January 3, 2012 David Mao Appointed Law Librarian of Congress

Librarian of Congress James H. Billington has appointed David S. Mao as the 23rd Law Librarian of Congress. The appointment of Mao, who has served as Deputy Law Librarian since June 2010, is effective immediately.

“Mr. Mao, in his tenure as Deputy Law Librarian of Congress, has shown the ability to think strategically and work with external constituencies to advance the progress of the Law Library. He will continue and expand upon the strides made in the past two years in clearly identifying priorities and setting the future course of the Law Library of Congress,” the Librarian stated.

Mao joined the Law Library in 2010 as its first Deputy Law Librarian, following a five-year tenure in the Congressional Research Service. He has also held positions at Georgetown University and at the international law firm of Covington and Burling. A graduate of Georgetown University Law Center and a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of The George Washington University, Mao practiced law for a number of years before receiving his library degree at The Catholic University of America. He is admitted to the District of Columbia and Pennsylvania bars.

Mao has served as the treasurer of the American Association of Law Libraries, and chaired the association’s recent project to study the future of law librarianship. He is a founding member and current treasurer of the Chinese and American Forum on Legal Information and Law Libraries, which enables him to use his Chinese language skills and his academic background in international affairs and Chinese language and literature studies.

The Law Library was established in 1832 with the mission to make its resources available to members of Congress, the Supreme Court, other branches of the U.S. government and the global legal community, and to sustain and preserve a universal collection of law for future generations. With a collection of more than 2.8 million volumes, the Law Library contains the world’s largest collection of law books and other resources from all countries and provides online databases and guides to legal information worldwide through its website at www.loc.gov/law/.

The Library of Congress, the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution and the largest library in the world, holds more than 151 million items in various languages, disciplines and formats. The Library serves the U.S. Congress and the nation both on-site in its reading rooms on Capitol Hill and through its award-winning website at www.loc.gov. Many of the Library’s rich resources and treasures may also be accessed via interactive exhibitions on a personalized website at myLOC.gov.