Librarian of Congress James Billington, 86, who has served the Library of Congress since 1987, will resign from his position on January 1 due to reports of management and technology failures, according to The New York Times. This development comes after repeated inquiries into whether he plans to retire, according to Dr. Billington.

“Over the years, I have been asked if I have been thinking about retiring, and the answer has always been ‘not really,’ because this library has always been not just my job, but my life,” he said in a statement. “However, I have never had more faith in the leadership and staff of the Library of Congress.”

The announcement comes after several investigations into the Library’s operations revealed that millions of books have not been digitized, making the majority of the Library’s archives inaccessible to internet researchers, among other allegations. However, Dr. Billington did create two online portals during his 28-year tenure, including the National Digital Library, and a multilingual World Digital Library, according to the Library’s recent announcement. Moreover, the Library’s collection size has nearly doubled from 85.5 million items in 1987 to over 160 million items today.

Before Dr. Billington began his position at the Library of Congress, he already had a high profile as director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a policy think tank, for more than a decade. He was a Rhodes Scholar and a historian, and in June 1989, he attended the Soviet Summit in Moscow with President Ronald Reagan and his wife.

James Billington is the thirteenth incumbent of his position since the Library was established in 1800; President Barack Obama will announce the new nomination.