The Ned R. McWherter Library at The University of Memphis holds an important resource for students, faculty and the general public.
The Government Publications Department on the first floor possesses thousands of documents ranging from the Kenneth Starr\'d5s report on Bill Clinton to the Roswell Report concerning UFOs in New Mexico. In addition to these, some of the more famous publications on hand include the Warren Report on Kennedy's assassination, the assassination report on Martin Luther King, Jr. as well as a report concerning Tipper Gore\'d5s record labeling.
"We have documents on every subject you can imagine," said Mary Freilich, assistant head of the Government Publications Department. She said that some of the most popular documents viewed among students are congressional hearings.
While students and faculty make up the majority of users, the service is open to the general public. Freilich listed businessmen, lawyers and musicians seeking copyright forms as those that use the department the most.
"We have business starters often seeking a good place to locate a business," she said.
The department has been at The U of M since 1966, but did not become a Regional Depository Library until 1989, when Senator Al Gore designated it as one. This means the department now has access to all documents, Freilich said. The U of M is one of just 23 places with a regional depository in Tennessee. Most are located at other colleges throughout the state.
Michelle Bruce, junior chemistry major, said that although she has never used the department, it might be of use to her in the future for research.
The types of research available at the department are not limited to legal forms and government publications concerning politics.
"We have lots of stuff students can use for research papers, a lot of current events and documents on science, social sciences and crime, among others," Freilich said.
Rakshit Patel and Varun Bhoomireddy, both computer science graduate students, said that while they were aware of the Government Publications Department, they had not needed it yet, but would for future research.
Documents at the depository library can be checked out, though Freilich added that the government is moving towards putting documents online. She stresses that nothing in the department has a copyright protecting it, which allows anyone in the general public to view and make copies of any of the publications.
