[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 161 (Friday, September 28, 2018)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1344]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         GEORGETTE MAGASSY DORN

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JOSE E. SERRANO

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, September 28, 2018

  Mr. SERRANO. Mr. Speaker, it is with great pleasure that I rise today 
to pay tribute to Georgette Magassy Dorn, Chief of the Hispanic 
Division of the Library of Congress.
  Georgette Magassy Dorn was born in Hungary and was raised in Spain 
and Argentina. She immigrated to the United States in 1956. She has a 
bachelor's degree from Creighton University, a Master's degree from 
Boston College, and a doctorate degree from Georgetown University, 
which she completed while working at the Library of Congress. For 
twenty years, she was visiting lecturer at Georgetown University. She 
published books and articles on Latin American culture and served as an 
officer in many professional organizations including the Latin American 
Studies Association.
  Ms. Dorn has been leading the Hispanic Division since 1994 and will 
be retiring on October 12, 2018 after more than half a century of 
distinguished service to the Library of Congress. She started working 
at the Hispanic Division in 1964 as a Latin American Area Specialist 
and in 1968 became the Curator of the Archive of Hispanic Literature on 
Tape succeeding Francisco Aguilera. In her role as curator, she 
recorded over 400 poets and novelists from Latin America, the Iberian 
Peninsula, the Caribbean, and the United States for the Library's 
archive. Nobel laureates that Ms. Dorn recorded include Pablo Neruda, 
Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Colombia), Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru), and 
Camilo Jose Cela (Spain). Among U.S. Latino writers are U.S. Poet 
Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera, Ana Castillo, Sabine Ulibarri, and 
Rudolfo Anaya. The Archive also includes other Nobel Prize winners from 
the Hispanic world--Gabriela Mistral Chile), Juan Ramon Jimenez 
(Spain), Miguel Angel Asturias (Guatemala), and Octavia Paz (Mexico).
  In addition to her work as a curator, Ms. Dorn was also the Head of 
the Hispanic Reading Room assisting patrons searching for materials. 
With the support of the Library, she expanded an active internship 
program for college students and recent graduates to work with the 
Library's world-class Hispanic collections. Beginning in the early 
1990s, Ms. Dorn oversaw the automation of the ``Handbook of Latin 
American Studies,'' which is an annual, annotated bibliography in the 
humanities and social sciences prepared by a dedicated staff in the 
Hispanic Division with the help of 120 contributing editors from all 
across the United States. This important research tool has been 
prepared in the Hispanic Division since 1939 and has been published 
annually by the University of Texas Press in Austin. Since 1995 the 
Handbook is available online free of charge.
  Ms. Dorn has overseen an ambitious digitization plan, in addition to 
the ``Handbook,'' in order to share the Library's rich collections. As 
a result, one of the Division's most visited sites is the Spanish-
American War of 1898.
  Her other important contributions include developing the Hispanic 
collections in all formats and securing valuable historical items from 
donors for the Library. In recent years, she succeeded in acquiring 
visual materials by Latino artists for the Library's Prints and 
Photographs Division.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in paying tribute to 
Georgette Magassy Dorn for her distinguished service and extensive 
contributions to the Library of Congress.

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