National Conservation Training Center
Conservation Library Policies
  • To serve the National Conservation Training Center instructors as they develop their curriculum and the students as they broaden their knowledge base.

  • To provide an information clearinghouse for all U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employees on and off campus.

  • To provide online and electronic databases for research by instructors and students.

  • To act as a depository of historical USFWS and classic conservation texts and maintain a compendium of current USFWS service-wide and regional publications.

  • To share resources with other libraries through interlibrary loan and networking.

Lending
The Conservation Library will loan certain designated material to all NCTC staff, students, and Aramark employees for a regular three-week period. The library will also loan library-owned materials designated as circulating to any FWS employee for a three-week period.

Students will borrow books and materials for as long as their course continues; the borrowing period will be extended for three weeks if the student wishes to take material with them  provided no one is waiting to use the material.

NCTC visitors will have access to the library collection but will not have borrowing privileges. They are encouraged to initiate an interlibrary loan through their home or institutional library.

Materials
Material in the library's main collection circulates for a three-week period. Particular items may be designated for a shorter or longer period of time, such as items on reserve, frequently used materials, etc.

The reference collection, including all maps, CD-ROMs, and bound journals, do not circulate but the library will make exceptions for "temporary" use by instructors or visiting scholars. The Classic Conservation Collection is kept in locked cabinets for display and can only be used in the library.

Renewal
Requests for renewals will be considered only if no one is waiting for an item.

Collection Development
Selection of library material is done by the librarian based on recommendations by NCTC staff and other FWS employees.

The mission of the library supports the material selection policy. Criteria include: Relevance to NCTC curricula, important FWS research in the field; educational element for FWS outreach; representations of key legislation, conservation efforts or partnerships with other agencies.

The following considerations are important in selection as well: cost; balanced viewpoints; obsolescence; scope; authority.

The following sources are used in the selection of material:
      - NCTC/FWS staff recommendations
      - Review sources: professional journals, book reviews
      - Publisher's Catalogs
      - Bibliographies from NCTC courses and definitive texts

Acquisitions
The Conservation Library will order most books at a discount through a book vendor, but will order direct from publishers when not available through a vendor. The library will provide a special service to NCTC divisions and branches by ordering through vendors, but will use the sponsoring division or branch's account number.

Donations
The following criteria is based on the collection development policy which includes three main collection areas:1) materials to support the NCTC curricula;2) selected USFWS material (historical and representative of regions, offices, divisions and projects); and 3) classic conservation texts and documents for display and study. These elements are the foundation of the collection so that the library can provide reference service, research tools and referral for students, staff and other USFWS employees.

Please send a list of titles before you send any boxes so that we can let you know what we could use.

The library will accept clean, dry and unmarked
  • Books and material whose subject are relevant to the basic collection elements: NCTC curricula, USFWS publications and classic conservation texts
  • Back issues of most periodical holdings
  • Government documents, gray literature and theses related to USFWS conservation efforts
  • Books and materials that represent long-term partnerships with other organizations a Federal agencies which document landmark conservation efforts
The library will NOT accept
  • Old National Geographic, current events periodicals, or popular fiction
  • USFWS documents that have minimal historical value to national conservation efforts in the agency as determined by the librarian and advising group. The library will pass materials on to other agencies if not added to the collection. Keep in mind the tax deduction for charitable gifts to the library.
Weeding
Weeding is done regularly once circulation records are available. Criteria include obsolesence, authority, circulation records, replacement with new editions, and other factors.
 
Last Updated: November 26, 2008
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National Conservation Training Center
698 Conservation Way
Shepherdstown, West Virginia 25443-9713
U S Fish and Wildlife Service