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I do love the phrase:  "everything is on the Internet and free" makes my
day.  We were challenged with the same sort of nonsense from a Congressional
staffer a few years ago...Here are a few talking points that might help:

    1.  The historical items will be lost.  Don't count on someone else
saving them, not even NARA, unless you personally see them in paper format.
In fact, only two formatss are still considered legitimate...Paper and
Microfilm.

    2.  Retrospective conversion of hardcopy materials to ditital is
expensive. (It's been years since I priced it, but think on the order of
$1.00 per page as an example and do the math.  That usually gets their
attention.)

    3.  Lot's of things are free on the Internet, but there is a
trade-off...Analysts and/or customers will spend a tremendous amount of time
searching, collating, and analyzing Internet-only material, which means
Analysts and customers spend more time gathering resources.  A Library
reduces the noise ratio and allows Analysts and customers to spend more time
producing and/or decision-making.

This is quick and dirty, but maybe it will help jump start some thinking.

Tim
Tim Edwards
NGIC Library

  _____

From: FEDLIB: Federal Librarians Discussion List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Parham, Myrtis A Ms, Army G-1, APTD
Sent: Wednesday, August 03, 2005 11:02 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: FW: US International Trade Commission Law Library


All,
It looks like the US International Trade Commission Law Library needs help.
If you have had a similar experience or work in a law or business library,
you may want to contact Maureen Bryant.  Her contact info is below.

Thanks,
Ann Parham
HQ, Dept of Army
-----Original Message-----
From: Milton, Becky [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, August 03, 2005 10:48 AM
To: Ann Parham; Erika Howder; Gail Kouril; Joanne Berger; Rosemary Russo;
Una Hildebrandt; Victoria Harriston
Subject:





Hi All -



I'm writing as the chair of the DC/SLA consultation committee and am looking
for your input.



I just received a call from one of the librarian's at the US Int'l Trade
Commission Law Library.  (Message below).  .  Since everything is on the
Internet and free, she's facing a dismantling of the law library in favor of
office space for staff attorneys.  The business library has been compressed
many times over and currently has a former public librarian in charge -
mainly throwing out items.



She is most concerned about the historical items, especially statistics,
given that the business library started in 1917.



She's passed on my name to her Director of Administration so that he can
talk to someone "not emotionally involved".



Does anyone have experience with government libraries?  My experience is
more in nonprofit or for-profit special libraries.  The arguments are
similar (re: the Internet only contains x% of information, books are still
useful, etc.) but I don't know the gov't lingo.  If anyone has a
tried-and-true set of talking points handy, that'd be great too.



Also, on an administrative note, please let me know if you want to remain on
the committee for the upcoming term (through Dec. 2006 as SLA aligns its
budget and activity years).  If you know of anyone else that would be
interested, please pass on names.



Many thanks!



Becky



Becky Milton | Sr. Information Specialist

Information Resource Center, a member of ITG's Knowledge Management Team

email: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>  |
phone: 202-587-3536 | fax: 202-777-5100









  _____

From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, August 03, 2005 10:20 AM
To: Milton, Becky
Subject: Follow-up to phone conversation



Becky,

Thanks for talking to me this morning.  I've passed your name along to Steve
McLaughlin our Director of Administration.  I also passed your name along to
Wendy Willis the Reference Librarian in our Business Library.  She is the
best one to answer questions about users and reference questions.

The Business Library was established in 1917 when the Commission was
established.  It focuses in on business, statistics economics and trade.
Besides meeting the needs of the agency which has approximately 300 people,
it is open to the public.

Currently there are eight people on staff.  Two are contractors that help
with the purchasing and administration.  Of the remaining six, two are
librarians one of which is a reference librarian and one a cataloger.  Three
are technicians and one is an editor who was transferred to the library when
the editorial staff was dismantled.  The "Director" of the library is a
former commodity analyst who worked on the agency's web page for a while.
The Business Library has been reconfigured to smaller space at least three
times since we moved to this location 17 years ago.   Because of this
reconfiguration I'm not sure what the size of the collection is.



The Law Library was established in 1972 when the Office of the General
Counsel started to grow.  There are currently 29 attorneys in the OGC.
There is an Administrative Law Judges Office with four ALJs and five staff
attorneys. There is an office with 15 patent attorneys that is separate from
the OGC.  There are additional attorneys scattered through out various
offices in the Commission.  Even some of our presidentially appointed
Commissioners are attorneys.  The Law Library is currently open to the
public and there are two of us on staff.  Our focus is US interpretation of
trade laws, plus we focus in on the World Trade Organization, the North
American Free Trade Agreement and other such trade agreement issues. The Law
Library has approximately 10,000 volumes which is a combination of
reporters, treaties, journals and loose-leafs.  We also subscribe to WESTLAW
and other on-line services.  The electronic products are not available to
the public - just the print products.

Each library does its own purchasing and cataloging and we try not to
duplicate holdings in the libraries. The one thing that is duplicated is
agency publications. The agency publishes its own reports and studies.  The
agency is going to electronic format where possible - but there is quite a
bit of historical information that I don't think will ever be converted. The
agency's own historical publications are the items that are hard to find
elsewhere.



Following the link to the agency's web page -        http://www.usitc.gov
<http://www.usitc.gov>

This doesn't give you numbers for reference questions or visitors -
hopefully it will give you a basic idea of the two libraries.

Thanks.

Maureen Bryant

Librarian

U.S. International Trade Commission

Law Library

tel:   202/205-3287

fax:  202/205-3111

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