To quote a colleague, “They finally picked a librarian to do a librarian’s job!” She was referring to the recent appointment of a new librarian of Congress. NPR brought this news to us in their article, “Senate Approves Carla Hayden As New Librarian Of Congress.”
The Senate approved Dr. Carla Hayden as the next librarian of Congress. Hayden, the current head of Baltimore’s public library system and the former president of the American Library Association, is the first woman and the first African-American to hold the post.
John Billington, the previous librarian of Congress, was appointed by President Ronald Reagan and served for 28 years before retiring in 2015. The position used to be a lifetime appointment, but after Billington retired, Obama signed a law establishing a 10-year term for librarians of Congress.
In recent years, the Library of Congress was criticized for failing to keep up with changes in technology. The Government Accountability Office specifically highlighted problems with the library’s information technology systems. It will be interesting to see what changes new leadership will bring.
Melody K. Smith
Sponsored by Access Innovations, the world leader in thesaurus, ontology, and taxonomy creation and metadata application.
