It is a privilege to be here representing the American Library Association and the Association of Research Libraries to support the Government Printing Office Salaries and Expenses appropriation for FY 1996. ALA is a nonprofit educational organization of 55,000 librarians, library trustees, and friends of libraries. ARL is an association of 119 major research libraries in North America. Additionally, this statement has been endorsed by the American Association of Law Libraries, a nonprofit organization with more than 5000 members. I will concentrate on those two programs today.
Depository libraries are partners with the federal government.
This year we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 1895 Printing Act which formalized the Depository Library Program and transferred it from the Department of Interior to the Legislative Branch. The Depository Library Program is a community- based partnership between 1,400 depository libraries and the federal government providing the public with access to government information. Decisions about what information to receive can be made locally. In a long-standing cooperative effort, most states have a regional depository that receives every government information product distributed through the depository program and are responsible for retaining this material permanently. For example, the California State Library, a regional, has been a depository since 1895.