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By: Erin Allen
Mexican anthropologist and historian Miguel León-Portilla is the newest recipient of the Library of Congress Living Legend Award for his work in studying the Náhuatl language and literature — the ancient, still-spoken tongue of the Aztecs. The award will be conferred upon León-Portill at the Library’s “Celebration of Mexico”on Dec. 12. The Living Legend Award honors those who have …
Posted in: Timeless
By: Jennifer Gavin
As the world turns its sympathy toward the Philippine islands devastated, just days ago, by the largest typhoon in recorded history, a fascinating fact has emerged and moved explosively across the Internet: Just over a century ago, those same islands – indeed that same nearly destroyed town on the island of Leyte, Tacloban – were …
Posted in: Timeless
By: Butch Lazorchak
“What happens at BPE stays at BPE.” So goes the oft-repeated mantra at the annual Best Practices Exchange conference, held this year under mostly-sunny skies in beautiful downtown Salt Lake City, UT. The phrase holds a special meaning for BPE attendees. Unlike the reticent returnees from America’s sin capitol who have presumably have something to …
Posted in: The Signal
By: Trevor Owens
The following is a guest post from Nicole Saylor, the head of the American Folklife Center‘s archives at the Library of Congress. Prior to her arrival at the Library, she was a member of the survey team while working as the head of Digital Research & Publishing at the University of Iowa Libraries. It’s easy …
Posted in: The Signal
By: Kristi Finefield
The gentleman with the long pipe and the colorful garments (right) points to a document. What is it? Take a closer look (below). It does not appear to be a letter or excerpt from a text. Some letters are recognizable as part of the Roman alphabet: I can see an A, an H, a J, …
Posted in: Picture This
By: Trevor Owens
The following is a guest post from Jane Mandelbaum, co-chair of the National Digital Stewardship Alliance Innovation Working group and IT Project Manager at the Library of Congress. As part of our ongoing series of insights discussions with individuals doing innovative work related to digital preservation and stewardship I am excited to talk with Brian Schmidt. Brian …
Posted in: The Signal
By: Erin Allen
On Tuesday, the Library of Congress celebrated the life and work of noted astronomer and educator Carl Sagan with an event that featured a veritable who’s who of the science community. The event also launched the official opening of The Seth MacFarlane Collection of the Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan Archive to the public at the …
Posted in: Timeless
By: Mike Ashenfelder
Dene (pronounced “Deenie”) Grigar’s mother was an artist who painted mainly with oils on canvas. But occasionally she painted on a different medium, such as wood or pottery. Once she experimented with painting on bamboo, a medium she was unfamiliar with. “Bamboo is porous,” said Grigar. “It can absorb the paint. So my mother compensated …
Posted in: The Signal
By: Leslie Johnston
I increasingly deal with vintage hardware. Why? Because we have vintage media in our collections that we need to read to make preservation and access copies of the files stored on them. I spend a lot of time thinking about hardware that I have interacted with and managed over the years. Some of it was …
Posted in: The Signal
By: Susan Manus
The November 2013 Library of Congress Digital Preservation Newsletter is now available! In this issue: Digital Preservation Pioneer: Sam Brylawski Welcome NDSR Inaugural Class! New Report: Preserving.exe Digital Portals to State and Community History NDSA Report on Geospatial Data Lists of Upcoming events and educational courses Interviews with Edward McCain and Emily Gore Articles on …
Posted in: The Signal