Ok, the Library of Congress is pretty good.
I am a big enough to admit when I am wrong. So I take back what I said about the Library of Congress. It turns out they are nice guys there who help the blind and crippled (and I assume the retarded) as well as Congress. The Chief Worden (not sure why the head guy at a library is called the same thing as a head guy at a prision, but whatever he was really nice) wrote me back.
My original letter:
Dear Librarians:
Please explain to me the following. Why does Congress need a special library? Can’t they just use a regular library, or the Internet, like everyone else?
Is it true the Library of Congress costs millions of dollars a year? It’s a waste. I bet you $10 that most of the Senators and Congressman (not including their aides) have not checked out a single book in the last year! If more than half of them did, I'll send you $10, but please give me a list of the Senators & Congressman who took out a book. The Freedom of Information Act entitles me to that. I know my rights.
Anyway, even if some of them are using it, they probably could just go to a regular library, which would be much cheaper. How many books have Congressmen taken out in the last year that weren’t also available at the local library? None, I bet! If you tell me differently, again, I’d like to see a list.
I’m sick and tired of paying for all these bells and whistles just so the fat-cats in Washington can whoop it up in a fancy library. If I had known my Senator was going to spend his time in the library instead of representing me I never would have voted for him in 2003.
People are starving every day. Soldiers are dying in Iraq. Seniors aren’t getting healthcare. Soon we might not be able to afford air. All this because some Congressmen want more books than they could ever read in 1000 lifetimes?
Then you wonder why people never learn to read.
A concerned citizen awaits your response,
G. Swanson
Library of Congress reply:
Dear Mr. Swanson:
Thank you for your inquiry to the Federal Research Division, the fee-for-service research unit of the Library of Congress. The Library of Congress is the National Library of the United States. As such it serves not only the needs of the U.S. Congress but the other branches of government (Executive and Judicial), state and local government, the scholarly community, the media and publishing industries, and the general public. My own division performs research for Executive branch agencies, such as the Department of Defense, to which we provide information on foreign countries, economies, and cultures, and to the Department of Health and Human Services and the Social Security Administration, to which we have provided information on a wide range of health-care and disability issues.
Since the Library of Congress is universal in scope of what it collects (we now have more than 130,000,000 items), it serves broad national and international constituencies. Most of this information can not be found in other libraries or on the Internet. Because of the Library's broad collection policies, it has unique materials about our own nation and many other nations that are not available anywhere else in the world. The Library of Congress often has the only surviving copy of many books, newspapers, and documents. The Library of Congress also operates the U.S. Copyright Office , which helps manage a critical part of the nation's intellectual property rights. Furthermore, the Library of Congress runs the National Library Services for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, which throuh regional and subregional libraries provided 22 million recorded cassettes and 642,000 Braille books in Fiscal Year 2005 to U.S. citizens who are visually or physically impaired.
Members of Congress and Congressional staff and Congressional committee staff members use the Library in person and through requests made to the Congressional Research Service (CRS). In Fiscal Year 2005, CRS responded to 906,445 such requests for information from Congress. Many of these requests are made on behalf of constituents, citizens who live in the Congressional districts represented by these Members of Congress. Because of the Privacy Act, the nature of these requests is not available for me to provide the list you request.
If you wish to learn more about the Library of Congress, we invite you to look at the Webpage "About the Library of Congress." It can be accessed at http://www.loc.gov/about/.
Best wishes,
Robert L. Worden, PhD
Chief, Federal Research Division
Library of Congress ... 101 Independence Ave SE, LA-5282
Washington, DC 20540-4840
Phone: 202-XXX-XXX... Fax: 202-XXX-XXXX.
http://www.loc.gov/rr/frd
My original letter:
Dear Librarians:
Please explain to me the following. Why does Congress need a special library? Can’t they just use a regular library, or the Internet, like everyone else?
Is it true the Library of Congress costs millions of dollars a year? It’s a waste. I bet you $10 that most of the Senators and Congressman (not including their aides) have not checked out a single book in the last year! If more than half of them did, I'll send you $10, but please give me a list of the Senators & Congressman who took out a book. The Freedom of Information Act entitles me to that. I know my rights.
Anyway, even if some of them are using it, they probably could just go to a regular library, which would be much cheaper. How many books have Congressmen taken out in the last year that weren’t also available at the local library? None, I bet! If you tell me differently, again, I’d like to see a list.
I’m sick and tired of paying for all these bells and whistles just so the fat-cats in Washington can whoop it up in a fancy library. If I had known my Senator was going to spend his time in the library instead of representing me I never would have voted for him in 2003.
People are starving every day. Soldiers are dying in Iraq. Seniors aren’t getting healthcare. Soon we might not be able to afford air. All this because some Congressmen want more books than they could ever read in 1000 lifetimes?
Then you wonder why people never learn to read.
A concerned citizen awaits your response,
G. Swanson
Library of Congress reply:
Dear Mr. Swanson:
Thank you for your inquiry to the Federal Research Division, the fee-for-service research unit of the Library of Congress. The Library of Congress is the National Library of the United States. As such it serves not only the needs of the U.S. Congress but the other branches of government (Executive and Judicial), state and local government, the scholarly community, the media and publishing industries, and the general public. My own division performs research for Executive branch agencies, such as the Department of Defense, to which we provide information on foreign countries, economies, and cultures, and to the Department of Health and Human Services and the Social Security Administration, to which we have provided information on a wide range of health-care and disability issues.
Since the Library of Congress is universal in scope of what it collects (we now have more than 130,000,000 items), it serves broad national and international constituencies. Most of this information can not be found in other libraries or on the Internet. Because of the Library's broad collection policies, it has unique materials about our own nation and many other nations that are not available anywhere else in the world. The Library of Congress often has the only surviving copy of many books, newspapers, and documents. The Library of Congress also operates the U.S. Copyright Office , which helps manage a critical part of the nation's intellectual property rights. Furthermore, the Library of Congress runs the National Library Services for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, which throuh regional and subregional libraries provided 22 million recorded cassettes and 642,000 Braille books in Fiscal Year 2005 to U.S. citizens who are visually or physically impaired.
Members of Congress and Congressional staff and Congressional committee staff members use the Library in person and through requests made to the Congressional Research Service (CRS). In Fiscal Year 2005, CRS responded to 906,445 such requests for information from Congress. Many of these requests are made on behalf of constituents, citizens who live in the Congressional districts represented by these Members of Congress. Because of the Privacy Act, the nature of these requests is not available for me to provide the list you request.
If you wish to learn more about the Library of Congress, we invite you to look at the Webpage "About the Library of Congress." It can be accessed at http://www.loc.gov/about/.
Best wishes,
Robert L. Worden, PhD
Chief, Federal Research Division
Library of Congress ... 101 Independence Ave SE, LA-5282
Washington, DC 20540-4840
Phone: 202-XXX-XXX... Fax: 202-XXX-XXXX.
http://www.loc.gov/rr/frd
posted by Geronimo Swanson at 10:55 PM
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