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April 3, 2006.
Kristy Moon, editor.
National Library Week
Sponsored annually by the American Library Association since 1958, National
Library Week celebrates our nation’s libraries by promoting the use and support
of all types of libraries – academic, public, corporate, etc. This year,
National Library Week takes place April 2-8 and the Gallagher Law Library is
taking part in the celebration with the following activities.
Faculty Profiles
Visit the Library and take a look at our posters and profiles for select
faculty members. Find out what their favorite books are, what their toughest
law school courses were, their childhood ambitions, and more! The photos and
profiles also will be posted on the Law Library website.
Legal Research Crossword Puzzle
Pick up the puzzle at the Circulation Desk and submit your answers by 5:00 PM
on Friday, April 7. Correctly completed puzzles will be put in a drawing for
two $10 gift certificates to the University Bookstore. If no puzzles are
completed correctly, those that are completed at least half correctly will be
entered into the drawing.
Candy Contest
Guess the number of M&Ms in a glass jar! The candy jar and entry forms will
be at the Circulation Desk until 5:00 PM on Friday, April 7. The person who
guesses closest to the exact number wins the jar and all of the candy.
The Library also will provide free candy all week (or until supply runs out)
in the Law Student Lounge and Reference Office.
Trivia Contest Deadline Is Friday
Test your knowledge of diplomatic, official, and social protocol. Pick up a
trivia contest entry form in the Reference Office and return your answers by
Friday, April 7 for a chance to win small prizes!
Tax Returns
The filing deadline is approaching fast. Although we can’t fill out your tax
forms for you, we can certainly help you locate the forms you’re looking for –
visit the Reference Office, call 543-6794, or check out our guide at
http://lib.law.washington.edu/ref/taxforms.html.
Book of the Week
by Mary Whisner
Charles O. Rossotti, Many Unhappy Returns: One Man’s Quest to Turn Around
the Most Unpopular Organization in America (HJ2361 .R667 2005 at Classified
Stacks).
After a successful career in business, Charles Rossotti agreed to take the
top spot at the Internal Revenue Service at a time when its approval rating was
at an all-time low, congressional hearings were exposing terrible mishandling
of taxpayers, and the agency was limping along with outdated technology. In
Many Unhappy Returns, he recounts his experiences during the five years he
served as the IRS commissioner (1997-2002). One commissioner said of the job:
"The hours are impossible, the pay is lousy – but you get lots of abuse."
(p.42) Nonetheless, Rossotti kept at it and turned the agency around.
Rossotti describes several incidents where people you’d expect to be
knowledgeable about the agency (e.g., tax lawyers or accountants) were
astonished at some aspect of the IRS’s internal workings. To communicate the
need for modernization to skeptical Congressional and Treasury staffers, he
rented a bus and took them first to a credit card call center in Wilmington
(highly computerized, efficient) and then to the IRS service center in
Philadelphia (cramped spaces; employees referring to computer, paper manual,
and hand-held calculator – and the computer database was only updated weekly
while the paper manuals often didn’t reflect the latest changes in the code or
the regs). "An observer did not require a degree in computer science to see why
taxpayers who called MBNA in the morning and the IRS in the afternoon were
likely to be disappointed by the IRS, no matter how hard the agency employees
tried." (p. 200)
This book is not just for tax specialists. Many Unhappy Returns is
published by the Harvard Business School Press (in partnership with the Kennedy
School of Government) as part of a series exploring the role of leaders in
business, government, and society. Even though the IRS is distinctive in many
regards, many of the lessons Rossotti sketches are applicable to other
organizations. It’s an interesting peek at an administrative agency’s workings
from the inside. It offers an interesting perspective on congressional
oversight, legislation, and working with the president’s administration. (Note
that he served under both President Clinton and President Bush.) |
