4.7 About the Federal Depository Library of the Year Award

The Federal Depository Library of the Year Award (http://www.fdlp.gov/loty/index.html) was established in 2003 as a special way to promote and market depository libraries. The award provides national recognition for a library that furthers the goal of the Federal Depository Library Program by ensuring that the American public has free access to its Government's information through all of the following areas:

• Outstanding service in meeting the Federal Government information needs of the users in your library's service area;
• Creativity and innovation in developing specific community programs for use of Federal Government information or a dramatic increase in your community's use of Federal Government information; and
• Leadership in creating public service programs that can be emulated by other Federal Depository Libraries.

The Federal Depository Library of the Year demonstrates the following attributes:

• A documented knowledge of the Federal Government information needs in the library's service area;
• Knowledgeable depository staff to assist users in the identification and use of the Federal Government information that best meets their needs;
• Excellent bibliographic control practices that enhance public access;
• Outstanding public services including significant marketing and promotion of the collection and the services available in the library and in the community;
• Substantial cooperative efforts with other depository and non-depository libraries to share knowledge and resources with a larger community;
• Access to a well-defined collection of Federal depository tangible and electronic resources adequate to meet the needs of the library's service area; and
• Exceptional care and preservation of the depository collection.

Requests for nominations are announced on FDLP Desktop (http://www.fdlp.gov/), usually in the spring. A selection committee that includes the Superintendent of Documents evaluates, rates, and ranks the nominations. The winning library is notified in a timely manner to allow travel plans to be made for the depository coordinator and library director to attend the fall Depository Library Conference and Council Meeting. Past winners, libraries of current Depository Library Council members, and libraries on probation are ineligible for consideration.

The library director and the depository coordinator from the winning library are funded to travel to Washington, D. C. to accept the award honoring their library as the Federal Depository Library of the Year. The presentation is made at the fall Depository Library Conference, the largest gathering of government documents librarians in the country. This is a good opportunity for the depository coordinator and director from the winning library to showcase their library's best practices and outstanding public service. The award is a great marketing tool for the winning library.