Top of page

Category: Tools and Infrastructure

Preserving a History of Digital Mapmaking: Inside the Geospatial Software and File Formats Documentation Web Archive

Posted by: Tracee Haupt Fugate

In this interview, Tim St. Onge and Meagan Snow explain how web archiving is preserving documentation essential to understanding the evolution of modern cartography. They outline the motivations behind the Geospatial Software and File Formats Documentation Web Archive, describe their curatorial approach, and highlight the collection’s value for both current and future researchers. This is …

Screenshot of the Format Description Document for PyTorch, from the Library of Congress' Sustainability of Digital Formats site.

New File Format Research and Documentation on the Sustainability of Digital Formats

Posted by: Liz Holdzkom

This post is the most recent in a series about file format research for the Library of Congress' Sustainability of Digital Formats site. The post highlights new format description documents as well as updated information on support for digital accessibility features, such as screen readers, alt text, captions and audio description.

A calendar view that shows when a specific website has been captured.

Beta Release of Library of Congress Web Archives Playback Services

Posted by: Tracee Haupt Fugate

This guest post was authored by Abbie Grotke, Head of the Web Archiving Section. As described in our prior blog post, we have been in the process of modernizing and making improvements to the Library of Congress Web Archives to improve functionality for users. While this work has taken us a bit longer than anticipated, we are pleased to announce the …

“Can We Capture This?”: An Interview on Website Archivability

Posted by: Tracee Haupt Fugate

Earlier this year, the Library of Congress and our web harvest vendor MirrorWeb presented research on website archivability at the 2024 Web Archiving Conference at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris. The presentation was part of a panel called “Can we capture this?’: Assessing Website Archivability Beyond Trial and Error,” which was moderated by Martin Klein (Pacific …

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.

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.

A New Resource to Explore Library of Congress Transcription Datasets

Posted by: Carlyn Osborn

Today’s guest post is from Madeline Goebel, a Digital Collections Specialist at the Library of Congress. As a reader of the Signal, you may already be familiar with By the People, the Library of Congress’s crowdsourcing program that allows volunteers to transcribe, review, and tag digitized pages from the Library’s collections. Further, you may already know …

Black and white photograph of woman with pin curls operating machinery in Baltimore.

Stayin’ Alive: How Community and Maintenance Support Digital Preservation

Posted by: Carlyn Osborn

Today’s guest post is from Genevieve Havemeyer-King, a Senior Digital Collections Specialist in the Digital Collections Management and Services Division. “Development is maintenance.” Brian Marick, “Agile Manifesto” co-author This year marks the fifth anniversary of the Digital Collections Management Compendium’s public debut on loc.gov. The Digital Collections Management and Services Division officially launched the Compendium …