Digital Archives Day at the Library of Congress

In truth, every day is digital archives day here at the Library.

But, in honor of the official Digital Archives Day, I thought it would be useful to mention some of the pertinent resources the Library has or helps support.  There are two basic categories: 1) digital content collections, and 2) information about digital projects and programs.  There is an overlap between these categories, since programs are used to build content collections.  Here’s a quick (and incomplete) rundown.

Digital Content Collections

Web Archives. We have developed thematic web archives on such topics as the United States national elections, the Iraq war and the events of September 11.  The web archives is composed of collections selected by Library subject specialists.

American Memory. This online resource provides free and open access to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps and sheet music. These materials are digital copies of original hard copy content from the collections of the Library and other institutions.

Chronicling America.  This website provides access to select digitized newspaper pages from 1836-1922, and is produced by the National Digital Newspaper Program. NDNP is a partnership between the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library.

World Digital Library.  WDL makes available on the internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from countries and cultures around the world.  Partners in the WDL include libraries, archives, or other institutions that have collections of cultural content, as well as institutions, foundations and private companies.

Digital Projects and Programs

Digitalpreservation.gov. This website is the principal source of information about the work of the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program. There is a trove of detail about our work with hundreds of partners over the past decade.

Personal Digital Archiving.  A section of the NDIIPP website is devoted to plain language advice for people who want to preserve their personal and family digital memories, such as photographs, videos and email.

Digital Preservation Videos.  Over the last couple of years we have produced a number of short videos on a variety of topics, including the importance of digital preservation, student web archiving and preserving personal digital content.

Preserving State Government Digital Information.  Since 2007, the Library has worked with four multi-state consortial projects involving 35 state libraries and archives.  Each project develops and shares tools, services and practices to help all states make progress in managing their digital heritage.

Federal Agencies Digitization Guidelines Initiative.  The Library works with a number of other federal agencies to define common guidelines, methods, and practices for digitizing historical content.   The FADGI website contains a wealth of information about working with both still and moving images.