Profile America: The First Librarian of Congress

FIRST LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS

Profile America — Modern American election cycles engage campaign managers in almost all levels of political races. The man usually credited with being America’s first campaign director, John James Beckley, operated decades before the advent of the news cycle and social media. He directed campaigns on behalf of the Democratic-Republicans in the late 18th century. After Thomas Jefferson won the presidency in 1800, the Library of Congress was founded. Beckley was appointed the first librarian of that world-renowned institution this week in 1802. At lower levels, states employ 438 full-time and 273 part-time librarians, while more than 271,000 staffers across the U.S. hush patrons in local public, institutional and school libraries, museums and archives. 

Source: U.S. Census Bureau.

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