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Category: Folksonomies

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

Highlighting the Holidays: Under the Mistletoe

Posted by: Erin Allen

The holidays are full of many traditions – gift giving, sending cards, singing and cooking. Also kissing. If ever there was a time to pucker up, it’s in December, underneath the mistletoe. Washington Irving wrote in the 1800s, “young men have the privilege of kissing the girls under [mistletoe], plucking each time a berry from …

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

Veterans History Project Gets New “Book”

Posted by: Erin Allen

Adding another “book” to its social media shelf, the Library of Congress welcomes the Veterans History Project to Facebook. There, VHP will be sharing the stories of our veterans along with other news and initiatives. Visitors are also encouraged to share their own stories and help VHP collect more. VHP’s Facebook joins several other Facebook accounts from the …

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

Very Superstitious

Posted by: Erin Allen

To say I’m not very superstitious is like saying the sky isn’t blue. I can probably attribute it (very lovingly) to my mother. I can recall on a few occasions being halfway down the road when a black cat crossed in front of our car and my mom immediately turned around to go back the …

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

New Online: Today in History, Hispanic Heritage & Folklife Collections

Posted by: Erin Allen

(The following is a guest post by William Kellum, manager in the Library’s Web Services Division.)  Website Updates Today in History is an online presentation of historic events illustrated by items from the Library’s digital collections. First established in 1997, the site was migrated this month from the American Memory site to a new home …

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

New Online: Education, Folklife, Wartime Collections

Posted by: Erin Allen

(The following is a guest post by William Kellum, manager in the Library’s Web Services Division.) Educational Outreach This month, we’re very happy to have a new release in the excellent series of Student Discovery Sets produced by the Library’s Education Outreach team. Designed for classroom use on Apple’s iPad platform, Student Discovery sets “bring …

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

Pic of the Week: AFC Celebrates 40

Posted by: Erin Allen

The American Folklife Center (AFC) hosted a reception in celebration of its 40th anniversary last Wednesday. Special guests giving remarks were David Mao, acting Librarian of Congress; Kurt Dewhurst, chairman of AFC’s board of trustees; Betsy Peterson, AFC’s current director; and David Isay, founder of StoryCorps. The reception included a special performance by Nakotah LaRance, …

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

Trending: The Mother of Mother’s Day

Posted by: Erin Allen

(The following article by Audrey Fischer is from the May/June 2016 issue of the Library of Congress Magazine, LCM, soon to be available here. In the meantime, make sure to catch up on all our editions!) One West Virginia daughter succeeded in memorializing mothers everywhere. Greeting cards, flowers, candy, dining out—Mother’s Day is big business. Sales …

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

Library in the News: April 2016 Edition

Posted by: Erin Allen

April headlines covered a wide range of stories about the Library of Congress. Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera continues to make the news, especially with the April announcement of his returning for a second term. Herrera told Sara Catania of Reuters that poetry fans provided an “inspiration tsunami” during his first year in which he …

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

Pic of the Week: StoryCorps Makes a Stop

Posted by: Erin Allen

In May 2005, two StoryCorps MobileBooths left the Library of Congress to travel across the United States—one taking an Eastern route and the other covering the Western states. This inaugural tour stopped at 34 cities, and visits lasted two and three weeks, with about 100 interviews collected at each location. The MobileBooth returned to the …