With a theme of "Libraries, Creativity, Liberty," the Library's Bicentennial in 2000 provided a unique opportunity to feature the Library's collections, its role in American life and the importance of libraries in a democratic society as providers of free and open access to knowledge and information.
A new Web site for children and familes (left) and a nationwide program celebrating American folklife (right, Jimmy Garrison at the Ann Arbor Jazz and Blues Festival) were among the highlights of the Library's Bicentennial year. - Ira Lax
While celebrating its 200th birthday, on April 24, the Library continued to implement a new Integrated Library System (ILS), administered a Russian Leadership Program that brought emerging Russian political leaders to the United States to observe the workings of democratic institutions and increased the physical security of the Library's collections, facilities, staff and computer resources.
The Library also received a number of important new acquisitions, improved service to Congress and the nation through the use of technology and continued to make more of its vast resources available electronically on its celebrated World Wide Web site. At year's end, the Library reached its five-year goal of making freely available 5 million items on the its Web site (www.loc.gov) by 2000 as a gift to the nation.
Bicentennial
The Library celebrated its Bicentennial with a wide array of programs and activities held April 24 and throughout the year.
- New Web Site. "America's Library," a
new, easy-to-use Web site for children and families, was launched
during a news conference on April 24. Accessible at www.americaslibrary.gov,
the site makes learning about history fun through stories accompanied
by photographs, maps, prints, manuscripts, and audio and video recordings
from the Library's collections. With donated media and creative advice
contributed through the nonprofit Advertising Council as part of
its Children's Initiative effort, the site was developed and promoted
through a nationwide public service campaign with the tagline: "There
is a better way to have fun with history. Log On. Play Around. Learn
Something." Through public service advertising on the Internet,
television and radio, the site received more than $17 million in
free advertising last year.
- Commemorative Stamp and Coins. At ceremonies held in the Great Hall on April 24, the U.S. Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp and the U.S. Mint issued bimetallic and silver commemorative coins. Some 46,000 stamps were sold on that day, and, beginning on April 25, more than 200 libraries in 43 states held second-day issue events for the stamp. The U.S. Mint experienced record-breaking sales for a first-day launch event and by year's end had sold 251,548 silver coins and 34,571 bimetallic coins, with a potential surcharge of nearly $3 million to fund Library programs.
A commemorative stamp (with cachets, left) and two Bicentennial coins were popular at the Library and across the nation. - Fern Underdue
- National Birthday Celebration. A national birthday celebration attended by more than 5,000 people was held on the East Front lawn of the Capitol on April 24. Among the program's celebrities were political analyst Cokie Roberts, who served as master of ceremonies; Gen. Colin Powell, retired chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Roger Baum, great-grandson of L. Frank Baum, author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz; children's author and illustrator Maurice Sendak; magician and illusionist David Copperfield and Big Bird of "Sesame Street." The U.S. Army Blues Band and a host of other artists provided a variety of American music in a concert led by former Grateful Dead musician Mickey Hart. Honored at the event were 84 "Living Legends" selected by the Library for their significant contributions to American life.
The Library honored more than 80 "Living Legends."
- Local Legacies. Working through their members of Congress and with local organizations and groups, people from all walks of life documented America's cultural heritage at the turn of the millennium as part of the Local Legacies project. All told, 414 of the 535 members of Congress registered nearly 1,300 Local Legacies projects from every state, trust, territory and the District of Columbia. Four thousand Americans provided photographs, written documentation, sound and video recordings, newspaper clippings, posters and other materials as part of their projects. By year's end, the nearly1,000 projects that were received by the Library became a permanent part of the American Folklife Center collections.
Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) congratulates Dr. Billington on the success of the Local Legacies project; a scene from a New Hampshire pie-eating contest from that project - Yusef El-Amin & Lyne Ellis
- Exhibitions. The premier Bicentennial exhibition, "Thomas Jefferson," opened on April 24 with treasures from the collections illuminating the legacy of the third president of the United States. Included in the exhibition was Jefferson's personal library, the seed from which the Library's present-day collections grew. The Jefferson exhibition joined "The Wizard of Oz: An American Fairy Tale," which opened on April 21, as one of two Bicentennial exhibitions mounted in 2000. These two exhibitions, along with two mounted in 1999, "The Work of Charles and Ray Eames: A Legacy of Invention" and "John Bull and Uncle Sam: Four Centuries of British-American Relations," reflected the Bicentennial theme of "Libraries, Creativity, Liberty."
- Publications. Four Bicentennial publications were issued during the year. America's Library: The Story of the Library of Congress, 1800-2000 by James Conaway is the first full narrative history of the Library of Congress in more than half a century. Thomas Jefferson: Genius of Liberty, a companion volume to the Bicentennial exhibition, examines the life of a central figure in the history of the Library of Congress and the nation. The Library of Congress: An Architectural Alphabet is a visual introduction to the art and architecture of the Jefferson Building. The Nation's Library: The Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., is the Library's first guidebook in more than a decade.
- Symposia and Concerts. Several Bicentennial symposia
were held during the year. The Congressional Research Service hosted
a two-day symposium (Feb. 29-March 1) titled "Informing Congress
and the Nation." Open to members of Congress and their staff,
the symposium included sessions on the ways Congress gathered information
in its legislative role during the 19th century, the evolution of
the informing function in the contemporary Congress, and the relationship
between the Library and Congress. Co-sponsored by the Law Library
of Congress and the New York University School of Law on March 7-10, "Democracy
and the Rule of Law in a Changing World Order" examined the
relationship between the rule of law and the spread of democracy. "Poetry
and the American People: Reading, Voice and Publications in the 19th
and 20th Centuries" was cosponsored by the Library, the Poetry
Society of America and the Academy of American Poets on April 4.
The role of national libraries was explored in a symposium held at
the Library on Oct. 23-27 titled "National Libraries of the
World: Interpreting the Past, Shaping the Future." Preservation
and security were the focus of "To Preserve and Protect: The
Strategic Stewardship of Cultural Resources," a symposium held
at the Library on Oct. 30-31. The final Bicentennial symposium, "Bibliographic
Control for the New Millennium: Confronting the Challenges of Networked
Resources and the Web," was held on Nov. 15-17.
The multiyear concert series, "I Hear America Singing," continued through the year with musical events featuring the work of American composers Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, Jerome Kern and Stephen Sondheim, whose 70th birthday was commemorated with a musical tribute held at the Library on May 22. - Gifts to the Nation. The Gifts to the Nation program brought special donations and historically significant items to the collections, including Harry A. Blackmun's papers; the first American Haggadah; a letter of Beethoven's; a Persian celestial globe; a survey of land in Frederick County, Va., signed by George Washington; and James E. Hinton's 1960s civil rights photographs. Started with a $1 million contribution from Gene and Jerry Jones, the effort to re-create Jefferson's library was undertaken as a Bicentennial initiative. Eighty-three embassies also presented more than 1,200 items to the Library as part of the International Gifts to the Nation Project.
Bob Weir (clockwise from bottom left), the Eastern High School Choir and the Saturday Night Live Band; Big Bird; Cokie Roberts; the Kan Kouran West African Dance Group; and Tito Puente were just a few of the performers at the Library's Bicentennial birthday party, held April 24, on the East Front lawn of the U.S. Capitol. - Christina Tyler Wenks, Susan Davis International, Natalie J. Evans, and Paul Hogroian
Legislative Support to Congress
Serving Congress is the Library's highest priority. During the year, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) delivered nearly 598,000 research responses to members and committees of Congress. CRS provided information on matters ranging from agriculture to taxation and trade, from China to Kosovo, and Internet technology to Social Security, Medicare and related issues. CRS also assisted Congress as it considered reforms in the areas of aviation, bankruptcy, campaign finance, education and health care.
Hand-painted Persian celestial wooden globe, ca. 1650, a "gift to the nation." - Neshan Naltchayan
The Law Library kept members of Congress and their staffs informed on developments around the world through the monthly World Law Bulletin and the Foreign Law Briefs, a new research series produced exclusively for Congress. The Law Library staffed answered nearly 3,800 in-person reference requests from congressional users and produced 581 written reports for Congress, including comprehensive multinational studies on issues such as human rights, health care and crime.
The Copyright Office provided policy advice and technical assistance to Congress on important copyright laws and related issues such the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the Intellectual Property and Communications Omnibus Reform Act, and the copying and transmitting of sound recordings over the Internet. The Copyright office also responded to numerous congressional inquiries about domestic and international copyright law and registration and recordation of works of authorship.
Russian Leadership Program
Now in its second year, the Russian Leadership Program brought more than 1,600 Russian political, civic, business and intellectual leaders to the United States in 2000 to observe the workings of democratic institutions. Administered by the Library of Congress, the program has enabled nearly 4,000 participants from Russia to visit 48 states and the District of Columbia during the past two years. At year's end, funding was approved for a third year, as part of the Library's fiscal 2001 budget appropriation signed by the president on Dec. 21 (Public Law 106-554). This same law authorized the creation of a Center for Russian Leadership in the Legislative Branch-independent from the Library-to implement the exchange program in the future.
The opening screen of the Library's comprehensive online catalog, made possible through the successful implementation of the Library's Integrated Library System (ILS) project
Integrated Library System
Having successfully completed initial implementation of all modules of the Integrated Library System (cataloging, circulation, acquisitions and serials check-in modules, online public access catalog), online access to the MUMS legacy system was turned off on Jan. 11, 2000. On Aug. 21, the Library officially accepted the new system after extensive testing and 40 consecutive days of acceptable response times.
During the year, the Library and the ILS software vendor, Endeavor, identified, tracked, resolved and reported on software problems and implemented solutions. The Library added a test server and software to support system performance monitoring and staffed a help desk. At year's end, preparations were under way to expand Library-wide use of the ILS by establishing databases for the Congressional Research Service and the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped.
Financial Highlights
In February 2000 the Library's independent accountants, Clifton Gunderson LLC, issued an unqualified "clean" audit opinion on the Library's fiscal year 1999 Consolidated Financial Statements. In addition to the fourth consecutive "clean" audit opinion, the auditors found no material internal control weaknesses.
Improved Service to Congress and The Nation Through Technology
The Library continued to improve its cataloging, copyright, research, management and information delivery systems through the development and use of technology. Specific achievements in 2000 include:
- Legislative Information System. The year began with a Y2K-compliant Legislative Information System (LIS) for the exchange of data among the House, Senate and Library of Congress. The focus of development for the LIS during 2000 was the implementation of backup and recovery processes and the implementation of additional security controls. Accomplishments included the establishment of backup servers, installation of system monitoring software, improvements in the Library's firewall and the development of methods to test the integrity of data. A number of enhancements were also made, including summaries of committee markup sessions.
- Electronic Briefing Books. The Congressional Research Service continued to develop one of its newest products, the electronic briefing book, by preparing new interactive briefings on trade and K-12 education. Briefings on other topics of continuing congressional interest were continually updated.
- National Digital Library Program. At year's end,
5.6 million items were available on the Library's Web site, including
1.1 million items from collaborating institutions. During the year,
more than 20 multimedia historical collections were added to the
Library's American Memory Web site, bringing the total to 90. Included
in this total are 12 collections from institutions that participated
in the Ameritech program. Through this cooperative program, a total
of 33 institutions received $1.75 million to digitize their historical
collections and make them available through the Library's American
Memory Web site.
During the year, the Digital Futures Group, composed of senior Library managers, completed its work begun in 1998 to develop a five-year digital library strategy that emphasizes content development (especially content created in electronic format), access and the creation of a comprehensive and stable digital library infrastructure capable of managing new and more diverse kinds of electronic content. Concurrently, the Librarian of Congress commissioned a study of its future in the digital age from the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to study the Library's readiness for the digital age. Released in July 2000, the NAS's report, LC21: A Digital Strategy for the Library of Congress, strongly encouraged the Library to pursue aggressively its strategy for acquiring, describing and preserving electronic journals and books, Web sites and links, databases and other materials created and distributed only in electronic format. As part of its fiscal 2001 budget appropriation, the Library may have as much as $98.8 million to develop a nationwide collecting strategy and repository for digital material (for details, see budget story on page 27). - Internet Resources. The Library continued to provide more information to Congress and the nation with its Internet-based systems. The Library's Web site was continually cited for excellence in 2000 and was included on many "best of" lists, including USA Today, Yahoo and The Scout Report. Throughout the year, close to 1 billion transactions were recorded on the Library's public electronic systems. The THOMAS public legislative information system continued to be an enormously popular resource, with nearly 13 million system transactions logged on average each month-up from 10 million monthly transactions in 1999. Use of the American Memory historical collections increased by more than 25 percent-from an average of 15 million monthly transactions during 1999 to 19 million per month in 2000. America's Library, the Library's new Web site for children and families, recorded more than 60 million hits in 2000 during just eight months of availability. The site received several awards, including the "Standard of Excellence" award from the Web Marking Association and the "2000 New Media Invision Bronze Award for Best Education Site for Kids" from Hypermedia Communications.
- CORDS. Developed in collaboration with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and Corporation for National Research Initiatives, the Copyright Office Electronic Registration, Recordation and Deposit System (CORDS) was designed to help the Copyright Office streamline its internal registration, recordation and deposit processes, as well as provide the Library with copies of new copyrighted works in digital form for its National Digital Library repository. During the year, the Copyright Office continued to develop, test and enhance the basic CORDS production system and systematically build toward national implementation in 2003 for electronic registration and deposit of copyrighted works over the Internet. In April 2000 the Copyright Office began CORDS production processing with the Harry Fox Agency, the licensing subsidiary of the National Music Publishers Association, together with four music publishers. The Copyright Office also continued its collaboration with Bell and Howell Information and Learning (previously known as UMI), a national publisher of digital dissertations and a major submitter of copyright applications, using the CORDS system-to-system communications processing capability for electronic registration and deposit of about 20,000 dissertations per year.
- Global Legal Information System (GLIN). GLIN is a cooperative international network in which nations are contributing the full, authentic text of statues and regulations to a database managed by the Law Library of Congress. Two new member countries were added during the year, bringing the total to 14 countries participating via the Internet.
- Collaborative Digital Reference Service (CDRS). With a goal of providing professional reference service to researchers any time, anywhere, through an international, digital network of libraries and related institutions, the Collaborative Digital Reference Service (CDRS) pilot project was launched in 2000. The program is piloting the use of new technologies to provide reference service online by taking advantage of electronic and physical resources and collections held by libraries around the world. Now in its third phase, the pilot project, which began with 16 participating libraries and the Library of Congress, has expanded to include more than 60 libraries and other institutions internationally. When fully implemented, participating libraries will assist their users by connecting to the CDRS to send questions that are best answered by the expert staff of CDRS member institutions from around the world, including the national libraries of Australia and Canada.
- Geographic Information Systems. The Geography and Map Division (G&M) continued to work closely with the National Digital Library Program to digitize cartographic materials for electronic access throughout the nation. In cooperation with the Congressional Research Service and the Congressional Relations Office, G&M produced customized maps and geographic information for members of Congress. Working with private-sector partners, G&M continued to expand a collection of large-format images available through the Internet. During the year, the "U.S. Railroad Maps" digital collection was completed and a project to digitize 1,800 Civil War maps was inaugurated. A special presentation was added to the "Meeting of Frontiers" Web site, including maps from the 17th to the 20th centuries by American, Russian and European cartographers. By year's end, nearly 4,000 maps were made available to the world on the Library's Web site.
Security
During the year, the Library made progress in implementing its security enhancement plan for major physical security improvements, including completion of a preliminary design for a state-of-the-art police communications center and central security system to integrate the Library's intrusion detection and security monitoring systems. The Library also worked toward expanding entry and perimeter security to include installation of additional screening equipment and development of designs for security upgrades of building entrances, exterior monitoring cameras and lighting, and garage and parking lot safeguards. In addition, the Library increased police staffing with the addition of 46 new officers and three administrative personnel. Other major accomplishments included upgrading security controls protecting the Library's most valuable collections; installing security controls protecting high-risk collections on exhibition; allocating 61 secure book carts and five safes to protect high risk collections in Library Services and the Copyright Office; and contracting for random sampling of the Library's collections to produce baselines of theft and mutilation in selected divisions.
The Library began the year with fully functioning "Y2K compliant" computer systems, having completed a more than two-year-long project to ensure that its 99 mission-critical and 292 nonmission-critical computer systems, as well as its communication systems, would function properly at the turn of the century. Other computer security measures included implementation of a firewall to isolate the Library's private network servers from outside intrusion and installation of hardware and software in the Senate Computer Center as a first step toward a disaster recovery site for THOMAS and the Legislative Information System.
Thomas Jefferson's library, on display in the Jefferson Building - Toby Kinnahan
The Collections
During the year, the size of the Library's collections grew to nearly 121 million items, an increase of nearly 3 million over the previous year. This figure includes 27.8 million books and other print materials, 54 million manuscripts, 13 million microforms, 4.6 million maps, 4.2 million items in the music collection, and 13.5 million visual materials (photographs, posters, moving images, prints and drawings).
- Arrearage Reduction/Cataloging. At year's end, the total arrearage (unprocessed materials) stood at 19,215,629 items, a decrease of 51.6 percent from the 39.7-million-item arrearage at the time of the initial census in September 1989. Staff created cataloging records for 224,544 print volumes and inventory records for an additional 50,275 items. With the Library serving as the secretariat for the international Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC), approximately 350 PCC member institutions created 128,160 name authorities, 8,914 series authorities, 2,791 subject authorities, 979 LC Classification proposals, 19,744 bibliographic records for serials, and 62,423 bibliographic records for monographs. The Library worked with the bibliographic utilities and libraries with large East Asian collections to replace the outmoded Wade-Giles system for romanization of Chinese characters with the more modern pinyin system. During the year, 156,000 pinyin name and series authority records were loaded into the Integrated Library System.
- Secondary Storage. Linked to the Library's arrearage-reduction effort is the development of secondary storage sites to house processed materials and to permit growth of the collection. The architectural team led by Hal Davis of the SmithGroup continued work on the design of the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center at Culpeper, Va., on behalf of the Library and the Architect of the Capitol, with funding from the Packard Humanities Institute, the owners of the facility. Scheduled to open in June 2004, the center will house the Library's collections of film, video, radio and recorded sound and the Library's film and audio video preservation laboratories. The Library also continued to work with the Architect of the Capitol and its contractors to ensure that the first storage module at the Fort Meade, Md., campus will meet environmental specifications and be ready for occupancy in March 2001. The module will house 2 million paper-based items in proper containers.
- Important New Acquisitions. The Library receives millions of items each year from copyright deposits, from federal agencies, and from purchases, exchanges and gifts. The celebration of the Library's Bicentennial through the Gifts to the Nation program resulted in a year of extraordinary gifts (collections and funds for acquisitions) to the Library, both in number of gifts received and in the importance of each acquisition for the collections. Notable acquisitions during the fiscal year included nearly 100 additional titles that match Thomas Jefferson's original collection; a complete and perfect map describing the whole world (Venice, ca. 1559); the maps drawn by Lafayette's cartographer; the papers of author Philip Roth and of composer-conductor Lucas Foss, the Kenneth Walker Architectural drawings, the letters of poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, the first known map of Kentucky, the Coville Photography collection, a unique collection of Russian sheet music covers and the film collection of Baron Walter de Mohrenschildt. During the year, the Library also reached agreement on the regular, continuing deposit of the archives of electronic journals published by the American Physical Society; continued its relationship with ProQuest on cost-effective access to its digital archives of U.S. doctoral dissertations; and built on the existing gift agreement with the Internet Archive to select and acquire open-access Web resources of special interest to the Library-such as the Web sites of all U. S. presidential candidates.
Preservation
The Library took action during 2000 to improve the preservation of its vast and diverse collections by: (1) completing the mass deacidification treatment of 47,736 volumes using the Bookkeeper process; (2) binding 178,593 paperback volumes and labeling 11,598 hardcover volumes; (3) expanding the applied internship program to include a photo conservator, the Library's first intern in Preventive Conservation and two advanced fellows; (4) completing conservation of 700 rare books from the Thomas Jefferson Library for the "Thomas Jefferson" exhibition; (5) completing the digital reformatting of an embrittled 10-volume journal, Garden and Forest, and presenting it as the first complete periodical on the Library's Web site; (6) coordinating the preservation microfilming of 1.6 million pages of historically significant U.S. newspapers, adding more than 6,000 titles to the national union list of newspapers; (7) microfilming 3.8 million pages from the Library's collections; (8) beginning a program for the systematic conversion to microfiche of selected embrittled technical reports in the Publication Board Collection in the Science, Technology and Business Division; (9) inspecting and processing 398 positive and 170 negative reels of microfilm acquired from Moscow's Library of Foreign Literature and military archives in Hungary, Poland and Romania; and (10) implementing, with the Copyright Office, the use of security laser-marking equipment to place Library property information safely on CDs, audiotapes and videotapes in the Library's collections.
The Library continued its commitment to preserving the nation's film heritage. At year's end, 25 films were named to the National Film Registry, bringing the total to 300. On Nov. 9, President Clinton signed the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000 to preserve historic sound recordings. The new law directs the Librarian of Congress to establish a National Recording Registry, an advisory board, and to create and implement a national plan to assure the long-term preservation and acccessbility of the nation's audio heritage.
Copyright Office
The Copyright Office received 588,498 claims and made 515,612 registrations in fiscal 2000. The office responded to more than 383,500 requests from the public for copyright information, of which nearly 12,000 were received electronically. The Library's collections and exchange programs received 751,944 copies of works from the Copyright Office, including 217,986 items received from publishers under the mandatory deposit provisions of the copyright law.
National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped
The National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) continued to refine the Library's free national reading program for blind and physically handicapped people. NLS distributed 22.8 million items to nearly 760,000 readers in 2000.
Braille readers may now access nearly 3,200 Web-Braille (digital braille) book files created by the Library with a computer or electronic note-taker and a braille embosser or a refreshable braille display, which is an electronic device that raises or lowers an array of pins to create a line of braille characters. At year's end, 1,078 users had signed up for the new Internet service. In July, NLS announced a new feature that links its International Union Catalog of Braille and Audio Materials to Web-Braille. NLS also completed a draft digital-talking-book standard under the auspices of the
National Information Standards Organization and completed installation of a prototype digital recording system at the NLS Recording Studio (where five digital talking-books have been completed) and a duplication system at the Multistate Center East, the NLS contract distribution enter in Cincinnati. Specifications were developed for the procurement of digitally recorded masters, to begin in fiscal 2002.
American Folklife Center
The American Folklife Center continued its mandate to "preserve and present American folklife" through a number of outreach programs and by adding five new collections to the Library's Web site. Staff in the American Folklife Center participated in the Local Legacies project to document the nation's cultural heritage (see above). The center also continued its participation in the White House Millennium Council's "Save America's Treasures" program, in concert with the Smithsonian Institution. Known as "Save Our Sounds," the program seeks to preserve a priceless heritage of sound recordings housed at the two institutions. In November, the center launched the Veterans' Oral history Project. Signed into law by President Clinton on Oct. 27, (P.L. 106-380), the project encourages war veterans, their families, veterans groups, communities and students to record (on audio and video tape) the memories of more than 19 million veterans currently living in the United States.
Sharing the Library's Treasures
In addition to making many of its unparalleled resources available on its award-winning Web site, the Library's collections were shared with hundreds of thousands of national and international audiences through exhibitions, special events, symposia, traveling exhibitions and major publications.
A sampling of the year's exhibitions at the Library includes the work of Charles and Ray Eames; L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz; Chic Young's "Blondie"; Thomas Jefferson; and Bob Hope.
In addition to the two Bicentennial exhibitions that opened during the year, "Thomas Jefferson," and "The Wizard of Oz: An American Fairy Tale," a number of new exhibitions featured the Library's unique collections. The Bob Hope Gallery of American Entertainment opened on May 10 with an exhibition featuring clips of the famous comedian and fellow entertainers. Several new exhibitions featured the work of some of America's most beloved cartoonists: "Blondie Gets Married! Comic Strip Drawings by Chic Young," "Herblock's History: Political Cartoons from the Crash to the Millennium" and "Al Hirschfeld: Beyond Broadway." Continuing exhibitions included "Here to Stay: The Legacy of George and Ira Gershwin" and "The Gerry Mulligan Collection." In keeping with conservation and preservation standards, items were rotated routinely throughout the year into the "American Treasures of the Library of Congress" exhibition, the long-term installation of the rarest and most significant items relating to America's past from the Library's collections. Three major
Library of Congress exhibitions, which toured nationally and internationally during the year and will continue to venues in the upcoming year, included "The Work of Charles and Ray Eames: A Legacy of Invention," "Sigmund Freud: Conflict and Culture" and "Religion and the Founding of the American Republic." Eight new exhibitions were added to the Library's Web site, bringing the total to 28 Library exhibitions accessible on Internet.
The Publishing Office produced more than 25 books, calendars and other products describing the Library's collections, including four major publications honoring the Library's Bicentennial (see above). Publications that garnered overall design excellence awards from Washington Book Publishers were Thomas Jefferson: Genius of Liberty; Life of the People: Realist Prints and Drawings from the Ben and Beatrice Goldstein Collection, 1912-1948; and The Declaration of Independence: Evolution of the Text. Gathering History: The Marian S. Carson Collection of Americana, and The Library of Congress Architectural Alphabet received awards from the American Association for Museums.
The Visitor Services Office conducted 3,138 tours for 59,536 visitors. Included were 686 tours for 12,185 congressional constituents from 363 congressional offices and 326 special-request tours for members of Congress and their spouses, families and friends. Some 1,769 tours were conducted for 36,065 visitors. The office also arranged 581 professional appointments for 1,851 dignitaries, professionals and students representing 101 different countries.. A cadre of 190 volunteers provided 26,238 hours of service (the equivalent of more than 17 full-time staff positions, at a savings of $650,000 to the Library). Volunteers also responded to inquiries from 189,393 visitors and assisted 10,255 first-time patrons at the researcher guidance desks.
The Library continued its pilot program to broadcast events of wide national interest on its Web site. Events that were cybercast during the year included "Democracy and the Rule of Law in a Changing World Order" March 7-10; and "Poetry in America: A Library of Congress Bicentennial Celebration" on April 3.
The bimonthly Civilization magazine included many articles during the year about the Library's Bicentennial programs and activities. The October/November issue was the last to be published under the licensing agreement between the Library and Civilization LLC. The agreement was mutually terminated after six years.
Gift and Trust Funds
During fiscal year 2000, the Library's fund-raising activities yielded a total of $85.7 million representing 1,097 gifts and pledges to 76 different Library funds. These gifts included $5.4 million in cash gifts and $80.3 million in new pledges, making it the best year ever for gifts received from the private sector. Eighteen new gift and trust funds were established. At year's end, outstanding pledges (including conditional amounts) totaled $81.5 million.
In 2000 the Library celebrated the 10th anniversary of the James Madison Council, a private-sector group dedicated to assisting the Library in sharing its unparalleled riches with the nation and the world. During the past 10 years, the Madison Council has given $134.6 million to the Library.
Private gifts supported a variety of new and continuing programs throughout the Library, including exhibitions, acquisitions, symposia and an extensive series of Bicentennial programs. By year's end, the Library had received 384 gifts totaling $109.8 million through the Bicentennial Gifts to the Nation program. This included an unprecedented gift of $60 million from Madison Council Chairman John W. Kluge to establish the John W. Kluge Center in the Library of Congress and the John W. Kluge Prize in the Human Sciences.
Other major gifts received during the fiscal year included $9 million in conditional pledges from Jack Friedman, the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Foundation, John Kluge, the Gruss Lipper Foundation and Jack Nash toward the purchase of the Valmadonna Trust Library (the most important private collection of early and rare Hebrew books in the world); $3.7 million in additional gifts from the Starr Foundation and 34 other donors for the Henry A. Kissinger Chair in Foreign Policy and International Relations, bringing the total gifts received for the chair to $4.2 million; $2 million from an anonymous donor for the acquisition of materials for the American Folklife Center; $1.5 million from Cary and Ann Maguire to establish the Cary and Ann Maguire Chair in Ethics and American History; $1 million each from Charles Durham and Nancy Glanville to support the Edwin L. Cox American Legacy Acquisition Fund as well as the acquisition of the Kenneth Walker Collection of Architectural Drawings; and a $1 million bequest from the late Verna Fine to establish the Verna and Irving Fine Fund to support modern American music through activities related to the music of Irving Fine and other American composers whose works are housed at the Library.
Human Resources Improvement
The Library continued to make progress on its HR21 initiative to enable the institution to compete successfully for highly qualified staff, retain high performers, reward excellence and innovation, train and manage staff to achieve Library missions and make personnel administration response efficient and effective. During the year, a user-friendly classification, staffing and workforce management tool was procured that will substantially reduce the time required to fill positions, redirect scarce Library resources toward mission-critical programmatic activities and away from administrative support and provide managers and supervisors with an accurate, online source of information in addressing challenging personnel issues. A Library-wide work group was convened to identify barriers to the efficient processing of time and attendance records.
The Library of Congress Internal University (LCIU) continued to offer a variety of services and programs, such as "facilitative leadership" training, and a wide range of computer training for management and staff. The LCIU successfully introduced online computer training with a pilot Internet-based program involving more than 400 participants throughout the Library. The LCIU also continued to coordinate the quarterly "Leadership Lecture Series," a forum for managers and staff to learn from top corporate officers, government officials and leadership scholars about current, effective leadership practices and techniques.
