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Predrag
Pajić
Library of Congress, Washington, USA
ppaj@loc.gov
The Library of Congress as a Pillar of the Jeffersonian Ideas of Democracyls
The 203-year history of the Library of Congress is very much bound up
with the history of the government of the United States, not only by
having one of the country's founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson, as one
of the Library's founders but also by operating on the basis of Jefferson's
idea which was summarized several decades later by President Abraham
Lincoln as a lsgovernment of the people, by the people, and for the
people.lm The growth, development, and issues on of the Library followed
the interests of its users, namely, the Congress, judicial system, and
executive branch of the government, and later the academic community,
and individual researchers and readers. Over the past two centuries
it has grown from being a mall source of basic legal and historical
information established under Jefferson's initiative for use by the
legislative branch of the U.S. government to a widely diversified and
universal collection open to all users and recognized throughout the
world. Today, the Library with its open information policy and highly
qualified staff, spreads its resources worldwide and, in collaboration
with the U.S. Congress, works to educate the leaders o countries where
the process of democratization is just beginning. Visited yearly by
several million people, the Library's treasures, collected from all
over the world and maintained and used by over a million researchers
and readers, have at the same time become a window for other countries
to the world. Through its policy of open access and efforts to bring
its treasures to the people by educating them on how to use its resources,
the Library has become a significant learning center, reflecting the
essential link between knowledge and freedom.
BIOGRAPHY: Predrag Pajić, Senior Reference Librarian and South Slavic
Specialist, has been employed in the Library of Congress for the past
35 years. Born July 9, 1933 in Banjaluka (Republic Srpska in Bosnia)
he was educated in his native city (Teachers School), in Paris (St.
Sergeus Theological Institute) and in Washington (Graduate School of
he American University). Prior to emigration in 1957, he was employed
as a journalist with several newspapers and with UPI (United Press International)
in Yugoslavia. In Washington he served as a research analyst in Georgetown
University, interpreter and escort officer with the US Department of
State, and an acquisition librarian in the library of American University
prior to working in the Library of Congress. As a political activist,
he has contributed to Serbian and Yugoslav refugee publications, was
a member of the Coordination Committee of Democratic Encounters in London,
and is director general of Democracy International in Washington. He
is a member of the US Democratic Party and of the Demokratska stranka
(Democratic Party) since it was founded in Serbia in 1989. He is also
a member of the Board of St. Luke Serbian Orthodox Church in Washington.
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