This post features answers to frequently asked questions about the Southeast Asian collections at the Library of Congress provided by the Library’s Southeast Asian reference librarians. Librarians touch on types of Southeast Asian materials available, who uses the collections, how the Library acquires its holdings, and how to access them.
This is a guest post by James Thompson, an undergraduate intern from the University of Notre Dame as part of the Cross Cultural Leadership Program of the Institute for Latino Studies at Notre Dame. Several people, when they hear about my internship at the Library of Congress, are inclined to ask about what I do …
(The following is a post by Charlotte Giles, South Asia reference librarian, Asian Division.) Valuable pieces of ephemera trace shifts in ideas, issues of importance, and the diversity of views in society at the time of their distribution. Because these materials are widely distributed to the public, they often create a meaningful and lasting snapshot …
It was 80 years ago today that American troops launched one of the most daring seaborne invasions in history: the Invasion of Normandy. In honor of D-Day, we have an interview with Erika Hope Spencer, Reference Specialist, French Collections, Latin American, Caribbean & European Division and Megan Harris, Reference Librarian, Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center.
The cuneiform script from Ancient Mesopotamia, arguably the oldest script in human civilization. This blog discusses the various attempts to understand cuneiform and the processes which led to the ultimate decipherment of the seemingly impervious script entailed.
Suzanne Karpelès lived a fascinating life of a scholar of Pali, Khmer, Thai, Tibetan, and Sanskrit, at a time when being an Indologist was a male dominated field, making a major impact on academic knowledge of Cambodian Buddhism, among other subjects. Her personal library is full of wonderful treasures from the early days of Western printing of Cambodian Buddhist works and rare Khmer manuscripts like the Reamker, the Cambodian version of the epic Hindu tale, the Ramayana. One can still access her unique library at the Library of Congress where it has found a home with the Southeast Asian Rare Book Collection in the Asian Reading Room.
Invitation to collaborate with By the People's Herencia: Centuries of Spanish Legal Documents campaign through transcribing and reviewing laws, statues, briefs, and more from the 15th to 19th centuries.
The following is a post by Henry Granville Widener, Portuguese Language Reference Librarian, Hispanic Reading Room, Latin American, Caribbean, and European Division Words connect us in so many ways. Whether spoken, sung or written, they can act as the sinews that link our senses and emotions to one another. When I listen to the Library …
The blog “Afghanistan Reflected in the Collections at the Library of Congress” captures the full range of collections, print, digital and rare books produced in the local and international languages in and about Afghanistan and currently available for research at the Library of Congress.
