The library of the congress, a 225-year-old institution in Washington, has never had such a moment.
A week ago, the Trump government released the long -time librarian of the Congress, Carla Hayden. The man who was appointed interim librarian Todd Blanche by President Donald Trump may not be the interim librarian. And Hayden’s fall may not even be legal.
Here is more about the library, Hayden’s fall and the secret of who is now responsible:
What is the library of the congress?
The oldest cultural institution in the country, the library of the congress, was founded in 1800 under the legislation of President John Adams and traditionally enjoyed non -partisan support.
In addition to its settlement as “the largest library in the world”, it could also be referred to as the country’s unofficial memory bench. It contains more than 100 million books, recordings, pictures and other artifacts and offers a huge online archive, and the content includes three buildings on the Capitol Hill.
Every year the national film register of the library selects 25 films “which present the range and diversity of the American film autumn”. The national recording register selects for conservation sounds that are “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant and inform or reflect life in the United States”.
The library also manages the impartial congress research service, which responds to tens of thousands of inquiries from the congress every year. Communication is confidential from the disclosure as part of the clause “Speech or debate” of the US constitution. The events of the library congress include an annual book festival, tours, films, exhibitions and conferences.
The congress library is not a conventional circulating library, but a research library. Nobody under the age of 16 can receive a reader card to access the collection. The 16 and 17 need a parent’s permission.
What does the librarian of the congress do?
The librarian has a wide range of responsibilities, from monitoring the Congress library to the selection of the poet of the country and the award of the Gershwin Prize for popular songs and the winner of the Library of Congress for American fiction.
Librarians serve 10-year office times, and Haydens should end in 2026.
Her predecessors include James Billington, Daniel Boorstin and Archibald Macleish.
Who was fired? Who was discontinued?
At the end of last week, the Trump government cheered Hayden abruptly, the first black person and the first woman who held the position. Hayden, who was nominated by President Barack Obama in 2015 and was confirmed by the Senate 74-18 the following year, has been informed by email that “her position as a librarian of the congress will immediately end. Thank you for your service.”
Further upheavals followed quickly. The US Copyright Office boss Shira Perlmutter, whom Hayden appointed in 2020, then announced that Blanche, the deputy attorney in general, had been appointed, and that Paul Perkins, a deputy general prosecutor, and veteran lawyer, the Paul Perkins, the associate deputy Attorney General was.
Blanche was a member of Trump’s defense team in his New York Hush Money Trial, which ended last year with a conviction for 34 crimes.
Why was Hayden fired?
The White House quoted her no specific reason in his e -mail to her, although Trump rinsed civil servants from whom he believes that they opposed him and his guidelines. The conservative American Accountability Foundation had claimed that it had commissioned children’s books with “radical content”, and the press spokeswoman for the White House, Karoline Leavitt, said that she had “brought in inappropriate books in the library for children”.
A copy of practically every book published in the United States in a certain year is handed over to the copyright office, with the congress library deciding whether it should be included in the main collection.
Hayden’s dismissal was denounced by Democrats, librarians, educators and others, including the outgoing US interpreters, Ada Limón. Limón was appointed by Hayden in 2022 and called her the “friendly, brightest and most generous librarian in the congress”, for which we could have hoped as a nation.
Did the White House have the legal right to dismiss it?
Although the president’s librarian was nominated by the President, he is an employee of the legislative and appoints managers in other positions under him, such as the deputy librarian and the director of copyright.
For this reason, a dispute has broken out between the congress and the White House when the Republican leaders testify how much authority the president – the head of the executive department – has when the acting librarian is opened.
If this position is free, a preliminary librarian is usually selected from the current ranks of the congress library.
Who is currently responsible?
Although Blanche was announced as a deputy librarian, he does not yet have to appear in the Congress’s library, according to a person with knowledge of the internal operations. The person was not entitled to speak publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity with the Associated Press.
The library is currently operated by Robert Randolph Newlen, says the person.
Newlen was a deputy librarian and in accordance with the library’s provisions to determine the librarian of the congress in the event of absence or short-lived non -availability.
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The author of Associated Press Seung Min Kim contributed to this report from Washington.
