{{ site.title }}

Library Associations Support Nomination of Davita Vance-Cooks for Public Printer

davita-vance-cooks
Davita Vance-Cooks, photo courtesy GPO

On June 11, ARL joined the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL), American Library Association (ALA), Medical Library Association (MLA), and Special Libraries Association (SLA) in a letter (PDF) to the US Senate Committee on Rules & Administration supporting President Obama’s nomination of Acting Public Printer Davita Vance-Cooks for Public Printer of the United States. The Public Printer oversees the US Government Printing Office (GPO). If confirmed, Vance-Cooks would be the first woman and first African American to head the GPO.

The letter notes: 

The Government Printing Office (GPO) is the federal government’s leader in providing no-fee permanent public access to government information. The Public Printer has the important role of overseeing GPO’s public access programs, including the Federal Depository Library Program and the Federal Digital System (FDsys). We believe Ms. Vance-Cooks has the understanding of GPO and the management skills to successfully lead the agency in the digital age…In her role as Acting Public Printer, Ms. Vance-Cooks has established a positive and productive relationship with the library community. In May 2012, representatives from our library organizations joined Ms. Vance-Cooks to discuss our priorities and challenges. We appreciated the opportunity to share our concerns and ideas with her.…

Vance-Cooks’s confirmation hearing was held yesterday, June 12. A video of the hearing and a statement by chairman Charles Schumer (D-NY) supporting Vance-Cooks’s nomination are available on the Committee on Rules & Administration website.


The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of 125 research libraries in the US and Canada. Its mission is to influence the changing environment of scholarly communication and the public policies that affect research libraries and the diverse communities they serve. ARL pursues this mission by advancing the goals of its member research libraries, providing leadership in public and information policy to the scholarly and higher education communities, fostering the exchange of ideas and expertise, facilitating the emergence of new roles for research libraries, and shaping a future environment that leverages its interests with those of allied organizations. ARL is on the web at https://www.arl.org/.

, , ,

Affiliates