New Online Options for Accessing Information About Idaho's Fisheries
by Deborah Green and Nancy Sprague  

Over the summer of 2008, the University of Idaho Library finished a long-time collaborative project to improve access to Idaho Department of Fish and Game (IDFG) fisheries reports. The University of Idaho Library worked closely with the IDFG and the Idaho Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit over the past several years to help scan the fisheries research reports and make them freely available online. 

Currently more than 2,500 fisheries research reports published by the IDFG are available online, covering a period of over sixty years. Online access to Idaho fisheries research reports is available from the IDFG website and the University of Idaho Library catalog via the following links:

• IDFG:  http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/cms/tech/  > Click on Fisheries
• University of Idaho Library: http://www.lib.uidaho.edu/

The IDFG website works well for browsing, while the UI Library catalog provides more options for searching for specific reports. Here are a few examples of the types of reports available: Potlatch River Basin Fisheries Inventory, Population Studies of Redband Trout, and History of Fishery Management and Research in Idaho.  

Each of the partners in the project had a large print collection of IDFG reports, but none of the collections were complete. The work of scanning the older fisheries reports was divided between the UI Library and IDFG. UI students helped with the scanning process, with funding from IDFG.  New fisheries research reports are now continually being added to the IDFG website, and the adding of links to new IDFG reports in our catalog has been made part of the library's workflow.  

The project is intended to enhance access to the reports for researchers, extension campus students, and field students. Another benefit of the project is the digital preservation of a collection of significant regional interest. UI Library participants in this project include Deborah Green, digital librarian, Linnea Marshall, cataloger, and Nancy Sprague, reference librarian.