Speaker Biographies
Khalil Abboud is the Deputy Staff Director and Director of Legislative Operations for the Committee on House Administration Democrats and has been with CHA since 2007. A native of Philadelphia, PA, Khalil holds a B.A. in Political Science from Fordham University and a Juris Doctorate from the Catholic University of America.
Since 2014, Etienne Bassot is the Director of the Members’ Research Service at EPRS. Before that, he has directed the Policy Department of the European Parliament’s Directorate-General for External Policies. The Members’ Research Service responds to specific requests from individual Members for information, analysis and research and provides briefing notes and other analysis and research for Members collectively on policies and issues. Within the Parliament, Mr Bassot has previously held positions in the secretariats of the Committees on Internal Market and on Development. He served as advisor to former European parliament President Nicole Fontaine from 2005 to 2007.
Rae Ellen Best is the librarian for the U.S. House of Representatives, where she has worked since 2008. The House Library serves the Members of the House of Representatives, as well as their staff and constituents; it also serves the many offices of the House of Representatives. Prior to working at the House Library, Ms. Best worked at George Mason University Law Library for twenty-two years. She has taught legal literature and collection management at The Catholic University of America. Ms. Best has a juris doctor degree from George Mason University, a master of library science degree from The Catholic University of America, and a bachelor of fine arts degree in art education from Virginia Commonwealth University. Her current professional interests involve website development, legislative finding aids, and digitization, along with the preservation of House publications and library outreach.
Lynn Brodie has served as Director of Information and Document Resource Service since 2003. In this role she has been responsible for the development, organization, conservation and promotion of the information resources and collection available at the Library of Parliament. During her career at the Library she has played a variety of roles as a reference librarian, database specialist, Director of Collections, worked closely with the Senate and House to develop and promote a shared internet site, and carried out accommodation planning, and major moves of Library staff and services during major renovations.
Dr. Kyubeom Cho is a Legislative Researcher at the Legislation & Judiciary Team of the National Assembly Research Service since 2005. His research focuses on Human Rights and Constitutional Law. Previously he served as a Senior Researcher at Korea Information Security Agency and a Visiting Researcher at University of Washington School of Law. He received his doctorate in Laws from Sungkyunkwan University, master’s degree in Laws from UCLA School of Law, and bachelor’s degree in Laws from Kwangwoon University.
Cliff Cohen is the Associate Director, Office of Congressional Information and Publishing, Congressional Research Service (CRS), The Library of Congress. In this position, he leads two CRS programs in support of the United States Congress: Congress.gov and CRS Publishing (Strategy and Operations). Previously within CRS, Cliff, collaborating with many others, facilitated the creation of the CRS Knowledge Services Group, and then served as the initial Head of the CRS Knowledge Services Consulting Group, a new and unique way for information professionals (a.k.a., Librarians) and analysts to partner together in effective and efficient delivery of high value services and products to Congress. Prior to joining CRS, Cliff served as the Director of Operations for Library Services where he led the service unit’s planning, finance, human resources, information technology library standards, and facilities functions in support of both traditional and new digital Library services. In total, Cliff has dedicated over twenty years of service in support of the Library’s mission.
Prior to joining the Library, Cliff worked for the international management consulting firm of Ernst & Young. He specialized in the analysis, creation, planning, and implementation of business strategies, including new product development and the alignment of operations and technology in support of emergent business directions. Leading, collaborating with, and supporting both local Ernst & Young office staff as well as client staff, Cliff has had the opportunity to spend most of his twelve years with Ernst & Young working outside of the United States, collaborating with other professionals both in and from Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, France, Hungary, Italy, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Portugal, Turkey, and Venezuela. Cliff received his Bachelors of Science in Accounting from Virginia Tech, which included a heavy focus in the life cycle development and implementation of management information systems.
Marina Cueto Aparicio has her BA in Politics with specialized studies in International Relations. Since 2000, she has worked in the Senate as Parliamentary Librarian-Archivist of the Spanish Parliament. She has also been an associate professor at the Carlos III University of Madrid, lecturing on matters related to legal documentation and comparative politics.
Currently, she is Chief of Management in the Document Department, a unit integrated in the Directorate of Technical-Parliamentary Assistance, attending the Plenary, Bureau and Board of Spokesmen.
Christopher M. Davis is an Analyst on Congress and the Legislative Process in the Government and Finance Division of CRS. His work focuses on committee and floor procedure, legislative planning and strategy, and the history and operations of the U.S. Congress. Before joining CRS, he served as a political and policy advisor to Members of the House and Senate, including a full committee chair and a member of the House leadership.
Leona Faust is Senate Librarian, serving as director of the United States Senate Library since 2009. She is a career employee of the Library and of the Office of the Secretary of the Senate whose Senate tenure spans 38 years.
In the beginning, there was House Aquarius, Library of Congress Scorpio, and Senate Legis, all precursors to Congress.gov, and all used to personally answer upwards of 180 calls a day for bill status information from Senate staff. As Automation Coordinator and Head of Technical Services, she began and managed the 26 year retrospective conversion of the Library’s collection records from cards to mainframe to web-based catalog. In 2008, Ms. Faust worked with Congressional Research Service staff to develop a process using an export of catalog data that still supports the creation of links to Senate hearing text on Congress.gov. She continues to work with colleagues to explore new ways to meet the Senate’s information needs and to make information by and about the Senate more accessible to staff and the public.
Ms. Faust holds an MBA from the Robert H. Smith School and an MLS from the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland. Professional interests include information architecture and knowledge management.
Evelyn Fortier has held a variety of senior policymaking and leadership positions both on and off Capitol Hill. She currently is a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee counsel. Previously she served as banking counsel to a member of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, as general counsel to a U.S. Senator from Illinois, and as legislative director to a member of the Environment, Commerce, and Small Business Committees. Early in her career, she worked as a legislative assistant in the U.S. House of Representatives, where she staffed the Merchant Marine and Science Committees for committee members.
Evelyn has authored many successful bills and amendments during her 15 year tenure on Capitol Hill. Her work on child passenger safety (as general counsel to a U.S. Senate Commerce subcommittee chairman) earned her Senator an award from Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies, after two measures she authored on his behalf were enacted. Her policymaking efforts in this area also were recognized by the Los Angeles Times in a January 6, 2001 article and were cited in several editions of “Baby Bargains,” a book by Alan Fields. As a U.S. Senate Judiciary counsel in 2002, she also authored statutory provisions designed to equip law enforcement with new tools to pursue child predators and other violent criminals.
Evelyn specialized in victims’ rights as the vice president of a national charity in Washington, D.C. for four years. She served as the group’s spokesperson in meetings with federal lawmakers and White House staff; defended the use of DNA for investigative purposes on a radio talk show; testified before a U.S. Senate committee and at a public meeting of the U.S. Sentencing Commission; and launched an online legal database to equip crisis hotline volunteers with information to aid victims of sexual violence.
Evelyn, who also practiced law with several large firms early in her career, is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard and received her law degree from the University of Virginia.
Josefa Fuentes Garcìa started in Public Administration as a Civil servant in 1979. She occupied a position at the library of the Ombudsman Office in 1989. She got the superior public officer post of Librarian-archivist of the Spanish Parliament in 1991, where she was responsible for the area of European documentary information. She has published several specialized items and has headed miscellaneous courses specialized in Parliamentary Law and European documentation.
Currently she is Director of Documentation, Archives, and Library at the Senate since 2007. She has coordinated the Senate’s startup in the Platform for EU inter-parliamentary exchange of information related to the scrutiny of Governments in EU affairs (IPEX network).
Adolfo Furtado is a labor economics researcher at the Chamber of Deputies of Brazil, since 1991. He acted as Director of the Chamber’s Documentation and Information Center from April 2007 to November 2015. He was Head of the Secretariat of Parliaments of Latin America and the Caribbean (RIPALC) from 2011 to 2015. He is a member of IFLA’s Section 3 Standing Committee.
Roland Genson is director at the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union, in charge of the Council’s document processing, recording, archiving,transparency and of the GSC’s libraries. He drives the redesign of the GSC’s knowledge and information management in order to align the organisation with digital innovation and with Member States expectations in this respect.
Until 2014, he was a GSC director covering Schengen, judicial cooperation and internal security cooperation under the Justice and Home Affairs policy framework.
From 1987 to 2007, he served in the Luxembourg law enforcement sector and than at the Ministry of Justice.
He is also a lecturer at the Universities of Luxemburg and of Liège.
Luis Armando González is a PhD Computer Science student, Master in Computer Science, Master in Information Technologies and Management. Currently is Chief Information Officer at Library of Congress, Chile. His research interests are distributed systems, concurrent programing, and concurrent data structures; cloud computing and High Peak Demand Systems, and how to use IT to support parliamentary work and its dissemination to the citizens.
Valerie Heitshusen is a Specialist on Congress and the Legislative Process in the Government and Finance Division of CRS, where she specializes in congressional rules and legislative procedure, as well as congressional history and institutional reform. Before joining CRS, she taught at the Government Affairs Institute at Georgetown University and was a faculty member at the University of Missouri. She received a BA and MA from Rice University and a PhD in political science from Stanford University.
Jeremie Leuthold is the current Librarian of The Swiss Federal Assembly. He began his career as a software developer. He later worked for the Swiss Federal Department of Defense, as a company commander for the Civil Protection and Sport. Before joining the Swiss Parliament 6 years ago, Jeremie Leuthold was head of the Digital Archiving Service at the Swiss Federal Archives. He also served there as a global project manager.
Jeremie Leuthold holds a Masters of Arts in geography, history, computer sciences and mathematics methods from de Lausanne University in Switzerland. He also holds an Executive Masters degree in international negotiation and policy-making from the Graduate Institut of International and Development Studies in Geneva.
A native of Long Beach, California, Dan Lungren graduated with honors from the University of Notre Dame, began his law studies at the University of Southern California and received his J.D. from Georgetown University. He has practiced law as an associate or partner with firms in Northern and Southern California and in Washington, D.C.
Elected to nine terms in the U.S. House of Representatives from California (1979 – 1989 and 2005 – 2013), he also served as the elected Attorney General of his home state for two terms (1991 – 1999). In the latter position, he was honored by his peers with the Wyman Award as the most outstanding Attorney General in the country.
He was appointed to two national commissions: The Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians established by President Jimmy Carter and the Commission on Model State Drug Laws established by President George H. W. Bush. The Carter Commission, on which Lungren served as Vice-Chair, examined the treatment of Japanese-Americans in the western states during World War II, established the official historical record and recommended corrective action, including an official government apology.
As Attorney General, Dan focused on the issues of criminal justice, drugs, youth gangs and victim rights. During his terms of office, the crime rate in California declined by over 30 percent and the homicide rate fell by 50 percent. He was one of the authors of the Three Strikes and You Are Out legislation and Megan’s Law. He was a recognized leader in establishing Community Oriented Policing and Problem Solving (COPPS) as a national model.
In the Congress, Lungren was a member of the Judiciary, Intelligence and Homeland Security Committees, serving as ranking Republican or Chairman of the Immigration and Refugee, Crime and Cybersecurity subcommittees. He was the Republican floor leader for the Simpson-Mazzoli Immigration Reform and Control Act, the prime mover of the Comprehensive Crime Control Act and author of the anti-terrorism SAFE Ports Act. Lungren championed the cause of those suffering from human trafficking, helping facilitate a model task force approach that has become a national model.
In his last term, he chaired the House Administration Committee, which provides the legislative oversight for the Library of Congress and the Congressional Research Service. Throughout his congressional career, Lungren was a staunch advocate of both of these institutions.
Among other recognitions, he received the “Good Samaritan” and “Honest Abe Integrity in Government” awards.
Retired from the House of Representatives since 2013, he currently is a principal in the consulting firm of LungrenLopina, LLC located in Alexandria, Virginia.
Dan Lungren is married to Bobbi, his wife of 47 years and they have three adult children and eight (soon to be nine) grandchildren.
Ben Marter is spokesman and communications director for Assistant Senate Democratic Leader Dick Durbin of Illinois. Prior to that, he served in the same capacity for Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, and was with Murphy when he served in the House of Representatives. He was senior advisor and communications director for former U.S. Congresswoman Betsy Markey of Colorado, and press secretary for the Democratic Caucus in the Colorado State Senate in Denver. He holds a bachelor’s degree in history and did his post-graduate studies in international relations at the University of Colorado.
Marter was born in Toronto to an American and a New Zealander. His family moved to Auckland and Vancouver before settling in Denver. After college, he worked at the American Library in Paris for two years. He coaches youth hockey and lives in Alexandria with his wife Jean and their son George.
Mary Mazanec
was appointed Director of CRS in December 2011 after serving as Deputy Director. Before coming to CRS, Dr. Mazanec served as a Deputy Assistant Secretary and Director of the Office of Medicine, Science and Public Health (OMSPH), Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR), Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).
Prior to ASPR, Dr. Mazanec served as the Chief Medical Officer and Director of the Division of Public Health Services, Office of Health Policy, and Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (OASPE), DHHS. Before joining the OASPE, she was a Senior Policy Analyst for the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC).
Prior to joining the OASPE, she was a Senior Policy Analyst for the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) where she examined the financing of health care delivery, in particular, the Medicare Program. Dr. Mazanec was a 1998-1999 Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow. During her fellowship and immediately thereafter, she was a Senior Health Policy Analyst/Advisor for the Subcommittee of Public Health, Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. While on the Subcommittee staff, Dr. Mazanec worked on a variety of public health issues including bioterrorism, medical record privacy, genetic discrimination, and organ transplant policy.
Prior to coming to Washington, D.C., Dr. Mazanec was an Associate Professor of Medicine and Pathology at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU). During her tenure at CWRU, she devised and directed a successful, NIH-funded, biomedical research program investigating the mucosal immune response to respiratory viruses including influenza and parainfluenza.
Dr. Mazanec earned her BS from the University of Notre Dame and her MD and JD from Case Western Reserve University (CWRU). She completed her internal medicine training at the University of Michigan, and her subspecialty training in pulmonary and critical care medicine at CWRU. She is a Diplomat of the American Boards of Internal Medicine and Pulmonary Medicine. Dr. Mazanec is currently an adjunct Associate Professor of Medicine and Pathology at CWRU and a member of the Ohio State Bar and the District of Columbia Bar.
The Congressional Research Service (CRS) provides the Congress with timely, objective, authoritative, and confidential research and analysis to support its legislative, oversight, and representational functions. Members of the House and Senate, personal office staff, and committee staff are the beneficiaries of CRS’ efforts.
CRS assists the Congress at every stage of the legislative process, from the early considerations that precede bill drafting to committee hearings and floor debates and the oversight of enacted laws. CRS prepares written reports, briefing documents, fact sheets, and shorter blog posts for Congress on relevant policy, procedural, and legal issues. Acting as a pooled staff resource, CRS experts also provide tailored, confidential memoranda, personalized briefings and consultations, expert testimony, seminars, and targeted materials in response to individual requests. The Service maintains a web site that provides Congress with 24/7 access to its reports, information resources, and the online “place a request” function.
Congress relies on CRS to marshal interdisciplinary resources, apply critical thinking, and create innovative frameworks to help legislators evaluate and develop sound legislative options and make decisions that will guide and shape present and future national policy. Visit www.loc.gov/crsinfo/ .
David S. Mao became Acting Librarian of Congress Oct. 1, 2015, upon the retirement of James H. Billington.
As Acting Librarian, Mao oversees the entire Library and its various units to ensure the Library’s services to Congress and the American people are provided effectively.
Mao previously served as Deputy Librarian of Congress, appointed January 12, 2015; as the 23rd Law Librarian of Congress for three years beginning in January 2012; and as a section head within the Congressional Research Service (CRS). Before joining the Library of Congress, he practiced law for several years and held positions in the libraries of the Georgetown University and the international law firm of Covington & Burling LLP.
He is a graduate of The George Washington University and the Georgetown University Law Center. He received his Master’s degree in library science from The Catholic University of America.
Jane McAuliffe is the inaugural Director of National and International Outreach at the Library of Congress, where she oversees a broad range of programs, including the National Book Festival, the World Digital Library, FEDLINK, the Center for the Book, and the John W. Kluge Center, as well as the Library’s exhibits, publishing office, visitors services, special events, business enterprises, interns and fellowships, programs for K-12 teachers and free distribution of braille and audio books to the blind and physically handicapped. Her previous positions include Director of the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress, President of Bryn Mawr College, and Dean of Arts and Sciences at Georgetown University. McAuliffe has written extensively on Islam and the Qur’an, as well as on Muslim-Christian relations. She has published Qur’anic Christians (1991); ʿAbbasid Authority Affirmed (1995); With Reverence for the Word (2002); Encyclopaedia of the Qur’an (2006, 6 vols and online); Cambridge Companion to the Qur’an (2006); Norton Anthology of World Religions: Islam; and The Qur’an: A Norton Critical Edition (forthcoming). She is past president of the American Academy of Religion, a member of the American Philosophical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Council on Foreign Relations.
The Library established the National and International Outreach (NIO) as a new service unit in fiscal 2015, a realignment of organizations and programs from the Office of the Librarian, Library Services, and the former Office of Strategic Initiatives that have outreach as their primary mission.
NIO is charged with developing, managing, and overseeing a broad and diverse set of programs and services. These include activities that expand the Library’s reach and celebrate its role in American culture and creativity, operations that function as revenue-based enterprises and services, and scholarly and educational initiatives that benefit those who visit the Library both in person and virtually. Working with partners, constituents and clients in the United States and elsewhere, NIO’s mission is to bring the expertise of the Library and the richness of its collections to individuals and organizations both in this country and around the world.
The Office of the Director of NIO plans, coordinates, and leads the activities of NIO’s three directorates: National Programs, National Enterprises, and Scholarly and Educational Programs. These directorates encompass 14 divisions and include additional responsibilities for activities such as the National Book Festival, Gershwin Prize, Film Board & Registry and Sound Recording Board & Registry. The activities of these programs are supported by both appropriated and non-appropriated funding.
The NIO Director’s Office manages NIO programs by providing cross-unit guidelines, goals, and performance standards and by working with the directors and other NIO managers to develop service unit policies. This work includes leading and managing the formulation of the annual budget through an assessment of internal priorities and operational considerations, tracking trends and key indicators, and managing performance planning. Visit www.loc.gov/about/ .
Robert R. Newlen was appointed Chief of Staff on December 14, 2014. In this capacity, he has Library-wide program and management responsibilities and also oversees the offices of Communications, Congressional Relations, Development, Chief Financial Officer, Contracts and Grant Management, General Counsel, Office of Equal Employment Opportunity and Diversity Programs, and Strategic Planning Office.
Before being named Chief of Staff, Mr. Newlen joined the Library of Congress in November 1975. In more than 39 years at the institution, he has served in a wide range of areas and roles – most recently as assistant law librarian for collections, outreach and services in the Law Library.
Newlen assumed that position in 2010, overseeing collection development, research and reference services and outreach to the Law Library’s diverse constituencies. He also managed the Law Library’s development and fundraising initiatives and last year oversaw the Library’s Magna Carta exhibition and its related events.
Prior to joining the Law Library, he served in several leadership roles within the Congressional Research Service (CRS). As assistant director of the Knowledge Services Group, Newlen managed a staff of more than 100 information professionals providing research to CRS analysts and attorneys as well as to Congress. From 1999 to 2007, he directed the CRS Legislative Relations Office, managing outreach activities to Congress, including congressional staff training and public-policy seminars and workshops.
A cum laude graduate of Bridgewater College with a bachelor’s degree in political science and French, Newlen earned a master’s degree in art history from American University and a master’s degree in library science from the Catholic University of America.
Newlen has served as a member of the Executive Board of the American Library Association (ALA) and currently serves as a trustee of the ALA Endowment. He has served in leadership positions in the District of Columbia Library Association.
The Chief of Staff is a member of the Office of the Librarian which provides leadership and policy direction to the Library, overseeing the implementation and management of the Library’s mission to support the Congress in fulfilling its constitutional duties and to further the progress of knowledge and creativity for the benefit of the American people. The Chief of Staff is directly responsible for executive management of the Congressional Relations Office, Development Office, Office of Communications, Office of Equal Employment Opportunity and Diversity Programs, Office of the General Counsel and Office of Strategic Planning and Performance Management. The Chief of Staff is a member of the Library’s Executive Committee, which is chaired by the Librarian, and provides executive management to the Library. Visit www.loc.gov/about/ .
Sangduen Pangput is a Parliamentary Officer in the position of Librarian for the Secretariat of the Senate of Thailand in the Bureau of Parliamentary Studies, Library and Museum Group.
Cokie Roberts is a political commentator for ABC News and NPR. In her more than forty years in broadcasting, she has won countless awards, including three Emmys. She has been inducted into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame, and was cited by the American Women in Radio and Television as one of the fifty greatest women in the history of broadcasting. From 1996-2002 she and Sam Donaldson co-anchored the weekly ABC interview program This Week.
In addition to her appearances on the airwaves, Roberts, along with her husband, Steven V. Roberts, writes a weekly column syndicated in newspapers around the country by Universal U Click. The Roberts also wrote two books together: Our Haggadah: Uniting Traditions for Interfaith Families, published in 2011 and From this Day Forward, an account of their now almost fifty year marriage and other marriages in American history. The book immediately went onto The New York Times bestseller list, following Cokie Roberts’s number one bestseller, We Are Our Mothers’ Daughters, an account of women’s roles and relationships throughout American history. Roberts’s histories of women in America–Founding Mothers, published in 2004 and Ladies of Liberty in 2008, along with her recently published Capital Dames, about women and Washington in the Civil War—all also rated as New York Times bestsellers.
Cokie Roberts holds more than twenty five honorary degrees, serves on the boards of several non-profit institutions and President Bush appointed her to his Commission on Service and Civic Participation. In 2008 the Library of Congress named her a “Living Legend,” one of the very few Americans to have attained that honor. She is the mother of two and grandmother of six.
Donna Scheeder is the President of the International Federation of Library Associations and has spent the first year of her two year term delivering a Call to Action to library leaders all over the world. She retired on March 2015 as the Deputy Chief Information Officer of the Congressional Research Service after a long career at the U.S. Library of Congress which included 5 years as Director of Law Library Services. She has been a member of the IFLA Governing Board for 8 years including two as Treasurer and is a former Chair of the Section on Libraries and Research Services for Parliaments. Her networking skills have been sharpened over her 45 year career and record of volunteer public service.
She is a former President and Treasurer of SLA. She is also a SLA fellow and a recipient of the John Cotton Dana award given in recognition of outstanding contributions to the field of special librarianship. She was elected to the SLA Hall of fame.
President Scheeder lives on Capitol Hill in Washington DC. She is a founding member of the Board of Directors of the Hill Center and she also serves as Chair of the Eastern Market Community Advisory Committee.
Roberta I. Shaffer is a high-energy, innovative senior executive and has served as the 24th Law Librarian of Congress since February 2016. Shaffer has a rich and diverse background in academics, management, law, librarianship and technology. Over the course of her nearly 40 year career, Roberta served in a broad range of positions to include adjunct coordinator of the law librarianship specialization at the School of Library and Information Science at the Catholic University of America, director of research services at the law firm of Covington and Burling in Washington, D.C., dean and professor at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Texas at Austin, the 22nd Law Librarian of Congress and the Associate Librarian for Library Services at the Library of Congress retiring from that position in August 2014.
Roberta graduated cum laude from Vassar College with an A.B. degree in political science/demography, from Emory University with a master’s degree in law librarianship, and has a J.D. cum laude from Tulane University School of Law. Roberta Shaffer has been a long-standing member of the American Bar Association, the American Association of Law Libraries, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Women in Technology (WIT), and the World Future Society. A past officer of the International Association of Law Libraries, she also served as the President of the International Council for Scientific and Technical Information, an affiliate of the Scientific Unions. Roberta’s research interests include information authenticity and perpetual access, the concept of “authority” in cyberspace, and organizational innovation. For most of her professional life, Shaffer has been an active advocate for the arts and artists. On a personal level, she spends her time swimming daily, as a jewelry designer under the name Cornelia’s Jewels, after the children’s story, and raises West Highland Terriers as “reading dogs” to help young children learn to read.
The Law Library of Congress (LAW) provides the Congress, executive branch agencies, courts, practicing bar, state and local governments, American businesses, scholars, and others with legal research and reference services related to U.S. federal, state, and local law, and the laws of more than 240 foreign and international jurisdictions. LAW has amassed the world’s largest collection of authoritative legal sources, including more than 2.92 million volumes and 3 million micro-format items. Ensuring accuracy, authenticity, authoritativeness, and comprehensiveness of legal documents is a challenge which LAW manages on a daily basis to enable the highest quality of objective research and to maintain legal a collection encompassing countries and regions of strategic importance to the Congress.
The collection and staff expertise of the Law Library of Congress are unique. Certain one-of-a-kind materials are held in the Law Library. No other nation or institution has such a vast aggregation of legal materials that allows for comprehensive legal analysis. Legal specialists with foreign law degrees and practical experience provide timely, expert legal analysis, research, testimony, and reference services in response to requests by Members of Congress and committee staff, justices of the Supreme Court, other judges, and attorneys at federal agencies.
LAW acquires, maintains, organizes, preserves, and provides access to a comprehensive legal collection in both analog and digital formats, building collections of necessary research materials that are not available through copyright deposit, exchange, or federal or state transfer. The collection supports the legal research that LAW and the Congressional Research Service provide to the Congress, and that LAW provides to the Supreme Court, executive branch agencies, and the nation. LAW is a key player in the identification and currency of content in congress.gov, the authoritative legislative information system for the Congress and the public. LAW also develops electronic information products that provide access to historical legal, legislative, administrative, and judicial documents; and creates research and collection guides that focus on legal research techniques, issues, and events. Visit www.loc.gov/law/ .
Colleen J. Shogan is the Deputy Director of National and International Outreach at the Library of Congress. At the Library, she supervises programs such as the Center for the Book, National Library Services for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, the National Book Festival, the Publishing Office, the Federal Research Division, the Kluge Center for Scholars, exhibits, visitor services, and K-12 Educational Outreach. She holds a PhD from Yale University in Political Science and a BA from Boston College. She previously served as the Deputy Director at the Congressional Research Service (CRS) and as a Senate policy staffer. Colleen also teaches a graduate seminar on American politics at Georgetown University.
Maria Strong is the Deputy Director of Policy and International Affairs for the U.S. Copyright Office. She assists the Associate Register of Copyrights and Director of Policy and International Affairs on issues involving domestic and international copyright law and policy, trade negotiations, and legislation. Ms. Strong joined the Copyright Office as Senior Counsel for Policy and International Affairs in 2010, and served as Acting General Counsel in April-July 2013 before her appointment to her current position in 2015. Before joining the Office, she served 19 years in private law practice in Washington, D.C. where she represented clients in the media, technology and entertainment sectors. She received her JD from the George Washington University Law School, her MA from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California, and her BA from UCLA.
The United States Copyright Office (USCO), and the position of Register of Copyrights, were created by Congress in 1897. The Register directs the Copyright Office as a separate federal department within the Library of Congress, under the general oversight of the Librarian, pursuant to specific statutory authorities set forth in the United States Copyright Act. Earlier in the Nation’s history, from 1870-1896, the Librarian of Congress administered copyright registration (at that time mostly books) directly, and earlier still, from 1790-1896, U.S. district courts were responsible for doing so. Today, the Copyright Office is responsible for administering a complex and dynamic set of laws, which include registration, the recordation of title and licenses, a number of statutory licensing provisions, and other aspects of the 1976 Copyright Act and the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act. By statute, the Register of Copyrights is the principal advisor to Congress on national and international copyright matters, testifying upon request and providing ongoing leadership and impartial expertise on copyright law and policy.
Congress relies upon, and directs, the Copyright Office to provide critical law and policy services, including domestic and international policy analysis, legislative support for Congress, litigation support, assistance to courts and executive branch agencies, participation on U.S. delegations to international meetings, and public information and education programs. The past few years have been particularly active, as Copyright Office lawyers assisted Congress with more than twenty copyright review hearings and prepared numerous timely reports, including for example, The Making Available Right in the United States, Copyright and the Music Marketplace, and Orphan Works and Mass Digitization.
As of 2016, the Copyright Office has approximately 400 employees, the majority of whom examine and register hundreds of thousands of copyright claims in books, journals, music, movies, sound recordings, software, photographs, and other works of original authorship each year. The Office issued over 443,000 registrations in fiscal year 2015. The Office’s registration system and the companion recordation system constitute the world’s largest compilation of copyright data. The Office also acts as a conduit for the Library, providing certain works of authorship, known as copyright deposits, to the Library for its collections. In fiscal year 2015, the Office forwarded more than 615,000 works, worth a net value of $29.3 million, to the Library.
In recent years, the Register has focused on modernizing the Copyright Office by examining through a set of public discussions the relationship between the law, regulations, registration practices, technology, access to data, and the evolving copyright marketplace. In addition, the Copyright Office works regularly with the Department of Justice, the Department of State, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the Department of Commerce, including the Patent and Trademark Office, and the Office of the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator. Visit www.copyright.gov .
Bob Sensenbrenner serves as General Counsel on the Committee on House Administration under Chairman Candice Miller. At the Committee, Bob serves as the Committee’s parliamentarian and lead legislative counsel, conducts oversight and investigations on federal election contests, the Federal Election Commission, the Election Assistance Commission, House of Representatives Operations and the Library of Congress. Bob graduated from Stanford Law School in 2010, where he served as editor-in- chief of Stanford Journal of Law, Business and Finance. Prior to law school, Bob served as the confidential assistant to the Deputy Undersecretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Deputy Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Bob received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Stanford University with distinction and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.
J. Mark Sweeney was named the Associate Librarian for Library Services on February 2, 2015. He is responsible for carrying out Library Services’ mission, which is acquire, organize, provide access to, maintain, secure, and preserve the Library of Congress’s universal collection. This vast collection contributes to the advancement of civilization and knowledge throughout the world, documents the history and culture of the United States, and records and supports the creativity of the American people. Immediately prior to his current appointment, Mr. Sweeney served as the Library’s Director for Preservation. In this capacity, he was responsible for ensuring long-term, uninterrupted access to the intellectual content of the Library’s collections through a multi-faceted preservation approach. Prior to his service as Director for Preservation, Mr. Sweeney held a series senior management positions at the Library of Congress. He was Chief of the Humanities and Social Sciences Division, which is responsible for reference and research services in the Library’s historic Main Reading Room; Chief of the Serial and Government Publications Division; and Chief of the Preservation Reformatting Division. Mr. Sweeney has extensive experience in the selection, description, and preservation of library materials. For example, he coordinated the Library’s role in the United States Newspaper Program (USNP), a cooperative national effort by the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to locate, catalog, and preserve on microfilm, and make available to researchers newspapers published in the United States from the eighteenth century to the present. He also served as the Library’s program manager for the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP), another cooperative initiative with NEH to enhance access to newspapers through the application of digital technology. Both efforts have been highly successful in preserving and promoting access to collections of the Library as well as other institutions, and they serve as models of national cooperation for the preservation of newspapers–an important part of the nation’s cultural patrimony.
Mr. Sweeney holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from McGill University, and a master’s degree in library and information science from the Catholic University of America.
The Office of the Associate Librarian for Library Services (ALLS) plans, coordinates, and leads the activities of four Library Services (LS) directorates: Acquisitions and Bibliographic Access, Collections and Services, Preservation, and Technology Policy. Under the leadership of the Associate Librarian, ALLS is responsible to acquire, organize, provide access to, maintain, secure, and preserve the Library of Congress’s universal collection. This vast collection contributes to the advancement of civilization and knowledge throughout the world, documents the history and culture of the United States, and records and supports the creativity of the American people. Additionally, ALLS is the organizational location of the American Folklife Center (AFC) and the Veterans History Project (VHP). These programs preserve and present a multi-format ethnographic archive documenting traditional expressive culture and a nationwide volunteer effort to build an archive of first hand oral histories from World War I through our current conflicts respectively. Outside of the Library, the Associate Librarian is a principal representative to both national and international library, information, and related industry groups. Visit www.loc.gov/about/ .