Each year, the U.S. government distributes more than 14,500 information products to each of its federal depository libraries. Ridley Kessler, assistant head of the reference department at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill libraries, has made it his life's work to make that information accessible to the citizens of North Carolina.
In June, the American Library Association honored Kessler's more than 30-year career with its James Bennett Childs Award for lifetime contributions to government documents librarianship. The award, administered by the ALA's Government Documents Round Table, is based on distinguished stature, service and publication in the field.
"Ridley Kessler is one of the most knowledgeable government documents experts in the country," said Joe Hewitt, director of UNC's Academic Affairs Library. "His passion is making sure that citizens have access to all of the government information that they have a right to, and that nothing is denied to the public."
Kessler has testified for the ALA before congressional committees three times on topics related to government information. He was instrumental in several projects addressing operational issues for depository libraries nationwide. He has chaired the Depository Library Council and served on or chaired several Government Documents Round Table committees. He won the round table's Documents to the People Award in 1992 and the Distinguished Alumni Award from UNC's School of Library and Information Science in 1996.
Kessler began his career in government documents at Carolina as assistant documents librarian in 1970. He became federal documents librarian and regional documents librarian in 1973, and in 1993 he was appointed assistant head of reference, although he also maintains both of his previous positions.
Besides working at the library, Kessler taught a public documents course at the School of Information and Library Science for 14 years and has advised more than 50 master's degree candidates.
"He was a very charismatic teacher, and a lot of students decided to go into government documents work because of his teaching," Hewitt said. In 2000, Kessler was the third-ever recipient of UNC's Mentor Award for Lifetime Achievement, presented by the UNC Academy of Distinguished Teaching Scholars.
The collection Kessler oversees includes more than three million items from federal, state, local and international governmental organizations. Federal government information stored there dates to the 1790s, and the library has been a regional depository library since 1962.
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