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Posted by: Jennifer Gavin
I was 15 years old, sitting cross-legged next to my friend Mascha on a cork-tile floor at Mammoth Gardens, a roller-skating rink built in 1910. Plaster, occasionally, was falling from the ceiling – because the band on the stage that night was the drum-heavy Santana, which had just released its 1970 album “Abraxas.” That’s the …
Posted in: Abraham Lincoln, Civil War, Education, Events, Libraries, Pinterest, Social Media
Posted by: Jennifer Gavin
With the Library of Congress National Book Festival just days away (it’s a week from this weekend, Saturday, Sept. 21 and Sunday, Sept. 22, free of charge on the National Mall) we have a lot to share in addition to more than 100 best-selling authors for readers of all ages. One of the great stops …
Posted in: Books, Capitol Hill, Civil War, Collections, Concerts, Copyright, Curators, Education, Events, Law Library, LC Web site, Libraries, Maps, Music, National Book Festival, Newspapers, Photos, Preservation, Social Media, Technology, Veterans History Project, Washington DC
Posted by: Jennifer Gavin
The wonders of modern science were used to positively identify a set of human bones found under an asphalt parking lot in England (site of a former church) as those of Richard III – a former king of England and one of Shakespeare’s most memorable villains. The world was fascinated – it isn’t every day …
Posted in: Collections, LC Web site, Libraries, Photos, Poetry, Science, Social Media, Technology
Posted by: Jennifer Gavin
When it comes to priceless art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has quite a bit, including a trove of Raphaels. But the Library of Congress (on its National Book Festival site, now live at www.loc.gov/bookfest) has a new Rafael López National Book Festival poster for 2012 that’s priceless, too – because you …
Posted in: Blogging, Books, Capitol Hill, Education, Events, LC Web site, National Book Festival, News, Social Media, Washington DC
Posted by: Jennifer Gavin
Ray Bradbury, the towering writer of science fiction, died today at age 91. Talk about an author who will be missed … In the United States, our lives have been steeped in science fiction, from the days of “Buck Rogers” and the cheesy B-movies of the 1950s to the phenomena of “Star Trek,” “The Matrix” …
Posted in: Books, Libraries, Poetry, Social Media, Technology, Uncategorized
Posted by: Jennifer Gavin
The following is a guest post by Maria A. Pallante, Register of Copyrights and Director of the U.S. Copyright Office. See the new U.S. Copyright Office blog at http://blogs.loc.gov/copyrightdigitization/ Help Wanted: Have you ever attempted to build an electronic index and searchable database of a complex and diverse collection of 70 million imaged historical records? …
Posted in: Blogging, Cataloging, Copyright, LC Web site, Libraries, News, Social Media, Technology, Uncategorized
Posted by: Jennifer Gavin
Mark your calendars … then dust them for fingerprints. Blockbuster mystery authors David Baldacci, Sandra Brown and Kathy Reichs are coming to the Library of Congress next week, and you can meet them. It’s a Monday preview to the National Book Festival (to be held on the National Mall Saturday, Sept. 25 from 10 a.m. – …
Posted in: Blogging, Capitol Hill, Events, Social Media, Thomas Jefferson Building, Uncategorized, Washington DC
Posted by: Jennifer Gavin
Audrey Fischer of the Library’s Public Affairs Office offers this guest blog item for Saturday: April 24 marks the Library’s 210th anniversary. Let it be said that the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution keeps getting better with age. In 2000, the Library of Congress celebrated its bicentennial. That same year it embarked on a mission …
Posted in: Collections, Education, History, LC Web site, Libraries, Preservation, Social Media, Technology
Posted by: Jennifer Gavin
A bunch of ninth-grade girls got in touch with their favorite radio station, making a song request for a tune by one of their favorite artists. But they couldn’t resist the chance to raise that universal complaint: “Why, why, why, why do you always repeat the same songs?” It could have been from the suburbs …
Posted in: Collections, Congress, Curators, Exhibitions, Music, Poetry, Social Media