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Category: Technology

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

Conservator’s Picks: Treating Treasures

Posted by: Erin Allen

(The following is a story in the January/February 2015 issue of the Library of Congress Magazine, LCM. You can read the issue in its entirety here.) Conservation Division chief Elmer Eusman discusses conservation treatment options for a variety of prized collection items. Pre-Columbian Objects “Collections such as this classic Maya whistling vessel, dated A.D 400-600, …

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

The Science of Preservation

Posted by: Erin Allen

(The following is a story written by Jennifer Gavin for the January/February 2015 issue of the Library of Congress Magazine, LCM. You can read the issue in its entirety here.) Scientific research in its laboratories helps the Library to preserve and display world treasures. Books with cracked leather bindings; crumbling, yellowed maps and newspapers; faded …

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

Anatomy of the Flute

Posted by: Erin Allen

(The following is a feature on “Technology at the Library” from the September-October 2014 issue of the Library of Congress Magazine, LCM. You can read the issue in its entirety here.)  The Library of Congress holds the largest collection of flutes in the world, due in great measure to the generosity of Ohio physicist and amateur flutist Dayton …

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

Library in the News: August 2014 Edition

Posted by: Erin Allen

In August, the Library of Congress was busy with exhibitions and expositions, opening “American Ballet Theatre: Touring the Globe for 75 Years” on Aug. 14 and hosting the 14th annual National Book Festival on Aug. 30. “At the company’s heart was ballet theater, a physical way of creating a new world onstage,” wrote Sarah Kaufman …

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

Let’s Get Pinning!

Posted by: Erin Allen

Today the Library of Congress launched its own Pinterest account, continuing efforts to make educational, historical and cultural resources available to web users across many platforms. With Pinterest, the Library can share visual content with a wide audience, allowing them to also curate their own collections featuring the same content by creating and managing “boards” …

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

InRetrospect: May 2014 Blogging Edition

Posted by: Erin Allen

Inside Adams: Science, Technology and Business Oh, Oology! Caliology and oology are the study of bird nests and eggs, respectively. In the Muse: Performing Arts Blog Best Buddies, or Just Goethe Friends? Tchaikovsky and Brahms share a birthday, among other things. In Custodia Legis: Law Librarians of Congress I Could Not Accept Your Challenge to …

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

The Library in History: Library Analyst Helped Launch NASA

Posted by: Erin Allen

(The following is a story written by Cory V. Langley, a communications specialist in the Congressional Research Service, that is featured in the May – June 2014 issue of the Library of Congress Magazine, LCM, now available for download here. You can also view the archives of the Library’s former publication from 1993 to 2011. Amid fear and anxiety …

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

Ten Thousand Treasures

Posted by: Jennifer Gavin

The World Digital Library – a website of world cultural treasures offered free of charge in seven languages to anyone on the planet with access to the Internet – has put up its 10,000th offering. It was part of a package, actually – a group of rare manuscripts from the collections of the Walters Art …

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

A Half Century of Library Computing

Posted by: Erin Allen

(The following is a guest post from Audrey Fischer, editor of the Library of Congress Magazine.) Fifty years ago, the Library installed its first computer and began charting a course to bibliographic control and global shared access. On Jan. 15, 1964, the first components of a small-scale computer system were delivered to the Library of …