F e d e r a l    D e p o s i t o r y    L i b r a r y    P r o g r a m

  

                                ADMINISTRATIVE NOTES

                Newsletter of the Federal Depository Library Program


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                                    May 15, 2002
                                  GP 3.16/3-2:23/07
                                  (Vol. 23, no. 07)

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                                  Readers Exchange

                      Historic Sharing of a Regional Depository

                                 Jeffrey M. Wilhite
                         Associate Professor of Bibliography
                           Government Documents Collection
                               University of Oklahoma

      The Oklahoma Department of Libraries (ODL), a regional depository, and
      the University of Oklahoma, Government Documents Collection (OU), an 89%
      selective depository, have entered into a historic agreement to share
      ODL's regional depository collection of current and historical U.S.
      Congressional hearings.

      The origins of this agreement germinated in ODL's growing lack of shelf
      space, OU's adequate spacing, and both libraries' desire to preserve the
      state paper collection of Congressional hearings. Steve Beleu, Regional
      Depository Librarian, Oklahoma Department of Libraries, and Jeffrey M.
      Wilhite, Government Documents Librarian, University of Oklahoma, began
      developing this agreement in 2000. By mid-2001 it became apparent that
      the sharing of a regional depository collection by format had never been
      made official before.

      Signed on March 19, 2002, the agreement stipulates that ODL will maintain
      only five years' worth of hearings in paper format, except for hearings
      about Oklahoma and hearings about important regional, national, and
      international events. OU will maintain paper copies of Congressional
      hearings for perpetuity. The total holdings of ODL, in microfiche and
      some paper, and OU in paper, constitute the regional depository
      collection of hearings.

      In addition, ODL will supply OU with any paper hearings that they need
      before ODL discards them, or, as OU needs them. Any paper hearings that
      ODL withdraws will be sent to OU, including hearings that are less than
      five years old. For any hearings that ODL plans to keep in paper, a
      microfiche copy will be sent to OU. The last tenet of this agreement
      stipulates that OU will loan these hearings to other selective depository
      libraries in Oklahoma through interlibrary loan.

      According to GPO, this may be the first official agreement in the history
      of the depository system of a regional depository collection being shared
      between two libraries by format, although some unofficial agreements have
      existed in the past. With this agreement, the University of Oklahoma
      Government Documents Collection has become a co-regional library, ODL has
      solved its space limitation problem, and the state collection of paper
      hearings has been preserved for generations of future researchers.

      Send your question or comments about this agreement to jwilhite@ou.edu or
      sbeleu@oltn.odl.state.ok.us.