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Screenshot from introduction page for the Library of Congress' Recommended Formats Statement.

Recommended Formats Statement: Updates for 2024-2025

Posted by: Liz Holdzkom

The Library of Congress has published the 2024-2025 Recommended Formats Statement. Updates, all captured in a Change Log, include support for digital accessibility features as a criterion for evaluating digital formats, an FAQ to address user feedback and adjustments to preferred and accepted formats across multiple content categories.

Hidden Portals Family Day Mask-making Workshop

Posted by: Jaime Mears

The following is a guest post by Library of Congress Innovator in Residence Jeffrey Yoo Warren. You can read more about his residency project, Seeing Lost Enclaves, in previous blog posts and on the experiment page. This past May was a big month for the Seeing Lost Enclaves project, but one day in particular was the most …

Screenshot of the "Documenting Accessibility Features" webpage that describes the work that the Formats team did to document Accessibility Feature information in FDDs.

More Formats and More About Formats: New Entries, Format Accessibility Features and Other Updates

Posted by: Liz Holdzkom

This post is the most recent in a series about file format research for the Sustainability of Digital Formats site at the Library of Congress, including many new format descriptions across multiple content categories. In addition, the post provides details about a new effort to document digital accessibility features in formats included in the Recommended Formats Statement.

Dozens of squares, each with its own individual color or shade, lined up in rows and columns

AI4LAM / Fantastic Futures

Posted by: Pedro Gonzalez-Fernandez

The explosion of interest surrounding Artificial Intelligence (AI) will clearly have a tremendous impact on the world of galleries, libraries, archives, and museums (GLAM). The Library of Congress is exploring how certain AI use cases can help expand access to our collection, enhance services for users, and improve efficiency. We are still in the early …

In foreground - baby loaf of Tillamook cheddar top form, hoop behind slightly out of focus.

What’s New Online at the Library of Congress: June 2024

Posted by: Carlyn Osborn

Interested in learning more about what’s new in the Library of Congress’ digital collections? The Signal shares updates on new additions to our digital collections and we love showing off all the hard work of our colleagues from across the Library. Read on for a sample of what’s been added recently and some of our favorite highlights. Click here for …

Photograph of a group of people seated around a U shaped conference table, with a screen displaying a slide presentation in the center of the photo.

FADGI News: Recap of Recent Projects and Publications

Posted by: Liz Holdzkom

The Federal Agencies Digital Guidelines Initiative (FADGI) AudioVisual Working Group has returned to a schedule of two hybrid meetings a year, in addition to virtual working subgroup meetings as needed. In the past year, these meetings have include trips to the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center and to the Smithsonian Library and Archives’ new Audiovisual Media Preservation Initiative (AVMPI) digitization and processing space. This working group has also published new guidelines: Guidelines for IRENE System Products for Long Term Retention: Deliverable Packages for Imaged Audio Systems and Guidelines for Embedding Metadata in WebVTT Files. Recent work also included open-source software development and maintenance for BWF MetaEdit, FFmpeg, and vrecord. More exciting projects for 2024 are coming.

Amanda Lehman, wearing headphones, looks sideways at an owl sculpture outside the Library's John Adams Building

“Agile feels safe to me”: An Interview with Amanda Lehman

Posted by: Tracee Haupt

I’m excited to share this interview with Amanda Lehman, a Digital Collections Specialist in the Web Archiving Section at the Library. This interview, and others like it on The Signal, are created to generate insight into the background, experience, and interests of the people that support the Library of Congress. Tracee: Hi Amanda, could you tell us a bit about …

An abstract design of dots and the name of the event LC Collections as Data Concluding Computing Cultural Heritage in the Cloud

Computational Approaches to Library of Congress Collections as Data – Concluding the CCHC initiative

Posted by: Laurie Allen

Please join us as we conclude the Computing Cultural Heritage in the Cloud (CCHC) grant, awarded to the Library of Congress in 2019 by the Mellon Foundation. At the event, we will describe the lessons of the grant, designed to help us investigate a model for enabling discovery, investigation, and visualization of Library materials in …

Illustration of hands holding phone in front of Jefferson building. Phone features a portal. A figure stands in the distance wearing tiger mask.

Experience “Hidden Portals” this May

Posted by: Jaime Mears

In honor of Asian / Pacific American Heritage Month, Library of Congress 2023-2024 Innovator in Residence Jeffrey Yoo Warren invites the public to experience hidden portals to five historic Asian American communities created with Library of Congress collections for the month of May. Portals are accessible by mobile device at original sites around the country …