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The Alternative for Restructuring the Depository Library Program
Recommended by the Map and Geographic Information Center of the Homer
Babbidge Library, University of Connecticut.
Submitted by Patrick McGlamery, Map Librarian
October 15, 1993
The Map and Geographic Information Center at the Homer Babbidge
Library of the University of Connecticut is a unit of Library's the
Research and Information Services Department. Also in the department
are the reference and information services, microtext collection,
computer based reference services, government documents collection and
bibliographic instruction. The Center has been designated by the
Connecticut State Library as the repository for cartographic materials
distributed to the Connecticut and Rhode Island Regional Depository
Libraries. It is not part of a government depository department,
though coordinates activities and functions with the Library's
depository librarian. The Center serves as a primary spatial
information access point for university clients as well as state
agencies, private businesses and public users. The Center's online
catalog of collections is available in most public libraries in the
state through ReQuest, a CD/ROM union catalog of Connecticut's public
libraries. The Center circulates materials to users through the
Library's Inter-Library Loan Department.
Of the alternatives outlined in the discussion paper,
_Alternatives for Restructuring the Depository Library Program, a
Report to the Superintendent of Documents from the Depository Library
Council, April 1993_ the one most suitable to the Center's mission is
" G. Build on Existing Strengths to Create a System of Subject- Based
Regionals." The text of the paper follws:
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G. Build on Existing Strengths to Create a System of Subject-
Based Regionals
Many current depository libraries - both regional and selective -
have developed significant expertise in one or more subject areas. The
subject-based regional concept draws upon this developed expertise to
provide relief to those regionals having difficulties due to lack of
space, staff, and/or funding. Selective depositories with expertise in
specific subject areas or those willing to develop expertise in specific
subject areas could accept the obligations of comprehensive collection
and service in their specialization.
The subject-based regional concept would enhance an invigorated
effort to bring about closer cooperation between the information creators
(agencies), the information disseminators (GPO) and information access
points (libraries) to insure that information products are used to their
full potential. By having a smaller pool of contacts for specific subjects,
these relationships would have an improved chance of developing into
a very effective tool for improved communication.
Many of the factors important in the Super-Regional concept would
be valid here:
* Ability of the library to take on an added role
* Willingness to accept the responsibilities for
training, dissemination, archival functions, and
reference assistance within a subject field
* Prospects for bringing more "fugitive" documents
into the system since fewer copies might be needed
for special subject collections
Questions to be answered include:
* Would current regionals or other large libraries be
willing to take on the responsibility of serving a
larger area?
* What are the incentives for becoming a Subject-
based Regional?
* How would the Subject-based Regional concept
mesh with other components of the Depository
program? Would the current regionals disappear?
What geographic area would Subject-based
Regionals be expected to serve?
* How would this system compare in cost with the
current system? At what level and by whom will
costs be absorbed?
* Does it reach all user groups?
* Is access for the user quick enough to be useful and is
access certain?
It should be noted that there may be some significant overlap and
blending of possibilities within four of the scenarios, the national
library, the super-regional, the subject-based regional, and the
electronic depository. For example:
* Could a Subject-based Depository for
Environmental Protection also be the Electronic
Depository as well as serve as the National
Collection for this topic?
* Could a Super-Regional serve as the National
Collection for a particular topic based on
geographical area?
* With new technologies providing instant access -
would an exceptional National Collection library
do away with the need for Super Regionals?
Would it be a better use of resources to concentrate
everything at that level except for selective
depositories?
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The subject speciality of the Center is geographic information
which includes the analog formats: maps, charts, air photos,
gazetteers, and atlases and the digital formats: spatial data sets
such as DLGs, TIGER Line Files, and image files and spatial databases
such as digital cartography linked to census data, water pollution,
well sites. surface materials, etc. The analog formats include
paper, microfilm, microfiche. The digital formats include CD-ROM,
disk, tape casettes, tape reels, fileserver based files, remote files,
etc.
Recently, as geographic information has begun to expand from
traditional paper based maps to digital Geographic Information
Systems, the mission of the Center has been inhibited by the
Depository Program. For example, census data is received and
distributed from the reference desk. When patrons need census data
for mapping, the CD-ROM disk must be circulated to the Center. As
other geographically referenced data is distributed, questions of
appropriate storage and distribution responsibilities will have to be
determined. Geographic information is no longer map-based. Libraries
will be forced to rethink their comfortable categorization by format.
Of the factors important to the Super-Regional concept, most are
in place:
* The Center has taken on the added role as the repository of
cartographic materials for the Federal Regional Depository Libraries
of Connecticut and Rhode Island.
* The Center currently functions as the primary site for
training, dissemination, archiving and reference assistance for
geographic information in the State.
* The Center is currently working to bring in "fugitive"
documents/data on the State level.
The Center has made a concerted effort to meet the goals
paralleled in this alternative. This alternative would be the must
productive to the central mission of the University of Connecticut's
Map and Geographic Information Center.
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PATRICK MCGLAMERY
MAP LIBRARIAN U-5M
HOMER BABBIDGE LIBRARY
UNIV. OF CONNECTICUT
STORRS, CT 06268
(203) 486-4589
LIBMAP1@UCONNVM
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