ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline Volume 11, Number 9 February 21, 2002 In This Issue: Alert: A Message from GPO The Library Programs Service has been notified that many of you have received an email message from Mary Bennett of the State University of New York, Oswego, urging you to restrict public access to a portion of your depository library collections, specifically the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) publications on microfiche. Please be advised that Ms. Bennett has no authority to make such a request. Only the Superintendent of Documents has the authority to request that depository libraries withdraw or secure publications in their depository collections. No such official request has been made. Furthermore, the NRC has not requested GPO to direct depository libraries to take any actions regarding the NRC microfiche. GPO remains in close contact with NRC officials concerning these materials. The U.S. Government Printing Office takes its responsibility to assure free public access to depository library collections very seriously. We do not condone this unofficial request to restrict public access, and we urge you to disregard it. ****** ALAWON (ISSN 1069-7799) is a free, irregular publication of the American Library Association Washington Office. All materials subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. To subscribe to ALAWON, send the message: subscribe ala-wo [your_firstname] [your_lastname] to listproc@ala.org or go to http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. To unsubscribe to ALAWON, send the message: unsubscribe ala-wo to listproc@ala.org. ALAWON archives at http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. ALA Washington Office, 1301 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Suite 403, Washington, D.C. 20004-1701; phone: 202.628.8410 or 800.941.8478 toll-free; fax: 202.628.8419; e-mail: alawash@alawash.org; Web site: http://www.ala.org/washoff. Executive Director: Emily Sheketoff. Office of Government Relations: Lynne Bradley, Director; Camille Bowman, Mary Costabile, Don Essex, Miriam Nisbet and Claudette Tennant. Office for Information Technology Policy: Rick Weingarten, Director; Jennifer Hendrix, Carrie Russell. ALAWON Editor: Bernadette Murphy.