March 9,
2003
TO: NSS Board and
Officers
FROM:
Concerned NSS Members
SUBJECT: The NSS
Library
According
to the NSS bylaws (Section X), the Society is directed to establish and
maintain a library for use by its members. To that end, the NSS library,
through volunteer efforts and Society support, has grown to become one of the
worldÌs premier collections of cave and karst-related literature. Included in this collection are
over 4000 publications, both American and International, vertical files,
author reprints, and a lending library. The NSS library is one of the
SocietyÌs greatest resources and a benefit of being an NSS member.
Consequently, there has been a lot of discussion
and comment by and amongst NSS members, of the proposal to send some portion
of our library to a remote location and place it under the care and direction
of a federal agency.
The vision
and future of the NSS library has been a Board issue for a number of
years.There have been concerns with
the physical housing of the library, discussions of a new library building,
and other concerns that reflect the Board's desire to do what is best to help
preserve and continue to develop our library, and to improve member
accessibility. So, when the NSS received a written proposal from the
National
Cave and Karst Research Institute (NCKRI) to house the NSS library
in Carlsbad,
New
Mexico, it
appears that the Board felt that this was a potentially viable solution to
addressing the existing issues with the library.
The October
2002 NSS Board meeting minutes state that the Board authorized the President
to explore an agreement with NCKRI to provide a secure environment, maintained
by a professional library staff, for the NSS Library. The agreement is
supposed to allow member access to the books, retain NSS ownership, and
require return of the books upon NSS request. In February of 2003, NCKRI
provided a draft copy of a cooperative agreement to the NSS.Terms for acquisition of all or some part
of the Library are central to the agreement.
Some immediate questions and points come to mind:
- Should the
NSS-NCKRI relationship be contingent on the loan of the library? Wouldn't a
more general statement of cooperation without a list of specific tasks be a
more effective and flexible agreement between the NSS and NCKRI?
- Before
loaning our collection to NCKRI, it would have to be split in order to protect
sensitive information. Splitting the collection diminishes its significance
and value as a Special Collection
- Moving any part of the library away from its current
location which is easily accessible to three quarters of the NSS membership,
to a location that is remote and inconvenient to most of the membership, makes
that part of the library less accessible for the majority of those who it is
supposed to serve.
- At this time, NCKRI does not have a secure environment staffed with library
professionals to take on our library Ò unless they intend to house it
elsewhere until a facility is acquired or built.
Is
NCKRI planning to build and staff a library and provide the NSS collection
some space within it?Or will a
library be built and staffed in order to house the NSS collection?If the latter, what are the chances of the
collection ever being returned to NSS hands?
One of the
selling points for transfer of some portion of our library to NCKRI is that
the Institute will be able to provide professional services for the library
including electronic cataloging of library information to make it accessible
to researchers. It would be
understandable that NCKRI's offer be given priority
consideration if there was no interest or resources within the Society to
undertake such a task. However, there now exists an online version of the
entire library catalog, searchable by title, author and publisher which is available on the NSS website. A subject field will be
added next. If permission to display a
searchable "Guide to Speleological Literature of the English Language" becomes
a reality, this will greatly enhance the services that the NSS can offer not
only to its membership, but to researchers.
These have been accomplished without splitting or moving the
library.
The
proposal by the Huntsville Grotto Library Development Commission to work on
improving and maintaining the physical state of the library, and to help
expand services to NSS members and to qualified researchers by supporting
internet access to the library collection is extremely positive. The
CommissionÌs recently posted "Virtual Library Tour" not only brings the
library to the membership, it also provides expanded information on library
use, hours and personnel. In view of
the Library Development CommissionÌs work so far, along with the work of the
ad Hoc Library committee, why is it necessary for NSS members to compete with
external bidders for custody of any part of the Library collection?
Should the
Board decide to transfer custody of any of our library, a thorough evaluation
of any transferred items for sensitive content prior to transferal will be
necessary.Though the Huntsville
Grotto Library Development Commission appears to be in the best position to
conduct this review because of their experience and familiarity with the
library, who will the NSS Board actually deem responsible for making the
editorial decision of which publications and specific content are or are not
Ïsensitive dataÓ such as cave locations, landowner information and sensitive
or endangered resources etc.? Further
who will fund the editorial review of our collection?
As per the
NCKRI proposed cooperative agreement:
All obligations of the
National Park Service and the Institute hereunder are subject to the
availability of funds and to such direction and instructions as may have been
or are hereafter provided by Congress.
This
language defines the reality of NCKRI's politically
based funding.Thus, obligations held
by NCKRI are necessarily nonpermanent, nonbinding and noncommittal.
Such
bailout-clause language is not a reassuring long-term foundation to base the
future of any portion of our library assets.
At this
time the Institute is not fully operational and according to its own planning
documents wonÌt be until 2006. The NSS library or any part of it should not be
transferred to an organization that is not fully operational. It is also important to note that the
Institute recently hired a new director who has no federal agency experience.
It is critical for the Society to be assured that the director has a full
understanding of the nature of binding federal-nongovernmental organization
cooperation, including the related federal law and
policy.
We, as NSS
members, support the concept of assisting NCKRI establish a quality library.
The Huntsville Grotto Library Development CommissionÌs suggestion of donating
all duplicate publications to NCKRI is a commendable one and provides NCKRI
with a good basis to develop their library.
However, the NSS Board should not relinquish their mandated
responsibility to care for the NSS Library proper. We question the wisdom of placing any of
our library resources in the care and custody of a federal government agency,
who by the terms of their own proposal, may walk away from all responsibility
for the collection at any time for financial or political reasons. This would leave the NSS financially
responsible for the retrieval of the Library collection. Such a financial burden would not benefit
the NSS, its membership, or the library should circumstances require such an
action.
The
long-term impacts of splitting and transferring a portion of the NSS Library
have not been comprehensively examined, and, in fact, are unknown. If the NSS Board
has already given this issue a lot of thought and deliberation, then they are
encouraged to provide to the membership a list of reasons why the stewardship
of any part of our library should be transferred to a federal agency and give
justifications for any of the potential risks.
It
would be fair and appropriate for the NSS Board to allow a time period of
review and discussion about this issue for all concerned and interested NSS
members, before any decisions or commitments are made to transfer any part of
the library from its current location. A time frame encompassing the week
after the upcoming Board Meeting in Utah
and the August Board meeting in California
would be a very reasonable time frame for such discussions and member
input.
The
NSS Library is important to the SocietyÌs membership because we consider it to
be our library and as such want a voice in the disposition of one of our most
valued resources.
Respectfully,
NSS
MEMBER STATE NSS#
Gary
Berdeaux,
KY
23268
Jim
Borden KY
14153(FE)
Roger
Brucker
OH 1999 (HM,
CM, FE)
Dave
Bunnell CA
14760(FE)
Paul
Cannaley IN
17656
Alan
Cressler AZ
24393(FE)
John
DeLong
WI
47658
Sharon
Faulkner
AL46480
Larry
FishCO 29617
(FE)
Jeffrey
Gosnellð
IL
51334
Chris
Groves KY
15561
Howard
KalnitzMO 20678
Cindy
HeazlitCA
22980(FE)
Joyce Hoffmaster
OH
35599
Pat
Kambesis KY
17304(LB
FE)
John
Lovaas IL
39799
Rolland
MooreVA
43963
Hillary
Lambert KY
31439
Dick
Maxey OH 28034
Roger
McClure OH 2057(FE)
Kelly
NorwoodGA
43579
Lynn
Roebuck TN 34627
Stan
Sides MO 5217 (FE, LM)
Courtney
Sikora
OH
49462
Erik
Sikora OH 46407
John W.
Stembel GA 25837(FE)
Susan S.
Stembel ðGA34307
Paul
StewardNJ
35687(FE)
Dan
Sullivan CO 40262
Red
Watson MO1665(HM
FE)
Patty
Jo Watson MO 3379((HM,CM,SC,FE)
Dave
Wysocki WI
42418