Duke University/Perkins Library Historic Documents related to the contributions of Stuart Basefsky: March 2016

Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Captioning Decoders Used as Literacy Tool [Stuart Basefsky], Wilmington Morning Star, Saturday, February 20, 1988, page 7D.

Captioning Decoders Used as Literacy Tool [Stuart Basefsky], Wilmington Morning Star, Saturday, February 20, 1988, page 7D.

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

N.C. Needs Better Document Storing, Accessing System [Stuart Basefsky], Times-News, Hendersonville, N.C., Tuesday, September 10, 1985, page 7

NC NEEDS BETTER DOCUMENT STORING, ACCESSING SYSTEM

The Times News, September 10, 1985, page 7

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1665&dat=19850910&id=ou0eAAAAIBAJ&sjid=fiQEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6590,1653412&hl=en

Librarians Lament Lack of Central Document Site [Stuart Basefsky], Wilmington Morning Star, Wednesday, September 11, 1985, page 3C

Stuart Basefsky was a key lobbyist for the creation of the N.C. State Documents Depository. He also served as the Chairman of the Documents Section of the N.C. Library Association.

Wilmington Morning Star, Wednesday, September 11, 1985, page 3C

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1454&dat=19850911&id=eQEzAAAAIBAJ&sjid=0xMEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6496,2883839&hl=en

Perkins Adds Service to Ease Research [Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) daily], The Duke Chronicle, Wednesday, January 20, 1988, page 3

The following service was the initiative of Stuart Basefsky.

The Duke Chronicle, Wednesday, January 20, 1988, page 3

http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/dukechronicle_dchnp29082_dchnp290820030/

Monday, March 28, 2016

GAZETTEER FILE BORN AT DUKE thanks to Stuart Basefsky

DUKE UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES
Vol. 1, No. 2 Winter, 1988 [?]

https://archive.org/stream/dukeuniversityli01ezze/dukeuniversityli01ezze_djvu.txt

Reported by Carolyn Myers and

Ashley Jackson

GAZETTEER FILE

BORN AT DUKE

Thanks to a bright idea from

Stuart Basefsky, Documents

Reference and Maps Librarian, it's

now much easier to find the exact

location of towns and other

places in foreign countries.

Basefsky convinced the

Congressional Information

Service, a Maryland publisher, to

issue on microfiche the complete

file of foreign gazetteers produced

by the Defense Mapping Agency.

Although the 1,400 depository

libraries, of which Duke is one,

should have received all the

printed gazetteers issued by the

DMA, gaps did exist since the

distribution system was not

perfect. Duke, for instance, was

missing gazetteers from South

Africa, Canada, and the

Philippines — countries much in

the news of late. Even with its

incompleteness. Duke's printed

collection took up twenty linear

feet of space.

The microfiche collection, by

contrast, requires only fifteen

inches of drawer space. Another

benefit is the lower cost of the

microfiche collection — $3,000

as opposed to approximately

$14,000 for the collection in

hardcopy. Each volume of the

collection includes approved

name and unapproved variant

names of places, a description of

the place or feature (e.g.,

populated place, forest), country

in which the place is located,

latitude and longitude, and other

finding aids.

Because of Basefsky 's role in

the project, he received credit in

the publication for being an

informal consultant. Duke

received thanks for lending many

of its gazetteers to be filmed. The

Library also received a free copy

of the microfiche collection,

entitled Foreign Gazetteers of the

U.S. Board on Geographic Names.

North Carolina STATE DEPOSITORY LIBRARY SYSTEM--Stuart Basefsky was a key lobbyist for its implementation.

DUKE UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES
Vol. 1, No. 2 Winter, 1988 [?]

https://archive.org/stream/dukeuniversityli01ezze/dukeuniversityli01ezze_djvu.txt

Reported by Carolyn Myers and

Ashley Jackson

STATE DEPOSITORY

LIBRARY SYSTEM

What's it like to be a volunteer

lobbyist? Stuart Basefsky of the

Public Documents and Maps

Department found out when he

lobbied for passage of the

recently enacted bill to establish

and maintain a depository library

system for publications of North

Carolina state government

agencies (Chapter 125, Article 1A

of the General Statutes). "I would

never volunteer to do it again

without pay; it is extremely time-

consuming," he said. "But," he

added, "if it works it is extremely

rewarding."

Since 1983 the Documents

Section of the North Carolina Li-

brary Association has been trying

to find a cost effective means for

collecting and disseminating

important state government

publications. This act is the

culmination of its work.

In 1983/84, three out of every

four state publications were never

forwarded to the State Library.

The State Library's function of

providing a complete record of

state publications and of

facilitating access to them was

being undermined by the failure

of state agencies to comply with

the then-existing provisions for

publication distribution. The

public's right to know was

thwarted.

The State Documents

Depository System Committee, of

which Basefsky was an active

member, initially obtained the

assistance of Bill Campbell of

UNC's Institute of Government to

draft the bill. From the N.C. Cen-

ter for Public Policy Research, the

Committee gained valuable advice

on the strategy for shepherding

the bill through the

legislature. Following

this background

work, the Committee

convinced Senator

Kenneth Royall and

Representative

George Miller to

sponsor the bill. The

Committee prepared and sent to

each legislator an informational

packet explaining the need for the

bill. The Committee asked

librarians throughout the state to

write their legislators urging

support for it. They used the

media as well to promote the

cause. Basefsky monitored the

progress of the bill by phone and

testified before the committee

reviewing it. Luckily the

NEWS NOTES

Committee also had a personal

contact in the General Research

Division of the Assembly who

kept them abreast of upcoming

steps toward passage. "There is a

lot of unpredictability in the proc-

ess," Basefsky said, adding "pres-

ence is very important."

The state legislators

complimented the Committee for

having done its homework and

for having drafted the bill. "A

legislator does not have time to

do everything," Basefsky learned.

What benefits have resulted

from Basefsky's activity and the

passage of the bill? Basefsky said

the experience gave him solid

practical experience in public

policy, experience which will help

him in responding to library

patrons' questions

about the workings

of state government.

And for the Duke Li-

brary 7 "We will not

have to write sixty

letters each year to

get what we want,"

he said. The act

requires state

agencies to send

copies of each of their

publications to the clearinghouse

at the State Library within ten

days of issuance. The

clearinghouse then must

distribute these copies to

designated depository libraries (of

which Duke is one) throughout

the state. The act thus obviates

the necessity for each depository

library to write individually to

each state agency for the

publications it wants.

Furthermore, said Basefsky,

"This law really has bite in it."

The act requires that the

Department of Cultural Resources

report annually "to the Joint

Legislative Commission on Gov-

ernmental Operations and the

Fiscal Research Division of the

Legislative Office on the

operations of the State depository

library system."

Foreign Gazetteers of the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, published by Congressional Information Service (CIS) created at the suggestion of Stuart Basefsky

Stuart Basefsky requested that the Congressional Information Service (CIS) create a complete microfiche collection of the Foreign Gazetteers of the U.S. Board on Geographic Names. The Duke Collection was one of the primary sources for the compilation. As a result, Duke received the microfiche collection free of charge.

Foreign Gazetteers of the U.S. Board on Geographic Names

http://www.lexisnexis.com/documents/academic/upa_cis/6825_ForeignGazetteers1990.pdf

Acknowledgements

The need for this microfiche collection was suggested to CIS by Stuart M. Basefsky, Documents Reference and Map Librarian of the William R. Perkins Library at Duke University. We wish to thank Mr. Basefsky for the idea and the Perkins Library for lending us many gazetteers for filming. We also want to express our thanks to Gene Kubal and Hugh Howard and other staff at the Department of the Army Library and to staff at the U.S. Geological Survey for lending us numerous gazetteers.

MAPS FROM CANADA [CANADIAN MAP DEPOSITORY created by Stuart Basefsky]

The Canadian Map Depository was created by Stuart Basefsky in his role as Map Librarian in the Public Documents Department of Perkins Library. Stuart directly solicited the Canadian Government for this special designation which resulted in Duke receiving Canadian Maps free of charge for as long as the Canadian Government maintains the program.

DUKE UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES
Vol. 2, No. 1 Fall, 1988

https://archive.org/stream/dukeuniversityli02ezze/dukeuniversityli02ezze_djvu.txt

MAPS FROM CANADA

The growth of the Canadian

Studies Center and an upswing in

the public's interest in Canada

were major factors leading to the

recent designation of Perkins Li-

brary as one of a handful of U.S.

depositories for Canadian maps.

In requesting depository status,

Stuart Basefsky, documents refer-

ence and maps librarian, cited the

growing amount of research in the

Triangle area involving Canada

and the increasing number of

Canadians migrating to and vaca-

tioning in North Carolina. "A lot of

people aren't aware of all the ties

between Canada and the Caro-

linas. In addition to the business

and research projects being con-

ducted, our state is the number

one vacation spot for Canadians."

The library was already a

depository for Canadian govern-

ment publications, but there were

gaps in the Canadian map collec-

tion. As a map depository, the li-

brary will receive lists of the avail-

able maps and series of maps for

ordering. Clark Cahow, director of

the Canadian Studies Center, said

he is excited about the new availa-

bility of the maps. We couldn't be

happier about this, because it's go-

ing to provide us a graphic set of

maps for history, economy, sociol-

ogy, political science and public

policy. We'll receive political and

economic maps as well as stan-

dard geographic maps. Anyone in-

terested in population growth and

demographics will also be glad to

hear about the maps."

Access to most of the maps is-

sued by the Canadian government

will also aid researchers working

in areas such as forestry, geology,

environmental studies, anthropol-

ogy, and "people who plan to go

fishing," according to Basefsky.

"These maps can be used in a

thousand different ways. They can

be used by botanists to locate ex-

actly where a certain type of plant

is found and by epidemiologists to

track a disease. Their uses are

endless."

The Canadian government

wants the public as well as aca-

demics to use the maps, he said.

"When they make a Canadian

map depository, their interest is

that it get the widest distribution

and use possible."

The several hundred Canadian

maps will comprise only a small

portion of Perkins' total collection

of 100,000 maps but will consti-

tute a significant grouping.

A STEP UP ON WASHINGTON [The Washington Alert Service by Congressional Quarterly]

Stuart Basefsky was on the Advisory Board of the Washington Alert Service--a subdivision of Congressional Quarterly. He brought the service to Duke University at a considerable discount.
This service was an invaluable tool used by the Terry Sanford Institute for Public Policy and other policy related programs at Duke University.

DUKE UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Vol.6, no. 1 Fall, 1992

https://archive.org/stream/dukeuniversityli06ezze/dukeuniversityli06ezze_djvu.txt

A STEP UP ON WASHINGTON

In an October 5th program for The

Friends, Federal Documents Librarian

Stuart Basefsky gave a demonstration

of the powerful electronic tool, the

Washington Alert Service. This online

service allows the library to have

nearly immediate information about

activities in Congress. Bills are closely