[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 2] [Extensions of Remarks] [Page 1770] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]THANKING MARYBETH PETERS FOR 40 YEARS OF SERVICE ______ HON. VERNON J. EHLERS of michigan in the house of representatives Tuesday, February 14, 2006 Mr. EHLERS. Mr. Speaker, I rise to bring to the attention of my colleagues the distinguished career of Marybeth Peters, the United States Register of Copyrights, and to congratulate her as she commemorates 40 years of service to our Government and to the American people. Marybeth Peters became the Register of Copyrights on August 7, 1994, the 15th person to hold that office since the appointment of the first Register of Copyrights, Thorvald Solberg, in 1897. The mission of the Copyright Office is to promote creativity by administering and sustaining an effective national copyright system. The Copyright Office administers the Copyright Act, Title 17 U.S.C.; provides policy and legal assistance to the Congress, the executive branch and courts; and provides copyright-related information and education to the public. As chairman of the House Administration Committee and a member of the Joint Committee on the Library, I want to extend my thanks for Ms. Peters' leadership at the Copyright Office, which is a vital component of the Library of Congress. The Library is the custodian of the mint record of American creativity largely due to copyright deposits of books, music, films, photographs, and other materials that reflect our creative society. The Americana collections of the Library--millions of which are available on the Library's Web site through its American Memory digital collections--have been assembled largely through our Nation's copyright system. Last year alone, the Copyright Office forwarded more than 1 million items to the Library for its collections. I want to extend deepest thanks on behalf of the Joint Committee on the Library to Ms. Peters for her stewardship of the Copyright Office as Register and her long years of service to Congress and the American people. Prior to her appointment as Register of Copyrights, Ms. Peters served as Policy Planning Advisor to the Register from 1983 to 1994. She has also served as Acting General Counsel of the Copyright Office and as chief of both the Examining and Information and Reference divisions. Ms. Peters is a frequent speaker on copyright issues. She is the author of the General Guide to the Copyright Act of 1976 and is recognized worldwide as a preeminent authority on intellectual property matters. Mr. Speaker, Marybeth Peters can certainly be proud of her long and distinguished career in Government service. We are proud of her leadership and her service to the Copyright Office and to the Nation. ____________________