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Posted by: Matt Raymond
Starting about two decades ago, the Library of Congress–under the direction of Librarian of Congress James Billington–began moving more ambitiously into the K-12 education space than it had previously. In 1990 the Library began a pilot program to distribute digital primary-source materials on CD-ROM to classrooms. The program, known as American Memory, has today blossomed …
Posted in: Collections, Education, LC Web site, News
Posted by: Matt Raymond
If you’ve visited this blog before, you might be doing a double-take. The Web Services team here at the Library (who are doing some simply amazing things) has given the blog a fresher look and new functionality. First, there’s a cleaner, more aesthetic look to it, and I like how the collections are now highlighted …
Posted in: Blogging, LC Web site
Posted by: Jennifer Gavin
Let’s take a little test. I’m going to say a word, and you’re going to say the next word that leaps into your mind. OK, here goes: Nabokov. You said “Lolita,” right? Of course. Vladimir Nabokov’s “Lolita,” published in 1955 and made into a film directed by Stanley Kubrick in 1962, is the work most …
Posted in: Books, Collections, News
Posted by: Jennifer Gavin
Long before we were being sold something (through advertising jingles) or somebody (through campaign ads), presidential campaign seasons brought out the songwriter in many a partisan. This unique niche of Americana is celebrated in a new Library of Congress exhibition on the web, titled “Voices, Votes, Victory: Presidential Campaign Songs.” The tradition of writing songs …
Posted in: Uncategorized
Posted by: Matt Raymond
My capacity for metaphors is somewhat limited, so forgive me if I repeat a word I tweeted recently (“tweet-peat”?): Yesterday the Library and the NEH held a news conference celebrating the “odometer” of the Chronicling America program’s surpassing 1 million digitized pages from historic newspapers. Seven new partner states have been added, bringing the total …
Posted in: Collections, History, LC Web site, News
Posted by: Matt Raymond
Media consumers today are bombarded with imagery of current events — some of them ephemeral, on our TV screens, and some more indelible. A century ago, the use of halftone images was beginning to revolutionize newspapers and bringing the immediacy of photography to the masses. Today the Library launched a new photostream on our Flickr …
Posted in: Collections, History, LC Web site, News, Photos, Social Media
Posted by: Jennifer Gavin
The Library of Congress has released the 25 recordings selected this year to be preserved for all time as part of the National Recording Registry. They range from the old and classical (violinist Jascha Heifetz’ recordings for Victor Records early in the last century) to more recent rock (The Who, singing “My Generation”) and from …
Posted in: Audiovisual, Collections, History, Music, Poetry, Preservation
Posted by: Matt Raymond
The Library’s tech elves have been laboring away in their workshop to upgrade the user experience on our Chronicling America website. Over recent weeks, the Library of Congress has implemented changes to Chronicling America that improve and expand use of historic American newspapers digitized for the National Digital Newspaper Program, a joint project with the …
Posted in: LC Web site, News
Posted by: Matt Raymond
I have corrected a recent post about increased visitorship at the Library. Visitation at the Library from January–May 2009 was up 47 percent, not 69 percent between January and April, as previously stated. April itself, however, was up 64 percent—possibly an all-time record.
Posted in: New Visitors Experience