Congress’ Side Job: Recognizing Stuff

February is Black History Month in the US (and Canada and the UK).  Once this month ends and March begins, we will be in Women’s History Month.

Anyone can name a day, week, month, or year to be anything they want.  I can declare that this Friday will be the Day of Recognition of Alex’s Ability to Make Awesome Chili. But nobody is compelled to observe it, but it is much cooler if you can get a representative or senator to do it for you.

Congress spends a surprising amount of time recognizing individuals, groups of people, issues, and things. But very little of what they designate or recognize makes it beyond the Capitol walls.

They don’t even have to make sense in terms of time.  Last Thursday, January 29th, the Senate passed Resolution 58:  A resolution recognizing January 2015 as National Mentoring Month.  The fact that January 2015 was over and done with does not seem to matter.

If you have a cause you are passionate about, or a school you love, or even an occupation you feel is not properly appreciated, you can probably find someone in Congress willing to give it a shout-out.  And really, for the most part, that is all it is.

Congress can “recognize” the anniversary of the tragic earthquake in Haiti on January 12, 2010, “honoring those who lost their lives, and expressing continued solidarity with the Haitian people,” without doing anything else. This recognition is not tied to aid to the victims or anything else.

Visit the Library of Congress for Presidents Day

Main Reading Room Open House on Presidents Day

Twice each year, the Library of Congress opens its magnificent Main Reading Room for a special open house to share information about how the public can access the Library’s resources year-round. The first open house of 2015 will take place on the Presidents Day holiday, Monday, Feb. 16, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Main Reading Room is located on the first floor of the Thomas Jefferson Building, 10 First St., S.E., Washington, D.C.

Reference librarians will be on hand to demonstrate services, instruct on how to obtain a reader registration card and answer questions.

Learn to use the Library of Congress Efficiently

A lot of the images and primary sources I use in my posts here on TL;DR Civics come from the Library of Congress archives. The Library of Congress (LOC) is sometimes referred to as America’s Attic. The under the institution as a whole are many different sections and departments and programs.

The Library of Congress is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress, but which is the de facto national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States.

People working in the Library of Congress in 1920

John Cole argues that it is now the largest and most international library in the world. He attributes that to its highly influential leaders, especially Ainsworth Rand Spofford (1864–97), Herbert Putnam (1899–1939), Luther H. Evans (1945–53), and James H. Billington (1987–). Cole says they “have affirmed and expanded Thomas Jefferson’s concept that the Library of Congress is a national institution that should be universal in scope and widely and freely available to everyone.” ♦

While the LOC’s search tools are great, the system is very complex and having an understanding of the system makes it much easier to find materials that are relevant to whatever it is you are researching.

The Library of Congress has Professional Development Webinars and Workshops to help educators and researchers make the best use of the system. If you cannot make it to one in real-time, they are recorded and available for anyone to watch when it is convenient.