[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 152 (Tuesday, August 31, 2021)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E941]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 RETIREMENT OF BERNARD A. ``BUD'' BARTON, JR., THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
                       CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. ZOE LOFGREN

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, August 31, 2021

  Ms. LOFGREN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to congratulate Bernard A. 
``Bud'' Barton, Jr. on his retirement from the Library of Congress and 
to thank him for nearly three decades of dedicated public service.
  Mr. Barton has spent his career at the intersection of knowledge and 
technology. While serving as the deputy chief information officer for 
the North Carolina National Guard. Mr. Barton designed the agency's 
disaster recovery and continuity of operations capabilities, ensuring 
the Guard lived up to its ``Always Ready'' motto. As chief information 
officer for the Defense Technical Information Center, Mr. Barton 
ensured that the Department of Defense's largest library had the IT 
infrastructure necessary to fuse science and technology data and 
reliably deliver the knowledge needed to develop the next generation of 
technologies to support our Warfighters and help assure national 
security.
  In 2015, Mr. Barton took on what Fortune Magazine labeled as possibly 
the hardest job in tech, serving as the Chief Information Officer for 
the Library of Congress. Mr. Barton has ably guided the nation's oldest 
federal cultural institution through a complete technological overhaul. 
Mr. Barton oversaw the centralization of Library technology activities; 
fostered the creation of an agency-wide digital strategy; and 
marshalled efforts to optimize and modernize the Library's IT 
infrastructure and critical IT business systems. Under his leadership, 
the Library completed a three-year data center transformation, 
embracing the best of traditional IT services and the Cloud to ensure a 
stable, flexible, scalable foundation for the future. He also 
completely revamped IT security, and successfully addressed more than 
100 major technology recommendations identified by Congress and the 
GAO.
  Through it all, Mr. Barton has been a transparent, proactive, and 
enthusiastic partner to Members of Congress, our staff and our 
constituents.
  The impact of these changes cannot be overstated. As the world's 
largest library and home of both the Congressional Research Service and 
the U.S. Copyright Office, the Library of Congress stands as a beacon 
of knowledge and a source of creativity. Mr. Barton leaves the Library 
a stronger, more digitally enabled institution that is better prepared 
than ever to serve the needs of Congress, researchers, and all 
Americans.
  Please join me in wishing Mr. Barton a well-deserved retirement after 
a lifetime of faithful public service.

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