Hamilton Library to house federal government publications from Brigham Young University-Hawaii

Documents will help rebuild library's government documents collection

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Contact:
Gwen Sinclair, (808) 956-2548
Sara McBrides, (808) 956-9932
External Affairs & University Relations
Posted: Mar 22, 2005

HONOLULU — The Hamilton Library at UH Mānoa, a participant in the Federal Depository Library Program since 1907, has entered into an agreement with Brigham Young University — Hawaiʻi (BYUH) to house most of BYUH‘s federal government publications in the library‘s Government Documents Collection. Hamilton Library lost 95 percent of its documents as a result of the Oct. 30, 2004 flash flood.

"BYUH‘s documents will provide us with a substantial basic collection on which to rebuild our own collection," said university librarian Diane Perushek. "We have been overwhelmed by BYUH‘s generous offer to provide such an extraordinary level of assistance to us."

BYUH is one of dozens of libraries throughout the United States and its territories that are providing Hamilton Library with replacement copies of documents lost in the flood. While many libraries have volunteered to send thousands of documents, often at their own expense, BYUH‘s agreement to transfer its documents to the library is remarkable because of the size of the collection being transferred.

Librarians estimate that 80,000 documents are still being moved to the Government Documents Collection‘s temporary location at Sinclair Library also on the Mānoa campus. Movers are expected to pack and transfer an estimated 1,000 boxes of documents from BYUH on April 1st.

"We are extremely grateful to BYUH for providing us with their documents. Our patrons need access to current government information, and our arrangement with BYUH will enable us to fulfill our mission to make government information available to all," said Gwen Sinclair, head of the government documents and maps departments at the Hamilton Library.

Brigham Young University-Hawaiʻi was designated a Federal Depository Library in 1964. As a selective depository, the BYUH library receives a portion of the documents distributed to depository libraries by the Government Printing Office. Hamilton Library is one of 53 regional depository libraries in the country. As such, it is required to maintain a comprehensive collection of government publications and make them available to the public.