The largest library in the world has an IT problem. That is the verdict from the Government Accountability Office, which said in a new report issued on Tuesday that the Library of Congress has "significant weaknesses across several areas" of its technological infrastructure. As home to 158 million books, manuscripts, audio recordings and other materials, as well as the U.S. Copyright Office, the Library of Congress has strong organizational and security needs. Despite having $119 million to work with in 2014 to meet those needs, the GAO report found that the Library of Congress' IT department was disorganized and lacked leadership. Its chief information officer (CIO) did not have enough oversight or authority, the report states, a problem compounded by the fact that it has had five temporary CIOs since 2012. Different departments within the Library of Congress sometimes had their own IT systems, resulting in conflicting or redundant hardware and software. Security protections were "uneven," according to the report. It also stated that the Library's board had trouble tracking its own equipment. For example, the Library told the GAO it had 6,500 computers, while the inventory listed 18,000. NBC News reached out to the Library of Congress for comment but it did not immediately respond.
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