POLICY LIBRARY SYSTEMS BRANCH MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION DIVISION OFFICE OF ADMINISTRATION OFFICE OF PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT AUGUST 1975 U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY WASHINGTON, D.C. 20460 ------- ------- U. S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY LIBRARY SYSTEMS BRANCH POLICY August 1975 ------- ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECT:OK ------- SELECTION AND DISPOSAL OF MATERIALS Selection of Materials 1. Materials will be purchased if they are determined relevant to the collection and if: a. Headquarters staff, regional librarians, or outside librarians recommend them. b. Need is apparent from multiple inter- library loans of the material. c. Gaps in the collection are thereby filled. 2. Collection will include books, journals, films, reports, microfiche, maps, charts, documents, etc. 3. Attempts will be made to collect relevant non-published materials and information. Libraries will maintain a directory of persons and organizations likely to be sources of such information in various subjects areas. 4. Desiderata lists can be maintained by librarians to aid in establishing priori- ties regarding selection of items for purchase. 5. Replacement policy for items missing from library is determined on a similar basis as book selection. ------- CATALOGING Cataloging of books is accomplished centrally in Cincinnati for the entire EPA 'Library System. Cataloging of EPA documents and non-EPA documents is performed by each individual library, in accordance with established procedures for the organization of material. Organization of Material: a. Books: Shelved according to the Library of Congress scheme. b. EPA Documents: PB number c. Non-EPA and NTIS Documents: PB and accession number d. Periodicals and Newsletters: Alphabeti- cally by title, chronologically within same title e. Pamphlets: By subject in filing cabinet f . Mi crofi che: 1) EPA Documents: PB number 2) Non-EPA Documents: Filed by appropriate ID number g. Microfilm: Alphabetically by title h. Theses: Alphabetically by author -2- ------- CIRCULATION 1. Materials circulate to EPA employee and, through Interlibrary Loan, to other libraries both government and non-government. 2. Materials circulate for as long as needed. Another user's need of the material is the only reason for recall. Periodic checks will be made on loans to remind users they have the material and to ascertain need. Interlibrary loan materials are returned by date due assigned by lending library. Re- newals are requested only in rare instances. 3. Reference material and current editions of journals and newspapers do not circulate. Individual libraries can decide on routing of new journals. 4. Xeroxing of materials with a copyright is permissible only for in-house use or for use by other government libraries. -3- ------- Interlibrary Loans 1. Material not available in the EPA local Library may be borrowed from other libraries for official use. Conversely, material that is needed by the local EPA staff but not available in the local library is obtained from outside sources if possible. No charge is made by the Library for this service. 2. Excluded from interlibrary loans are certain types of material, e.g., non-circulating reference books, exceptionally rare or classi- fied literature, current journals. 3. Libraries should have available, and make use of, the index and bibliographic tools required to fully identify resources that may be wanted from other participating libraries. 4. Materials may or may not be mailed within the metropolitan area to non-government libraries, at the discretion of the local library. Some libraries may require that materials be picked up by the borrowing library. Libraries outside the metropolitan D. C. area receive full in- terlibrary loan cooperation. 5. Loans will be made to other libraries, but not to individuals. 6. Interlibrary loans circulate for two weeks, through renewals sometimes may be arranged. 7. Requested government reports are sent on microfiche, on a retention basis, if the borrowing library has microfiche capability. 8. Journals will be loaned to non-government libraries; articles will be xeroxed for non- government libraries at the discretion of the individual library. .4- ------- TRANSLATIONS Poli cy 1. A centra] translation service is provided for the exclusive use of EPA research staff and EPA libraries. This covers all technical documents primarily for transla- tion from foreign languages into English, but translations can also be provided from English into any other language. 2. Requests for translations of legal and administrative or other foreign exchange documents should be directed to Headquar- ters Library. 3. Charges are made to researchers and to EPA libraries for translation services. 4. Copies of all items translated into English by EPA will be sent to the National Translation Service at the John Crerar Library (Chicago) uncopy- righted items will be sent to NTIS as well. Requests for copies of transla- tions received from outside EPA should be referred to either of the above. 5. Translation services of all abstracting; specified parts of a document; printing; binding; rapid service translating; and are prepared in an editable, reproducable form. Possible Sources of Material for Translation 1. Information obtained from literature searches by EPA information centers and from other data systems. 2. Material that researchers are given by their counterparts in foreign countries. 3. Citations seen by researchers in journals, field abstract bulletins, and in other general reading. Procedures: See EPA order 2130.1A -5- ------- FOREIGN LITERATURE EXCHANGE PROGRAM 1. The international Documents Exchange program, administered through the Office of International Activities, is designed to acquire as much environmental material from other nations as possible through exchange agreements. This permits aware- ness of other countries' experiences in formulation standards and regulatory controls and provides an opportunity to share information on management and control systems. 2. The Office of International Activities maintains exchange agreements with the environmental agencies of foreign co- untries. This is often done through agreements between the Administrator of EPA, or his representative, and his counterparts in other countries. 3. Under this program EPA is assembling at the Headquarters Library a reference collection of foreign documents relative to environmental programs and regulatory systems in other countries. -6- ------- ------- ------- |