Top of page

Category: Digital Content

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 Fugate

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 …

Graphic of a word cloud that shows keywords for FDDs

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Data Points: Visualizing File Format Data

Posted by: Liz Holdzkom

Technologist Ashley Blewer is using the format description document XML files to gather data across all FDDs. She has pulled this data into data visualization tools which allow us to see what categories our FDDs fall into and how many FDDs are being updated (by category, each year). These visualizations help the formats team to identify issues and streamline internal review and update processes.

Orange graphics related to each of the technical guidelines, with black text listing each of the technical guidelines

FADGI Report on Software Accessibility for Open-Source Digital Preservation Applications

Posted by: Liz Holdzkom

The Federal Agencies Digital Guidelines Initiative (FADGI) AudioVisual Working Group partnered with a consultant and accessibility firm on a project to enhance accessibility in open-source desktop applications for the digital preservation community. This blog post provides information on the applications tested, the issues found, and the technical guidelines and community recommendations to come out of this research.

Screenshot from FFV1/MKV test file, with timecode and caption indicating material produced by the Library of Congress.

Embracing FFV1 in Matroska Container as a “Preferred Format” in the RFS

Posted by: Liz Holdzkom

The digital preservation landscape is ever-evolving, and the Library of Congress has recently made a significant update to its Recommended Formats Statement (RFS), to upgrade FFV1 (version 3) in Matroska (.mkv) container from an "Acceptable Format" to one of five "Preferred Formats" for the preservation and long-term access of video materials, reflecting its ongoing commitment to staying at the forefront of audiovisual preservation.

Jump in! An Interview with Thomas Crowley

Posted by: Trevor Owens

I’m excited to share this interview with Thomas Crowley, one of my colleagues in the Digital Services Directorate here at the Library of Congress. My hope with this interview, and the others that we publish here, help spread awareness about the background, experience, and interests of the people that support the Library of Congress. Along …

Why Experiment: Machine Learning at the Library of Congress  

Posted by: Laurie Allen

Why Machine Learning? Everyone at the Library of Congress wants the materials we steward and the services we offer to be useful for as many people as possible. It’s why we do what we do! And across the Library, staff have long relied on technological innovations to enable people to use our materials to become …

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

Strategic Plan 2.0: A Digitally-Infused Five-Year Plan

Posted by: Leah Weinryb-Grohsgal

For decades, digital technologies have rewritten the playbook for government agencies, libraries, and cultural heritage organizations. The Library of Congress has investigated, implemented, and even invented new digital approaches and technical methods since the 1950s, aspiring better to serve Congress and the American people with each new technical turn. Today, technology fuels everything we do, …