Government documents staff in Minnesota chose their favorite documents, grabbed a camera, and let loose their creativity. The results are the photos below, READ (Docs!). It's a new take on the American Library Association's (ALA) celebrity READ campaign using real people and real documents! The web pages were printed as posters for display at the 2003 Minnesota Library Association (MLA) Annual Conference.

Documents pictured will be found in Federal Depository Libraries across the nation. To find the nearest one go to http://www.gpoaccess.gov/libraries.html.

More information

1. The Adventure of Echo the Bat / Kimberly Kowal
2. Air House, A History by Perry D.Jamieson / Paula Fox
3. This is Ann [anopheles mosquito]...she drinks blood! (1943) / Anna Hobbs
4. Annual report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. 1913-1914 / Randy Smolnikar
5. Assorted Publications / Future Farmers of America
6. American Women / Christine Dent and Becky Iverson
7. American Women / Phyllis Kendig
8. Battle of the barricades: U.S. Marines in the recapture of Seoul / Matt Conner
9. Brazil: a country study / Miriam Panton
10. Craft multiples / Sandy Kill
11. Crime in the United States 2001 / Christine Dent and Becky Iverson
12. Down home healthy cookin': Recipes and healthy cooking tips / Shaheen Haji
13. EOSDIS Global Portrait / Clarice Ostman
14. Elizabeth Nourse, 1859-1938: a salon career / Kay Kane
15. The Face of Venus / Kim Clarke
16. FDA consumer / Shirley Miller
17. First Flight / Mary Nere
18. Forest and rangeland birds of the United States / Christine Dent
19. A Guide to State and Local Census Geography / Julie Wallace and Kimberly Kowal
20. Hawaii volcanoes: Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Hawaii / Daniel Cook
21. He's Bac!; a Children's Guide to Keeping Food Safe / Minnesota State University, Mankato
22. Historic Preservation / Eunice Johnson
23. The History of the United States Capitol / LeAnn Dean
24. How our laws are made / Miriam Panton
25. Index of Patents, 1998 / Jeff Radford
26. Measuring America / Lynne Beck
27. MMWR: Morbidity and mortality weekly report / Ardath Larson
28. Navigation Rules, International-Inland / Sharon Monchamp
29. NOAA Diving Manual / Maggie Sloss
30. Outstanding Gasoline Service Stations / Amy West
31. Performing Arts at the Library of Congress / Mary Anderson
32. Performing Arts: Motion Pictures / Becky Iverson
33. Perspectives on John Philip Sousa / Becky Iverson
34. Presenting nature: The historic landscape design of the National Park Service 1916 to 1942 / David Wuolu
35. Portuguese: Programmatic course Volume 1 (revised) / Miriam Panton
36. Railroad Maps of North America / Mickey Hickman
37. Regulators Handbook / Julie Wallace
38. Religion and the Founding of the American Republic / LeAnn Dean
39. Reports of explorations and surveys... / Ann Jenkins
40. Roswell Report: Case Closed / Kirsten Clark
41. Sprocket Man (CPSC Comics) / Christine Dent
42. SunWise: a school program that radiates good ideas / Superheros of Sun Protection
43. Traffic Safety Facts 2001 / Helen Burke
44. U.S. Industry & Trade Outlook / Virginia Gunville-Bach
45. U.S. Virgin Islands / Paula Fox
46. United States Army Weapon Systems 2003 / Jessica Smith
47. United States Coast Pilot 6, Great Lakes and Their Connecting Waterways 2003 / Ann Jenkins

How did READ (Docs!) come to be?

Glad you asked! READ (Docs!) came into existence haphazardly at a meeting of Minnesota government documents librarians in March 2003. Our fearless leader and magnificent regional librarian, Julia Wallace, was featured as one of the Movers and Shakers in Library Journal. The March issue came out just days before we met, so of course we had lots of questions for Julie, and wanted all the juicy details of what it was like to be photographed and written about!

Julie's pose in her photo came under intense discussion. Why that pose? Why holding a pen? Why not holding a government document? Why not holding a government document? We asked again. "We should take pictures of Julie holding a document." "Yeah, and we could blow them up and hang them in all our libraries!"

Rejoicing in the recognition of our friend pulled exuberance into the room. Spirits were high, laughter came. You know how it is when people get together…someone tosses out a thought and it gets built upon, it grows, it takes on a life of its own. "No, I know," someone said, "we should take pictures of all of us and hang them in our libraries! Just think, our patrons could say - Hey! I know who that is! That's my librarian - and what's that document in their hand…I'd better check it out, looks cool!" And so it went…

When suddenly, someone said, "why don't we do this? You could coordinate it, someone could post them on the web, it would be fun! It would be different and new! It's got all sorts of possibilities!"

And so we did.

-- Christine Dent

For more information, contact:
Christine Dent
Reference Librarian
Ramsey County Libraries - Roseville
2180 North Hamline
Roseville MN 55113
651-628-6803