Talk:Librarian of Congress

Untitled

A possible source: "Librarians of Congress, 1802-1974." Washington: Library of Congress: for sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1977. phoebe 16:34, 26 September 2006 (UTC)

removed table

removed tables of redirects for the US congress. the other categories are enough.

Added numbering, and comments about notability in other fieldsDGG 23:36, 2 October 2006 (UTC)

Revising Page

I am working on this page for a class project. Please look at my sandbox and offer any suggestions that you feel fit. Thanks!

-Arroz29

User:Arroz29/sandbox

The following is the draft I have created thus far. Official citations are not included but I have listed which source I got the information from and if you check out my sandbox page you can see the exact source.

The History of the Librarian of Congress In 1802, two years after the creation of the Library of Congress, President Thomas Jefferson appointed the very first Librarian of Congress. The law created in regards to this position gave the power of appointment to the President of the United States. It was not until 1897 that Congress was given the power to confirm the President’s nominee. This same law gave the Librarian the sole power for making the institution’s rules and appointing the Library’s staff. (Source: Jefferson’s Legacy)

There is very little legislation for the Library of Congress. However, in 1989 Major Robert Odell Owens (D- NY) proposed a bill in Congress that would set stricter requirements for whom can be appointed as the Librarian. It argues appointed Librarians need to have specialized training and backgrounds in the field of libraries. However, the bill did not pass and the tradition continued of Presidents appointing their friends and colleagues. (Source: Congress Bill)

Term of Office- (should this be a different section or included in history?) There is no official term limit for the Librarian of Congress. Laws have been created regarding the appointment process but no law indicates the term of office. However, in the twentieth century the precedent was established that Librarians of Congress is appointed for life. Therefore, most librarians have served till death or retirement. (Source: Jefferson’s Legacy) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Arroz29 (talk • contribs) 21:49, 4 November 2014 (UTC)

Hello Arroz29, thanks for posting your draft here. These look like good additions that will increase the coverage of the topic. I like the sources you have collected in your sandbox - reliable secondary sources, and the 1987 Congress bill as a primary document to support. It's important that primary sources are used to verify simple facts, and that we don't make conclusions or extrapolations based on them (the policy here is No original research) So, in your second paragraph, where you say "However, the bill did not pass and the tradition continued of Presidents appointing their friends and colleagues." should be cited to secondary source, not just the bill. But otherwise, things are looking pretty good. As for your question,"should this be a different section or included in history?" I'd say that could be in its own section - if you were only talking about it historically, it would be history. But you talk about the present situation. It's really an editorial call, and you're the editor right now! :) The Interior (Talk) 02:26, 6 November 2014 (UTC)

I would like to be appointed head librarian into the librarian of congress if possible Louieloco5150 (talk) 07:05, 19 March 2016 (UTC)

Ways to improve

I think it would be helpful to add info on what a librarian of congress does from day to day. This article does not go too in-depth with the duties required to adequately preform the job. Another aspect that could be added in order to improve this article, would be to list all the former librarians of congress throughout history. There just needs to be more information on the subject in general as well. Charlesvonrosenberg5 (talk) 16:43, 18 September 2015 (UTC)

The original library was housed in the new Capitol of the United States until August 1814, when invading British troops set fire to the Capitol Building, burning and destroying all the contents of the library.The law created in regards to this position gave the power of appointment to the President of the United States. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Charlesvonrosenberg5 (talk • contribs) 16:36, 25 September 2015 (UTC)

References

The above would be more appropriately contained in articles on the individual Librarians, which are linked in the article. The nature of the duties have significantly changed over time, so a useful part of the history section would be to link to sources that describe these changes. For example, anything relating copyright did not become part of the role until the Copyright Act of 1870. Your comment above about the history of the library is important, but it belongs in the article about the library, not the role of the Librarian. Morskyjezek (talk) 16:36, 18 March 2018 (UTC)

Suggested revision of subheadings

I would propose the following restructuring of the subheadings to better reflect the content of the article and to align it more closely with the sections found in articles on US Federal officials:

Current subheading	Proposed subheading	Explanation
1 History	[remove]	does not reflect the content of the section, and other articles (e.g., POTUS) do not include such a heading
1.1 Creation of the Post	1 Origin	this section is about the time leading up to and including the very earliest years of the post
1.2 Authority and duties	2 Authority and duties	This subheading is accurate, but it does not belong under a 'History' heading
3 Librarians of Congress	List of Librarians of Congress	This is a list of the previous and current incumbents in the role

I have not noted large numbers of links to the subheadings in the article and do not anticipate this revision would create undue confusion at this time given that the article is somewhat underdeveloped currently. Morskyjezek (talk) 03:23, 30 March 2018 (UTC)

Sounds good to me. TJRC (talk) 17:16, 30 March 2018 (UTC)

Thanks! I have made these changes to the structure of the article and removed the flag regarding the organization of the history section. More content can be added, but the structure of the headings is more accurate and clearly organized. Morskyjezek (talk) 01:23, 4 May 2018 (UTC)

Further reading list

The list of "further reading" currently includes articles about the politics of making an appointment to this post in 2015. These do not really pertain to the history, evolution, or duties of this role in a general sense. (They mostly give interesting insight to the current needs for digital initiatives at the library.) I would propose to remove this list and ensure that each of the articles is cited in the history section. Morskyjezek (talk) 16:48, 16 September 2018 (UTC)