Did you know that 14% of Capella learners are part of the military? Whether active duty, veterans, reservists, or Department of Defense/Uniformed Services personnel, the military makes up a large percentage of the learners we serve.

Maybe you’re one of them. Maybe you’re a family member or friend. Maybe you’re simply interested in researching about this select group of individuals and the myriad of resources available to them and others connected to or affected by military life.

Here are a few guides and resources compiled by librarians at other institutions you may find informative and useful. In particular, each guide includes links to some wonderful web resources that provide services and information to military personnel.

• http://www.ulib.iupui.edu/subjectareas/milsci (by Kathleen Hanna at IUPUI)

• http://people.sfcollege.edu/diana.matthews/subjguide/veterans.htm (by Diana Matthews at Santa Fe College in Gainesville, FL)

• http://nnlm.gov/training/veteranshealth/webresources.pdf (compiled by Terri Ottosen at the U of Maryland Health Sciences and Human Services Library)

• http://www.wo.ala.org/veteransinfo/index.php?title=Main_Page (American Library Association’s – Veterans Information @ Your Library site)

• http://www.loc.gov/vets/ (Library of Congress Veterans History Project)

Beyond these resources, Capella also has an Armed Forces Department that supports all military and veteran learners. Visit their site on iGuide to find contact information for the Armed Forces and Veteran Support staff, as well as information about VA Resources, Tuition Assistance, Military Scholarships, and Career Resources just to name a few things.

To navigate to their website go to iGuide – click Learner Services – click Armed Forces Support — click Armed Forces Support Home.

–Jennie

In celebration, I’m going to present a few government resources (digital, but still very wordy) that may be useful for research.

First, the Government Printing Office is responsible for making available government information from all three branches.  For much of its history information was only in print form and you had to go to a depository (typically a large government, university, or public library) to access it.  Now you can find much of the government’s publications online.  One example is the U.S. Constitution along with legal commentary. 

In an earlier post I wrote about THOMAS, which provides access to the workings of Congress.  Here is the text of the Senate Resolution for Constitution Day.

As you well know, the Constitution outlines our three branches of government, which have leafed out into a seemingly endless amount of agencies, offices, statistics and publications.  There are several tools available to help you search for what you need to find:

• Google U.S. Government
• USASearch.gov
• Fedstats (only statistics)

Whenever you search for government information, it’s best to start by thinking about which portion of government might have that information. 

• Is it state, local, or federal information?
• What agency might be responsible?
• Is that something the government might NOT collect?

It’s important to remember that just because you want to know something, it doesn’t mean that the government has spent the time and money to collect, evaluate, and publish the information.  And sometimes the legislative branch officially stops the government from collecting specific kinds of information. 

Other times the government would prefer that you not know something.  They’ll only give it out if you specifically ask for it.  Many government agencies will outline their policies regarding the Freedom of Information Act.  You can also look at your state’s FOIA or sunshine laws for state government information restrictions and requirements. 

- Erin