C&RL News July/August 2017 398

Carrie Russell is director of the Program on Public 
Access to Information, ALA’s Washington Office, email: 
crussell@alawash.org

W a s h i n g t o n  H o t l i n eCarrie Russell

The latest on H.R. 1695/S. 1010
Legislation authored by the leaders of the 
House Judiciary Committee to shift the 
right and responsibility of appointing the 
Register of Copyright from the Librarian of 
Congress to the President (H.R. 1695) was 
passed by the House of Representatives in 
May by a vote of 378 to 48 just weeks after 
it was introduced. Shortly afterwards, an 
exact replica of H.R 1695 was introduced 
in the Senate (S. 1010). It was expected 
to fly through the Senate as well until the 
Senate Committee on Rules and Admin-
istration claimed jurisdiction. The Rules 
Committee wants to take time to look at 
Copyright Office modernization holistical-
ly and found no reason to immediately act 
on legislation that, in isolation, would do 
nothing to further that widely supported 
objective.  

The Library Copyright Alliance (com-
prised of ALA, ACRL, and ARL) opposed 
H.R. 1695 on similar grounds and out of 
concern that it necessarily would slow 
such modernization. In testimony before 
the House Oversight and Government 
Reform Committee in early June, Librarian 
of Congress Carla Hayden confirmed that 
the selection process for a new Register has 
been postponed pending Congressional 
action on this legislation.

At the hearing, the Librarian, along 
with the Library’s Chief Information Of-
ficer (CIO) Bernard Barton and Inspector 
General (IG) Kurt Hyde, testified about 
progress made towards the development 
of a modern information technology (IT) 
system recommended by the Government 
Accounting Office (GAO) in a report highly 
critical of the Library and Hayden’s prede-
cessor, published in March 2015. 

The good news is that the Library is mak-
ing great headway and, regardless of con-
troversy over H.R. 1695/S. 1010, Copyright 
Office IT improvements are integral to the 
Library’s overall IT strategic plan. A modern, 
fully functioning IT system would allow for 
copyright transactions—like registration and 
permission searching—in real time.

Specifically, GAO’s 2015 report noted 
serious problems with IT in the Library and 
its units. Themes in the report included: a 
lack of IT leadership, vision, and a strategic 
plan; the absence of a CIO; and years of 
mismanagement of funds and resources. 
GAO made 31 recommendations for im-
provement. Five have been implemented, 
with 22 expected to be concluded by the 
end of 2017. The remaining four problems 
will take a few years to fully resolve. Hyde 
said that “changes at the senior most levels 
of both Library leadership and IT manage-
ment have resulted in momentum towards 
developing the foundation for a stable 
infrastructure.” 

After confirmation as Librarian of Con-
gress, Hayden hired an CIO Bernard Bar-
ton, who directly reports to her. The CIO 
has full decision-making authority over 
all IT matters, and works collaboratively 
with units within the Library to identify 
needs and implement changes. Hayden 
applauded Barton and said that “during 
my confirmation hearing, I mentioned Mr. 
Barton assuring me that technology would 
not be a problem. And . . . that has been 
borne out.”  

Hayden was congratulated by multiple 
Members of the Committee for progress 
made under her leadership. Notably, in 
closing, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) men-
tioned that staff “morale in the past has 
been a problem, but I’ve just had random 
Library employees come up to me and re-
ally express great pride and satisfaction in 
the work they are doing, and I think it’s a 
real credit to your leadership.” 

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