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Category: Libraries

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

Countdown to Book-Stravaganza

Posted by: Jennifer Gavin

Just days stand between the book-lovers of the USA and the Library of Congress National Book Festival! But don’t just stare at the countdown clock on the Festival website … check out the speaking and book-signing schedules for our 125 authors, or listen to the podcasts already available from some of this year’s authors.  That …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

From Russia, with Music

Posted by: Erin Allen

The Library of Congress and a Moscow museum recently completed a project that, for the first time, brings together the original music manuscripts of one of the great composers of the 20th century – works that had been separated over the past century by thousands of miles and the Russian Revolution. The Library and the …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

So — What Books Shaped You?

Posted by: Jennifer Gavin

In conjunction with the Monday launch of an exhibition at the Library of Congress titled “Books That Shaped America” as part of its overarching Celebration of the Book, the Library of Congress is making public a list of 88 books by Americans that, it can be argued, shaped the nation over its lifetime. It’s not …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

Mr. Morrill Goes to Washington

Posted by: Jennifer Gavin

On Monday (June 25) at the Library of Congress – in a conference anybody can attend, free of charge – the contributions of a congressman you’ve probably never heard of, but really should know about, will be explored. Justin Morrill of Vermont may never be as well-known as his executive-branch supporter in these endeavors, Abraham …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

Ray Bradbury and Pogo

Posted by: Jennifer Gavin

Ray Bradbury, the towering writer of science fiction, died today at age 91. Talk about an author who will be missed … In the United States, our lives have been steeped in science fiction, from the days of “Buck Rogers” and the cheesy B-movies of the 1950s to the phenomena of “Star Trek,” “The Matrix” …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

Like a Phoenix, From the Ashes

Posted by: Jennifer Gavin

Two hundred years ago today, President James Madison set pen to paper to write a message to Congress.  His intent was to talk them into making the nation’s first formal declaration of war – on Great Britain, which was squashing U.S. exports as a side effect of a British naval blockade against Napoleon’s France. But …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

A New Copyright Blog — and a Challenge

Posted by: Jennifer Gavin

The following is a guest post by Maria A. Pallante, Register of Copyrights and Director of the U.S. Copyright Office. See the new U.S. Copyright Office blog at http://blogs.loc.gov/copyrightdigitization/ Help Wanted: Have you ever attempted to build an electronic index and searchable database of a complex and diverse collection of 70 million imaged historical records? …