In part 1 of this article, I wrote that relational databases are the engines that drive digital genealogy. Databases make it possible to quickly search through enormous quantities of records, find the person you’re looking for and discover related people and events. And when institutions collaborate and share databases, statistical information becomes enriched. For example, …
The popularity of genealogy websites and TV shows is rapidly growing, mainly because the Internet has made it so convenient to access family history information. Almost everything can be done through the computer now. Before the digital age, genealogical research was not only laborious and time consuming, it also resulted in boxes of documents: photos, …
The following is a guest post by Barrie Howard, Program Management Coordinator, NDIIPP. This post is the second in a short series about U.S. government grant programs that have funded digital preservation since 2000. Readers can discover what the Library of Congress has accomplished through NDIIPP from the program’s website, and my previous post covered …
“The Library of Congress,” a 20-minute motion picture from the 1940s, is not only a loving homage to the Library, rich with Hollywood production values, but it is also associated with a few significant nodes in history: World War II, the creation of the Library’s motion picture archives and the population of cyberspace with cultural …
The following is a guest post by Barrie Howard, Program Management Coordinator, NDIIPP. In my work at NDIIPP I’ve been looking at U.S. government grant programs that have funded digital preservation since 2000. I discovered that funding has been sourced primarily from the Library of Congress and four other agencies: the Institute of Museum and …
The following is a guest post by Jimi Jones, Digital Archivist with the Office of Strategic Initiatives. The Federal Agencies Audiovisual Working Group held a meeting on July 28, 2011. The meeting was attended by professionals from several agencies including the Library of Congress, the National Archives (NARA) and the Smithsonian. The Library of Congress …
The following is a guest post by Trevor Owens, Digital Archivist with the Office of Strategic Initiatives. We are happy to announce the full open source release of the Recollection software platform. Briefly, Recollection is a web application that enables librarians, archivists, curators, and historians to create dynamic interfaces to cultural heritage collections. If you …
When Rebecca Guenther retires from the Library of Congress in August 2011, 35 years of institutional knowledge about bibliographic information will go with her. The Library of Congress loses – among other things – the world’s leading authority on PREMIS metadata for digital preservation. Guenther has nurtured conversations among international library stakeholders, conversations that led …
The computers that store and serve our digital collections are multiplying rapidly to keep up with our escalating data demands. All the while the servers guzzle power, radiate heat, crowd bandwidth and exert an unprecedented burden on the power grid. During these tough economic times, as institutions scrutinize their operations for budget-trimming opportunities, they must …
