Into the digital age. The Center Hosted the program. Good evening, everybody. My name is tom mcintyre. I am the Deputy Director of the nyu center. I am pleased to welcome you all to the auditorium. This is our second installment of our Young LeadersNetwork Series for the summer. 2014 by the center and the Edward Kennedy institute for the u. S. Senate, the Young Leaders network aims to promote in the next generation of leaders the spirit of Public Service as embodied for decades on capitol hill by ted kennedy. Our goal is to provide students with programs that enrich their experience while interning in washington, d. C. And to help them create a network of peers as they lay a groundwork for a career in Public Service. Tonights program, uncovering the treasures of the library of congress will focus on the importance of collecting physical information and materials in the modern digital age. Our distinguished speakers will discuss the work of the Nations Library by providing Public Access to some of the most valuable treasures and documents in the nation. Please give a warm welcome to the librarian of congress, dr. Carla hayden point by broadcast journalist and nyu alum, ray suarez. [applause] ray i figure the applause is my cue. [applause] carla hayden, welcome. Dr. Hayden i was just in new york. Ray i could not afford the tuition. Have an amazing job. I hope you feel that way too. Dr. Hayden every day. Curator, af a guardian of national treasures. Kind of a keeper of the nations memory a very important part of the job. A very distinct assignment that is kind of gift different from the National Archives though there is some overlap. And we can talk further of where your turfs intersect. You have to keep pace of rapidly changing technology, what is in the technology that what is in the library what is in the library. But atrary is a vault the same time a place to keep things safe but also a place that has to be porous and able to be interacted with by the public which i think is a pretty interesting balancing act. And i want to touch you more about that as well. How long have you been on the job . Dr. Hayden it will be three years september 14. That is when i was sworn in officially. Swearingin, i made the point that to be a person of and to be a woman, the first woman since 1802, there have been 14 librarians of congress, but being that person of color, to head up the Worlds Largest library, 171 million items and to know that the descendentsere my were denied the right to read by law was very powerful. And so, in fact, i can share this. I have shared it before. I was doing my speech, getting ready for the swearing in, and i thought as a good library and that i would list all of the laws and there were a lot of them from every state. What the punishment was for reading. For teaching a slave to read. Amputation. All of that. And i was going over it and i was so proud and sharing it with thatm and she said, carla, would be kind of a downer. [laughter] to you just condense it your people were denied a right to read. Because of the significance of is one ofibrarianship the four feminine careers. I was a twofer. Ray 100 of the librarians here had been male. Dr. Hayden definitely. Ray a lot of people dont ,ealize that the cornerstone the Foundation Stone of the librarys collection, after a catastrophic fire of the original library of congress, was Thomas Jeffersons own book collection. He could not have imagined you as the librarian of congress either. Dr. Hayden definitely not. Thomas jefferson. That is an interesting and we know things have been revealed about his relationship with people of color and that type of thing. Learned mana very and almost eccentric. If you ever have a chance to go to monticello where he had a wonderful estate. Things fromifferent all over the country. In 1770magine yourself visiting this person and you would walk in and say this looks like a museum. This guy is really something. He collected in different languages, he had the koran and other things because he said there is no subject to which a congress should have to refer. When the fire came in 1812 or 1814, the library of congress had a small collection of law books. They used and it was in the capital, they used some of those books to start the fire in the capital. Fires jefferson, after the that destroyed the books, offered his collection to the nation. And that is the foundation of the library of congress. Had another collection. Then, you now and will pick up a paper or magazine and read yet another article about the death of the book and how the internet is killing reading and so on. Gush of there is a pieces through your doors that have to be catalogued, kept, and trackable. Maybe americans have not gotten the word that reading is dead. Dr. Hayden and it is interesting because sometimes the concern centers around the we called it the container. For many years, of course it was bothe book, the text form hardback and paperback later. Butpeople are now reading in different ways. And graphic novels are doing quite well. Childrens picture books are doing quite well. It depends on what you are reading and how you are reading. And bookstores, small, independent bookstores are really starting to pick up. Ray how does the library of Congress Keep track of everything coming out and make it, can holdhas on to it, and if need the, find it . Dr. Hayden the library of congress, and this is the most exciting part, we have specialists we have collected in over 470 languages. A worldwide collection. You have Staff Members who are looking at what is being produced, what might be relevant years from now. And it is not just in physical formats. For instance, when later was first coming out when twitter is coming out, librarians at the time said what is it about this format that people 50 years from now or 70 years from now would look at and say wow, that was the arab spring and all of that. And so you have a cadre of about who are thinking the future. And it is not just dollars. People would be interested in and know about what is the history and who is making it now and who is in the past. We just had a very good discussion recently about what we should be looking at because we have an extensive and we putction things on the National Registry every year. What films should be put on the National Registry . Cinderella was not on there. The classic. Ray the disney animated movie . Yes, the disney animated movie and we just put a jayz song on as a recording. Aboutkind of fun to think what to preserve and collect for the future. Ray the assumption is that not everything needs to be collected . Dr. Hayden well, it depends on who is collecting it and what we do is work with other libraries, museums, other historical societies to really as long as someone is collecting one institution cannot collect everything. For instance, the new smithsonian africanamerican together andnt in purchased the first known photograph of harriet telemann. And we preserved it at the library of congress and made sure that it will go into future decades and it is on display at the specific at the museum. Has astance, harvard special library on womens studies and so they just received the archive of angela davis and then the library of congress has the archive and will be getting one of a very famous opera singer, jesse norman. But we are making sure that we are covering the waterfront. Ray i have been down in the vaults of the National Archive and i have put on the white, gloves and looked at the great treasures they have there and one of them is Thomas Jeffersons own diaries from the time he was minister in france. Why do they have that but you have a letter that john adams wrote when he was minister to great britain, the first one, the first ambassador in the court of st. James . Pieces of we have Thomas Jeffersons hair. Exhibit ofabout an body parts. The library of congress for instance has the papers of 23 president s from George Washington to coolidge. Fdr started the president ial libraries. The president ial library system. The National Archives has some materials because, over time, it depends on family members giving things to an institution. And for instance, the library of congress has the contents of abraham lincolns pockets the night he was assassinated. To forhas been on loan theater. But we have it because his greatgranddaughter gave it to the library of congress. Responsibilities described in law, who gets what . The smithsonian loves to call it self the nations attic. Dr. Hayden and we are the treasure chest. And i want everyone to know there is a friendly and collegial and wonderful historic competition. And the new head secretary of the smithsonian, dr. Lonnie bunch and the head of here at the and library of congress, we call ourselves the game of three. And so we have almost historic showdowns when we meet at different places. So, for instance, the National Archives, we met there and the archivist of the United States was very pleased in his vault to show the smithsonian and the library of congress our founding documents. That he had. Ok, we are going to meet over at the library of congress. And we were able to show a few things that made him kind of pause. , it isthe smithsonian the same thing. Ray but are there things that he might take a pass on in favor of you and vice versa because you are more set up to take something and not other things . Dr. Hayden or it fits into our collection better. The library of congress is interesting in that we have the Worlds Largest collection of baseball cards. We have the papers and have opened up an exhibit on womens suffrage and we have the papers of Susan B Anthony, Elizabeth Cady stanton and the organization. The National Gallery has an exhibit on women suffragettes. And so it depends on what type of material it is but sometimes we actually compete for certain items as well. Ray lonnie bunch, the new head of the smithsonians petition smithsonianr institution was the director of the historical society. Chicago asrough well. A good incubator apparently for people of Major National intellectual institutions. You learned library science. Were you still with the Chicago Public libraries when they started the one city, one book program . Dr. Hayden i was not there then. That was also a program that quite a few cities picked up on and even a baltimore. Strong library a system. Boston has one. New york is really one of the premier Library Systems and then a separate one for brooklyn and queens. And then the new york public is manhattan, staten island, and the bronx. Too. Mpete with them ray we were talking earlier about how you did not imagine yourself this was not your career goal to become the library and of congress. You did not, even in more recent years, when we met at the American Library association, the meeting, this was not in your future. What happened . Dr. Hayden im working on that. What happened was i am a Career Library and but an accidental librarian. You mentioned chicago. I was in chicago right after undergrad when i needed to have employment. That same mom has been very down to earth most of my life and all of my life still. And i got out of undergrad with history and Political Science thinking about law school or next up wouldhe be and my mom said, while you are thinking, you might want to get a job [laughter]. [laughter]just a thought. Interviewsween job where i was looking at social services or whatever, i would hang out in the library. The Central Library, Chicago Public because i loved libraries, bookstores, books. All my life. I was sitting there between interviews where they would tell me that i was nice and a bright young lady but no experience. That is why internships are so good. Do that if you cam. Can. Do that if you one of my colleagues that had just graduated with mace head carla, are you here for the library job . They are hiring everybody. And so i went upstairs and applied i like books and children and they put me on the south side in a Storefront Library with a young lady, denis soaker who is going to graduate library school. Jewish and she was p and giving storytime to young people. And this was in the 1970s. She was giving storytime to people with autism. And i thought wow, this library stuff is different. Power to the people. Information is power. Theme of mywas the career and i have talked at the and university of pittsburgh and i to chicago and opened up a public Science Library there. Just did a lot of things went back to chicago and was the chief librarian, deputy commissioner, a very chicago title. Fromhen they contacted me the library that was legendary the library in baltimore. It is also the state library for maryland. And we learned about it because it was the First Library system in the country, the first one that opened with a Central Library and branches. He was the pioneer of Andrew Carnegie. And before Andrew Carnegie started his program of giving to communities throughout the country, he came down to baltimore. Because he had heard about andy pratt. Pamphlet, basically, the gospel of wealth, carnegie talks about him. And i thought it might be interesting. I spent time there serving in the state of maryland but also the city of baltimore. And that was boots on the ground where the library really meant something. And when my predecessor at the library of congress announced his retirement, there was an administration at the time that reached out to a number of people in the library community. And i was one of those people. They talked to about how the library of congress could be open to more people, really reach out to be accessible. That,en, in the course of i was asked if i would consider being considered . Consultingu do these things, you need to watch what you say. [laughter] because how can i go opening upation, things, making sure everyone has opportunities at this wonderful but the Worlds Largest collection of comic books. The home movies with Liza Minnelli at two at her birthday party. The treasures. And i knew about that. Was the challenge of how do you make it accessible . How do you open it up and let everyone know it is their library . Ray when i think back to the time when i got my First Library card in the book republic , death in the brooklyn public library, you had to reach up to the library. The library was not reaching down to you. The library and was a sort of it bidding lady who made very clear what the rules were and how they were to be followed. Openoors were not thrown with a lot of people at the front door waving you in. You are entering a sanctum and you had to follow certain rules. Of propriety but also respect for the book and so on. And as i watched my own childrens relationship with the generationalthat time, the whole thing of what a library was to a neighborhood seemed to have changed in those years. With one book, one city, with storytime, with elections and outreach and how they were meant to catch the eye of new americans. Literacy literacy for adults. Almost going back to an older time at the beginning of the 20th century when literacy classes were taught in local branches of the public library. Did the state of the art change during that time when i come a trembling with my library card in my hand, walked up to the desk to burrell something . To borrow something . Dr. Hayden before andrew , aftere in the 1870s the civil war, there was a push for universal education. At the same time, that is when most museums, public museums opened and in pittsburgh, carnegie opened a museum, a library and a Natural History museum where he would bring things. Theremember, this is 1870s, 1880s, and the nation was getting ready for an Industrial Revolution and teaching everyone to be literate and the Public Libraries really started. And then when you had the mass immigration, the library was seen as a force to introduce people to the country and all of this. 1920s, that the is when the librarians there it was a about feminist book about librarianship. Spoiler alert Melville Dewey is not who you thought he was. Ray the decibel system. Dr. Hayden he was quite a fella. A lot has been written about him but he started all of this. He said when he was really thinking about Public Libraries he said that is when librarians should be female. Because they will guard just like the home. And also that women could do repetitive, boring work. [laughter] and that is where you had the they were thend force that was going to help everyone find great literature. But over time, the Great Depression when people were going to the library and that is when they had newspaper rooms because they were so many people out of work and they would go to the library. And then in world war ii all of these different stages and by the time you were going, it was starting to loosen up. And then by the 1960s and 1970s, it was the place to help people in their lives. Now, you have flu shots