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By: Jaime Mears
Ashley Blewer is an archivist, moving image specialist and developer who works at the New York Public Library. In her spare time she helps develop open source AV file conformance and QC software as well as standards such as Matroska and FFV1. She’s a three time Association of American Moving Image Archivists’ AV Hack …
Posted in: The Signal
By: Lara Szypszak
Whether you like your brew light, dark, milky or sweet, this chilly weather leaves many reaching for a hot cup of coffee to warm up and wake up. As I sipped my own morning cup, I wondered what images our collections would hold of my coffee drinking comrades. I searched our holdings for relatable and …
Posted in: Picture This
By: Jaime Mears
The Digital Library Federation (DLF) 2016 Forum was held alongside the DLF Liberal Arts Colleges Pre-Conference and Digital Preservation 2016 this year from November 6-10 at the Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Self-described as a ”meeting place, marketplace, and congress“ of digital librarians from member institutions and the wider community, the conference, under the leadership of Bethany Nowviskie, set a …
Posted in: The Signal
By: Jaime Mears
Here’s the text of the presentation I gave during the Initiatives panel at Digital Preservation 2016, held in collaboration with the DLF Forum on November 10, 2016. This presentation is about what the National Digital Initiatives division has been up to in FY16 and what’s coming up in FY17. For a report on the DLF Forum, see this Signal post. …
Posted in: The Signal
By: Karen Fishman
Last night, Wednesday, November 16, Smokey Robinson, a rhythm and blues icon whose career has spanned more than 50 years, received the Library’s Gershwin Prize for American Song. The gala award event, featuring prominent performers and musicians was held at DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. Librarian of Congress Dr. Carla Hayden presented the award. …
Posted in: Now See Hear!
By: Cary O’Dell
The following is a guest post by Jenny Paxson of the Packard Campus. Wednesday, November 16 (7:30 p.m.) On the Firing Line with the Germans (War Film Syndicate Company, 1915) In 1915, newsreel director and cinematographer Wilbur H. Durborough spent seven months with the German army in Russia and Turkey and shot 16,000 feet of …
Posted in: Now See Hear!
By: Bryan Cornell
Today’s Post is guest-written by Kristi Moore, a volunteer helping to process and organize collections in the Recorded Sound Section. Eighteen years before, MTV’s “Rock the Vote” targeted potential young Americans in their campaign to increase political involvement, the record industry took the initiative to help register young voters, using the famous names and faces …
Posted in: Now See Hear!
By: Anne Holmes
The following is a guest post by Catalina Gómez, reference librarian in the Library’s Hispanic Division. It’s extremely gratifying to learn that the public is taking advantage of and using the cultural treasures that we work hard to make available digitally here at the Library of Congress. Making a unique photo or a rare recording …
Posted in: From the Catbird Seat
By: Stephen Winick
Note: this is the third in a series of posts about a classic item from the AFC archive, “The Dodger.” [See the first post here.] [See the second post here.][See the third post here.] Second note: we’ve also created a podcast version of these stories. Download our “Dodger” podcast here! Election Day is less than …
Posted in: Folklife Today
By: Lara Szypszak
The following is an interview featuring Jan Grenci, Reference Specialist – Posters, Prints and Photographs Division. Many may ask if campaign posters make a difference in political elections. Some of us will stick a sign in our lawn, and others may simply see posters hung in storefront windows. With another election upon us, I turned …
Posted in: Picture This