The Librarian of Congress does n’t need vocationalexperience as a librarianor a subroutine library scientific discipline point to hold the position . He — every Librarian since the position wascreated in 1802has been male person — is appointed by the President of the United States , must be O.K. by the Senate , and is responsible for the man ’s turgid program library .
That ’s quite a lot to have on one soul ’s shoulder joint .
The Librarian is in accusation of oversee the Library of Congress , managing congressional relations , charge staff — let in the Poet Laureate — and manage administrative body of work come to to budgetary concerns , legal services , communication , and events .
The Librarian also oversees the Copyright Office , which in 2013 registered 496,599 claims to copyright and forwarded almost 642,000 copy of works to the Library ’s collection . In a2010 statement , current Librarian of Congress James H. Billington explained that every three long time , in accordance with the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act ( DMCA ) [ PDF ] , the Librarian reexamine the right of first publication law in relation to new technologies to reassess who is eligible to circumvent the pre - existent regulations “ in purchase order to engage in noninfriging uses of works . ”
For example , in 2010 , Billington approved the use of short clip of copyright apparent movement pictures in infotainment and noncommercial videos say that it was solely “ for the function of critique or comment , when the individual engaging in circumvention reasonably believe that it is necessary to carry through that role . ” The 2010 ruling was free-base on a former decision to grant motion-picture show and media studies professors to create digest of film time for instructional purposes .
This class , Billingtonannounced hisretirementfrom what is count to be a life - long Emily Post . During his 28 - year run , he ’s ushered the institution intothe modern ageby take more digitized materials available online , creating imagination land site likeCongress.gov , and giving the Library a social media presence .
However , his departurefollows a 2013 audit that found that zillion of detail were cling in construction and warehouse and not available to the public . A more recent governance probe take down Billington ’s unfitness to get by the Library ’s technical resources , finding “ widespread weaknesses ” when it came to observe the Library up - to - day of the month .
With Billington pace down on January 1 , 2016 , it ’ll be up to the chairman to get a worthy replacement .
