FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Karen Witham, Florida State University Libraries 850-645-8925 or kwitham@fsu.edu
FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES OBTAIN MORE THAN 350 FREE BOOKS THANKS TO LIBRARY OF CONGRESS’ SURPLUS BOOKS PROGRAM Free Shipping of Books Made Possible by Congressman Boyd’s Office Tallahassee, Fla. (July 21, 2010) – Florida State University (FSU) librarians recently selected more than 350 books from the Library of Congress’ surplus books program to add to the University Libraries’ collections. Shipping the books from Washington, D.C. to Tallahassee, Fla. without cost to the FSU Libraries was made possible by U.S. Congressman Allen Boyd’s (D-North Florida) office, which provided franking slips for use on the shipping boxes. “We are grateful to both the Library of Congress and Congressman Boyd for their assistance in helping us enhance our collections in several areas of interest, including art history and education. In this challenging economic climate, this kind of support is especially appreciated,” said Julia Zimmerman, Dean of University Libraries at FSU. The effort was spearheaded by Roy Ziegler, Associate Director for Collection Development at FSU Libraries. “We were in Washington, D.C. for the American Library Association conference, and we were very pleased to have the opportunity while there to take advantage of the free surplus books program. The staff from both the Library of Congress and Congressman Boyd’s office were so gracious and we really appreciate all of their assistance.” Ziegler focused on selecting humanities books and a significant percentage of them are in foreign languages. The Library of Congress offers surplus books to educational institutions, public bodies, and non-profit taxexempt organizations in the United States having tax-exempt status under Section 501(c) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1964. For more information, please visit http://www.loc.gov/acq/surplus.html. Franking privileges allow members of Congress to send official mail using their signature instead of a stamp. Congressman Boyd’s office (http://boyd.house.gov/) provided the FSU Libraries with slips so that the books could be shipped without the Libraries’ having to pay what would have been significant costs. Florida State University is a public university and its Libraries are open to the public. The Florida State University Libraries (http://www.lib.fsu.edu/) actively contribute to scholarship at Florida State University through their collections, services, and expert personnel. Libraries in Tallahassee include Strozier Library, Dirac Science Library, the Claude Pepper Library (also home to the Governor Reubin Askew Collection), the FAMU/FSU Engineering Library, and libraries in the Colleges of Communication & Information, Law, Music, and Medicine. There are also libraries at the Panama City (Fla.) campus, the Panama City (Panama) campus, and at the Ringling Museum (Sarasota, Fla.). The libraries are decentralized to provide specialized services, programs, and collections for their users, while sharing an online catalog and a common electronic circulation system. ### Note: Photos available upon request.