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State Library describes GIS, government information and natural heritage services; 32,000 state publications digitized
Summary
At the final day of the State Library budget hearings, State Librarian Jenny Stapp described the library's GIS and information-access programs, including the Natural Resource Information System (NRIS), the Natural Heritage Program, website archiving with the Internet Archive, and a digital state depository of more than 32,000 publications.
State Librarian Jenny Stapp told the Joint Appropriations Subcommittee on Education that the Montana State Library's GIS and information-access programs provide statewide collections and tools used for research, regulatory filings and local planning.
Stapp said the library maintains a modern state depository of government publications and an archive of agency websites under contract with the Internet Archive. “We currently have a little over 32,000 digitized state publications that are freely available online,” Stapp said, noting the library worked with the Montana Historical Society and other partners to digitize legacy publications dating to territorial records. She said the Internet Archive crawling dates back to 1996 and that the library uses archived agency websites to preserve and provide access to material agencies post online.
Stapp described the library's Natural Resource Information System (NRIS), created in 1983 and moved to the State Library in 1985, as a long-running geospatial repository that collects location-based natural resource information to support compliance with the Montana Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) and other regulatory uses. The Natural Heritage Program, a component of NRIS, maintains species, habitat and invasive-species data and public-facing tools such as the Montana Field Guide and a map viewer that can produce downloadable reports.
Stapp and staff told the committee that these services speed regulatory work and planning by providing common, centralized data that reduces duplicate field surveys. They noted gaps in species data — Stapp said the library lacks information for about 8,000 invertebrate species in Montana — and described partnerships with Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks (FWP) on the state wildlife action plan and with industry users such as timber companies using sustainable forestry certification tools.
Stapp also identified current cost drivers and program demands: land-use planning support tied to Senate Bill 382 from the last session, growing public use of the map viewer and archives, work on bat monitoring and white-nose syndrome response, and contracted services such as the Montana State Reference Network. For the GIS functional area the library reported 13 budgeted positions (and 13 modified positions); the information-access functional area was listed as 8 budgeted positions and 7 modified positions.
Stapp highlighted an operational issue: the recently created Office of Public Information Requests in the Department of Administration may receive general reference requests that the library considers better routed to the State Library; staff said they want to coordinate intake to avoid duplicating reference work.
No formal action or vote was taken on these program descriptions; staff said they would provide further materials requested by committee members via email and at the committee's upcoming work session.
Ending: Committee members thanked library staff for the overview and indicated follow-up questions would be addressed in the work session and via the emailed materials.
