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Daily Archives: December 6, 2017

Annual Best Places to Work in the Federal Government rankings 2017

“The annual Best Places to Work in the Federal Government® rankings are produced by the nonprofit, nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service and Deloitte. The 2017 rankings include the views of more than 498,000 civil servants from 200 federal organizations on a wide range of workplace topics. Since the first rankings were released in 2003, they have provided a mechanism to hold agency leaders accountable for the health of their organizations; serve as an early warning sign for agencies in trouble; and offer a roadmap for improvement.”

Best Places to Work Agency Rankings – “The overall rankings are determined by the Best Places to Work index score, which measures employee engagement. The Office of Personnel Management withheld employee survey data from the Partnership until the first week of December on 21 small agencies and 165 subcomponents, making it impossible to include these organizations in 2017 rankings released on December 6. The new data will be analyzed and revised rankings for small agencies and subcomponents will be released in early 2018. The index score is not a combined average of an agency’s category scores. It is calculated using a proprietary weighted formula that looks at responses to three different questions in the U.S. Office of Personnel Management’s Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey. The more the question predicts intent to remain, the higher the weighting.”

Law Library Benchmarks 2018-19 Edition

Law Library Benchmarks 2018-19 Edition (ISBN No:978-157440-484-5 ) – “The report looks closely at the current policies and plans of North American law libraries in many areas, focusing especially on plans for information spending, with specific data on databases, books, reporters, eBooks, directories, magazines, newspapers, and other information vehicles. It also gives detailed information on… Continue Reading

CRS Reports – Negotiating with North Korea

Steven Aftergood, Secrecy News: “The alternative to military conflict with North Korea over its nuclear weapons program is to advance some kind of negotiated settlement. But what would that be? And how could it be achieved? A new report from the Congressional Research Service summarizes the limited successes of past nuclear negotiations between the US… Continue Reading

Research – E-devices may interfere with science reading comprehension

Penn State News: “People who often read on electronic devices may have a difficult time understanding scientific concepts, according to a team of researchers. They suggest that this finding, among others in the study, could also offer insights on how reading a scientific text differs from casual reading. In a study, a group of adult… Continue Reading

FBI Policy on Unofficial Contact With Foreign Nationals or Suspected Criminals & Terrorists

Russ Kick, AltGov2: “Via a FOIA request, I obtained the FBI’s previously unreleased policy directive “Unofficial Contacts and Reporting Requirements.” The purpose: “This policy sets forth guidance and procedures for all FBI personnel to report unofficial contacts with foreign nationals or individuals who are or suspected of engaging in criminal or terrorist activities.” Continue Reading

4 predictions for the future of work

Stephane Kasriel, CEO, Upwork, published this article on World Economic Forum site, December 5, 2017 [read the complete article here] “As CEO of freelancing website Upwork, I am witnessing firsthand not only the immense changes within our industry, but also the speed at which they are occurring. At the World Economic Forum, where I co-chair… Continue Reading

Study – Greater future global warming inferred from Earth’s recent energy budget

Washington Post: “The climate change simulations that best capture current planetary conditions are also the ones that predict the most dire levels of human-driven warming, according to a statistical study released in the journal Nature Wednesday. The study, by Patrick Brown and Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution for Science in Stanford, Calif., examined the high-powered climate change… Continue Reading