announcer: this week on real america on american history tv, the 1967 special news series, a cbs news inquiry, the warren report, anchored by walter con te con kite, investigating the assassination of john f. kennedy. >> and then in full sight of millions of television viewers, a man named jack rudy surges through the crowd and croots swallowed dead. >> watch it tonight at 10:00 eastern on american history tv on c-span 3. announcer: what does it mean to be american? that is this year's c-span student cam competition. students and teachers around the country or posting on

social media about it heidi long from illinois tweeted what does it mean to be an american? social study students brainstorming constitutional rights, national characteristics, and important people and events of the nation. auren from florida tweeted chms civics students brain stornled ideas. gary has two students recognized their projects in recent years. i think he is going for a trifecta. indiana senator todd young said visited the class today and i was interviewed by students participating in the student cam skylarship program. we discussed freedom of speech and first amendment, and mrs. pink tweeted student cam 2019. it is pbh, project based learning and its finest.

this year we are asking middle and high school students to produce a five to six-minute documentary answering the question what does it mean to be american? we are awarding $100,000 in total cash prizes, including a grand prize of $5,000. the deadline for entry is january 20th. for more information, go to student cam.org. announcer: james willing ton, 13th live rinnecon geas has died. he died from complications of pneumonia. he retired in 2018 after 2 years heading the library of congress. in 2007 he was a guest on c-span's "q & a." he talked about his tenure as head of the library. this is an hour.

>> well, it is really an extraordinary experience. you learn something new every day on the elevators. you talk to somebody, and then your regular rounds and covering a universal collection with a broad outreach. it is just a very, very fascinating kind of encounter with the world of knowledge and with the american people and the wide diversity of people that you come in contact with when you are dealing with a library that is as universal in its collections and as multifaceted in its talents, and as connected as anything as original and important for a knowledge-based democracy as the great library system of the united states. it is and enormous honor and privilege, and it can always be a lot of fun. there are a number of problems. it has the qualities of both a government institution, and of an academic institution, but it

a a megalibrary, a kind of an encyclopedia of the world and for congress with our con congressional research staff. it is a fascinating job. a lot of people have been here longer than i have. you really learn something new every day. you tend to make friends and learn to appreciate all kinds of talents that go with the making and the functioning of a great library. >> we have something we don't normally have on this program, and that is a live awed yen. the american library association is meeting in the coolage auditorium. what would you say to live rearns that their future is going to be about in the next 20 or 25 years? >> i think the future of live rather thans has never been brighter or more important, but it is going to be very challenging because we don't

pay enough attention to libraries and institutions anymore, and we don't really understand how they function. libraries first of all, like edicare itself, adds without subsubtracting. they bring in new sources of technology and information without throwing away the old. you will find that listenbee rather has brought -- that new ries have brought in technology and have not thrown away the books. we call them knowledge navigators, people who can mediate this exploding world of digital information, piled on top of an increasing print universe, increasing audio-visual materials, but can mediate that for the communities they serve. we have to serve the congress, the government and have an added increment of our materials that nobody else has

balls of our universal collecting in 450-plus languages. we have materials that nobody else will have. but every library has a distinct community that it serves, and everybody and their clientele is a little overwhelmed by the explosion of digit tal material. the fact thaw don't know what is good, what is bad. every community needs a human intermediary between the world of knowledge, assorted books and the world of information exploding on the internet and the particular needs and interests of those communities. so i think that the variety of talents needed in the library profession, the quality we already have, and the way in which libraries have not seen the computer world as a foe, but as a potential friend and additive factor to the whole business of mediating knowledge and inspiring creativity, and

answering questions that each community has, whether it is a virtual community of a lot of people with common environmental problems from different parts of the world, or a specific community that has its own interests, economic and cultural. the variety of libraries is very great, and will probably become greater. but the need for a human intermediary between all of this exploding, and often confusing and often undependable information we get, as well as the need to be inspired by the wisdom, quality and judgment that are inspired by the quiet reading of the stored knowledge of books, that is going to be more important in the future rather than less. >> you just came back, i think, from a 50th anniversary of your wedding, a trip around the world. russian and china -- russia and china. when did you go, how was the trip? what did you learn? >> well, gentlemen just got

back about 10 days ago from an extraordinary, interesting trip. we were in russia because our lot program for our national digital library as we move from doing just american memory materials on the internet for educational purposes and sharing them free online to a world digital library began with russia. we compared the american frontier ant russian frontier and the things they had in common despite the sinkses we had. that has been popular with school children, so we went over to see that. i also went offer to celebrate the 200th anniversary of del potro matic relations with russia. tom did a master class. he has toured 11 american ities last year with singing from the american song collection. he sang them for the 200th anniversary. our first ambassador was john

quincy adams. we have been involved with a new library, including this new library that president putin said he is going to build. it is going to be in st. petersburg. it will be named after yeltzin, his predecessor. i was asked to give industries on that, which i did. and we have a program hatched bite the library called open world that has brought more than 11,000 emerging young leaders from the former soviet union for short, but intensive stays in different communities to stay in people's homes. so we have a lot of projects, most of which are library centered that we were celebrating there. and the concert that he gave, and also the 75th anniversary of the spaso house, a great place for russians and visiting americans. so we had an intense and interesting time there, consolidating some of the programs we have with them.

>> let me interrupt you and ask you. you made a comment about 11,000 russians coming to this country. explain how that works? >> it is called open world. it is modeled on the marnings plan. 1.5% of the marshall plan was spent bringing young germans over after the war. we wouldn't lecture to them and give them abstract lectures. bring them r- them over and live in the community for a while, see what it is like. experience peel doing real things, judges, courts, stounls and those kind of things, how the media functions. unlike past programs with russia, not a single one of them stayed in america. average age was 37, and half of them women. the program is extended to ukraine, turkey, georgia,age

biogenesis and others. it is a very tekulve program, and it began in the library. but now it has a separate identity in the legislative branch of government. it is excite to go see these young people who have grown up after the communist regime and the soviet system was in place, and they have come from all 87 political divisions of russian federation, have gone to all 50 states of this country, stayed in people's homes. if it was a judge, they would go to a judge's home. it is a wonderful program. >> how long do they stay in a home? are it is not very long, only about 10 days because they are busy people. they have positions. for the first time you begin to get the feeling that something is happening in russia from the bottom up in the periphery. and libraries and the public communication and information,

opening up up of the country, why it is called open world program, because it is designed to promote open society. at the same time, you have a lot of knowledge-based people here. one of the things they admire, these visitors, is the access to knowledge, the free access to knowledge. not just through the media, but through libraries as being open institutions. the russians have a pretty good library system, but access to important materials was always a purpose and power rather than an entitlement of the people. they think that is just as important as the division of powers and having political choice in elections, as being the secret of democracy. librarians understand, appreciate and exemplify it. the fact that books that disagree with each other sit

peacefully next to one another in the stacks. people don't usually argue in the library as. they sit peacefully next to one another and read. that is exciting and important, and it is important for their development. t so is the broader sense of a democracy, a lived experience rather than just another theory. >> you have spent a lot of your life studying russia, talking and writing about it. where do you think russia is today after 17 or 1 years of the change, and are you surprise -- after 17 or 18 years of the change, and are you surprised? >> well, the glass is half full and half empty. there have been really huge changes physically if you go over there. you will see a different country with all kinds of modern things they didn't have before, with all kinds of freedoms they didn't have before. in the last couple of years you have seen a lot of regression. a lot of contract murders of

journalists, a lot of human rights approximate, a lot more stride eans in their foreign policy program. what we have seen is there have been a lot of changes. putin for all of his problems and all of his autocratic tendencies, which run the risk of reversing a lot of the positive change, nevertheless he is ruling by enacted laws by legislature, rather than by administrative decrees as ye ltzin was doing or previously. we see a lot of people i think for the first time in their list things are going to happen from the bottom up and the periphery and not just the top down and the kremlin. that part is negative. but on the whole, they are positive forces, and it is a country that we see in the president frontiers contest. where we see the role of

mississippi, and the role of the transconnelly railroads, creating environment ath problems. here are a lot of con nalts. people who use our web presence is targeted by tuents. this idea of comparing the two countries not just as two superpowers, of which there is only one really left, but as two big countries on the eastern and western frontier of european civilization. the role of religious dishe saiders. the old believers moving out, when they were first persecuted, out do the wastelands of siberia. it is an interesting project. it has inspired us into a world digital library now, not just america working with russia. and with six national libraries

in europe as we have been doing to develop common thomas, but rather to replicate our american memory experience. that is getting primary documents of american history and culture online with just simple scompla occasions. no propaganda, but just so that the story of america can be told. primary documents can be used by teachers and enriching libraries in schools with a teaching device that isn't a eaching divides, but sharing information. we digitize maps that we own. that began with russia, but now that has extended more globally. what is going to go in that yeltzin-named library? >> that is what they are trying to determine. there is going to be some kind of viking sideline, to russia

power, or is it open access to knowledge as well as their own culture. that is a debate the russians, i assume, are having among themselves. i think it is encouraging that it is in st. petersburg and not moscow. it is towers offside a little bit. they seem to want it to be very inclusive and bring in a lot of things that have previously been scattered. they have two good libraries with which we have been working. they have actually a good library system. our center for books, which has branches in every state of the union has been active over there. we have this digital presence. none of this would be possible if it weren't more opened up than it ever has been before. >> what was the difference between what you saw in russia and what you saw in china? >> well, china is not quite as far along, to put it mildly. we were very

greeted. - cord alley the olympics are coming up. they kept wanting us to make comments, and make sure the english was right for this sign and so fore. they were very cord alley treated. - they were very cordially treated. many people are working up, trying to work on collaborative arrangements. we have a chinese memory package as well as an american memory package to bring the memory of the world cultures to this younger generation worldwide that is increasingly living on the internet, living on audio-visual images, but doesn't get much meat, doesn't get much of real educational value. it doesn't expand their

appreciation of other cultures so that you see the world not at a bunch of competitors or cultures only, but you celebrate the cultures. we have populations from all over the world now that have american citizens. they were in favor of this, and i wanted to make sure we discussed this. this was a general tour talking about the future of cultural relations between the first time this present committee on the arts and humanities has ever taken a trip of this size. i was discussing the possibilities of a chinese memory package with the library at shanghai, and with the library of bengal and the minister of culture. those were the major things we were doing. it is true we just had our golden wedding anniversary, but this wasn't a golden wedding anniversary trip. this was a pretty busy working

trip. [laughter] advanced ou, at senior age, keep doing this? [laughter] why do you keep doing this job? by this time in moat people's lives, they are retired, and you have been slugging it out at least 13 years past retirement? >> i have sort of gotten a lot of cooperation with a lot of associates involved in a lot of things that you hope you can bring to fruition. i don't want to stay on until somebody is saying what is this old fella doing with the drool bucket in the back room? but the lord has blessed me with good health, and i have a wonderful supportive wife. we just re-took our wedding vows three nights ago. don't know how many people do

that. [applause] o i think -- i don't want to monopolize the position, but here will be a logical time. it is just a fascinating job. i'm basically a scholar at heart, but i learn something new every day. not just about the world's knowledge and creativity, which you could spend many lifetimes and not exhaust it at the library of congress or many great libraries. it is a wonderfully diverse staff we have. whenever we go on a trip, i like to stop in at the libraries, and i enjoy meeting the live rather thans too. our daughter is working on a program in texas and building a new library there. it is a fascinating thing that too many people take for

granted and not enough people get involved in supporting across the country. but you go to people and they say wow, you have open access to walk in anywhere and get anything and so forth. of course it is a great honor, but it is also a wonderful -- it's a great experience and a continuing one. >> i can't let this pass because somebody in the audience before you came in whispered in my ear that you are married to a former miss delaware. >> she was actually a cherry blossom princess. miss it.'t want to she is in the audience and probably would be embarrassed by that. >> she was working. i was finishing my army career here in washington, and she was secretary to a senator, a wonderful man named senator frier. at our wedding dinner, my

brother, who last night got up and said there is nothing to friere but friere himself. [laughter] >> go back. you were running wood row wilson's things before this 20 years ago. hat was your reaction? >> the first time -- well, i didn't take it seriously. it is sort of like if you were a catholic saying how would you like to be in charge of st. peter's? it is not the same thing. we are not a hierarchal structure, as every live rather than can tell you. we are independent and what makes our country great. there have been only 13 of us since 1800 when the library was established. i have used the library of

congress a lot, so i was very familiar with it. my kind of skylarship -- scholarship is library centered. you wrote books out of other people's books. they say if you steal from one person it is plagiarism, but if you steal from a lot of people it is scholarship. [laughter] i read in a number of languages. >> how many? >> it depends how generously you describe reading? i read fluently in three languages. >> what are those? >> well, english is one. >> good. [laughter] >> i am cheating. russian and french are languages that i can read as well as english really. but then i can make out, german, italian, finnish and a few others probably. >> go back to 20 years ago. who was the first one to suggest to you that you become

the live rather than of congress. do you remember? >> no. i remember vividly when i was pulled up by somebody who must have had an inside track to the white house saying we understand you have been nominated for this position. what would be the challenge? you don't have to think about it. remember saying bring out the music inventory there. they were perplexed. that came to my mind, because i had used this ufc. i had used a lot of library's in my life. had been on two library committees from universities i had taught. they use the rathers as well as archives and other major resources here in washington. so i was very familiar with it, but it occurred to me that the wonders of what is in this playing -- >> sharmel franklin, to which

we gave the award this past week, worked here for 50 or 60 years. in the last visit here said this is the eighth wonder of the world. i mean it really is astonishing. if you stop and think about it the congress of the united states has been the greatest single patron of the library in the history of the world. there is nothing like this, except maybe the library at alexandria. but that was just the mediterranean world. we have these immentsa-bonsu collections. we have people that come over chinese minorities that don't have much existence after the cultural revolution. legal iban destroyed the history of afghanistan so they could superimpose theirs on top it we re-duplicated it, and

it allowed them to recover their mclemore rifment >> how did do you that, and how big a project was that? >> that was a pretty big project. we had an english verks of it, d it had to be re-translated to their language. these are stories you would think that the media would be interested in telling, but somehow good news doesn't travel very fast these days. libraries do a lot of wonderful people tend to take things for granted. that is only what happened at alexandria. after the library was burned, which everybody knows about, the library was re-constituted. got the books from pergeron.

alexandria became the center of late classical civilization. center for or gathering in all kinds of strands. we don't know what happened to those resources. my theory is people just took it for granted and thought it would always be there, and suddenly it wasn't anymore. there are a let of great american libraries, and they hold collectively, a -- the variety and the way that the american peements are service -- people are serviced is astonishes, but it is sort of taken for granted that it is going to be there, so they don't always get the support they need. but it is an amazing resource that still isn't as used as effectively as it could be. if you study american history, it is face naturing. every new settlement.

he didn't think democracy would work. he said the only reason it works is people do things at the community level. if you look at how the communities were built, there were a variety of churches, a variety of schools, a variety of economic enterprise, but there was always one linebacker rather. thanks to andrew carnegie building all these libraries in ties, and thanks to justin moreau, who brought us the moreau act, they built it around the area instead of just the classroom, we have a live remember system that is unique in the world. the first meeting of the continental congress occurred in a library. the first joint committee was the joint committee on the library of congress. libraries helped create

america, and they will hechavarria sustain it, because -- and they will help sustain it. they need the intermediary between the world of information out there and the specific needs of their community. the new york library does a wonderful job of mediating to the multi-ethnic population. there are specific needs. and every community, and many virtual communities that are coming into being are very much dependent. when i first got there, there was a study superbowl sent me saying we need in the future multiple points of local information distribution. they said this plan would only cost $2.5 million. somebody sent me this. i said i just saved the taxpayers $2.5 million because we already have a system called libraries. the nodal points of

information. happy anniversary to the nodal society for points of information distribution. it is amazing what we have here, but we for granted. and the people, scholarship is important. can,pport everywhere we free library distribution, 22 million items online, all free. everything we do is a free service, basically. so, we're very much into this. but the important point is, it won't always exist if we don't use it. and incidentally, the digital 'rengs we're doing, and they

quite considerable, i decided to get people back into reading. it's the inherent interactivity that the internet uses, but if you just use it the way you use television to flip around on your zapper from one thing or another, it is interactive like reading, unlike most television, which happens to be extremely passive spectator is him. it doesn't engage the mind much. you have to use the internet intelligently to move from one image to another. it's a train of thought rather than a bumper car of emotion. that's what a lot of people use the internet for, as well.

my predecessor has a wonderful phrase. you can get all the information you want and you will be able to get in the future, up to date, through electronic means. but if you want to reach the unimagined question and learn to accept the unwelcome answer, you've got to get back into books. intoou've got to get back developing the qualities of judgment, wisdom, imagination that is internally generated and not defined by somebody else's picture of a screen. so that's the purpose of our digitization, it's to reinforce libraries, not to compete with them. not to duplicate what television does. every new technology tends to duplicate its predecessor. the first movies were just plays transformed into film. then they realized you can do something different.

we aren't doing enough that's different with the internet. it's clearly focused on the need to stimulate minds to get people, what we've noticed, documents on television, sorry, on the internet. all free of charge, all easily accessible. including the primary documents, people ask questions about them at an early age, the fourth grade. civil war photographs. you put them on in the inner-city in the fourth grade, who's fighting to? who are the good guys? you say, they both are because. which ones are americans? they're both americans. whose gang is that? the point is, they're asking questions. they have a stake in finding answers. to raiseust a failure questions that will lead to somebody getting motivated to

find answers. for that, you've got to go to people's and the books. that's the libraries basically are. to get people motivated and energized into the creative process themselves rather than to get them to confront with everybodytbooks so doesn't take offense to everybody. not not like they're interested in anybody. they are spending more time watching television and even now and on the internet before they get to a classroom. you're not going to reach them that way unless you can invade in this somewhat alien world that's being misused in some mice, and develop -- in some ways, and stimulate kids to be curious, asked questions. and the great idea of the world is a library is to get every major culture to put its primary documents of their story, of who

they are. people love other peoples stories. we think this is an important thing and we're going to be bringing our pilot program to paris this fall. we've got 30 different countries expressing interest in addition to the six national libraries that we bardi been working with. we're hopeful this can develop. bringingof together the scattered primary documents of cultures who tend to be in different places into one virtual story for each major culture that wants to participate. >> how much money does the taxpayers spend each year on the library of congress? >> about $600 million. >> how many people work year? >> about 4200. >> is the budget increasing to

the point where you like it? you have as much as you need? [laughter] congress has been on a bipartisan basis for a very long period of time, very generous. you always need a little more than you get. [laughter] particularly if you have an ambitious agenda. there's always a danger that something like this takes many years to build up. just take the question of acquisitions, which is the most fundamental thing. we have six overseas offices that gather intakes. and we have, which gather things not only for us but for other research libraries. if i named the places where they are, you can see the importance. nairobi, rio de

janeiro. places i am large weather is developed book trade. we develop for every american library that wants to get books they can't get otherwise. discovered in the normal collection. nairobi does all of east africa, basically. islamabad does a lot through central asia. cairo does everything in the arab world. we discovered in the course of normal acquisitions, autobiography on osama bin laden a fuse ago. resslibrary of cong produce the only piece of paper the united commission found that peopled a scenario

hijacking planes and flying it into symbolic buildings to destroy them. that wasn't from any clandestine -- it was open, obscure publications in the arab world. osama bin laden thing. there are very few secrets in the world. there are very few things that can't a known. there aren't enough people asking questions, using libraries to find out. congress doesy of a significant amount of acquisitions above and beyond, just for normal library procedures. it's not just an intelligence operation. world's production. it's a very talkative world. it's an important source of knowledge and information.

we can't do all of this. digital preservation, we have a program which has suffered a we'ree bit in terms of, grateful congress restored some, because they wanted to cut the program because of categorical decisions about other things besides this program. but digital preservation is terribly important because the average website is somewhere between 26-44 days, and the stuff that survives is violent video games, a lot of off-color stuff, and a lot of junk lives on. has a commercial life. but important data sets that are accumulated by people who think people are subscribed to this, but american industries years from now, a lot of viable -- a lot of things vanish.

it's stored on is impermanent. and the way of decoding the zeros and ones changes a lot. the most best preserved things are always older, the stone steps in china. samaria,tablets from central area. those things live on. is earlyanimal skin modern paper. early modern paper is better than the paper the world has produced since 1950. it disintegrates after a while. just look at old newspapers in your attic, if there's anything left of it. so the acquisition and preservation, and making accessible, those are the three core things that the library

congress has to do for the nation. i have to say, we're beautifully and consistently supported by the congress. but i don't think anybody realizes, and i don't think most people in the country realize that we serve everybody. , as a result we tend to be taken for granted. we have a very dedicated bunch of people. we have many less people. we lost nearly a third of our people from the peak years of 1979. believe, left people on board than we had 15 years ago, before we even started our digital thing. we are essentially superimposing and trying to integrate our entire digital universe of the top of the world's biggest analog collection, 135 million physical analogs, over 200

million analog items every year. this is unique in the world. americanwas great, icon and historian, worked many years. me, as a scholar who's been privileged to head up this institution, i just hope we are able to do all that's needed because it's easy, institutions like this -- for instance, if you miss one year of a magazine subscription, that magazine is in going for 100 years, you are just 100 less valuable. to people you're about half as vital as you are, because they are heavily on the front and. -- front end. and then if you start discarding things that need to be

preserved, ever since the late 19th century, the definition of a democratic society. there are things everybody can buy, virtually. but most people don't realize they won't last very long. and if you're concerned about the future of america or the future of freedom, or the creative use of freedom for improving ourselves and making things better, you've got to be concerned about these fundamental things. but it's not very glamorous, but it's terribly important for children and grandchildren to have the same opportunities we did. brian: let's pick somebody that's out in the middle of the country. they could be a student in the university or just somebody interested in this thing to you talk about the library of congress. what would you advise them if they wanted to become involved in the library of congress? where would you go besides the website? and by the way, how many

buildings are there in washington? guest: we have three buildings in washington, right here on capitol hill. we've got some interesting exhibits up. we can give you a tour. you can be expired -- inspired by one of the most interior spaces -- the jefferson building. and the new capital business center opens up, it will have a passageway into the library. we expect our users not to use the library, but to just visit and see it, will increase from 1.4 million a year to about 3.5 million a year. and what they will find when they come, they will get a passport to knowledge and see these original documents. we have basic papers, most of the papers of most presidents from washington to coolidge. most of what we have from washington, jefferson, medicine, are there already.

but they can see the map of the new world we got. 500 anniversary, 500 years old. the first use of the word america. you can see thomas jefferson's rough draft of the declaration of independence, much more interesting than the final draft which everyone can see. john adams and james madison theialed on the side to see two various gettysburg address. brian: is the online? guest: it's online. likehat your city looked from an aerial photograph from 1870, to see what was on your block. i mean, these are exciting experiences. so you can discover all that. but particularly you have this

experience, they're going to get a passport of knowledge. bring knowledge to life in this building. going to see the iconography of this building is amazing. leading, thencoln idea of what america's contribution to the world was going to be in the end of the 19th century. you'll see pictures of little cupids on the battle sites. telegraph, old things in america that were invented they don't know anything about. baseball as it was played in the 1880's and 1890's, very different games than the games that are played today. we've got a new exhibition in the united states, it began with the invention. nothing like this had ever been

attempted before. the idea of representing democracy on a continental scale. we're the only civilization created in the age of print. we're going to celebrate that. we're going to have another exhibit. we're just getting the music out. the people bringing the music facility there, some new collections. there's a handheld guide that will direct them to see original things. at the same time, everything they see will be put on their personal website, which will be queued in from this handheld guide. so using new technology, but a quick able with old things -- equip people with old things and allow them to read in the spirit of creativity. they'll create their own menu and have them waiting when they get home. if they have an,

blind older relative, they can get free, through their local library, from the library of congress, we distribute 22 million reading items for the blind and physically handicapped. blind people read much more than sighted people do. if you go to the local library, you get that. if you get involved in the veterans history project, we have a commission from the congress to interview every pattern of american war that's still alive. so, that takes a lot of volunteers because we don't have much money for this. it's a wonderful thing for kids to do, defined veterans in the neighborhood or family and get them to tell stories, a little audio clip. it's not expensive, it's not complicated, nonprofessional. make it possible to tell the

history of wars. this person said. it's how people experience. get on our website. we also have one, goticanlibrary.gov, which fun games for kids. brian: i have here, kind of rough around the edges, but a library card from the library of congress. i remember getting it several years ago and it didn't cost me anything. does it cost anything now? guest: no. brian: who can get a card like this and what can they do with it? guest: anybody over 18 and we are lowering the age group. anyone over 18 can use one of our reading rooms. all you have to do is show up, get a picture taken. it has to be a picture id.

but you don't have to get certification from anybody. once you have that card, you're free to use any of our reading rooms. movies, you, like can't just sit there and watch movies all day. but some reasonable requests, basically these are all free and on our website. all our services are free. brian: is every book written by an american in this library? guest: i wouldn't say every book, but more than anywhere else, yeah. we have basic copyright deposit, which only has existed since 1870's. a copy of the photo in the executive and judicial branches, congress decided in 1870 to put that congress -- the copyright off until 1871. we got two copies of everything,

not only books, but anything copyrighted. documentary photographs. that's why our music election is so enormous -- collection is so enormous. by far the biggest movie collection and the world. eight more than 800,000 movie titles. people talk about their reels. we're getting a fantastic audiovisual concert center. congress is authorized to help set up. we've got the biggest private donation ever made to the donation. brian: who made it? guest: humanities -- brian: where is it? guest: virginia. it's a great place to visit. we don't keep absolutely everything. we usually keep for the life of a copyright, until it does -- expires. by the way, every summer, and this is another way to get

involved, we bring in interns, and we get them to do inventory. what was copyrighted in 1883? maybe the first three months. we've got about 50 of them this summer, and they're having a blast looking for stuff. they have a little show and tell at the end of the summer. they discovered coal porters first musical, when he copyrighted as an undergraduate at yield. -- at yale. the great writer of the harlem renaissance did a wonderful mixed-media piece called pulp county. nobody had ever seen that before. well, we did a reading on stage. we too are the country since. -- toured the country since. mixed-media is a wonderful

thing. this is an in all mostly creative country. the library of congress is basically two things, the largest collection of anywhere in the world, 454, 460 languages. and is the closest thing would have two image record of american creativity. not just books, but movies, music, and so forth. we've only partially used this. we have to physically preserve this stuff. everything since 1850, 1860 practically. people don't realize that. bathing -- they think when you have a record, same thing, preservation is fascinating. conservation is one of the most fun, interesting things, and one of the most important. but, for instance, livermore labs at berkeley, we've been

working with them. now we have a technique for restoring old 78 records. even if they're cracked, you can restore most of the music by taking mexican -- massive photographs of all the ridges. we're constantly doing these things. there's so much to do, so much to tell. it's really the story of a creative people who had a knowledge-based democracy, who founded the idea of self-government. articles of the confederation. we have all these documents. afraid theterribly french were going to take everything over. there was this paranoid fear of the french. that's why we fought with the british against the french in what we called the french and

indian war. so, but the point is, we have lost an enormously creative country. it's not just that we've had freedom, but we've used it in match and actively. we've created a version of the american dream. if we work hard, and if we get more knowledge and more people to use it in more ways, tomorrow can always be a little better than yesterday. we don't have a perfect system, but we have a system capable of improvement. that's an amazing invention for a country that's why the occupied and diverse as the united states is. libraries are the heart. we talk about a knowledge-based democracy. but they can't be taken for granted. and they have to be used and they have to make themselves more usable. so the long-winded answer to your question, people come here.

we want them to see that libraries are enjoyable, uplifting, and fun. it isn't just a network out there, but libraries can be uplifting and fun. and the iconography of the jefferson building, as a way of showing that, spotlighting it, doing walk-throughs, having an experience that will take the vision of optimism and hope that was inspired to build this building. the library of congress was in the capital building itself. it wasn't that accessible, although it was always open to the public. when they built this building, they built a temple of knowledge. and we're going to restore it to its original vision and make it fun. at the same time, we're going to give people the little gizmo, the whole purpose of it is to

get them prepared to see the originals, and then to go back and use the materials at their school or library or even in their home that will get them on a life of inquiry. this is a president who wanted to be remembered for founding a university, not being president of the united states. weernment bureaucrats, shouldn't be too dismissive of high office. but the fact of the matter is, this profession and these institutions are something that built america before it existed as a country. and that made it into a continental country. it helps remind us. and it will sustain us in a

globalized world. brian: i have one last question and i don't ask this for you, i ask this for everybody watching that would love to have your job. [laughter] off,: you want to tip was you plan to retire at any point in this process? guest: i will retire hopefully get carted out. but i don't have immediate plans to do so. [applause] brian: 20 years, september 17, this year. guest: i think it was the 14th. brian: who's arguing? thank you. [applause] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> who was martin van buren? >> good question. a lot of people probably need to ask that question.

martin van buren was the eight resident of the united states -- eight president of the united states. >> sunday on q&a, ted would murder on his biography of martin van buren. >> he spent a lot of time with aaron burr, hamiltons murderer. and there were even rumors consistent throughout the life of martin van buren, so persistent that gore v doll i did them in his novel, "burr," that martin van buren may have been the individual -- illegitimate son of aaron burr. john quincy adams once wrote in his diary, i saw it, that martin van buren looks a lot like ehrenberg and heat -- ehrenberg, he he -- aaron burr, and talks a lot like aaron burr. >> sunday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span's q&a.

photographers share stories and images from covering residential campaigns. then c-span interviews congressman joe crowley of new york and arizona senator jeff flake, who are both retiring at the end of this term. on the day arizona senator john mccain died, a group of photojournalists talked about covering him on the campaign trail, as well as their work following other presidential candidates. this is an hour and 45 minutes. >> good evening, everyone. how is everyone doing tonight? excellent. glad to hear it. i'm the education and public programs manager here at the annenberg space for photography.