Issues, but i think we can get around them. I think we got the sense that there are serious and deep problems that need addressing. We thank you very much for coming to present your book and thank you to the panel. If you have questions we will be at the reception and just ask us in the informal setting. With that, our time is up. [applause] skraz oakland is 11th on the list. To find out the other cities making the top 20 list look for the article on booksquire. Com. Carla hayden was sworn in as the librarian of congress. She is the first woman and africanamerican to hold the position. Thomas jefferson sold most of his library to congress. The british burned the original library of congress when they invaded washington the year before. A later fire destroyed most of jeffersons books we still have some of them. They make up the heart of the library we have here today. Jefferson as you know was a very unique man. Others arranged books alphabetically or by size. He divided his library into three sections that corresponded with the three manufacturmanufas of main faculities. A long way of saying she is a pro. She knows what she is doing. Second, she understands the need bring the library into the digital age. We have millions of documents that almost nobody knows a thing about. It would be a shame if they were lost. It is that third quality, imagination that is important. We think of america as this great land of promise. A place where people from all walks of life with can get their start but the Public Library itself is an icon of opportunity. It a safe haven where people can go to learn and feed their ever hungry imagination. I think as a writer, baldwin, James Baldwin as a young man would go to the library and read every book he could get his hands on and when done bring books home. There he would be holding a younger sibling in one arm and a book in the other. What would happen if baldwin didnt have the Public Library . A great mind would have been starved of material. Widely praised for keeping up her library during baltimores unrest last year but for her it was the only obvious choice. One day when her 83yearold mom, when show told her mom she was going to the library in the middle of the chaos and trouble, her mother replied make sure you are some coffee. She is an accomplished woman and i have ever confidence she is going to make us all very, very proud. Jefferson once said i cannot live without books. Neither can we. The library of congress is our National Treasure and with dr. Hayden at the helm i know it is in excellent hands. Congratulations. [applause] ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the chief justice of the united states. The honorable john roberts to administer the oath of office. Please also welcome dr. Haydens mother colleen hayden. [applause] please raise your right hand and repeat after me. I carla hayden do solemnly swear that i will support and defend the constitution of the united states. That i will support and defend the constitution of the united states. Against all enemies foreign and domestic. Sg against all enemies foreign and domestic. That i will bear true faith and allegiance to the same. That i will bear true faith and allegiance to the same. That i take this obligation freely. That i take this obligation freely. Without any mental reservations or purpose of evasion. Without any mental reservations or purpose of evasion. And that i will well and faithfully discharge. And that i will well and faithfully discharge. The duties of the office on which i am about to enter. The duties of the office which i am about to enter. So help me god. So help me god. [applause] [applause] recently booktv sat down with the new library of congress to talk her about life, career and vision were for the library. Dr. Carla hayden, do you remember the first moment that you were asked about being the librarian of congress . I can remember that moment because i was surprised. I had been advi vising and consulting because this was an opportunity for the Library Community to weigh in on what would be needed for the library of Congress Going into the next fee decades. My name was the person that she talked to. That went on for a little while and then i was asked would you consider being considered for the position yourself. It took me back a little bit. And i had to then think about what i was currently doing. Really Public Service, the city had challenges and the state had Public Library be the state library in baltimore, maryland. This was a very tense situation. I had troubled baltimore in and i was really working on so many issues. I had to think how could i go from serving the community to serving the country and what contribution could i make. Why did you say yes . Because when i really thought about the treasures and what is contained in the library and what i had been privy to as a librarian, what i knew was conveyed here and how excited i always am. I love history so to be able to share that with more people was really the turning point for me that i could make it everyones life. In fact, this is how the opportunity was presented to me; would you serve as the next librarian of congress . And that is when it all came together for me. So when you first came to the library as the nominee did you say to somebody i want to be that . What was it that you did . I wanted to see lincolns life mask. I had seen it years before and mistaking telling people i saw his death mask but it was actually a rendering he had four months before he was assassin e assassinated. I wanted to see that item again with the understanding that when that mask was cast he was alive. That was a moment. My family is from illinois. I have a couple personal bookshelves on lincoln and grew up with lincoln lure. My family is buried in the same cemetery that lincoln is buried in in springfield. So that really resonated with me. Cspan what is the thing you like most about lincoln . His integrity and struggles. The fact he didnt come to some of these things that we admire so much about him now as easily as we thought. That he had difficulties in his personal life. I mentioned springfield. We visited lincolns home on a regular basis and thinking about what was going on in that home and he lost a child. All of these things and there was a human behind this person that did so much and i think that is what draws a lot of people to lincoln and what he accomplished. Cspan there is a book in your past called bright april what was the book and what year did you read it . Guest you notice when i mention the title i said ah this is where i talk about my age. I was about 78 until so that was 1961. I went to a Grammar School in jamaica queens and across the street was a storefront library. I cant remember if a librarian gave me the book or anything like that. But i just know that somehow this book, bright april was put in my hands. It was a book that featured a little africanamerican girl who was a brownie. At that time i was brownie. She had two pigtails and the beautiful watercolor pictures and illustrations showed a loving family. There was a piano in the living room. A thanksgiving dinner. All of these things that spoke to me as a child. To see myself reflected in a book and i thought i looked like her. Now i look at the book she was a little prettier but it meant so much to see what i thought reflected and later when i started as a childrens librarian i thought about children need a book to have windows on the world. They also need to see themselves. It needs to be a mirror. If we want them to think books are important and books hold knowledge if you dont see yourself in this important thing what is that telling you . Cspan were you born in tallahassee . Grew up in the chicago area . How did all that happen . Guest i think we talked about my parents being a musician. So my father was the starter of the String Department at Florida University in tallahassee florida. I was born there. When i was about five or so he always liked he played Classical Music but he liked jazz, too. Classical by day and jazz my night. He connected with another musician in the musical family. Some people know him as cannonball. He was down in tallahassee, too. Off they go to new york with my mom who is a classically trained pianist and me. The next thing you know i am at bird land sitting on the stool in the front having shirley temples. That was quite an experience. My parents divorced when i was ten and we moved back to illinois. Cspan your mom is very much with us. I want to know what she said to you when you called and said i am going to be the librarian of congress. Guest the first thing she said was your grandmother is right. My grandmother always said as i progressed in the career of librarianship i never thought being a librarian would lead to this. My nickname was squirrel. They thought good she is going to be a librarian. She has no musical talent. That is good. But she was still amazed and to think that my love of books and all of this turned into something that required her to hold the lincoln bible and have me sworn in was something. In fact, my mother was very nervous about holding the lincoln bible. It symbolizes so much to not only our family but just what it meant and she was very nervous about that because you are touching history. And this is something that touched a person that you respect so much. That connection and i have to say that is something that i hope that in my tenure i will be able at a to do more of. To connect people with history. To touch history digitally and understand these were real people. How much do you read . Probably a little too much because i have matured d and my eyesight matured so i require a stronger lens. I am a reader tal read just about anything that has text. The cereal box. A sign. I connected. It took me years to realize that i connected with text the same way my parents connected with notes, notation. And one day i said wow, taxpayer look at notes and hear music. And i can look at text and hear words. And it is almost the same thing. Cspan where do you read . Guest i just now have a balcony i can sit out. I have a chair and i read there. I read in bed. I can read at a table. But usually i can tell when i am very tired if i cant read in bed. That is the signal. Cspan folks found out i was going to be talking to you and i think three different people for whatever reason wanted to know are you going to continue the too live in baltimore and commute to washington . Guest yes. Cspan how big of a commute is that . It is a 35 miles. I think because i am from the midwest mileage is viewed in a different way. You have to go 35 miles to go from one end to chicago to the other end. In the southern parts of illinois going from danville to campagna to do something is not unusual. So i will say baltimore i have been there 23 years and my mother moved from illinois to baltimore. And sometimes it is a place where Everybody Knows your name. The city grabs you. The city has so many characters. Ann tyler is there when you read her books you get a sense of don waters. So many characters are there because it nurtures creativity. Cspan if you had to make a choice would you read fiction or nonfiction . Guest that is a hard choice however i would be for nonfiction. I love history. I can read warhohl but i like to read things like the queens bed which is about Queen Elizabeth the first and all the intrigue around that. History can sometimes be more exciting than fiction. Cspan over time what is a couple books in the nonfiction category you liked . Guest no ordinary time. I really connect with eleanor roosevelt. I went to her school in chicago. And to read doris kern it is the best type of history. I heard her speak at the library, got the book, read it that night and i could hear her speaking. Cspan how about fdr in the white house . Guest yes. You would want to know which room was where. Cspan when did you first meet Michelle Obama and barack obama . Guest in chicago. I had arrived back in chicago from pittsburgh to be the deputy commissioner, chief librarian of the chicago Public Library i started. The first lady was Michele Robinson and working with the City Administration that was that is when we met her and later her fiance. That was something years later to meet in a professional setting and different roles. Cspan how important do you think that connection way back then in chicago led to your choice as librarian . Guest i am not sure if it led to the choice. I think it was probably one of the most ironic things to have a name put forward from a search that you say carla hayden . She is still a librarian, yes. But i had been part of a board, the institute of library and museum services, so my name has been part of the professional Library Setting for a whiled. Cspan you got an ma and ph. D at the university of chicago. What was your dissertation about . Guest it was about serving young people in museums. Where was working at the museum of science and industry in chicago i and i was working to open the first Public Service library in a Science Museum in the country. That was really interesting because most Museum Libraries are not open to the public. They are for the curators and educagucato educators. He you are opening a library and having these visitors. That got me interested libraries and museums so i took courses and things and started visiting museums. Basically what i was saying at that time in the 80s is that Public Libraries in particular needed to use some of the methods that you use to engage young people. The boston childrens museum. Now you can go into the Public Libraries all over the country and see play areas and see not just books but things as well. Cspan a baltimore resident said to me this day when i said i was coming over to interview you she was terrific in baltimore with doing the things you are talking about there the community stuff. Movie night. There is a fundraiser you had black and white every year. Young people dancing and being related in the library and connecting books and all of that, yes. It is quite something. When you went to baltimore 23 years ago, prat library, what is it . How many different branches . What did you do there that you were the most proud of . Guest in Library School we studied this library. It was an Innovative Library for years starting with mr. Pratt when he established it. He was a business person in baltimore at a time when the city was growing. He picked the free library to fund. He said my library should be for all, rich or poor, without distinction of race or color. That was in 1886 in a city that had racial challenges. When i had the opportunity to go to the Pratt Library i didnt know much about baltimore but i knew the Pratt Library and learned baltimore then. There are now 21 branches. Every wherein i would go in baltimore people had a Pratt Library story. People from all walks of life. What i am most pleased about is that over the time i have been there we revitalized those libraries and they actually kwukt constructed the first new library in 35 years. We had the senior Staff Members bring in a photograph of themselves at 510 years old and made a poster so when we meet we say what would a child say 35 years from now about what pratt stories are we making . That is why i am staying in baltimore. Cspan how did you get adults in there that dont normally go to the library . Guest my making it relevant. A lot of people need to get to computer do is file for jobs. So many jobs require you to file online and they dont have the access to do that. Flu shots. All types of things that brick bring people in and to make the library less intimidating especially for people who have challenges with literacy. It is the last place you want to go if you cant read well is a library. Bringing in authors, poplar programs was a way to start getting adults in and letting them know it is a safe place fru whatever level you come in at all. As you came into the library of congress 600something million budget. 620 employees. What was the first thing you said you want to change . It wasnt so much changing but keep it moving forward. There is a wonderful book, a management book i think about often about change. When you are changing or helping something move with momentum it is called teaching the elephant to dance you have to be careful but the sinking of a ship and how do you get it to move or be n nimble and things like that. There have been other lay brerans that have serve even longer. 48. I think, was one, and so different times in the librarys history, the ten years have longer or shorter, lawyers, politicians, scholars, historians, authors, along the way, and i think at this point, when theres so many opportunities, but at challenges with technology and things are moving so rapidly, to give an opportunity to step back and say, where are we in ten years in ive been asked, what do you hope to have accomplished in ten years . If you can digitize the 162 million items that would be something. So i think its healthy to look at an institution in different period odd time. How much is digitized today . Im not sure. And that is what even though i have just been sworn in and things and im stick investigating, i want to really get, as they say, in the weeds and look and also i know that the are a number of collections, for instance, theres rosa parks collection was just digitized and i got to see the actual artifacts. To work with the staff and say how many things are available online. How many things are in the queue, and im pretty sure their a number of things and whole collections that are ready, and to see if we can match some of those collections and those needs with the potential donors. Who would help with the process. This is a question for one who has never been to library of congress and doesnt have a clue what they can see or do. One got my First Library of congress card people dont know that. Cspan what would you suggest to somebody who is intimidated be the big buildings guest when you think about the temple of knowledge and information, it looks like a massive