Mao was appointed this month as the law librarian for the Library of Congress. He joined the Law Library of Congress last year as the deputy law librarian. Mao has previously worked at Georgetown University and the law firm Covington and Burling. What does the law librarian of Congress do?
The law librarian is part law librarian to Congress, part steward for the collection and part ambassador for the worldly community. The library’s primary patron is Congress, of course, so responsibilities include leading the teams here. One of the primary things we do is answer questions from members of Congress, the executive branch and the judiciary on foreign laws of the world. We have the largest foreign collection of legal materials, we’re the largest law library in the world. It’s also to make it possible for the collections to be maintained in good condition and to serve any researchers’ needs.
What are your goals in the position?
The law library has just issued a strategic plan, under the previous law librarian. What I plan to do is follow up and continue with that, to continue to make sure that our collections here are serving our clients and making sure our collections are adequately preserved.
What are some of the challenges you face?
It always is a challenge right now, in the times we’re in, it’s always about trying to do more with less. And how we make sure that we do all the things we’re supposed to be doing, with the situation that we’re in.
What are some things you’re looking forward to in the job?
It’s working with the premier collection of legal material anywhere in the world. And all the services, for example, thomas.gov, all of our reference services and research services that we provide, and working with the experts that we have here.
— Emily Babay
