Carla Hayden outlined her overarching goals for the Library of Congress, including expanding its online archives and digitizing documents on the brink decay.
On Wed. Sept. 14 Chief Justice John Roberts swore in Carla Hayden, Ph.D., to helm the Library of Congress, The New York Times reported. Hayden, 64, is the first African-American and female to manage the 216-year-old institution.
Soon after accepting her posting, the nation's foremost librarian outlined her overarching goals for the storied scholastic center, including expanding its online archives and digitizing documents on the brink decay.
"At this point in its history, the value of the library as a place for scholars will not diminish. In fact, we want it to grow," Hayden explained. "But more people will appreciate that they can be scholars, too, by positioning the library to look outward."
Under Hayden's predecessor James Billington, Ph.D., the Library of Congress struggled to keep up with modern cataloging technology and manuscript preservation techniques, according to Politico. Academics and those in the filed of library science accused Billington of endangering the institution and its collections.
"The Library of Congress has failed to capitalize on the internet revolution, and it continues to become less and less relevant and less and less useful," Daniel Schuman, policy director for the Washington D.C.-based technology advocacy group Demand Progress, told the online magazine.
However, near the end of his 28-year term, which ended last September, Billington took steps toward digitizing the more than 162 million physical items that fill the facility, The New York Times reported. For instance, in February, the Library of Congress debuted an online archive containing scanned, searchable copies of more than 7,500 letters and 2,500 photographs that belonged to civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks.
Still, many believe the institution could do more and hope Hayden will push the institution to digitize more of its collections and open them up to scholars from across the world.
