SCHROCK TO SPEAK AT LIBRARY EVENT MONDAY

Perry Library will celebrate its 40th anniversary as a Federal Depository Library during a special program at 3 p.m. Monday, Sept. 15. U.S. Rep. Ed Schrock will speak at the event. The university community is invited to attend the celebration, which will be held in room 151 of the library.

In fall 1963, Professor C.L. Adams of the physics department proposed that the Old Dominion library become a depository for Atomic Energy Commission materials. After several months of research and negotiations, the library was designated by Congressman Porter Hardy Jr. and the Government Printing Office as a federal depository for the 2nd Congressional district and a depository for Atomic Energy Commission materials.

Today, the library's documents collection contains approximately half a million items. In addition to traditional paper and microfiche materials, the collection includes more than 12,000 maps, 2,000 CD-ROMs and DVDs, 38 videos and thousands of links to Internet publications. By 2005, the Government Printing Office predicts that 90 percent of new titles will be online and not produced in print form. Members of the campus community and Hampton Roads residents are invited to visit the lobby exhibit of materials from the government documents collection, which opened Sept. 1 and continues through the fall
semester.

A Web exhibit, "Perry Library Celebrates 40 Years of Bringing Government Information to You," is also available at
http://www.lib.odu.edu/gpexhibit.

Highlights of the exhibits include publications on nuclear research from the library's early beginnings as an Atomic Energy
Commission depository. Census records from 1790 to 2000 show the dynamic changes in gathering statistical information. NASA photographs, CD-ROMs and books spotlight the shuttle program, MIR space station and Apollo projects. Military histories of Hampton Roads, as well as of international engagements, demonstrate the area's military contributions. The collection also includes materials on the Chesapeake Bay, presidential documents, information on women's health, CIA maps and a children's corner.

For more information contact Janet Justis, government information reference librarian, at 683-4169 or jjustis@odu.edu.