Docs Office Update

Did you know that the University Libraries house approximately 400,000 government documents? Don't feel bad -- neither did very many other people! But that's changing, thanks to the awe-inspiring efforts of our Cataloging Department, especially Katherine Nunnally, Jennifer Ormsby, Ed Waters, Jenny Raabe, Paul Hessling, Clara Kelly, and Sue Brusnahan (retired) who started the whole process.

Thanks to the unbelievable efforts of these folks, documents from the departments of Education, State, and Defense, along with the Smithsonian Institute, Library of Congress, Civil Rights Commission and the state of NC are now listed in our catalog. Most Congressional and online-only docs are available as well, and catalogers are currently tackling the Health Department.

This project has been a long time coming, and we've already seen some very tangible results; there have been definite jumps in local and ILL circulation of documents that are now listed in the catalog and OCLC. When I mention the project to people from other depositories, they tend to get a far-away look in their eyes and whisper, "maybe someday..." We're very lucky to have the ability to make these resources so much more easily accessible to our patrons. Thank You to everyone involved, and to the librarians and administrators who were willing to back such a huge undertaking!