by Tim Sutherland

The IUN Library serves a campus of about 5000 undergraduate and graduate students and about 175 full time faculty. The campus is in Gary and serves students in the seven county Northwest Indiana region. With a library staff of faculty (eight), Reference adjuncts, paraprofessionals, and hourly workers the library offers services such as Reference and Information Desk assistance, Reserve, Interlibrary Loan, Library Instruction, Education Resources Room, Calumet Regional Archives (collects local and state sources), Government Publications (22% federal selective depository), Lake County Central Law Library, and Online Searching. A Technical Services department and Circulation/Periodicals/ Microforms desk also serve to acquire and provide access to library resources.

The IUN Library Government Information resources and services are on the 2nd and 3rd Floors of the Library and consist of five separate collections (government publications in print, microfiche, electronic/CD-ROMs, and maps; and law sources in microfiche, electronic/CD-ROMs, and maps; and law sources in print). These collections support the following services administered by the Government Publications/Government Information librarian: assistance with government information publications and maps, assistance with government statistical data (a Government Data Center is being developed), 2nd Floor general reference assistance point for locating books and periodicals, and online searching and other faculty development assistance for research and teaching needs. Additional staff resources are needed in the future to address increased demands for access to demographic data, legal resources, and geographic information in electronic formats.

Federal government sources selected are primarly in the following subject areas: business, Census, criminal justice, environment, geology, health, labor/employment, social services, tax, and U.S. Congress. About 5% of the most used federal government titles received are integrated into other collection areas of the library (Reference, general book or periodical collections). The IUN Library has access to GPO Access and is planning for a depository library system that will be primarily electronic by 1998. The Library is not a state government depository library but is trying to increase its holdings of state and local government information and data sources. Staff available to assist users are Tim Sutherland (219/980-6946) and Jeni McIntosh-Elkins (980-6608).