GAZETTE Volume 25, No. 33 • September 5, 2014 • A weekly publication for Library staff Book Festival Opens New Chapter Big Crowds Flock to Inaugural Event at Convention Center Ten hours By Mark Hartsell later, Doctorow helped close the or its 14th festival with the edition, the event’s first-ever F National “Great Books to Book Festival went Great Movies” indoors, watched program, a ses- great movies, stayed sion that inter- up late with a good spersed film clips book and enjoyed a with discussion festival full of firsts. about translating The book festival literary works to drew standing-room- the big screen. only crowds to the One of big- Walter E. Washington gest new names Convention Center on at the festival Saturday for the first belonged not to a best-selling evening hours in fes- Shealah Craighead tival history, the first Crowds filter into the Washington Convention Center on Saturday morning. young author but program merging lit- to a building: the erature and film, the first poetry compe- Walter E. Washington Convention center. tition, the debut of three new pavilions Inside The festival, held outdoors on the and the inaugural festival appearance at National Mall since 2003, this year moved • Making movies from great books, page 3 the convention center – the first indoor indoors to the massive facility at Mt. • Five decades of Doctorow, page 4 festival in more than a decade. Vernon Place in the District of Columbia. • Library awards literacy prizes, page 5 “It’s an amazing and wonderful occa- For patrons, the move indoors traded sion we have,” Librarian of Congress • The festival in photos, pages 6-7 the monuments and museums of the Mall James H. Billington said in opening the • Page meets stage in poetry slam, page 8 – and its rain, heat, grass and portable festival Saturday morning. “Today, we • Author talks: Alan Greenspan, Doris Kearns toilets – for the air conditioning, carpet, offer you more than 100 poets, authors Goodwin, Mona Simpson, page 9 plumbing, food courts and vast indoor and illustrators for people of all ages • Festival introduces new pavilions, page 10 spaces of the convention center. and tastes.” • Cowboy’s quest to save mustangs, page 11 “Most overheard comment at #Nat- Moments later, Billington awarded BookFest: ‘It’s HUGE.’ And it is,” tweeted the second Library of Congress Prize Doctorow described the methods Louisa Lim, author of “The People’s for American Fiction to one of America’s that helped him produce such surprising Republic of Amnesia: Tiananmen Revis- literary lights, E.L. Doctorow. and different works over more than five ited.” “I believe that American originals decades of writing, from the Rosenberg Indeed, festival sessions and the are one of the glories of this country,” spy saga of “The Book of Daniel” to the crowds they drew filled each of the three Billington said. “We have before us a very mob world of “Billy Bathgate” and Sher- levels of the convention center’s 703,000 great and unique American original and a man’s campaign through Georgia in “The square feet of exhibition space. magnificent storyteller. He is in a way our March.” In one hall on the second floor, 20 own Charles Dickens. The great canvas of “The key word is ‘desperation,’ ” he book-signing lines stretched all the the American experience is his subject.” quipped. FESTIVAL, continued on page 11 2 THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS GAZETTE SEPTEMBER 5, 2014 NEWS A Message from the Librarian I want to congratulate all of you who helped make this year’s National Book GAZETTE Festival such a joyful celebration of books and reading. We are grateful that www.loc.gov/staff/gazette so many of you on the staff voluntarily gave so much of your time to this great GAYLE OSTERBERG annual tradition. Executive Editor Although this year’s festival took place at a new location in Washington, the MARK HARTSELL public still thronged to the occasion and took advantage of all the wonderful Editor programs arranged by our dedicated staff and partners. Contributing Editors: Erin Allen, Calendar; Carlin “René” Sayles, Moving On and Length of Service; Such a magnificent event would not have been possible without the Lisa Davis, Donated Leave support of our generous sponsors led by David Rubenstein. He was there Proofreader: George Thuronyi with us to participate in the programs, present awards and share in the public Design and Production: Ashley Jones experience that motivated everyone throughout the day. PETER BRAESTRUP GAIL FINEBERG JAMES W. McCLUNG The cheer, enthusiasm and professionalism you all brought to, and through, Founder Founding Editor Founding Publisher (1990 – 1997) (1990 – 2009) (1990 – 1994) this national event are the irreplaceable human qualities that made it a success from the very moment all of the yearlong preparations were set into motion. An official publication of the Library of Congress,The Gazette encourages Library managers and staff to submit articles and Thank you to the leaders on our National Book Festival team who made it all photographs of general interest. Submissions will be edited to work so well: Jennifer Gavin (the festival project manager), Roberta Shaffer, convey the most necessary information. Deadline for submission of articles is 5 p.m. Wednesday, one John Cole, Guy Lamolinara, Marie Arana, Sue Siegel, Sara Karrer, Steve Hersh week prior to publication date. Please submit text in digital and so many others who made this event so memorable. form via e-mail ([email protected]) preferably as an attached Microsoft Word file. Together, you all passed on to those attending the festival a shared Back issues of The Gazette in print are available in the Public experience of the mission of the Library of Congress. Affairs Office, LM 105. Electronic archived issues and the a color PDF file of the current With appreciation, issue are available online at www.loc.gov/staff/gazette. James H. Billington Library of Congress Gazette Librarian of Congress Washington, DC 20540-1620 Editorial: Mark Hartsell, 7-9194, [email protected] Design and production: Ashley Jones, 7-9193, [email protected] Security-Awareness Training Deadline Nears ISSN 1049-8184 Printed on paper that contains recycled paper by the The deadline for completion of the 2014 Information Security Awareness Printing Management Section, Office Systems Services training is Sept. 19. The course is required for all employees, contractors and volunteers with access to Library information-technology systems. Gazette Welcomes Letters from Staff Staff is invited to use the Forum pages for lively and thoughtful To take the course: 1. Go to the Online Learning Center (OLC) website at debate relevant to Library issues. However, just as other newspa- https://olc.loc.gov/stc/olc. 2. Sign in with your OLC login and password. 3. per editors exercise discretion over which letters to publish and how to edit them, so do we. In deciding whether or how much to Search for “Information Security Awareness 2014 (LCITSEC214)” or click the publish, we consider content (including misstatements of fact, “Mandatory Training” pop-up box. 4. Click on “start course.” More information libel, innuendo, ridicule of individuals or the institution, personal attacks, and redundancy) and length (the limit is 300 words). is available at www.loc.gov/staff/security. Letters must be signed by the author, whose place of work and telephone extension should be included so we can verify author- ship. Letter writers should understand that when they sign their letters and release them to us for publication they are relinquishing privacy. If a letter calls for management response, for example, Donated Time an explanation of a policy or actions or clarification of fact, we The following Library employees have satisfied the eligibility requirements will ask for management response.—Ed. to receive leave donations from other staff members. Contact Lisa Davis at 7-0033. Gazette Deadlines Craig Andrews Rose Kutcher April Spraggin The deadline for editorial copy for the Sept. Lori Ayers LeTonja Law Philip Washington 19 Gazette is Wednesday, Sept. 10. Christy Chason Karen Lund Robin Watson E-mail editorial copy and letters to the editor to [email protected]. Steven Davenport Donald Marcus Ngina West To promote events through the Library’s Tamikia Epperson Laurie Neider Arnold Wiggins online calendar (www.loc.gov/loc/events) Tanya Fletcher Veronica Newman Donna Williams and the Gazette Calendar, e-mail event and contact information to [email protected] by Melinda Friend Juan Perez Heather Windsor 9 a.m. Monday of the week of publication. Gina Greco-Emrich Amy Puryear Bernard Wooden Boxed announcements should be submitted Shalita Jones Lola Pyne Regina Young electronically (text files) by 9 a.m. Monday the week of publication to [email protected]. Marina Korenberg Valencia Roseboro SEPTEMBER 5, 2014 THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS GAZETTE 3 14TH NATIONAL BOOK FESTIVAL Panel Explores Journey from Great Books to Great Films Conversations also focused on themes She came to the conclusion that By Jennifer Harbster such as the increase of books being movies tend to “focus on realism and adapted into films and how films from disregard literaryism.” A new nighttime special program on literary sources capture a pre-existing See commented on how the film adap- “Great Books to Great Movies” took a audience. tation of “Snow Flower and the Secret thoughtful and honest look at the written Hornaday began the 90-minute pro- Fan” was a drastic and radical departure word transformed into moving images. gram asking the panel, “What beloved from her book, pointing out that filmmak- With standing room only, the evening book was absolutely destroyed by a film ers added an entire new modern plotline. attendees were See remarked treated to discus- that “no one sets sions and clips out to make a of books trans- bad movie” and lated into films the reality is from four great “that authors are novelists: E.L.