ALA Annual 2019

Update for 2019 ALA Annual Conference: January - May, 2019

Robin L. Dale, Associate Librarian for Library Services

Service units, divisions, and offices within the Library have submitted the information in this briefing document, which is being issued in advance of the American Library Association (ALA) 2019 Annual Conference, Washington, D.C., June 20-25, 2019. The document covers initiatives undertaken at the Library of Congress since the ALA 2019 Midwinter Meeting in Seattle, Washington, January 25-29, 2019. Information in the printed document is valid as of June 13, 2019.

Library of Congress Exhibit Booth

The Library’s Pavilion is exhibit booth #2705 in the Walter E. Washington Convention Center , 801 Mt. Vernon Place NW, Washington, DC. The Library’s Pavilion manager is Michelle Spezzacatena.

Exhibit hours are:

Friday, June 21: 5:30-7:00pm
Saturday, June 22: 9:00am - 5:00pm
Sunday, June 23: 9:00am - 5:00pm
Monday, June 24: 9:00am - 2:00pm

Librarian of Congress Dr. Carla Hayden will be at the Pavilion on two occasions. On Friday evening, the Pavilion features “Happy Hour with the Librarian of Congress” from 5:30 to 6:30. On Sunday morning from 9:00 to 10:00, the Pavilion will offer “Coffee with Carla.”

View a schedule of all pavilion theater presentations and "office hours"

OFFICE OF THE LIBRARIAN

Office of Business Enterprises

Retail Shop

The Shop will launch a new product assortment at the Conference with the quote “Librarian, the original search engine.” Products include a tote, mug, t-shirt, magnet, keychain and pencils and will be on display at the LC Pavilion.
All ALA attendees will receive a 15 percent discount in the Shop when they present their ALA conference badge at checkout. The discount is also available online at library-of-congress-shop.myshopify.com/ by using code ALADC at checkout. Bookmarks promoting the discount will be available at the Pavilion. The discount is active June 20-25, 2019.
The Shop will extend its operational hours on Saturday, June 22 and will close at 8 pm.

CDS (Cataloging Distribution Service)

CDS is updating its “MARC Open-Access” datasets. The new data will include 2016 MARC records in UTF8 and XML formats and remains free to the public. Visit www.loc.gov/cds/products/marcDist.php for more information. CDS will give away 250 11” x 17” Library of Congress Classification Posters. CDS will also giveaway Classification brochures, pencils and a bookmark that outlines pending improvement to our Cataloger’s Desktop service. Planned Cataloger’s Desktop improvements include: faster access to popular resources, support for describing and managing metadata for digital collections, and more guidance for the metadata management lifecycle.

Chief Operating Officer

FEDLINK

FEDLINK is an organization of federal agencies working together to achieve optimum use of the resources and facilities of federal libraries and information centers. By promoting common services, streamlining procurement for commercial information resources, coordinating and sharing available resources, and providing continuing professional education, FEDLINK supports federal libraries in their missions to provide information services to their agencies, the Congress, the federal courts, and the American people.

As part of FEDLINK’s assisted acquisitions for federal agencies, FEDLINK recently awarded 60 electronic resources contracts and posted a Request for Proposal (RFP) to award preservation contracts to multiple vendors to support: digitization; digital archiving and web harvesting; conservation treatments and other services to preserve original materials; and consultation and training.

At FEDLINK’s Spring Exposition, “Embracing Change in Federal Libraries,” FEDLINK recognized the winners of its 2018 national awards for federal librarianship. Four categories of awards highlight ways federal libraries, librarians and library technicians are fulfilling the information demands of the government, business, scholars, and the American public. The winners are

Large Federal Library -- The U.S. Military Academy Library of the U.S. Military Academy, West Point (N.Y.)
Small Federal Library -- The Naval Undersea Warfare Center, Division Newport (R.I.), Corporate Research and Information Center
Federal Librarian of the Year -- Michele Mason-Coles, a clinical librarian with the Darnall Medical Library of the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (Md.)
Federal Library Technician of the Year -- Derek McDowell, a reference assistant with the National Institutes of Health Library (Md.)

Congressional Relations Office

The Library’s FY 2020 Appropriations

Table 1: Summary of Fiscal 2019 Appropriations and Fiscal 2020 Request (The chart includes appropriations and the effect of offsetting collections authority and unobligated prior year collections that decrease the appropriations in Copyright Office, S&E and LC, S&E):

Library Account	Fiscal 2019 Enacted	Fiscal 2020 Request	Fiscal 2020 House Bill (H.R. 2779)
LC Salaries & Expenses *LC, S&E Offsetting Collections Total Appropriation, LC, S&E	$480,052,000 -6,000,000 474,052,000	$528,570,000 -6,000,000 522,570,000	$507,303,000 -6,000,000 501,303,000
Copyright Office *CO, S&E Offsetting Collections, PYUB Total Appropriation, COP, S&E	93,407,000 -49,818,000 43,589,000	92,992,000 -49,703,000 43,289,000	91,856,000 -49,703,000 42,153,000
CRS	125,688,000	121,572,000	119,889,000
NLS	52,783,000	59,646,000	56,945,000
Total Budget Authority Total Appropriation *Total Offsetting Collections, PYUB	$751,930,000 $696,112,000 $55,818,000	$802,780,000 $747,077,000 $55,703,000	$775,993,000 $720,290,000 $55,703,000

The Library’s fiscal 2020 budget [PDF] prepared by the Financial Services Directorate (FSD), requests $802.78M in total budget authority, including $747.08M in annual appropriations and $55.70M in offsetting receipts authority. The Library presented its budget request to the House and Senate Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittees in March.
The budget seeks a 6.8 percent increase over fiscal 2019, or a total increase of $50.85M in budget authority. Of the increase, $26.42M would fund mandatory pay and price-level increases. The request seeks to support continuous modernization in all areas, including IT, infrastructure, business process and targeted workforce skills, with a particular focus on increasing access and focusing on “user centered” customer service to Congress and the American people.
Some key Library funding initiatives for Fiscal 2020 include:

Enriching the Thomas Jefferson Building Visitor Experience ($10.0M no-year authority/NTE 3)
Data Center Transformation and Network Modernization Phase II ($7.0M/FTE 0)
Congress.gov Enhancements and Legislative Information System (LIS) Retirement ($3.617M/FTE 4)
NLS Braille eReaders and Talking Book Machines ($2.375M/FTE 0)
NLS Braille and Audio Reading by Download (BARD) Infrastructure Modernization ($5M/NTE 2) and
Financial Services Directorate (FSD) Optimization and Modernization ($3.862M/FTE 10)
Supporting a Robust Library Data Strategy ($1.088M/FTE 2)

In May, the House Appropriations Committee reported an appropriations measure providing the committee’s recommendations for funding the Legislative Branch, including the Library of Congress. H.R. 2779 provides $720.3M in appropriations for the Library, an increase of $24.2M above the fiscal 2019 enacted level. The bill also authorizes the Library to use $55.7M in offsetting receipts and prior year unobligated balances for a total budget authority of $776M in fiscal 2020.

Within the bill, the House continues to invest in the Library’s information technology and the modernization of systems for copyright registration and recordation. The House bill includes $5M for a second installment of funding to enhance the visitor experience in the Thomas Jefferson Building, subject to the Committee’s review of the specific plans, cost estimates, and schedules for the initiative which the Library is expected to provide this summer. It also includes not less than $5.5M for modernizing the NLS BARD website and to purchase braille e-readers for the use of its patrons. The bill also reflects, as recognized by the Committee, the Library’s efforts in the last few fiscal years to centralize its IT to reduce duplication, increase efficiency, and better utilize specialized expertise.
Within report language, the Committee:

Urges the Law Library to continue its digitization strategy to increase online access to major parts of its collection, such as the U.S. Serial Sets and Supreme Court Records and Briefs.
Encourages the Library to do further outreach with Veterans Service Organizations and nonprofits around the Veterans History Project, including collecting and disseminating additional stories of World War II.
Encourages increased cooperative partnerships, fellowship opportunities, and curriculum program associations with community colleges and minority-serving institutions like historically Black colleges, Hispanic-serving institutions, etc.
Recommends that the Congressional Research Service (CRS) appoint a specialist and senior specialist in American Indian Affairs and directs CRS to report to Congress retirement and vacancy statistics for legislative analyst positions.

While the bill was expected to go to the floor in mid-June, that vote has been postponed because of an unrelated matter involving raising salaries for Members of Congress. The House may soon reschedule bringing this bill to the floor for consideration.

Ongoing budget deal negotiations between the White House and congressional leadership continue to complicate the FY2020 appropriations cycle. Without an agreement, the House and Senate face a difficult road in agreeing to budget caps for spending legislation, and the likelihood increases of a return to sequestration spending limits under the 2011 Budget Control Act (about a 9 percent cut to fiscal 2019 discretionary programs, before inflation.)
The Senate has yet to mark up an FY2020 appropriations bill for the Legislative Branch.

Bills Recently Introduced or Acted Upon

H.R.2426 - CASE Act of 2019
S.1273 - CASE Act of 2019
[reintroduced since 114th Congress]
Date Introduced in the House: 5/1/2019 - Introduced by: Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY)
Date Introduced in the House: 5/1/2019 - Introduced by: Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA)
Latest Action: On 5/1/2019, referred to the Committees on the Judiciary.

The CASE Act would establish a small claims board in the U.S. Copyright Office to serve as an alternative, voluntary forum for parties to resolve certain copyright claims up to $30,000. The board would be authorized to: (1) conduct hearings and conferences to facilitate parties' settlement of claims and counterclaims; (2) render independent determinations based on copyright laws and regulations; (3) award monetary relief; and (4) require cessation or mitigation of infringing activity, including the takedown or destruction of infringing materials, where the parties agree.

H.R.1608 - Federal Advisory Committee Act Amendments of 2019
[reintroduced since 110th Congress]
Date Introduced: 3/7/2019 - Introduced by: Rep. William Lacy Clay (D-MO-1)
Latest Action: On 3/12/2019, passed the House of Representatives by voice vote.

The Federal Advisory Committee Act Amendments of 2019 would amend the law to require federal executive agencies to make new public disclosures about federal advisory committee activities. As it pertains to the Library, the bill would require that a copy of each charter establishing a federal advisory committee be furnished to the Library of Congress. There are more than 1,000 advisory committees that provide advice and guidance to federal agencies.

H.R.1 - For the People Act of 2019
Date Introduced: 1/3/2019 in the House - Introduced by: Rep. John Sarbanes (D-MD)
Latest Action: Passed the House on 3/8/2019, by the Yeas and Nays: 234 - 193 (Roll no. 118).

This bill addresses voter access, election integrity, election security, political spending, and ethics for the three branches of government. Among its short titles, the bill includes the text of the Access to Congressionally Mandated Reports Act.

The Access to Congressionally Mandated Reports Act would require the Government Publishing Office (GPO) to establish and maintain a publicly available website containing copies of all congressionally mandated reports. Specific to the Library, this bill would require the Library to submit to the GPO a list of all congressionally mandated reports from the previous year. The list shall be provided in an open format and submitted at least annually by April 1 of each year.

Library of Congress Oversight and Appropriations Committees

Joint Committee on the Library of Congress
House members: Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) Tim Ryan (D-OH) G.K. Butterfield (D-NC) Rodney Davis (R-NC) Barry Loudermilk (R-GA)	Senate members: Roy Blunt (R-MO) Pat Roberts (R-KS) Richard Shelby (R-AL) Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) Patrick Leahy (D-VT)

Committee on House Administration
Democratic Representatives: Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Chairwoman Jamie Raskin (D-MD) Susan A. Davis (D-CA) G. K.Butterfield, Jr. (D-NC) Marcia L. Fudge (D-OH) Pete Aguilar (D-CA)	Republican Representatives: Rodney Davis (R-IL), Ranking Member Mark Walker (R-NC) Barry Loudermilk (R-GA)

Senate Committee on Rules and Administration
Republican Senators: Roy Blunt (R-MO), Chairman Richard C. Shelby (R-AL) Mitch McConnell (R-KY) Lamar Alexander (R-TN) Pat Roberts (R-KS) Ted Cruz (R-TX) Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) Roger F. Wicker (R-MS) Deb Fischer (R-NE) Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS)	Democratic Senators: Amy Klobuchar, Minnesota, Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein, California Charles Schumer, New York Dick Durbin, Illinois Tom Udall, New Mexico Mark Warner, Virginia Patrick Leahy, Vermont Angus King, Maine Catherine Cortez Masto, Nevada

House Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee
Democratic Representatives: Tim Ryan (D-OH), Chairman Dutch Ruppersberger, III (D-MD), Vice Chair Katherine M. Clark (D-MA) Ed Case (D-HI) Nita M. Lowey (D-NY), Ex Officio, Voting	Republican Representatives: Jaime L. Herrera Beutler (R-WA), Ranking Member Dan Newhouse (R-WA) Kay Granger (R-TX), Ex Officio, Voting

Senate Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee
Republican Senators: Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), Chairwoman Richard C. Shelby (R-AL) James Lankford (R-OK)	Democratic Senators: Chris Murphy (D-CT), Ranking Member Chris Van Hollen, Jr. (D-MD) Patrick J. Leahy (D-VT), Ex Officio, Non-Voting

House Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet
Democratic Representatives: Hank Johnson, Jr. (D-GA), Chair Ted Deutch (D-FL) Cedric Richmond (D-LA) Hakeem S. Jeffries (D-NY) Ted Lieu (D-CA) Eric Swalwell (D-CA) Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) Steve Cohen (D-TN) Karen R. Bass (D-CA) Greg Stanton (D-AZ) Lou Correa, JD (D-CA), Vice Chair	Republican Representatives: Martha Roby (R-AL), Ranking Member Steve Chabot (R-OH) Jim Jordan (R-OH) John Ratcliffe (R-TX) Matt Gaetz (R-FL) Mike Johnson (R-LA) Andy Biggs (R-AZ) Guy Reschenthaler (R-PA) Ben Cline (R-VA)

Senate Subcommittee on Intellectual Property
Republican Senators: Thom Tillis (R-NC), Chairman Lindsey Graham, USAFR (Ret) (R-SC) John Cornyn (R-TX) Ben Sasse (R-NE) Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) Chuck Grassley (R-IA) Mike Lee (R-UT) Mike Crapo (R-ID)	Democratic Senators: Chris Coons (D-DE), Ranking Member Patrick J. Leahy (D-VT) Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI) Dick Durbin (D-IL) Dick Blumenthal (D-CT) Kamala Harris (D-CA)

Senate Judiciary Committee
Republican Senators: Lindsey Graham, (Ret) (R-SC), Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) John Cornyn (R-TX) Mike Lee (R-UT) Ted Cruz (R-TX) Ben Sasse (R-NE) Josh Hawley (R-MO) Thom Tillis (R-NC) Joni Ernst (R-IA) Mike Crapo (R-ID) John Kennedy (R-LA) Marsha Blackburn (R-TN)	Democratic Senators : Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Ranking Minority Member Patrick J. Leahy (D-VT) Dick Durbin (D-IL) Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) Amy Klobuchar (DFL-MN) Chris Coons (D-DE) Dick Blumenthal (D-CT) Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI) Cory A. Booker (D-NJ) Kamala Harris (D-CA)

UNITED STATES COPYRIGHT OFFICE

See also under OFFICE OF THE LIBRARIAN/Congressional Relations Office and LIBRARY SERVICES/Collection Development Office

Register of Copyrights

On March 27, 2019, Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden named Karyn A. Temple the thirteenth Register of Copyrights. Prior to her appointment, Temple served as Acting Register of Copyrights from October 21, 2016, to March 26, 2019. Temple also previously served as Associate Register of Copyrights and Director of Policy and International Affairs for the United States Copyright Office from January 30, 2013, to October 21, 2016. From 2011 to 2013, she served as senior counsel in the Office of Policy and International Affairs.

Other Staff Appointments

In addition to the new permanent Register named, the Office appointed two Associate Registers of Copyright: Regan Smith, General Counsel, and Maria Strong, Director of Policy and International Affairs. The Office also appointed two deputy directors: Kevin Amer, deputy general counsel, and Christopher Fredericks, deputy chief financial officer. The Office named three new section heads: Bobbie Cook, In-Processing Section, and Renoldo Spivey, Out-Processing Section, both in the Receipt Analysis and Control Division, and Lisa Berardi Marflak, Outreach and Education Section, Office of Public Education and Information. The Office also has two Junior Fellows this summer and several law clerks and interns.

Strategic Plan

On April 5, 2019, the Copyright Office released its 2019–2023 strategic plan, Copyright: The Engine of Free Expression. The plan identifies goals in six core focus areas: information technology modernization, optimizing business processes, organizational change management, education and engagement, impartial expertise on copyright law and policy, and measuring success. These focus areas align with the Library’s strategy framework in clear and meaningful ways. The plan also includes new mission and vision statements for the Office.

Compendium Updates

On March 15, 2019, the Office released a revised draft of the Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices, Third Edition. The manual has been updated to reflect the Supreme Court’s decision in Star Athletica v. Varsity Brands. It also reflects many of the rulemakings that the Office has conducted over the past eighteen months, a number of technical upgrades that have been made to the electronic registration system, and certain practice changes that have been implemented by the Office of Registration Policy and Practice. Among other changes, the public draft clarifies how and when the Office will communicate with applicants, when it will attempt to correct deficiencies in the application, when it will register a claim with an annotation, and when it will refuse registration. The Office accepted public comments to the draft through May 31, 2019.

Modernization

On March 5, 2019, the Office released the third and final update to the Virtual Card Catalog proof of concept, adding more than 24 million card images from 1870 through 1954. These images contain copyright registrations, assignments, notices of use, commercial prints and labels, title indexes, and pseudonym files. The VCC now covers 1870 through 1977, totaling more than 41 million card images. The Office welcomes feedback through the Virtual Card Catalog website at vcc.copyright.gov.

The Office launched a modernization webinar series January 31, 2019, with “Introduction to Copyright Modernization.” Subsequent webinars held were “User-Centered Design Principles” on March 28 and “Data Management and the Strategic Plan” on May 30. Webinars will be held every other month on various modernization topics.
The Office continues to work on multiple modernization efforts:

Enterprise Copyright System (ECS): The ECS is an all-encompassing system that covers all aspects of copyright. As part of the ECS, the recordation component is being developed. The focus of modernization in recordation is to convert the current paper based-system into a web-based platform. We’re currently conducting acceptance testing on the recordation modernization system. We plan to continue conducting acceptance testing for any system during the development cycle and before it goes to production.
Business Process Reengineering (BPR): This initiative focuses on improving our business by examining our processes so that we can make sure they are correct. Key BPR activities include mapping current processes, identifying issues and opportunities for improvement, and redesigning workflows to resolve process bottlenecks or inefficiencies. Once consensus is reached on updated processes, strategies for implementation are developed. Some examples of the objectives of BPR for the Copyright Office are: improving processing times and creating timely public records, enhancing operational efficiencies through use of new or alternative technologies, containing costs, strengthening data security protections within the Copyright Office, and using staff and space efficiently.
Data Management Initiative: This initiative helps us understand the data we have, record it, and catalog it. Our most important asset is our data.
Outreach Effort: Outreach involves gathering feedback from customers, including external stakeholders across the United States.

The Copyright Office has contracted with the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to conduct an organizational analysis. The results of this study, which ended May 31, 2019, will help the Office assess the current staff workload and develop recommendations that meet the mission and needs of the entire organization.
Finally, the Office is conducting a space study to determine the best use of the space available.

Legislation

On May 1, 2019, the CASE Act of 2019 was introduced in the House (H.R. 2426) and Senate (S. 1273). The CASE Act would amend Title 17 of the United States Code to establish an alternative dispute resolution program for copyright small claims and for other purposes. (See also Congressional Relations Office/Bills Recently Introduced or Acted Upon earlier in this document.)

On February 8, 2019, the United States officially joined the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired or Otherwise Print Disabled (Marrakesh Treaty) by depositing its instrument of ratification with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The United States’ obligations under the Marrakesh Treaty entered into force May 8, 2019. The Marrakesh Treaty requires its contracting member nations to make it easier for those with print disabilities to access printed works in accessible formats such as Braille and digital audio files. It also establishes rules for the international exchange of accessible format copies. The Marrakesh Treaty was adopted at a diplomatic conference in June 2013 and the treaty entered into force in September 2016. The United States is the 50th WIPO member state to deposit its instrument. The Copyright Office provided significant support to this effort.

Studies and Reports

Processing times

On May 31, 2019, the Office responded to letters from both the House and Senate regarding Copyright Office application processing times. The responses include details about the Office of Registration Policy and Practice’s operations and the factors that affect processing times.
On April 23, 2019, the Copyright Office released its report, Authors, Attribution, and Integrity: Examining Moral Rights in the United States. The report details the findings of the Office's extensive review of the U.S. framework for moral rights. Moral rights refer to certain noneconomic rights that are considered personal to an author―chief among these being the right of an author to be credited as the author of his or her work (the right of attribution) and the right to prevent prejudicial distortions of the work (the right of integrity). The Copyright Office concluded that the U.S. moral rights framework (which includes a variety of federal and state laws) continues to provide important protections, despite there being some room for improvement. The Office suggested some areas where preferred interpretations of judicial decisions and even legislative considerations could improve the landscape of protection for authors.

Visual works

On January 18, 2019, the Office submitted a letter to Congress detailing the results of the Office’s public inquiry on how certain visual works, particularly photographs, graphic artworks, and illustrations, are registered, monetized, and enforced under the Copyright Act of 1976. A number of stakeholders raised specific issues they face on a regular basis regarding current copyright law and practices that fall within three general categories: (1) difficulties with the registration process; (2) challenges with licensing generally and monetizing visual works online; and (3) general enforcement obstacles. The Copyright Office takes these concerns seriously and has already taken steps to address them where it can, most notably with the ongoing Office modernization efforts in preparation for a wholesale technological upgrade to the Office’s systems. In other areas, the Office found that legislative action is the best solution. The Office continues to strongly support the idea of a small copyright claims tribunal, as well as a legislative solution to the orphan works conundrum.

Rulemakings and Regulations

On May 20, 2019, the Office proposed to create a new group registration option for musical works, sound recordings, and certain other works contained on an album. The proposed rule will expand the registration options currently available to register multiple musical works or sound recordings under one application by adding an option to be known as “Group Registration for Works on an Album of Music” or “GRAM.” In particular, this proposed group registration option will permit the registration of multiple musical works and/or sound recordings distributed together using a single electronic application, regardless whether such distribution occurs via physical or digital media. The Office proposes these changes to encourage broader participation in the registration system by reducing registration burdens on applicants, and seeks public comments on this proposed rulemaking.
On April 23, 2019, the Office issued a final rule regarding registration of architectural works, adopting in full a proposed rule following a period of public comment. This rule provides that, other than exceptional cases, applicants must submit their claims using the online Standard Application. The rule also encourages applicants to upload digital copies of their works through the electronic registration system, rather than submitting physical copies, and clarifies what aspects of the architectural plan must be visually perceptible from the deposit copies. Finally, the rule clarifies that applicants must provide a date of construction for a building only if the work was embodied in unpublished plans or drawings on or before December 1, 1990, and if the building was constructed before January 1, 2003.

On April 9, 2019, pursuant to the Classics Protection and Access Act, title II of the Orrin G. Hatch–Bob Goodlatte Music Modernization Act (MMA), the Office issued a final rule regarding the noncommercial use exception to unauthorized uses of sound recordings fixed before February 15, 1972 (Pre-1972 Sound Recordings). The rule became effective May 9, 2019. In connection with the establishment of federal remedies for unauthorized uses of Pre-1972 Sound Recordings, Congress established an exception for certain noncommercial uses of Pre-1972 Sound Recordings that are not being commercially exploited. To qualify for this exemption, a user must file a notice of noncommercial use after conducting a good faith, reasonable search, and the rights owner of the sound recording must not object to the use within ninety days of the notice being indexed in the Copyright Office’s public record. The final rule identifies the specific steps that a user should take to demonstrate she has made a good faith, reasonable search. The rule also details the filing requirements for the user to submit a notice of noncommercial use and for a rights owner to submit a notice objecting to such use.

On March 22, 2019, the Office finalized interim regulations pursuant to the Musical Works Modernization Act, title I of the Orrin G. Hatch–Bob Goodlatte Music Modernization Act. The interim rule amended the Office’s prior regulations pertaining to the compulsory “mechanical” license for making and distributing phonorecords of nondramatic musical works available under 17 USC § 115 so as to conform the prior regulations to the new law, including with respect to the operation of notices of intention and statements of account, and made other minor technical updates. This rule is generally directed at the present transition period before a blanket license is offered by a mechanical licensing collective and does not include regulatory updates that may be required in connection with the future offering of that blanket license; such updates will be the subject of future rulemakings. In addition to adopting the interim rule as final, the rule makes further technical changes to the Office’s statement of account regulations to update cross-references to other section 115-related regulations that were recently amended by the Copyright Royalty Judges.

Starting on March 15, 2019, the Office instituted a new group registration procedure for unpublished works. The Group Registration for Unpublished Works (GRUW) replaces the Unpublished Collections registration procedure. Applicants must use the new GRUW Online Application and must submit electronic deposits for each of the works included in the claim. A GRUW application may include up to ten works, which may be individual works, joint works, or derivative works. All the works in the application must have the same author or co-authors and be of the same type. Additionally, all authors must be named as copyright claimants. Databases, collective works, compilations, and websites are not eligible for this type of registration.

On February 13, 2019, the Office adopted a final rule, effective March 15, 2019, amending Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) practices and procedures. In 2017, the Office issued an interim rule, implementing the FOIA Improvement Act of 2016. The final rule makes minimal amendments to the interim rule in response to public comments and updated guidance from the Department of Justice. Specifically, the updated final rule alerts requesters as to the availability of Office of Government Information Services when providing notice of unusual circumstances and adopts streamlined fee waiver procedures. The regulations provide a clear structure for the required regulatory provisions of FOIA, formalize Office practices of multitrack processing and aggregation, and provide areas of enhanced customer service. The rule and comments are available here.

On February 13, 2019, the Office published a final rule amending its regulations for the group registration of newspapers. The Office previously updated its newspaper group registration regulations in March 2018, implementing several changes to promote efficiency in the registration process and encourage broader participation in the registration system by reducing the burden on applicants. Among other changes, the rule enabled publishers to register a group of newspapers by submitting an electronic application and a PDF copy of each issue within three months after the publication of the earliest issue in the group. In response to concerns expressed by some publishers over the burdens presented by the three-month deadline, the Office has amended the regulations to eliminate that requirement. Publishers now will be permitted to submit group registration claims regardless of when their newspaper issues were published. Likewise, publishers may electronically file new applications for claims that were refused because they were filed on a paper form or without a digital deposit, or because they were received after the three-month deadline.

Litigation

On March 4, 2019, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that a person claiming copyright interest in a creative work must wait until the Copyright Office has acted on his or her registration application before filing a copyright infringement claim in court. This decision, which came in the case of Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp. v. Wall-Street.com LLC, resolves a disagreement among federal appeals courts over whether to follow the “application rule” or the “registration rule” when considering the Copyright Act’s requirement that a copyright infringement plaintiff has to have a registration for the allegedly infringed work. The disagreement was over what “registration” means in this statute. Does it mean that the copyright owner has to wait until the Copyright Office actually issues a registration certificate or a refusal to register (the registration rule)? Or does it mean that a lawsuit can go forward if the plaintiff has just filed its application to register with the Copyright Office (the application rule)? But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit agreed with Wall-Street.com’s argument that Fourth Estate had to wait until the Copyright Office either issued a registration or a refusal to register before going to court. The Office of the U.S. Solicitor General and Office of the General Counsel of the Copyright Office urged the Supreme Court to affirm the Eleventh Circuit’s ruling, which it did.

Outreach

In addition to modernization webinars, the Office conducted a webinar on April 10, 2019, detailing the proposed changes to the Compendium.

The Office held two Copyright Matters events so far in 2019: “The Public Domain: Celebrating the Lifecycle of Copyright” on January 16, and the World Intellectual Property Day celebration event, “Reach for Gold: Copyright and Sports” on April 25.

The Office has six outreach videos in production. They include a welcome to the Copyright Office, general copyright information, copyright on the internet, infringement, registration, and fair use. Six more videos are in development for this year. The Office contracted with RocketMedia to produce these videos.

The Office held an open house on February 13, 2019, showcasing for Library staff what each division of the Copyright Office does.

Website

The Office of Public Information and Education (PIE) is taking a fresh look at copyright.gov to see how we can serve the public better. The Office invited external users to provide feedback on both website navigability and content availability. This exercise is not looking at the recordation system or the online registration system (eCO) but instead will focus on the rest of copyright.gov. The review is ongoing.

LIBRARY COLLECTIONS AND SERVICES GROUP

Jane Sánchez was permanently appointed Deputy Librarian of Congress for Library Collections and Services on June 10, 2019. She also continues as Law Librarian of Congress. Within the Library Collections and Services Group, Colleen Shogan is Assistant Deputy Librarian, focusing on the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Kluge Center, and Internship and Fellowship Programs. Joseph Cappello is Director for Operations. Sánchez is leading the initiative to centralize the LCSG’s administrative and operational functions by October 1, 2019. To fully leverage the talents of the staff currently supporting these functions, staff will be realigned from the Law Library Office of Administrative Operations, the Library Services Employee Resources and Management Team, and the Library Services Financial Management Team to form LCSG Operations. It will consist of two directorates: Organization Management and Financial Management.

Internship and Fellowship Programs (IFP)

One portal, many opportunities

Internship and Fellowship Programs (IFP) supports the placement of new talent throughout the Library of Congress. In fiscal year 2018, the Library hosted more than 300 interns across the agency, which would have been impossible without the coordination and management efforts of the division. IFP supports Library staff and interns, and provides a one-stop shop for opportunity seekers through the Internships and Fellowships Portal, a publicly accessible website designed to promote opportunities and recruit candidates for the Library's many fellowship, internship, residency and volunteer opportunities. The Portal is available at www.loc.gov/ifp

Archives, History, and Heritage Advanced Internship Project

The Library piloted a new internship, in collaboration with Howard University, providing three master and doctoral students the opportunity to augment their academic studies through experiential learning, professional development, and mentoring while helping to organize and catalog many items in the Library’s collections. The interns worked side-by-side with Library staff to learn the standards and techniques to properly arrange and provide online descriptions for three significant collections related to African-American history and culture, i.e., Ann Tanneyhill Papers, Bruce Jackson and Diane Christian Collection, the Pete Welding Collection, and Alvin Ailey Dance Collection. Student stipends for the Archives, History, and Heritage Advanced Internship Program were generously provided by Craig and Diane Welburn, members of the Library’s James Madison Council private sector support group.

Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities National Internship Program

The Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities National Internship Program (HNIP) and the Library in 2019 will celebrate 20 years of partnership, which has benefited over 330 interns by providing on-the-job training and educational enrichment. In summer 2019, the Library is hosting 18 interns across several service units, where they will work on valuable projects including those focused on communications, information management, outreach, and program management. IFP offers enrichment sessions that enhance each intern’s experience beyond on-the-job training that provide opportunities to explore a wide range of professional development activities and mentorships with former HNIP interns who went on to federal service. Interested undergraduate and graduate students may apply from www.hacu.net/hacu/HNIP.asp

Junior Fellows Summer Internship Program

The Library is hosting 40 participants in the 2019 Junior Fellows Summer Intern Program for a ten-week internship to explore the Library’s collections and tackle a range of 21st-century information management challenges. The Junior Fellows are assigned to 32 projects across the agency. The Junior Fellows’ efforts broaden access to and awareness of the Library’s unique collection, while simultaneously extending their own educational portfolios. The Library will celebrate their work at the annual Display Day July 24, 2019, 10:00 am to 3:00 pm, which will showcase their projects. For more information, please visit www.loc.gov/item/internships/juniorfellows

Librarians-in-Residence at the Library of Congress Program

In July 2019, the Library of Congress will welcome its second cohort of Librarians-in-Residence, an exciting initiative piloted last year. The program gives early-career librarians the opportunity to gain meaningful work experience in the following areas of specialization: acquisitions and collection development, cataloging and metadata, collection preservation, reference and instruction, and systems and standards.
For the 2020 program, to be eligible, applicants will have completed a Master’s degree in an American Library Association-accredited library and information science program after December 2018 and by June 2020. The application period will be in January 2020. Appointments will begin in July 2020. For additional information see www.loc.gov/librarians/librarians-in-residence/

Upward Bound Program

Since 2000, the Library of Congress has hosted interns participating in the Harvey Mudd College Upward Bound Program-Georgetown Internship to provide mentoring that helps students understand and appreciate the opportunities available to them by earning a bachelor’s degree. In 2019, the Library continued its support of the program by welcoming five students with the intent of inspiring them to develop and hone their academic and professional skills. The Internship is the zenith of a three-year process for the individuals, culminating in the intensive, five-week summer session. While in D.C., the students engage in a number of activities in addition to their internship, including coursework in U.S. history and literature, supervised study halls, seminars, and field trips to national monuments, historic landmarks, and colleges and universities. The program is funded by the U.S. Department of Education.

Library of Congress-University of Virginia Internship Placement Program

At the beginning of June 2019, the Library of Congress welcomed its second cohort of interns from the University of Virginia College of Arts and Sciences―an exciting initiative piloted last year. The program provides meaningful internship experiences for talented students and emerging professionals and expands student research, access, and use of the nation's extraordinary collections held at the Library of Congress.

ALA/PLA Inclusive Internship Initiative

The Library is a key partner in the ALA Public Library Association’s Inclusive Internship, which is in its third year. The program introduces high-school students from diverse backgrounds to careers in librarianship, matching the students with public librarians. The Library will host its annual workshop on Capitol Hill in late September 2019, and IFP will provide direct outreach to students and organizers. The event has had a meaningful impact in previous years, as suggested by one participant’s statement, “I was going to become a teacher, but have decided as a result of this experience that librarians rock, and that I am changing my career focus to becoming a librarian.”

Law Library of Congress

The Law Library continued its leadership role in the Library of Congress’s wide-ranging LibGuides program at guides.loc.gov. The soft launch began in October 2018, and we recently celebrated the official hard launch to the public on May 1, 2019, in honor of Law Day.

The Law Library has published 20 research guides, with several more currently in the editorial pipeline. The research guides span a variety of topics popular with Law Library patrons, such as

Compiling a Federal Legislative History: A Beginner’s Guide
U.S. Supreme Court Nominations
Municipal Codes: A Beginner’s Guide
Neighbor Law: A Beginner’s Guide

At the end of the first phase of the Content Management Internship Program, student interns worked with the supervision of Global Legal Research Directorate/ Public Services Division (PSD) staff to transfer information from previously published legal research guides on Law.gov and In Custodia Legis to the LibGuides format. Consequently, all of the “Beginner’s Guides” were entered into the LibGuides program. In the second phase of the Program, a PSD staff member is overseeing the transfer of all the state and country guides from the Law.gov Guide to the Law Online collection to the LibGuides format.

Webinars and Web Projects

Staff are creating a webinar version of Orientation to Law Library Collections and a webinar on Federal Statutes. Staff are also working on a web video about “doing research at the Law Library of Congress.”

Professional and Institutional Development

Staff of PSD made presentations to a number of professional organizations. In October 2018, a PSD staff member, in conjunction with a Global Legal Collection Directorate/Digital Resources Division staff member, provided a presentation at the 2018 Federal Depository Library Conference regarding Congress.gov. In January 2019, a PSD staff member provided an updated “How to Conduct Free Legal Research Online” presentation at the 2019 American Bar Association Midyear Meeting in Las Vegas, Nev. While at the meeting, the librarian staffed an informational table during the Center for Public Interest Law’s “10 Ways to Change the World” event, and was interviewed for the Legal Talk Network’s “On the Road” podcast.

A legal reference librarian researched and presented the Sports Broadcasting Law of 1961 in April 2019, and related legislative materials, for a Library of Congress program requested by Rep. Anthony Gonzalez and Peyton Manning, relating to a National Football League documentary for the NFL 100th anniversary.

Finally, two PSD staff members provided in-depth classes regarding Statutes and Case Law for the Law Librarians’ Society of Washington D.C.’s (LLSDC) Legal Research Institutes.

PSD staff continued to nurture the professional relationship between the Law Library and the Peace Palace Library after the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU). Serving as the primary liaison between members of the two organizations, a PSD staff member promoted collaboration regarding research and reference services.

An article titled, “The Law Library of Congress: A Global Resource for Legal Education,” co-authored, in part, by two PSD staff members, was published in the volume 67 of the Journal of Legal Education, which became available online (https://jle.aals.org/home/vol67/iss4/4/ ) in early 2019.

U.S. Serial Set

The Law Library with the support of the Government Publishing Office, Library Services, and the Office of the Chief Information Officer launched a major initiative in October 2018 to digitize 15,735 volumes of the U.S. Serial Set from the 15th Congress (1817) until the 103rd (1994). The U.S. Serial Set is a collection of House and Senate Documents and House and Senate Reports that allow researchers to find information on laws, especially while studying legislative history. This is expected to be a multi-year project that when completed will provide open access to a collection not currently freely available to the public and will offer improved accessibility to the world’s largest and most comprehensive collection of legal materials through expanded digitization.

American Association of Law Libraries, July 13-16, 2019

The Law Library of Congress will be an exhibitor at the American Association of Law Libraries Annual Meeting & Conference, July 13-16, 2019, in Washington, D.C. On Monday, July 15, 2019, there will be three presentations from Law Library of Congress staff: “The Age of AI: Emerging Regulatory Landscape around the World;” “No Regrets: Putting the User into Your Practice with Design Thinking;” and “Shifting the Law Library Approach from Operational to Service-Oriented.” The conference will be at the Washington Convention Center.

LIBRARY SERVICES

Staff Changes

Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden appointed Robin L. Dale, to the position of Associate Librarian for Library Services, effective April 1, 2019. Dale brings 26 years of experience to her new role. From August 2014-March 2019, she worked for the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), serving as Deputy Director for Library Services from May 2017-March 2019. In that time, she directed grant activity for the Grants to States program and also managed the discretionary grant programs, including the National Leadership Grants and the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian programs. Before joining IMLS, Dale was Senior Director for Digital Services for LYRASIS. Prior to that, she was the Associate University Librarian for Collections and Library Information Systems at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Joe Puccio has returned to his position as Collection Development Officer.

Michelle Light was appointed Director for Special Collections, effective May 28, 2019. She was formerly Director, Special Collections and Archives, at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV).

Helena Zinkham has returned to her permanent position as chief of the Prints and Photographs Division after serving as Director for Special Collections and, prior to the establishment of that directorate, as Director for Collections and Services.

LIBRARY SERVICES/Office of the Chief Operating Officer

Digital Collections Management and Services Division (DCMS)

Digital Collections Management and Services (DCMS) organized a one-day, onsite training workshop on May 21, 2019, that was devoted to ePADD , a suite of tools that supports the archiving of email collections. ePADD is free, open-source software developed by Stanford University's Special Collections & University Archives to support the appraisal, processing, preservation, discovery, and delivery of historical email archives. Peter Chan and Sally DeBauche, digital archivists from the ePADD project team at Stanford, led the training, and Library Services staff from DCMS, Manuscripts, Music, NAVCC, AFC, P&P, and VHP participated in the workshop. The goal of the training was to build support for the use of ePADD in processing born-digital email collections throughout the Library. For more information, contact Jesse Johnston, jesjohn@loc.gov

Integrated Library System Program Office (ILSPO)

LC Integrated Library System

The Library is currently running the LC Integrated Library System (ILS) on Voyager 8.2.0 and is planning to upgrade to Voyager 10.1 in November 2019.

Planning for the future

The Library is conducting market research for a next generation library services platform with vendors to learn about technology trends and developments for library collection management products. Staff throughout the Library have identified high-level business needs with the goal of issuing a Request For Information (RFI) in November 2019.

Metadata management

In the interim while conducting market research, ILSPO has stepped up its efforts to migrate legacy descriptive metadata into the ILS from silos. In fiscal 2018 the Program Office completed the migration of 168,000 bibliographic records from stand-alone databases to the LC ILS.

The ILS Program Office has pioneered the use within the Library of technology tools to edit and enhance datasets. The Program Office is working with colleagues in the Digital Collections Management and Services Division (DCMS) and the Office of the Chief Information Officer to plan for the ingest, management and description of e-newspapers and e-books via Copyright e-deposit.

LCCN Permalink

LCCN Permalink (lccn.loc.gov), a web service that allows users to create permanent URL links to bibliographic and authority records in the Library's Online Catalog (catalog.loc.gov) and the Library’s Handbook of Latin American Studies Catalog (URL hlasopac.loc.gov), enables researchers to reference materials from the Library's collection in blogs, reference guides, web pages, emails, bibliographies, and more. Since January 2019, the LCCN Permalink web service supported more than 130 million requests for bibliographic and authority metadata found in the LC Online Catalog, the LC Authorities Service, and the Handbook of Latin American Studies.

LC EAD (Encoded Archival Description) archival finding aids

Since January 2019, Special Collections Directorate divisions have created 39 new EAD archival finding aids, bringing the total number of LC EAD finding aids to 2,532. Included among the new finding aids are the papers of Madeline Albright, Bob Hope, Alex Haley, Billy Strayhorn, and the Look Magazine picture research file. Through the findingaids.loc.gov site, users can now access more than 70.1 million archival items in LC's collections. More than 70 of these finding aids are also integrated with the Library’s digital collection presentations, including recent additions for the papers of suffragist Carrie Chapman Catt, Gen. George McClellan, and the Associated Press news dispatches. Since June 2018, all Library EAD2002 finding aids are also available as EAD3 documents at findingaids.loc.gov.

LC persistent identifiers

The Library uses handle server technology to assign persistent identifiers and manage LC’s born-digital content. LC staff registered 66,341 handles between January and May 2019. As of early June 2019, the Library’s handle server contained 4,110,313 handles. Library staff assigned handles to: born digital resources stored in the Library’s digital repository; materials digitized by the Library and its partners; and digital books created by the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped.

In 2018, the Library upgraded its handle server platform, enabling support for multiple IP-based resolution of LC handles. Since January 2019, nearly 2.3 million requests were processed by LC’s handle server.

Electronic Resource Management System (ERMS)

The Library’s Electronic Resource Management System provides access to electronic journals, e-books and databases from 1,818 resource collections. The Library maintained metadata for 1,545,489 titles and updated journal coverage entries, typically loading approximately 2 million coverage records monthly.

The ERMS successfully fulfilled 1,300,000 search requests in fiscal 2018.

OAI-PMH (Open Archive Initiative-Protocol for Metadata Harvesting)

ILSPO completed a survey of the historical and current use of OAI-PMH and found that usage has declined sharply due to the improved utility of APIs for access to the Library’s data. See LC for Robots at labs.loc.gov/lc-for-robots. In light of these findings, Library Services has decided to deprecate OAI-PMH access to its metadata.

Librarians in Residence

see under LIBRARY COLLECTIONS AND SERVICES GROUP/Internship and Fellowship Programs (IFP) earlier in this document

LIBRARY SERVICES/Acquisitions and Bibliographic Access Directorate (ABA)

Staff Changes and Honors

Jessalyn Zoom was appointed chief of the Asian and Middle Eastern Division, ABA, effective May 13, 2019. Lucy Barron is serving as acting chief of the Germanic and Slavic Division. Diana Snigurowicz is acting chief of the US/Anglo Division. Judith Cannan, chief of the former Cooperative and Instructional Programs Division (COIN), became chief of the new Policy, Training, and Cooperative Programs Division when it was established on June 9, 2019, through the merger of COIN and the former Policy and Standards Division.

Paul Crego, of the Israel and Judaica Section of ABA’s Asian and Middle Eastern Division, received an award from the Saxelebi Publishing House on April 11, 2019. The award recognized him as an American kartvelologist (specialist in Georgian studies) who has furthered U.S.-Georgia relations through his academic and library work. The April 11 award ceremony was co-sponsored by the Embassy of the Republic of Georgia and held in the Rayburn House Office Building, with Ambassador David Bakradze was in attendance.

Jolande Goldberg, senior cataloging policy specialist for Law Classification, PTCP Division, has been honored with the Hall of Fame Award given by the American Association of Law Libraries. The award is given in recognition of significant, substantial and long-standing contributions to the profession of law librarianship and service to AALL.

Acquisitions Fiscal and Overseas Support Division (AFOS)

The former Overseas Operations Division and the former Acquisitions Fiscal and Support Office were merged to form AFOS, effective April 28, 2019. The new division manages the Surplus Books and Duplicate Materials Exchange programs and provides policy for acquisitions operations. It also performs fiscal, accounting, and mail handling duties for ABA. The six field directors of the Library of Congress offices in Cairo, Islamabad, Jakarta, Nairobi, New Delhi, and Rio de Janeiro continue to report to the Director for ABA.

BIBFRAME

The Network Development and MARC Standards Office (NDMSO) and the Policy, Training, and Cooperative Programs Division (PTCP) continue to work together on BIBFRAME development and testing. Approximately 50 Library of Congress catalogers are currently participating in BIBFRAME Pilot Phase Two. Approximately 60 additional LC staff members, including several from LC’s Overseas Offices, will begin training this summer to join the Pilot by the end of the fiscal year.

Pilot participants have been creating bibliographic descriptions in both the BIBFRAME Editor, expressed in the BIBFRAME data model, and in the Library of Congress Integrated Library System (ILS), expressed in the MARC 21 Bibliographic Format. The Library of Congress ILS is the “database of record,” necessitating the need for duplicate bibliographic descriptions. BIBFRAME testing includes input of bibliographic data using BIBFRAME 2.0 vocabulary, input of non-Latin scripts, and the ability to incorporate authority data. Development of a policy decision on inputting non-Latin script with limited romanization is a goal for the 2019 fiscal year.

Work has also focused on providing a fuller level of interaction with a live BIBFRAME 2.0 database consisting of the complete BIBFRAME conversion of the LC bibliographic file. Features of the database include user search capability and use of linked data queries to highlight relationships between resources. Search results in the BIBFRAME 2.0 database can be refined by subject facet. Merging and matching BIBFRAME 2.0 work descriptions in the database is underway and will continue to be refined throughout 2019. Plans for 2019 include distribution of data from the BIBFRAME 2.0 database via the LC Linked Data Service.

The Library of Congress has developed, refined, and tested code for a number of improvements to the tools that are used in the BIBFRAME Pilot. This included improved validation and posting of new descriptions to the BIBFRAME database from the BIBFRAME Editor (input tool), enhancements of the editor interface such as “mouse over” previews of fuller data in authority lookups, and streamlining of the user display. NDMSO has developed a new editor feature that enables catalogers to define and name subsets (a “template”) of a profile. The template feature allows catalogers to customize the display of profile elements so that elements that are not needed for a particular type of resource can be “turned off” and those that are needed are “turned on.” Plans for the rest of 2019 include continuing to improve user interaction with these BIBFRAME Editor profiles and continuing to improve access to name/subject authority data.

The bibliographic data in the BIBFRAME 2.0 database is used in combination with authority data from the LC Linked Data Service. In June 2019 NDMSO is adding Works to ID.LOC.GOV when the BIBFRAME file of Works, Instances, and Items is loaded into ID. The LC Name and Subject authority files (NAF and Library of Congress Subject Headings, LCSH) have been available in ID.LOC.GOV for almost 10 years. Over time several other important files maintained by LC have been added to the ID Linked Data Service collection, such as MARC language and country codes, LC Classification, and the LC Thesaurus of Graphic Material. ID.LOC.GOV has also made available a large number of lists and terms needed by the preservation standard, PREMIS. In ID.LOC.GOV, files are available for individual search and for download or viewing in various formats including RDF (BIBFRAME, SKOS, and MADSRDF) and XML

Since ID.LOC.GOV serves as an integral part of the BIBFRAME developments at LC, it has also recently been enhanced with a number of term lists that LC needed in BIBFRAME cataloging to support type-aheads and pick lists in the BIBFRAME Editor (input tool) and to supply URIs for entities in the BIBFRAME descriptions.

Cataloging in Publication (CIP)/DEWEY

Karl Debus-López, Chief of the U.S. Programs, Law, and Literature Division (USPRLL), can be reached at kdeb@loc.gov for questions related to the Cataloging in Publication (CIP), International Standard Serial Number (ISSN), and Children’s and Young Adults’ Cataloging (CYAC) programs. Caroline Saccucci, CIP and Dewey Program manager, can be reached at csus@loc.gov.

CIP statistical information

Through April in fiscal 2019, LC staff have cataloged 26,405 CIP titles in advance of publication. Institutional members of the CIP Partnership Program have contributed 4,057 CIP records. Contract catalogers have completed 4,003 records towards a goal of 4,500 total. The total of all CIP records cataloged in fiscal 2019 through April is 34,465.

E-Book developments

Through April in fiscal 2019, the CIP Program has created 10,778 e-book bibliographic records and received 10,233 e-book files from 119 publisher sftp accounts. A total of 3,333 e-book files have been verified and ingested.

PrePub Book Link

PrePub Book Link, the software that replaces ECIP Traffic Manager, launched on May 21, 2019, for publishers and authors to request CIP data. Library of Congress staff and CIP Partnership libraries began using the new system to distribute CIP applications, input data, and return cataloging data to publishers on May 30, 2019. The former ECIP Traffic Manager system closed to publishers on April 26, 2019, and to Library of Congress staff on May 6, 2019, to enable data migration to PrePub Book Link. Each of the 200-plus users at the Library of Congress received three hours of training in the new system. PrePub Book Link conforms to current Library of Congress information security requirements and offers improved searching and routing functions in addition to the capability to generate an initial MARC format bibliographic record from the data submitted by the requesting publisher. The system was developed by Library of Congress staff and external contractors and will be maintained by the Library of Congress information technology staff.

Dewey statistical information

In the first seven months of fiscal 2019, the LC Dewey Program assigned Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) to 26,934 bibliographic records; an additional 10,752 DDC were assigned to CIP e-book records. Northwestern University, Queens Library, and the U.S. Government Publishing Office, all members of the CIP Partnership Program, assigned DDC to 878 CIP records. An additional 3,280 DDC were semi-automatically assigned by AutoDewey, and 3,469 DDC were added to ISSN records. DDC numbers were included in 23,570 records processed via the copy cataloging workstream; these are identified in the 082 field with a second indicator 4. The fiscal 2019 total to date for all DDC assigned in LC records was 68,883.

In addition to DDC assignment, LC’s Dewey classifiers added Library of Congress Classification to 772 ECIP records cataloged by the National Library of Medicine. Library of Congress Dewey classifiers also completed the subject cataloging (assignment of LCSH, LC Classification, and shelflisting) for 79 ECIPs.

Dewey editorial project work

As part of the community engagement initiative of the OCLC Dewey editorial team, several Library of Congress classifiers have begun editorial projects. One project will update the time periods for China, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan. Another is to update the time periods for administrations of Brazil.

Cataloging Policy

Organizational changes

The Policy and Standards Division (PSD) and the Cooperative and Instructional Programs Division (COIN) have merged to form a new division called the Policy, Training, and Cooperative Programs Division (PTCP). Judith Cannan is the chief of the new division. The merger was prompted by the overlap of tasks carried out by the staff of the two former divisions, including developing and communicating cataloging policy decisions, responding to queries from the cataloging community, interacting with internal and external constituents as Library of Congress experts, providing training and briefings, producing and maintaining cataloging documentation, and involvement with the Program for Cooperative Cataloging. The merged division will allow for more efficiency in these areas of overlap. It consists of two sections, with some staff members reporting directly to the chief.

Staff Changes

Alysia Peich and Daniel Griffin joined the Policy, Training, and Cooperative Programs Division as senior instructors.

LC-PCC Policy Statements

Since the text of the RDA Toolkit is currently “frozen” while the preparations for the 3R Project continue (see www.rdatoolkit.org/3Rproject ), the Library of Congress-Program for Cooperative Cataloging Policy Statements are frozen as well. Should it become necessary to issue new or revised policy statements prior to the release of the 3R Project, they will be posted at: www.loc.gov/aba/rda/lcps_access.html.

New editions

The 2019 PDF editions of Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms for Library and Archival Materials (LCGFT), Library of Congress Demographic Group Terms (LCDGT), and Library of Congress Medium of Performance Thesaurus for Music (LCMPT), as well as the LC Classification schedules and tables, were published in May 2019. They may be found under “Products available for download” on the ABA website at: www.loc.gov/aba/.

Linear Name Changes for Macedonia (Republic) and Swaziland

The national governments of the Republic of Macedonia and Swaziland recently changed the names of their countries to North Macedonia and Eswatini, respectively. The PTCP staff undertook projects to update the LC/NAF, LCSH, and LCC to reflect the new country names.

The revisions to name authority records affected by the name changes, including local places and corporate bodies qualified by place, have been completed. For example, the local place heading Bitola (Macedonia) was changed to Bitola (North Macedonia) to reflect the current name of the larger place. Local place names that existed only during the time of the earlier name of the country have not been changed. For example, Titov Veles (Macedonia) is unchanged, but the later heading is now Veles (North Macedonia) because the name Titov Veles changed to Veles in 1996. See LC-PCC PS for 16.2.2.4, Choice of Larger Place, for more information.

All affected LCSH authority records have also been updated, for both countries. LCC has been updated when the revision affected the classification number; e.g., a proposal to cancel QH178.M23 in favor of QH178.N64 appeared on Tentative List 1905. Changes to LCC that do not affect classification numbers – typically, when only a change in caption is necessary – will be completed offlist in the coming months.

The Subject Headings Manual (SHM) and the Classification and Shelflisting Manual (CSM) have been revised to reflect the changes, too. In particular, G 300, the Regions and Countries Table, was updated to include new cutters for the two countries (E77 for Eswatini and N74 for North Macedonia).

Following standard policy, the earlier and later name headings of both countries are each valid for use as descriptive access points, as appropriate. However, since each country underwent a linear name change, the descriptive access points Macedonia (Republic) and Swaziland are no longer valid for subject use. Instead, North Macedonia and Eswatini, respectively, should be assigned as subject headings and geographic subdivisions. See SHM H 708 for more information.

“Multiple” Subdivisions in LCSH

In order to better support linked-data initiatives, PTCP has begun a project to cancel “multiple” subdivisions from LCSH. “Multiple” subdivisions are a special type of subdivision that automatically gives free-floating status to analogous subdivisions used under the same heading.

The initial focus of the project is the multiple subdivisions that are used after the topical subdivision –Religious aspects. As of the end of May 2019, a total of 470 authority records have been cancelled and 3,691 have been created. In addition, 93 validation records have been redesignated as full authority records.

The continued existence of a multiple subdivision for a particular topic cannot be assumed. It is therefore imperative that LCSH be searched at all times, in order to determine whether the multiple has been cancelled. Catalogers may remember the multiples Birth control—Religious aspects—Buddhism, [Christianity, etc.] and Birth control—Religious aspects—Baptists, [Catholic Church, etc.], for example, but they were cancelled in May 2019 and replaced by 20 individual authority records. Because the multiple was cancelled, all headings of the type Birth control—Religious aspects—[religion or Christian denomination] must have an authority record; that is, they must be proposed as needed.

Individual multiple subdivisions should continue to be used according to the instructions in SHMH 1090 until they are cancelled.

PTCP will inform the community of its progress on the project by updating the spreadsheet on the Multiples Cancellation Project website: www.loc.gov/aba/cataloging/subject/multiplescancellationproject.html. The spreadsheet lists all of the authority records that will be cancelled. The records are organized by MARC field tag (with each tag comprising a worksheet) and alphabetically within the tag. As each record is cancelled, its date of cancellation will be indicated in the “processed” column. The project will not proceed alphabetically, so those wishing to update their local catalogs are encouraged to download the spreadsheet periodically and sort it by the date of cancellation.
Additional information about the project may be found on the project website at the URL provided above.

Art Terms in LCGFT

The art genre/form project was a collaborative effort of the Cataloging Advisory Committee of the Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA) and LC. The first terms were approved for use in February 2018, and since then, some additional terms have been approved as a follow-up to the project. An instruction sheet for the draft genre/form manual will be published this summer, and PTCP will begin to accept proposals for new and revised art genre/form terms after the draft instruction sheet is published.

Moratorium on LCDGT Proposals

LCDGT is intended to describe the creators of, and contributors to, resources, and also the intended audience of resources. Terms may be assigned in bibliographic records and in authority records for works and expressions. The moratorium on proposals for new and revised terms that was enacted in February 2018 is still in place while PTCP thoroughly evaluates LCDGT’s structure and principles.

Classification Web 4

An updated interface for Classification Web will be released in late summer or early fall of 2019. The interface will have all of the same functionality as the current one and will include some additional features. Janis L. Young will demonstrate the new interface at the PCC At Large meeting, Sunday, June 23, 2:30-3:30 p.m. in the Renaissance Hotel, Congressional A.

Cooperative Cataloging

National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC). The Policy, Training, and Cooperative Programs Division (PTCP) oversees the NUCMC program, through which catalogers at the Library of Congress create bibliographic records in OCLC WorldCat, and associated authority records, for the archival collections of repositories that meet the program’s eligibility requirements. A NUCMC cataloger and a PTCP staff member have been trained to contribute data to the Social Network in Authority Context (SNAC) project, hosted by the National Archives and Records Administration and the University of Virginia. During this pilot phase they will be evaluating the SNAC interface for its potential usefulness for describing NUCMC collections. When satisfied that enough data has been collected, PTCP will submit a report to Library Services.

Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC). The Policy, Training, and Cooperative Programs Division (PTCP) serves as the secretariat for the Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC), an international consortium of approximately 700 libraries and other institutions that sets cataloging standards, delivers training, and supports innovations in cataloging and bibliographic formats. The four components of the program are: NACO, the Name Authority Cooperative; BIBCO, the monographic Bibliographic Cooperative; CONSER, the Cooperative Online Serials bibliographic component; and SACO, the Subject Authority Cooperative, which facilitates contributions to LCSH, LCGFT, LCDGT, LCMPT, and LCC.

During the first half of Library of Congress fiscal year 2019, ten institutions (including eight in Hong Kong) joined the PCC as full-level NACO members, two institutions joined as full-level BIBCO members, and three institutions joined as Enhance-level CONSER members. In addition, nine institutions joined existing NACO funnel projects (including two in Mexico), a new NACO funnel project was formed with seven charter institutional members from an academic library consortium in South Africa, and one institution joined an existing BIBCO funnel project that had expanded its geographic scope.

The PCC Operations Committee met May 2-3, 2019, at the Library of Congress. For the first time, the meeting was also live-streamed via WebEx to allow PCC members to attend remotely. Highlights of the meeting included presentations on changes to RDA resulting from the new International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) Standard “Library Reference Model” and the 3R Project, updates on PCC participation in several projects (including LD4P (Linked Data for Production), the PCC ISNI (International Standard Name Identifier) Pilot, and the CJK Funnel References Project), reports on the work of PCC standing committees and task groups, and a hands-on Wikidata workshop. View a copy of the agenda, with links to the presentations and WebEx recordings [PDF].

Representatives of the seventeen PCC institutions selected to participate in the second phase of LD4P, the project based at Stanford University and funded by the Mellon Foundation to foster adoption and implementation of linked data, will be meeting with LD4P project partners (Cornell, Harvard, Stanford, and the University of Iowa School of Library and Information Science) on June 25-26, 2019, at the Library of Congress. A cloud-based sandbox environment, called Sinopia, is being developed for use in the creation of linked data by LD4P participants. It will eventually be open to all PCC members for experimentation.

Children’s and Young Adults Cataloging (CYAC)

To date in fiscal 2019, the Literature Section, U.S. Programs, Law, and Literature Division, has processed 2,469 CYAC titles with subject headings and summaries. Prior to the implementation of the new PrePub Book Link system, the CYAC catalogers eliminated the CYAC ECIP backlog. A new CYAC brochure and bookmark will be available at the Library’s Open House for ALA on Saturday evening, June 22, and at the USPRLL event on Monday, June 24, in “Mahogany Row,” Room LJ113 in the Thomas Jefferson Building.

Progress continued to be made regarding the section’s online decisions file. Access points have been renamed to improve searching and edits were made to individual online decisions to provide greater clarity to the records.

U.S. ISSN Center

ISO 8. A significant revision of the international standard ISO 8:1977, Presentation and Identification of Periodicals, was published by the International Standards Organization April 1, 2019. Regina Reynolds, Director of the U.S. ISSN Center in USPRLL, was a member of the ISO working group that prepared this first revision of the standard since it was first published in 1977. The standard’s focus is on “elements of periodicals — printed, born-digital or retrospectively digitized — that relate to the presentation of title and supporting descriptive information, as well as practices related to title identification and content access over time.” In 1977, the ISSN standard, was very new and online periodicals did not exist. This revision incorporates extensive information and guidance about ISSN. Guidance about e-Journals is based on the recommended practice from the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) entitled, PIE-J: Presentation and Identification of E-Journals. Regina Reynolds played a key role in the development and promotion of PIE-J and is currently involved in preparations to promote ISO 8. An article about the revised standard written by Reynolds and Laurie Kaplan of ProQuest, convener of the ISO Working Group, appeared June 5, 2019, on NISO’s I/O web page.

Revision of ISO 3297, the ISSN Standard. A ballot on the first draft of the revised ISSN Standard closed March 14, 2019. Regina Reynolds, director of the U.S. ISSN Center at the Library of Congress and member of the ISO working group, participated in the 46th meeting of ISO Technical Committee 46, Information and Documentation, in Ottawa, Ont., May 6-8, 2019. During this meeting, the ISSN working group met to review and answer the numerous comments received on the first draft. The draft will next be updated to take comments into account. The final draft standard will then be put to a vote of eligible ISO members.

ISSN and Copyright for U.S. newspapers. The U.S. Copyright Office has expanded the deposit of e-prints—PDF versions of newspapers—to include publishers with special relief agreements as well as group registration depositors. The U.S. ISSN Center is working with the U.S. Copyright Office and LC’s Serial and Government Publications Division to assign ISSN to these newspapers. The ISSN will be incorporated into standardized file names to identify the e-deposits.

ISSN Uplink. Development has begun on a system to provide a web-based application process and automated workflow for the U.S. ISSN Center. The system is being developed in-house and a working prototype of an application form that can output a draft MARC record is already in limited use within the ISSN Section. The future system will include publisher registration, application forms tailored to different types of requesters, customizable boilerplate communications, reminders to publishers with “overdue” publications, and other efficiencies.

ISSN Governing Board. Karl Debus-López, Chief of the U.S. Programs, Law and Literature Division, attended the ISSN Governing Board meeting on April 15-16, 2019 in Paris, France, representing the United States. Preparations for a new 2020-2024 strategic plan for the ISSN Network were discussed, as were continued development of the ISSN International Centre’s technological infrastructure, the revision of the ISSN standard, and the impact of charging for ISSN assignments.

ISSN Annual Meeting. The 44th Meeting of Directors of ISSN National Centres will be held in New Delhi, India, Nov. 12-16, 2019. Regina Reynolds, director of the U.S. ISSN Center, will participate in this meeting and in a meeting of the ISSN Review Group on November 11, 2019.

Network Development and MARC Standards Office (NDMSO)

see also BIBFRAME above

MODS. The Metadata Object Description Standard (MODS) version 3.7 was released in spring 2019. The MODS guidelines are being completely reworked, and work proceeds on conversions to version 3.7.
Veterans History Project (VHP). In support of the Veterans History Project, NDMSO produced new feature presentations for the Experiencing War website: The GI Bill: 75 Years of Opportunity (February 2019) and D-Day: 75th Anniversary (June 2019).

Library of Congress Acquisitions and Cataloging Production

Acquisitions Work	FY19 Oct.-March	FY2018	FY2017
Items purchased for LC collections	355,588	559,467	647,999
Items acquired for LC by non-purchase	1,925	1,470,000	1,472,501
Expenditures for collections purchases	$14,072,738	$22,700,000	$23,900,000

Bibliographic Records Completed	FY19 Oct.-March	FY2018	FY2017
Original	158,256	189,255	209,213
Collection-level cataloging	N/A	1,060	1,395
Copy cataloging	48,479	77,598	85,623
Minimal level cataloging	N/A	25,222	75,976
Total records completed	206,735	293,135	372,207
Total volumes cataloged	N/A	305,955	389,040

Authority Work	FY19 Oct.-March	FY2018	FY2017
New name authority records	44,369	88,411	72,991
New LC Subject Headings	N/A	2,221	2,664
New LC Classification Numbers	N/A	2,100	2,306
Total authority records created	44,369	92,732	76,927

American Folklife Center/Veterans History Project (VHP)

see under Special Collections Directorate/American Folklife Center/Veterans History Project later in this document

Collection Development Office

Staff and Organizational Changes

Mary Champagne will be the new Electronic Resources Coordinator in the Collection Development Office (CDO), with a start scheduled for late June 2019. In that position, she will be responsible for the Library’s collection of approximately 950 leased and purchased electronic resources. She has most recently worked in the Researcher and Reference Services Division of the Library and previously was the head of reference at Hood College, in Frederick, MD.

The Collection Development Office also plans in the coming weeks to fill a new position, the Digital Collections Development Coordinator. The individual in that position will be responsible for collection development related to digital materials such as web archives, datasets and bulk data.

Budget Update

The GENPAC and the LAW collections acquisitions appropriations are used to support the Library’s program to selectively purchase collections materials in all formats, physical and digital. For Fiscal 2019, which began Oct. 1, 2018, the combined appropriations total $18,728,789. Although that is a substantial allocation, it is just about the same amount that was appropriated in fiscal 2011. In fiscal 2012 and fiscal 2013, there were two consecutive years of significant cuts to these appropriations, resulting in subscription cancellations and other reductions. Since those years, the appropriations have seen some incremental increases, but not enough to keep pace with the rising cost of materials.

New Programs and Initiatives

The Library continues its multi-year effort to expand digital collecting into new areas. Recent progress includes:

Copyright group registration of newspaper e-prints has been implemented. This replaces a process that required the deposit of microfilm.
A group was formed to develop and pilot workflows for the routine acquisition of digital content via purchase and gift.
The Openly Available, Endangered Content Working Group was formed to examine issues regarding the Library’s acquisition of such materials.
The Data Sets Working Group was established.

CDO continues its program to review and update on a cyclical basis all of the Library’s Collections Policy Statements and associated Supplementary Guidelines. There are over seventy such documents that guide the Library’s collecting program (see www.loc.gov/acq/devpol/cpsstate.html). During FY 2018, work on twelve documents was completed. The following ten documents were reviewed, updated, and re-posted to the URL above:

Chemical Sciences
Earth Sciences
Law
Military Science
Newspapers-Foreign
Periodicals of General Content
Political Science
Science-General
Standards
Technology

The following two new documents were developed, approved and posted:

Classics and the Ancient, Medieval, and Byzantine Worlds
Independently Published & Self-Published Textual Materials (Supplementary Guidelines)

Notable and Newsworthy Collection Development and Acquisition Models

The Library’s collection of web archives has been built over two decades through the crawling and harvesting of files from the live Internet. The Collection Development Office proposed that retrospective web archives also be considered for acquisition. As a result, the Library purchased from the Internet Archive a collection of sites from the .gov domain originally harvested in the years 1996-2001. They filled a gap in the Library’s collection of archived government sites from the early years of the Internet. The Library hopes to selectively apply this model of acquisition to fill other gaps in the collection.

The Library of Congress collects for our users today and for the users of future generations. With limited resources, what should we acquire, preserve and make accessible forever? It’s a question that we are continually asking ourselves. Traditional print publishing is holding strong, while the availability of electronic resources and other digital content continues to grow. An expanded range of standard internal digital content lifecycle workflows, starting with acquisitions, is being established. With these digital collecting pathways in place, the Library will likely need to make critical decisions regarding the allocation of its acquisitions funding and staff resources. A rebalancing between analog and digital collecting will need to be set.

LIBRARY SERVICES/General and International Collections Directorate

Staff Changes

Mary Jane Deeb, chief of the African and Middle East Division, retired Feb. 28, 2019. The new chief will be appointed in the future.

African and Middle East Division (AMED)

Move of reading room

The new AMED reading room is located in the Northeast Pavilion of the Library’s Thomas Jefferson Building (LJ-229). To get there, go to the building’s 2nd Street side, take an elevator to the 2nd floor, pass through the Rare Books and Special Collections (RBSC) Division’s offices and proceed to AMED. As before, the reading room provides access to the division’s services and to its collections in the languages of Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia, as well as Hebraic materials worldwide.

Digital collections. AMED has launched the following digital collections in fiscal 2019

Nov. 2018: Abdul-Hamid II Collection of Books and Serials Gifted to the Library of Congress
Feb. 5, 2019: Omar Ibn Said digital collection
March 2019: Persian Language Rare Materials collection
June 2019: Eltaher Collection

Researcher and Reference Services

The Researcher and Reference Services Division produced 38 LibGuides as a way to make the Library’s rich and expansive collection more portable and adaptable for the increasing number of users interested in accessing the collections. All of the LibGuides are found on the Library’s website at guides.loc.gov and cover a wide range of topics. Our most popular guide, "Indian Removal Act", has over 153,000 views and can be accessed here: guides.loc.gov/indian-removal-act. Our "Rosie the Riveter" guide is also quite popular: guides.loc.gov/rosie-the-riveter.

The Division presented 99 research orientations both online and on-site for 1,639 researchers, hosted 8,417 visitors during our bi-annual Main Reading Room open house events, and reached more than 10,000 people through active participation in outreach activities including Congressional dialogues, “Frankenreads,” the international celebration of the 200th anniversary of the publication of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the 100th anniversary celebration of Walt Whitman’s birthday, and Stonewall at 50.

Through the reader registration program, the Division registered 80,000 new readers and served 100,000 items to library patrons in the reading room.

The Division also oversaw the gift acquisition of the HistoryMakers Digital Archive. This database includes 2,691 interviews containing more than 10,000 hours of “primary source video content” of Africans Americans from a broad range of backgrounds and experiences accessible onsite at the Library.

Science, Technology & Business Division

Events on Monday, June 24, for ALA attendees

On June 24, 2019, the Science, Technology & Business Division will host a display of quilts in its reading room in the John Adams Building from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm. The quilts highlight endangered species from around the globe (see flyer below). The division will lead architectural tours of the Adams Building, an Art Deco treasure, every hour on the hour. Also in the reading room, retired ST&B librarian and current volunteer Connie Carter will present:

Experiences in reference & collection development over the past 53 years
Discussion of Library’s collections in the history of household technology, with a display
Discussion of school gardens and display of 19th & early 20th century books on school gardens, with a scrapbook of Alice Water’s visit to the Library to view the collection
Display of materials on suffragist cookbooks; collection of presidential food; Julia Child at the Library of Congress

Serial and Government Publications Division (SER)

The Serial and Government Publications Division (SER) performs a wide range of collection development, collection description, collection preservation, and reference service activities for its temporary and permanent collections. SER’s permanent collections include newspapers, comic books, pulp magazines, and several government document collections. The newspaper collection consists of approximately 1,100,000 current loose newspaper issues, over 38,000 bound volumes, and more than 780,000 microfilm reels. The newspaper collection also includes many original print holdings of commemorative and anniversary editions, and first printings of significant United States documents. The comic book collection includes more than 12,000 titles and more than 150,000 issues. SER’s pulp magazine collection is based on original print issues that have been reformatted to microfilm or preserved through facsimile reproduction; additionally, the original color covers of over 9,000 issues have been preserved. The Division is the official repository of archival sets of U.S. Federal Advisory Committee (FAC) documents, holding approximately 74,751 items from 6,484 committees. SER also houses reproducible master copies of U.S. Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) documents distributed on microfiche. SER holds the complete United Nations working document set in multiple formats. SER is also the custodial stakeholder for digitized newspapers acquired through the National Digital Newspaper Program, now approximately 15 million pages from 2,800 titles. The current periodical collection includes more than 49,000 domestic and foreign titles, including government serials, and 1,176,000 loose issues that reside temporarily in the Division prior to binding or microfilming and transfer to the Library’s general collection. In addition, SER is custodial for bound serials with minimal level cataloging (WMLC), a collection of approximately 5,300 volumes stored off site. SER accepted and now curates 826 volumes, representing 16 titles, of bound periodicals and related indexes in the Human Sexuality Collection, transferred from the Rare Book and Special Collection Division. Finally, SER is custodial for books-in-fascicles until volumes are complete and can be prepared for binding and transfer to the General Collection.

Government Publications and Periodicals Section

SER acquired 300 new silver masters by transfer from GPO in fiscal 2018. This brought the collection, housed in cold storage at Ft. Meade, to 533,224 documents. SER continued the Library’s participation in the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) and selected 94 percent of physical items offered to depository libraries, resulting in new acquisitions of 4,485 print publications, 2,194 service microfiche and 68 CD-ROMs. The Library as a whole continued as a United Nations depository library, and SER added to its permanent United Nations collection 2,831 working documents (collection now totaling approximately 1,148,976 documents) and official records on purchased microfiche (collection now totaling approximately 580,00 microfiche sheets).

In fiscal 2018, SER acquired 1,072 additional documents to the FAC collection, bringing the total collection to 74,751 documents, representing 6,484 committees, an addition of 33 new committees from the prior fiscal year. SER also prepared for binding 30,238 volumes, representing about 120,952 individual serial issues. Binding helps stabilize and preserve the issues.

Newspaper Section

With an increased funding allocation for print newspaper reformatting beginning October 2015, SER continued to address the backlog of newsprint issues (newspapers and periodicals) awaiting preservation microfilming. The division participates in the Library’s preservation microfilming program, filming titles that are not available for commercial purchase. Many of the titles filmed are from developing countries and ethnic U.S. communities; few U.S. institutions hold these titles. Filming SER’s issues makes these often-unique titles available for interlibrary loan. In fiscal 2018 more than 2.5 million pages were microfilmed, the largest quantity of SER collections reformatted by microfilming to date.
In March 2019, SER transferred the current newspaper collection to off-site storage while the Architect of the Capitol made safety upgrades in its onsite storage area. During the renovation of this space, researcher requests for current newspapers are fulfilled through twice- weekly deliveries of needed materials. The replacement project is scheduled to end in late summer 2019.

In addition to the Stephen A. Geppi donation of May 2018, SER added other collections in the past year. By way of Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Small Press Expo (SPX), the Division continued to acquire by donation additional items (including award-winning websites) from creators participating in the 2018 SPX annual expo. This year the division acquired by donation 749 items from this year’s Expo.

In March 2018, the U.S. Copyright Office began requiring deposit of digital facsimiles in place of microfilm for print newspapers registered for copyright protection using the Group Registration of Newspapers option, a registration process whereby newspaper publishers are able to register copyright for one month of newspaper issues at one time under a single registration and at reduced cost per issue. See final Notice of Rulemaking in U.S. Federal Register [PDF]. These digital deposits, referred to as e-prints, must be submitted in issue-level PDF format and include searchable text, among other technical requirements as described in the rule. As of June 1, 2019, 44 titles have been added to the collections, depositing more than 10,000 issue-level PDFs. The Library will provide public access to these collections, per regulatory restrictions, to two authorized users on LC premises at any one time. Publishers may continue to deposit microfilm, in addition to the required e-prints, until December 2019. In addition, in the near future, the Library will accept similar newspaper e-prints in fulfillment of mandatory deposit obligations (under special relief agreement) for publishers who no longer produce microfilm.

Reference Section

In fiscal 2018, SER reference staff handled 73,430 reference inquiries which included 54,786 in-person reference questions, 5,130 telephone queries, 13,482 (QuestionPoint and other) email inquiries, and 32 other letters. In addition, 12,798 unique patrons visited the reading room, 82,848 items were circulated from the collections, 20 different groups came to the Division for a visit or a tour, 12 research orientations were held, and 396 social media posts were shared.

Recommending officers in the Division continued participating in the Library’s web archiving efforts, maintaining seven collections within SER. Division staff also assisted with the proposal and selection of websites for a new collection, State Government Websites of the United States Web Archive, as a part of the State Government Documents Web Archiving Pilot Project.

Reference staff also created new browsing collections of comic books for the Reading Room to allow researchers easier access to one of our increasingly popular collections.

Orientation and outreach

SER sponsors an hour-long orientation to its collections and its reading room, the Newspaper and Current Periodical Reading Room, the last Tuesday of each month at 10:00 am. Members of the general public are welcome. In addition, SER organizes special orientations and tours for university classes and other groups with interests related to the collections. In mid-November 2014, SER joined the Library’s Twitter feed, providing tweets on a daily basis under the #ChronAm hashtags. In fiscal 2018, the division began its blog, Headlines and Heroes, posting weekly (26 in total for fiscal 2018, 39 so far in fiscal 2019). Librarians give presentations about SER’s U.S. Federal Advisory Committee Collection five times a year at General Services Administration training sessions for federal advisory committee officers. A SER librarian continues to serve as the Library’s lead representative in the Federal Web Archiving Working Group, which seeks to coordinate and develop standards for the archiving of U.S. federal government websites.

National Digital Newspaper Program

The National Digital Newspaper Program, jointly sponsored by the Library of Congress (LC) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) continues to build and provide free public access to a national collection of historical American newspapers. Applying digital technologies for enhancing and sustaining access to this important primary source of American history, the program will, over the long-term, fund digitization of historic newspapers in all U.S. states and territories. Participants in the program select newspapers from their state’s collections to digitize and contribute to the Library of Congress’ Chronicling America website. Currently, 46 states and territories and LC have contributed more than 15 million pages published between 1789 and 1963 to the collection, including ethnic news press from across the country in 18 languages. In 2018, the NEH announced the addition of the University of Alabama to the program as well as supplemental funding for 17 existing participants. New content is added to the site as it is accepted into the collection. Chronicling America also provides a general interest email and RSS feed, notifying subscribers of interesting NDNP program news and featured highlights and Topic in Chronicling America guides. Interested members of the library community and the public may subscribe at www.loc.gov/subscribe/#newspapers. Twitter users can follow @librarycongress, using #ChronAm to discover highlights of the collection.

SER continued producing its series of research pages called Topics in Chronicling America, commonly called Topics Pages, designed to aid users of the NDNP’s Chronicling America. Topics Pages focus on newsworthy historic events reported in the American press and searchable in Chronicling America. Topics Pages consist of three parts: the timeline, which lists important dates related to the topic; a list of suggested search terms or search strategies to locate stories; and a bibliography of ten to fifteen sample stories from Chronicling America’s digital newspaper collections. SER now provides Topics Pages for more than 357 subjects, with recently added guides for the Krakatoa Volcano Eruption, Carrie Chapman Catt, Rudolph Valentino, and more. Topics Pages are being migrated to the Library’s LibGuides collection.

LIBRARY SERVICES/Preservation Directorate

The Preservation Directorate (PRES) at the Library of Congress supports the agency’s mission to provide a “universal and enduring collection” by caring for the Library’s diverse types of holdings to ensure they are available to users now and in the future. PRES accomplishes this through conservation, binding, mass deacidification, reformatting, materials testing, storage management and inventory control, and staff and user education. The Directorate plays a central role in coordination and oversight of Library-wide activities relating to the preservation and physical protection of the collections.

ALA Annual and Outreach

Staff of PRES will be available at the Library of Congress Pavilion, Booth 2705 in the Washington Convention Center Exhibition Hall throughout the ALA 2019 Annual Conference. Director Jacob Nadal will hold office hours at the Pavilion Saturday and Sunday, 1:00-5:00 pm, to talk about the Library’s preservation efforts and hear about local and national preservation concerns. The Preservation Directorate will participate in the Library’s open house Saturday, June 22, 2019, from 5:00-8:00 pm in the Thomas Jefferson Building. Staff will show examples of treatments and housings, provide a variety of informational handouts and educational materials, showcase the Library’s preservation research, and discuss preservation questions with attendees.

In addition, Preservation will provide two tours of the Library’s preservation storage facility at Ft. Meade, Md., on Thursday, June 20, 2019, and two tours of the labs on Friday, June 21, 2019. Details are available on the Special Events and Tours page.

The Preservation website is the Library’s main portal into its many collections preservation activities and includes sections for a variety of physical collections as well as preservation information for digital content.

Educational Opportunities

The Library of Congress has an active program of internships, fellowships, and training opportunities in preservation to support individuals at many points in their professional and academic careers. Over the past year, Preservation hosted 31 interns and fellows for a variety of projects and educational programs. Opportunities are posted on the Internship and Fellowship portal.

Select Highlights from the Preservation Directorate

The Conservation Division made available online the Digital Imaging Workflow for Treatment Documentation (iDoc).

The workflow described in this document is specific to the setup and equipment in the LC Conservation Division but the procedures in the manual may be adapted for use in other conservation imaging studios. The manual is a step-by-step guide used by approximately 40 Conservation Division conservators, preservation specialists, and technicians with a wide range of digital image documentation skill levels and experiences. The manual follows the principles in The AIC Guide to Digital Photography and Conservation Documentation and abides by the AIC Code of Ethics and Guidelines for Practice .

The Binding and Collections Care Division posted several updates to the collections care manual [PDF].

The Library continues work on a project funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to evaluate the overall condition of collections in American libraries to support decision making for shared preservation efforts. This will entail comparison of approximately 500 bibliographically identical books from libraries in a variety of regions across the U.S. The project will develop more reliable methods of evaluating preservation needs and evaluate degree of accuracy and risk in national collections metadata (see www.loc.gov/item/prn-19-011/library-receives-major-grant-from-the-andrew-w-mellon-foundation/2019-02-04).

Director for Preservation Jacob Nadal continues to represent the Library in national shared print and cooperative print archiving initiatives focused on national-level opportunities for broader collective access to printed materials and risks to the comprehensive preservation of print monographs. These include the Partnership for Shared Book Collections and the HathiTrust Shared Print Advisory Committee.

Congress encouraged the Library to “increase cooperative partnerships, fellowship opportunities, and curriculum program associations with post-secondary institutions that have significant percentages of minority students” (H. Rept. 115-199, 115-696). This echoes calls from ALA and other professional associations to attend to diversity issue in cultural heritage. PRES continues its internship program with the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Library Alliance in a second year, in addition to its ongoing partnerships with the American Chemical Society SEED program and the Hispanic American Colleges and University National Internship Program (HNIP).

Preservation represents the Library on the Department of State’s Cultural Heritage Coordinating Committee (see eca.state.gov/cultural-heritage-center/cultural-heritage-coordinating-committee ), established in accordance with the sense of Congress expressed in Public Law 114–151 to coordinate U.S. government efforts “to protect and preserve international cultural property at risk from political instability, armed conflict, or natural or other disasters.” CHCC recently approved a concept note for a Preservation Working Group, developed by the Department of State, the Library, and the Smithsonian Institution. The Working Group will initially focus on identification and inventory of international preservation capacities, constraints, and activities across the interagency and outside government. This may include technical assistance and training; guidance for working with foreign governments and for engaging in foreign disaster management activities; and U.S. government engagement in preservation education.

Preservation staff continue their work with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and Heritage Emergency National Task Force (HENTF). Directorate staff supported HENTF response efforts in Puerto Rico to damage from Hurricane Maria and worked with ALA offices to provide information for the Paradise (CA) Public Library after the wildfires there.

Library conservators completed the treatment of the Omar ibn Said manuscript and 41 associated documents and were involved in various outreach activities associated with the end of the project. Finally, the PCS conservator wrote a guest blog for LC summarizing the treatment: blogs.loc.gov/loc/2019/02/omar-ibn-said-conserving-a-one-of-a-kind-manuscript

On March 13, 2019, the Preservation Directorate hosted a half-day session of the Dumbarton Oaks Colloquium on Mesoamerican Codices: New Discoveries and New Directions. Senior Paper Conservator Betsy Haude and Preservation Scientist Dr. Tana Villafana gave presentations on the past work and their recent analysis of the Huexotzinco Codex and the Oztoticpac Lands Map, two examples of Aztec codices, held by the Library. This was followed by an open discussion with the colloquium participants, comprised of an international group of scientists, historians, art historians and conservators, with the objects present for study, comparing their research findings and furthering knowledge associated with these rare artifacts.

In celebration of Preservation Week, the Library hosted tours of the Preservation laboratories, held an information session on the @librarycongress Twitter channel, and hosted an information event in the Baseball Americana gallery. The group provided handouts on protecting personal collections and seeking professional conservation referral and spoke with visitors about caring for their personal collections and memorabilia. Preservation gallery talks help the Library reach visitors from around the world and of all ages.

The Library completed the installation of its new Gutenberg Bible display case. The new case contains sophisticated equipment, which continually maintains an optimum temperature and relative humidity inside the case to ensure a minimal impact on the Bible during its long-term display. The case can be viewed during the Library’s Open House on Saturday, June 22.

The Preservation Reformatting Division (PRD) installed a new Digital Transitions BC-100 book scanner in April 2019. Widely considered the best book scanner of its kind, the addition of this equipment allows PRD to consistently output FADGI 3-star images and digitize materials previously rejected because of size constraints. Enhanced image preflight features ensure image accuracy and increased processing speeds allow for increased output and productivity. PRD will now be able to digitize bound materials up to 17x22 inches. In addition to the BC-100, PRD has also installed twelve (12) new Eizo CG277 color-calibrated monitors for use both with equipment and at individuals’ desks. These monitors will aid in PRD’s capture, review and QA of images produced in-house and via outside contractor.

LIBRARY SERVICES/Special Collections Directorate

American Folklife Center/Veterans History Project

The Veterans History Project (VHP) meets its congressional mandate to collect, preserve and make accessible the war stories of America’s veterans. This year the Project is particularly engaging in exciting collaborations with the National Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, to provide workshops and accessible braille and audio-described VHP materials. Additionally the Project will launch 20th anniversary commemorations beginning this fall. Reliant on the voluntary participation of individuals and organizations across the country, the Project now holds more than 110,000 accounts of U.S. veterans’ first-person narratives in the archive. Congressional offices, libraries, educational institutions, organizations and individual volunteers across the country continue to help gather and submit oral histories and materials documenting first person experience for VHP. The Project’s Facebook page, “Folklife Today Veterans History Project” Blog and the Project’s RSS feed and website, www.loc.gov/vets which continues to host four online curated exhibits per year, now totaling 63 “episodes” that all share rich content exploring the individual accounts of veterans experience.

Among many notable recent activities was VHP’s hosting of the “Code Girls” reunion in recognition of Women’s History Month, March 2019. Known to be the first-ever national gathering of the women code breakers of World War II, this event was at once a long-overdue celebration, and an emotive memorial. Six “Code Girls,” all of whom are nonagenarians, led the opening processional of more than 30 individuals from around the nation, each holding a framed photograph of their family’s deceased Code Girl. Guest speakers included New York Times Best Selling Author Liza Mundy, who researched VHP collections when writing her compelling book on these unsung heroes, as well as TV personality Bill Nye The Science Guy, whose mother was a Code Girl. The reunion garnered national media attention, and was a featured story on The NBC Today Show Weekend Edition in late March.

In implementing the Gold Star Family Voices Act (HR4511), VHP continues to increase visibility among Gold Star advocacy groups by engaging with them directly. As a result, to date more than 55 collections have been accepted under its aegis. The Project’s advancing collaboration with the National Museum of the American Indian around the National Native Veterans Memorial has resulted in a 23 percent increase in Native/American Indian self-identified collections.

VHP’s first full year in the new Information Center in the Library’s Thomas Jefferson Building is providing more convenient access to veterans, visitors and Members of Congress, and is enabling expanded outreach activities such as workshops, briefings and video teleconferences, which can even occur simultaneously. Additionally the two converted alcoves overlooking the Main Reading Room have enabled more than 80 onsite VHP interviews of local and traveling visitors.

The Veterans History Project encourages all organizations and groups, especially libraries, to continue to play a pivotal role in VHP’s success by hosting our free workshops either online or in-person, distributing information, coordinating interviewing events and making their facilities available to local VHP volunteers. For additional information, see the project Web site, www.loc.gov/vets, email vohp@loc.gov or call 202-707-4916.

Geography and Map Division (G&M)

In fiscal 2018, G&M recorded 14,402 cartographic items initially processed: 10,654 maps, 917 atlases, 2,500 digital master files with 1800 bibliographic records, and 331 computer data files with over 6,000 maps.
In fiscal 2018, maps were included in all LC general approval plans with vendors and funds where specifically reserved for the acquisition of cartographic materials. The acquisition of digital cartographic data far exceeded analog cartographic items, by 60 percent. The division’s budget also went to acquiring analog acquisitions, exceeding 12,000 items encompassing maps, atlases and cartographic publications.

In April 2019, the Geography and Map Division hosted a successful one-day conference of the Society of Woman Geographers. Chief Paulette Hasier opened the meeting. She, Head of the G&M Reading Room Kathy Hart, and Stephanie Stillo of the Rare Book and Special Collections Division were among the speakers. The day concluded with an open house for the more than forty participants and a display in the G&M Division showing notable women cartographers. See blogs.loc.gov/maps/2019/04/for-women-who-know-no-boundaries

Since March 2018, the Library of Congress has launched eight online interactive applications that highlight creative ways to facilitate the accessibility of thousands of collections, using the Geographic Information Systems (GIS)-based tool Story Maps (loc.gov/storymaps), resulting in over 50,000 views.

The latest Story Map, “D-Day Journeys: Personal Geographies of D-Day,” draws from VHP collections, and chronicles the individual journeys of four veterans who took part in the invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944: Preston Earl Bagent, Robert Harlan Horr, John William Boehne III, and Edward Duncan Cameron. It combines text, images and multimedia content in an online application for an immersive user experience that allows map-based discovery through geographic information system technology.

The G&M cataloging team continues to serve as a liaison between LC and map librarians at large. Six catalogers are participating in the Bibliographic Framework (BIBFRAME) Production Pilot Phase II. The cataloging team has created more than 400 cataloging descriptions for cartographic resources in BIBFRAME Work, Instance, and Item records. G&M has also provided critical input in developing BIBFRAME cartographic Editor, Profile, Model, and Ontology. In May 2019, the team created the BIBFRAME Pilot Workflows for cartographic resources. The Projection line is now connected to a drop-down list of values defined in the MARC format: id.loc.gov/vocabulary/mprojection.html. The Relief line is also connected to a drop-down list of values defined in MARC: id.loc.gov/vocabulary/mrelief.html

National Library Service for the Blind & Physically Handicapped (NLS)

LC’s Braille Certification Program Marks 100th anniversary

Since 1919, the Library of Congress has administered a braille certification program, which provides rigorous training for individuals seeking to learn braille transcription for texts, math, and music. When the program began, it was managed by the Library’s Reading Room for the Blind . Since 1931, it has been managed through NLS. Recently, during an interview with a reporter from The Detroit News , NLS Braille Officer Tamara Rorie spoke about the program and noted that it is enrolling and inspiring dozens of braille learners in the Michigan prison system. This is one of the ways the program is adding to the pool of braille transcribers.