Top of page
By: Jeff Bridgers
One hundred years ago, Leighton Budd created this illustration for the January 1, 1913 edition of Puck, the humor and satire magzine. It pictures two fashionable young women stopping by a snowbank so that one of them can record her New Year’s resolutions: “1913 No Jealousy No Anger No Flirt.” Alas, it is unclear whether …
Posted in: Picture This
By: Jennifer Gavin
Today marks 19 years since the passing of one of the world’s great management thinkers—W. Edwards Deming. After World War II, the U.S. did something remarkable in the history of war – it helped its friends and even its former foes get back on their feet economically. In Europe, that was accomplished through the Marshall …
Posted in: Timeless
By: Jeff Bridgers
The following is a guest post by Woody Woodis, Cataloging Specialist, Prints & Photographs. Imagine the pleasure of spending your days looking at cartoons created over a century ago. That opportunity landed on my desk in the form of a digitization and cataloging project of over 2,500 color cartoon illustrations published in Puck magazine between …
Posted in: Picture This
By: Leslie Johnston
We are all pretty familiar with the process of scanning texts to produce page images and converting them using optical character recognition to full-text indexing and searching. But electronic texts have a far older-pedigree. Text digitization in the cultural heritage sector started in earnest in 1971, when the first Project Gutenberg text — the United …
Posted in: The Signal
By: Erin Allen
In November, Library bloggers presented a feast of posts, sure to whet a variety of appetites. Here are a few selections. In the Muse: Performing Arts Blog 1707: A Year That Will Resonate with Handel Lovers 1707 was a good year for Handel. The Signal: Digital Preservation When Data Loss is Personal Leslie Johnston talks …
Posted in: Timeless
By: Trevor Owens
In a previous interview about the Library of Congress collection of video games, David Gibson put out an open call for folks to contact him about donating their video games and video game ephemera to the Library. As soon as he mentioned this in the interview I knew I needed to ask him if I …
Posted in: The Signal
By: Bill LeFurgy
I am happy to have had the chance to interview Jan Ziolkowski, Director, and Yota Batsaki, Executive Director, of Dumbarton Oaks, about some recent developments involving use of technology to enhance the institution’s collections. Bill: The Dumbarton Oaks collections are as fascinating as they are diverse, relating as they do to Byzantine, Pre-Columbian and Garden …
Posted in: The Signal
By: Kristi Finefield
Every December, the Geminid Meteor Shower fills the evening sky with shooting stars (meteors). The first step to enjoying the shower, which will peak the evening of December 13 and into the morning of the 14th, is to locate the constellation of Gemini in the night sky, as the meteors will appear to radiate from …
Posted in: Picture This
By: Trevor Owens
Fifty years from now, what currently accessible web content will be invaluable for understanding science in our era? What kinds of uses do you imagine this science content serving? Where are the natural curatorial homes for this online content and how can we work together to collect, preserve, and provide access to science on the …
Posted in: The Signal
By: Erin Engle
The December 2012 Library of Congress Digital Preservation Newsletter is now available. http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/news/newsletter/201212.pdf In this issue: Digital Preservation Pioneer: Martha Anderson, Director Program Management NDIIPP Levels of Digital Preservation Candidate One Release Find out about the latest PDF/A specification: PDF/A-3 Did you know that museums had computer networks in the 1960’s? Read about a recent …
Posted in: The Signal