ADMINISTRATIVE NOTES

              Newsletter of the Federal Depository Library Program

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                                 July 15, 1999
                               GP 3.16/3-2:20/11
                               (Vol. 20, no. 11)



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

The American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) 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 92nd Annual Meeting in
Washington, DC in July. The award is being given to honor GPO Access, the
electronic information service that provides access to over 1,000 databases.
More than 97,000 titles are housed on GPO Access servers, and links are
provided to over 46,000 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. Early FY 1999 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.