Library of Congress observes 1st full week of May as Public Service Recognition Week
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#LoC; #USOfficeOfPersonnelManagement; #PublicServiceRecognitionWeek; #USCopyrightOffice; #OnlineTransition
Washington/Canadian-Media: The United States (U.S.) Office of Personnel Management has designated the first full week of May as Public Service Recognition Week to honor the folks who work federal, state, county, and local governments including the library employees and those working at the National Library, Library of Congress (LoC) reported.
With more than 3,200 people working at the LoC, including world-class experts and scholars in a vast number of fields, it is the largest library in world history, comprising more than 171.6 million items and counting. Included in the library facilities are the main Library buildings, the U.S. Copyright Office and the Congressional Research Service on the Capitol Hill campus; the Packard National Audio-Visual Conservation Center in Culpeper, Virginia; six satellite offices around the world; and several state-of-the-art storage facilities.
A vast number of fields in which world-class experts and scholars work are the U.S. and world history, literature, book-binding, films, folklore, maps, manuscripts, printing, photography, maps, making all resources available to the public while also preserving them for centuries to come.
Apart from great librarians, LoC also houses chemists, film preservationists, and, in the case of the papers of Alexander Hamilton, scientists who used hyperspectral imaging to uncover long-hidden lines of text.
In her video message, Carla Hayden, the Librarian Of LoC, says the Library is one of the primary keepers of the American narrative, a storehouse, conservatory, library and museum of American and world history. Though our doors have been closed to the public and most employees during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Library staff never missed a day, as the staff shifted to telework almost overnight to keep the work flowing and more than 802,000 reference librarians answered the questions from members of Congress to researchers to students. (Just use our Ask a Librarian service!) in fiscal 2020.
Thousands of items that come into the Library daily were received, stored, and processed by the technicians. More than 400,00 copyright registrations per year were done by the Copyright Office a cornerstone of intellectual property rights. Conservationists and preservations found new ways to work safely working in everything from manuscripts to maps, from films to recordings.
The National Book Festival, one of our favorite events, has also been transitioned by the staff responsible for putting together the festival from multiple departments to hosting the festival online last fall. The impact of COVID-19 impact on the nation is also being actively documented and curated. Our crowdsourcing project for transcribing historical papers, ‘By the People’, also continued without missing any step.