Library of Congress letter and photographs

Content Description

This addition to RG 37, Vice President for Information Technology, contains a letter from Dr. James H. Billington, The Librarian of Congress, to Dr. Robert E. Reynolds, Vice President and Chief Information Officer at the University of Virginia. In the correspondence, Dr. Billington extends the deepest thanks on behalf of the U.S. Congress, its Library, and the American public, to Dr. Reynolds and the staff of the Office of Information Technologies at the University for the gracious accommodation of the urgent request for temporary safe and secure storage of magnetic tape copies of the Library's digital assets following September 11, 2001. Dr. Billington shares some history on the precedent of the University's assistance to safely store materials for the Library during World War II, and notes that the magnetic tapes stored by the University contain digital copies of the Library's American Memory collection which holds more than seven million historically and culturally important documents and is consulted over a billion times annually. Dr. Billington closes the letter with remarks on how far both the Library of Congress and the University of Virginia have come since Thomas Jefferson provided his personal library as the foundation for the Library's collection, and the strength of the ties between these two institutions. This collection also includes four undated photographs that were framed and displayed together with this letter in a University office.

Acquisition Type

Transfer

Provenance

Transferred by Glenn Shifflett, UVA Surplus Program Manager, 1 June 2021.

Restrictions Apply

No