NEWS

Prescott Memorial Library to serve as federal depository “Center of Excellence”

May 26, 2011 | General News

The Prescott Memorial Library at Louisiana Tech University will serve as a “Center of Excellence” for the Cooperative Federal Depository Program (CFDP) to provide workable solutions to address the increasing cost of managing, preserving, and providing access to large collections of Federal government publications.
As a Center of Excellence, Louisiana Tech’s Prescott Memorial Library will provide services for collections from the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) that include inventorying holdings, ensuring accurate cataloging and records, actively replacing damaged and lost pieces, enhancing the visibility of, and accessibility to, collections through digitization of holdings, and providing expert reference services for and promote the use of the collections.
“By becoming a Center of Excellence, Louisiana Tech University will provide Louisiana and other southeastern states with access to a complete and comprehensive collection of Federal Emergency Management Agency publications,” said Mike DiCarlo, Thomas Jackson Magee Ross Endowed Professor and dean of library services at Louisiana Tech.
Under the auspices of the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries (ASERL), the CFDP will build upon the foundation of existing holdings at Federal Depository libraries to help complete these government collections with assistance from both regional libraries, which collect government information comprehensively, and selective libraries, which collect government information selectively.
ASERL believes creating the Centers of Excellence will result in more reliable and predictable access to federal publications for all libraries and citizens throughout the southeastern United States by specifying which Federal Depository libraries have the most complete holdings for each agency.
“This participation continues Louisiana Tech’s long time commitment to ensure our region remains a part of modern information technology and availability,” DiCarlo said.
Prescott Memorial Library houses approximately 3.7 million total holdings including over 400,000 books and bound periodicals, more than 27,000 reels of microfilm, over 400,000 pieces of microfiche, an electronic book collection of nearly 40,000 titles, and over 2 million federal and state documents.
The CFDP is funded through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services and is built upon the existing Federal Depository Library Program administered by the U.S. Government Printing Office.