[Senate Hearing 116-133]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 116-133
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
MODERNIZATION OVERSIGHT
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HEARING
BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE ON RULES AND ADMINISTRATION
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED SIXTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
NOVEMBER 7, 2019
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Printed for the use of the Committee on Rules and Administration
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Available on http://www.govinfo.gov
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U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
38-506 WASHINGTON : 2020
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COMMITTEE ON RULES AND ADMINISTRATION
FIRST SESSION
ROY BLUNT, Missouri, Chairman
MITCH McCONNELL, Kentucky AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota
LAMAR ALEXANDER, Tennessee DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California
PAT ROBERTS, Kansas CHARLES E. SCHUMER, New York
RICHARD SHELBY, Alabama RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois
TED CRUZ, Texas TOM UDALL, New Mexico
SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO, West Virginia MARK R. WARNER, Virginia
ROGER WICKER, Mississippi PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont
DEB FISCHER, Nebraska ANGUS S. KING, JR., Maine
CINDY HYDE-SMITH, Mississippi CATHERINE CORTEZ MASTO, Nevada
Fitzhugh Elder IV, Staff Director
Lindsey Kerr, Democratic Staff Director
C O N T E N T S
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Pages
Opening Statement of:
Hon. Roy Blunt, Chairman, a U.S. Senator from the state of
Missouri....................................................... 1
Hon. Tom Udall, a U.S. Senator from the state of New Mexico...... 2
Dr. Carla Hayden, PhD, Librarian of Congress, Library of Congress 4
Prepared Testimony of:
Dr. Carla Hayden, PhD, Librarian of Congress, Library of Congress 21
Materials Submitted for the Record:
Suggested opening remarks for Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith........... 29
Questions Submitted for the Record:
Hon. Roy Blunt, Chairman, a U.S. Senator from the state of
Missouri to Dr. Carla Hayden, PhD, Librarian of Congress,
Library of Congress............................................ 30
Hon. Amy Klobuchar, a U.S. Senator from the state of Minnesota,
to Dr. Carla Hayden, PhD, Librarian of Congress, Library of
Congress....................................................... 40
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
MODERNIZATION OVERSIGHT
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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2019
United States Senate
Committee on Rules and Administration
Washington, DC.
The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:03 a.m., in
Room 301, Russell Senate Office Building, Hon. Roy Blunt,
Chairman of the committee, presiding.
Present: Senators Blunt, Capito, Hyde-Smith, Udall, and
Cortez Masto.
Also Present: Senator Fischer
OPENING STATEMENT OF HONORABLE ROY BLUNT, CHAIRMAN, A U.S.
SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF MISSOURI
Chairman Blunt. The Committee on Rules and Administration
will come to order. Ms. Hyde-Smith, who also chairs the
appropriating committee for the Library, and I think that is
particularly helpful that you could be here with us for this
today as well also as a member of this committee, so she is
here as a member of the committee, but also on these topics,
particularly valuable in the roles of appropriating.
We have been having with the Library, with the Smithsonian,
with the Architect of the Capitol, these kinds of oversight
hearings to fulfill that responsibility and be sure we are
giving the agencies the help they need. We are glad to be here,
of course, with the Librarian, Dr. Carla Hayden, with Mr. Bud
Barton, the Library's Chief Information Officer, and Karyn
Temple, the Register of Copyrights. I thank all of you for
being here today. I think we want to talk primarily, at least I
want to talk primarily, about modernization. We had a chance
with Dr. Hayden at the last meeting to talk about the physical
plant ideas of how to make the Library even more of an
experience for people who visit there.
We want to talk about today more of how the modernization
of the IT elements at the Library are coming together, and how
all services are being benefited by that. The Library, of
course, performs a lot of functions for us. Historically, one
of those functions has been the Copyright Office. I think
initially that was to be sure that the Library would be a clear
recipient of that great treasure of the copyrighted documents
that would become part of the Library's collection. But the
Copyright Office has always been a part of the Library.
Today we are taking a different--a deeper look again into
the Copyright Office and we are glad the Register is here with
us, but also IT and modernization generally. I think we are
going to focus mostly on the Copyright Office and IT, and any
discussions that you want to have about challenges you are
having or successes you are having as you move in the direction
of more up-to-date IT and more up-to-date protection. You know,
cyber threats are real, and I think they are particularly real
in some of the information that you are dealing with.
Dr. Hayden and I got to know each other well in 2016 when
we were able to work together and be sure that she became the
first librarian in a long time to be the Librarian of Congress.
We have been pleased to be able to work together since then.
Prior to the arrival of really all three of you in these
current jobs, the GAO was very critical of the Library, the
Copyrights Office's information technology.
The Government Accountability Office identified a lack of
strategic planning, information and technology investment
management, and weaknesses in information security, and
privacy. They recommended that the Library hire a permanent
chief information officer, which it did, and that chief
information officer would professionalize and centralize the
information technology needs at the Library, which hopefully we
are going to find out today you are doing.
As Librarian, Dr. Hayden, you are ultimately responsible
for the management and success of the Library as a whole, which
includes the Copyright Office, but of course we look to the
Register of the Copyright Office to be responsible for what
happens there every day and have the kind of working
relationship with the two of you that are essential to make
that happen. Mr. Barton, glad you are here. I look forward to
hearing about how you are taking this job and making it work.
Ms. Temple, we talked some last year in this committee. We
had a proposal even to make your selection slightly different
and maybe outside the normal selection process that had
traditionally been by Librarian of Congress. That did not pass
and so the Congress's view was this situation would continue to
stay as it was. I think the staff of the Rules Committee has
spent a lot of time with all three of you over recent months
trying to be sure that this is working the way it needs to
work. It is hard to talk about trade policy or lots of other
policy without talking about the importance of protecting
information and copyrights, patents, and other things. It is a
very real topic.
We had our last review in March, as I mentioned before, of
the Library what the Library was doing in other areas. Glad the
three of you are here today to talk about this, and I am
particularly pleased that Senator Udall could carve out the
time to be here as part of this as well. Senator Udall, I turn
to you for any opening statements you might have.
OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR UDALL, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE
STATE OF NEW MEXICO
Senator Udall. Thank you so much, Chairman Blunt, and you
are a good friend and we have worked on a lot of issues
together. Thank you so much for holding this hearing. The
Library of Congress is an important institution and I am
pleased to see the committee taking an active role to make sure
it is healthy and strong.
I want to thank all the witnesses that are here today, Dr.
Hayden, Ms. Temple, and Mr. Barton, and I also have worked with
Dr. Hayden a lot over the course of her tenure over there. I
have really enjoyed developing a deeper relationship. First, I
want to say the Library is an American treasure of immeasurable
value. Its 170 million items include the world's largest
collection of legal materials, films, and sound recordings. Its
landmark buildings see 2 million visitors every year, and there
were 114 million visits to its websites last year.
The Copyright Office is critical to music, film, and the
publishing industry, worth over 1 trillion dollars every year.
Copyrights are especially important in my home state of New
Mexico where artists in the creative economy are a significant
and growing part of our state's business activity. In addition
to its public value, the Library is fundamentally essential to
our work here in the Legislative branch. You know, some people
may think members of Congress are ill-informed but imagine what
this place would be like without the assets like the
Congressional Research Service.
Online resources like Congress.gov help keep us informed
and up-to-date with non-partisan, factual information. Like so
many Americans, we rely day in and day out on the information
provided by the Library of Congress to make important
decisions. So while this hearing may not be carried live on
cable news, it is this committee's job to make sure the Library
is well-run, up-to-date and prepared for the future. Future
generations will thank us.
Dr. Hayden, I know you and your team have been working
diligently to modernize and grow the IT infrastructure of the
Library of Congress and the Copyright Office. Digital
technology is crucial to the Library's evolving operations. I
am encouraged with the pace with which the Government
Accountability Office recommendations have been implemented. I
have worked on Federal IT reform on a bipartisan basis for many
years and I know it is not easy. Big IT projects are tough
enough in corporate enterprises, but Federal agencies face a
much different budget process and unique organizational issues.
Federal chief information officers have learned a lot of
lessons and developed best practices in recent years.
I urge the Library and Copyright Office to seek out those
best practices and work together for success. I look forward to
hearing about the progress to improve the Library's
infrastructure and operations, progress in improving
accessibility of the Library's unique collections and
historical artifacts like Thomas Jefferson's draft of the
Declaration of Independence and the contents of Abraham
Lincoln's pockets the night he was assassinated.
Tangible pieces of some of the most significant moments in
our Nation's shared history can be both preserved and made
accessible. Along those lines, I want to highlight one of the
Library's ongoing initiatives, the Veterans History Project.
Chartered by Congress in 2000, this ongoing effort collects and
makes accessible personal accounts of American war veterans so
that future generations can hear directly from veterans and
better understand the realities of war.
With Veterans Day approaching, I will be interested to hear
an update on the progress of that project during our question-
and-answer time. Helping Native American tribes protect their
historical and cultural resources is also a high priority for
me.
Dr. Hayden, we have spoken about this before and I know it
is a priority for you too. I hope we can keep working together
on tribal engagement under the Music Modernization Act as well
as the Library's language and other resources for tribes. I
look forward to our panel's discussion today and I will yield
back to the chairman.
Chairman Blunt. Thank you, Senator Udall. Dr. Hayden, your
full testimony will be in the record. You can deal with it
however you want. I am also going to ask that my remarks and
Senator Udall's and any comments, introductory comments any
member the panel would like to make would go into the record
without objection.
[The information referred to was submitted for the record.]
Chairman Blunt. Dr. Hayden, we are glad you are here. We
are going to let you testify on behalf of everybody and then
everybody will get their share of questions, I am sure of that.
Dr. Hayden.
OPENING STATEMENT OF DR. CARLA HAYDEN, PHD, LIBRARIAN OF
CONGRESS, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Ms. Hayden. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman, Senator Udall,
Senator Hyde-Smith. I welcome the opportunity to be here today
to give you an update on the Library's modernization and
especially the information technology and work with the
Copyright Office. I want to thank the committee for its ongoing
support of the Library in general and with the Library's IT
modernization. Three years ago, in this very room during my
confirmation hearing we discussed the many challenges and
opportunities presented by the Library's technology and I am
excited to be able to tell you today that we have significantly
improved the Library's information technology.
The Library is a different organization from what it was
just a short time ago and over the last few years we have
stabilized our core IT structure, we have streamlined and
strengthened our IT governance, and we have centralized and
professionalized our IT workforce. That hard work has allowed
us to close and implement nearly 95 percent of the GAO
recommendations made in 2015 and we will keep working until we
close 100 percent by the end of this year. Modernizing the
Copyright Office is a top agency priority and we are making
progress in upgrading the systems to register and maintain up-
to-date records for creative works so that the systems are
automated, integrated, and easier for the public to use.
Thanks to the generous support of Congress, the Library is
now 1 year into a 5-year effort to design and implement a new
enterprise-wide copyright system. To keep progress moving
forward, the Copyright Office has now hired a senior technical
advisor in place to help manage and plan IT modernization and
also to enhance the collaboration between the Copyright Office
and the agency's technology staff. In fiscal year 2019, the
Copyright Office and the Office of the Chief Information
Officer jointly engaged in user-experience outreach to
stakeholders and launched development efforts for key
components of the new system.
This fiscal year, the Library will release a limited pilot
of the first fully digital copyright recordation system. We
will also complete a prototype of a searchable records
management system and begin the initial development for the
next generation online registration system. I want you to know
that I believe in my team leading this effort. Register Karyn
Temple, Chief Information Officer Bud Barton, and I believe
that together we will deliver a modernized copyright system. We
are also completely overhauling the technology that powers
every part of the Library.
The Chief Information Officer, Mr. Barton, is working with
the Congressional Research Service, CRS, to implement a new
research and information system and it will make use of the
latest technologies. The National Library Service for the Blind
and Print Disabled is completely rethinking how it delivers
content to people with reading difficulties. The Law Library
has completely digitized the U.S. statutes at large, and in
collaboration with the Government Publishing Office, we have
digitized the Congressional Serial Set dating back to 1817.
So by embracing user focused design and agile development,
we brought out new products to millions of online users and we
made enhancements to many of our services. Last, our digital
strategy agency wide is leveraging technology to find
innovative ways to reach more people.
With these efforts we are moving ahead with a challenging
but achievable task of transforming the Library into a more
digitally enabled agency. There is still a lot of work to be
done but we have made great progress. I thank you again for
inviting me to update the committee with my colleagues and we
welcome your questions.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Hayden was submitted for the
record.]
Chairman Blunt. Great. We are glad you are here. We clearly
are going to have plenty of time for us to ask multiple
questions. I think we will try to stay in about 5 minute
segments and just go back and forth. Senator Hyde-Smith is
coming back in just a moment and obviously will be here for
questions as well. Mr. Barton, would you share your progress?
You started right--when, 2016 or was it 2015?
Mr. Barton. September 2015, sir.
Chairman Blunt. 2015 and that was in response to the idea
that somebody needed to come in and be the chief information
officer. Just in a couple of minutes sort of give me a sense of
how far you have come from the day you walked in and
particularly how far you have come since the Librarian took her
job in 2016.
Mr. Barton. Thank you for the question. It is a great
opportunity for me to be able to reinforce the talent we have
at the Library regarding IT and the professionalism displayed
by the staff. As the GAO audit found, there was a lack of
oversight and so they suggested that the Library hire a chief
information officer. When I first came in, it was apparent to
me that it wasn't the lack of talent or lack of capability. It
was really a lack of vision, a lack of oversight on the IT
organization.
The Library had been pretty much working in a siloed
fashion, as I am sure we will discuss a little bit more
throughout the hearing. Centralization was something that would
help this. In other words, making decisions about IT at the
agency regarding strategic direction and then making sure that
those decisions of the strategic direction didn't interfere
with the individual service or business units needs to have
specialized IT to perform their business mission.
Whenever I first arrived, I testified that my goal was to
make sure the findings of the GAO audit were addressed in a way
that didn't just check a box. I wasn't here to just make sure
that we closed the audit findings. I was here to make sure that
the root cause of those findings was addressed and in such a
way that we were not put back into the same situation in a
matter of years. Thanks to the support of Congress from a
budgetary perspective, we have been able to address 95 percent
of those findings.
I expect that we will close all of these findings by the
end of this calendar year. We have submitted the evidence that
is necessary to the GAO and are expecting back and forth
conversations with them throughout the rest of this year on
getting those closed. The progress we have made is significant
and it covers every domain of IT.
The discussions I have had with the GAO, the team that was
here, it was the first time that they have actually made that
broad of a recommendation. The number of recommendations were
significant, over 100 recommendations, and in every domain of
IT, from security to finance to operations, every domain that
there exists.
The biggest progress we have made is in security and I am
very proud to say that at this point all of the major systems
within the Library have now obtained what we call an authority
to operate which means the security of those systems have been
validated, tested, and compared to NIST standards, who is the
body that we look to for establishing security standards.
Chairman Blunt. On that topic, let me go to Ms. Temple
before I run out of time here with my first questions. On the
security topic, intellectual property is clearly one of the
things that we are for good reason the most concerned about,
one of the big targets of cyber-espionage and other things, do
you feel good about where we are headed in terms of the
security of the information entrusted to the Federal Government
through you and your job?
Ms. Temple. Yes, thank you for the question. Security is
one of the most important aspects in our development of an IT
system and I am very pleased that the Library has taken such a
huge role in ensuring that the items that we receive in the
Library are protected. Digital security--as we have kind of
moved to digital technology, we receive a host of different
types of works from feature films to important books to works
that have not even been released to the public yet. Security of
our system is a critical aspect of its development and so that
is one of the things that we are focusing on as we develop with
the Library.
Chairman Blunt. You have worked in the office for some
time, haven't you?
Ms. Temple. Yes, I have.
Chairman Blunt. What is the difference in the security
either concerns or your sense of security now compared to 5
years ago or whatever number you want to give me?
Ms. Temple. Yes. I would say that the main differences is
the focus that we have been placing on security, acknowledging
and recognizing how critical it is to the management of our IT
system and really making sure that at every level security is
considered as we begin developing the new system. I think the
focus and prioritization of security is one of the main
differences from where we were years ago.
Chairman Blunt. Yes. I would point out before we go to
Senator Udall that while you said you have worked there for
some time, you had this job really as the permanently
designated person for a relatively short time. If we are back
into 2014 or 2015, somebody else was the Register of Copyrights
at that time. Senator Udall.
Senator Udall. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Dr. Hayden, as part
of the ongoing IT management and modernization plan, I am aware
that the Library has implemented a new digital strategy by
transitioning to a new tier 3 level data center. This
investment is key to helping the Library deploy technology to
expedite and expand digital access to the vast collection of
books and media.
Last time you testified before this committee you stated
that the Library was in the process of migrating applications
to the new data facility. Your testimony today provides an
update that you are moving forward to fully transition
operations by the end of the fiscal year 2020 to support the
Library's digital needs. Could you expand upon your testimony
and discuss the progress of this move, including progress on
migrating data to cloud services?
Ms. Hayden. As we mentioned before, we are looking at and
making sure that we have a variety of storage capacities, and
that includes the cloud, and also physical storage capacity as
well because of the nature of the materials that we are
storing. Some need to be onsite. Mr. Barton has been--and he
knows that I have been very concerned and making sure that we
are able to make that migration secure and also very effective
without losing any data. If you wouldn't mind, Mr. Barton will
give you the precise----
Senator Udall. That would be great. Mr. Barton?
Mr. Barton. Thank you, sir. The move out of the Madison
Building of all of our, what we term the productions, the
actual usable content, is supposed to be complete by the end of
this fiscal year 2020. A lot of that content, especially the
ones that are sensitive, needs to have security controls around
it, will be maintained in this new data center that we have
fitted out. That will be complete by the end of the fiscal year
2020.
We will also be migrating our non-sensitive, publicly
releasable, the things that the general public reviews into the
cloud in a lot of respects so that it is faster and less
physically, from an equipment perspective that we have to worry
about funding.
Senator Udall. Ms. Temple can you update the committee on
the progress of shifting copyright office data to this facility
as well as to the cloud services, including the benefits you
expect to see and the current challenges you face.
Ms. Temple. Yes. I will defer a little bit to Mr. Barton in
terms of the exact schedule, but I know that we are on track in
terms of beginning to migrate our data over to the data center,
some of our data. Some of our other data that will be housed in
a cloud service as we are developing the new system as well. We
are working closely with the OCIO in terms of the schedule and
timeline for that process.
Senator Udall. Dr. Hayden, I understand that expanding
access to make the Library's unique collections available to
all users is a central part of the Library's strategic plan.
The Veterans History Project of the American Folklife Center is
one collection of particular interest to me, and with Veterans
Day just 4 days away, I am sure it is of interest to my
colleagues.
My office discovered that New Mexico had a low number of
stories in the archives, especially considering the high
percentage of active duty and veterans in our state. To change
this, I set a goal for my staff to collect at least 50 stories
from New Mexico veterans including at least one from every one
of our 33 counties. Since July 1st, 2019, I am proud to say
that my office has collected over 80 interviews.
I conducted a number of interviews myself. I can tell you
it was a really eye-opening experience. I am especially focused
on enlisting the help of other community partners around my
state to continue collecting interviews and other materials
from Hispanic veterans, Pueblos, Apache tribes, and the Navajo
Nation. Can you update the committee on the progress of this
project and how it fits into the updated mission and vision of
the Library?
Ms. Hayden. Very pleased that you asked that question
because I just returned from Rhode Island with Senator Reed and
before that it was Senator Enzi in Wyoming collecting
interviews and adding to the over 100,000 oral testimonies of
veterans. The inclusion of the gold star families has been very
important, and we are making sure that we work with
congressional offices. We want to thank you for conducting the
interviews.
You are so correct about the fact that it can get emotional
and there are a lot of veterans who feel they don't have a
story to tell but we try to make sure they know. People who
have lost their loved ones can also contribute to the Veterans
History Project and talk about that. So over 100,000 already
and we are working to make sure that we reach out to the native
communities.
We have added many oral histories and have a special focus
in working with the National Museum of the American Indian on
that project as well. It is very successful. It is something
that we hope people will realize is so important in terms of
stories to be told. In our new orientation center, we will have
a special section for Veterans History Project and people that
visit, those 2 million visitors, will all know they can record
their stories, hopefully, very soon on their digital devices.
They can do some of it now.
Senator Udall. Thank you and just to let all members know
that you do a really good job, I think, training us to do this.
Thank you very much and we hope maybe you will visit New Mexico
to take our recorded interviews back when we get ready to do
that. Thank you so much.
Chairman Blunt. Let me mention again, I think we will have
time for at least a second round of questions but for your
first questions, Senator Hyde-Smith.
Senator Hyde-Smith. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you
to our witnesses for being here today, I look forward to
learning more about the modernization of Library of Congress
and the Copyright Office because I know it is certainly vital
to growth and expanding access to our Nation's wonderful
collections. Your credibility, I think, is outstanding and it
is just one of my favorite places here in Washington DC, I
thank you for all your efforts.
Dr. Hayden, the effort to centralize IT across the Library
has included transferring both people and resources from your
individual service units, including the Copyright Office, to
the office of the chief information officer to execute
technology activities--and this could be for whomever wants to
answer it. Can you explain how OCIO tracks and utilizes the
funds appropriated for copyright modernization on behalf of the
Copyright Office?
Ms. Hayden. I would like to start, and thank you for the
question, about the--address the benefits of centralizing IT
efforts and projects in the Library in general. That was one of
the major challenges and major focus of the IT modernization
effort to not have silos, Mr. Barton referred to that.
With centralization we can track fiscal expenditures and
resources, we can track equipment, we can professionalize
personnel as well, and also additional security. When you have
a number of units dealing with security that is so difficult.
IT centralization has allowed us to track all of our
expenditures and keep a better view of enterprise wise, what IT
is. But I am very pleased to be able to report centralization
has been helpful in so many ways.
Mr. Barton. Thank you for the question. We have two prongs
that I would like to address on that. One is, overall from an
IT funding management perspective, we are in the middle of
implementing something that is called the technology business
model. This is something that the Executive branch has been
working on for several years, industry has been working on for
several years. While we may not be as far along as some of the
agencies that started this ahead of us, we have made great
strides and we expect that by the end of this fiscal year we
will have our tool in place that gets us down to a level of
fidelity on where we are spending IT funding, that we can make
much more informed decisions about what is working and what
isn't working.
With regards to the Copyright Office, we have a regularly
scheduled, every other week meeting with the Chief Financial
Officer at the Library, Chief Financial Officer of the
Copyright Office, and my IT funding manager and we go over in
detail what the funding is being used for the copyright
modernization effort, where it is being used and spent,
contracts, personnel, and all of the resources that are
involved in the IT modernization for the Copyright Office.
Senator Hyde-Smith. Thank you very much.
Chairman Blunt. Senator Cortez Masto.
Senator Cortez Masto. Thank you. Welcome. It is great to
see all of you, Dr. Hayden, Mr. Barton, Ms. Temple. I am a big
fan of the Library of Congress and what you all do and your
staff. Please know that. I am just sitting here talking to my
wonderful colleague from New Mexico about the Veterans History
Project. Count me in. If my staff are listening, we will be
participating with you in the great State of Nevada.
We have some incredible veterans who I have met and have
heard their stories. Believe it or not, there is a population
of 140,000 Filipinos, many who are veterans, and I would love
to capture their stories, if they are not captured, and so many
more in the state. So we will be following up with you. Let me
follow-up on the enterprise copyright system. That seems to be
the topic this morning. I know that part of the goals for this
updated system is to improve public record searches and
simplify the process for registering copyrights. I think you
mentioned, Dr. Hayden, in your testimony that portions of the
program will be piloted in the spring of 2020. Is that right?
Ms. Hayden. Yes.
Senator Cortez Masto. Okay. How do you--I guess the only
question I have is how do you measure the success of the pilot
programs?
Ms. Hayden. I have my colleagues here, but we have a
Copyright Modernization Office. We also have regular tracking
of progress, and we are about to have a critical path
opportunity that we can overlay everything that is happening
with copyright modernization. But I will defer to Ms. Temple to
more--
Senator Cortez Masto. Thank you. Also include whether the
public will be able to provide feedback as well.
Ms. Temple. Yes. Just to piggyback on your last statement,
we think it is critical to have the public provide input and
feedback as we develop our system. For the recordation system
which will be piloted in the spring of 2020, we are going from
a completely paper-based system to a digital system for the
first time so that is something very exciting for us. We have
established a group of companies and individuals who will
participate in the pilot, but as we continue to, you know,
irate on the pilot and add functionality, we will be adding in
additional individuals to participate, and during that process
we will be getting feedback from them as to how the system
works.
Is it as easy as we thought it would be? Are there changes
that we may need to make? I think that is one of the benefits
of the agile methodology in terms of the system development,
that we will be able to quickly take that feedback and add onto
the existing system and change it as the users provide
feedback.
Senator Cortez Masto. Okay. Thank you, I appreciate that.
Mr. Barton, you mentioned before that one of the Library's
biggest challenges is storage, and I know when I was over there
visiting with some of your staff, we talked a little bit about
that. Can you talk about what the Library is doing to address
the current storage problem?
Mr. Barton. We are taking several prongs of approach to the
storage issue. One, as Dr. Hayden mentioned in her opening
remarks, stabilization was the first phase. The second phase of
the IT modernization was what we called optimization and then
modernization. They weren't necessarily sequential. We are
doing a lot of those activities in parallel. The optimization
part of storage is making sure that where we need storage, we
are using the right type of storage.
For example, if we are presenting information to the
public, we want that information to appear on their computer
screens instantly. That is going to have a different type of
storage than preservation storage where we want to make sure
something is here for posterity, in 100 years it is still
available. That is not necessarily something that needs to be
retrieved rapidly in a matter of milliseconds.
So that would be a less expensive form of storage. That is
one of the avenues that we are approaching, is making sure we
are using the right type of storage for the type that is
needed. The other part is looking at our options from the
priorities of ownership. Cloud-based storage, if we would
consider something that is less expensive for us to maintain
because we are not in the position of having to replace the
hardware. Making sure that we are taking advantage of all the
options from a storage based perspective is a high priority for
us to make sure that it is being done correctly and
efficiently.
Senator Cortez Masto. Thank you and thank you all for the
testimony today. Appreciate you being here and all the good
work that you do. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Chairman Blunt. Mr. Barton, earlier when you mentioned
moving from the Madison Building to the new storage facility,
how much of that would be physically stored and how much of it
is being digitized, moved to the cloud? However, you are doing
that differently than was the case of few years ago?
Mr. Barton. That is a great question, sir. We are
attempting to get all of our analog written materials digitized
in a way that they are accessible by the citizens of the United
States and worldwide. That is right now. I would have to get
back with you on the exact number of what is digitized and what
isn't. It is a constantly growing requirement. When I first
arrived, we were dealing with--we counted our content as 160
million items. As we testified today, it was 170 million items.
So 10 million items in less than 4 years on an analog
basis. That is something that is going to be a challenge for
us, and we are implementing a process where we look at what is
the best way to make this happen. I know the Copyright Office
has a really good story on storage that I don't feel
qualified----
Chairman Blunt. Well, Ms. Temple, let us hear that story.
Ms. Temple. I think what Mr. Barton is alluding to is to
our efforts to digitize our public records. One of the things
that we were really excited to be able to release to the public
last year or earlier this year, since we are still in 2019, was
in March 2019, we did our final release of our virtual card
catalog. On that we were able to give access for the first time
to over 41 million images that were previously physical images
where you had to come into the Copyright Office to be able to
get access to those documents. Those were completely digitized
and put into a digital database for people to be able to access
from wherever they wanted to.
That is something that we are really pleased about. We are
continuing to digitize the remainder of our Copyright Office
records and that is one of the work streams that we do have for
modernization this year. We are going to hopefully be able to
pilot a public record system, a limited pilot public record
system where will be able to add in the virtual card catalog
records that are already digitized as well as the records that
we are digitizing now, and then work on how we might be able to
make all of those records in some way available to the public.
Chairman Blunt. On the digitization project, do you do that
with outside contractors?
Ms. Temple. Yes, yes, we have contracted. We have been
working actually with FEDLINK who has been assisting us on that
and with outside contractors to digitize the additional records
beyond the card catalog. We have about 26,000 record books that
we are hoping to digitize and make the information from those
records, the data like copyright registration number, author,
or title available in a database so that people who want to
come to our office, digitally or online, will be able to very
easily search the copyright status of individual copyrighted
works.
Chairman Blunt. I know like in the Department of
Agriculture, I used to be the top Republican on that
appropriating committee, they have a number of CIOs and there
are various entities around the country, but any big project
has to be cleared by the central USDA CIO. Do you, on an
outside contract on information, would that go through a
clearance process at the Library as well?
Ms. Hayden. Yes. I can answer that. Also FEDLINK, that Ms.
Temple referred to is managed by the Library and we manage that
for contracting and services for other Federal agencies and
libraries. Anything that is part of the centralization of the
standards and the operation of any IT has a review.
Chairman Blunt. Ms. Temple, as one of the agency leaders in
the Library, does that process work quickly enough in your
view? It certainly gives you a safeguard you wouldn't have
otherwise. Does it?
Ms. Temple. Yes, obviously all people within the Government
would love to be able to work even more quickly than they do,
but yes, I think we have an efficient process where what we do
is work with IT OCIOs if it is an IT related project to develop
the contract and send through to the centralized contract
office within the Library.
So for the digitization side, which is actually more of a
business side project, that also does--the resulting contract
will go through the Contracting Office within the Library and
we will work with them whether it is through FEDLINK or through
an outside vendor to develop that contract and get solicitation
out and approved, and then work with the contracting officer
which will be in the Library's Contracting Office to make sure
that that contract is operating smoothly.
Chairman Blunt. I think initially the reason the Copyright
Office was in the Library was as much as anything else to
ensure the collection. One question I would have with all of
this material out there, do you still have those kind of
relationship, Dr. Hayden, that you need for best edition, for
deposit requirements, so that you are getting for your deposit
what you think is what the Library really needs to have in that
eventually, now apparently, quickly digitized form as well as
the other forms?
Ms. Hayden. The deposit requirement has allowed the Library
of Congress to have one of the most comprehensive collections
in the world and it is now the largest collection in the world.
It is such a benefit to be able to have the opportunity to
select from the deposit requirements and so we are very
pleased. I just want to also take an opportunity to commend the
Virtual Card Catalog Project even though it is records and it
is just to think of 41 million cards in catalog drawers. That
was a major undertaking. Visualize a card catalog set with 41
million cards.
Chairman Blunt. How often is the old card catalog cabinet
used now?
Ms. Temple. People still actually do come to the office to
use it, but we are actually looking to, now that people are
aware of the fact that they can access those card catalogs
online, we are actually going to take advantage potentially of
the space and save some space. Probably decommission the
physical card catalogs and actually direct more people to go
online as it is becoming more enhanced.
Ms. Hayden. People have quite a bit of affection for card
catalogs. We even have published a book about card catalogs
with a different ending.
Chairman Blunt. Senator Udall.
Senator Udall. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. When you
last testified in March, Dr. Hayden, you and I discussed tribal
concerns with the proposed rule for the Music Modernization Act
that deals with the pre-1972 recordings. Since then, the
Copyright Office has issued its final rule. The rule did not
include a public domain exemption for pre-1972 tribal, cultural
recordings because according to the Copyright Office it would
exceed the Office's regulatory authority.
This question is for, I think, both you and Ms. Temple, are
you working with tribes to continue addressing this issue, and
if so, what are you doing and what can Congress do to assist
your office with those efforts?
Ms. Hayden. We have several initiatives with making sure
that we preserve and make available the cultural heritage of
native cultures. We have the Federal Cylinder Project and that
is where we are preserving actual, very fragile historic
records dating back to the late 19th century. Then the
Ancestral Voices Digital Collection and our Folklife Center is
making sure that we provide access to the recorded sounds
digitally and songs. We are very active in making sure that we
are capturing and using technology to its great extent for
that.
Senator Udall. Great. Ms. Temple, will you give me your
commitment that the Copyright Office will work with me and my
Indian Affairs subcommittee staff on this issue? As Vice
Chairman of Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, respecting
tribal sovereignty is a priority for me so I look forward to
working with you to resolve this issue. Would you give me your
commitment?
Ms. Temple. Yes, of course. During the process for the
Music Modernization Act implementation of the regulations we
did seek outside comments about issues, including issues with
respect to tribal musical recordings. We have some specific
provisions in our regulations that do address tribal musical
works and are committed to working with you and the various
tribes on ways that we can continue that partnership in the
future.
Senator Udall. You know, and one of the issues that they
are raising, which I think is a critical issue, I think you
know about this, but I think it is important for everybody to
know about it. In the first half of the 20th century,
anthropologists and sociologists took a substantial number of
tribal ceremony and religious event recordings without the
consent of the tribes. Many museums and universities now hold
these collections without tribal knowledge.
The MMA would require these institutions to make these
recordings public, resulting in potential release of culturally
sensitive information. That is the issue we are trying to focus
in on and we want to work very closely with you on that. Thank
you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Blunt. Thank you, Senator Udall. Mr. Barton, I
think the Librarian mentioned 95 percent of the 2015 GAO
recommendations have been fulfilled. What were the business
units that the 5 percent are largely congregated in?
Mr. Barton. The 5 percent of the remaining comes out to be
six recommendations. Two of them are nonpublic so they revolve
around security and that would be a Library wide concern, not
just a specific service unit. We have the IT funding. There is
a recommendation on financing and that is an OCIO
responsibility so that applies directly to the OCIO.
Chairman Blunt. Let us be sure the three of us or anybody
watching that we understand exactly what that means. How would
that be followed up then if it relates to the OCIO? Are they
not giving you the--are you not getting the information you
need or the funding you need, or what do you mean, you mean
that is up to somebody else?
Mr. Barton. We are getting the funding that we need to
close out these particular findings. We are in constant
communication with the GAO and providing evidence on closing
out the remaining six findings. I do not have any concerns
about being able to meet that by the end of this fiscal year. I
am confident that we will be closing----
Chairman Blunt. Alright, let me let you finish the answer
then. So what are the other beyond that? Do you have some
specific units where there are more challenges than others in
finishing up?
Mr. Barton. Yes. We actually do not have any remaining
challenges to close out. In fact it was part of the GAO audit.
There were two findings that specifically related to the
Copyright Office. Both of those have been closed as implemented
and we are very happy to be able to report that. All of the
remaining six are strictly within the purview of the OCIO and
we are confident that those will be closed by the end of this
calendar year.
Chairman Blunt. Ms. Temple, do you have on that topic--is
there anything that you are trying to get done in this calendar
year that is a concern for you?
Ms. Temple. No. As Mr. Barton alluded to, we are very
pleased we were able to close out those last remaining two GAO
recommendations. We worked closely with OCIO to do that. We are
prepared to move forward aggressively on our modernization
efforts.
Chairman Blunt. The timeline that the two chief financial
officers and the CIO and your folks that work with them are
working on is one that you think is reasonable?
Ms. Temple. Yes. Obviously, we do understand that our users
and stakeholders would love to have a new system yesterday and
so we do take that very seriously, but we are working very
aggressively. As was alluded to, fiscal year 2019 was the first
year we actually got specific funding for the enterprise
copyright system.
We have now had that 1 year concluded and now in fiscal
year 2020, we are going to have three separate work streams
working on registration development, public records
development, and recordation system development all at the same
time. We think that this is now going to be something that the
public will really be able to see the progress more completely
now that we are in the second year of our funding phase.
Chairman Blunt. Okay. Senator Capito.
Senator Capito. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It is always great
to see you Dr. Hayden and thank you for your good work. I think
you are doing an excellent job at the Library of Congress and
in modernizing its operations just in the brief time I have
been in here. But I wanted to talk about when I was chair of
the appropriations subcommittee of the Legislative branch for 2
years, I went back and looked at some of the legislative
language that we had in our Appropriation subcommittee report.
Our report in fiscal year 2016 recounted GAO's finding
that, ``a lack of central leadership and oversight at the
Library resulted in duplicative overlapping and inefficient IT
policies and investments.'' Again in 2017, a report noted that
the IG's finding that the Library failed to have, ``an
organization-wide independent strategy for digital collection
activities and that the goal of addressing a digital collection
strategy was not including the Library wide strategic plan or
its information technology strategic plan.'' Indeed, at that
time, the Library was seeking funding for a digital collection
management unit even though there was no comprehensive study.
I am not bringing these up to rehash problems of the past
but to highlight how much progress has been made. Dr. Hayden,
you have already implemented 95 percent and Mr. Barton just
talked about the remaining 5 percent of the tasks. As we talk
about this, Dr. Hayden, could you just kind of flesh out a
little bit how this is impacting the public--how the public is
benefiting now and will in the future from having access to the
digital access to the Library's collections? How is this
impacting Americans just in general?
Ms. Hayden. In general, what American and people worldwide
will be able to do is have more access to the Library's
collections digitally, they will be able to download
photographs that are copyright free, and they will be able to
have visual exhibits on their mobile devices, they will be able
to record their veterans history projects and send them to the
Library, they will be able to also use Congress.gov and get up-
to-date, ready Government information that is available to all
citizens.
The variety of opportunities that information technology
provides in terms of opening up what we call the treasure chest
of the Library of Congress are, you know, just amazing when you
think about seeing Rosa Parks live exhibit that is going to
open in December, her handwritten notes, and seeing Thomas
Jefferson's draft of the Declaration of Independence. We have
invited the public to help us transcribe letters to Abraham
Lincoln by the People Project so they can actually be part of
helping history come alive.
Senator Capito. Yes, I was going to ask you about the
People Project.
Ms. Hayden. It has been wonderful. We launched it with the
anniversary of the Gettysburg Address, and we had high
schoolers come in. We found that the aspect of reading cursive
writing gave us opportunities for intergenerational programs
where you have more mature people reading cursive and the young
people doing the computers. We were able to, of 27,000 letters
to Abraham Lincoln that had not been reviewed in decades or
seen by people----
Senator Capito. Were they written to him as President?
Ms. Hayden. They were written to Abraham Lincoln. The hook
for young people was the fact that they were making something
by transcribing. They were taking something that hadn't been
read since 1864, available for everyone to see. All those
27,000 all were transcribed.
Senator Capito. So really without the digital access, a
project like that----
Ms. Hayden. It could not have happened. The fact that we
were able to and Congress has supported the IT modernization of
the Library has had so many benefits in terms of making the
Library more useful, inspirational for so many people. Then
with a copyright modernization, you will have people who can
search historic records. They can file on a Register online.
People are buying cards online and now they will be able to
register quickly, search the records, do different things with
the entire copyright system. It will be an integrated system.
So technology--and we really appreciate the support that
Congress has given us. Thank you for that.
Senator Capito. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Blunt. Senator Udall.
Senator Udall. I just have--first of all, just thank you
all very much. Just one final statement. Senator Klobuchar, I
know who is the ranking on this committee, is very interested
in all of these issues. I know she has been working with you. I
believe she is working on a piece of legislation called the
Case Act which would help to reduce the cost and barriers to
making a small copyright claim less expensive and you all are
aware of that. But she and her staff are going to be working
with you and I am sure she is going to be putting in questions
for the record. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Blunt. Thank you, Senator. Let's talk about the
Case Act a little bit. I was in Missouri over the weekend and
had a photographer in an event that I was speaking at say I
hope you are looking at the Case Act because I can't afford to
defend my work anywhere else. Obviously, you know, we want to
create that kind of opportunity, but what are the challenges to
that kind of opportunity, including the kind of additional
staff you might have to have or the other challenges you would
see.
I think Senator Kennedy is also one of the members of the
Senate along with Senator Klobuchar that is interested in the
Case Act. Why don't you tell me how you think that would impact
what you do and if it is a responsibility that you can handle?
If you could handle it, what would it take in addition to what
you have now to be able to handle it?
Ms. Temple. Yes, thank you. This is a long standing issue
that the Copyright Office has analyzed and reviewed. We
actually did a full study of a proposed small claims tribunal
back in 2013 and issued a report to Congress actually
recommending that Congress adopt legislation that would create
a small claims tribunal within the Copyright Office.
So we feel confident that if the Case Act were to pass and
be signed into legislation, that is something that we would be
able to readily implement. We have our previous experience, for
example, with the Music Modernization Act which was a historic
piece of legislation that really did require the Copyright
Office to work closely with OCIO to develop a number of online
filing mechanisms as well as several databases in a series of
regulations all within a statutory deadline of 6 months.
We were able to quickly, with the help of OCIO as well as
our stellar team in the Office of General Counsel at the
Copyright Office to get all of that done ahead of time. We were
able to post a new website overnight at the time that the MMA
was actually enacted. Given our history and experience with
that recent legislation, we are confident that we would be able
to meet whatever resource requirements would be needed to
implement the Case Act if it was passed.
Chairman Blunt. Do you see that likely to be largely a CIO
assisted kind of operation where someone contacts you without
coming to the office, they explain what their problem is
without having an attorney or a visit or anything else? How
would that work and how many more people do you think you need
to have to manage that?
Ms. Temple. For implementation of the regulations, we do
not anticipate that we necessarily need to have any additional
staff. We were able to do the regulation side of the MMA
without additional legal staff. With the Case Act, you know,
one of the main points of that provision is to streamline the
process, so take advantage of digital technology, for example,
video conferencing so that people would not need to come into
the office if necessary for motions and hearings.
So we would work with OCIO on that to develop any necessary
digital resources that would be needed to be able to have that
access for the Case Act. The provision of the bill does require
that we have three potential judges for the Case Act for the
small claims tribunal as well as up to two additional attorneys
and so we would just work with Congress to make sure that we
have the resources to hire that staff. But we feel that that
should be a relatively easy resource because there are many
attorneys, I am sure who would be willing to participate in
that tribunal process if that was something that was enacted
into legislation.
Chairman Blunt. Physically, do have space for those people?
Ms. Temple. Yes. We currently have----
Chairman Blunt. Put them where the card catalog used to be?
[Laughter.]
Ms. Temple. We kind of have identified potential areas for
that. But we already have a copyright royalty board that hears
issues related to our administration of the statutory licenses
under the Copyright Act. There is a hearing room. We did work
with the CBO to support the Case Act and to determine how much
it would cost if we actually got an additional hearing room or
did not, and we could do either one. It just would depend on
whether Congress would like us to have an additional hearing
room beyond the one that we already have for the copyright
royalty board.
Chairman Blunt. I think in your other comments earlier you
mentioned that you had designated or brought in an IT advisor
to work directly with the CIO. Why did you do that and what do
you think the benefit of that will be?
Ms. Temple. The main reason we did that was to strengthen
our communication in collaboration with OCIO. I think lawyers
and the business side sometimes speak slightly different
languages than the technologists and so we wanted to make sure,
as we are really working on a number additional work streams
for fiscal year 2020, that we had strengthened communication
and collaboration to really effectively communicate with one
another, make sure that the business needs that we have from
the Copyright Office are easily translated to OCIO as they
start doing all of these various development activities.
We think that that will be really helpful as we have all of
the number of work streams that we are working on. We were very
pleased that OCIO was willing to give us one of their top
persons. This was an individual that actually came from OCIO. I
think that that will really help to strengthen our
communication and collaboration moving forward.
Chairman Blunt. Good. I think internally too, taking full
advantage of all the resources that the whole Library structure
has is a good thing. I believe there was an effort made from
2014 or '15 to '17 for copyright modernization, largely
independent of the internal structure that just did not work.
About $11 million spent and nothing was produced as a result of
that. I think that was an example of what happens when you
don't have the system you have now, of course, that system was
just being put into place.
So I would also point out, you know, the structure here has
grown up over time, intellectual property needs have grown up
overtime, the desire for accessibility, and as you are doing
now, more immediate accessibility to everything in this vast
collection, including the copyright space has changed. The
overall structure has not changed. In fact as I mentioned
earlier, we last year we made an effort to--at least thinking
that the copyright community had greater interest in maybe a
different kind of procedure to choose the Register, but it
turned out that that was not an effort that was successful
between the House and Senate. I don't think it would be again.
So that makes it critically important that we make the
current structure work. You got, between all three of you, vast
resources that are probably always a little short of what you
would like to do but are substantial, and how you make those
resources work. I would also point out that this committee is
the oversight committee for the Library, for Copyright Office--
not the committee that will write copyright law, and that is
often the case. You have a different kind of reporting
responsibility for oversight and how you manage a lot of that
responsibility.
We just had two of the previous chairman of the Legislative
branch Appropriations Committee who are on this committee, and
from the point of view of money available and how that money
spent, have an incredible ability to not only ask the right
questions but help you help us understand the answers. The
responsiveness to this committee is really important. I don't
think we have had problems with that.
Dr. Hayden, since you became the Librarian, you have been
responding to questions from our staff and our staff have spent
a lot of time particular on this modernization effort system-
wide over the last couple of years and we intend to continue to
do that. But, grateful to have your time. Dr. Hayden, do you
have anything you want to say that we might have covered today
and didn't that we need to be thinking about?
Ms. Hayden. Well, I just want to reiterate the gratitude
that we have for the support and we want to encourage your
continued input and feedback. We want to keep the discussions
going and it is very helpful for us as we move along.
Chairman Blunt. Thank you. Anybody else?
[No response.]
Chairman Blunt. Well, thank you all for taking the time
with us today, sharing your views. The record will be open for
1 week from today for others on the committee to ask questions.
We ask you respond to those quickly.
[The information referred to was submitted for the record.]
Chairman Blunt. The committee is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 11:09 a.m., the hearing was adjourned.]
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