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93-779: The 50th Anniversary National Wilderness Conference is the culminating commemorative event for the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act. The conference was held in Albuquerque, NM, from October 15-19, 2014. This conference is a multi-day event including presentations, panel discussions, exhibits, field trips, and skill-development workshops. The conference will provide ample opportunity to network and share ideas, celebrate recent successes, share lessons learned, and discuss emerging challenges in wilderness stewardship. Conference tracks will include history, stewardship, education, experience, civic engagement, and science. The conference

186-718: A concert hall to be constructed within the Library of Congress building and an honorarium established for the Music Division to pay live performers for concerts. A number of chairs and consultantships were established from the donations, the most well-known of which is the Poet Laureate Consultant . The library's expansion eventually filled the library's Main Building, although it used shelving expansions in 1910 and 1927. The library needed to expand into

279-1140: A "democracy alcove" in the Main Reading Room of the Jefferson Building for essential documents such as the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and The Federalist Papers . The Library of Congress assisted during the war effort, ranging from storage of the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution in Fort Knox for safekeeping to researching weather data on the Himalayas for Air Force pilots. MacLeish resigned in 1944 when appointed as Assistant Secretary of State. President Harry Truman appointed Luther H. Evans as Librarian of Congress. Evans, who served until 1953, expanded

372-403: A $ 5,000 appropriation for the Library of Congress, noting the need to improve its collections in "Law, Politics, Commerce, History, and Geography," which were crucial for Congress. On December 24, 1851, the largest fire in the library's history destroyed 35,000 books, two-thirds of the library's collection, and two-thirds of Jefferson's original transfer. Congress appropriated $ 168,700 to replace

465-621: A conference committee to resolve differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill, the Act eventually was eventually signed into law by President Johnson on September 3, 1964. The Wilderness Act of 1964 was significant in American environmental legislation, setting a start for the federal protection of wilderness areas across the United States. It was passed with the support in both

558-652: A critical moment in the history of environmental protection but also set the stage for ongoing debates about the role of government in managing natural resources and the balance between conservation and development. The 1964 Wilderness Act, which was praised for protecting undisturbed American landscapes, encountered strong resistance from the Sagebrush Rebellion in the latter part of the 1970s. The majority of "resource Westerners" who were affected by federal environmental regulations that limited their access to public lands, such as ranchers, miners, and loggers, were

651-1095: A foundation that allows for many new additions of American land to be designated as wilderness. Congress considers additional proposals every year, some recommended by federal agencies and many proposed by grassroots conservation and sportsmen's organizations. Additional laws adding areas to the NWPS include: Congressional bills are pending to designate new wilderness areas in Utah, Colorado, Washington, California, Virginia, Idaho, West Virginia, Montana and New Hampshire. Grassroots coalitions are working with local congressional delegations on legislative proposals for additional wilderness areas, including Vermont, southern Arizona, national grasslands in South Dakota, Rocky Mountain peaks of Montana, Colorado and Wyoming. The U.S. Forest Service has recommended new wilderness designations, which citizen groups may propose to expand. In 2014, America celebrated "50 Years of Wilderness" and Wilderness50 which

744-453: A legislative and national library. Asked by Joint Library Committee chairman Senator Claiborne Pell (D-RI) to assess operations and make recommendations, Douglas Bryant of Harvard University Library proposed several institutional reforms. These included expanding national activities and services and various organizational changes, all of which would emphasize the library's federal role rather than its legislative role. Bryant suggested changing

837-546: A more general one. He organized his books based on Francis Bacon 's organization of knowledge , grouping them into Memory, Reason, and Imagination with 44 subdivisions. The library used this scheme until the late 19th century when librarian Herbert Putnam introduced the Library of Congress Classification , now applying to over 138 million items. A February 24, 1824, report from the Committee of Ways and Means recommended

930-430: A national library and a legislative resource. He was aided by expansion of the federal government after the war and a favorable political climate. He began comprehensively collecting Americana and American literature , led the construction of a new building to house the library, and transformed the librarian of Congress position into one of strength and independence. Between 1865 and 1870, Congress appropriated funds for

1023-595: A new structure. Congress acquired nearby land in 1928 and approved construction of the Annex Building (later known as the John Adams Building ) in 1930. Although delayed during the Depression years, it was completed in 1938 and opened to the public in 1939. After Putnam retired in 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed poet and writer Archibald MacLeish as his successor. Occupying

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1116-497: A permanent display), on the global celebration commemorating the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta , and on early American printing, featuring the Rubenstein Bay Psalm Book . Onsite access to the Library of Congress has been increased. Billington gained an underground connection between the new U.S. Capitol Visitors Center and the library in 2008 in order to increase both congressional usage and public tours of

1209-422: A place in the Library of Congress, stating: I do not know that it contains any branch of science which Congress would wish to exclude from their collection; there is, in fact, no subject to which a Member of Congress may not have occasion to refer. Jefferson's library was a working collection for a scholar, not for display. It doubled the size of the original library, transforming it from a specialist's library to

1302-446: A restricted scope for the Library of Congress reflected those shared by members of Congress. While Meehan was a librarian, he supported and perpetuated the notion that "the congressional library should play a limited role on the national scene and that its collections, by and large, should emphasize American materials of obvious use to the U.S. Congress." In 1859, Congress transferred the library's public document distribution activities to

1395-749: A small congressional library was housed in the Capitol. Much of the original collection was lost in the August 1814 Burning of Washington by the British during the War of 1812 . Congress accepted former president Thomas Jefferson 's offer to sell his entire personal collection of 6,487 books to restore the library. The collection grew slowly and suffered another major fire in 1851, which destroyed two-thirds of Jefferson's original books. The Library of Congress faced space shortages, understaffing, and lack of funding, until

1488-460: A span of four days. One month later, the Senate also introduced a draft bill of the Wilderness Act. President John F. Kennedy , was a supporter of the Wilderness Act, his administration worked to rally Legislators to pass the bill. During the 87th Congressional session , the Senate voted and passed a version of the Wilderness Act, however it never made it to a vote in the House and its overall fate

1581-546: A very specific boundary line in statutory law. Once a wilderness area has been added to the system, its protection and boundary can be altered only by Congress. The basics of the NWPS set out in the Wilderness Act are straightforward: Section 4 lists what usage is not allowed on land protected by the NWPS, and define the exceptions to the rules. Prohibited actions include: Sections 5, 6, and 7 discuss how Congress shall handle acquisition of more land, gifts, and addition of new designated wilderness areas. Some topics surrounding

1674-592: Is a growing coalition of federal agencies, non-profit organizations, academic institutions, and other wilderness user groups has been created to document this historical commemoration honoring America's "True American Legacy of Wilderness". A series of projects and events were held to commemorate the 50th year of the Wilderness Act, including community museum, airport and visitor center displays; National website and social media campaign; Smithsonian photography exhibition; Washington D.C. Wilderness Week in September, and

1767-470: Is convened to provide a forum for discussing growing challenges to wilderness values while deepening and enabling participants’ engagement in wilderness stewardship in a time of unprecedented environmental and social change; meanwhile, it also aims to honor the achievement of a half-century of permanent protection for America’s wild places under the Wilderness Act . The National Wilderness Conference

1860-450: Is well known for its succinct and poetic definition of wilderness: "A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain." – Howard Zahniser When Congress passed and President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Wilderness Act on September 3, 1964, it created

1953-593: The American Library Association testified that the library should continue its expansion to become a true national library. Based on the hearings, Congress authorized a budget that allowed the library to more than double its staff, from 42 to 108 persons. Senators Justin Morrill of Vermont and Daniel W. Voorhees of Indiana were particularly helpful in gaining this support. The library also established new administrative units for all aspects of

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2046-705: The Congressional Research Service . After Mumford retired in 1974, President Gerald Ford appointed historian Daniel J. Boorstin as a librarian. Boorstin's first challenge was to manage the relocation of some sections to the new Madison Building, which took place between 1980 and 1982. With this accomplished, Boorstin focused on other areas of library administration, such as acquisitions and collections. Taking advantage of steady budgetary growth, from $ 116 million in 1975 to over $ 250 million by 1987, Boorstin enhanced institutional and staff ties with scholars, authors, publishers, cultural leaders, and

2139-661: The Department of the Interior and its international book exchange program to the Department of State . During the 1850s, Smithsonian Institution librarian Charles Coffin Jewett aggressively tried to develop the Smithsonian as the United States national library. His efforts were rejected by Smithsonian secretary Joseph Henry , who advocated a focus on scientific research and publication. To reinforce his intentions for

2232-693: The Gutenberg Bible . Putnam established the Legislative Reference Service (LRS) in 1914 as a separative administrative unit of the library. Based on the Progressive era 's philosophy of science to be used to solve problems, and modeled after successful research branches of state legislatures, the LRS would provide informed answers to Congressional research inquiries on almost any topic. Congress passed in 1925 an act allowing

2325-537: The John Adams Building (opened in 1939) and the James Madison Memorial Building (opened in 1980), were later added. The LOC's primary mission is to inform legislation, which it carries out through the Congressional Research Service . The library is open to the public for research, although only members of Congress, their staff, and library employees may borrow materials for use outside the library. James Madison of Virginia proposed

2418-509: The Library of Congress . The report was completed a year later, and the results released the data that had been requested which provided more information on the current state of federal land. In 1956, about seven years later, the first committee hearings began in House and Senate on the topic of protecting Wildlife Refuge areas. The first drafts of the Wilderness Act were introduced in the House in January 1957, where 6 bills were introduced over

2511-651: The National Film Registry , a collection of American films, for which the Library of Congress accepts nominations each year. There also exists a National Recording Registry administered by the National Recording Preservation Board that serves a similar purpose for music and sound recordings. The library has made some of these available on the Internet for free streaming and additionally has provided brief essays on

2604-747: The National Parks System , National Forests , and primitive areas . Unfortunately, many of these designations came short of providing the necessary protections needed to keep the land preserved for future generations. The shortcomings of previous protections were exclaimed by efforts to develop protected lands for mining and energy utilization, a prominent example is the Echo Park Dam controversy at Dinosaur National Monument .The encroachment on existing protected land motivated conservationists to lobby Congress to add additional protections to wilderness land, in particular, Howard Zahniser wrote

2697-530: The National Wilderness Conference . The Wilderness Act of 1964 is a pivotal legislation governing the preservation and management of wilderness areas in the United States. It provides a framework for Congress to designate federally managed lands as wilderness areas and mandates federal land agencies to manage these areas in a manner consistent with their natural wilderness character. Celebrating its fiftieth anniversary in September 2014,

2790-608: The National Wilderness Preservation System . The initial statutory wilderness areas, designated in the Act, comprised 9.1 million acres (37,000 km²) of national forest wilderness areas in the United States of America previously protected by administrative orders. The current amount of areas designated by the NWPS as wilderness totals 757 areas encompassing 109.5 million acres of federally owned land in 44 states and Puerto Rico (5% of

2883-1089: The United States Congress and the de facto national library of the United States . It also administers copyright law through the United States Copyright Office . Founded in 1800, the Library of Congress is the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States . It is housed in three buildings on Capitol Hill , adjacent to the United States Capitol , along with the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center in Culpeper, Virginia , and additional storage facilities at Fort George G. Meade and Cabin Branch in Maryland. The library's functions are overseen by

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2976-471: The interlibrary loan service, transforming the Library of Congress into what he referred to as a "library of last resort". Putnam also expanded library access to "scientific investigators and duly qualified individuals", and began publishing primary sources for the benefit of scholars. During Putnam's tenure, the library broadened the diversity of its acquisitions. In 1903, Putnam persuaded President Theodore Roosevelt to use an executive order to transfer

3069-473: The librarian of Congress and establishing a Joint Committee on the Library to oversee it. The law also extended borrowing privileges to the president and vice president. In August 1814, British forces occupied Washington and, in retaliation for American acts in Canada, burned several government buildings, including the Library of Congress. Most of its 3,000 volumes were destroyed. These volumes were held in

3162-520: The librarian of Congress , and its buildings are maintained by the architect of the Capitol . The LOC is one of the largest libraries in the world , containing approximately 173 million items and employing over 3,000 staff. Its collections are "universal, not limited by subject, format, or national boundary, and include research materials from all parts of the world and in more than 470 languages". When Congress moved to Washington in November 1800,

3255-399: The 1897 reorganization upon moving into its new home, the Library of Congress began to grow and develop more rapidly. Librarian Spofford's successor John Russell Young overhauled the library's bureaucracy, used his connections as a former diplomat to acquire more materials from around the world, and established the library's first assistance programs for the blind and physically disabled, with

3348-485: The 50th anniversary in 2014, it encompassed over 109 million acres across 758 areas in 44 states. This expansion has been largely due to the bipartisan support wilderness designations often receive, reflecting a shared value across the political spectrum. Library of Congress The Library of Congress ( LOC ) is a research library in Washington, D.C. , serving as the library and research service for

3441-416: The Act has facilitated the protection of over 109 million acres of public land. The commemorative symposium, "The Wilderness Act at 50," organized by Lewis & Clark Law School, brought together experts to discuss various facets of the Act's evolution and impact. Notably, discussions delved into the role of litigation in shaping wilderness management, emphasizing strategic decisions by plaintiffs. Moreover,

3534-752: The Act remained unanswered, which has prompted future actions and controversies. When the Wilderness Act was passed, it ignored lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management because of uncertainty of policy makers surrounding the future of those areas. The uncertainty was clarified in 1976 with the passing of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act , which stated that land managed by the Bureau of Land Management would remain federally owned and, between March 1978 and November 1980, would be reviewed to possibly be classified as wilderness. Some argue that

3627-586: The American Civil War increased the importance of legislative research to meet the demands of a growing federal government. In 1870, the library gained the right to receive two copies of every copyrightable work printed in the United States; it also built its collections through acquisitions and donations. Between 1890 and 1897, a new library building, now the Thomas Jefferson Building , was constructed. Two additional buildings,

3720-617: The Capitol building . Hayden clarified two days later that rioters did not breach any of the Library's buildings or collections and all staff members were safely evacuated. On February 14, 2023, the Library announced that the Lilly Endowment gifted $ 2.5 million, five-year grant to "launch programs that foster greater understanding of religious cultures in Africa, Central Asia and the Middle East". The Library plans to leverage

3813-493: The Castle due to its Norman architectural style, was severely damaged by fire. This incident presented Henry with an opportunity related to the Smithsonian's non-scientific library. Around this time, the Library of Congress was planning to build and relocate to the new Thomas Jefferson Building , designed to be fireproof. Authorized by an act of Congress, Henry transferred the Smithsonian's non-scientific library of 40,000 volumes to

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3906-417: The Interior, emerged as a key player in this situation. During his tenure, he worked to extend the scope of mineral rights to include coal and oil, a goal that suited the interests of people impacted by the Wilderness Act and other environmental laws. Watt aimed to reduce federal constraints and give local governments more authority over land management choices. These efforts were perceived as a direct answer to

3999-809: The Jefferson Building were enlarged and technologically enhanced to serve as a national exhibition venue. It has hosted more than 100 exhibitions. These included exhibits on the Vatican Library and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France , several on the Civil War and Lincoln, on African-American culture, on Religion and the founding of the American Republic, the Early Americas (the Kislak Collection became

4092-540: The Library Collections Security Oversight Committee in 1992 to improve protection of the collections, and also the Library of Congress Congressional Caucus in 2008 to draw attention to the library's curators and collections. He created the library's first Young Readers Center in the Jefferson Building in 2009, and the first large-scale summer intern (Junior Fellows) program for university students in 1991. Under Billington,

4185-561: The Library of Congress as "one of the last refuges in Washington of serious bipartisanship and calm, considered conversation", and "one of the world's greatest cultural centers". Carla Hayden was sworn in as the 14th librarian of Congress on September 14, 2016, the first woman and the first African American to hold the position. In 2017, the library announced the Librarian-in-Residence program, which aims to support

4278-502: The Library of Congress in 1866. President Abraham Lincoln appointed John G. Stephenson as librarian of Congress in 1861; the appointment is regarded as the most political to date. Stephenson was a physician and spent equal time serving as librarian and as a physician in the Union Army . He could manage this division of interest because he hired Ainsworth Rand Spofford as his assistant. Despite his new job, Stephenson focused on

4371-426: The Library of Congress to establish a trust fund board to accept donations and endowments, giving the library a role as a patron of the arts . The library received donations and endowments by such prominent wealthy individuals as John D. Rockefeller , James B. Wilbur, and Archer M. Huntington . Gertrude Clarke Whittall donated five Stradivarius violins to the library. Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge 's donations paid for

4464-581: The Senate (73–12) and the House of Representatives (373–1), showing bipartisan agreement on the importance of preserving natural landscapes for future generations. This act established the National Wilderness Preservation System, defining wilderness as areas, according to Wilderness Society president Howard Zahniser, "where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man." It also stopped most forms of development and motorized vehicles in these areas. The success of

4557-405: The Senate wing of the Capitol; one surviving volume was a government account book from 1810. This volume was taken by British commander George Cockburn as a souvenir and returned to the U.S. by his family in 1940. Within a month, Jefferson offered to sell his large personal library as a replacement. He had reconstituted his own collection after losing part of it to a fire. Congress accepted

4650-557: The Smithsonian, Henry established laboratories, developed a robust physical sciences library, and started the Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge , the first of many publications intended to disseminate research results. For Henry, the Library of Congress was the obvious choice as the national library. Unable to resolve the conflict, Henry dismissed Jewett in July 1854. In 1865, the Smithsonian building, also called

4743-508: The Twitter archive remains unfinished. Before retiring in 2015, after 28 years of service, Billington had come "under pressure" as librarian of Congress. This followed a GAO report that described a "work environment lacking central oversight" and faulted Billington for "ignoring repeated calls to hire a chief information officer, as required by law." When Billington announced his plans to retire in 2015, commentator George Weigel described

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4836-657: The Wilderness Act and the growing federal oversight of environmental protection, opposition movements like the Sagebrush rebellion and the Wise use movement emerged, particularly in the American West. These movements represented a shift in the political landscape, fighting against what they saw as federal overreach and advocating for states' rights and individual property rights over public land management. The conflict over wilderness protection and public land management showed

4929-537: The Wilderness Act had a lot to do with the groups who supported it. These groups included not only environmental organizations like the Wilderness Society and the Sierra Club but also labor and civic groups, showing great public interest in preserving America's wilderness. The Wilderness Act of 1964 included a few provisions (sections), that covered different aspects its implementation. Section 2 of

5022-426: The Wilderness Act provides a justification for and definition of what constitutes an area of land as wilderness. Wilderness Act land is chosen from existing federal land and by determining which areas are considered to meet the following criteria: Section 3 of the Act outlines the creation and regulation of the National Wilderness Preservation System (NWPS). When Congress designates each wilderness area, it includes

5115-416: The administrating agencies to ban bicycles from wilderness areas based on the statutory text prohibiting "other mechanical forms of transport". It is noteworthy that mountain bikes did not exist when the Wilderness Act was enacted, hence they were not explicitly identified in the statute. The prohibition on bicycles has led to opposition from mountain bikers to the opening of new wilderness areas. Because of

5208-434: The business community. His activities changed the post of librarian of Congress so that by the time he retired in 1987, The New York Times called this office "perhaps the leading intellectual public position in the nation." President Ronald Reagan nominated historian James H. Billington as the 13th librarian of Congress in 1987, and the U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed the appointment. Under Billington's leadership,

5301-406: The collection. In its bill, Congress strengthened the role of librarian of Congress: it became responsible for governing the library and making staff appointments. As with presidential Cabinet appointments, the Senate was required to approve presidential appointees to the position. In 1893, Elizabeth Dwyer became the first woman to be appointed to the staff of the library. With this support and

5394-411: The construction of the Thomas Jefferson Building , placed all copyright registration and deposit activities under the library's control, and restored the international book exchange. The library also acquired the vast libraries of the Smithsonian and of historian Peter Force , strengthening its scientific and Americana collections significantly. By 1876, the Library of Congress had 300,000 volumes; it

5487-482: The criteria to determine wilderness are vague and open to interpretation. For example, one criterion for wilderness is that it be roadless, and the act does not define the term roadless. Wilderness advocacy groups and some agency staff have attempted to use this standard: "the word 'roadless' refers to the absence of roads that have been improved and maintained by mechanical means." For more information, see Revised Statute 2477 . The Wilderness Act has been interpreted by

5580-540: The demands of the Sagebrush Rebellion. Due to regulatory rollbacks which were perceived as a decrease in federal government control over Western lands, the Sagebrush Rebellion temporarily felt victorious due to its alliance with the Reagan administration. The pioneering research and advocacy work of Margaret and Olaus Murie and Celia Hunter, along with the Alaska Conservation Society, was crucial to

5673-678: The donation in these areas: The collections of the Library of Congress include more than 32 million catalogued books and other print materials in 470 languages; more than 61 million manuscripts ; the largest rare book collection in North America, including the rough draft of the Declaration of Independence , a Gutenberg Bible (originating from the Saint Blaise Abbey, Black Forest —one of only three perfect vellum copies known to exist); over 1 million U.S. government publications; 1 million issues of world newspapers spanning

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5766-573: The establishment of the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled . Librarian Young's successor Herbert Putnam held the office for forty years of the 20th century from 1899 to 1939. Two years after he took office, the library became the first in the United States to hold one million volumes. Putnam focused his efforts to make the library more accessible and useful for the public and for other libraries. He instituted

5859-478: The films that have been added to the registry. By 2015, the librarian had named 650 films to the registry. The films in the collection date from the earliest period to ones produced more than ten years ago; they are selected from nominations submitted to the board. Further programs included: During Billington's tenure, the library acquired General Lafayette 's papers in 1996 from a castle at La Grange, France; they had previously been inaccessible. It also acquired

5952-411: The first draft of the Wilderness Act. The Wilderness Act of 1964 went through numerous discussions and drafts before finally being enacted during the 88th Congress. The concept of developing a Federal Wilderness system through Congress began to be seriously explored in 1948 when a group of Congressional members requested a report be compiled on the topic through the Legislative Reference Service within

6045-479: The first library-wide audit. He created the first Office of the Inspector General at the library to provide regular, independent reviews of library operations. This precedent has resulted in regular annual financial audits at the library; it has received unmodified ("clean") opinions from 1995 onward. In April 2010, the library announced plans to archive all public communication on Twitter , including all communication since Twitter's launch in March 2006. As of 2015 ,

6138-472: The future generation of librarians by giving them the opportunity to gain work experience in five different areas of librarianship, including: Acquisitions/Collection Development, Cataloging/Metadata, and Collection Preservation. On January 6, 2021, at 1:11 pm EST, the Library's Madison Building and the Cannon House Office Building were the first buildings in the Capitol Complex to be ordered to evacuate as rioters breached security perimeters before storming

6231-431: The growing division in American environmental politics, showing bigger cultural and ideological divides. This period of environmental opposition not only challenged the principles of federal land management but also contributed to the reorganization of political ideas, playing a role in the evolution of the New Right and the Republican Party's stance on environmental regulations. The Wilderness Act, therefore, not only marked

6324-454: The idea of creating a congressional library in 1783. Though initially rejected, this was the first introduction of the concept. After the Revolutionary War, the Philadelphia Library Company and New York Society Library served as surrogate congressional libraries when Congress was in those cities. The Library of Congress was established on April 24, 1800, when President John Adams signed an act of Congress that included appropriating $ 5,000 "for

6417-434: The land in the United States). Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, there were growing concerns about the rapidly growing population in America after World War II , a period known as a baby boom . Additionally, American transportation systems grew in size which made transportation easier and increased environmental concerns. A leading concern was that environmental degradation would have an impact on air and water quality, this

6510-462: The library doubled the size of its analog collections from 85.5 million items in 1987 to more than 160 million items in 2014. At the same time, it established new programs and employed new technologies to "get the champagne out of the bottle". These included: Since 1988, the library has administered the National Film Preservation Board . Established by congressional mandate, it selects twenty-five American films annually for preservation and inclusion in

6603-419: The library of the Romanov family on a variety of topics. Collections of Hebraica , Chinese, and Japanese works were also acquired. On one occasion, Congress initiated an acquisition: in 1929 Congressman Ross Collins (D-Mississippi) gained approval for the library to purchase Otto Vollbehr 's collection of incunabula for $ 1.5 million. This collection included one of three remaining perfect vellum copies of

6696-666: The library sponsored the Gateway to Knowledge in 2010 to 2011, a mobile exhibition to ninety sites, covering all states east of the Mississippi, in a specially designed eighteen-wheel truck. This increased public access to library collections off-site, particularly for rural populations, and helped raise awareness of what was also available online. Billington raised more than half a billion dollars of private support to supplement Congressional appropriations for library collections, programs, and digital outreach. These private funds helped

6789-590: The library to continue its growth and outreach in the face of a 30% decrease in staffing, caused mainly by legislative appropriations cutbacks. He created the library's first development office for private fundraising in 1987. In 1990, he established the James Madison Council, the library's first national private sector donor-support group. In 1987, Billington also asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct

6882-436: The library's Thomas Jefferson Building. In 2001, the library began a mass deacidification program, in order to extend the lifespan of almost 4 million volumes and 12 million manuscript sheets. In 2002, a new storage facility was completed at Fort Meade, Maryland , where a collection of storage modules have preserved and made accessible more than 4 million items from the library's analog collections. Billington established

6975-598: The library's acquisitions, cataloging, and bibliographic services. But he is best known for creating Library of Congress Missions worldwide. Missions played a variety of roles in the postwar world: the mission in San Francisco assisted participants in the meeting that established the United Nations , the mission in Europe acquired European publications for the Library of Congress and other American libraries, and

7068-509: The lost books in 1852 but not to acquire new materials. (By 2008, the librarians of Congress had found replacements for all but 300 of the works that had been documented as being in Jefferson's original collection. ) This marked the start of a conservative period in the library's administration by librarian John Silva Meehan and joint committee chairman James A. Pearce , who restricted the library's activities. Meehan and Pearce's views about

7161-540: The mission in Japan aided in the creation of the National Diet Library . Evans' successor Lawrence Quincy Mumford took over in 1953. During his tenure, lasting until 1974, Mumford directed the initiation of construction of the James Madison Memorial Building , the third Library of Congress building on Capitol Hill. Mumford led the library during the government's increased educational spending. The library

7254-496: The name of the Library of Congress, a recommendation rebuked by Mumford as "unspeakable violence to tradition." The debate continued within the library community for some time. The Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970 renewed emphasis for the library on its legislative roles, requiring a greater focus on research for Congress and congressional committees, and renaming the Legislative Reference Service as

7347-437: The offer in January 1815, appropriating $ 23,950 to purchase his 6,487 books. Some House members, like New Hampshire representative Daniel Webster , opposed the purchase, wanting to exclude "books of an atheistical, irreligious, and immoral tendency". Jefferson's collection, gathered over 50 years, covered various subjects and languages, including topics not typically found in a legislative library. He believed all subjects had

7440-535: The ones who initiated this backlash. The Federal Land Policy Management Act (FLPMA) of 1976, which changed the Bureau of Land Management's emphasis from resource extraction to conservation, was a major source of dispute because it significantly restricted these groups' ability to make a living. Many in the West were unhappy as a result of this alleged government overreach and saw it as "federal colonialism." James G. Watt, nominated by President Ronald Reagan as Secretary of

7533-399: The only copy of the 1507 Waldseemüller world map ("America's birth certificate") in 2003; it is on permanent display in the library's Thomas Jefferson Building. Using privately raised funds, the Library of Congress has created a reconstruction of Thomas Jefferson's original library. This has been on permanent display in the Jefferson building since 2008. Under Billington, public spaces of

7626-636: The papers of the Founding Fathers from the State Department to the Library of Congress. Putnam expanded foreign acquisitions as well, including the 1904 purchase of a 4,000-volume library of Indica, the 1906 purchase of G. V. Yudin's 80,000-volume Russian library, the 1908 Schatz collection of early opera librettos , and the early 1930s purchase of the Russian Imperial Collection, consisting of 2,600 volumes from

7719-635: The passage of the Wilderness Act, and to the creation of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Margaret Murie testified passionately before Congress in favor of the Wilderness Act. Margaret worked with Wilderness Society staffer Howard Zahniser , author of the bill, to promote passage of the act, and she attended the signing ceremony. As of 2014, the National Wilderness Preservation System comprised over 109 million acres (441,000 km²), involving federal lands administered by four agencies: The Wilderness Act has created

7812-420: The past three centuries; 33,000 bound newspaper volumes; 500,000 microfilm reels; U.S. and foreign comic books—over 12,000 titles in all, totaling more than 140,000 issues; 1.9 million moving images (as of 2020); 5.3 million maps ; 6 million works of sheet music ; 3 million sound recordings ; more than 14.7 million prints and photographic images including fine and popular art pieces and architectural drawings;

7905-536: The post from 1939 to 1944 during the height of World War II , MacLeish became the most widely known librarian of Congress in the library's history. MacLeish encouraged librarians to oppose totalitarianism on behalf of democracy; dedicated the South Reading Room of the Adams Building to Thomas Jefferson, and commissioned artist Ezra Winter to paint four themed murals for the room. He established

7998-423: The purchase of such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress ... and for fitting up a suitable apartment for containing them." Books were ordered from London, forming a collection of 740 books and three maps housed in the new United States Capitol . President Thomas Jefferson played a crucial role in shaping the Library of Congress. On January 26, 1802, he signed a bill allowing the president to appoint

8091-589: The symposium highlighted the National Environmental Policy Act's (NEPA) significant influence on promoting wilderness designation and constraining agency management practices in wilderness areas. Overall, the Wilderness Act remains a cornerstone of wilderness preservation, subject to ongoing refinement to ensure the enduring protection of these natural treasures. Over the decades, the Wilderness System has grown steadily. By

8184-547: The war. Three weeks into his term as Librarian of Congress, he left Washington, D.C., to serve as a volunteer aide-de-camp at the battles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg during the American Civil War . Stephenson's hiring of Spofford, who directed the library in his absence, may have been his most significant achievement. Librarian Ainsworth Rand Spofford , who directed the Library of Congress from 1865 to 1897, built broad bipartisan support to develop it as

8277-478: Was able to establish new acquisition centers abroad, including in Cairo and New Delhi . In 1967, the library began experimenting with book preservation techniques through a Preservation Office. This has developed as the most extensive library research and conservation effort in the United States. During Mumford's administration, the last significant public debate occurred about the Library of Congress's role as both

8370-550: Was partly addressed by the initial passage of the Clean Air Act in 1963. The problem of American wilderness still persisted even after attempts to regulate pollutants. Part of America's identity was the vast untamed wilderness that was untouched by humans, which had fallen to about 2.5% of the total land in America by the 1960s. Previous efforts to conserve nature had yielded public land designations and protections such as

8463-583: Was produced by the Wilderness50, a diverse coalition of non-profit organizations, government agencies, and academic institutions—including the Pew Charitable Trusts, Wilderness Society, Sierra Club, Back Country Horsemen of America, Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics, Conservation Lands Foundation, Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service, Forest Service, and National Park Service. Wilderness Act The Wilderness Act

8556-597: Was regarded as uncertain at the time. Early in the 88th Congressional term , the Senate debated and eventually passed the Wilderness Bill in April 1963. After President Kennedy's assassination , President Lyndon B Johnson continued the executive efforts for the Wilderness Act to be passed. During a press conference on June 23, 1963, President Johnson included the Wilderness Act as a piece of legislation that needed to be passed in his list of 30 "musts." After going to

8649-603: Was tied with the Boston Public Library as the nation's largest library. It moved from the Capitol building to its new headquarters in 1897 with more than 840,000 volumes, 40 percent of which had been acquired through copyright deposit. A year before the library's relocation, the Joint Library Committee held hearings to assess the condition of the library and plan for its future growth and possible reorganization. Spofford and six experts sent by

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