TCEQ Library

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Questions or Comments:
ac@tceq.state.tx.us

TCEQ Library

Library Hours and Facilities
What is available on the shelves?
- The General Collection
- Legal Resources: State and Federal
What can I borrow or access and how?
What reference services are available?
Links to Other Resources

Library Hours and Facilities

The TCEQ Library maintains a specialized collection of materials to provide scientific, technical, and legislative information in support of all TCEQ programs. Our primary purpose is to assist staff, but we also serve other state agencies, consulting firms, businesses, universities, teachers, students, and interested citizens.

Hours

The TCEQ library is open 8:00 a.m.-noon and 1:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, except federal holidays.

Phone numbers

512/239-0020
FAX: 512/239-0022

Location

TCEQ Austin Offices Map

Ground floor of Building A at Park 35, on the left as you enter the main doors.

Physical address: Building A, 12100 Park 35 Circle, Room 102.
Mailing address: TCEQ Library, MC-196, P.O. Box 13087, Austin, TX 78711-3087

Facilities

Four computer workstations provide access to the catalog, computer-based training, and other resources on the World Wide Web. All workstations are connected to a printer.

The library has seating to accommodate 16 users.

Other equipment available on-site to users include a photocopier, microform reader/printers, and a video monitor. (Copies made by external customers are $0.05 per page.)

What is available on the shelves?

The General Collection

The Library has over 60,000 volumes and over 250 journal subscriptions.

We acquire books, reports, magazines, and data with subject concentrations that support TCEQ programs, including water, geology, waste, recycling, air quality, petroleum storage tanks, ecology, and pollution.

Some of the materials maintained:

select federal government documents from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Corps of Engineers, and Bureau of Reclamation,
current and out-of-print TCEQ and predecessor agency publications,
Texas Water Development Board reports, and
telephone directories for most Texas cities.

Legal Resources: State and Federal

Texas legal materials include:

Texas Statutes,
Texas Session Laws 1905-current,
West's Texas Digest,
Texas Cases from the Southwestern Reporter,
Texas Register v.1 no.1, 1976-current,
a complete set of the current Texas Administrative Code, and
historical versions of TAC Titles 25, 30, and 31.

Federal legal materials include:

U.S Code Annotated,
U.S. Code Congressional and Administrative News,
Federal Register,
a complete current set of the Code of Federal Regulation,
historical copies of 40 CFR dating back to 1976.

What can I borrow or access and how?

From the TCEQ Collection

The general public may use library resources on the premises during normal business hours. They may not, however, borrow TCEQ library materials except by arrangements made through interlibrary network organizations.

Books from the TCEQ collection are loaned only to TCEQ staff and personnel in other state agencies. Registration from the TCEQ Library is required.

All TCEQ books and periodicals are cataloged into the Library Catalog of Texas State Agencies, an online public-access catalog that is updated daily with new materials. It includes collections of various state agency libraries, including the State Library itself, and is available free to anyone with access to the Internet.

You can search the catalog without leaving your web browser and launch URLs and links found in catalog records. Select TCEQ from the drop-down library menu to access only the TCEQ collection. Access the catalog here:
star.tsl.state.tx.us/uhtbin/webcat Exit TCEQ Web site.

Via the TexShare Databases

For Texas residents, information for research and reference needs can be found in the TexShare databases through the Texas State Library. You can view TexShare databases at: www.texshare.edu/tceqlibrary/. Please contact TCEQ library staff or your local public library for login ID and password.

Many full-text sources are available through these databases, and may be accessed from work or home. In addition to providing citations, many databases provide full-text articles. Some useful databases include:

Academic Search Premier. This database has a large selection of full-text academic journals, many of which cover environmental topics (e.g. Science, Toxicology Methods, Compost Science and Utilization, Geology Today, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, many others).
Texas Digital Sanborn Maps. Historical, very detailed maps, of Texas communities.
Handbook of Texas.
netLibrary. Check out and read books online.
ArticleFirst. Search for articles by subject, author, title, etc.

The TCEQ librarians are available to assist you with database selection and searching tips. Contact them at 512/239-0020.

Via Library of Texas

The Library of Texas offers Texas residents the advantage of simultaneously searching a combination of TexShare databases and catalogs from Texas libraries using one simple search format. You can access this service at www.libraryoftexas.org. Exit TCEQ Web site. Please contact TCEQ library staff at 512/239-0020 or your local public library for login ID and password, or assistance.

What reference services are available?

Librarians are available to:

answer reference questions,
to check holdings for specific items,
to explain services, policies, and the arrangement of library materials,
help you use research tools, including the online catalog, electronic databases, and printed reference sources.

If you need expertise to answer questions on the TCEQ's more technical programs, library staff can refer you to appropriate personnel or to another agency.

Staff will make copies for requestors as time permits.

Links to Other Resources

The following external links Exit TCEQ Web site. are intended to be informational only. This is not a comprehensive list and should not be interpreted as an endorsement by the TCEQ of any product or of the information's accuracy. The library staff make an ongoing effort to keep the links up-to-date. We would appreciate you notifying us if you experience any difficulties or if you would like to recommend additional links.

If you have a reference question and would like assistance from a librarian, please call 512/239-0020.