Fisheries graduate student Joe Schumacker spent the summer of 1995 in the library gathering information for a Puget Sound marine fish bibliography. Focus on Puget Sound . The information needs of the library's clientele are quite varied. Oceanographers setting out on cruises need to know about a distant ocean. Forestry students want to know the benefits of riparian zones.
Commercial fishermen are interested in pinpointing the whereabouts of a particular species of fish.
Food scientists research food safety, while artists come looking for drawings and photographs of Pacific salmon. In addition, the library runs an active class reserve operation, and libraries around the world use the collection heavily through interlibrary loan. Since library users are increasingly caught up with the vision of the information superhighway and its component, the World Wide Web, more and more people expect libraries to be online. But for now, and likely for some time to come, the Fisheries-Oceanography Library remains a place to come to as well as to access electronically. The electronic library is a goal that library professionals will be working towards into the 21st century, however.