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Monterey CA - May 2012

HSDL Surpasses 100,000 Documents

The nation’s leading repository of homeland security-related information reached a milestone May 21, 2012, as its collection topped 100,000 documents.

The Homeland Security Digital Library (HSDL) reached the achievement with a document titled "Domestic Terrorist Threat: Background and Issues for Congress," written by Jerome P. Bjelopera of the Congressional Research Service (CRS).

Housed in the Dudley Knox Library at the Naval Postgraduate School, the HSDL is an educational resource of the Center for Homeland Defense and Security. The HSDL provides the latest policy and strategy documents as well as presidential directives, executive orders, key homeland security/defense legislation, General Accounting Office and Congressional Research Service reports, research tools and a homeland security blog that accounts for about 40 percent of its Web traffic.

"The HSDL enjoys a stellar reputation not only with our students and faculty, but also with the greater homeland security community," CHDS Director Glen Woodbury said. "It is a vital component of our effort to nurture critical thinking and policy development skills in our students by providing them an immense repository of homeland security knowledge. Moreover, the HSDL has become an indispensible source providing relevant information to decision makers, academics, researchers, students and practitioners around the country."

The library opened about half of its collection to the public in June 2010. Previously, access had been limited to CHDS account holders.

"Initially, our mission was to support students and faculty," said Jodi Stiles, CHDS chief information officer. "Now, we’ve grown to support the homeland security community nationally, and even internationally."

The library was the vision of former CHDS director and current Assistant Secretary of Defense Paul Stockton, said Greta Marlatt, outreach and collection development manager at the Dudley Knox Library. Marlatt said in the initial phase of developing the library, the documents were housed on her hard drive.

"When Paul Stockton talked about setting up the Center, he was very adamant about the need for a digital library," Marlatt recalled. "The HSDL was born out of his idea and was a component he was insistent needed to be there. I don’t think he or I really thought about the idea we would make it to 100,000 documents. We were so focused on getting it going that we never contemplated this milestone. It’s an important library in its contents and what it represents. And, it’s only the beginning of the important role the library plays and the impact it will have going forward."

While the volume of the collection is notable, the key to the HSDL’s worth is quality. Documents included in the collection are evaluated by librarians and reviewers who verify the content is authoritative, is authored by a credible source, and contains relevant and usable content.

"One hundred thousand resources are no good if people can’t find what they need," said Stephanie Anabo, HSDL project manager. "The idea is to get the right information into the hands of people who can make good use of it. That’s what librarians live for."

The document that reached the mark exemplifies the library’s mission. The report provides background regarding domestic terrorists — detailing what constitutes the domestic terrorism threat as suggested by publicly available U.S. government sources. It illustrates some of the key factors involved in assessing this threat and concludes by examining potential issues for Congress.

Maintaining that kind of relevance is the task of the librarians and content specialists at the HSDL. In addition to the collection itself, the HSDL provides an "Ask a Librarian" service that assists users with research questions. Sally Chapman, content librarian, staffs this service. One day may find her brushing up on synthetic biology while researching the GEH Statistic, which is used in transportation planning.

"I’m continually surprised by what people in the field are looking at," Chapman said. "I get a lot of inspiration and enlightenment from their questions."

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