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The seventy years old library collection at the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium (CMA) has grown steadily from its humble beginnings as the original collection of the old Cabrillo Marine Museum at the Cabrillo Beach Bathhouse in San Pedro, California. Until recently, the library was run by the Education/Collections curator and assisted by one volunteer who helped to catalogue the collection using the Library of Congress Subject Heading, did inventories, data entry and other library-related activities. In 2004, a new library, the Virginia Reid Moore (VRM) Marine Research Library was opened as part of the CMA Expansion Project and a librarian was hired full-time to administer and manage the library and two part-time assistants have been hired to assist running the library. 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 wide variety of sources: local environmental organizations, historical societies, governmental reports, other aquariums publications, etc... These documents have valuable and unique information, which often is not found elsewhere. These materials are vital to the VRM collection since they are rarely collected by traditional libraries and offer a rare view of non-traditional materials by non-profit, private and community organizations with common interests with the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium mission of research and education about the marine life of Southern California. Unfortunately, these materials are inaccessible to users. The materials are spread out in different locations at the aquarium, housed in old banker's boxes without indexes or any other access point. To begin to address this problem, the library has requested to the aquarium administration to invest approximately $4,500 to acquire high-density file cabinets to help preserve and provide access to this valuable research material. Our goal is not only to secure the proper storage of these materials but also to centralize and supply access to this valuable resource. To achieve this goal, a three-prong strategy will be designed and executed to give access and develop further our grey literature and ephemera collection: indexing and thesaurus development; database with online searchable capabilities to the grey literature and ephemera collection and outreaching to local and regional organizations to expand the current collection. This paper will discuss the challenges of collecting and preserving grey literature and ephemera in the marine science knowledge-domain, and the design, execution and expected outcome of this VRM library initiative. Includes: Conference preprint, Abstract and Biographical notes, Pratt student commentary XA International |
