Carla Hayden is President Obama’s pick for the next Librarian of Congress, and she’s an extraordinarily good choice: an open-access advocate who opposes mass surveillance and comes out of the library world, Hayden is ideally poised to lead the Library, which, in turn, supervises the Copyright Office and sets the nation’s de facto IT policy, for example through things like the Triennial DMCA 1201 hearings).
Naturally someone this qualified and principled isn’t going to have a smooth path to the job. The RIAA has already gone on record as opposing Hayden’s nomination. The Hill people I know have told me that there’s concerted movement underway to rip the Copyright Office out of the LoC and put it under the supervision of Congressional committees whose members owe their position to generous contributions from the entertainment industry, too.
Hayden’s nomination hearings start today at 11:15AM PT/2:15PM ET, and are to be livecast on both the Committee for Rules and Arbitration site and CSPAN. They’re bound to be a lot of fun.
Nomination of Dr. Carla Hayden to be Librarian of Congress
[Committee for Rules and Arbitration/US Senate]
Librarian of Congress Nominee Carla Hayden Confirmation [C-SPAN]
(Thanks, Parker!)