Library Collections

Heritage Assets: Scientific Library Collection

USGS library holdings, collected during more than a century of providing library services, are an invaluable legacy to the Nation. While responding to the current and anticipated subject interests of USGS researchers, the Library maintains its heritage collection of core science publications dating back to the 17th century providing a historical record of the progress of natural science. The Library was originally located in Washington, D.C., however, the library collection is now housed in four libraries across the country.

In addition to the annual purchases of serials, maps and books, the Library has used other means to build the collection. Since its beginning, the Library has administered a major program of international and domestic exchange of earth science publications authorized by the legislation that established USGS. The exchange program, with national and foreign geological surveys and research organizations, has enabled the Library to collect materials published in small numbers, never widely distributed, and never reprinted.

The Library at the USGS National Center in Reston, Virginia

Our Field Records collection in Denver includes items such as field notes, field maps and sketches and project-related correspondence created or collected by USGS scientists during official project work. The Photographic Archive provides the public with access to over 19,000 photographs and original sketches dating from 1868 to the present. Additionally, USGS maintains a collection of over 500,000 photographs taken during geologic studies of the US and its territories dating from 1868 to present. Some photographs have been used to illustrate publications, but most have never been published.

Mt. St. Helens Mt. St. Helens eruption on August 7, 1980 - P.W. Lipman, Photographer

The George F. Kunz collection on gems and minerals, acquired by the Library in the early 1930's, contains books and archival gem trade records important to the provenance of named stones or specially identified gems, such as the "Hope Diamond". The map collections include an archival and working collection of USGS topographical maps, plus thematic and topographical maps of the United States and the world.

The Library supports the research of the Department of Interior and other government agencies, universities, and professional communities. Libraries throughout the world, including the largest and most renowned, borrow from our library's unique collection. In a single six-month period at the end of 2002, the USGS Library loaned scientific publications and objects to over 750 libraries. These libraries were public, state, federal, nonprofit, company, and academic libraries in every state and in 37 foreign countries. Although not defined by Congress as a national library, the Library is recognized as the premier national collection of geologic and hydrologic publications. These unique publications are valuable supplements to the Nation's large library collections in major universities and government agencies.

Collections at a glance

The USGS Library system (4 libraries) contains 1.3 million books and periodicals and 1.7 million non-book items for a total of 3 million items.

Listing of USGS library holdings - please contact Carla Burzyk of the Office of Accounting and Financial Management at cburzyk@usgs.gov for full information

Listing of USGS library holdings - please contact Carla Burzyk of the Office of Accounting and Financial Management at cburzyk@usgs.gov for full information

Materials are acquired from extensive exchange agreements with institutions and agencies worldwide, from research projects and purchases from a wide variety of publishers and institutions. Items are withdrawn only after the professional library staff has made a critical analysis of the collection.

Careful consideration is given to assessing the condition of each item in the library collections. A category of "good" is defined as materials protected for reasonable use which includes publications bound or with sturdy covers, maps loosely shelved in drawers without crowding or in archival grade envelopes with minimal folds, photographs mounted in archival quality albums, or materials protected by archival quality paper or plastic sleeves or boxes. Materials evaluated as "fair" are those which can be circulated, but require binding or further treatment to insure long term protection. "Poor" materials are those that cannot be circulated or used without special attention until preservation repairs are made. This includes publications with old brittle or mottled paper, loose pages, loose or thin covers, tears, water-damage, or other damage, improper binding with tight covers, flaking binding covers, loose photographs, nitrate or glass photograph negatives, and multimedia and digital disks without containers.

Library Collections:	Good	Fair	Poor	Total
	Condition
Library at the USGS National Center in Reston Denver Branch Library Flagstaff Branch Library Menlo Park Branch Library	1,361 620 94 202	255 191 17 58	85 143 6 29	1,701 954 117 289
Total	2,277	521	263	3,061

No deferred maintenance is necessary for our library collections.

The USGS collection of topographical and thematic maps is housed in the library

The archival of topographical and thematic maps of the United States and the world are very popular.

U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey
URL: http://pubsdata.usgs.gov/pubs/03financial/html/library.html
Maintained by Eastern Publications Group
Last modified: 16:28:46 Tue 22 Nov 2016
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