May 17, 2025; Trump is attempting a hostile takeover of Congress' own Library of Congress and its research

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1. AP: Firing, hiring and a mystery: The 225-year-old Library of Congress has never had a moment like this

Firing, hiring and a mystery: The 225-year-old Library of Congress has never had a moment like this
https://apnews.com/article/library-of-congress-card-history-librarian-firings-83d9e862a68832d8076773a7eb16114f

By Hillel Italie
Updated 2:21 PM CDT, May 15, 2025

The Library of Congress, a 225-year-old Washington institution, has never had a moment like this.

A week ago, the Trump administration fired the longtime librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden. The man appointed by President Donald Trump to be interim librarian, Todd Blanche, may not actually be the interim librarian. And Hayden’s ouster may not even be legal.

Here’s more about the library, Hayden’s ouster and the mystery of who’s in charge now:

What is the Library of Congress?

The country’s oldest federal cultural institution, the Library of Congress was founded in 1800 under legislation by President John Adams and has traditionally enjoyed bipartisan backing.

In addition to its billing as “the largest library in the world,” it could also be called the country’s unofficial memory bank. It contains more than 100 million books, recordings, images and other artifacts and offers a vast online archive, and its contents span three buildings on Capitol Hill...................