Chris mississippi archives and history, i have been asked to remind everyone that youre more than welcome to take photographs to social media. This is the conversation of library in Congress Panel and sponsored by the Mississippi Humanities Council and the southern mississippi friends of the library. Mississippi is fortunate to have so strong a supporter of literature, music and arts as congressman greg harper, now in fifth term, harper shares the committee on House Administration and serves House Committee of energy and commerce and joint committee on printing an more pertantly chair committee. Here is congressman gregg happen harper,. What a great day. All the work thats been done, you cant say enough to all of the people that have participated, but its my honor to have in mississippi dr. Carla hayden 14th librarian of congress. Still new on the job. We had an incredible day yesterday with her here at the state Library Commission and also we we had just an amazing day, didnt we. I want you to know that when you talk of rockstar status, and i see susan here. When we had her with a hundred librarians from across the state, it was like elvis was in the room. [laughter] it was pretty special. Also, it probably at about 10 15 we will open it up for q a. You have a question that you want to ask, please feel free to go there. We will try to get as many as we in in a 15minute span and do that as well. And so would you please join me in giving a warm welcome to dr. Carla hayden. Ive had one. [applause] dr. Hayden, i just want to tell you how much we appreciate you taking the time out of incredibly busy schedule to come and join us. I knew you flew in thursday night and then we had a very busy day yesterday. How was that experience for you yesterday . It was a world win and when you mentioned that the librarians from all other the state, we had its like oxy moron, what was inspiring was the fact that librarians and people who love books and reading, its a community, it doesnt matter you you, your state, in fact, you remember chairman harper, i even forgot where i was because i was around my library peeps. [laughter] where am i . , oh, yes. Thats what unify us. We started the day at the Supreme Court building. At the state law library and that was an amazing experience to learn that the state of mississippi which became a state in 1817 and 1818 was already planning and had resolution for the purchase of books and maps to preserve that history that was coming. And it was a very similar history to have library of congress where you had a recognition that members of any legislative body need today refer two books and to get information and so i think that, in fact, mississippi might have been just a little bit in front of library of congress with some of that. Its amazing the library of congress was created in 1800. Thats a long time ago and weve only had 14 librarians of congress. A very long time. I can see why. Going into my anniversary, its such a wonderful resource. It has grown into a resource for people in this country in ways that im not even sure everybody recognized. So thats another thing. If you hear me talking about what the library of congress does. How many millions are in librarys collection . 164 million items. 836 miles of shelving that would be from where we are in jackson mississippi all the way to davenport, iowa, think about shelving, it has a lot of shelving. And putting the things back, think about that. We have very robust Staff Members and the Staff Members are really, when you think about all of the collections, the Worlds Largest collection of baseball cards, the Worlds Largest collection of comic books, the first superman, the first i see a lot of young people in the audience. Look at this. They are like, oh, really, yes, yes. And just about every subject. Lets talk about how you got into the library because that was as a young graduate youre looking for a job. I think i have said this publicly before and it was wonderful yesterday to be at the mississippi Supreme Court where the wonderful law library and everything because there was a time after i graduated from Public ServiceUniversity University in chicago started by Eleanor Roosevelt and carries that tradition of Public Service, i majored in history and Political Science and i was thinking, okay, what now, but i needed employment. And unfortunately a lot of the people who might have thought about employing me said, you dont have any experience, all youve done is goo to school. Yes, theres some recent grads here that are saying that. What have you done, interned and everything. So but because i loved books and libraries and things, between job interviews i would go to the Central Library at the Chicago Public library. Im sitting there waiting on the next interview thinking on how to explain not having Work Experience and a gentleman came up and said, hey, are you here for the library jobs, they are hiring anybody. [laughter] anybody with an undergraduate degree. I thought, oh, wow, hey, im here. I like it, i went upstairs. Just to let you know he didnt get a job, i did. Years later he made out all right. And then i got in and i was assign today a small store front in the south side of chicago. She was having a story time with children with autism and i said, this is a little different and it was about encouraging everybody and Opening Doors to reading and she was in graduate Library School and this is when i found out, theres a profession. I knew librarians and things. You didnt start planning out to be librarian . Oh, in, im an accidental librarian, im truly the definition. It opened the world to me. It did. It was something that matched. My parents were both classically trained musicians, by age of 12 we all knew that was not going to be my path, but we also knew that i related to text the way they related to notes and music and they would look at musical notes and hear sound and music and i would look at words and hear people talking in my head. And so thats great, i know your mom is watching. Shes watching and listening and will critique. [laughter] as soon as we get home. You may want to check your phone. Luckily my mom has not advanced in technology. Im not going to let her. [laughter] that would be dangerous. Shes a lovely lady. We hope youll get her down. She encouraged me in terms of reading and i remember she would read and thats what we tried to do in terms of the thats why this festival is so important, making reading fun or something you want to do and not just a chore. Well, us tell us a little bit, you worked at the Chicago Public library, you get your first real job. First real job. After graduating from college and so to get from there, you had this incredible journey because i think you knew early on this was what you loved it and wanted to stay in the profession, right . I knew from the first store front to the fact that, wow, they pay you to introduce people to books and reading and youre around all of the books and you get to see all the new books as soon as they come in. [laughter] theyre fresh and smell good. Leadership skills have been recognized from the very beginning. Your long tenure of the ceo is when you were able to come to this position and you were there from 1993 to 2016. Right. You were also in the president the American Library association, your leadership skills have long been recognized. Share a little bit about the experience that youve had and what that meant and a lot of people dont know the history and what it meant to education . It was a yankee, im in mississippi. He was a yankee from middle burough, mississippi, mr. Pratt came down in 1856 and made his fortune there and he was a contemporary of other kind of wellknown people that made fortunes and they each picked a Public Institution to support. So mr. Hopkins, mr. Peabody, mr. Pratt, never had children, they still talk about that, said, that he wanted to give the library to the city and he said, i want my library to be free of politics and religion. [laughter] and he set up this Free Public Library and mr. Andrew who is largely credited for starting the public system in the United States, wasnt having a successful time to get libraries to communities and he heard about mr. Baltimore and he came down to baltimore and mr. Pratt took him around and then he went off and said, mr. Pratt was my pioneer and so that tradition there. Yeah. But, you know, you have broken a lot of barriers and its taken a while to break those barriers, for one reason 13 librarians before you. They dont give those up once they get them and we expect you not to give yours up. And the names of those librarians, daniel, john, this one and that one and then carla. [laughter] i think shes female. For you to be the first woman, first woman librarian, first africanamerican librarian, you look around the room there are a lot of young people in the room, they are certainly watching on tv, what do you do to encourage someone that thinks that obstacles and ways, how do you share your story with them . Well, theyre not just imagining obstacles, there are obstacles. What in terms of my story being a female and you noticed i pointed that out, femme femenized profession and, in fact, my Favorite Movie ending, its a wonderful life and remember at the end when what could have happen and shes coming out of the library. [laughter] okay, librarians have a stereo type and the professions 80 is female but the top management doesnt reflect that so being a female leader in the profession has been very, i think, hopefully heartening for some of the young women that are in the profession and also being a person of color and so significant to be here in jackson where just yesterday, we were at the marker yesterday and the celebration of the fact that people wanted to read and integrate a Public Library means so much for me being an african american, being in this situation. That was the trail marker. Right there. Put up on thursday. Just put up. [applause] one of the Great Stories they shared with us there were all students and they all went to check out books that were not on the campus library, they were only available there and they were dressed sharp. They looked like Young Professionals and so that was so fun to really think about, they did the the research so they made sure and went to car catalog and made sure that the books they were requesting were not available at the branch that was used by African Americans too. So they couldnt be referred, so they used a really good library trick. Only available right here. They couldnt search those online. Evidence that these books were not available anywhere else and thats what really pushed the issue. Looking and thinking of young people now and the obstacles that they have, having so Much Technology and so much information thats being called a fire hoes, its not just because im here in mississippi, grit and grits. Ive had some last night. It was wonderful, but the determination and also sticking close to family and friends, those are your best partners when youre facing anything and realize that tomorrow things might look a little better. Your work and your leadership, how youre encouraging a lot of people, theres still a lot of first to be done and they will look to you as an example. Thats one reason in 2016, fortune magazine, top 50 leaders in the world. And my mom flipped it out thank you. Every time she tries to help me something, i say, could you look at that. The only reason you got that was because of her. There you go. Thats how that works. It works. You also got to read a Childrens Book yesterday to some of the Young Students from the mississippi students, what an experience. I think what that showed and you were with me and to see their eyes light up with that book and with the interpreter and then just became the book and the child and thats the ultimate and when we told them and gave each child a copy of the book and one young lady signed and said, can i take it home and she said this is for you and she just hugged the book, hugged the book. Did some arts and crafts. All things glitter. Young ronnie said that this is night with the glitter and everything, can we make a sharp turn and shark and tall kids wanted to do fins and they we wanted to write their names in the book. And so they signed the letter and write the name. You have to with the love of reading and thats why this festival, you can buy books, you can borrow books and lend books and get them back and it doesnt matter. If youre a reader youll read the back of a cereal box. Look, everybody. [laughter] you will read anything. When you start has anybody in this audience and think at home, ever purchased the same book twice. [laughter] we understand they may have cleaned that up a little bit but there were books everywhere. Everywhere on every surface. She was happy to see that, i will say yesterday. I felt better about my house. [laughter] youve not quite been on the job. Im coming up for my anniversary. But you were sworn in september 14th of 2016, tell us how that experience was of having president obama call you and their team call you to tell you that were going to name you. First, let me tell you its a real call and then you hear someone say, would you serve as a 14th librarian of congress and thats the keyword for me, would you serve, it gets to the concept and the library of congress is wonderful experience of bob hope, comedian and his daughter is working with us that he used comedic genius to serve the troops. Whatever profession youre in, everybody can serve and that was the key for me in the really part what can do i in the library of congress and its really opening up the library of congress and you can fill in the plank in the library of congress has it, you can connect with us, history, theres a table, a table outside with all of the projects and things and even a bookmark that emphasizes, ask a librarian whether youre visiting the library of congress or online, ask us a question and receive expert assistance from our librarians and subject specialists and then theres the tin man here, if i only had a librarian. [laughter] that and owning a bookstore. You can do both. Thats a possibility. But to have that and then about two months into the job, can you tell people what the award from the library of congress and experience . The library of congress has so many collections, sound recording, film, prints and photographs and has collection of george, Great American composer, summer time and all of that. Each year an award for outstanding contributor to american song and two months in i was asked to present the george award to mr. Smoky robinson. Now let me just say that was not a hardship. [laughter] and i thought, i remembered what my grandmother used to say when i was doing Different Things in librarianships. I knew she was really looking down on that one. And to have him come to the library of congress and see his scores for all of his wonderful songs amazing. Next to the original manuscript of summertime in georges hand and it brought him to tears because he said my work is now here and recognized from george and then he sang. [laughter] tracks of my tears, i know, it was a moment. It was a moment. It was something. Thats one of the perks of the job. Well, here is another thing i had to do. Had to do in november. I had to call mr. Tony bennett. I know. I know. Such a hard thats what i want young people to know, specially librarians, librarian of congress is not so bad. Mr. Tony bennett, the first person to be given the gorshin award and he was touched and said, am i really the first person and the people part of this program, old, mature, everybody will pay tribute to toney bennett. Think about all of people hes done duets with. February. Concert happens in november. The last one, it was really something, just what this festival is also i lust straiting illustrating power of arts and music and literature and last year mr. Samuel jackson was the mc was it my girl, because you were singing. Not well. My lips were moving. [laughter] lets just said we had everybody from every party, every state and everything as mr. Jackson said, this is bipartisan kareoke. That was something. Everybody knew the words. We see all of the divisiveness sometimes between the party. Between everybody. This is something that brings people together. This festival is bringing people together. Sure. Thats what youre going to see. Just in the room, the diversity, the different interests and theres something for everyone and thats what this is really going to illustrate and we can all enjoy it and just have fun with it. Thats one of the things as member of congress it has been my diversion in life has been the things that library of congress have been on the joint committee of the library of Congress Since i got there eight and a half years ago, it is remarkable, where the parties do need to come together, work together, whether its the gershwin awards, tell us a little bit about the congressional dialogues where we packed them in republicans and democrats, senators and house members. To really get a sense of what the current authors are and even authors who are writing about history and whats been very heartening for me when i listen to the discussions and the question and answers afterwards is this genuine, and i think everyone in this country should be heartened by this that the genuine interest in history and working out and its called congressional dialogue. Its a round book, but its really about a dialogue about the ideas in books. And we are doing probably about ten of those a year. Ten of those a year. And they are in the grand hall. And its about books. Theyre beautiful, we have a dinner where everybody comes together and then you have a top writer who has a biography on maybe a former president , maybe someone that maybe wasnt a president but very important in history. Charles lindbergh. What do the members all get . A book. Not just a book. An autographed book. There you go. Remember that i mentioned the child that hugged the book. There were members of congress that hugged the books, i noticed that. Thats what we should all celebrate. Theres a reason why its called a book festival. Festival and its something and you can see people and talk about it. When you see people, the library of congress is working with the rural archives and windsor for the first time the papers and materials from george the third, thats their george and our George Washington and library of congress has the papers of 23 president s from George Washington to coolidge. Digitizing more things, the papers of rosa parks, download so many things, i am a baseball fan, the scouting reports. People dont know what a baseball junkie you are. My grandfather lived in springfield, illinois. And and that takes it down to the st. Louis cardinals. You are starting as cardinal sand. You are still a cardinals fan do. People are still recovering. They would accept it. What a great year it was. The library of Congress House the scouting report, to read his scouting report of hank aaron, ernie banks, he had some talent, and what they said about and know their history. And and that was the greatest joy for me, the greatest is working with staff. The surprise is how many things are being discovered. That is 164 million plus items in the collection, you cant know what is in every file or look and cranny. Share the stories, and look for reasons to go to her office, there are three buildings in washington. The older building is the Jefferson Building, your office is across from the Madison Building, all glass with an outside area overlooking the capital in the Jefferson Library of congress. It is the spot to go. That building, the James Madison building is the only official memorial to James Madison in the capital and the Jefferson Building named for Thomas Jefferson sold his collection to congress after the british came. That is why this thing all is forgiven now. The british burned the capital, the library of congress within the capital. Are we over that . Not yet. There is a fireplace in the capital said that the british used some books from the library of congress to start the fire and you can see that is something but we are trying. Talk about those treasures, the ceremonial office in the Jefferson Building in beautiful ceremonial office, the story there. The Madison Building opened in 1980 and that is where the office went. The working office. The Jefferson Building that opened in 1897, first building in washington dc to have electricity, when you visit and we also have a virtual tour on our website to visit where we are you see the light fixtures have the bulbs exposed, they were so proud of electricity, theres a wonderful librarians office that is like a little jewelbox opened up for the public to look at and you will see a door that in 1975 the then librarian going into this new office for his new librarian saw a door and tried to open it and it wouldnt open so found a key and behind the door was another door. That was something and no one knew the combination. The legend goes, we heard that a certain gentleman that has those skills was excused for a short period of time. [laughter] to open the safe. And when they opened it there was only one thing in it, a small black box. When he opened the box there was a letter and it said these are the contents of abraham lincolns pockets the night he was assassinated. It was given to the library of congress by abraham lincolns granddaughter. In that box where two pairs of spectacles, a little cloth for him to clean, he had six or seven articles about him, some good, not good, that he had in his wallet. He had a confederate 5 bill because he had just visited the south recently. He also had a pocket knife type of thing and something that for me really humanized, he had a handkerchief that was monogrammed but there was a button from his coat. When you think about, you get a button and put it in your pocket. That was in his pocket. You should know, full disclosure, when i became a librarian of congress i looked in every drawer around everyplace and i am still looking. I havent found anything. I am looking. That is the great thing. You never know. The library started in 1800 and over time materials have come in. Susan b anthonys papers, the naacp, all these things, football fields of materials, people retire and so the person who knew about it before left and someone comes in years later and holds down a box and theres Teddy Roosevelts diary. That he carried in his pocket. You open it and it says february 14th, my life is over. Because his wife and his mother died the same house on february 14th at the same time. Got to digitize these things, that humanizes history. How you bring that together is amazing, your work and mission that you set forth. As much as we would love to have every person in america to physically visit the library of congress, particularly as the Jefferson Building they cant, not going to happen. Tell us what you are doing for that outreach particularly in Rural America and share what you are doing. Using technology as a tool, i mentioned the website and to do so much more with Live Streaming like we are doing now to communities in schools and libraries, when there are other programs and in washington able to do that, traveling exhibits and start seeing 18 wheelers pulling up into our communities, and a library, invite us in, centers for the book, our network and veterans history project, there will be a mobile apps so veterans can start submitting their oral histories. We are going to just be inundating, we will not be the best kept secret but we want everyone to know the library of congress is the nations library. This is your library. We are doing so much more to let everybody feel comfortable and let them know what we have to offer. Look what is Available Online already and adding to that. We are starting a program very shortly called citizens historian based on a program at the National Archives already started citizen curator where we are asking people to help us process and look and translate from the cursive. A lot of Historical Documents are in Cursive Writing and have to be translated because people cant read cursive like they did before. We are reaching out to everyone to say we have a lot of things and wants to make them available so technology is a great tool. You talked about different collections, people donated their lives. This is the thing i am sure, knowing you and your love for books and history, many president s, many others donated their personal library, what has that experience been . There is another movie about Oliver Wendell holmes, at the end of the movie he talks about donating this and that 2 different institutions but he says i will give my books to the library of congress. The library of congress has the personal library of Oliver Wendell holmes, ralph ellison. You think about not only what people produce, the manuscript, the draft but was where they reading, what were these people getting inspiration for and from . We are putting those types of things and then Thomas Jeffersons library. That is important when you look at how Thomas Jefferson really helped the library of congress. After the fire, retired to monticello and the largest private library in the United States and offered, sell the library to the library of congress to the nation and there should be no subject a member of congress should not have to refer and had 6000 books. Back in those days, there were books on every subject in different languages. You can see some of the original books, filled them in over time. You have some Amazing Things that are being done. Past forward from 6000 books from Thomas Jefferson from the 1800s to today, on average, how many items does the library receive each day . Every working day, just because of getting deliveries, 20,000 items. 20,000 items are coming in. The production process, looking and seeing, it is great. If you have a question, we are going to get those in a moment but when you look at those, what that has been done, you are getting duplicates of each book, tell us about the surplus book program. We were able to donate and you were instrumental in that. Each congressperson is able to do that, work with the library of congress to get donations of surplus books. When we say surplus we are not talking about brandnew books coming in who can be part of recovery efforts, you have the damaged and mississippi. Just for school libraries, community centers, anything. An amazing thing, lets talk a minute, we have questions here. Thank you for your time. A question specifically about the databases and different types of interfaces available through the librarys website. One thing, if there is any direction about making them more friendly on the autism spectrum, the younger students a better opportunity to do their primary research at younger ages and if there is anything or anyone in the department exploring those options. Thank you for bringing fat to light because that is a major focus when you mention chairman harper. Not only letting everybody know what we have but making it easier to access what we have. The library is embarking on a strategic strategy and examining ways that we can use technology more effectively. We have refreshed the website recently and you can see more and more of that. I want to take this opportunity when i mention the Jefferson Building, what we did yesterday with the Mississippi School for the deaf and National Library of services, and the most beautiful building in washington, visual challenges and you can go into the building and still experience architecture. We are very concerned but excited about what we could do to make accessibility part of everything we do. Captioning our film series and things. To reach out with those disabilities of all kinds to make that accessible. Next question. I am a historian, thank you for the wonderful resources i have used both in person and online. I was curious, what do you think the library looks like in 50 years . With 20,000 items, maybe there is an offsite i am not aware of. All we know is doctor carla hayden will still be in the library. [applause] i will look like that lady out of its a wonderful life. That is the exciting part, that is where yesterday with my library of colleagues, all libraries are engaged in that envisioning of the library of the future. The library of congress, conservation and preservation as well. We have unique materials and college and special libraries. I give a shout out to the grumman collection. [applause] people listening and watching may not know the university of southern mississippi has one of the most important archives of childrens literature in the world. Curious george. [applause] the archive of curious george, jack keats, these are unique materials that are always going to need to be conserved and stored. The library of congress has a number of storage modules with the digital shelving and additional control. Not just putting things away somewhere but temperature control, security and all these things. With digital, we are concerned about how do we preserve digital copies of things and update the technology as the Technology Changes . The library of congress has embarked on a Digital Strategy of storage, planning, but also looking at the fact that in the future, you will see some changes in the next three or four years where you go into the buildings and they are more interactive, more displays of material, the librarys of the future starting it now are going to build quiet spaces because they are active and go into a library now, no shushing, i was in the jacksonville library, a coke machine, you can eat in libraries, libraries are gathering places, you can make things, you will see a lot of libraries that have different spaces to do Different Things so people can look at collections, they can create more. It will be quite exciting. The first one on one meeting i mentioned curious george, what might you wish to do . We have to go to the library of congress, it is a wonderful display and people dont realize. Most dont know the story of the authors. They had to escape and, everyone is curious and they had to use bicycles to escape and they came to america and it is a wonderful story. It is an honor to be here. I wanted to ask something, not just ask a question. We are from louisville, mississippi. We found reading comprehension and all that, we formed a group called black girls read and we came down to meet you. We have 30 girls k12, maybe 20 today. We are right back here. [applause] we inspire girls to read, midnight without a moon by Linda Jackson but we went to inspires them, let them know they can do or be anything they want to be. They will be future carla haydens. I want to ask you if they would please stand. If you would inspire them with a few words. [applause] i love it because, because you young ladies have different outfits. I am trying to get a tshirt. That is the other thing, reading can be cool and you can do your thing and read what you want and this is just take advantage of it. One of the joys of working with young people, i want to get all of your names because in 20 years or so when you become, you are doing your thing, dont forget us. We will be able to say a couple of the members or all the members of this group are now doing this, this and this and the definition we were there when they got started. We are all here to support you. Invite us to the emmys. We knew her. That is another thing to deal with. We hope you will find a way to visit. We have time for two last questions. The books that are used all over the world, operating Nuclear Operations and the rest of the world. My question, the energy commission, congress, if you can, all of you, on july 30th at the basilica in the radical, artisans in india, not really a museum, in india to a chechen indian. The vice chair. And and we want espn numbers following. The digital copy of the this is a nonprofit. It can be done. The library of congress has six overseas offices that have people with various countries who catalog and got materials, the global sphere by cataloguing and assigning numbers, with those catalogers. Other languages than english, with 170 languages, experts in washington but also in other areas of the world, we make sure you are connected. Time for one last question. In jackson, mississippi, the first of its kind in jackson, mississippi around the globe i find out, thank you very much for your question. The library of congress. In the contact. Such a toy listening to you i and i will be graduating spring with my degree in english. I can attest to the rich history but my question, one of the things i miss about 44 is his love for reading. I heard he was reading team of rivals so i read it. So inspiring. I wanted to know, can you be a good leader without being a good reader and what books have had the most profound impact on the trajectory of your life . I will start with the first the second one. Because the books that i talk about all the time, they told me about it, bright april. It was written in 1946. I was not alive then. I want to make that clear. That is when it was written. I got it later. It was a book about a young africanamerican girl with two pigtails and she was a brownie and she was about 8 years old and some librarian in queens, new york, i dont know who put it, i loved that book because i saw myself for the first time in a book. Books can be windows. We talk about they take you everywhere and everything but they also need to be mirrors, right . If we are saying to kids and young people books are so important and then they dont see themselves reflected in it, what is that saying . A double message. All readers can be leaders and you have two roles of them right here. [applause] everyone, that concludes our conversation with doctor carla hayden, the 14th librarian of congress which can we express our appreciation . Thank you. [applause]. [inaudible]