Librarian shares digital resource with federal retirees

By Lee Roberts

HERMITAGE, Tenn. (March 3, 2015) – Driving to the library, using card catalogs, wandering aisles and exploring shelves are unnecessary tasks if searching for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers resources.  That’s why the Nashville District Librarian highlighted valuable features of the USACE Digital Library with a group of federal retirees today at Hermitage United Methodist Church.

Tammy Kirk gave a presentation to 15 members of National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association’s Nashville Chapter 1576 and explained how libraries, historians and other content owners across the Corps digitize histories, maps, photos, technical and planning materials, and legal documents that can be found online in the USACE Digital Library.

Tammy Kirk, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Nashville District librarian, speaks about the USACE Digital Library to retired federal workers during a meeting of the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association’s Nashville Chapter 1576 March 3, 2015 at the Hermitage United Methodist Church in Hermitage, Tenn. (Photo by Lee Roberts)
Tammy Kirk, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Nashville District librarian, speaks about the USACE Digital Library to retired federal workers during a meeting of the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association’s Nashville Chapter 1576 March 3, 2015 at the Hermitage United Methodist Church in Hermitage, Tenn. (Photo by Lee Roberts)

“The digital library is a repository of information,” Kirk said.  “It’s just like if you walked into a building that is a library, but it’s all digital.”

Kirk told the group that she is as much or more an archivist than a librarian because she works to preserve, digitize and publish materials for the digital library.

“I work with many materials that started as working documents but that have aged into being archival materials,” Kirk said.  “And it got used and abused. It has tape on it.  Some of it has coffee rings on it.  All of the stuff is very dirty, very grungy, and then suddenly it’s old.  Suddenly it is historic. Suddenly I have to deal with it.”

She explained that the Nashville District has materials in storage dating back into the 1800s and that she tries to make those available for the public online as time allows.

Kirk said she often gets requests from the public for historic photos of farmland and cemetery plots from areas that have since become inundated by the dams and lakes built in the Cumberland River basin in the early and mid 1900s.

“No, generally we don’t (have these specific items).  But I look and find what I can,” she said.

Another item Kirk frequently receives requests for are old maps of waterways prior to the construction of the modern dams.

“Fishing people really love to call me and say, ‘Do you have a map of this area from before the dam went in?’  That’s because somehow that magically tells them where the fish are.  I’m not sure how this works, but it does.  And they love our old maps.”

During her presentation, Kirk also showed how titles, authors, subjects, districts, locations, use rights and other topics are hyperlinked within the digital library to make it easier to explore or to even narrow searches for materials.  She even showed examples of content that is already available online.

Sigmund Henke retired from the Nashville District’s Regulatory Division in 2003 and had extensive experience working in construction.  He served nearly 40 years in the federal government and said some old folks aren’t as hip with computers but said he thought the online library is good.

“At least you can reach it by computer now.  You couldn’t before,” Henke said.  “I try to go to the Nashville District and see what is new.  That’s what makes it interesting.  I always have that desire to see what the Corps is doing now.”

Kirk said most of the Corps’ web sites are constantly changing – content that might have been there years ago is no longer available today.  She said the USACE Digital Library was created to be a repository capable of storing large files and important data, and to be a valuable online resource for the public.

“So much of what I do here is preserving history and making it accessible,” Kirk said.  “What I put into this library makes it accessible to the world and to citizens of the United States of America who benefited from what our people did to build this country and to build the infrastructure.”

Carla Perry, president of NARFE Chapter 1576, said she found the presentation to be very interesting having been a spouse of a Nashville District employee.

“I can imagine all of the information that is there in boxes pushed aside and it needs to be out where people can access it,” Perry said.  “So I think that is a wonderful thing.  I’m glad they’re doing it.”

Her husband Jess Perry served in the Nashville District from 1963 to 1999 and retired as the chief of the Civil Design Branch.  He said during that time he worked on all the big projects and went from using slide rule and rotary calculators to computers and cell phones – so it’s only natural that the library is now available digitally today.

“Because of my history I can relate to it,” Jess said.  “It’s very important and valuable historic information (in the digital library).”

The hyperlink for the USACE Digital Library is http://cdm16021.contentdm.oclc.org/.

The hyperlink for NARFE Chapter 1576 is http://narfechapter1576.org. NARFE is a nonprofit national organization of nearly 380,000 members dedicated to preserving federal retirement and health insurance benefits. NARFE members are federal civil service employees and retirees.

(The public can obtain news, updates and information from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Nashville District on the district’s website at www.lrn.usace.army.mil, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/nashvillecorps and on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/nashvillecorps.)