources Special Libraries Association University of Oregon Eugene, OR 97324 A very good guide, though especially designed to help librarians, with a focus on information. This directory sure serves as an important foot in the door of information exchange in Eugene. 1974 (SJ) Directory of Human Services, Washington County, Oregon Washington County Community Action Organization 546 S.E. Baseline Hillsboro, OR 9712 3 An exhaustive, county-wide inventory of services, groups, and organizations. Unlike your basic urban area social service directory because 1) it's about an area both urban and rural, 2) it includes most everything under the sun, 3) has a unique indexing system (developed by the University of Southern California), and 4) Jim Long, chief cataloger, offers workshops-even in grade schools-on how to use the catalog and how to access community information in general. The Directory also graphically illustrates the need and uses of computersif it takes 300 pages to cover a modest (but lovely) county in Oregon, what's the state or ultimate cosmic catalog look like? $4.95, includes quarterly updates. (SJ) Multnomah County Programs & Services Office of County Management 426 S.W. Stark St. Portland, OR 97204 The catalog is an attempt at cataloging the services provided by Multnomah County government, with a focus on accountability. Each description contains problem statement, objectives, productivity indicators and program costs, which may sound rather dry, but I feel it is a tool for the public by which they can better understand the structure of county government and relationships between costs and benefits. Write to Don Eichman for more information. (SJ) 1 CITY/COUNTY AND STATE AGENCY DIRECTORIES It is not a widely-known fact that there are such things because they were designed for use by the governments. But when our only access to the elaborate bureaucracies is what appears in the form of phone books, these directories become a vital tool for locating individual departments, and, equally important, they give you a more complete picture of government. Perhaps if we put enough demand for better access someone will come up with directories designed for public access. In fact, there have been attempts. The City of Portland published a problem-oriented directory to services-which until you see it you don't realize what a difference it makes, e.g. rather than dept. of this or that, you find: acupuncture, assumed business names, cable TV, copyright, etc. Also, the Dept. of Commerce (State of Oregon, Salem 97310) published a problem area indexed directory. (SJ) Federal Government Information I've found the most difficult to access. In my seeking out what's an interesting or essential service, I've sometimes turned to the U.S. Organization Manual ( Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402, $5.75). But as often I've called Federal Information. In Portland, Coral Buechler and assistants have become legendary. Several times her name comes up as an exclamation: when we can't figure out where to turn, we call the Federal Information Center. The Portland office (3 people) answers 600-650 calls a day. The Information Center answer's questions outside of official government information because, as Coral Buechler explains, "People don't know where to look for information." Seattle: 206/442-0570 Tacoma: 206/383-5230 Portland: 503/221-2222 (SJ)
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTc4NTAz