PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] – Brown University Library will celebrate its 150th anniversary as a Federal Depository Library on Monday, September 26, 2011. In commemoration of this occasion, a representative of Senator Sheldon Whitehouse will present the Library with a ceremonial flag that was flown above the United States Capitol building on July 29, 2011 (the official anniversary date of the Library’s depository designation). The flag presentation will precede the keynote lecture, “How Technology Is Transforming Government and Society,” by guest speaker Dr. Darrell West, Vice President and Director for Governance Studies and Founding Director of the Center for Technology Innovation at the Brookings Institution.
The celebration will begin at 3 p.m. in the main auditorium (Room 101) at Salomon Hall on the Brown University campus. A reception (with birthday cake) will follow the talk in the lobby. This event is open to the public.
The Brown University Library was officially designated a Federal Depository Library by Senator James F. Simmons in the summer of 1861. Since then, the Library has worked closely with the U.S. Government Printing Office, federal government agencies, and other depository libraries to provide the Brown community and the public at large with direct access to government information. Brown is the oldest depository library in Rhode Island and was among the first so designated libraries in the country. On July 29, 2011, Senator Jack Reed contributed remarks in the Congressional Record honoring Brown’s 150 years as a Federal Depository Library. This event is the Tenth Alice Bobb Brendel ’67 Library Lecture funded by the Brendel Staff Development Endowment. An online exhibit on the 150th anniversary is also available.
The Brown University Library is home to more than 6.8 million print items, plus a multitude of electronic resources and expanding digital archives serving the teaching, research, and learning needs of Brown students and faculty, as well as scholars from around the country and the world.
The Federal Depository Library Program was established by Congress to ensure that the American public has access to its government’s information. The U.S. Government Printing Office administers the program and disseminates information products from federal government agencies to over 1,200 libraries nationwide (including 10 in Rhode Island); in turn, these depository libraries provide the public with free access to the materials, both in print and online, as well as expert service in using government information..
The Brendel Endowment which supports staff development for library personnel, was established in 1998 through an endowment gift from Donald and Margaret Nuss Bobb ’51, brother and sister-in-law of Alice Bobb Brendel ‘67. Alice began work at Brown in 1982 as a Reference Librarian in the Rockefeller Library and held the position of Government Documents Coordinator at the time of her death in 1991.
Contact: Daniel P. O’Mahony | Director of Library Planning & Assessment | Brown University | 401-863-9445 | Daniel_O’Mahony@brown.edu or dpo@brown.edu
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