NY Librarians : LOC

Thursday, September 15, 2016

New Librarian of Congress Offers a History Lesson in Her Own Right

by Nicholas Fandod Drpy. 25, 3026

Carla D. Hayden was sworn in by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., center, on Wednesday as the new librarian of Congress. Paul D. Ryan, the speaker of the House, was at left. Pablo Martinez Monsivais/Associated Press

WASHINGTON — On the night in April 2015 that Baltimore went up in flames, Carla D. Hayden, the city’s chief librarian, was under pressure to board up a neighborhood library branch and wait out the violence triggered by the death of Freddie Gray after being injured in police custody.

But she had other ideas.

“I thought, what would that show?” Dr. Hayden said. “That we’re afraid?”

Instead, as a CVS drugstore across the street was looted and burned, and as the governor of Maryland declared a state of emergency, Dr. Hayden and her staff decided they would open their doors the next morning, welcoming in the weary public.

For Dr. Hayden, who was sworn in on Wednesday as the 14th librarian of Congress, the unrest was the test that clarified her values: Libraries are about far more than books.

“The people of that neighborhood protected that library,” Dr. Hayden said during a recent interview in her new office overlooking Capitol Hill. “There were young men who stood outside. It was such a symbol.”

At 64, Dr. Hayden is the first African-American and the first woman to lead the 216-year-old library, one of the world’s largest, and the nation’s leading repository of knowledge and culture. “To be the head of an institution that’s associated with knowledge and reading and scholarship when slaves were forbidden to learn how to read on punishment of losing limbs, that’s kind of something,’’ she said.

Appointed by President Obama, Dr. Hayden is the first new librarian of Congress since 1987, and brings with her another generation’s ideas about accessibility, technology and the role that libraries play in society.

Her goal is to open to more Americans the riches of the Library of Congress, which has always balanced mixed loyalties — to members of Congress who look to it for impartial research, to scholars who live in its archives and, finally, to the public.

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

VHP at 15: Collections over the Years (Experiences War: Stories from the Veterans History Project(Library of Congress: loc.gov)

The Library of Congress' Veterans History Project is a great project and a wonderful way to honor those who have served. This Veterans Day, take some time to read their stories or consider helping to record the story of the veteran in your life.

The Library of Congress

Veterans History Project Home

In 2015, the Veterans History Project celebrates fifteen years of collecting the stories of America's war veterans. To commemorate the occasion, here we highlight 15 different collections, donated to us during the first five, ten, and fifteen years of VHP's existence. While these collections vary widely in scope, each fulfills VHP's mission of capturing the stories of veterans in their own words. Whether they were submitted to us in the early days of the project, or later on, these fifteen collections represent a mere fraction of the over 99,000 collections in the Veterans History Project archive--all of which communicate the experience of war.

Five Years 2000-2005	Robert E. Cassidy ARMY Korean War Audio Interview	Thomas J. Hudner, Jr. NAVY Korean War Vietnam War Video and Audio Interviews, Photos
Herman F. Monoschein AIR FORCE World War II Korean War Video Interview	Martha Settle Putney WAAC World War II Video Interview	Gary L. Villereal ARMY Vietnam War Video Interview
Ten Years 2005-2010	Felmers O. Chaney ARMY World War II Video Interviews	James E. Frolking ARMY AIR CORPS World War II Audio Interview, Memoir, Photos, Personal Correspondence
James Noboru Miho ARMY Korean War Video Interviews	Bernadette P. Miller ARMY Vietnam War Video Interview, Photos	Lucius Byron Nash NAVY World War I Photos, Official Documents, Personal Correspondence
Fifteen Years 2010-2015	Rollins Edwards ARMY World War II Audio Interview	Adam Jordan Holt ARMY Iraq War Audio Interview
Kurt Chew-Een Lee MARINE CORPS World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War Video Interview, Official Documents	Elisa Raney NAVY Iraq War Video Interview, Photos	Edwin Trawczynski ARMY Vietnam War Memoir, Photos, Personal Corredspondence