Political Quotes

“Dr. James Billington was the 13th person to hold the position of Librarian of Congress since the Library was established in 1800. He was nominated by President Ronald Reagan and served under Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama. As Librarian of Congress Dr. Billington managed the Library of Congress, which according to LOC, is the largest library in the world, containing millions of books, recordings, photographs, newspapers, maps, and manuscripts in its collections. It is the main research arm of the U.S. Congress. Dr. Billington doubled the size of the Library's collections during his tenure from 85.5 million items in 1987 to more than 160 million items. He created the Library of Congress online, which helped bring the Library into the digital age. In 2003, Dr. Billington testified before the Senate education committee at a hearing I chaired called ``Putting the Teaching of American History and Civics Back in the Classroom.'' In his testimony that day, Dr. Billington said: ``During Alex Haley's 12 years researching his groundbreaking novel, Roots, he traveled the globe to uncover his family's story, even taking a slow Atlantic crossing to get some feel for what his ancestors went through on the Middle Passage. He also spent many hours in the reading rooms of the Library of Congress, poring over American Missionary Society files from our Manuscript Collection.…”