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By: Erin Allen
(The following is an article from the September-October 2012 issue of the Library’s new magazine, LCM, highlighting “first drafts” of important documents in American history.) O! say, can you see by the dawn’s early light …” These words are as American as, well, the American flag that inspired them. Francis Scott Key, a young …
Posted in: Timeless
By: Bill LeFurgy
A question popped up in the blogosphere recently. “Where is our Atlas of Digital Damages?” asked Barbara Sierman of the National Library of the Netherlands. She pointed out the amazement that would greet evidence of physical books, safely stored, with spontaneous and glaring changes in their content or appearance. “Panic would be huge if this …
Posted in: The Signal
By: Jeff Bridgers
With the World Series just around the bend, baseball has been on my mind. In 1910, photographer Paul Thompson copyrighted a series of photographic portraits he had taken of baseball players. The portraits are simple straight-on head-and-shoulders shots with the players gazing directly back at the camera. These same portraits would serve as the basis …
Posted in: Picture This
By: Butch Lazorchak
As digital preservation and stewardship professionals, we approach digital objects from a unique perspective. We evaluate the long-term value of any particular digital object and work to develop a technical and social infrastructure that will enable us to successfully preserve the objects over time. Preserving and providing appropriate access are our primary functions, but no …
Posted in: The Signal
By: Trevor Owens
In what we hope will become a regular feature here on The Signal I am excited to have a chance to chat with Lori Emerson, a representative from the newest member of the National Digital Stewardship Alliance. Lori is the Director of the Media Archaeology Lab and an Assistant Professor in the Department of English …
Posted in: The Signal
By: Susan Manus
The shortlist for this year’s Digital Preservation Awards has just been announced during a celebration in London marking the 10th anniversary of the Digital Preservation Coalition. And we are pleased to see that our blog, The Signal, has made the list! The DPC , an advocacy organization in the United Kingdom, sponsors these awards to recognize …
Posted in: The Signal
By: Butch Lazorchak
I’m obsessed with maps, especially digital maps. I’m continually amazed by the tools being developed to use location data to make our lives easier. Luckily, this interest dovetails with NDIIPP’s concerns about ensuring that digital mapping survives for the long-term, so I’m regularly scanning the landscape to figure out ways we can engage the wider …
Posted in: The Signal
By: Erin Engle
The October 2012 Library of Congress Digital Preservation Newsletter is now available. http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/news/newsletter/201210.pdf In this issue: *Find out how you can help define levels of digital preservation *Reflections on CurateCamp processing *Read about three individuals who are working on the preservation of video games *Learn about the difference between domains and subdomains in web archiving …
Posted in: The Signal
By: Erin Engle
A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to attend the Designing Storage Architectures for Digital Collections meeting, or the storage meeting for short. Why is this annual meeting a highlight for many of my colleagues here at the Library? Because it zeros in on the critical data storage challenge cultural heritage organizations face …
Posted in: The Signal
By: Erin Allen
Fatalities during the Civil War were not limited to the battlefield, as both first families discovered. Both the Lincolns and the Davises lost young sons within a couple of years from each other. The Davises lost 5-year-old Joseph in 1864 when he fell to his death from their porch in Richmond, Va. According to one …
Posted in: Timeless