The Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey was the venue for the San Andreas Chapter tour on October 25. The tour of the Dudley Knox Library was hosted by Greta Marlatt. Event organizer Lee Pharis provided coffee and refreshments, which we enjoyed while we waited for all our number to arrive.
The campus houses about 1400 students at any one time, but the Dudley Knox Library serves many more who are stationed elsewhere or involved in a distance learning program. Students come from all over the world, and can be from almost any branch of government service.
The current building, the first permanent home for the Library, was constructed in 1974. An extension was added in 1994, and last year the library underwent a partial refresh under the watchful eye of University Librarian Eleanor Uhlinger.
After a presentation about the School and the Library, Marlatt conducted the tour, with about 18 of us in tow. We are grateful to her for generously spending over two hours with us and answering all our questions.
The tour included a look at the large map collection, quiet study areas, computers for conducting research, and workstations dedicated to accessing the online catalog. Along with a reasonable number of microform readers and printers (older technology), the DKL offers several group study spaces with state-of-the-art technology called "collaboratories." The newly remodeled reference area features a counter and desks that adjust for librarian preferences and customer needs. This is within sight of the circulation desk where staff welcome students and visitors to this hard-working library.
The Library offers a full menu of resources -- book collection, paper journals and access to many commercial databases. The Dudley Knox Library is a federal depository library for government publications. As such, the Library is open to the public, subject to the School's access policies including a 48 hour embargo and the requisite identification documents.
The thesis collection dates from the 1940s forward, and is a jewel of this library. Most but not all theses are available for public release (i.e. not classified). Slowly the collection is being digitized, and of course all theses are cataloged and findable via the online catalog, which can be accessed at DKL's website.
The Dudley Knox Library is constantly developing and testing new services and new versions of traditional academic library services. "Ask a Librarian" is an extension of the reference and readers advisory service, and utilizes chat technology. If you're a fan of social media, you might want to follow the DKL on Twitter; look for KnoxSquawkBox. Video technology is catching on as a tool for training their customers and each other.
The Library's staff of about 30 support the graduate programs that cover business, most engineering disciplines, and national security affairs. The staff are all civilians, and most permanent staff have security clearances. Knowledge of military uniforms and rank is valuable for the staff; if they don't have it when they arrive, they develop the knowledge quite quickly!
SLA is not the only organization celebrating 100 years in 2009. Established in 1909, the school became the Postgraduate Department of the Naval Academy in 1912, and moved to Monterey in 1951. The school occupies the site of the historic Hotel Del Monte, which was built in 1880 by railroad pioneer Charles Crocker. The main Hotel building still stands; it's called Hermann Hall and it houses the administrative offices of the School.
The Dudley Knox Library was named Federal Library of the Year in 2004.
For more information about the library, visit the website. Information about history, collections and services abound, including instructional videos and a link to the online catalog, called BOSUN.
Comments