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Archiver > ILJEFFER > 2001-09 > 1001640963


From: Cyndi Howells <>
Subject: [ILJEFFER-L] New Partnership for the NGS Library
Date: Thu, 27 Sep 2001 18:36:03 -0700


Originally published in the Ancestry Daily News, September 20, 2001:
http://www.ancestry.com/library/view/news/articles/4596.asp

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NEW PARTNERSHIP FOR THE NGS LIBRARY
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The National Genealogical Society (NGS) Board of Directors is
committed to providing the highest level of information, services,
and products possible to NGS members. To this end we have become
immersed in a strategic directions initiative. We are looking to
provide more services to our members with the same number of staff
and the same level of resources. And as I am sure you can imagine,
our financial resources continue to be rather modest, particularly in
this time of economic downturn.

Despite rumors, stories, and musings to the contrary, the National
Genealogical Society Library is not closing nor are its collections
being randomly dispersed to other libraries. It is important for me
to state again for the record: the National Genealogical Society
Library is not closing. Rather it is being reconstituted in a manner
more conducive to providing better services to the society's
membership.

Historically, the book loan collection has been under-utilized by the
society's membership. Yet no one, absolutely no one, is interested in
terminating the book loan service. The NGS staff and board of
directors appreciate that while little used by the majority of
members, the book loan service is highly valued by a number of
members. The challenge before us was to find a way to continue making
the book loan service available while freeing the NGS librarian and
her staff to provide more valuable reference services for our
members-services that would make NGS an increasingly invaluable part
of more genealogists' lives.

After much study and deliberation, the NGS board voted to create the
nation's largest family and local history book loan collection
through a partnership with the St. Louis County Library (SLCL). This
partnership creates some of the most exciting growth opportunities
for a book loan collection the genealogical community has ever seen.
As specified by the agreement, all of the books SLCL receives from
NGS must be made available for loan, making the entire NGS book loan
collection as close as your nearest public, college, or university
library. The two organizations have committed to meet at least yearly
to review the status of the arrangement and modify as needed to make
the books as accessible as possible.

I believe it is important to also note that having the NGS Book Loan
Collection at the St. Louis County Library carries the following
additional benefits.

1. Book loan requests will be filled five days a week, rather than
just one day per week as we had been doing at Glebe House. The
service will be much more responsive.

2. Neither the St. Louis County Library nor the NGS Library will
have to close to perform the interlibrary loans. In the past the NGS
Library had to close to perform loan functions.

3. The St. Louis County Library has a much larger staff to handle
loan requests.

4. The St. Louis County Library is committed to assisting NGS with
reference questions that result from use of the loan collection.

5. Housing the loan collection in St. Louis means that the book loan
collection will be in one place and in one consistent order.
Currently, the NGS book loan collection is in two different
facilities on the Glebe House grounds as well as two different remote
storage facilities.

6. The St. Louis County Library will market the book loan collection
in ways NGS was never able.

7. The St. Louis County Library will be offering programs at
national conferences on the riches and use of the loan collection.

8. The St. Louis County Library will be enhancing web access to the
loan collection, and creating pathfinders and use-aids for the
collection as well as highlighting unique items.

9. The staff of the St. Louis County Library is most competent,
professional, and very excited about making this arrangement truly
benefit both organizations. The administrative, special collections,
and interlibrary loan staffs in particular are truly extraordinary.
I know this from months of personal experiences and interactions with
them.

Both SLCL and NGS are committed to growing the book loan collection
in very dramatic ways. While we are not yet at the announcement
stage, we are contacting numerous genealogical libraries, societies,
and other organizations that heretofore were not interested in giving
their duplicate materials to NGS because of our space constraints and
the manner in which we had to run our loan program. We are asking
these entities to reconsider enhancing our national loan collection
by designating this new partner collection as the repository of their
duplicates.

In addition to finding a much better way to conduct the society's
book loan program, I believe the NGS board's commitment to enhancing
its library and information services can be evidenced in a number of
significant ways.

1. The NGS librarian remains an important, full-time position on the
society's staffing table, on par with other professional staff
employed by the society.

2. The society's valuable manuscript collections (including the
marvelous Richardson Dougall European Manuscript Collection), its
archive of Bible records, the AMA files, and the MAC chart files are
all being maintained at the Glebe House Library. Indeed, efforts will
continue to be explored to acquire other such unique collections of
materials.

3. The society is maintaining its contracts with CAPCON (the OCLC
library cooperative in the DC-VA-MD area) and The Library Corporation
(TLC). Access to OCLC will allow NGS staff to assist members in
finding important family and local history books worldwide.
Maintaining our online catalog through TLC will allow staff to
eventually catalog our many manuscript collections, making them far
more accessible to our members. The TLC system can also be used for
providing new member services in the information arena.

4. The look-up services of NGSearch (e.g. Germans to America,
Italians to America, etc.) will be maintained and expanded.

5. The society will continue to accept donations for both its
reference collection being maintained at Glebe House and the book
loan collection.

6. A new service to retrieve information and records from
Washington, DC area repositories is being explored as a new service
to members.

7. A new, members-only Help Desk will be established as a part of
library services to provide personalized guidance to researchers just
getting started, getting started again, and those who have reached an
impasse of some kind. Toll-free help lines, designated e-mail
addresses, and partnerships with other genealogical libraries to
investigate a 24-7 reference assistance model are all being explored.

Indeed, I believe you will be pleasantly surprised and pleased when
all of our plans for the expansion of services in our newly
reconstituted library are unveiled.

Your NGS Board of Directors truly believes this new partnership with
the St. Louis County Library will make for a stronger and more
responsive society as well as a stronger and more vital library at
Glebe House.


Curt B. Witcher
President, National Genealogical Society
http://www.ngsgenealogy.org

Curt B. Witcher
Manager, Historical Genealogy Department
Allen County Public Library
P. O. Box 2270, 900 Webster Street
Fort Wayne, IN 46801-2270


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Reprinted with permission of the "Ancestry
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http://www.ancestry.com/library/view/news/articles/4596.asp

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