UMaine Celebrating 100 Years in the Federal Depository Library Program
Contact: Gretchen Gfeller, (207) 581-1696
ORONO, Me. — The Russians were newly experimenting with parliamentary democracy, the British Army was withdrawing from a foreign country, a senator resigned his seat, and the Maine Legislature hassling over the University of Maine budget allocation. Yesterday? Last week? No, all this happened in early March 1907 when Congress directed something of benefit to the University of Maine and to the state as a whole.
The Norton Amendments enacted on March 1, 1907 designated all Land Grant Colleges — including the University of Maine — as federal document depositories. To bolster scientific and political research and to assist in building an informed citizenry, from then on, UMaine’s library would receive, free, all new government publications as they were issued in Washington.
Fast forward to 2007. The University of Maine’s Raymond H. Fogler Library has recently been recognized by the Government Printing Office (GPO) in Washington for its commitment to 100 years of service as a depository library. To commemorate the milestone, the GPO has sent a crystal plaque to honor the library’s participation. The plaque will be part of a display that can be viewed at the library through the end of March.
“The University of Maine Library had actually been serving as a depository library prior to 1907, receiving a small selection directly from GPO and members of Congress in the late 1800s,” explains Frank Wihbey, Head of the Department of Government Publications, Maps, GIS & Microforms. “The act of 1907 significantly boosted our acquisitions, at no cost. So 1907 remains a historic milestone for our library and the federal program,” Wihbey said.
Joyce V. Rumery, Dean of Libraries at the University, added, “There is a synergy of Land Grant College membership and the Federal Depository Library Program which aligns with the mission of the University. This is one of many federal-state partnerships that have benefited UMaine and the State.”
“Libraries designated as depositories provide local, no-fee access to anyone. We are quite pleased with this recognition from Washington for our library’s commitment to providing public access to government information,” Wihbey stated.
Wihbey further explains that most depository libraries, then and now, are selected through Congressional privilege. Senator William P. Frye of Lewiston nominated the University of Maine library, and it was officially declared a depository in 1897. But in 1907, under the provisions of the Nelson Amendment to the First and Second Morrill Acts, 43 land-grant colleges were simultaneously declared to be a part of the depository program. This allowed Senator Frye to make another selection for Maine, the Dyer Library of Saco.
Another milestone in Fogler Library’s history came In 1962 when the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) sought libraries in each state–to be called “Regional Depositories”–which would volunteer to receive all official publications and offer permanent access to the public. Coincidentally and fortunately, UMaine had just installed a new and energetic library director, James MacCampbell. Thinking broadly, MacCampbell conceived the idea of building on an established spirit of cooperation among the three northern New England states and proposed the Tri-State Regional Document Depository, which would fulfill the role for Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. This relationship was realized in December 1963.
Typically a Regional serves only a single state. However, within the states of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, Fogler Library is the designated location committed to permanently housing every United States document that has ever been distributed by the FDLP program. The collection at Fogler Library now totals 2.2 million documents, including some in paper, microform, floppy disk, map, videocassette and CD-ROM formats. The URSUS online catalog lists hundreds of thousands of federal publicatio