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Billington established the Library Collections Security Oversight Committee in 1992 to improve protection of collections, and also the Library of Congress Congressional Caucus in 2008 to draw attention to the Library's curators and collections.
- Support of The Congress
- Reaching Out More Broadly
- Looking in More Deeply
- Meeting The Challenges of The Day
- The Billington Legacy
- Congressional Tribute
In 1800, Congress created the Library of Congress to support its research needs and thereby allow it to function as an informed independent branch of the federal government. Support for Congress’s research needs remains the Library’s principal purpose. Today, those requirements are met most directly by the Congressional Research Service (CRS), an i...
Billington’s most far-reaching initiative was the National Digital Library (NDL), which began placing digital materials from the Library’s collections on the Web in 1995. Envisioned from the beginning as a public-private partnership, the Library’s first major digital effort gained Congress’s agreement to appropriate $15 million for the program over...
Almost as soon as he took office in 1987, Billington convened a staff-led Management and Planning (MAP) Committee to conduct a one-year internal review of the Library’s functions. The result was a major administrative reorganization based on goals identified through the staff’s MAP study and articulation of a mission for the Library. The creation o...
A Librarian of Congress must have not only the vision to look ahead but also the courage to deal with the challenges that confront him every day. Billington had to oversee the final stages of renovating the century-old Thomas Jefferson Building; provide for storage and preservation of expanding collections that were outgrowing space on Capitol Hill...
Thanks to the efforts of James Billington, the Library of Congress has entered the 21st century as a dynamic, forward-thinking cultural institution that cherishes its heritage as the nation’s memory-keeper and igniter of imagination and creativity. As the June/July 2007 issue of American Libraries notes, “He [Billington] has built his legacy on the...
Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) read the following tribute to Librarian of Congress James H. Billington into the Senate record on the Senate floor, Sept. 10. The statement was presented to the Librarian on Sept. 14: “Mr. President, an important anniversary will be marked on September 14, at the Library of Congress. Twenty years ago, in the Great Hall ...
Jun 10, 2015 · During his 28-year tenure at the Library, Billington has: Raised more than half a billion dollars of private support to supplement Congressional appropriations—allowing the Library to increase dramatically its collections, programs, and digital outreach despite a 30-percent reduction in staff since 1992;
In October 2004, Billington headed a Library of Congress delegation to Tehran, Iran, that significantly expanded exchanges between the Library of Congress and the National Library of Iran. Dr. Billington was then the most senior U.S. government official to openly visit Iran in 25 years.
Nov 30, 2018 · From the onset of his tenure, Billington imagined the Library of Congress as the ideal meeting ground for great scholarly minds to interact with America’s most important lawmakers, bridging the divide between “thinkers” and “doers.” Billington sensed a widening gap between knowledge and power.
Feb 9, 2023 · James H. Billington is the Librarian of Congress Emeritus at the Library of Congress. Prior to the Library of Congress, Bllington taught history at Harvard University from 1957 to 1962 and subsequently at Princeton University from 1964 to 1973.
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The Library of Congress has played a quiet but important role in American history in four distinctive ways: 1) by symbolizing and institutionalizing the idea that free, representative government
