Over the week, a number of articles have circulated about the government shutdown and its effects and impacts on libraries across the nation.  Librarians look to the alerts posted by the Library of Congress (LOC), whose most recent post announced its closure. As libraries wait for additional announcements and changes, we consider its impacts on our local libraries.

News from the Cataloging Distribution Service (CDS) of the LOC stated explicitly prior to the announcement of a shutdown:

In the event of a Government shutdown, the Library of Congress will be temporarily closed beginning Tuesday, October 1, until further notice. During this period, the Library will be unable to respond to any communications received… should any technical difficulties arise during the closure no customer service or technical support can be provided. This means although the catalog is searchable, no official updates can be made.

Alongside the LOC is the Smithsonian, the world’s largest museum and research complex, consisting of 19 museums and galleries, and administered by the US government, also directly impacted by the shutdown.

What does that mean for the Graduate Center Library?

ILL – As a hub for research sharing, items that we receive from the Library of Congress and Smithsonian Archives of American Art, National Library of Medicine, etc. are not able to be circulated.  This may prove to have a large effect on Inter-library loan service for the GC community and other libraries.

Databases –  Other government-funded library resources utilized here at the GC and across the nation include PubMed, administered by the National Center for Biotechnology Information, and the U.S. National Library of Medicine and there is new news on the Education Resources Information Center (ERIC), as of Thursday afternoon.

EBSCO Information Services Releases a Free Version
of ERIC During Government Shutdown

EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO) is making the government database ERIC available during the government shutdown. ERIC, the Education Resource Information Center, is typically available through the government website (http://eric.ed.gov/) as well as via EBSCO’s EBSCOhost® research platform. Because of the shutdown, access to the full text of articles and other materials will not be available but researchers will have access to the full set of A&I records on EBSCOhost. Users going to http://www.ebsco.com/freeERIC will now see ERIC listed among the other free EBSCO databases such as GreenFILE™ and Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts™ (LISTA).

Websites – Government websites will also not be updated and some may not be available at all. As an alternative you can use the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine to find archived data from the government, or anywhere. http://archive.org/web/web.php

Bibliography – Below is a cut-and paste from my Zotero clipboard, exported in APA of links that others may find helpful on the Government Shutdown and Libraries.  A couple of the links will require proxy access to GC resources, while two are open source.