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John Phillips has been working with government documents in Oklahoma since the 1960s, when he began work as a student assistant in the very same department he now leads. He rose from a junior librarian to department head and regional librarian, administering the collection, working with a large documents staff, and being extensively involved both within the state of Oklahoma and nationally. Throughout his career he has worked tirelessly to promote documents in Oklahoma.

John's knowledge of government documents is wide-ranging and deep. He is one of the few librarians left who are "walking encyclopedias" of documents material. He can usually tell you which agency died when and what agency replaced it, where to look for obscure early agency publications, and how to decode poorly written bibliographic entries to older Congressional documents.

Oklahoma did not become a state until 1907, and much of OSU's nineteenth century collection exists thanks to aggressive collection development on the part of John. He has a well-deserved reputation as a scavenger who is willing to go anywhere to get historic materials to enhance the OSU collection. When he learns of other libraries offering materials that may fill the gaps in his collection, he will frequently drive hundreds of miles to pick up the materials himself and these trips have resulted in much greater depth to OSU's collection. Indeed, John is on a quest to build a complete collection of historic U.S. documents. Did you know that there is a naval supplement to the War of the Rebellion? John did, and he also knew which volumes OSU lacked. During a recent trip he bought them and shipped them back to Oklahoma from a Virginia used bookstore.

John works tirelessly to make his collection available to the citizens of Oklahoma and provides strong leadership to selective depositories in his state. Some of the activities he has recently been involved in include developing a state plan for the dissemination of electronic government information, devising instructional programs for the annual meeting of the Oklahoma Library Association's GODORT, and organizing workshops on the Library of Congress' American Memory and the Census' American FactFinder. To further educate documents librarians in his state, John typically brings back handouts from the Depository Library Conferences and 91´«Ã½ GODORT meetings he attends as regional librarian, and photocopies enough for all the selectives in Oklahoma. Travel money is scarce for many working in small libraries, and these handouts and workshops are often the only exposure to national information these librarians receive. John has also taught the Government Documents class at the University of Oklahoma Library School many times over the past 15 years. He does this to assure that graduates in Oklahoma are fluent in documents. Many current Oklahoma documents librarians took his class are were inspired to continue in the field.

John Phillips is a life-long champion of government documents. Indeed, his work at in the documents department at Oklahoma State University has, and continues to be, a passion for him, and the citizens of Oklahoma are richer for it. He is a most deserving recipient of the 2003 91´«Ã½ GODORT Bernadine Abbott Hoduski Founders Award.