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Category: Social Media

Three dolls wearing bathing suits line up next to their original boxes.

Barbara Millicent Roberts is at the Library — But Just Call Her Barbie

Posted by: Neely Tucker

Barbara Millicent Roberts debuted in 1959, when Elvis reigned supreme and Berry Gordy had just founded what would become Motown. "The Twilight Zone" dazzled television viewers. Suffice it to say it was a long, long time ago, but Barbie is bigger than ever, thanks to a new film. We take a quick look at the Barbie dolls in our Geppi Collection.

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

Library Enriches America’s Story by Connecting with Minority Communities, Funded by $15M Mellon Grant

Posted by: Brett Zongker

The Library today announced a new, multiyear initiative to connect more deeply with Black, Hispanic, Indigenous and other minority communities by expanding its collections, using technology to enable storytelling and offering more internship and fellowship opportunities, supported by a $15 million investment from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

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

Crowdsourcing Helps to Unlock the Mystery of Cursive

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

This is a guest post by Julie Miller, a historian in the Manuscript Division, and Victoria Van Hyning, a senior innovation specialist in the division. This post coincides with National Handwriting Day. “That’s so beautiful, but what does it say?” This is what we often hear from visitors to the Library of Congress when they …

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

Uncovering Surprises in the Collections, Serendipitously

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

This is a guest post by Jer Thorp, the Library’s innovator-in-residence. On November 8, he took over the @LibraryCongress Twitter account to host a #SerendipityRun in which participants connected with one another and shed new light on Library holdings by taking a serendipitous “run” through the online collections. Here Thorp describes the inspiration behind this …

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

Pic of the Week: Gettysburg Address

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

On Nov. 19, 1863, Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Invited to give a “few appropriate remarks” to dedicate a cemetery for Union soldiers killed at the Battle of Gettysburg, Lincoln delivered — over the course of about two minutes — what has become one of the most widely recognized speeches in …

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

Free to Use and Reuse: Pilot Browser Extension Supports Exploration of Historical Images

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

This is a guest post by Flynn Shannon, who interned this summer in the Library’s Communications Office through the Junior Fellows Program. He is a student at Kenyon College, where he is pursuing a degree in classical mathematics with a concentration in scientific computing. The post was first published on “The Signal,” a blog covering …

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

Update on the Twitter Archive at the Library of Congress

Posted by: Gayle Osterberg

In 2010, the Library of Congress announced an exciting and groundbreaking acquisition—a gift from Twitter of the entire archive of public tweet text beginning with the first tweets of 2006 through 2010, and continuing with all public tweet text going forward. The Library took this step for the same reason it collects other materials – …