First AALL Public Access to Government Information Award Given to GPO Access

For Immediate Release
June 14, 1999

CONTACT:
Darcy Kirk
Chair
AALL Government Relations Committee
(860) 570-5109
dkirk@law.uconn.edu

The American Association of Law Libraries is pleased to announce that its first Public Access to Government Information Award will be presented to the Government Printing Office at the Association's 92^nd Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. next month. The award is being given to honor GPO Access, the electronic information service that provides access to over 1,000 databases. More than 85,000 titles are housed on GPO Access servers, and links are provided to nearly 48,000 more titles from other Agency web sites. Several databases lack a print equivalent.

GPO Access was established by Public Law 103-40, the Government Printing Office Electronic Information Access Enhancement Act of 1993. It has undergone continual expansion and improvement since its creation to provide better service to the public. Recent statistics indicate that GPO Access receives five million searches and ten to fifteen million document retrievals per month, while helping Congress, Federal agencies, and the courts to disseminate official information quickly, efficiently, and inexpensively. The convenience and timeliness of GPO Access have rapidly made it an invaluable public resource.

The new Public Access to Government Information Award was created at the request of AALL's Government Relations Committee to recognize persons or organizations that have made significant contributions to protect and promote greater public access to government information. A principal tenet of the Association is the right of equal access to information for all, to ensure an informed citizenry and to promote a just and democratic society. The award is designed to honor the achievements of those who have championed public access.

The American Association of Law Libraries was founded in 1906 to promote and enhance the value of law libraries to the legal and public communities, to foster the profession of librarianship, and to provide leadership in the field of legal information.