In her testimony, taking place in 11th September, Dr. Anne-Imelda M. Radice, Director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), reflected on the somber occasion, noting that, “Museums and libraries were some of the first institutions that began a process to help heal, contextualize, and provide forums for dialogue to help us reunite with the world. They continue to use knowledge and community interaction to battle prejudice and ignorance.”
In speaking about IMLS, Radice described agency programs that prepare library and museum professionals for the future; Connecting to Collections: A Call to Action, the Institute’s conservation initiative; and the importance of incorporating technology into the daily operations of museums and libraries. She also noted that the agency’s administrative operations emphasize accountability and transparency with resulting clean audits during her tenure.
“Our agency, through strategic leadership, is fostering innovation to change the way libraries and museums operate in the United States. We seek big ideas and help those who take leadership roles in their communities and in their professions,” Radice said.
In her opening remarks, U.S. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY), chairwoman of the subcommittee, said, “Libraries and museums contribute to the health and welfare of a community year round. Libraries not only provide vast amount of knowledge readily available to the community for free, but they also serve as locations for groups to meet and for people to connect to the Internet. Museums serve the community in similar ways. Museums are diverse in subject and form, and contribute to communities by collecting, interpreting, and preserving items and ideas important to this country and the world.”
Ranking subcommittee member Todd Platts (R-PA) thanked the panelists, commenting, “I appreciate the importance of libraries and museums especially as a parent. We have made numerous library and museum visits with my children, now 9 and 12, over the years and we’ve seen the benefits of these visits. Our kids have been participating in reading programs since infancy. We know about the development of the brain at ages 0 – 3 and I felt the reading we did with our children would help to strengthen them. In fact, our children have just completed this year’s summer reading program. And for myself, I can tell you that the audio books we’ve checked out of the library have helped to keep me sane on my 100-mile a day commute from my home in York, Pennsylvania to Washington, DC.”
Panelists speaking on behalf of museums and libraries and IMLS’s invaluable support of these institutions included:
Suzanne LeBlanc, Executive Director of the Long Island Children’s Museum in New York;
Mary Clare Zales, Deputy Secretary of Education for the Commonwealth Libraries & Commissioner for Libraries in Harrisburg, PA;
Anna Nunez, MA, Executive Director of the Arizona Health Science Library at the University of Arizona in Tucson, AZ;
Dr. Eric Jolly, President of the Science Museum of Minnesota in St. Paul, MN.
Complete testimony and a Web cast of the hearing are available on the subcommittee Web site at http://edlabor.house.gov/hearings/hfc-2008-09-11.shtml