Radio Interview: “Keeping the Lights on at the Library of Congress” (Interview with LC’s April Slayton)

From Federal News Network:

It’s name conjures up quiet corridors, dim light, and a slow pace. But the Library of Congress is a busy place, performing a lot of the research and providing much of the insight sought by members. So how is this old institution faring in the great crisis? Here to take listeners behind the scenes, the Federal Drive with Tom Temin spoke to the LOC’s director of communications, April Slayton.

From a Text Transcript of the Interview:

Tom Temin [Federal News Network]: How many people do you think are teleworking for the LOC and the CRS altogether?

April Slayton: Right now, we’ve had as many as 4,000 concurrent users on our VPN network, which allows our employees to connect to the library’s email and other file servers. So while we probably don’t have 4,000 users at a time, it may be multiple devices. I’d say we have several thousand employees at any given time who are working remotely during this period.

Tom Temin: And did you have a continuity of operations plan that would anticipate possibly everybody not being able to get in?

April Slayton: We did. There’s definitely a very solid continuity of operations plan for the library. However, it’s not a one size fits all in this case where we’re not in an emergency that requires only critical operations. Our goal with this period was really not just to complete the essential work, but also to allow employees who are doing other really important things that are not considered critical under a continuity of operation plan to have access and availability. And the opportunity is so large to invite the public to enjoy some of our research and resources during this period, that it was really important that we not think of this purely as a continuity of operations situation.

Direct to Audio and Complete Text Transcript

See Also: COVID-19: Reports From the Congressional Research Service (CRS) and Legislative Research Organizations in Australia, Canada, EU, and UK

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