The Smithsonian Transcription Center creates indexed, searchable text by means of crowdsourcing…or as Meghan Ferriter, project coordinator at the TC describes it, “harnessing the endless curiosity and goodwill of the public.” As of the end of the current fiscal year, 7,060 volunteers at the TC have transcribed 208,659 pages. The scope, planning and execution of the …
The presentations at the Library of Congress’ Collections As Data conference coalesced into two main themes: 1) digital collections are composed of data that can be acquired, processed and displayed in countless scientific and creative ways and 2) we should always be aware and respectful that data is manipulated by — and derived from — people. …
Five new National Digital Stewardship Residents will be joining the Library in late September 2016. Selected from a competitive pool and representing five different library schools, the residents bring a range of skills and experience in working with digital and archival collections. The NDSR program offers recent graduates an opportunity to gain professional experience under …
This is an excerpt from the inaugural speech by Carla Hayden, the Librarian of Congress.Today, through the power of technology, thousands around the country are able to watch this ceremony live. This is the opportunity to build on the contributions of the Librarians who have come before, to realize a vision of a national library …
Researchers, of varying technical abilities, are increasingly applying data science tools and methods to digital collections. As a result, new ways are emerging for processing and analyzing the digital collections’ raw material — the data. For example, instead of pondering one single digital item at a time – such as a news story, photo or …
This is a guest post by Abbie Grotke, lead information technology specialist of the Library of Congress Web Archiving Team Readers of The Signal may recall prior efforts to archive United States Federal Government websites during the end of presidential terms. I last wrote about this in 2012 when we were working on preserving the …
When The Signal debuted in 2011, its focus was exclusively on the challenge of digital preservation, which is why its URL was http://blogs.loc.gov/digitalpreservation. The Signal was a forum for news and information about digital preservation — unique problems and solutions, standards, collaborations and achievements. The Signal’s authors interviewed leaders in the field, profiled colleagues and …
FedScoop, the Washington DC government tech media company, announced that Congress.gov is one of their nominees for the 2016 FedScoop 50 awards. Features on Congress.gov (which In Custodia Legis has been posting about throughout its development) include: Ability to narrow and refine search results Ability to simultaneously search all content across all available years Bill …
This is a guest post by Leah Weinryb Grohsgal of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Historic newspapers offer rich histories of American life, with glimpses into politics, sports, shopping, music, food, health, science, movies and everything in between. The National Digital Newspaper Program, a joint effort between the National Endowment for the Humanities and the …