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AAPG Publication Pipeline Committee

2007 Annual Meeting

Geoscientists Helping Geoscientists

The mission of the AAPG Publication Pipeline Committee is to improve geoscience education in countries abroad by providing used geoscience books and periodicals at no cost to libraries that request them.

The AAPG Publication Pipeline committee collects, inventories, boxes, stores, and sends, free of charge to the recipients, donated geoscience periodicals and books to university libraries and other libraries overseas which are in need of them for use by the students, faculty, and researchers. We arrange shipment of the publications overseas through the help of companies and organizations operating overseas as well as with the assistance of other AAPG members, regions and student chapters.

To date the committee has shipped over 50 tons of publications to universities that need them.

Accomplishments – Fiscal Year 2006-07

This last year has been a very successful year for the Publication Pipeline both in terms of intake of publications as well as the amount of publications sent overseas.

This past year the Publication Pipeline committee entered into a long term donation arrangement with ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company to accept used publications from their library management system. In addition publications were donated to the committee from other libraries (MMS-New Orleans, Illinois State Geologic Survey) as well as from individuals. We now have about 50,000 pounds of donated publications in storage, of which 25% are inventoried.

This past year saw several multi-ton donations sent overseas, namely to Afghanistan (2) and Bangladesh. In all of these locations the committee enlisted the help of local societies and student chapters affiliated with the AAPG to participate with the donations to the universities. An excellent example of this type of critical co-operation was shown with the recent AAPG Publication Pipeline donation to universities in Bangladesh. Were it not for the wonderful help of AAPG members Shams Shamsuddin and Nahum Schneidermann of ChevronTexaco, along with the local in-country AAPG student chapters and industry, the Bangladesh donation would not have been such a great success. We’ve seen this type of cooperation between AAPG regions, chapters and industry work in the past and this type of collaborative effort is our model for success in the future. Of course none of this would have been possible without the generous support of our corporate partners like Anadarko, ChevronTexaco, ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company, Samson and the USGS.

Additional shipments are in progress or planned to Azerbaijan, India, Mongolia, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea and Vietnam.

Critical Activities

Our most urgent problems are identifying universities that need the publications, finding AAPG members who are close to the recipient universities and will work with the AAPG Publication Pipeline in arranging receipt of publications as well as locating companies and or organizations willing to underwrite shipment costs.

Currently our biggest challenge is arranging shipments at a pace sufficient to equal our intake of donations. In spite of the general desire for publications, making contacts with universities overseas and arranging shipments is a slow process. This process is helped by working with and through our AAPG regional organizations and affiliates. This year special emphasis will be put upon getting more AAPG members involved, especially in-country members and student chapters who can help facilitate and ensure an efficient donation program. In addition we will continue to contact corporate partners and government organizations to solicit funds to ship publications to universities that need them.

This past year also saw the committee having to vacate the large donated warehouse facility in Houston that we used to store our publications because of the sale of the facility. In the mean time a long time supporter of the committee, Samson Resources, has helped the committee locate a (much smaller) temporary facility to store our inventory until a bigger facility can be found.

The Pipeline Needs Your Help!

We request aid from the membership in four ways:

1. Please help us identify universities overseas in need of publications. Consider acting as an ambassador for our cause.
2. Recommend to your company that they sponsor a shipment of publications overseas to needy universities in the host country of your operations. Experience shows that is a win-win activity for all involved.
3. We need the help of individuals to join us on the committee. Help is especially needed in Houston to work with us in handling donations and arranging distributions.
4. If and when you decide to dispose of your library, please keep us in mind. Overseas universities often do need both books and periodicals.
5. We do need funding. The AAPG provided us with a $4500.00 budget this last year but to be most effective we need at least $22,000 a year. Donations can be made to the AAPG Foundation marked for the Publication Pipeline, either endowment or operating funds.

We are geoscientist helping geoscientists,

Rick Wall, Chairman

Help the AAPG Publication Pipeline Committee get books where they are needed. Contacts and information:

Rick Wall - Chairman

Martin Cassidy

Chuck Caughey

Mike Bryarly

Web site:

www.aapg.org/committees/pubs_pipeline