 Seal | |
 Official identifier | |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | March 3, 1879 |
| Headquarters | Reston, Virginia |
| Agency executive |
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| Parent agency | Department of the Interior |
The United States Geological Survey Library (USGS Library) is a scientific agency of the United States government. The USGS is a fact-finding research organization with no regulatory responsibility.
The [USGS Library] also has major branches in Lakewood, Colorado (Denver Federal Center), and Menlo Park, California.
Today the United State Geological Survey Library's users have access to over 3 million items: over 1.7 million books and journals, 700,000 maps, 370,000 microforms, 270,000 pamphlets, 260,000 black-and-white photographs, 60,000 color transparencies, 15,000 field record notebooks, and 250 videocassettes. Materials include USGS publications as well as those produced by state and foreign geological surveys, scientific societies, museums, academic institutions, and government scientific agencies. The libraries in Reston and Menlo Park are designated as official depositories for selected U.S. Government publications. The libraries in Reston and Menlo Park have been designated as official Federal Government Depositories providing public access to selected U.S. Government publications.
The newly revised classification system presented in this report is designed for use in the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Library and other earth science libraries. Prior to the administration of Fred Boughton Weeks, 1903-1908, the library lacked a classification scheme. The Dewey Decimal system for geologic material was not sufficiently developed to accommodate the range of specialized material collected at the USGS Library, and The Library of Congress Classification System had not yet been published. The library staff and patrons were concerned about continued development of the collection without an acceptable classification scheme. Mr. Weeks and bibliographer John M. Nickles of the library staff, with the assistance of three consultants from the New York Public Library, developed the USGS classification system designed specifically for an earth science library. The U.S. Geological Survey Library classification system has been designed for earth science libraries. It is a tool for assigning call numbers to earth science and allied pure science materials in order to collect these materials into related subject groups on the library shelves and arrange them alphabetically by author and title. The classification can be used as a retrieval system to access materials through the subject and geographic numbers. The classification scheme has been developed over the years since 1904 to meet the ever-changing needs of increased specialization and the development of new areas of research in the earth sciences.[2]
Field Records Collection — Denver, Colorado The [Field Records Collection] is an archive of unpublished field notes, correspondence, manuscripts, maps, analysis reports and other data created or collected by USGS geologists during field studies and other project work. The majority of the collection dates from 1879 and relates to work done in the contiguous United States. Materials in the collection represent almost 130 years of scientific investigations by the USGS, from the earliest days of the agency to recently completed projects. Records contributed by approximately 1,200 USGS scientists are presently archived. Located in the Central Region Library in Denver, Colorado, the collection is available for on-premises examination during normal library hours. Field records and project archives onAlaska are kept in the Alaska Technical Data Unit Field Records Archive.
The Rare Book Collection of the USGS Library is comprised of unusual publications, rare books, and maps collected since 1879. Included are historical maps and publications of the Survey, as well as early publications of many federal, state and other geological surveys. Records of select geological societies are also maintained in the collection, such as the Geological Society of Washington, which was founded by John Wesley Powell and other noted scientists after the Civil War. Of special note are many 19th century maps with topics such as American political boundaries, transportation, geology, and mining.
At an auction in Paris, France, pieces of M. Jules Desnoyers’s (1800-1887) library were purchased in 1885 by the USGS Library to start the foreign country collection. M. desnoyers was a founder and later Secretary of the Société Géologique de France, and in 1834 he was appointed librarian of the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris.
In 1933, the Library acquired the George F. Kunz collection for $1.00 from the estate of the former USGS employee and Vice-President of Tiffany & Co. The George F. Kunz Collection is a significant special collection on gems and minerals including rare books on gemology, the folklore of gemstones through history, lapidary arts and archival gem trade records important to the provenance of named stones such as the "Hope Diamond." Kunz was a former USGS employee, a vice-president of Tiffany & Co., and one of the world’s preeminent gem experts.
The library’s map collections have provided invaluable aid to authorities and scientists in times of crisis (the California Northridge earthquake in 1994 and major fires in the nation’s forests). Topographic maps have also been used for genealogy research to pinpoint where ancestors lived, locate forgotten cemeteries, provide information on boundary changes, and research natural and man-made changes to areas over time. Planners have used the foreign map collections to study foreign terrain, geologic conditions and natural resources. During WWII, The New York Times (June 11, 1944) reported "A ‘Commando’ raid by a group of civilian scientists, a search through obscure seventeenth century French manuscripts, months of study of geological reports, experiments with model beaches – all these were part of the Allied preparations for the invasion of Normandy … The dramatic story of the preparations, which began in … libraries, shifted to laboratories and ended on the shell-swept beaches …". The collections were consulted for the military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq. Library maps have provided aid in international disaster areas such as the aftermath of Hurricane Mitch and volcanoes world-wide. A brief mention of a diamond found in the 1906 annual report of the USGS began a trail of research and investigation that led one geologist to prospect for diamonds in Canada.
Responsibility for the Topographic Map Archive was formally transferred to the USGS Library in Reston, Virginia, in March 2003. The Archive includes each U.S. state and territory, in all scales, editions and various printings. With coverage dating from the 1880’s when the USGS began publishing standard topographic quadrangles; the Archive is the most complete collection of USGS topographic maps.
The Heringen Collection, is a group of military texts and maps, looted by the Nazis from European libraries, universities, geological societies, private businesses, homes and offices. Hidden in a potash mine in Heringen, Hesse, Germany, they were transported by the U.S. military at the end of WWII as captured war materials. Some 23,000 reports, books and maps were accepted by the USGS Library and integrated into the main collection. The materials are consulted for research ranging from European road development, water resources use or mining and construction. In 1946, the Heringen Collection was transferred from the U.S. Geological Survey’s Military Geology Unit to the Library.
The U.S. Antarctic Resource Center (USARC) in Reston, Virginia, is our Nation's depository for Antarctic maps, charts, geodetic ground control, satellite images, aerial photographs, publications, slides, and video tapes. These resources are produced by Antarctic Treaty nations in support of their activities in Antarctica and provided to the USARC in compliance with a standing resolution of the treaty providing for exchange of information. The USGS maintains these materials through an interagency cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation (NSF), which also supports the USGS Antarctic Mapping Program.
The Photographic Library is an archive of still photographs and original sketches dating from the 1870’s and taken by USGS scientists as part of their field studies. Topics include USGS personnel, earthquakes, volcanoes, geologic hazards and other phenomena, historical mining operations, and earth science photographs. The works of pioneer photographers such as William H. Jackson, Timothy H. O'Sullivan, Carleton Watkins, J. K. Hiller, Thomas Moran, A.J. Russell, E. O. Beaman and William Bell are represented in the collection. Some photographs have been used to illustrate publications, but most have never been published.
Congress authorized a Library for the United States Geological Survey (USGS) in 1879. The library was formally established in 1882, with the naming of the first librarian, Charles C. Darwin, and began with a staff of 3 and a collection of 1,400 books. The Act of Congress establishing the USGS authorized the creation of a program for exchanging copies of USGS reports for publications of state, national, and international organizations. The exchange program was modeled after a program used by Dr. Ferdinand V. Hayden when he was head of the Interior Department’s U.S. Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories (1867-1879). The U.S. Geological Survey Library inherited 1,000 volumes of serials from Dr. Hayden’s former exchange program, which he had based on the program begun by the Smithsonian Institution in 1846. After Dr. Hayden died in 1887, his widow donated his personal collection to the U.S. Geological Survey Library. Other early gifts were made by Major John Wesley Powell, second Director of the US Geological Survey, who donated his collection of State Geological Survey reports and the family of Dr. Isaac Lea (Philadelphia publisher and gem collector whose family donated nearly 600 items of his personal library). Dr. William Halliday, a world renowned speleologist began donating his cave collection in 2003. The U.S. Geological Survey Library system has become the largest earth science library in the world. Materials within the library system include books and maps dating back to the 16th and 17th centuries. Other materials include a nearly complete set of the various State Geological Survey publications and a virtually complete set of USGS topographic maps. The original collection was based on exchange partnerships with domestic and international scientific organizations.