Around the World to: The Virginia Reid Moore Marine Research Library: Serving its Community through Library Technology
| Date | 01 January 2006 |
| Pages | 27-27 |
| Published date | 01 January 2006 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/07419050610653940 |
| Author | Marisol Ramos‐Lum |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science |
Around the World to:
The Virginia Reid Moore Marine Research
Library: Serving its Community through Library
Technology
Marisol Ramos-Lum
LIBRARY HITECH NEWS Number 1 2006, p. 27, #Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 0741-9058, DOI 10.1108/07419050610653940 27
The Virginia Reid Moore Marine
Research Library (VRM) at the Cabrillo
Marine Aquarium (CMA ± see www.
cabrilloaq.org) has grown steadily from
its humble beginning as the original
collection of the old Cabrillo Marine
Museum at the Cabrillo Beach
Bathhouse opened in 1935 in San
Pedro, California. The VRM Library,
opened August 2, 2005 is a small
collection of about 2,000+ books,
mostly in the marine sciences (marine
invertebrates, ecology and fishes) and
22 journal titles and 72 newsletters. The
VRM library is the only facility of its
kind in the Department of Recreations
and Parks in the city of Los Angeles.
One of the unique characteristics of the
VRM Marine Research Library
collection is the wide variety and
quantity of grey literature and ephemera
materials from a range of sources,
including local environmental
organizations, historical societies,
governmental reports, and publications
from other aquariums.
Until 2004, the library only had one
volunteer who helped to catalogue the
collection using the Library of
Congress Subject Headings. She
assisted Education Curator, Steve
Vogel, the former administrator of the
library, in doing inventories, data entry
and other library-related activities. In
September 2004, before the opening of
the new library space, I was hired to
manage this new facility by the Los
Angeles Public Library. I am one of two
librarians in the Library system
working on a special library outside the
department. I was very excited to have
the opportunity to work in such a
unique environment. To assist me in my
work, I hired two part-timers library
assistant in 2005.
Although the library is still keeping
the traditional card catalog as a
reminder of our past, the library has
embraced the new millennium with a
new-fangled automated library system,
from Surpass Software, which helps me
to manage, catalogue and make
available our growing collection of
books. In addition, we have started a
new project to index and make
accessible our collection of grey
literature. It is my goal to add the grey
literature records to the library database
and make the information available
through a searchable interface.
In the near future, I expect to be able
to offer the library catalog online as a
way to make the library collection more
accessible. Furthermore, the library's
four new computers provide Internet
access to the staff, volunteers, docent
and general public through a DSL
connection.
In addition to the library automation
system, the library has also acquired a
novel security and inventory system.
This innovative system is called Radio
Frequency IDentification (a.k.a. RFID),
designed by Bibliotheca, a Swiss library
company. This technology allows an
item, such as a library book, to be
identified using radio waves embedded
in smart chip labels. These labels
transmit a signal to an antenna at the
library desk and the security gates. As
an added benefit, these labels can be
read by a hand-held scanner, which
creates a text file that can be
downloaded to the library catalog to
match and verify our current collection,
saving us time when doing inventories
or trying to find a lost book. The VRM
Marine Research Library is one of the
few libraries on the West Coast that has
acquired and implemented this RFID
technology.
It is an exciting time to be a librarian
and I look forward to make this special
library collection available to as many
users as possible. I have already joined
the International Association of Aquatic
and Marine Science Libraries and
Information Centers (IAMSLIC) group
and look forward to sharing, learning
and meeting colleagues through this
organization.
Marisol Ramos-Lum (Marisol.
Ramos@lacity.org) is Librarian,
Virginia Reid Moore Marine Research
Library, Cabrillo Marine Aquarium,
San Pedro, California, USA.
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