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By: Stephen Winick
The American Folklife Center is pleased to welcome John B. Fenn III as the Head of the Research and Programs section. Fenn will be supervising the members of our staff involved in public programming, publications, research, and training in the field of folklife. John Fenn’s academic training is in folklore and ethnomusicology (Ph.D., Indiana University, …
Posted in: Folklife Today
By: Julie Stoner
Cold weather and I do not get along; I infinitely prefer the warm sun with a refreshing breeze. With the holidays behind and the remainder of winter ahead, I decided to search the term “sunshine” in the Prints and Photographs Online Catalog to give me hope of warmer weather to come. The photograph below of …
Posted in: Picture This
By: Mike Ashenfelder
This is a guest post from Stefanie Ramsay, a Digital Collections Librarian at Swarthmore College, which is part of the TriCollege Libraries consortium. Consortium arrangements among libraries and archives are an increasingly popular strategy for managing the large amount of digital content they produce and for providing increased access to these important materials. Luckily for …
Posted in: The Signal
I find the relationship between words and pictures endlessly intriguing. Sometimes I type a single word into the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog simply to see what variety it turns up. It’s a little like the best parts of opening a gift: full of surprises and meaning. The other day, I was meditating on the …
Posted in: Picture This
By: Mike Ashenfelder
The Smithsonian Transcription Center creates indexed, searchable text by means of crowdsourcing…or as Meghan Ferriter, project coordinator at the TC describes it, “harnessing the endless curiosity and goodwill of the public.” As of the end of the current fiscal year, 7,060 volunteers at the TC have transcribed 208,659 pages. The scope, planning and execution of the …
Posted in: The Signal
By: Cary O’Dell
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
Posted in: Now See Hear!
By: Kate Murray
The Federal Agencies Digitization Guidelines Initiative Audio-Visual Working Group is pleased to announce that its new draft publication, Embedding Metadata in Scanned Motion Picture Film Files: Guideline for Federal Agency Use of DPX Files, is available for public comment. The Digital Picture Exchange format typically stores image-only data from scanned motion picture film or born-digital …
Posted in: The Signal
By: Dan Turello
Members of the Scholars Council are appointed by the Librarian of Congress to advise on matters related to scholarship at the Library, with special attention to the Kluge Center and the Kluge Prize. The Council includes distinguished scholars, writers, researchers and scientists. “Insights” is featuring some of the work of this highly-accomplished group of thinkers. …
Posted in: Insights
By: Nicole Saylor
The following is a guest post from AFC processing archivist Marcia Segal. The remarkable audio and video recordings in the Eleanor Dickinson collection (AFC 1970/001), recorded circa 1969-1980, capture a moment in time in the years before the Internet and other technological developments changed the way people communicate. The immediacy of religious services, (uninterrupted by …
Posted in: Folklife Today
By: Julie Stoner
While recently browsing through the National Photo Company collection, I paused when I saw this photograph. My first thought was “what happened to the top of the tree?” After puzzling about the tree for a while, I looked closer at the gathering of the Dickey family. I had to smile as I have been in …
Posted in: Picture This