Washington –The University of Hawai‘i at M?noa signs a Memorandum of Agreement with the U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) to become the third Preservation Steward library in GPO’s Federal Information Preservation Network (FIPNet).  Under this agreement, the library pledges to permanently preserve print collections of United States Reports, the official record of the U.S. Supreme Court. The volumes contain the ruling, orders, and other proceedings of the Supreme Court. The United States Reports contain the record of some of the most important legal cases in American history, includingMcCulloch v. Maryland, (1819), Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857), and Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka, KS (1954).  The University of Hawai‘i at M?noa collection contains 555 volumes of the Reportsfrom 1817 through 2016. The library also has copies of the earlier volumes (1798-1816) that were privately published without any Federal assistance. 

To help Federal depository libraries meet the needs of efficient Government document stewardship in the digital era, GPO has established Preservation Stewards to support continued public access to historic U.S. Government documents. Preservation Stewards contribute significantly to the effort to preserve printed documents and GPO welcomes all Federal depository libraries that wish to participate as Preservation Stewards. The Norlin Library of the University of Colorado at Boulder and University of Kentucky Libraries became Preservation Stewards in 2016.

Through the FDLP, GPO works with approximately 1,150 libraries nationwide to provide public access to authentic, published information from all three branches of the Federal Government in print and electronic formats. The program's antecedents can be traced back to the act of Congress dated December 27, 1813 (3 Stat. 140), which provided that one copy of the journals and documents of the Senate and House be sent to each university and college and each historical society in each state. GPO has operated the FDLP since 1895. FIPNet is an initiative of the FDLP to expand public access to Government information in depository library collections through collaboration with non-depository library institutions and resources that also possess collections of Federal documents and publications. This effort will result in a National Collection of U.S. Government Information for the use of future generations, and will transform GPO’s Catalog of U.S. Government Publications into an index of that comprehensive body of Federal information.

“GPO welcomes The University of Hawai‘i at M?noa into this important program of maintaining Government information in all platforms,” said GPO Director Davita Vance-Cooks.”  I encourage more libraries to become part of this venture of preserving valuable print collections of Government information.”