carnegie library of pittsburgh - main

“Free to the people” since 1895

Pennsylvania’s Statewide Library Resource Pennsylvania’s Statewide Library Resource CentersCenters

Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh - Main



CLP – Main Collection Strengths

Heritage Collection – 1895 • Andrew Carnegie influences:

• Science & Technology – industrial development• Architecture and decorative arts (Bernd Collection)• Local History and Genealogy• U S Government Documents and Patents• Oliver Room Special Collections

Regional Resource Center Designation – 1961• Science, Technology, Business

Statewide Resource Center – 2001-date• E-reference and digital presence

• CLP Web content, resource databases, permanent digital content



…Bernd Collection art folios - The Octagon - 1917



…pre-1970 journal collection



CLP Heritage Collection

• Depository – Established in 2004, located at CLP-Allegheny Regional . The collection includes less frequently used journals (pre-1970) and reference monograph and serial collections• Collection moved to the new depository at the East Liberty Branch with compact shelving in July, 2010• Collection Size in 2006 ~150,000 Main volumes• Project team has: Withdrawn, sold, gifted, transferred) a total of 55,480 volumes; Cataloged – 5,237 volumes; and Identified URLs to add to the catalog records of 11,585 volumes (primarily government documents)• Conservation & Preservation – 12,373 items



…new CLP Depository at East Liberty Branch



…hundreds of hours of analysis of the journal collection



…preservation of art folios, plat maps, etc.



…providing cataloging, metadata



Digitization Initiatives current and completed projects

IMLS Iron and Steel Heritage Digitizing locally - 436 items (monographs and

pictures) totaling 155,337 pages have been sent to the vendor. Now proceeding to digitize journal runs related to the topic.

Items and metadata stored in dSpace repository.

Social Networking component – FLICKR and website access via WordPress.

Public launch Spring, 2011.



…thousands of iron and steel book and journal pages digitized



Digitization Initiatives

Andrew Carnegie Online Collection This project includes photos, articles, letters and more

about Andrew Carnegie's life and work. The Andrew Carnegie Collection is a joint effort of the Carnegie Mellon University Libraries and the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, funded by two LSTA grants to CMU, which digitized Carnegie related documents from the archives to the two libraries. This also includes the Carnegie Benefactions, previously digitized by CLP in 2007:

http://www.carnegielibrary.org/research/pittsburgh/Carnegie/ - click on: Andrew Carnegie Online Collection .



Digitization Initiatives

LYRASIS Members and the Sloan Foundation – selected journal runs and monographs related to transportation at the turn of the 20th Century (about 25 titles) were sent to the Internet Archive for digitization. • Example: Railway Library

http://www.archive.org/details/railwaylibrary01thom



…25 titles related to Pennsylvania transportation history



Reference - special activities

Ask Here / PA 2009- 3,101 questions – a 66% increase over

2008. Covered 12-15 hours/week, almost half of which services the 24/7 national queue.

CLP users remain the biggest Quidget users in the state, relying more on the chat box than the sign-in procedure. As a result we have modified our VR schedule adding additional hours and dropping some telephone line hours of service

Text a Librarian Ask CLP text reference service begins Sept. 2010



The Future of Reference

21st Century Reference Services – Convergence Task Force - Charge: Document current reference services

and practices at Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh – Main and at branch locations, especially Squirrel Hill and Downtown & Business. March – June, 2010

Explore collections, services, trends, staffing and training with a goal of maximizing efficiencies and providing a service model for the future, considering the impact of digital reference content and communication, e-publishing and media, and e-reading devices that takes into account changing user demands for how content is provided. July, 2010

Reports are available at: http://www.carnegielibrary.org/presentations/jackson/



Exposing Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh’s Collections

Social Networking Eleventh Stack Blog - A books, movies, and more blog

from the staff at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh - Main. http://eleventhstack.wordpress.com/

From Haydn to Hip Hop: Music at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh – Take a virtual tour the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh's nationally-renowned Music Department. You too can "know the score" as WQED's own Jim Cunningham and a group of talented local musicians guide you through this rich and diverse music collection. http://www.carnegielibrary.org/research/music/haydntohiphop.html



Exposing the Collections of Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh

CLP Web Content Tools and Research -

http://www.carnegielibrary.org/research/• Staff developed content and access

• Music• Standards and Specifications (26,000 British, 2,700 ANSI)• Art files• Art and Architecture• AuthorLists

• Booklists – fiction and nonfiction

• Recommended websites

• Commercial databases and reference products