J-6 Law Libraries and the Federal Depository Library Program — How Can This Marriage Be Saved?

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Tuesday, July 28 - 2:30pm - 3:15pm
Location: 
WCC-Room 147 AB
Target Audience: 
Directors, government documents librarians, and reference librarians in academic libraries with federal depository status; law librarians in other settings who rely on the resources of depository libraries or refer patrons to them
Learning Outcomes: 
1) Participants will be able to assess the pros and cons of depository status for law libraries.
2) Participants will be prepared to identify possible incentives for continued participation in the Federal Depository Library Program by law libraries.

Thirty years have passed since Public Law 95-261 enabled law school libraries to become selective depositories. As a primarily print depository program has changed to a nearly all-digital one, has this long-time partnership survived the transition? Or has a once mutually beneficial relationship come to the point of irreconcilable differences? What is the value of depository status when federal government web sites are accessible anywhere, by anyone? What incentives do academic law libraries have for continued participation? Do law librarians have a pro bono role in helping public users find and use legal and governmental information? Addressing these questions will be a director and a government documents librarian from law school libraries with depository status and a government printing office official. That will be followed by a moderated discussion, with audience participation, about possible innovations for the future.

Speaker(s): 
Sarah G. Holterhoff, Coordinator and Moderator, Valparaiso University School of Law Library
Richard G. Davis, U.S. Government Printing Office
Susan Lyons, Rutgers University Law School Library
Keith Ann Stiverson, Chicago-Kent College of Law Library