Susanna Leers says...

I'm the E-research & Technology Services Librarian at Barco Law Library, University of Pittsburgh School of Law. I've been working here for 5 years. I got my BA at Columbia University in New York, and my MLIS and MSL (Master of Studies in Law) at the University of Pittsburgh.

In my position as an academic law librarian I serve both law school patrons and public patrons who are permitted to use our library for legal research and for access to our Government Documents collection. I also purchase and manage all our law database subscriptions - whose use is usually restricted, per our license agreements, to law school faculty and students. So I am keenly aware of the government information that is freely available and the government information that is not. I would like our public patrons to be able to easily access the same government information that we can pull up so easily in licensed databases. Because, as you say so eloquently in the blog, "While governments will continue to fulfill their role of creating and disseminating information, there is another continuing essential role for preserving and organizing that information for users and providing long-term access to and service for that information."