RE: What libraries can do for community organizations

[Howard Fox <howard.fox@spl.org>]

On the topic of libraries collection local publications: I think it is vital that libraries make a special effort to collect (i.e., catalog and add to collections) the many reports and studies done by local government, organizations, and consultants. It takes a lot of work to track down these items and a commitment by the library to catalog them. Some libraries have pushed cities to enact ordinances to require city departments to supply the public library with copies of their reports. We haven't been able to get that enacted, but we have a librarian who has cultivated ties with city departments to get them to give up copies of their work.

I have attempted to do the same with local environmental organizations. By subscribing to local environmental listservs and newsletters, I am able to know when items are published. Most groups are more than happy to donate copies to the library and thus help them spread their message or point of view to the public.

As an anecdote: we had someone wanting water quality data for a small urban creek. The only data we found was in a city research report done several years ago, which we had luckily cataloged.