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Archive: 2016 (8 Posts)

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

Pic of the Week: Smokey Robinson

Posted by: John Sayers

The two-day celebration of Smokey Robinson’s 50-year career—and his selection as the 2016 recipient of the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song—began in the nation’s capital with a touching trip down the keyboard of George Gershwin’s piano and ended with a rollicking concert of his greatest hits. During his visit, Robinson sat down …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

New Day for “Today in History”

Posted by: John Sayers

(The following post was written by Peter Armenti, literature specialist in the Library’s Digital Reference Section and a regular contributor to the poetry and literature blog, “From the Catbird Seat.”) For nearly 20 years, the Today in History feature has been one of the most popular areas of the Library of Congress website. Drawing heavily …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

Library Fends Off DDoS Attack

Posted by: John Sayers

This is a guest post by Bernard A. Barton Jr., chief information officer of the Library of Congress. On Sunday morning, July 17, the Library became the target of a distributed denial of service (DDoS) network attack that resulted in the disruption of Library services and websites, including Congress.gov, the U.S. Copyright Office, the BARD …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

10 Great Moments in Advertising! Chronicling America

Posted by: John Sayers

We continue our Throwback Thursday #TBT celebration of Chronicling America, our free, online searchable database of historical U.S. newspapers, with interesting stories from the archives as selected by reference librarians in our Serials & Government Publications Division. Today we return to our historical newspaper archives to veer off from the normal journalistic endeavors and examine …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

10 Stories: April Fool! Chronicling America

Posted by: John Sayers

In celebration of the release of the 10 millionth page of Chronicling America, our free, online searchable database of historical U.S. newspapers, our reference librarians have selected some interesting subjects and articles from the archives. We’ve been sharing them in a series of Throwback Thursday #TBT blog posts — one day late today, due to …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

10 Stories: Glorious Food! Chronicling America

Posted by: John Sayers

In celebration of the release of the 10 millionth page of Chronicling America, our free, online searchable database of historical U.S. newspapers, our reference librarians have selected some interesting subjects and articles from the archives. We’ve been sharing them in a series of Throwback Thursday #TBT blog posts. Today we return to our historical newspaper …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

Access to Knowledge

Posted by: John Sayers

(The following story by Jennifer Gavin is featured in the January/February 2016 issue of the Library of Congress Magazine, LCM. You can read the issue in its entirety here.) From MARC to metadata, the Library’s catalog records and expert staff provide access to a treasure trove of knowledge. In the beginning—that is, in 1800—the Library …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

10 Stories: Mustaches in History! Chronicling America

Posted by: John Sayers

In celebration of the release of the 10 millionth page of Chronicling America, our free, online searchable database of historical U.S. newspapers, the reference librarians in our Serials & Government Publications Division have selected some interesting subjects and articles from the archives. We’ve been sharing them in a series of Throwback Thursday #TBT blog posts. …