At the mississippi book festival in jackson to talk about literacy and american libraries. [inaudible conversations] good morning everyone. Welcome to the third mississippi book festival. In the Mississippi Department of archives and history. Ive been asked to remind everyone that you are more than welcome to take photographs, post to social media, and the hash tag is literarylongparty. This is the conversation with the library of Congress Panel sponsored by the Mississippi Humanities Council and friends of the library. Mississippi is fortunate to have so strong a supporter as its literature, music and art as congressman greg harper. Now in his fifth term in the United States house of representatives, congressman harper chairs the committee on House Administration and serves on the House Committee on energy and commerce, the joint committee on printing and perhaps most pertinently for us here today, as the chair of the joint committee of the library of congress. Here is congressman gregg harper. [applause] than thank you so much. What a great day, the third annual mississippi book festival. All the work thats been done. You cant say enough to the people that have participated. But it is my honor to have doctor carla hayden is the 14th library of Congress Sworn in on september 14 to 2016, so still new on the job. And we had an incredible day yesterday with her here at the state Library Commission and also we had an amazing day. It was great. So i want you to know that when you talk about rockstar status, and i will see susan here with about 100 librarians from across the state it was like elvis was in the room. About ten or 15 minutes, we will open up for q a. Theres a podium in the back in the middle of the room that you see with a microphone so if you have a question that you want to ask him if he didnt go please feel free and we will get about as many as we can in a 15 minute span. Please help me get a mississippi welcome to doctor carla hayden. [applause] i just want to tell you how much we appreciate you taking the time out of your 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 . Guest when you mentioned librarians from all over the state, it is like an oxymoron, a librarian and rockstar. [laughter] so it was so inspiring and reaffirming was the fact that librarians and people who love books and reading is a community that doesnt matter where you are in fact he remember i even forgot where i was because i was around my library people. Like where am i. That is what unifies everyone and mississippi is such a strong tradition of library service. We started at the Supreme Court building up a state law library and the path was an amazing experience to learn the state of mississippi that became a state in 1818 was already planning how to resolution for the purchase of books and maps to preserve the history that was coming. It was a similar history of the library of congress where you have a recognition that members of any legislative body needed to refer to books and get information and so i think that infect mississippi might have been just a little bit of the library of congress with some of the. The library was created in 1800. Thats a long time ago and weve only had 14 librarians of congress. They stay a long time and i can see why. And going into my anniversary, it is such a wonderful resource. It is the Worlds Largest library, and its grown into a resource for people in this country in ways that im not sure everybody even recognized him as if it is another thing you can hear me talking about. How many millions of items were in the librarys collecti collection . 164 million items. 836 miles of shelving so that would be from where we are now in jackson mississippi all the way to davenport iowa. So think about shelving. It has a lot of shelving. [laughter] and putting the things back. So, we have a very robust staff member and when you think about all the collections, so we are the largest collection of baseball cards and comic books. The first superman i see a lot of young people in the audience. Like really. [laughter] just about every subject you can think about the library of congress has something about it. Lets talk about how you got into the library because as a young graduate, you are looking for a job. Guest i think that i said this publicly before. It was wonderful yesterday to be at the mississippi Supreme Court where the Wonderful Library and everything because theyre busy time after i graduated from Public Service university started by eleanor roosevelt. She still carries that tradition of Public Service, so im injured in history, Political Science and i was thinking okay what now but i needed employme employment. A lot of the people who might have thought about employing me means that you dont have any experience. All youve done is go to school. There are some recent graduates i would say that. So because i love books and libraries and everything between job interviews i would go to the central library. So im sitting there waiting on the next interview trying to think of a way of not having Work Experience and a gentle man, panda said carla, are you here for the library jobs, they are hiring anybody. [laughter] anybody with an undergraduate degree. I am here, i like it. Just to let you know, he didnt get the job, i did. He made out all right. Hes got a company now. Hes doing fine. Then i was assigned to a small storefront on the south side of chicago with a young lady who was on the floor when i arrived with blue jeans on and she was having a storytime for children with autism. I said this is a little different. It was about opening up the doors to everyone to reading. Thats when i found out theres a profession . I am truly the definition, but then it was just that open in the world to me it was something i matched. My parents were both classically trained musicians and things like that, so by the age of 12, we knew that wasnt going to be my past. But they also knew that i related to text the way they related to notes so they would look at musical notes and hear sound and music and i would hear people talking in my head. That i know that your mom is watching. Watching. And listening and critique. You might want to check your phone she may have been checking you with text messages. Spinet she is a lovely lady. She encouraged me in terms of reading and i remember she would read and thats what we tried to do. Thats why this festival is so important. Making reading fun or something you want to do and not just h. For. You get your first real job after graduating from college and so to get from there its an incredible journey because i think that you knew early on this is what you wanted was to stay in this profession. I knew from first storefront, they pay you to introduce books and reading and you are around all the books and they see the new books as soon as they come in so they are fresh and smoked. [laughter] do you have a passion for reading and its been such a joy for me. Your leadership skills have been recognized from the very beginning. But your tenure as the ceo in baltimore maryland and probably why you were not able to come into this position. Your leadership skills have long been recognized, so share about that experience that you had and what that meant. A lot of people dont know the history. He was a yankee from middleboro massachusetts who went south to baltimore to make his fortune. His father made nails with hardware so his father came down and 56 and made his fortune and he was a contemporary of the other kind of wellknown people in baltimore at the time and they each picked a Public Institution to support, so he did at university, mr. Peabody did a museum and mr. Pratt who never had children, and they still talk about that, said he wanted to give the library to the city and he said i want my library to be free of politics and religion. And he sets up this free Public Library. Library. And mr. Andrew carnegie whose largely credited with starting the system in the United States wasnt having such a successful time when he was trying t to get the libraries to communities and he heard about mr. Pratt baltimore and he took him around and then he went off and said he was my pioneer. But they do need to follow you and the following in history. You have broken a lot of barriers and its taken a while to break those barriers. There were only 13 librarians before you. They dont give those up once they give them. And the names, danielle, jo john, this one, that one and carla. [laughter] for you to be the first woman, first africanAmerican Library in a. What do you do to encourage someone that the obstacles in their way, how do you share your story with them . Guest them . Guest they are not just imagining them, they are obstacles and in terms of my story, and noticed i pointed that out as one of the four professions, social work, education, and in fact my Favorite Movie is a wonderful wife come and remember at the end when he comes back and shes coming out of a library. [laughter] librarians have a strong stereotype and 85 of the workforce is female but he doesnt reflect that and so being a female leader in the profession has been very heartening for some of the women in the profession but also being a person of color, and its so significant to be here in jackson where just yesterday we were asked commemorative marker just yesterday and the celebration of the fact that people wanted to read and integrate a Public Library means so much for me being an africanamerican and being in this situation. And that was the trail marker just put up on thursday it was a remarkable story. [applause] one of the great things they shared with us about that story they were all students and they all went to check out books that were not on the Campus Library that were only available there and they were dressed sharp they looked like young professionals. That was fun to think about. They did the research so they made sure they went to the card catalog and made sure the books they were requesting were not available at the branch so these books are not available. And they couldnt Search Online and they had the evidence that they were not available anywhere else and that is what pushed the issue so looking now at the obstacles they face. How do you decide on things like that its not just because im here, the mississippi grit and grids. But the determination and also sticking close to family and friends. You have your work and leadership in how you are encouraging so many people there is a lot of firsts and they look to you as that example. Thats one reason why fortune e magazine named you as one of the top leaders in the world. My mom switched it out. [applause] its nice because every time she tries to tell me something i say can you look at a . [laughter] then she explains the only reason you got that is because of her. You also got to read a Childrens Book yesterday and some of the Young Students from the Mississippi School for deaf. What an experience. I think what that showed, and you were with me to see their eyes light up with that book and the interpreter and then it just became the book and the child and we gave each one a copy of the book and one young lady signed and said can i take it home. And she just hugged the book. And then did some arts and crafts. Ronnie said that this is nice with the glitter, can we make and then all the kids wanted to make fans. But then how they wanted to write their names in the book so they signed the letter and would write the name. Thats why this festival you can buy books and borrow books and blended them and get them back. If you are a reader you will read the back of a cereal box. You will just read stuff and thats the key. Do you ever purchased the same book twice . [laughter] because you know you liked it. And magazines are terrible. Thats when you know that you might have a problem and books. She was happy to see that i will say. I felt better about my house. I said great. They were sworn in on septembe september 14 of 2016. Tell us how that experience was of having president obama call you to tell you they were going to name used to be the new. First it is a real call and then you hear someone say what you serve as the 14th library of congress and that was the key word for me. His daughter is working with us now to emphasize that he used his comedic genius to serve the troops and that is whatever profession you are in, anybody can serve and that was the key for me and the part that said okay, what can i do at the library of congress and its opening up the library of congress. You can fill in the blank and connect the veterans history. There is a table of all the projects and things and even a bookmark that emphasizes ask us a question and receive expert assistance and then theres the tin man here if i only had a librarian. [laughter] was an incredible experience that must have been to know not only were you getting that dream job of every library in the world. That is a possibility. But to have that and then about two months into the job can you tell folks a little bit about what the award is from the library of congress. Let me say that it was a hardship and i remember what my grandmother used to say when i was doing different things. I brought him to tears. That is one of the perks of the job and all the other work. I know we cannot go into any details other than there is a date into the next recipient is. Heres another thing, i had to call mr. Tony bennett. I know. But thats what i want young people to know, library of congress isnt so bad. Mr. Tony bennett, the first person to be given the gershwin award for his interpretation of popular song. He was so touched and said am i really the first person, and the people that will be part of this program i cant say it yet because we are still confirming that that is just an old phone everybodys going to be there to pay tribute to mr. Tony bennett. Nobody has more of a duet collection. Think about all the people he has done a duet with. That will be televised usually in february. Experience with the library of congress and just what this festival is all also illustrating is the unifying power of the arts. Music and literature and in fact last year, mr. Samuel jackson was the mc and at one particular Smokey Robinson song, was if my girl . Because you were singing. They were singing. Not well. [laughter] lets just say we had everybody from every party, every state, every thing. As mr. Jackson said, this is bipartisan. Bipartisan karaoke. [laughter] [applause] everybody knew the words. Of course on the news we see all the divisiveness sometimes between the parties, but this is something that brings people together. And this festival is bringing people together and that is what you are going to see. The diversity. The different interests. My day version of life to have been on the joint committee and library of Congress Since i go. Got there eight and a half years ago it is remarkable, but when you look for that and where the parties do need to come together and Work Together but it is the gershwin towards, to little bit about the congressional dialogues where you pack them in, republicans, democrats, senators and house members. To get a sense of what the current authors are and even offers that are writing about history and what has been very heartening for me when i listened to the discussions and the questions and answers is a genuine everyone should be heartened by this i its called congressional dialogues with around books. But its about an idea of the dialogue and books. We are giving about ten of those a year and they are in the grand hall. They are beautiful. We have a dinner where everybody comes together and then you have a talk writer that has a maybe former president , maybe someone that maybe wasnt the president is very important in history. The best thing is when dinner is over with, the members all get a book. [laughter] an autographed book. So there you go. Remembering mentioned charles, there were a few members of congress o that were hugging those books. I noticed that. But thats what i think we should all celebrate. Theres a reason why its called a book festival. Its something you can see people tend to talk about it. The library of congress is working with the federal archives in windsor for the first time. The papers and materials in our George Washington and the library has the papers of 23 president s from George Washington to coolidge. For the first time there will be an exhibit of the papers. And the recent visit is those two men were reading some of the same books the same time so what was it and to really look at so the unifying power of books. Is at the history that is available to anyone that comes . For digitizing more things we put the papers of rosa parks online. You can download so many things. We put im a baseball fan so we put the scouting reports people do not know what a baseball junkie you are. Fan. May be more than a fan. I did want to be a shortstop when i was a kid. [laughter] my grandfather lived in springfield, illinois, and he was one of those baseball fans would have two radios going, too on the porch and then there was a little blackandwhite tv and then he would take me out to the st. Louis cardinals that was a big deal. So you started out as a cardinals fan and you still are a cardinals fan but also theres a team in chicago people are still recovering fr from. I hear they are doing pretty well this year. I dont know if the city can take it but they would accept it when i found out the library has the scouting reports of the legendary baseball scout to read his reports he said he had some talent. To see these reports and what he said about these players and then to know their history and relationship with the library of congress, so all these treasures that has been the greatest joy for me. The greatest has been working with the staff. The surprising thing is how many things are still being discovered. That is with 164 million plus items in the collection you probably cant go whats in every file and click and and crf shared stories of course your office which ive looked for reasons to go to her office the beautiful building is the jefferson district. When your office is across the street on the corner, all glass with an outside area overlooking the capital, it is the spot. At the James Madison building and the only official memorial to James Madison in the capital and the Jefferson Building that actually sold his collection to congress after the british and that is why this exhibit all is forgiven now. Theres a fireplace in the capital and they said that the british used some of the books from the library of congress to start the fire and you can see that is something that we are trying. Talking about those treasures in the Jefferson Building. When the Madison Building opened in 1980 and thats where the library and office went, the working office and the Jefferson Building that opened in 1897, the first building in washington, d. C. To have electricity and you can visit wherever you are you see both of the light fixtures there is a librarians office so we both ended up and you will see a door that in 1975 by then library in going into this office he tried to open it and it wouldnt open so behind the door was a bank vault. That was something and nobody knew the conversation. We heard a certain gentleman that had those skills. [laughter] when they opened the safe there was only one thing in it, a small black box and when he opened the box there was a letter and it said these are the contents of the night he was assassinated and it was given to the library of congress by abraham lincolns granddaughter and in that box were two pairs of spectacles, a cloth for him to clean. He had about six or seven articles about him, some good and some not good. He had a confederate 5dollar bill because he just visited the south recently. He also had a Little Pocket knife type of thing and then something that for me humanize a handkerchief that had a monogram but then there was a button and when you think about what you do that is what was in his pocket. You should know, full disclosu disclosure, when i became the librarian of congress, i looked at every place and im still looking. The book of secrets i might find that one. That is the great thing the library started in 1800 over time susan b. Anthonys papers, the naacp. All these things for people to know about it before come in and then years later pulled down a box. There is Teddy Roosevelts diary that he carried in his pocket and you open it and it says february 14. His wife and his mother died in the same house. Weve got to digitize these things and make them available because that is what brings in and humanize this history. I think thats an amazing your work and mission because as much as we would love to have every person come to visit the library of congress, they cant. So tell us what you are doing for that outrage and then share a little bit of what you are doing. I mentioned the website and also to do so much more with Live Streaming like we are doing now to communities and schools and libraries so when there are older programs in washington we will be able to do that and traveling exhibits. We will start seeing 18 wheelers pulling up to communities and have libraries invite us in. The centers for the book as well as veterans history project there will be a mobile apps so they can said that their histories. We will not be the best kept secret but we want everyone to know that the library of congress is the nations libra library. We are doing so much more to let everybody feel comfortable and let them know what we have to offer. And look at what is Available Online and adding daily. We are starting a Program Shortly called citizen historian based on a program at the National Archives has already started where we are asking people to help us process and look at it and translate from a lot of these Historical Documents that have to be translated because people cant read cursive like they did before so we are really reaching out to everyone to say we have a lot of things and we want to make them available as a technology is going to be a great tool. You talk about the different collections. This is a thing i am sure that knowing you and your love for books and that history when you have many president s, many others that donated their personal inhome library, because the experience been . Theres another movie about Oliver Wendell holmes that was done in the 50s and at the end of the movie, he talks about donating this and that the different institutions but he says i will give my books to the library of congress and so they have the personal library of Oliver Wendell holmes. You think about looking at what people produce and what were they reading, what were these people getting inspiration for so we will be putting those types of things on display and of course we have Thomas Jeffersons library and we are recreating back. And thats important that you look at how Thomas Jefferson really helped the library of congress. He had already retired to monticello and he had the largest private slavery in the United States and offered to sell his library to the congress, to the nation because he said there should be no subject a member of congress shouldnt have to read her and he had over 6,000 books. Back in those days there were books on every subject so those were the books at the Jefferson Building now you can see some of the original books as well as we filled them in overtime. You had some Amazing Things that are being done. Fast forward from Thomas Jefferson in the 18 hundreds to today. On average how many items does the library received each day . Every working day, 20,000 items so the production of process and looking it is quite an operation. We are going to ask if you have a question weve all tried to get some of those in just a moment. When you look at those and what has been done because we were getting duplicates, tell us about the surplus the program. Im glad you mentioned that because we were able to donate and you were instrumental of that. Each congressperson is able to do that work with the library of congress to get donations of surplus books and when we say surplus we are not talking about used, we are talking about a brandnew books that are coming that can be part of Recovery Efforts for instance when you have the damage here in mississippi we were able to help in terms of providing materials for Community Centers and anything. We have a question. Thank you for your time. One of the things that im wondering about is if theres any direction in the near future about making them more friendly for people to get especially younger students a better opportunity to do their own primary research at younger ages and if theres anything or anyone in the departments exploring those options. Thank you. And thank you for bringing that to light. That is a major focus. Its not only letting everybody know what we have but making it easier for people to access and using technology as a tool so the library is embarking on a strategic Digital Strategy and examining ways that we can use Technology Even more effectively, so we have refreshed the website recently and we will be seeing more and more of that so thank you. I also want to take this opportunity when i mentioned that beautiful Jefferson Building and what we did yesterday with the Mississippi School for the deat deaf and the National Library services for the blind and physically handicapped we instituted a chore for people with digital challenges since you can go into the building and still experience the architecture, so we are very concerned that excited about what we can do to really make accessibility a part of everything we do. And that has been to reach out with those to make that accessible. Next question. First i have to thank you for the wonderful resources that ive used both in person and online. I was curious as you look forward, what do you think the library looks like in 50 years . With 20,000 items may be there already is an offsite but im not aware of. What do you see 50 years from now . Doctor carla hayden will still be at the library. [laughter] [applause] and i will look at like that lady. While that is the exciting part and where yesterday with my library colleagues because all are engaged in that type of visioning and its also our conservation and preservation as well so we have unique materials and a lot of colleges and libraries. We have to giv have to get shoue collection. [applause] for the people listening and watching they may not know that the university of southern mississippi has one of the most important archives of childrens literature in the world. They have the archives of Curious George and these are unique materials that are always going to need to be concerned and stored so the library of congress for instance has a number of storage modules with additional shelving, and its condition controlled so its not just putting things away changes. The library of congress has embarked on a Digital Strategy and storage planning but also looking at the fact that in the future, and you will see some of the changes where yo you go into the buildings and they are more interactive and there are more displays of materials, the libraries of the future have to build quiet spaces. They have a machine, the libraries are gathering places. You can make things. You will see a lot of them have different spaces to do going to go and see her. But to our girls we want to inspire them and let them know that they can be anything they want to be. They will be future carla haydens. If you could please stand up and inspire them with a few words. [applause] a different outfits and im trying to get a tshirt. But thats the other thing it can be cool and you can still do your thing. Take advantage of it. You can do anything. One of the joys and i want to get your name because 20 years or so when you are doing your thing, dont forget us because we will be able to say one of the members, a couple of the members or all of the members of this group are now doing this and this and we were there when they got started. So you know that w know that weo support you. Invite us to the enemies and we can say we knew her so that is another thing that you will have to deal with. Find a way to come visit doctor hayden. That would be great. [applause] we have time for two last quick questions. The my question goes to the member, congressman, if you can answer and the next question should be asked by my wife we inaugurated on july 30 a museum. [inaudible] is not attached to a place in india. We inaugurated vice chair we did it for all of you, we collected 15,000 a my question to you, on the books can it be attached to a digital copy because we dont have the luxury of a gift can be done to. The library of congress has six overseas offices from various countries through catalog and bring materials into the global sphere so people get your information to connect you with those special catalogers. Half of them are other languages and a collection of 170 languages and we have experts in these other areas of the world so we will definitely get your information and make sure that you are connected. We have time for one last question. In jackson, mississippi and around the globe, can we get a copy of this. We will discuss that. Thank you for your question. Thank you so much. Its been great and as a student i will be graduating i can attest to that history but my question one of the things i miss the most is the love for reading. It was so inspiring and i wanted to know can you be a good leader and what books had the most profound impact on the trajectory of your life . Guest life . Guest life . Guest i will start with the second one because the book that i talk about all the time was written in 1946. It was a bit of a young africanamerican girl with two pigtails and she was about 8yearsold and some library in in queens new york put the book and i loved it because i sold my soul for the first time and books can be windows, we talk about they take you everywhere but they also need to be mirro mirrors. If we are saying to kids and young people books are so important and then they dont see themselves reflected, that is a double message. You have two rows of them right here. [applause] that concludes our conversation with the 14th of library of congress. [applause] my mother thanks you too because shes bulging. [inaudible conversations] her appearance of the American LibraryAssociation Conference where she was joined by the National Archivist to discuss physical collections in the digital age