I was a few paragraphs into writing this post when, just a few minutes ago, the power in the Madison Building flashed off and back on again. Were it not for WordPress?s auto-save function (new in this version, thankfully!), I would have lost the entire thing. The only reason I mention that is because ? …
I just came from Dr. Billington?s office, where he conducted a media interview in advance of the fast-approaching Gershwin Prize and all-star concert. (I hope to link to the news story within the next few days.) What was especially interesting to me before the interview was that a few other staff members were there, each …
Attending poetry readings seems like one of the great fringe benefits of my job, except that occasions such as last evening?s are free and open to the public at large. The Poets Laureate of the United States and the United Kingdom came together in a historic joint reading at the Library of Congress in a …
For people of a certain age ? for instance, mine ? few performers or artists have defined American music quite so distinctly and significantly as Paul Simon. I remember watching ?Simon and Garfunkel: The Concert in Central Park? on HBO as if it were yesterday, and Paul Simon?s ?Graceland? was one of the first CDs …
I’m overdue in mentioning this, as I had promised several days ago, but in addition to the other annual diversity months, the Library of Congress is joining in the official May observance of Jewish American Heritage Month. A list of our events can be found here. In addition — and I believe this is a …
The Library of Congress-led Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control has its next meeting Wednesday, May 9, in Chicago. While registration closed last week, you can go to the working group’s Web site here to see where the discussion is going. The background paper for the Chicago meeting is here (PDF). A final …
It’s an oft-cited fact that the Library of Congress takes into its collections a staggering 10,000 items every single day. So it’s nice to be able to talk, about what we try to give back, at least in the broadest sense of the term. Today I received the following report from Library Services (the largest …
Another busy day! I spent this morning in a hearing at the Senate Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on the Legislative Branch, during which Librarian of Congress James Billington and our Chief Operating Officer, Jo Ann Jenkins, testified on the Library’s budget priorities for Fiscal Year 2008, which begins Oct. 1, 2007. The Librarian discussed requests including …
It’s a busy day and a busy month at the Library of Congress! Not only is today Law Day, but it marks the kickoff of Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month. We’ve issued a news release detailing how the Library is observing the month, and launched a Web site gathering several related Library collections and resources together …