Services to State Employees

The Reference & Loan Library provides many services to State of Wisconsin personnel. Select a link below to find out more information regarding these resources.

• What's New For Goverment
• Information and Research Services
• 24/7 Reference Service
• WISCAT
• Borrowing Materials from the Reference & Loan Library
• Interlibrary Loan
• BadgerLink
• Wisconsin Document Depository Program
• Training
• Wisconsin State Agency Libraries and Librarians
  

What's New For Government

What's New for Government (WNFG) is a list of materials owned at the Reference and Loan Library and selected to meet the work-related needs of government employees. Most books may be borrowed for four weeks and renewed for an additional four weeks if not reserved for other patrons. Videos circulate for three weeks and may also be renewed.

State of Wisconsin employees may borrow items by sending an e-mail to dpirllill@dpi.wi.gov. The following information should be included in the e-mail:

1. Title and call number of the item(s) being requested
2. Employee's name, phone number; e-mail; and inter-departmental mailing address.
3. Deadline date by which the material is needed, if there is one.
4. Request to place a hold for items not immediately available.
5. Note that the item is listed on WNFG.

Separate requests should be sent for each item to be loaned.

These materials are also available for loan through the interlibrary loan service of local public, academic, school, and special libraries. If you are not a Wisconsin state employee and wish to borrow an item on the list, please contact the library where you would normally borrow local library materials.

New issues of WNFG will be published on this page every other month. The most current and all archived issues may be found on the web at WNFG Archives. If you would like to be notified each time a new issue appears, please contact Government Services Librarian Loretta Harmatuck at (608)224-6165 or by e-mail at loretta.harmatuck@dpi.wi.gov.

Information and Research Services

The Reference and Loan Library (RLL) provides free reference and research assistance to Wisconsin state employees by e-mail, telephone, inter-departmental mail or via the Ask?Away virtual reference service.

Experienced information specialists at the Reference and Loan Library can help locate information and provide resources on a wide variety of subjects that are of concern to state government.

State employees can send requests for information by the following ways:

E-Mail:
dpirllref@dpi.wi.gov	(Please identify your request by putting REFERENCE REQUEST in the subject line and be sure to include your name, agency, e-mail address, office address, and telephone number. Describe your information need as completely as possible.)

Phone:
Toll free number: 1-(888) 542-5543	Press 5 for Reference and leave a voicemail message for either Loretta Harmatuck or Martha Berninger.
Government Services Librarian at (608) 224-6165

Mail:
Attention: Government Services Librarian
Reference and Loan Library
2109 South Stoughton Road
Madison, Wisconsin 53716

You can also use the Inter-Departmental Mail system

Reference Request Forms on the Internet:

Use the Ask?Away 24/7 virtual reference service described below.

Librarians are the ultimate search engines. To supplement library materials, reference staff search electronic databases in addition to Internet sites covering a wide range of subjects, including federal and state government information; business; education; health; and applied and social sciences. Databases accessed include those provided by DIALOG, WestLaw, EBSCO, and ProQuest. RLL staff often contact staff at other libraries or outside experts or organizations to find answers to questions.

24/7 Reference Service

State employees can also use the Ask?Away virtual website to submit a request for general information or for help with research. Ask?Away is a service provided by a consortium of reference librarians throughout the state, nationally, and globally. You may use either the e-mail or the chat form to submit a request.

Your email query will go to staff at the Wisconsin Reference & Loan Library, which is affiliated with the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction and is staffed by reference librarians with a combined total of more than 135 years of experience. The estimated turnaround time for receiving a reply is 48 hours.

Using the chat form will connect you in real time to a professional librarian from the national QuestionPoint 24/7 Consortium. Members of the consortium share responsibility for staffing the chat service, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

Borrowing Materials from Reference and Loan Library's Collection

The library purchases print and nonprint materials to meet state employee work related information needs. Areas of concentration include public administration, personnel management, employee training, professional development, and career and work-related topics. The audiovisual collection includes DVDs, compact discs, videocassettes, audiocassettes, and kits. The library has an extensive collection of study guides for civil service examinations.

Visual materials may be booked for specific use dates if desired and are loaned for three weeks. Books, compact discs, audiocassettes and state documents circulate for a four-week loan period. Civil Service exam books circulate for two weeks. Items may be renewed if no one is waiting to use them.

WISCAT

WISCAT, the statewide database of library holdings is available on the Internet at: www.wiscat.net or may be accessed from the BadgerLink home page.

All materials owned by the Reference and Loan Library are listed in WISCAT. It can be searched by author, title, subject and format of material. Items owned by any of the other approximately 1,200 contributing libraries of all types may be requested through the Reference and Loan Library's interlibrary loan service.

Interlibrary Loan

State employees may borrow materials or request photocopies of articles from items held at the Reference and Loan Library (RLL) or submit interlibrary loan requests for specific titles which may be owned by libraries throughout the country. Copies of articles indexed but not available in full text through BadgerLink may be requested through RLL. Requests for information or materials needed by specific deadline dates are accepted, although requesters should keep in mind that successful completion may depend on the availability of materials and cooperation of staff at other libraries or resources across the country.

Requests for specific items can be sent via email to: dpirllill@dpi.wi.gov

BadgerLink

BadgerLink is a project of the Department of Public Instruction's Division for Libraries, Technology, and Community Learning for Wisconsin citizens. BadgerLink is available to Wisconsin citizens anytime, anywhere at your office, your home, your library, your college or university. BadgerLink resources may be accessed via the Internet at http://www.badgerlink.net.

For technical support information, use the following request form at: www.dpi.wi.gov/rll/wiscat/bl_sup.asp

BadgerLink includes the following resources:

• 11,000 full text titles
• 4,000 full text magazine titles with complete articles
• 12 Wisconsin newspapers
• 700 national and regional newspapers
• 86,000 historical documents
• 100,000 images and photographs
• Databases covering general topics, business, health, and education
• Link to WISCAT, statewide catalog of titles held in 1,200 Wisconsin libraries
• Links to federal and state government library digital collections and other internet sites

Wisconsin Document Depository Program

The Reference and Loan Library administers the Wisconsin Document Depository Program as outlined in the Wisconsin Statutes 43.05(5). The depository program collects and distributes state publications to Wisconsin libraries in both print and electronic formats. Any state agency preparing to print copies of publications is asked to send the Reference and Loan Library 52 copies for distribution to designated state level, regional and selective depository libraries.

The Wisconsin Digital Archives is part of the Wisconsin Document Depository Program. The purpose of the Wisconsin Digital Archives is to preserve content found on Wisconsin State Agency websites and to provide a way for state agencies to continue to fulfill their statutory obligation to participate in the Wisconsin Document Depository Program with electronic formats.Wisconsin state agencies should assist in identifying URLs of their online publications for online archiving as part of their State depository program statutory requirements.

Visit the program website to find out more about the state agency participation guidelines the Wisconsin Document Depository Program and the Wisconsin Digital Archives.

Training

It's an information jungle out there! Let a librarian be your guide. Staff from the Reference and Loan Library will come to your state agency and give a presentation on the information services provided to state employees by our library.

Presentations are also available for training state employees on:

• How to Search WISCAT from your Office
• How to Search BadgerLink Databases from your Office
• How to Metatag Electronic State Documents and Websites

To set up a Reference and Loan Training Session at your state agency contact:

Phone: Government Services Librarian: (608) 224-6165
Email: Loretta.Harmatuck@dpi.wi.gov

Wisconsin State Agency Libraries and Librarians

A list of current State Agency Libraries and Librarians can be found at www.dpi.wi.gov/rll/govlibs.html.