Much wisdom we would have missed out on. The one and only president for sure trevor of the Carnegie Corporation. Ishmael the director of the library in alexandria, and they are joining us to celebrate your service. We are also lucky to be joined by the latvian ambassadors to the United States committee acting librarian of Congress David howell and Jane Mcauliffe the director of outreach and delegates to the board. Grace mckenna and come i havent seen her come there she is, whose family has done so much to shape this Institution Come and Diana Davis Spencer who has been a great friend to our work. The gatherings like this remind me what a impact the center has around the globe including hundreds in russia and ukraine and even now we pick the best scholars and the most brilliant staff to work on the most important issues and we learned that from you. You always scholarship at the heart of the work. No one who knows you would be surprised. Some may already know this but jim and his daughter sitting right here were the first father daughter pair to win the rhodes scholarships. You can applaud for that. You have shown Exceptional Service that we all share knowledge in the public service. It is an honor to celebrate that today with so many extraordinary individuals including your own family right in the front row for your amazing marjorie, tom, susan and others who were not able to join us here and i hope that you are as proud as we are off with the Wilson Center has been able to build on a foundation that you laid down for years of your friendship with me and my late husband sidney with so many in the room and congratulations on the example you set for us all. Please welcome home rojansky. At the director of the Kennan Institute its set up to 25 of the time travel. It turns out russia and ukraine are pretty far away to want to put in the crowd for the room the quantity and quality. This is an incredible gathering and im inordinately privileged and intimidated to be sitting in the middle so if i slide under you will see why. One of the priority is that i had when i joined the institute as the director is to meet with doctor billington. That was an experience i will always remember and i learned a tremendous out about the founding of the institute and the personalities. The main thing i took away from the description of the urgent need and the complex challenge of creating such a center for advanced studies in the nations capital. In the general understanding about the then soviet russia as well as the development of experts grounded and abroad in the deep knowledge about the region the idea was to arrest and reverse the decline in the capacity to understand that part of the world. That reminds me of the research i did recently while far away from washington, d. C. During the fellowship at nato this gave me the chance to research the original thinking and writing about the need for the capacity to understand russia and the United States and of course George Kennan cofounded the institute with George Billington and track star and he wrote in the telegram the United States government should see that they are educated to the realities of the russian situation and he cautioned us nothing as dangerous and terrifying as the unknown. Doctor billington and the ambassador came in and starr founded the institute at the Wilson Center and i like to believe they are the values that we uphold to this day but i also think many of us are aware of the challenge in this moment, the precipitous decline in support for the scholarship now and the resulting experts on the region particularly in policymaking circles however i think that its especially timely for us to gather to celebrate a man who asked has the title suggests made a career of advancing not only knowledge, the knowledge and public service. I know that we at the institute of air care that legacy and the commission firmly in mind as the guiding star and i want to thank jim for taking the time to meet with the director that day a couple of years ago to show him what is possible eventually with ones career if one has the insight and the courage that jim has brought to bear. I want to thank the family come his wife, daughter susan andsign and i want to thank grace kennan and the distinguished panel and will have the privilege of moderating today. With the panelists permission, i will simply proceed in the order in which i have the biographies and offer a brief introduction. These are people whose backgrounds speak for themselves alexandria was inaugurated in 2002 as the board of board of directors for the affiliated Research Institute advises the egyptian minister and hes held many Important International positions including the vice Vice President and the world of the world bank and his h. Here and member of the committees in the and the Academic Research and International Institutions and has been involved in many Important International organizations and has lost over 100 books and over 500 papers on a variety of topics. What isnt mentioned is the library was first established entirely in the works. [laughter] she has hosted a Cultural Program on television in egypt and developed a scientific series in arabic and english and bachelor of science degree is from cairo and diversity and the masters and phd is from harvard and hes received 34 honorary doctorates which i understand also composed in the wall of the library. Im delighted today to honor an amazing individual. James billington and to do so in the presence of his lovely wife and children as well as so many friends. How do you take the measure of a man, by his accomplishments and the love that he is generated. There was the International Aspect and even more specifically that which ive been personally involved. If. He was able to recall from memory and other smile and a revolutionary figure of all. To speak to these enormously productive careers we decided a few things that he did. Im a lifelong bibliophile and i used to get nightmares and the idea with so many books published in this gentle into that launched the programming in 2001 which extended the lifespan of almost 4 million volumes and sheets and provided new collection facilities and opened that up in 2002 and 4 million items are available. During the tenure she doubled the size of the analog collections to more than 160 million items in 2014 but also pioneered many of the programs and its international initiatives. And the increased funding all he did was preside over the 30 reduction in staff that he was a fundraiser extraordinaire with his creation of the council for the Motion Pictures as well as the Legacy Program and all of that is but a small part of the enormous legacy. He transformed the library of congress to the district age to the printer and i pray in the little much in terms of the number of acquisitions when maybe the British Library may still have a slight edge but also in terms of its leadership in the content and quality. It was the standard setter for the world by sharing the knowhow with others and also by designing the new standards for the digital age so he ensured that the library of congress for example produced the source in 2010 for the digital age that we are all developing and starting in 2011 there was the model for the description to become the new standard for the whole world in the next year or two. She saw through the need to go beyond putting the material online and the need to look at the various parts that the whole is more than some of the parts. He understood before anyone else but it wasnt just about the quantity of material that it can put out on the web that the material rather this will help in any way. What counted as how the institution like the library presents these materials in the public jim was the first to recognize this in the program and the first to take this into the partnership at the library program. I know many would think that he would be given his age and level of books that he had a profound understanding of the impacts in the revolution that so many are enamored into gadgets and the effects that ever more communications would bring so the [avenues for new communication for the common humanity. He understood taking a person into final pictures would be useless for the understanding. They would get enamored by the type of the book but to the public isnt the location of the library and are the aspiration of the selectivity and the presentation where needed. As early as 1980, jim must first understand and bringing in the organized files and pictures to the persons hands. For each person on the internet that is something different. The creation is all about the selection, preservation. It adds value to a future use. For the scientists, historians and scholars. It was also targeted from the covers from k12 in the next generation than what was a collection of the data that became an enormously valuable learning tool. That is one of the signature programs which according to jim had to be understood. The program was not only a Pioneering Program but today its put online for 20 million in the collection of the library and other research institutions. Theres the congressional database, the online card catalog, the copyright office, the website and all of that is used to. When i was Vice President of the world bank and wanted to learn more about programming from that i was fascinated by the the intellectuals and the historian and the wisdom that he possessed. They were overwhelmed by the amount but the information when explained becomes knowledge but it means more than knowledge. We need wisdom. There are different qualities. Its not an attribute of use. We we wouldnt attribute wisdom to them. We wouldnt say that young man is wise beyond his years because the quality comes from experience and reflection. Its the life worth living where the knowledge is admired. The Digital Library and the International Summit is an Ambitious Program supported in and brought together 181 libraries from each country that focused on quality, not quantity and together creative material from all over the world governing manuscripts from pictures, and some pictures, and some 112 languages presented the material in the languages and ensured the library provides the task under the leadership for the presentation of the materials in a manner for presenting the world. That was quite a Small Library that the entire library started with books and the jefferson collection. Today theres 14,000 items in 600,000 images. Nothing in comparison to what the internet provides. But theres still 4 million visitors a year. Theres links from the internet and that is quality. We will see the needs for things others signal. We mentioned the International Summit of the buck. They celebrate the book and the Cultural Development is throughout all of the cultures of the world. In the summit a call to support it for the credit in 2012 and i had the privilege of opening the keynote address. I have that and im happy to give you a copy of this antikeepsake, im happy to give it to you as a souvenir for inviting me to speak. I participated in each of these events and next year it goes to ireland as the initiative lets on. As i said ive been privileged in the library of congress on these particular programs the world Digital Library in 2009 and the International Summit in 2012. This last year i attended the meeting of both a meeting of both events in 2015 and just after jim retired. In those events they asked me to convey a special appreciation on their behalf and i have both of these documents here to deliver. [applause] but i need to read to you what the text says. They assembled in alexandria november 62015. Having learned of the retirement in the world Digital Library for the esteem of the x. Every leadership and profound appreciation for the Digital Library a reality for the happy retirement knowing that the legacy lives on from strength. At the same time, backtoback like we did at 2012 we have the International Summit of the book at a bare is somewhat different. It says the intellectual book lovers of november sixth 2015 do celebrate the fourth International Summit of the buck carrying the torch of the summit and library of congress in 2012. Forward in 2013 and 2014 and hereby recall the appreciation of the initiative and petition of James Billington the initiator of the summit of the book with profound thanks from all of us and the untold millions of book lovers in the world for the book was is and buck was is and remains a primary for the communication transmission of knowledge and trust, space and time. Ladies and gentlemen, not only the library of congress but also as the labor and for the world. The institutions and the leader of the legendary institution had a Great Library made greater the world enriched by the visions and advanced the people nurtured a. We thank you for being the wonderful person that you are. [applause] thank you. That was truly moving and i would say worthy of the World Library in scope for prosperity and particularly glad we have the cameras here. Next it is my privilege to introduce the one and only 12 president of the Carnegie Corporation of New York Institution founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1911. Served nine years as president of Brown University and before that from 1981 to 1989 as president of the New York Public Library. He himself was born in tehran to the parents and received his Elementary Education and secondary education in lebanon. In 1956 he entered Stanford University where he majored in the humanities and graduated with honors and was awarded a phd from 1964 in the top middle eastern history at stanford diversity of college la and texas and boston and joined the university of pennsylvania where he was appointed professor and was a founding dean and the cookie of arts and sciences at the university of pennsylvania and later became the 23rd provost. Hes the author of a great many books including the road to home my life and times in the emergence of modern afghanistan 1880 to 19461 might argue is still an emerging which is now being reissued in 2013 with a new introduction. I can see we have a competition brewing in 1998 president clinton. They were nowhere to the metal in 2004 president bush awarded him the medal of freedom in the highest civil war. He serves on the great many boards including the institute for advanced study and the memorial museum. I am putting some notes to be able to recall here and Say Something meaningful because it is very comprehensive and very precise. The library of congress is the best in the nation in the world. Also expanding library just putting things in the hole and then taking care of. I remember they invited me years ago to visit the library is invited and i told this to jim what are we doing we are following the library of Congress Example two volumes of each book published in india and going into the reserve. Why do we do, we send them to the basement, what happens afterwards, not my obligation. [laughter] so having the collection pauses historical obligation duties and how to preserve it because librarians are custodians not only on the buck but on heritage, the memory of mankind. Of all of these accomplishments, all these cheerleaders and access permissions hence we need libraries not to have selfinflicted alzheimers disease as a nation. They are there to remind us i appreciate him for several reasons. I was part of a committee that wanted to lure the academic term jim will be willing to join the university of texas faculty. It didnt happen unfortunately. Kept through the University President s there is another move to lower him into the university and that also didnt happen but what happened was the institute and thats what happened in the library of congress. I have to think about two things. Many librarians dislike the fact that the nations top positions go to librarians. That is a fact. The New York Public Library for most of it goes to historians and i propose the Public Library instead in order to repair the damage i would be happy to get the master of Library Science is and the unit in the move seeing these because it is natural and we must understand why historians are chosen for this position. One is in the cultural perspective and one is to go beyond the specialization and one you are hiding also intellectual because it is in the qualifications of whose budweiser by the way. At the same time, hes a historian, lover of the book, doubles final, intellectual, curious about the cultures, not only the cultures but i was very impressed with myself that he told me one of the most unexploited, unused colle