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Forward thinking, superior customer service and Internet savvy: That is how a third of a million library users in Tulsa, Oklahoma describe their public library. Those reasons, paired with excellence in providing public access to government information through the U.S. Government Printing Office's (GPO) Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP), is why the Tulsa City-County Library has been named the first ever Federal Depository Library of the Year.

Public Printer of the United States Bruce James presented the award to the Tulsa City-County Library at the 2003 fall Federal Depository Library Conference, which was held October 19-22 in Arlington, Virginia.

"On behalf of GPO's Superintendent of Documents Judith Russell and the rest of her team, I congratulate the Tulsa City-County Library for embracing new technology in its ongoing efforts to make public access to government information better accessible," said Public Printer James. "The library staff's commitment to utilizing the Internet and using outside-of-the-box techniques to better serve the needs of the public is commendable."

The FDLP's annual four-day conference is the largest gathering of Federal Government documents librarians in the country and was an excellent opportunity to honor the winning library and its head government documents librarian, Suzanne Sears. "This award recognizes a passion to connect government information to customers when and how they want it," said Linda Saferite, Tulsa City-County Library's CEO. "While our collection is small, our passion to maximize the collection is great."

Not only is the library moving forward by introducing innovative information access options, but also the paper collection is still maintained by staff and retrospective cataloging has increased the circulation of the collection. Outreach is a goal of the staff and a supply of free promotional materials is kept on display. The library also acts as a liaison for local community officials.

Administered by the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO), the FDLP partners with more than 1,250 libraries nationwide to provide local, no-fee public access to information produced by the Federal Government and distributed to the libraries by the GPO in print, microform, CD-ROM, and GPO's online information service, GPO Access <http://www.gpoaccess.gov>.