♪ next president obama's obama's pick to be the librarian testifies. she testifies about what challenges she sees for the institution. this committee hearing is an hour 15 minutes.

>> -- here this afternoon. we're here to talk about something that doesn't get discussed too often, which is who should be the next nominee for the librarian of congress. the nominee and the 14th librarian of congress. her successor served for they worked and dr. hayden was the first to be a pointed for a term of ten years. there was no reason to believe they couldn't be reappointed and that's the first time to get lots of things done. this is an important job, an important office. i think dr. hayden has been a great representative of herself as he's met with members of the senate. i know you're supported here

today by your mother. it's always good to have your mother with you. they are sitting right there behind her and they have other places in the middle of the country. we certainly are glad to be joined by our two colleagues and if you would like to start, i would like you to be the first person to introduce dr. hayden to the committee. >> thank you very much for organizing and holding this hearing and to have done it in such an expeditious way. we know that the president nominated dr. hayden just a few months ago and after the appropriate rigorous vetting process, you've moved on this. we sincerely want to thank you for that courtesy and senator schumer, you as well.

we in maryland are here to support the nomination of dr. hayden to be the chief librarian of the library of congress. we are so happy that her mother joined her today. i feel a close relationship with both of them. colleen is also a social worker. by the way, the maryland delegation is not trying to change the constitution. there only two senators elected at the moment. but senator sarbanes is also a very active member of the board and he is here with us today to show support and solidarity. as you look out in the audience, you see a unique group of people of all ages and diversity who are here to support dr. hayden as well. these are the people of the board and the executive advisory committee who on their own time and own dime worked to make the

library one of the best and premier library systems in america. and the fact she has such broad support i think indicates what her leadership has been. she's been the ceo of the library for over 20 years. her nomination is bittersweet. it will be a great gain for the nation but a loss for baltimore. she once again will be a first, the first african american to be in the -- and the first woman to be the librarian of congress. but it's not about only breaking barriers. it's about what she will bring. i bring someone forward for support, for confirmation. i look, do they have competence, and do they have commitment to the agency and do they have integrity. she surpasses the high standards and the track record is proof

enough. when you meat her, as you have, you will know it is her character and commitment that really shines forth. dr. hayden was born in florida and by any metrics to measure who should be the top librarian for the united states of america it's dr. hayden. her academic career speaks for itself. bachelor of arts. a masters and a ph.d. from the school of the university of chicago. she started her career as a library service coordinator at the museum of science and industry. she was an assistant professor at the university of pittsburgh. went back to chicago to work there. there she rose through the ranks of one of the top librarians in the united states of america. then baltimore called and she came 20 years ago to what was really one of the early libraries in the united states. that was not only a great

repository, it had to be modernized and that's where she shows that she was not only a great librarian, she was a superb manager. she made sure what she did was to digitize the library and find a way to take the library throughout baltimore and even throughout this state. professionally she's received the librarian of the year award, the past president of the american library association, she's received the american library association esteemed award given to those librarians for outstanding distinguished service. she is overseeing that and she worked with the city counsels which i serve with the maryland

general assembly and she knows how to work with the elected and knows how to work with people. if you saw where the library was, open to all and they are really tough challenges. when we were facing the uprising because of freddie gray's death. the schools closed. across the street from what they called ground zero at a street called pennsylvania avenue and north, there was a burned out cvs because it had been raided for opioids. across the street from that was the penn north library. dr. hayden kept that open and

she kept libraries open during the entire period. children has a place to go. the community had a place to gather. and when the feeding program stopped because there were fear of coming into the neighborhoods, they came to the library. literally dr. hayden's leadership and the staff she inspired fed body, mind, and spirit in tough days. i think this is someone who brings a distinguished academic career and a strong fiscal manager and a fantastic human being. i'm honored to present her to you. >> thank you very much for being here and thank you for allowing maryland to have three united states senators today. it's great. >> it's unanimous consent that that be made permanent.

[ laughter ] >> that could help. we are holding an objection. >> we are proud of her leadership and we know you will do an incredible job at the library of congress. she has taken a great interest in the libraries and baltimore and has been a great champion of these issues in our state and our nation. we are here with a lot of people from our community that dr. hayden worked with and championed over her tenure at the library. today's hearing is well-timed. sunday marks the 216th anniversary of the creation of the library in 1800. we were blessed to be baltimoreans by birth and other people had the good sense to

move to baltimore. for the last 23 years she directed the library that is not quite as old and it was established in 1882. a great tradition for the community making it one of the oldest free public libraries in the nation. in 1994, maryland was the first state in the in addition offer internet service with the residents with the introduction of maryland's online network. that's the state resource center. dr. hayden doesn't just run the public library center, she oversees the state resource center which provides all marylanders to access to internet services. i think that skill will be very well for her as she takes on the responsibilities of the library of congress, which, as you know, not only throughout our country is actually a world resource. during her tenure, eight of the

branches were opened or reopened or renovated. i mentioned that because we have people here, rachel monroe runs the foundation partnered with the pratt library to be able to put the schools that didn't have cools in baltimore city. it was that type of creativity that the doctor encouraged that the private sector involvement with the schools to make sure we had access to libraries for all children in baltimore. as the senator said in baltimore, yes, we had a library that was literally a place where people knew they would be safe. right here in the disturbances in that library, i did meet with people in the library and it was a center where people gathered

and dr. hayden understands that. the libraries in baltimore have been more than just the traditional libraries. it has been a place in which the community can grow and children can go for peace and quiet. he was named librarian of the year in 1995 and elected to serve. she was assistant professor for science at my alma mater from 1987 to 1991. further, evidence of her excellent judgment. she has an outstanding resume and experience. she has integrity and a proven leadership and delivered results. in addition being qualified, she will be the first female to be librarian in congress and i agree that dr. hayden is the best qualified for the position and will bring the perspectives they think are needed to take the library of congress to its next chapter in the history of our nation.

what a great resource we have. we all know that. this is a world resource. when there is a slow day here, i love to go to congress and get inspired. i believe they will take that to the next chapter and i strongly endorse her candidacy. >> senator sarbanes, i would love to hear from you. >> senator schumer and members of the committee. thank you for letting me say just a few words. my wife served for many years on the library board. it was a very large part of her

and she was very committed. when she passed away, the library people were more than generous and i have been on the board for six years. i had an opportunity to observe karla hayden at work very closely. i want to tell you, this was an able dedicated and committed person. i can't tell you how excited i am about her nomination to become the librarian of congress. the nation will be well served and they had her leadership for 20 years and we prospered and thrived. she was a 19th century merchant who established the library two centuries ago and had the

foresight to say it was going to be open to all. to all. and karla carried that through and it has been an incredible institution in our community and she will do a terrific job in the library of congress. the three senators here have represented maryland over the last 30 years. you have a strong recent endorsement of this point of view and i urge her confirmation by the committee. >> thank you very much. the senator let me know beginning in january, they should listen to former senators and the good advice they would have. to be joined by two of the most highly respected members of the senate and all three of these people talking about your great leadership for two decades in the library means a lot to me and i'm sure the committee.

>> i had an additional recommendation and i was at the municipal library last week. that library was named the library of the year for 2015. i know that you and scott bonner served and presented together on a couple of panels about how the library can fill needs in times of unrest. both of your libraries became save havens when schools were closed, government offices were closed, your library and that library stayed open. mr. bonner who i talked to earlier on the phone about you said you were a personal hero and the most capable individual possible. the role of library and congress is more than you indicate. it's the oldest cultural kmugz and created by the founders as

the founder said 200 years ago and 1800 and it was created to promote scholarship and promote creativity and with the goal of becoming a world class repository. leading the library of congress require multitasking on a scale that is rarely necessary of any other government organization. the librarian secures the books and other creative works including the largest database of copyrighted works. they manage more than 3,000

people and the librarian serves as an impartial research organization and the librarian oversees the copyright office. sounds like a big job and we are here to talk to you about it. that vital role that is played in a cultural preservation and scholarship is run by individuals with lots of different backgrounds. not that many of them in the history of the country going back to 1800. only 13 previous. one was a medical doctor and one was a journalist. a poet and a political scientist. a historian. two clerks at the house of representatives were librarians of congress. two lawyers and two individuals either a professional administrator or had prior library experience. the longest serving librarian of congress who became librarian and served up in the will beginning of world war two for four decades was a lifelong

administrator. it's fitting that the nominee comes with the background and her professional life as a librarian and a scholar in the library science. she is the chief librarian at the library and has been the chief at the chicago public library and the ceo and assistant professor at the school of librarian services. now the next librarian of congress will lead the organization that has really had significant limitations and struggling really to adapt to a new century. due to the historic shortage of storage space, they had millions of items stored in places that need a burden way to store them.

the risk of degradation of the collect and a management challenge raised questions about the ability to serve as future generations and they need to be made available to the public. i look forward to hearing your vision as to how this job needs to be done before i turn to senator schumer. they will be accepting written come from outside parties until wednesday. information can be found on the website. in addition, the committee will keep the record open for members to commit questioned for the nominee until wednesday, may 4th. that has been mentioned and we

worked last year to create the first defined term that also sets a framework of student and we have been glad to work together on those and other issues and i would like to turn to him for his comments. >> i have an open statement, but i know the schedules are busy if you guys have to go. you can read my statement in the record if you prefer. thank you. i want to thank all of my colleagues and the former colleague. to him i would say we saw each other at the greek independence day operate. i want to thank you for moving

forward and welcoming you here today. i congratulate you on your nomination and my colleague senator sarbanes. i share your enthusiasm for your nomination. the library flourished and serves as a peek on of higher learning and engagement for the city and the state of maryland. it's no surprise given your four decade career of exemplary work. i have no doubt about your qualifications or ability to lead the library of congress. i would like to take a moment to

talk about the job you have ahead. the nomination of a new library comes at a crucial juncture and we need to ensure they have the resources to fulfill its mission and make the collection available and useful to the american people. to have the knowledge and creativity for future generations. in addition, maintaining a system is an integral part of that mission. the creators and missions must be able to obtain copyright information that enables them to license the works. for that to happen, the copyright office must be innovative and efficient. the critical first step is to

bring that it system up to date. issues related to the content and protection are constantly evolving. a big priority it teams to me should be the implementation of planning practices that focus on the copyright office. there is a lot of hard work ahead for the new librarian. the budgetary restraints. the nominating doctor who fortune magazine called one of the 50 greatest leaders, they are capable of extending the reach to enrich the lives of all of them. i believe you are the right person. it is my hope you will be swiftly confirmed. i look forward to working with my colleagues to make that happen shortly. >> thank you, senator schumer . we're going to go to questions now after your opening statement. we look forward to that. >> good afternoon, chairman and ranking member and distinguished members of the committee. it is truly, truly a great honor to be here today as you consider

the nomination as the 14th librarian of congress. of all the titles i had, i am most proud to be called a librarian. it would be my honor to have the opportunity to be the librarian. this is being listen in the week following national library week when all types and sizes are celebrated and recognized for their work and i am pleased that my colleagues are here today. i want to take the opportunity to thank the senators from maryland, all three. senator mikulski, senator carden

and of course senator sarbanes for being here today. this nomination president provides an opportunity to build on aspects of my personal and professional life and my love and passion for reading in books started at an early age when my mother who is here today help mead check out a book, the story of an african-american girl with big tails from a storefront branch in queens. i spent summers across from ps 96. i spent summers in springfield, illinois accompanying my grandfather to the capital and the state library where a fellow church member kept a small collection of books about african-americans. these experiences and more were the start of my love of books and steps into libraries. it wasn't until i met a lady at another storefront where my vocation began. she was on the floor during story time for children with autism demonstrating the power

of a librarian's work and all of my subsequent experiences were vital to my directorship for years, a leader in public and reference service. it also is the state library for maryland. i had the honor of being president of the american library association with over 63,000 members. i led at a time when the libraries started to experience severe economic challenges and a time of demand for accessibility and a need to protect the user's privacy. i have the honor to be nominated to be the librarian of congress with mandated responsibilities. the scientist members of the service are what we called the special forces. to support single and perhaps

are the library's most important constituency. they celebrate the works of authorship and provide services and support to creators of content. i must say coming from a family of musicians and artists, i understand the blood, sweat, and soul that go into congress. they ensure a copyright office that supports the community it serves. as i envision the future, see it growing not only in librarianship, but how people view libraries in general. more of the resources are more readily available and users will not have to be in washington, d.c. everyone will have a sense of ownership and pride in the national treasure. a child on a reservation in new mexico will have the same access as a high school student in st. louis, missouri.

a fifth grader will be able to view abraham lincoln's papers from his home computer and a shy tenth grader from mississippi with dreams of performing will be able to view the library's collection. a student from a community college in kansas could look at and even download revolutionary war maps for class assignment. this would help libraries. a small library in arkansas will be able to help patrons assess primary studies of george washington's papers. and a rural library can connect to the national book festival and see and hear their favorite authors. they balance the various important roles in a digital age at a time when libraries throughout the world face many of the same challenges when their existence is being

questioned. they should continue to be a leader. i would be honored to be part of the legacy and accomplishments of my predecessors in this position to be part of a continuing movement to open the treasure chest. this can be done without threatening the responsibilities and serve users and assist researchers who benefit. if confirmed it would be my privilege to join to ensure the treasures are secured and shared for many years to come. thank you for your consideration and i look forward to answering your questions. >> we are glad you are here and we want to start with a five-minute round of questions. we will stay close to five mondays and people can ask other questions if they have time to

stay. they saw lots of growth in the library and lots of growth in the collection and his leadership doubled the tradition alan log collection and transformed the original library that the independent building, the first independent building for the library, the jefferson building into a national exhibit viewed and it hosted over 100 exhibits and established a host of new programs and they launched a new field of outside fund-raising that they had not done in the past. any comments you have about continuing that would be helpful and i would like to know what

new perspective you bring to this understanding the mission of the library that you think will be able to build on that foundation. >> i would be honored to help continue with each time and each of the librarians of congress contributed to the progress of this institution. most recently, and dr. billington reached out to me and he has offered assistance and i'm going to take -- would love to take him up on it. to build on the private fund-raising and the efforts that he has made. he established the james madison council that has garnered so

much support and actually helps fund the national book festival, provides many special programs that would not be possible without that public/private partnership so in terms of continuing, it would be very much, i think advantageous, to build on the preservation of the collection as well as the efforts to use technology to modernize access to the collections. >> thank you. we'll go to senator schumer then in the order of attendance, members klobuchar, cochran, king, boozman. >> curiosity. could you tell us a little bit about enoch pratt? his name is everywhere. they said he was a merchant but that's -- >> he did quite well at being a merchant. >> he sure did. >> enoch pratt came from middleborough, massachusetts, to make his fortune in baltimore right around, right after the

civil war, and he did quite well. he developed into a banker. and when andrew carnegie who's widely credited with -- and rightfully so -- establishing public libraries throughout the country, was not having such a good time at first. he heard about mr. pratt in baltimore and came and visited baltimore and mr. carnegie said later in his book "the gospel of philanthropy" he knew of no other public/private partnership that was better established than mr. pratt's. he said he wanted his library free of politics and religion and also free to all without distinction of race or color in 1886. and he gave $1 million. >> wow. >> 1886. >> wow. that's great.

well, it's good to just know that little bit of historical knowledge. okay. my first question, as you know, library responsibilities include the maintenance and preservation of millions of items in the wide range of traditional and new media. the administration of copyright laws. national program to provide reading material to the blind and handicapped. but could you just give us a short list of some of your priorities? >> it's been mentioned, and thank you for bringing up the list of responsibilities and also referring to one of the biggest challenges but i'm very pleased to know that this part has been advanced. making sure that the library has the technology infrastructure, particularly with the copyrights office and modernizing all of its operations. the expansion of the technological capacity will help in not only preserving and making the materials and the collection, extensive collection available, but also stabilizing and making the copyright office secure. i mentioned that i have a number of artists and creators in my family and i know the importance of copyright and making sure that people enjoy the content

but also respect the people who create it. >> great. thank you. second, the national library service provides important services to blind and print disabled readers to, quote, all may lead. nls regional libraries work to make content available to eligible users in accessible formats. this service is critical to the blind and print disabled readers of new york. so tell me a little bit about your vision for nls. how do you see the nls adopting to meet the evolving needs of the nation's readers? >> again, i'm very pleased that

you mentioned that aspect of the library of congress' responsibilities. it doesn't always receive as much attention, but it's vitally important. in my experience in illinois and also in maryland, in the state role, i've had the opportunity to work with the libraries for the blind and physically handicapped and one thing that would be very helpful would be to make sure that materials that are digitized are available in formats that would allow people with challenges to read in various ways. and so i would be very, if confirmed, very interested and very supportive of expanding that role. >> great. and final question, in nominating you to be librarian, president obama cited your technological accomplishments at enak pratt free library. how do you see both the library of congress and the copyright office using upgraded i.t. systems to advance their respective missions? >> i mentioned that i was very -- i've been very heartened

to actually have discussions with the new chief information officer at the library of congress. he was appointed in september as a result of a lot of the concern of the technological needs of the library of congress. mr. bernard barton. and he has, in that time, accomplished quite a bit in terms of addressing everything in the government accountability office report in terms of assessing the needs of the library congress, and also makes sure that the basic infrastructure can support a fully functional and efficient copyright office. he has assured me, and i'm glad that we are on the record, and i will quote himhat if i am nominated -- well, i'm nominated, but if confirmed, technology will be a problem. >> okay. >> and he is very competent. he comes from the department of defense. >> great. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thanks, senator schumer. senator capito and after that senator klobuchar. >> thank you, dr. hayden for not

just your service but a visit to all of our offices for a chance for us to get to know you proceeding this hearing. i appreciate that. i think in that conversation, you and i talked that i'm the subcommittee chair of the legislative branch on the appropriations committee and so my purview is with the library of congress. if everything goes according to plan, i think we're going to get to know each other very well. >> i hope so. >> i want to ask, first of all, you mentioned the new chief information officer which i understand is working well but there's also a new division called the national/international outreach. you and i talked about this briefly in the office. i know it's early, but how much time you've had to really look at this. you said your library has availed yourself many times of the services of the library of congress. i didn't know if you had any initial thoughts on that particular part.

>> thank you. and i smiled because i had another wonderful session with the head of the newly formed national and international office, it's six months old, at the library of congress, and its mandate is to expand the outreach of the library's programs and even exhibits throughout the country and the world. and it's being led by former president of bryn mawr college and also the -- most recently the kluge center at the library of congress and that office is looking at all the ways that it can help, and with mr. barton, with the technology infrastructure, it's an exciting time. so six months in, but it seems like it's going to be quite an effective way to get the resources out. >> well, i look forward to that. you mentioned in your opening statement that the crs, or the special forces, and all of us

certain here have availed ourselves of the well-respected research reports that they generate for legislative debate, but this is a bit of a -- the question i'm going to ask is maybe a little bit of a sticky wicket here but there are members of the public generally don't get access to these reports unless it's through a congressional office or through private databases and you probably there's a discussion and some legislation actually as to whether or not the crs report should be made available to the public. so without asking you directly if you want to weigh in on that, i'd be happy to hear, but i didn't know if you had -- i would encourage you or if you already put previous thought into ways that the crs reports could -- and crs, itself, could sort of modernize maybe some kind of a phone app or something of that nature where there's more accessibility to these very valuable reports.

>> i think that what has been interesting as i've heard different views on the amount of accessibility of the reports, extensive, so much research goes into them, confidentiality in terms of being able to provide the information and i would really look forward to the opportunity to study and work with congress on the cost, staffing, and other aspects of making parts of the reports available, how you make them available, without stepping over the line, though, in terms of making -- stepping over the line in terms of how much public -- >> access. >> -- service you provide. this is the special forces and research arm for congress, and so as a public librarian, i know that you do have to balance those two. >> right. i do think that will probably be a discussion that will be

occurring over the next several years. let me -- i just wanted to kind of jump in on the i.t. issue. i know when we're looking at the funding issues, broad request for more i.t. funding. the library has made pretty systemic changes in terms of trying to address that issue. i would just say that, you know, as a member of the senate, as a valuable resource that we have at the library of congress, i think you'll find a lot of support for the biggest and broadest information technology programs that you may need that can jump us into the next tranche. i know you pretty much addressed the issue with senator schumer, so i would just kind of associate myself with his remarks. >> thank you, it is a challenge

but i have been assured that they're well on their way. >> thank you very much. >> senator klobuchar? >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. congratulations, doctor, on your nomination. i enjoyed the discussion we had on the phone. a lot of people have been focusing on which the copyright issues, technological issues which i think are really important, but there's one thing i wanted to mention. senator leahy and senator mccain have a bill and i've joined with them on this bill, what senator capito raised on crs. as you know the library oversees the crs and although crs does not make its reports public, paid websites often obtain copies of many of the crs reports and then charge their clients for them. those same reports are not available to americans, yet their tax fund the crs. if lobbyists can buy the report, senator leahy, senator mccain, and i believe that they should be available to all americans. given that americans are paying for those reports and that's why i'm co-sponsoring this bill.

it's called equal access to congressional research service reports act. and it would ensure that taxpayers have equal access to the reports on a free and public website. and you may or may not want to comment about this bill, but in your view, what is the role of the library of congress in promoting transparency of government and making information more accessible to americans? >> well, thank you for that, because it shines a light on the excellent resources and reference services of the congressional research service and what it does for congress, and i have heard different views on, and i've alluded to them, on how to make the reports own what portions of the reports when in the process of reference information is made available.

and i look forward to investigating that even more if confirmed to study how and when public access could benefit. a lot of research goes into those reports. >> yeah. >> excellent -- >> of course, and i'm looking forward to looking into this more, myself. i'm a co-sponsor, because to me it made no sense at all that these are government reports and they should be available to all the public and they're being -- lobbyists are charging their clients to see the work that the government performed at the taxpayers' expense. i think it's going to be interesting to look at that more and i appreciate going on this journey together after hopefully you get confirmed for this position. you've also held the position of president of the american library association. how do you see that position helping you?

you must get to know a lot of the librarians all over the country. i know we were talking about the anniversary of women's right to vote and some of the things i'm hoping we can do with that. and could you talk about having, knowing some of these librarians and working with them all across the country would be helpful in your current job that you're seeking? >> well, thank you for acknowledging my colleagues, and many of them are here today including their strong contingent from maryland and having the support of the library, broader library community, even getting support from the 56 graduate library schools that are preparing librarians for the future. academic libraries, colleges and universities, special librarians who are special and work with companies and businesses and also k-12 librarians in schools all over the country.

really helps define what lead library, like the library of congress, can be, and to be able to network together helps all libraries and especially the ones that are, as i mentioned in the opening, having their very existence challenged in the age of technology. so grouping together, showing people that there's a continuum from their local library in a small town, i'll mention sparta, illinois, a former coal town, and then having the resources of america's library being able to be put right there will strengthen the network and i think help create what libraries have always done, an informed electorate and citizen. >> very good. well, thank you. as i told you on the phone, when

i was little, my dream was to be a librarian and i started my own book catalog with the dewey decimal system in a recipe box. >> you were very good. >> then i got this job. anyway, thank you very much. good luck. >> thank you. >> talk about blatant appeal to the crowd having your own dewey decimal system. >> i consider that a compliment. >> it is. to show you total capacity to get to the right point at the right time. senator cochran. >> mr. chairman, i'm honored to be able to be here today. serving as member of the committee to congratulate our newest nominee for this important job as librarian of the congress. rather than to delay the questions that others might have, let me just say i think this is a great day for the library of congress.

it's a great day for the united states senate. many of those expressions of support and appreciation and admiration came through during the delightful event last night that i was pleased to join. so we look forward to working with you as a member of the oversight committee and wish for you all of the successes that you can imagine. >> thank you, senator. >> thank you, senator cochran. senator king then senator boozman. >> thank you, mr. chairman. dr. hayden, welcome to the committee. appreciate your testimony, appreciate your willingness to undertake this important job. i want to talk for a few minutes about copyright. it seems to me that's one of the most important jobs before you in terms of organization, i.t.,

policy, copyright. i try to explain copyright to my children and their eyes glaze over. they don't know it even exists. we have a lot of work to do and copyright is very complex. i guess one of my questions that i'm -- it's untoward, i suppose, to ask someone at their confirmation hearing about the idea of divesting part of their responsibility but what are your thoughts on spinning out the copyright office, having its own presidentially appointed director? it seems to me the fact that it's lodged in the library as a historic artifact, given its importance in our society of intellectual property, should it have its own separate existence? >> well, thank you for mentioning young people, as well i'd like to address that and how we can work to make the new generation, digital natives to be aware of the "c" means, it should mean caution and they should respect the fact that they are looking at something. whenever they see that "c" that should be almost a red or a

yellow light for them and they should be taught as early as second or third grade. they should have, one of my favorite examples is to have a project that they work two or three hours on and they really are proud of it and then you turn to them and say, johnny, i'm going to put thad's name on it and that is the most graphic way to let them know that art and creativity should be protected. they should get credit for it and they should do that. in terms of the independence of the office, itself, i have heard quite a few proposals and they all get back to the core concern and one that the share. that the copyright office should be fully functional and should have its independence to carry

out its mandates to protect the creators of content. i've mentioned my only personal history, a father who was a recording artist and going into a mall and hearing snippets of his music and also knowing that it is vital that artists and creators of content get to register their works and even challenge the use of their works? a timely and efficient fashion. and so i, if confirmed, would take special interest in making sure that that office is able to perform its functions in a way that will protect the people that it serves and that's the creator of -- the creations of creators of content. >> do you think it would assist

in that project if it had its own separate presidentially appointed director which was an office unto itself? >> i'm not able to at this point say that that would be the only way to accomplish what we all want, and i've heard so many not only congressional advocates and the creative community we all want, and i'm including myself in that community, want to make sure that that office has everything it needs. and so if confirmed, i would like to work with congress and to examine how we could really make sure that that happens. >> moving on to your discussion. there's been a lot of discussion about the i.t. and the need for upgrading. we need to digitize the collection.

we need to make it accessible, which you have clearly stated as a goal. you talked about your new cio. i don't know him. i'm sure he's terrific, but i have one piece of advice dealing with i.t. on a large scale. number one, trust but verify. don't always go on what the i.t. people tell you. you sit down at the computer and make the website work and if you can't make it work, ask them why. as a governor, i used to have fun calling the 800 numbers in my state to see what you get for an answer and how long it takes them to answer. i'm serious about this. quite often you get -- i once was setting up a hearing as a staff member, i called someone and said who's going to be the witness? they said deputy undersecretary.

i said, i don't know titles, who is this guy? the fellow gave an answer, which if i ever write a book about this place, this will be the title. he said, he's at the highest level where they still know anything. you and i are now above that level. so, i really think it's important that you be the ultimate judge of whether things are working. >> i can assure you, senator, at this point that in my discussions with mr. barton, who is the new cio and a permanent appointment -- that had been part of the difficulty that they had had several different chief information officers -- that in our discussions he was able to explain things to me from petabytes to the security needs to the storage and everything in a way that i could repeat it and actually knew what he was saying. and that gave me, and i worked with i.t. professionals for a number of years on very difficult projects, and that is the -- you are right, that is the test. if they can explain it and also

make you understand and if i can get on the website or whatever function that is being presented and do well, that's a good sign. >> thank you. thank you for your testimony. i would also mention that, and you touched on it, security is going to be more -- >> important. >> -- and more important going forward and copyrights as well as the digitization of the collection. >> right. >> thank you. >> thank you for your testimony. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and dr. hayden, i appreciate you coming by the office not too long ago and having a good visit. you are a very distinguished, accomplished lady and also want to give a shout-out to your mom since she's got strong arkansas ties. i think through helena, if i remember right. >> helena.

>> so that makes her very special. like i say, you're special, but she's very special. we touched on a few of these things. you know, there's been a lot of talk about the copyright, you know, the challenges there. but besides the copyright, what would be your biggest priorities? what do you see as the biggest challenges with the job as you come in? >> with the -- thank you, and especially for the shout-out for helena. i must say my mom was very thrilled when i put the pin on the arkansas state for her and everything. one of the biggest challenges now that the technology infrastructure and securing that base for all operations including the special operations, copyright and the congressional research service has special i.t. needs as well, will be to bring the leadership team and the wonderful staff members at the library of congress together with a shared vision and to work as a team together to advance.

sometimes, as you probably know with larger organizations that have these specialized aspects, it's hard to get out of the silo effect and so the challenge, but also i think the one that has one of the greatest rewards of any management -- management -- let's see, how do i put it -- i said challenge, but a management opportunity, is to get everyone rolling in the same direction. and i think that that, just meeting with the senior staff members, i'm assured that they all have the same goal in mind to make the library of congress and all of its functions and

mandates the best. >> we do a lot of things in congress, or there's a feeling that perhaps, you know, that we do things that you could argue whether or not we should be doing. the library of congress is special and i would argue that i can't do that as an individual, states can't do it. it's a very special institution. i always encourage up here visiting to go to the library of congress. it's probably the most beautiful building inside of any that we have and it's really a national treasure. and you've touched on this before, but i want to touch on it again because i think it's so, so very important. not everybody gets to come up here, you know, and experience that. tell me, again, about some of your plans.

how to get the library out to the, you know, to the hinterlands, particularly rural areas, places like helena, this and that. how do we do that? how do we do a better job? >> thank you for that because the rural areas are sometimes not given the attention that they deserve in bringing culture, in bringing information beyond just the basics of making sure they have the broadband capacity to take advantage of the online resources. i mentioned earlier in a small town having access to abraham lincoln's papers or popular play now, "hamilton," and the fact that the papers of alexander hamilton are available online, it would be important also to be able to have exhibits that travel. low-cost exhibits that could take advantage of reproductions

that could be in church halls, that could be anywhere in a town and coming from a background that my dad was born in a town of 10,000. i mentioned my grandfather was a -- he was the postman there. it means so much to have access to special types of things, so not only would the exhibits possibly be able to be put into different places in a town, but possibly some of the artifacts, themselves, primary sources, if they could travel. it's been done with the smithsonian and other institutions and it could do it with the library of congress. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator boozman. got a couple of other questions. you know, being the president of the american library association is, i'm sure, a great honor, but maybe not an unmixed blessing because suddenly you're responsible for everything that's being talked about as part of the association. there are a couple of areas of criticism that you and i have talked about, and i'd like to get your response to those on the record today.

one was when the congress passed the children's internet protection act. the american library association challenged the constitutionality of that arguing that it violated the first amendment. i know beginning then as a leader of the national organization through really up until now, you've commented on this several times, but you want to talk about that whole issue of what kind of violation that would have been and then the issue of what kinds of things need to happen in a library to be sure that children don't have access to material that we wouldn't want children to have access to? and then how often you have to revisit that concept. >> i really appreciate that question, senator, because there's been quite a bit of just misinterpretation of the library association's position during that time. that was in 2003/2004, and at that time, the filters that would have been required for libraries to install were found

to prohibit access to very important health information and the most notable at that time was breast cancer. and since that time, the technology has improved and the filters that are installed to receive federal funding, and my library, the pratt library, in its state role has installed filters, have improved, and the need to be vigilant is also something that libraries are doing in not only the technological aspect, but just plain physical arrangements of computers, making sure that there are face-out positioning of computer monitors as well as very few, if any, cubicles that contain computers as well. and education and making sure

that people know that pornography is illegal and we do not support that in any shape or form.