By CRAIG D'OOGE
Since its official launch during a black-tie reception on Oct. 7, 1997, the Library's Bicentennial celebration has been the subject of more than 950 newspaper stories and more than 100 television and radio programs.
A special video news release on the Library's April 24th celebration aired on more than 55 television stations across the nation, gathering 4 million audience impressions, or roughly eight times the average CNN prime-time audience.
A news article on the Bicentennial written by the Public Affairs Office and distributed by the North American Precis Syndicate was used in 220 newspaper articles in 14 states, with a combined readership of 8.5 million. A radio news release was broadcast on 131 stations in 37 states with a total audience of 4.7 million.
The Local Legacies project alone accounted for nearly 400 newspaper stories in 40 states. A video news release was distributed by satellite and aired 18 times with a combined audience of 470,000. Members of Congress and individuals across the nation were involved in the celebration of the Bicentennial through the Local Legacies project. For more than a year, Local Legacies teams documented the creative arts, crafts and customs representing traditional community life; signature events such as festivals and parades; how communities observe local and national historical events; and the occupations that defined a community's life. More than three-fourths of Congress and 4,000 Americans have been a part of this once-in-a-lifetime project. All of these projects, nominated for participation by the members of Congress, were documented for inclusion in the Library's American Folklife Center collections.
An announcement by Dr. Billington in New Orleans during the American Library Association meeting in June 1999 about Louisiana's participation in the Local Legacies Project drew extensive coverage, with an Associated Press story carried in The Times-
Picayune and throughout the state in local newspapers. Virtually every other community that participated in Local Legacies was the subject of a story in their local newspaper about their participation in the "home grown" part of the Library's Bicentennial observance.
The activities of poet laureate Robert Pinsky dominated coverage in 1998, with an article in The New York Times on Feb. 17 outlining his plans for his Favorite Poem Project. Additional articles followed, by the Gannett News Service, Associated Press, Chronicle of Higher Education and many local newspapers, such as the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Atlanta Journal, The Washington Post, the Denver Post and the Christian Science Monitor. Mr. Pinsky was interviewed by Katie Couric on the "Today" show on New Year's Day 1999.
The Favorite Poem Project created audio and video archives of Americans of all ages, backgrounds and walks of life reciting their favorite poems. At the heart of this initiative is Mr. Pinsky's belief that poetry is meant to be read aloud. "If a poem is written well, it was written with the poet's voice and for a voice," he said. "Reading a poem silently instead of saying a poem is like the difference between staring at sheet music and actually humming or playing the music on an instrument." Mr. Pinsky's recordings are being added to the Library's Archive of Recorded Poetry and Literature.
Plans for the Library's "yearlong birthday party" were reviewed by Linton Weeks in The Washington Post on Dec. 13, 1999. Other major mass-market stories included an article on National Poetry Month in Publishers Weekly (March 13, 2000), an interview with Dr. Billington in the Shuttle Sheet of Delta Airlines (April) and articles and programs in many other news outlets as the anniversary date neared, including American History, Southern Living, Museum News, Roll Call, The New York Times, Associated Press, The International Herald-Tribune, The Washington Times, USA Today, Los Angeles Times and most other major market publications.
C-SPAN continued to cover many Library events. The staff of the Manuscript Division participated heavily in a series of programs on the presidents. On Dec. 16, 1999, the Librarian hosted an extraordinary three-hour live tour of the Manuscript Division stacks with Brian Lamb, as Manuscript Division specialists and Mark Roosa of the Conservation Office fielded questions on-air.
There was probably more coverage on April 24, 2000, of the Library of Congress by both print and broadcast media nationwide than on any other day in the institution's history.
The Library's celebration was covered extensively by local stations WUSA-TV, WRC-TV and Newschannel 8, in addition to national outlets CNN, Fox, CBS-TV, and C-SPAN. Even the game show "Jeopardy" joined in, by honored the Library with a category of its own.
Later, on April 26, the Librarian was interviewed by Juan Williams on the nationally broadcast NPR show "Talk of the Nation," in addition to his earlier interview on March 16 with Frank Stacio. ABC's "Good Morning America" covered the opening of the Bob Hope Gallery on May 9 , along with WUSA, WTTG and CBS "Sunday Morning." The Librarian returned to C-SPAN again on May 12 for an interview with Brian Lamb, and "ABC World News Tonight with Peter Jennings" covered the Wizard of Oz exhibition on May 17.
In June, the Library was featured on NPR five times, including a two-hour broadcast of the May 22 Stephen Sondheim 70th birthday concert. Early American manuscript specialist Gerard Gawalt was interviewed about the Declaration of Independence on July 4, and Dr. Billington was interviewed by Mike Cuthbert for "Prime Time Radio" on July 5. On Aug. 4, the "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" broadcast an extensive general feature on the Library, and CBS "Sunday Morning" ran a story on the new poet laureate on Aug. 6.
Although most of the Bicentennial events have been held, the coverage has had a "ripple effect," with media interest in the Library at an all-time high.
Mr. D'Ooge is media director in the Public Affairs Office.