NCSU Libraries Focus Online

Volume 25 number 1 - Fall 2004

Gale Award Ceremony

The North Carolina State University Libraries received the 2004 Thompson Gale Award for Excellence in Reference and Adult Library Services, awarded by the Reference and User Services Association, a division of the American Library Association (ALA). The $3,000 award and citation recognized the Libraries for developing the U.S. Congressional Bibliographies database, an imaginative and unique library reference resource available at http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/senatebibs.

NC State reference librarian Jack McGeachy and Systems Department colleagues created the U.S. Congressional Bibliographies database and Web site, and McGeachy accepted the award on behalf of the Libraries. The database lists and describes U.S. House and Senate committee meetings since 1985--those for which printed transcripts are issued as well as those that are unpublished. According to Betty A. Gard, chair of the ALA awards committee, the database is "an authoritative, exhaustive reference source of meetings held and documents released by the House of Representatives and Senate committees. The Web site is notable for simplifying complex, sometimes elusive, material and making it easy to locate."