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Category: Books

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

Pic of the Week: Dolly Parton, the “Book Lady”

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

Legendary singer-songwriter Dolly Parton visited the Library on Feb. 28 to donate a book: the 100 millionth given away by her organization Imagination Library. For more than 20 years, Parton and Imagination Library have given books to children around the world. Along the way, she earned the nickname “book lady” from kids who received her …

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

New Book: Illustrated History of the Library of Congress

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

A new book from Library of Congress historian John Y. Cole, “America’s Greatest Library: An Illustrated History of the Library of Congress,” tells the story of the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution and how it came to be the world’s largest library. Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden calls the Library “a place where you can …

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

Ambassador for Young People’s Literature Inaugurated

Posted by: Mark Hartsell

Young readers, author Jacqueline Woodson says, need books that serve as both a window and a mirror—a window that allows them to see into other worlds, a mirror that might let, say, an African-American girl or Asian boy see some part of their own identity on the page. The books of such African-American children’s authors …

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

New Book: American Libraries

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

The following is a guest post by Helena Zinkham, chief of the Prints and Photographs Division, about “American Libraries 1730–1950,” published this fall by W.W. Norton and Company in association with the Library of Congress. You can find libraries at the heart of many different communities, from the center of a town or a college …

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

Rare Book of the Month: ABCs Through the Centuries

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

This is a guest post by digital library specialist Elizabeth Gettins. September is traditionally known as the month that all children return to school after summer vacation. To mark this tradition, the Rare Book and Special Collection Division’s book(s) of the month are two hornbooks: a wood hornbook and an ivory hornbook. Today’s children would likely …