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What’s new online at the Library of Congress – Memorial Day Weekend 2022

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Interested in learning more about what’s new in the Library of Congress’ digital collections? The Signal now shares out semi-regularly about new additions to publicly-available digital collections and we can’t wait to show off all the hard work from our colleagues from across the Library. Read on for a sample of what’s been added recently and some of our favorite highlights. Visit here for previous updates.


What’s new on loc.gov?

Edward F. Edinger Papers

The papers (3,100 items; 10,077 images) of leading Jungian analyst Edward F. Edinger (1922-1998) span the years 1550 (photostatic copy of an alchemical treatise) to 2016, with the bulk of the material dating from 1951 to 1998. Reproduced from the originals donated to the Manuscript Division in 2016-2021, the collection illustrates Edinger’s ability to explain C. G. Jung’s ideas and concepts in a simple and precise manner, making Jung’s work more accessible. The papers also provide insight into Edinger’s own theoretical work, including his belief that modern man’s psychological disorientation was a result of the loss of a core religious mythology, and his interest in the therapeutic role of alchemy, literature, philosophy, and religion. Included are writings, lectures, correspondence, notes, photographs, military records, printed matter, research material, transcriptions, and other material relating to Edinger’s career. Additional collection items include Edinger’s occasional journal entries and notes, drawings of the psyche, and a diagram of the historical precursors of psychotherapy.  The majority of the papers comprise Edinger’s lectures and writings, and Edinger’s handwritten edits are found throughout the writings.  Topics include alchemy, archetypes, C. G. Jung’s work, collective unconscious, Gnosticism, Greek mythology and philosophy, individuation, the psyche, psychotherapy, symbols, and the transformation of the God-image. The collection does not include Edinger’s entire body of work.

Collection updates and migrations

Archive of Recorded Poetry and Literature

10 new and previously unreleased audio recordings for the Archive of Recorded Poetry and Literature (ARPL) are now available. This collection currently boasts over 370 digitized audio recordings featuring poets and writers participating in literary events at the Library of Congress.

Occupational Folklife Project

Several collections have been added to the Occupational Folklife Project online presentation in recent months, including:

Selections from the Naxi Manuscript Collection

The Library of Congress’s collection of 2,780 Naxi (Nashi) manuscripts is the largest collection outside of China and is considered the finest in the world—unrivaled in quality, quantity, and variety among Naxi collections in Europe, the People’s Republic of China, and Taiwan. Naxi is the only living pictographic language. Naxi pictographs, however, differ from Chinese characters—appearing more like Egyptian or Mayan hieroglyphs, with many recognizable figures of animals and objects. The Library’s collection portrays a distinct religion with a unique theological interpretation of the cosmos. Although a large percentage of Naxi ceremonies deal with exorcism, the Library’s collection also includes a pictographic creation story, a sacrifice to the Serpent King, accounts of Naxi warriors and other people of high social standing ascending to the realm of deities, and love-suicide stories. This portion of the collection was migrated from the Global Gateway platform; digitization of the remainder of the collection is underway and it will be made available via this presentation once it becomes available.

Hans Peter Kraus Collection of Spanish American Documents, 1433 to 1877

The Hans Peter Kraus Collection of Spanish American Documents, 1433-1877, consists of 162 multipage items (5,950 images) dating mainly from 1500 to 1800, which were digitized from 4 reels of previously produced microfilm. The collection documents the history of the Spanish colonies in the Americas, chiefly Mexico, but also Peru, Guatemala, and New Granada (the present-day countries of Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, and Venezuela), and territories that became part of the United States, including California, Florida, and New Mexico. Topics covered include Spanish exploration of the Americas, laws and governance of New Spain, economic conditions, the Catholic Church, the Inquisition in Mexico, and relations with Native American peoples, France, the American colonies, and the United States. This content was previously made available via the Global Gateway platform.

New datasets

9 new dataset items were added to the Selected Datasets collection recently! Some highlights include the Dataset from Climatological Database for the World’s Oceans (CLIWOC) and the Dataset of the 1861 railroad system in America.

New open access eBooks

Over 350 new open access titles added to the collection! Some highlights include books about art and art history including Roman mosaics in the J. Paul Getty MuseumArtistry in bronze: the Greeks and their legacy : XIX International congress on ancient bronzes and The life of August Wilhelm Schlegel: cosmopolitan of art and poetry.

And check out the titles about international law and policy recently added to the collection, such as Inter-group Relations and Migrant Integration in European Cities: Changing NeighbourhoodsAquaculture law and policy: towards principled access and operations, and Sports law and policy in the European Union.

New crowdsourced transcriptions

In a huge milestone, By the People doubled the number of crowdsourced transcriptions now available on loc.gov, from 63,000 to over 123,000. The transcriptions most recently published on loc.gov come from 3 large collections (below) and reflect the contributions of over 7,000 participants, including Library of Congress staff transcribers. These transcriptions now enable enhanced discoverability and accessibility of images of collection materials.

Additions to the Library’s Web Archives

Over the past three months, the Web Archiving Team has added newly released content for 139 items on loc.gov. The archives coming out of embargo include additions to 39 collections and content spanning 31 countries and 19 languages. Among the most highly represented subjects in the new releases are government, Latin American studies, political science, law, European studies, journalism, and economics.

This month, we’d like to spotlight the Indian Government Web Archive, which was recently added to loc.gov. The collection consists of official government websites of India and provides an overview of the country’s politics, economics, society, and administration at the federal and state levels. Examples of content in the collection include:

Questions? Comments? Reach out to us below!

Comments

  1. How does one find out what new items have been added to the film archive that is available to the public, or any other news from the film side of the LOC?

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