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The Library and Clearinghouse at WMRC specializes in the science of waste management, which makes it a unique national resource. The Library's print collection includes industry case studies and information on pollution prevention practices, environmental education, sustainable development, environmental and analytical chemistry, alternative fuels, renewable energy, and household hazardous waste. The Library's holdings include thousands of books, articles, maps, reports, and periodicals.
The Library's staff continues to add holdings to OCLC, a national shared bibliographic database, making the collection available for loan to libraries throughout the country. The Library's periodical holdings have been in OCLC since the 1990s. In FY 2006, the Library became part of AskAway Illinois, the newly-formed statewide online reference service. AskAway Illinois is part of OCLC's QuestionPoint virtual reference cooperative, which provides 24/7 reference assistance from librarians all over the world.
Last year, the WMRC Library staff responded to over 300 information requests from clients. In addition, library staff added 280 books and videos, 11 serials, and 1341 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. In addition, the WMRC Librarian conducted environmental story times each week for first and second grade classes at Dr. Howard Elementary School in Champaign.
The WMRC Library added several new reference guides to its web site in FY 2006. Topics of the new guides include:
- Biodiesel Research: A Bibliography and Finding Aid
- Environmental Information: Trends and Issues
- Nanotechnology and the Environment: Selected References
Links to the Library's complete collection of reference guides are available online.
WMRC Library staff continues to maintain Environmental News Bits, a web log to update Center staff on environmental news and emerging issues. In FY 2006, 2,363 items were posted to the web log.
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 565 publications last year on topics ranging from household hazardous waste to mercury and pollution prevention in schools. This number is lower than previous years because in FY 2005, the Center moved to electronic-only distribution of its research reports. During FY 2006, 41,171 WMRC reports and fact sheets were viewed on the web site, more than double the number of views from FY 2005.
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