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Archive for the ‘Collections’ Category (40 posts)

This feels a little like a birth announcement: The Library of Congress has launched its second official blog since the one you’re now reading took the blogosphere by storm in April 2007.  (Hyperbole much?)
The Library’s Science, Technology and Business Division is an excellent addition to our growing social-media family.  The very name of the division …

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(The following is a guest post by Patricio Padua of the Library’s Collections and Services Division, h/t to Bryan Cornell in the Recorded Sound Reading Room.)
Some years ago, a monk decked in an elegant black robe visited the Recorded Sound Reading Room in search of the music of his elders: Coptic Chant, which comes out …

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‘Tis the season to be frightened, and the Performing Arts Encyclopedia is full of ghastly tunes for the musical goblins in your life. We start with Jean Schwartz and William Jerome’s “The Ghost that Never Walked.” The team, best-known for the song “Chinatown my Chinatown,” put this 1904 number into the show “Piff! Paff! Pouf!” to tell the …

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Going Back, Waaay Back

(Ed. note: This post comes to us from Phil Michel, Digital Conversion Coordinator for the Prints & Photographs Division, and one of the authors of the new book Baseball Americana.)
While the baseball season winds down and the excitement of another World Series chase begins, we’re celebrating the national pastime with a new book, Baseball Americana: …

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The next two days for us will be a whirlwind of events as we celebrate the ninth annual edition of the National Book Festival.  But there’s one aspect I just absolutely had to call out.
Our folks have been busily working behind the scenes on a revamp of our literacy.gov website, which promotes lifelong literacy and …

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There’s nothing quite like the sound of a fighter aircraft, overhead.
It can be thrilling — at an airshow, for example.
It can also be reassuring — the way it was, for many, in the early morning hours over the Washington, D.C. area for months after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
The Library of Congress has …

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The Library of Congress’ popular site on Flickr now features a set of lovely, century-old photochrom images of buildings and scenery from Belgium.  Even if you don’t know your Flemings from your Walloons, these 108 pictures of places like Antwerp and Blankenberghe, Liege, Ghent and Louvain will transport you to times of yore.

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In a world where we can keep tabs on our own backyards from our desks at work, via satellite, it’s difficult to imagine the impact one man armed with notebooks and pencils could have in 1861 as the Civil War began to rend our young nation.  Generals on both sides of that conflict desperately needed good topographical information …

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When revolutionary-turned-president Thomas Jefferson still walked the streets of Washington, D.C., there were people who wanted to give him a good jab with their index finger and hand him a piece of their minds.
These days, here on Capitol Hill, you can give Thomas Jefferson a jab … and dig a little deeper into his mind.
It’s …

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Strictly Business

With all the various reading rooms available at the Library, did you know there is one with a reference alcove dedicated to business?
The 5th floor of the John Adams Building on Capitol Hill, home to the Science & Business Reading Room, has a staff of business reference specialists to assist with your business-related questions and …

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