Special Agreements - Government Documents

Almost all UCB library units -- and in particular, the new Main Stacks -- house materials acquired under one of several depository agreements. More than 1/3 of our depository items are now in NRLF. These agreements all require that access be free-of-charge to the public. Most of these agreements stress that depository libraries should make this material readily accessible to patrons, and in fact, advertise and encourage its use.

In order to abide by the terms of these agreements, The Library must allow access at no charge, during hours that are comparable to hours given other patrons:

• Free access to the resources of the documents collection by the general public is a fundamental obligation that all Federal depository libraries share.

• Libraries that offer night and weekend service hours to their primary clientele must provide comparable service hours to depository patrons.

• Depository libraries must ensure that any library-wide security or access policy does not hinder public access to depository materials.

Libraries, however, are not required to treat all patrons similarly:

• Depositories are not required to serve patrons who do not have a depository-related need to be in the library.

The Federal guidelines for depository libraries also state,

• Every effort should be made to ensure that the depository collection is used,..., and

• Documents housed outside of the depository library must be retrievable within twenty-four hours.

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Copyright (C) 1995 by the Library, University of California, Berkeley. All rights reserved.
Document maintained on server: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/ by G. Ford
Last update 12/21/95. Server manager: contact.