dec16_b.indd


C&RL News December 2016 572

Shawnda Hines is press officer of the ALA Washington 
Office, email: shines@alawash.org

W a s h i n g t o n  H o t l i n eShawnda Hines

New librarian appoints new leadership 
at the Library of Congress  
One month after her swearing in as Librarian 
of Congress, Carla Hayden made some signifi-
cant—and controversial—staffing changes at 
the Library. On November 2, she announced 
the structure of the Office of the Librarian, 
including several senior-level appointments. 

Law librarian David Mao will continue 
to serve as deputy Librarian of Congress, a 
position he held prior to serving as acting 
Librarian of Congress after the departure of 
former Librarian James Billington. 

Robert Newlen was appointed to serve 
as deputy librarian for institutional advance-
ment. Well known in the library community 
for his active membership in ALA, Newlen has 
served in a number of capacities at the Library 
since his arrival in 1975, most recently as 
chief of staff. Two new appointees are Chief 
of Staff Liz Morrison and Chief Communica-
tions Officer Roswell Encina, who served with 
Hayden as communications director at Enoch 
Pratt Free Library in Baltimore. 

In a public statement released by the 
Library of Congress, Hayden explained that 
“this structure is designed to foster a collab-
orative approach across the library’s many 
divisions, support institution-wide planning 
for our digital future, and consolidate our 
communications and public outreach efforts.” 

But not everyone is convinced. 
In what has come to be a controversial 

move, less than two weeks prior to announc-
ing the new office structure Hayden an-
nounced the appointment of then-Copyright 
Office register Maria Pallante as senior advisor 
for digital strategy and Karyn Temple Claggett 
as acting register of copyrights. Three days 

later, Pallante resigned from her position. 
Hayden accounted for the reassignment and 
replacement of Pallante as an effort “to move 
aggressively toward making [the Library’s] 
collections as widely accessible as possible.”

While Hayden’s action was a management 
decision fully within her discretion as leader 
of a government agency, motion picture and 
music industry leaders as well as members 
of Congress lamented the loss of Pallante as 
an injustice perpetrated under the influence 
of the tech industry. 

A Wall Street Journal editorial noted 
Hayden’s former presidency of ALA, an 
organization that “takes a permissive view 
of copyright law and accepts money from 
Google.” 

The timing of Pallante’s departure may 
have come as a surprise, yet it was an in-
evitable outcome of her public advocacy for 
removal of the Copyright Office from the 
Library of Congress. 

ALA reacted to the announcement saying 
that the decision “makes clear that the future 
of the U.S. Copyright Office is a high prior-
ity of the Librarian of Congress. ALA stands 
ready to assist Dr. Hayden and the staff of 
the Library to recruit a new Register who is 
committed to shaping a copyright system that 
balances the fair protection of copyrighted 
information and the broadest possible use of 
that information to foster innovation, educa-
tion and creativity of all kinds.” 

At this point, it’s hard to predict what im-
pact the results of the elections will have on 
copyright policy, but one thing is for certain: 
the future of all policies libraries care about 
—from copyright to privacy to government 
information—depends on the advocacy of 
library professionals. 

Stay tuned for more information about 
the next Library Legislative Day on May 1-2, 
2017, in Washington, D.C.