During the fall semester, while working as a Reference Associate at Northwestern Law School, I encountered several challenging reference questions related to government documents and statistics. Based on those questions, I decided to take a class called “Government Information” this semester through the University of Illinois GSLIS LEEP program. The course is designed to provide an overview of government information, and to examine the historical and current publication patterns.

I quickly realized that access to government information has changed significantly in recent years as many government documents have become available electronically, which raises new issues, such as those related to preservation. Additionally, the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) is undergoing many changes as a result of the transition to a digital environment.

Given the recent changes, I started thinking about the future of government documents librarianship. I thought it would be interesting to interview an experienced government information librarian to gain some perspective on recent changes, and the perceived future of government information librarianship.

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