http://hdl.handle.net/2142/1559 Allerton Park Institute Proceedings (no. 18, 1972); edited by George S. Bonn http://hdl.handle.net/2142/1607 A Summary and Overview of the Conference Goldhor, Herbert There were fifteen speakers at this Institute, excluding chairpersons and makers of announcements. I was asked to summarize and bring out the highlights of their remarks. I shall leave aside the details and specifics of individual titles and focus on matters of more general import. I shall speak of those ways in which it seemed the remarks and concerns of the speakers at this conference are typical of what (good) librarians do in regard to any specified subject. Later I shall discuss the ways in which they are not. 1. A good librarian usually becomes aware of an emerging problem area of general interest reasonably early, and of its ramifications and implications. Several speakers pointed out how recently the problem of environmental control has come into the limelight, and how pervasive it is. In 1965, according to Quigley, the ACS made its initial decision to work on the problem. The National Environmental Policy Act was passed in 1969, but according to Friedlander EPA is already funding 4,000 projects. Zimmerman pointed out that only in the last few years have standard tools like the Subject Guide to Books in Print and the Monthly Catalog of United States Government Publications, used some of the appropriate subject headings. On the other hand, Veyette reported that Engineering Index has used subject headings dealing with the pollution of the environment since before 1900, but that was for technical literature for engineers and apparently had no great impact. Environmental protection --Information services http://hdl.handle.net/2142/1606 Durkheim and Weber in Wonderland: Or, Building Environmental Collections for the Real World George, Melvin R. Several months after I had agreed, out of sheer vanity, to appear at this Institute on information resources in the environmental sciences, I realized that I would have to say something; not only would I have to appear, but I would have to make some contribution to the development of the theme. Indeed, the more I reflected on my contribution, the more I felt like Alice confronted by the King. "What do you know about this business?" the King said to Alice. "Nothing," said Alice. "Nothing whatever?" persisted the King. "Nothing whatever," said Alice. Now it is apparent that "nothing whatever" is not a particularly useful contribution to any discussion, and perhaps I should have given it all up at that point. But again egoism, arid a certain sense of responsibility to all those librarians who staff academic libraries throughout the country and who try to serve the general needs of their students, gripped me. Surely if we are doing anything worthwhile when we build our collections, it should be possible to verbalize it, and perhaps a reiteration of those concerns toward which we direct our efforts is always necessary. Environmental protection --Information services http://hdl.handle.net/2142/1605 Coping with Environmental Information Resources Friedlander, Janet At a meeting on environmental literature held in Cincinnati in September 1972, it was reported that seventy-five government agencies put out reports in the environmental area. I knew I had trouble locating material. This figure gave me an idea why. There is no lack of literature available. The problem comes in trying to cope with it. Coping is the problem in many subject areas. There are three factors that make it particularly difficult to cope with environmental literature because of the nature of the field itself. First, environmental sciences is a new field; its boundaries are not yet clearly defined. It was only in 1965 that the heading "Man Influence on Nature" appeared in Readers' Guide.1 Before that, the emphasis had been on the influence of the environment on man, not the other way around. It was not until December 1970, that the Environmental Protection Agency was established to centralize in one agency the major federal pollution control programs formerly scattered in different departments. Scattering is the problem with the literature also. There are no comprehensive bibliographies of books, periodicals, reports, microforms, or audiovisual material. There are numerous partial bibliographies which must be located one by one. The need for coordination and cooperation in literature identification and exchange was one of the concerns of the United Nation's first Conference on the Human Environment, held in Stockholm in June 1972, and one of the concerns of the EPA's first National Environmental Information Symposium, held in Cincinnati in September 1972. The "first" in the titles of both conferences also points up the recency of concern in this area. Environmental protection --Information services http://hdl.handle.net/2142/1604 Selecting and Evaluating Environmental Information Resources in Public Libraries Zimmerman, Gerald The Chicago Public Library's interest in the environmental sciences dates from March 1971 when it was announced that Montgomery Ward and Company was giving the library $25,000 to establish a special environmental sciences collection. This collection is to serve as a memorial to Aaron Montgomery Ward who played an instrumental role in the early efforts leading to the preservation of Chicago's lakefront. Chicago thus became the third large public library to formally establish a special collection dealing with the environmental sciences. Previously, the Denver and Minneapolis public libraries had embarked upon programs to develop special environment collections emphasizing, respectively, wildlife and conservation. In order to avoid duplicating the efforts of the Denver and Minneapolis libraries, the Chicago Public Library has chosen to concentrate on five specific areas of the environmental sciences: ecology; environmental health; the legal aspects of environmental problems; the causes, effects, and control of pollution; and problems of the urban environment. The Ward funds are being received at the rate of $5,000 per year over a five-year period and are being supplemented as far as possible by regular library funds. Although all of the material obtained so far for this collection has been printed, it is expected that audiovisual and other nonprint materials will eventually be included and play an important role in providing environmental information to the users of the Chicago Public Library. The reading levels provided by this collection range from introductory works for the beginning student and layman to advanced treatises for researchers with a special knowledge of and interest in the environmental sciences. Environmental protection --Information services http://hdl.handle.net/2142/1603 The School Media Specialist as Activist Richardson, Selma K. Concern for the quality and future of our environment has brought together representatives from a number of disciplines and interests and has prompted many people and organizations to foster an awareness of the crucial status of Spaceship Earth, to identify emerging patterns that are threatening, and to suggest some of the options yet available. The proliferation of information about the environmental crisis and the promulgation of diverse points of view have resulted in a plethora of materials, if not another form of pollution. The program of this Institute was launched with a lecture defining the scope of the environmental problem, progressed to the work and publications of various agencies, institutions, and organizations, and proceeded to descriptions of facilities and the services of information centers. Our focus now shifts to creating guidelines for the developing of environmental collections in different kinds of libraries. Our charge is to devise means to cope on the local scene with the resources available and to suggest ways that responsible evaluation and selection of materials can lead to the development of collections which hold promise of being utilized by the community served. Environmental protection --Information services http://hdl.handle.net/2142/1602 Federal Resources and Environmental Programs Stephens, Denny Americans in a crisis situation have traditionally turned to public schools and their colleges and universities to education to help solve large social problems. Environmental education has been described as a local answer to environmental problems. Community schools, meaning education at all levels is expected to influence or guide most local environmental programs. Strong student concern for the decline of environmental quality has assisted in placing environmental education and reform at the forefront of school and college priorities. Also "environmental concerns offer an attractive neutral ground for an alliance between generations, the young and the old." Education as a means for ending the degradation of the environment as it affects individual quality of life has reached into the libraries throughout the nation. A week seldom passes that I do not receive a call from a public or college librarian requesting information about potential sources of funds for resource development in the environmental sciences. Most frequently, the caller has not really developed an idea for a project responsive to an identified community environmental need. Environment is "in" (as any capable grantsman knows), therefore success potential, even for a poorly developed idea, will, callers believe, get attention. Too many of these requests are simply pipedreams for acquiring funds for purchase of resources. If there really is a specific local need, the regular selection policy of the institution should already be responding to the need through the local budget. Environmental protection --Information services http://hdl.handle.net/2142/1601 State and Local Environmental Information Centers, Facilities, and Services Imberman, Angela The federal Environmental Protection Agency has already kindly provided the first edition of a catalog of state and local environmental libraries. 1 However, I wish to provide more than such a catalog. As you may have read in Schneiderman's paper, there are both active and passive library roles to be played. I will concentrate on discussing the possible active roles of an environmental library after I dismiss a few of the passive items. Browsing through the EPA listing will give you an idea of the range of libraries dealing both generally and specifically with environmentally related materials. Naturally, each state library will collect some environmental journals, books, and conference proceedings. Some state governments which have established either a natural resources department or an environmental research agency have started environmental collections (e.g., Arkansas, Delaware, Michigan, and Illinois). Small, local public libraries try to collect mostly nontechnical, lay reading material on the environmental crisis. In addition to these types of libraries, we must remember to take advantage of all those special collections which may be considered national or regional, but which are also frequently local. For example, unless one lives in Santa Barbara, California, the Oil Spill Information Center there may be unknown. Another narrow subject area is dealt with by the eutrophication program at the University of Wisconsin's Water Resources Center. (A future edition of EPA's directory might contain a subject listing of special collections.) Without assuming to speak for all special libraries, one may say that most of them are happy to serve by phone or mail. Professional associations and foundations ranging from the Conservation Foundation in Washington, D.C., to the American Foundrymen's Society in Des Plaines, Illinois usually have libraries or information centers with very specific environmental information available. Environmental protection --Information services http://hdl.handle.net/2142/1600 Regional Environmental Libraries Collins, Kay Not long ago there were not very many environmental libraries. There were a few libraries which specialized in some of the various subject fields, but there just were not very many environmental libraries. Now, it seems to be the hottest topic since Sputnik. The environment itself is a topic which is now responsible for political changes, economic changes and individual lifestyle changes. Therefore, more libraries are beginning to enter into the picture, for many reasons. Some reasons are altruistic, but they run the gamut from personal belief in problem solutions, to public demand, to just trying to get a share of the slowly growing sources of money. As with other types of libraries, various kinds of environmental libraries are beginning to develop: small collections of magazines designed to meet immediate demands of the public or the group served; and large government collections being expanded to meet new research and policy needs. But this leaves a group in between which is trying to serve a large public on a limited budget. It is well known that the environmental field is a very broad one which touches every subject matter conceivable: pure and applied sciences, social sciences, economics, history, architecture, psychology, even literature, religion and semantics. It is a problem for libraries to fill the gap and supply environmental information, especially as publications mushroom in volume and cost. A small local library is unable to cope with it, and even some larger college, university, and government libraries are unable to do a passable job. They simply cannot afford it; some government libraries are already beginning to feel the economy measures of the Nixon administration. While their budgets are kept low, they are expected to fill the demands of their users for necessary information. Environmental protection --Information services http://hdl.handle.net/2142/1599 National Information Centers, Facilities and Services for the Environmental Sciences Veyette Jr., John H. It is with some apprehension that I attempt to write a paper on this subject, mainly because the tremendous breadth of the subject defies adequate coverage. In addition, I am sure that even now another "information service" oriented to the needs of "environmentalists" scientists, engineers, researchers, teachers, students, or concerned citizens is being announced and .promoted. I will use the term "environmentalist" to cover the range of people involved in the theme of this Institute. To adequately cover this topic would have necessitated many months of extensive research and study. I will only cover the major or principal activities, and will limit myself to national, governmental and "not-for-profit" activities. Even with this limitation, it is a little like finding one end of a skein of yarn and not knowing where it goes or where it may end. Fortunately, others have done considerable work in the area and I will refer to them. Environmental protection --Information services http://hdl.handle.net/2142/1598 A Guide to Environmental Information Services of the Private Sector Kollegger, James G. In Cincinnati in September 1972, at the Environmental Protection Agency's Information Symposium, several thousand participants heard several dozen speakers spend the better part of two days discussing sources of environmental information. I learned at that conference that there is little need to detail the number of sources that exist, and a great need to clarify how those sources can be discovered, evaluated and best used. I will limit my discussion to environmental information services offered by the private sector, and emphasize how others can be found and best used. The discussion will include: 1. The importance of objective setting: defining the kind of information that is needed (and not needed). 2. A candid description of secondary publications such as directories, and environmental abstracting and current awareness services. 3. Use of automated searches and machine-readable data bases. 4. Four appendices are included which cover: environmental directories; environment abstracting and indexing services; information centers and systems services offered; and environmental journals (compiled by Mike Bowen of Environmental Science and Technology). Environmental protection --Information services