The Best of West:Celebrating 125 Years of Federal and State Government Information for South Dakota A presentation at the AZ Library Association/Mountain Plains Library Association Conference Nov. 14, 2014. Vickie Mix and Brenda Hemmelman

1. 125 Years: Serving the Government
Information Needs of South Dakota
Vickie Mix
Nov. 14, 2014

2. Statehood for Dakota Territory
https://archive.org/details/journalofconsti00sout
http://www.loc.gov/item/2012593215/

3. From South Dakota State News September 25, 2014:
Grover Cleveland of New York and Benjamin Harrison of Indiana served as presidents of the
United States during the last years of territorial status and first years of statehood for South
Dakota.
After initially opposing statehood, the lame duck President Cleveland signed the Omnibus
Enabling Act on Feb. 22, 1889, that established the process for southern and northern Dakotans
to achieve statehood. He and other outgoing Democrats got on the statehood bandwagon after
pro-statehood Republicans beat them in the previous election.
At 3:40 p.m. EST on Nov. 2, 1889, President Benjamin Harrison signed almost identical statehood
proclamations that created North Dakota and South Dakota. No one will ever know which state
was the 39th or the 40th to enter the Union because Harrison covered and shuffled the
documents before and after signing them. He proudly declared, “They were born together – they
are one and I will make them twins.”
http://news.sd.gov/newsitem.aspx?id=16766

4. South Dakota Agricultural College: Est. 1881
• 1881: The South Dakota Territorial Legislature chartered the college
as a land grant college under the Morrill Act of 1862
• 1884: The first building, Old Central is erected and classes held
• 1886: U.S. documents and two private donations comprise the library
collection
• 1889: Passage of the Enabling Act (25 Stat. 676, chs. 180, 276-284,)
allowed the Dakota Territory, Montana and Washington to apply for
statehood
• 1889: Nov. 2, 1889 South Dakota and North Dakota were
simultaneously admitted to the Union, South Dakota Agricultural
College Library is designated a Federal Depository Library

5. Historical Perspective of Federal Government
Information
• FDLP established 1813 by Congressional Resolution
• Printing Act 1860 established Government Printing Office to centralize
government printing
• Title 44 Chapter 19 U.S. Code established legal requirements for federal
depository libraries (FDLP Handbook, http://www.fdlp.gov/administration/handbook ).
• 1,250 depository libraries serve as one of the vital links between "We the
people" and our Government. (FDLP Desktop, http://www.fdlp.gov/home/about).
• Purpose: to provide free, easy, permanent access to federal government
information

6. 2014: Celebrating 125 Years as the Largest Federal
Depository Library in South Dakota
South Dakota State University Hilton M. Briggs Library, Brookings, SD
• Selects 77% of all items distributed through the Federal Depository
Library Program
• 243,000 paper documents
• 227,960 microforms
• 4465 electronic media
• 82,000 online documents

7. Serving the Government Information Needs of South
Dakota
• Depository designation in 1889 as a land grant institution
• Selective depository status in 1987 in partnership with the Regional
Depository Library at the university of Minnesota
• State Government Publications depository 1975 and 2013 in
partnership with the South Dakota State Library
• Select resources in multiple formats in support of university and state
federal government information needs
• Provide reference and research support in the use of government
information
• Provide regular instruction and promotion of the use of government
information.

11. Serving the State Information Needs for South Dakota
• Newly defined rules for state publications distributions to South
Dakota Libraries
• Reduced the number of state depositories from 8 to 2
• South Dakota State University selected as one of the 2 designated
state depositories in 2013
• Responsibility to retain and make accessible all state publications
obtained through the program
• Discard publications according to procedures set by State Library
• Promote state publications through orientations or workshops

14. State Publications Collections Growing Pains
• September 19,1975 Meeting of the Ad Hoc Committee on State
Documents at South Dakota State University reported 509 items
received in seven monthly shipments:
− 276 Periodicals (cataloged)
− 167 Vertical File
− 66 Acquisitions (cataloged)
• Concerns of the committee:
− Need additional sections for the Kardex
− Duplicates: to catalog or not to catalog
• Today: 36,351 retained