Transcripts For CSPAN2 Hearing On Modernizing Library Of Con

CSPAN2 Hearing On Modernizing Library Of Congress July 13, 2024

Whats being done to modernize the library of congress. We heard testimony from dr. Carla hayden, the librarian of congress. This is a little more than an hour. [inaudible] who also chairs the appropriated committee for library and i think thats particularly helpful that you could be here as well. Also a member of this committee so shes here as a of the committee but also on these topics, particularly fallible in her role as appropriate. We have been having with the library, with the smithsonian, with the architect of the capitol these kinds of oversight hearings to fulfill that responsibility and be sure were giving the agencies to help they need. Were glad to be here of course with the librarian, dr. Carla hayden, with mr. Barton, the chief Information Officer and your temple, the register of copyrights. Thank all of you for being here today. I think we want to talk primarily police i want to talk primarily about monetization. We had a chance with dr. Hayden at the last meeting to talk about the Physical Plant ideas of how to make the library even more of an experience for people who visit there. I think we want to talk about today more of how the monetization of the i. T. Elements at the library are coming together, and how all services are being benefited by that. The library of course performs a lot of functions for us, historically. One of those functions has been the Copyright Office. I think initially that was to be sure that the library would be a clear recipient of that great treasure of the copyrighted documents that have become part of the libraries collection. The Copyright Office has always been part of the library. Today were taking a different, deeper look again into the Copyright Office and were glad the registrar is here with us, but also i. T. And modernization generally i think we will focus mostly on the Copyright Office and i. T. , but we want, any discussions you want to have about challenges you are having or successes you are having as you move in the direction of more uptodate i. T. , of more uptodate protection. You know, Cyber Threats are real and i think they are particularly real in some of the information that you are dealing with. Dr. Hayden, you and i got to know each other well in 2016 when we were able to Work Together to be sure that she became the first librarian in a long time to be the librarian of congress, and we been pleased to be able to Work Together since then. Prior to the arrival of really all three of you in these current jobs, the gao was very critical of the library, the Copyright Office, Information Technology. The Government Accounting Office identified a lack of storage, of Strategic Planning, information and technology investment, and investment management, and weaknesses and Information Security and privacy. They recommended that the library higher a permanent chief Information Officer, which it did, and that chief Information Officer would professionalize and centralized Information Technology needs at the library, which hopefully were going to find out today you were doing. As librarian, dr. Hayden, you are ultimately responsible for the management and success of the library as a whole, which includes the Copyright Office but, of course, we look to the register, the Copyright Office to be responsible for what happens there every day and have the kind of working relationship with the two of you that are essential to make that happen. Mr. Barton, glad you were here. For to hearing about how you taking this job in making it work. And ms. Temple, we talked some last year in this committee. We had a proposal even to make your selection slightly different and may be outside the normal Selection Process that had traditionally been for the librarian of congress. That did not pass and so the congresses of you was the situation would continue to stay as it was congresses view. The staff and rules committee has spent a lot of time with all three of you over a a recent months trying to be sure this is working the way it needs to work. Its hard to talk about trade policy or lots of other policy without talking about the importance of protecting information and copyrights and other patents and other things. So this is a very real topic. We had our last review in march, as i mentioned before, of the librarian and with the library was doing and other areas. Glad the three of you are here today to talk about this, and im particularly please that senator udall could carve up the time to be here as part of this as well. Senator udall, i would turn to for any Opening Statement you might have. Thank you so much, chairman blunt. Youre a good friend and we worked on a lot of issues together, and thank you so much for holding this hearing. The library of congress is an important institution, and im pleased to see the committee taking an active role to make sure its healthy and strong. And i want to thank all the witnesses that are here today, dr. Hayden, ms. Temple and mr. Barton. I also have worked with dr. Hayden a lot over the course of her tenure over there and i have really enjoyed developing a deeper relationship. First i want to say the library is an american treasure of immeasurable value. Its 170 billion items includes the Worlds Largest collection of legal materials, films and sound recordings. Its landmark buildings c 2 million visitors every year, and over 114 million visits to its website last year. And the Copyright Office is critical to music, film and Publishing Industry worth over 1 trillion every year. Copyrights are especially important in my home state of new mexico where artists and the Creative Economy are significant in growing part of our states business activity. In addition to its public value, the library is fundamentally essential to our work here in the legislative branch. You know some people may think members of congress are illinformed, might imagine what this place would be like without the assets like the Congressional Research service and online resources like congress. Gov help keep us informed and uptodate with nonpartisan factual information here like so many americans, we rely day in and day out on the information provided by the library of congress to make important decisions. So while the series may not be carried live on cable news, its this committee job to make sure the library is wellrun, uptodate, and prepared for the future. Future generations will thank us. Dr. Hayden, i know you and your team have been working diligently to modernize and grow the i. T. Infrastructure of the library of congress, and the Copyright Office. Digital technology is crucial to the libraries evolving operations. I encourage with pace at which the Government Accountability Office Recommendations have been implemented. Ive worked on federal i. T. Reform on a bipartisan basis for many years, and i know its not easy. Big i. T. Projects are tough enough in corporate enterprises, but federal agencies face a much different budget process and unique organizational issues. Federal chief Information Officers have learned a lot of lessons and develop best practices in recent years. And i urge the library and Copyright Office to seek out those best practices and Work Together for success. I look forward to hearing about the progress to improve the librarys infrastructure and operations, progress and improving accessibility of the librarys unique collections, and historical artifacts like Thomas Jefferson strapped of the declaration of independence, and the contents of Abraham Lincolns pockets and the nighe was assassinated. Tangible pieces of some of the most significant moments in our nations shared history can be both preserved and made accessible. Along those lines i want to highlight one of the librarys ongoing initiatives, the veterans history project chartered by congress in 2000. This ongoing effort to lex and makes accessible personal accounts of american war veterans so that future generations can hear directly from veterans to better understand the realities of war. With that in todays approach i will be interesting to hear an update on the progress of the project during our question and answer time. Helping native american tribes protect their historical and Cultural Resources is also a high priority for me. Dr. Hayden, we have spoken about this before and i know its a priority for you. I hope we can keep working together on tribal engagement under the music modernization act as well as the librarys language and other resources for tribes. And i look forward to our Panel Discussion today and i would yield back to the chairman. Thank you, senator udall. So, dr. Hayden, you are full testimony will be in the record. You can deal with it however you want. I will also ask my remarks and senator udall and any comments come introductory comets in the of the panel would like to make will go into the record without objection. So dr. Hayden, we are glad to hear. You testify on behalf of everybody, and then everybody would get their share of questions, im sure of that. Dr. Hayden. Thank you, mr. Chairman, senator udall, senator hydesmith. I welcome the opportunity to be here today to give you an update on the librarys modernization, and especially the Information Technology and work with the Copyright Office. And want to thank the committee for its ongoing support of the library in general, and with the librarys i. T. Modernization. Three years ago in this very room during my confirmation hearing we discussed the many challenges and opportunities presented by the librarys technology, and i am excited to be able to tell you today that we have significantly improved the librarys Information Technology. The library is a Different Organization from what it was just a short time ago, and over the last two years, we have stabilized our core i. T. Structure. We have streamlined and strengthened our i. T. Governance, and we have centralized and professionalized our i. T. Workforce. And that hard work has allowed us to close and implement nearly 95 of the gao recommendations made in 2015, and we will keep working until we close 100 by the end of this year. Modernizing the Copyright Office is a top agency priority. And were making progress and updating the system to register and maintain uptodate records for greater work so that the systems are automated, antiquated coming easier by the public to use. And thanks to the generous support of congress the library is now one year into a fiveyear effort to design and implement a new enterprisewide copyright system. And to keep progress moving forward the Copyright Office has now hired a Senior Technical Advisor in place to help manage and plan i. T. Modernization and also to enhance the collaboration between the Copyright Office and Agencies Technology staff. And in fiscal fiscal year 2019e Copyright Office and office of the chief Information Officer jointly engaged in User Experience outreach to stakeholders and launched it all but efforts for components of the new system. This fiscal year the library will release a limited part of the of the first fully digital copyright recordation system. We will also complete a prototype of a searchable Records Management system and begin the initial development for the next generation online registration systems. I want you to know that i believe in my team leading this effort. Every part of the library. The chief Information Officer, mr. Barton, is working with the Congressional Research service, the rs, to implement a new research and information system, and it will make use of the latest technology. The National Library for the blind and printdisabled is completely rethinking how it delivers content to people with reading difficulties. The law library has completely digitized the u. S. Statutes at large and, in collaboration with the Government Printing office, we have digitized the congressional serial set dating back to 1817. So by embracing userfocused design, weve brought new products to millions of online users, and weve made enhancements to many of our services. And lastly, our Digital Strategy agencywide is leveraging technology to find innovative ways to reach more people. And so with these efforts, were moving ahead with a challenging but achievable task of transforming the library into a more digitallyenabled agency. And theres still a lot of work to be done, but weve made great progress. And so i thank you again for inviting me to update the committee with my colleagues, and we welcome your questions. Great. Were glad youre here. We, clearly, are going to have plenty of time for us to ask multiple questions. I think well probably try to stay at about five minute segments and just go back and forth. Senator hydesmiths coming back in just a moment and, obviously, will be here for questions as well. Mr. Barton, would you share your progress . You started right, when, 2016 . Or was it 15 . September of 2015, sir. 2015. And that was in response to the idea that somebody needed to come in and be the chief Information Officer. Kind of just in a couple of minutes just sort of give me a sense of how far youve come from the day you walked in and particularly how far youve come since the librarian took her job in 2016. Thank you for the question, sir. Its a great opportunity for me to be able to reinforce the talent that we have at the library regarding i. T. And the professionalism displayed by the staff. As the gao audit found, there was a lack of oversight, and so they wanted they suggested that the library hire a chief Information Officer. Whenever i first came in, it was apparent to me that it wasnt a lack of talent or lack of capability, it was really a lack of vision and a lack of oversight on the i. T. Organization. The library had been pretty much working in a siloed fashion, and as im sure well discuss a little bit more throughout the hearing, centralization was something that would help this. In other words, making decisions about i. T. At the agency level regarding Strategic Direction, and then making sure that those decisions at the Strategic Direction didnt interfere with the individual service or Business Units needs to have specialized i. T. To perform their business mission. Whenever i first arrived, i testified that my goal was to make sure the findings of the gao audit were addressed in a way that didnt just check a box. I wasnt here to just make sure that we closed the audit findings. I was here to make sure that the root cause of those findings was addressed in such a way that we were not put back into the same situation in a matter of years. And thanks to the support of congress from a budget tear perspective budgetary perspective, we have been able to address 95 of those findings. And i expect that we will close all of those findings if by the end e of this calendar year. We have submitted the evidence that is necessary to the gao in our existing back and forth conversations with them throughout the rest of this year on getting those closed. The progress we have made is significant, and it covers every domain of i. T. From the constitutions ive had with the gao, the team that was here. It was the first time that theyve actually made that broad of a recommendation. The number of recommendations were significant, over a hundred recommendations, and in every domain of i. T. From security to finance, to operations, every domain that there exists. The biggest progress we have made is in security. And im very proud to say that at this point all of the major systems within the library have now obtained what we call an authority to operate which means the security of those systems have been validated, tested and compared to nist standards who is the body that we look to for establishing security standards. On that topic, let me go to ms. Temple before i run out of time here with first questions. On the security topic, you know, intellectual property clearly one of the things that were with, with good reason, most concerned about. One of the big targets of Cyber Espionage and other things, do you feel good about where were headed in terms of the security of the information entrusted to the federal government through you in your job . Yes. Thank you for the question. Security is one of the most important aspects of our development of an i. T. System, and im very please

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