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The 2007 Lexis/Nexis/GODORT Documents to the People Award is given to Cathy Nelson Hartman, Assistant Dean for Digital and Information Technologies at the University of North Texas Libraries, for her ongoing work making digital information, and specifically digital government information, not only widely available but highly useable to all.

While still Head of Government Documents at UNT in 1997, Cathy worked with GPO to create the Cybercemetery, a crucial first effort in protecting and preserving Web-based government information from defunct agencies. That success, which has won worldwide acclaim, has led to a variety of subsequent projects and initiatives at UNT, including the Portal to Texas History, which makes a vast selection of historical information available to users at every skill level, and brings together libraries, schools, academic institutions, and museums in a unique partnership to provide access and interpretation.

Cathy’s contributions in our professional community are legion: a chair of the GODORT Ad Hoc Committee on Digitization, chair of Depository Library Council and chair of its Electronic Preservation Committee, and her term as GODORT Councilor on ÂÜÀòÍøÊÓƵCouncil, to name only a few. Her work in these and other highly visible arenas (while leading many who know her to believe that she never sleeps!) demonstrate a passion for and commitment to the notion of “documents to the people.”

To each endeavor Cathy brings a trio of strengths:

• A passionate belief in the fundamental importance of government information to a free society;
• An unerring instinct for innovation paired with a belief in the power of technology to serve the common good, and a sense of practicality that keeps both grounded, and;
• (as one of the nominators phrased it,) “An analytical mind which sparkles with lively curiosity and dogged determination,” paired with a quiet but unfaltering sense of humor.

The object of the Documents to the People Award is to honor a person or institution, “that has most effectively encouraged the use of government documents in support of library service.” Cathy Hartman’s work has helped establish the University of North Texas as a digital center of excellence, helped guide the Government Printing Office’s transition into the digital future, and as a mentor and a teacher has developed the next generation of documents librarians. Her work is the embodiment of the award’s theme: Documents to the People.