About the USFA Library
The USFA library provides current information and resources on fire, emergency management and other All-Hazards subjects. With its collection of more than 199,000 books, reports, periodicals, and audiovisual materials, the library facilitates and supports student and faculty research and supplements classroom lectures and course materials. Users of this Web site may access the library's Online Public Access Catalog to perform their own literature searches. In addition to searching the collections cited above, the library's catalog is a unique guide to periodical literature with citations on fire, emergency response, natural disaster, and homeland security topics going back to the early 1970s. Library staff index nearly 5,000 newly published articles each year, from scores of professional journals, magazines and newsletters across the country and internationally.
We routinely answer simple requests; e.g., an organization's telephone number and address. In response to more complex inquiries on specific subjects, the library will do literature searches, compile bibliographies, and, depending on length and copyright restrictions, provide documentation in the form of reports and articles.
The library is not currently open to the general public and only NETC personnel and students may borrow materials directly from the library.
The general public can still access the USFA library's collection of books and research reports by requesting interlibrary loan through their local library. Audiovisuals, magazines, and general reference materials are noncirculating. Call (800) 638-1821 or (301) 447-1030 for more information. Our fax number is (301) 447-3217 and our email address is netclrc@dhs.gov. Please include your full name, mailing address and phone number in all email messages.
As its name implies, the Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC) is the index that provides bibliographic access to the collection of the USFA library. While we're the on-campus library for the staff and students of the National Fire Academy (NFA) and the Emergency Management Institute (EMI), the OPAC will function for Internet users as a database on fire service, all-hazards and emergency management topics. Its fundamental service to Internet users is one of identification though the OPAC also provides online access to some 14,000 titles . The OPAC identifies published resources on topics of professional interest to fire service and emergency management personnel.
Since the library's primary mission is to support the instructional activities of the NFA and the EMI, the OCC reflects that goal. The LRC concentrates on natural and technological hazards but primarily on their social and behavioral sciences aspects. As examples, the library has some information on seismology but more on earthquake preparedness; some information on fire protection engineering but more on public fire education. Generally, students at the NFA and EMI are not scientists but practicing emergency managers and first responders. The library's collection has been built for these user populations and the OPAC will be most useful to them.
So What about Access to Materials?
All of the display and print formats in the OCC contain one of two fields:
ILL: yes / no
AVAILABILITY: Available on Interlibrary Loan / Not Available on Interlibrary Loan
These fields indicate whether or not the item is available from the LRC on Interlibrary Loan (ILL).
If you are a first-time user of the OCC, please review our Hints and Tips section before you begin searching.
