Home >  About NPS Voyager Libary Catalog

SCOPE OF COLLECTIONS

NPS Voyager Library Catalog contains records contributed from:

Alaska parks consortium catalog
77 park units
2 regional offices
3 service centers

The majority of the records are for published books and reports that may be found at other libraries in the United States. The primary purpose of NPS Voyager is to provide a ready and reliable finding aid to NPS library collections for park staff. However, NPS Voyager is useful to the public as a bibliographic reference tool in that it collects in one place many citations to materials about the parks.

Ultimately, NPS Voyager will contain records for all of the 400+ NPS libraries. For a complete list of current record contributors, browse the LIMIT list appearing on the left side of the search box on the BASIC search page. Alternatively, click on the SET SEARCH LIMITS button that appears on the bottom right of the search box on the BASIC and BUILDER search pages. Then browse the LOCATIONS list on the LIMITS page.

INTERLIBRARY LOAN REQUESTS BETWEEN NPS UNITS

NPS staff wishing to borrow items from other NPS libraries are encouraged to contact those libraries directly with their requests. The SAVE OPTIONS box at the bottom of every NPS Voyager page enables users to mark one or more records from the results list (or from within a single record display) and send copies of the marked record(s) to the email address input by the user (select the Text Format option for this purpose).

The user must email the records to himself/herself, rather than to the library holding the material. When the email message appears in the user's inbox (it will indicate that it is from VOYAGER), the user may elect to forward it to the owning library, prefacing it with additional details concerning the request before sending.

To request materials not owned by any NPS library, NPS staff may consult the NPS Library Program website on InsideNPS to determine which NPS libraries they may contact for Interlibrary Loan services.

INTERLIBRARY LOAN REQUESTS TO THE NPS

Most NPS libraries are maintained for on-site use of staff, contractors, and visitors with a legitimate research need. Generally, library items are not circulated outside of the parks. Published titles owned by parks that are unable to loan their materials may be borrowed from other U.S. libraries through the Interlibrary Loan services provided at public and university libraries.

Most NPS libraries managed by fulltime, professional librarians who participate in OCLC are able to fill ILL requests that they receive via the OCLC ILL system. Unpublished materials, such as inhouse reports, may have restricted circulation, even within the NPS. Copies of many NPS reports may be purchased from the Technical Information Center, a program of the NPS Denver Service Center.

ORIGINAL FORMAT OF NPS VOYAGER RECORDS

Most NPS offices and parks staffed with professionally trained librarians are OCLC participants and are able to contribute records to NPS Voyager that are compliant with professional cataloging standards and USMARC format. The majority of the NPS libraries, however, are managed by staff with no professional library training and no budgets. These library collections are being cataloged using ProCite Bibliographic Software.

A policy and process for flagging the ProCite records in the NPS Voyager Library Catalog is being developed. In the meantime, outside organizations considering NPS Voyager as a source of copy cataloging are advised to proceed with caution.

CONTACTS

Those organizations wishing to add NPS Voyager as a host in a z39.50 gateway are invited to contact NPS Voyager System Administrator, Richard Aroksaar for z39.50 server connection information.

Individuals interested in learning more about Voyager functionality may consult the website of the vendor, Endeavor Information Systems, Inc.

All inquiries concerning NPS Library Program activities and plans may be directed to Amalin Ferguson, NPS Library Program Manager.