Library and Clearinghouse
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The Library and Clearinghouse at WMRC specializes in the science of waste management, which makes it a resource that is unique in the nation. The Library's print collection includes industry case studies and information on pollution practices, sustainable development and household hazardous waste. The Library's holdings include thousands of books, articles, maps, reports and periodicals.
In 2003, the Library joined the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC), a national shared bibliographic database. Beginning in FY 2004, the WMRC Library's book collection will be included in this database, which will make the collection available for loan to libraries throughout the country. The Library's periodical holdings have been in OCLC since the 1990's.
WMRC Library staff also participated in a trial of Questionpoint, OCLC's virtual reference software. Questionpoint allows libraries to respond to, track and manage reference questions from clients via the Web, as well as refer questions to other libraries in their group and to a global network of libraries. In FY 2004, the WMRC Library will join twenty libraries from the Lincoln Trail Libraries System in a Questionpoint cooperative profile and will begin offering this service through the Library's web site.
The WMRC Library staff last year responded to more than 600 information requests from clients. In addition, library staff added 600 books and videos, seven serials, and 1349 articles to the library's collection. The Library staff also continued to add records for web sites and online documents to the library's catalog. Library staff also developed an environmental education reference guide and added resources to existing guides.
The Clearinghouse consists of reports from research projects funded by the Center, pollution prevention fact sheets and brochures, and other environmental information from around the world. The Clearinghouse distributed 4,500 publications last year on topics ranging from household hazardous waste to mercury and pollution prevention in schools. A major advancement of the Clearinghouse this past year was the digitization of all WMRC technical reports, fact sheets and research reports, which are now available on the WMRC web site. Many more publications were seen and downloaded due to the availability of these links.
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