By GAIL FINEBERG
A happier 200th birthday for the Library would be hard to imagine. Bicentennial events began at 8 a.m. on April 24 with long lines and record- breaking commemorative coin and stamp sales, peaked with the launch of a new Web site and a three-hour birthday party on the East Lawn of the Capitol and ended with a Great Hall reception and celebratory remarks by Sens. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and Christopher Dodd (D- Conn.) and historian David McCullough.
On the afternoon of April 24, the only sunny day in two weeks, more than 5,000 people gathered on the Capitol's East Lawn, facing the Thomas Jefferson Building, for a three-hour birthday party. Photo above and below by Susan Davis International.
The program opened with speeches by Dr. Billington and Gen. Colin Powell. "This Library is a gift to the nation," said Dr. Billington, emphasizing as he did in several speeches throughout the day that "this is a national celebration, not just of an institution but of the role of libraries everywhere in providing free and open access to knowledge and information."
Alluding often during the day to the Library's Jeffersonian principle of democratizing information, the Librarian said the Library's Bicentennial gift to the nation is making its historical record of American creativity widely accessible to everyone via its Web sites. He spoke of the established and popular American Memory www.loc.gov collections of more than 3 million items and then told of a new site, America's Library www.americaslibrary.gov, aimed at children.
"Today, we're unveiling a new kids' Web site, America's Library, which is easy to access and user-friendly," Dr. Billington said on stage during a jam-packed press briefing, which included a demonstration of the site and screening of the television ads that will support it. "We're putting the 'story' back in 'history,'" he said.
On its first day alone, the Web site registered 795,261 hits.
To reach a nationwide audience of young learners, the Library is publicizing its new Web site with its first-ever public-service campaign, in partnership with the Advertising Council. The ads will be aired on television and radio, and a Web "banner" has been developed for the Internet.
ABC journalist Cokie Roberts, whose mother, Ambassador Lindy Boggs, was honorary Bicentennial co-chairman with retired Oregon Sen. Mark O. Hatfield, emceed a birthday party program as eclectic as the Library itself.
Powell, retired chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, opened with the Library's creation story -- told often throughout the day and evening -- of the act of Congress, ratified by President John Adams on April 24, 1800, that created a congressional Library that began with 740 books and three maps; of cash-strapped Thomas Jefferson selling his beloved private library of 6,487 volumes for $23,950 to Congress in 1815, to replace volumes burned in a Capitol fire set by the British in 1814; of the diverse collection that has grown to more than 119 million items; of recent efforts, supported by John Kluge and other friends of the Library, to expand free and open access to the Library through the Internet.
Of course, books figured in the celebration. Demonstrating his love for the printed word, Dr. Billington settled into a chair to read Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are to a gathering of children. Roger Baum read a letter from grandfather L. Frank Baum, whose copyright for The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was celebrated in a Library exhibition, in which the author told his audience of "dear readers" how much their love of his story meant to him.
In the spirit of Harry Houdini, whose collections are housed at the Library, illusionist David Copperfield asked the audience to suspend disbelief while he all but "disappeared" into a 1-foot-wide box, with his head protruding from one side and his feet from the other.
"Sesame Street's" Big Bird and his handler, Maria, then joined Dr. Billington on stage (see photo at right by Paul Hogroian). "C and D are some of my favorite letters," chirped Big Bird, adding, "I love to go to the Library."
Big Bird and 33 other "Living Legends" (two had stand-ins), lined up on the stage to receive medals from Dr. Billington in honor of their contributions to American life and culture. The Library's staff had selected 84 Americans, whose careers are as diverse as the Library's collections -- cartoonists, artists and activists, sports figures, scholars, scientists and entertainers.
"I do a lot of charity events, but this was a fabulously different event. To have so many of the Living Legends show up shows you what they think of the Library," Ms. Roberts said.
Living Legend Mickey Hart introduced a medley of American music-makers -- Native American drummers and singers, African American dancers, country singers Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys and Kathy Mattea, Latin percussionists Tito Puente and Giovanni Hidalgo, folk-singers Pete Seeger and his grandson, Tao Rodriguez, jazz singer Diane Reeves, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown and the soul group the Chi- Lites -- all backed by the Saturday Night Live Band. (Mr. Puente recently died, on June 1.)
Middle-school girls shrieked with glee and admiration as two members of 'N Sync appeared at the podium briefly. After the concert, the girls raced around a fence to try for one last glimpse of the departing stars.
In an amped-up finale, with the crowd rocking along with the performers, Mr. Hart joined his Grateful Dead colleague Bob Weir on stage with the Eastern High School Choir, Ms. Reeves and Mr. Hidalgo. All the performers appeared together for "This Land Is My Land."
An evening reception celebrated the generosity of the Madison Council, the Library's private sector advisory group, which supported the Bicentennial events, and the opening of the exhibition focusing on Thomas Jefferson's life, love of books and conflicting ideas. After Sens. Stevens and Dodd praised the Library and the Librarian for his leadership, historian David McCullough concluded official ceremonies of the day with his eloquent expression of reverence for the Library.
"What a glorious and truly worthy cause for celebration this is," he said, reviewing the story of the Library's creation that included a glimpse of an 1815 congressional debate. One member asked his colleagues if they realized how much they were spending for books, not to mention "books in foreign languages you cannot read."
"How many books have gone out of here, that were inspired here?" McCullough asked. "If books are voyages to discovery, this certainly is the port of embarkation."
Ms. Fineberg is the editor of The Gazette, the Library's staff newspaper.