Library Of Congress

Wouk To Receive Fiction Award from Library of Congress

birdie — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 17:58:19 -0400

Now well into his nineties, author Herman Wouk will be awarded the first Library of Congress Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Writing of Fiction next month. His major works have been The Caine Mutiny, Marjorie Morningstar, Youngblood Hawke, The Winds of War, War and Remembrance and Don't Stop the Carnival.

Librarian of Congress James Billington says of the Pulitzer prize-winning author, "Herman Wouk's work epitomizes the historical novel and its ability to transcend its time and place to achieve universality in character and themes. (He) is a longtime supporter of the Library who has honored us with his presence on many occasions, and he was among the first group of recipients, during our bicentennial in 2000, of our Living Legend Award." More from bookweb.

Project Will Preserve Bush Administration Web Sites

birdie — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 17:38:30 -0400

If you didn't manage to save some of the last four years Bush bytes in your computers cache, not to worry.

Preservation efforts are underway to preserve more than 100 million Web pages from President Bush's second term, similarly to what was done in 2000 and 2004, to document the Web pages of President Clinton's first term, and the first half of the Bush administration. The 2004 end-of-term collection has about 75 million addresses for Internet resources, known as Uniform Resource Identifiers, or URIs.

The Library of Congress and Government Printing Office, in partnership with the California Digital Library, University of North Texas Libraries and Internet Archive, will harvest and archive all Web sites that could change under a new presidential administration. The total amount of data in the collection, which will focus on executive and legislative branch sites, is expected to reach 10 to 12 terabytes.

Do We Dewey?

birdie — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 08:53:08 -0400

The debate continues on the Dewey Decimal System. Read what commentators have to say in the NYTimes blog Papercuts and add your own two cents.

A New Poet Laureate

birdie — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 19:11:44 -0400

California poet Kay Ryan has been chosen to succeed Charles Simic as the nation's seventeenth poet laureate; she will be officially named to the post on Thursday.

Considered something of an outsider, Ryan, 62 said, "I came from sort of a self-contained people who didn’t believe in public exposure, and public investigation of the heart was rather repugnant to me. But in the end “I couldn’t resist,” she said. “It was in a strange way taking over my mind. My mind was on its own finding things and rhyming things.

Here are a few of her poems. Ryan was chosen for the honor by Librarian of Congress, James Billington.

Memorial Day

mdoneil — Sun, 25 May 2008 21:24:30 -0400

The LOC Veterans' History Project observes Memorial Day.

I know there are quite a few LISNews readers including Dr. de la Pena McCook, and myself that are related to veterans. Today take a brief moment to thank then for their service and remember those who have died.

I was in New York City this past week and it was Fleet Week. I was walking to my hotel on 51st near Rockefeller Plaza when I saw a group of high school students who were obviously in town on a tour turn and applaud a group of young sailors as they walked past. It must have taken the sailors half an hour to walk through the plaza as others thanked them and shook their hands.

Remember your veteran today, and remember all of the veterans who have served our nation to give us the freedoms we now enjoy.

IN FLANDERS FIELDS

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

-John McCrae

We remember these honorable men and women not because of how they died, but because of how they lived.

I offer my most humble prayers for each and everyone those who lost their lives fighting for our freedom; more importantly I pray that we may we soon have an everlasting peace so that we need not inscribe into our collective rememberance another young servicemember's name.

Thriller in the LOC

birdie — Thu, 15 May 2008 08:09:34 -0400

The first trans-Atlantic broadcast, on March 14, 1925; Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia’s reading of the comics in 1945; and Michael Jackson’s 1982 best-seller “Thriller” were among 25 recordings added Wednesday to the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry. See what else is new there from the Associated Press.

Library of Congress Unveils High-Tech Exhibits

birdie — Thu, 01 May 2008 21:41:22 -0400

WJLA Washington DC reports on a new exhibit at the Library of Congress that utilizes high tech exhibits to show the specific words and phrases that formed the basis of the American republic.

The exhibit allows visitors to see how the documents evolved. The Declaration of Independence, for instance, initially read "We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable, that all men are created equal," but of course was revised by Ben Franklin to the less religious sounding "self-evident."

Library of Congress Opens Main Reading Room to Researchers Age 16 and Older

birdie — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 18:57:05 -0400

Sweet sixteen and never been to the Library of Congress? Now you can enter the Main Reading Room as a researcher--L.O.C. has changed its policy to allow 16 and 17 year olds.

From the press release:

"The Library of Congress is always looking for ways to create new lifelong learners, to expand access to knowledge and to spark the creativity of future generations," said Librarian of Congress James H. Billington.

"We want people of all ages to be aware of the almost limitless resources that are available in libraries, including their de facto national library, especially at a time when the amount of information online still represents only a tiny fraction of the sum total of human knowledge."

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are more than 8 million 16- and 17-year-olds living in the United States.

Flickr and Tags

zzshupinga — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 21:19:27 -0400

An interesting post from Webware on the use of tags with the Flickr/Library of Congress project. The post is on a presentation given at the Web 2.0 expo.

LOC's Billington Presents at Yale

birdie — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 10:07:45 -0400

Technology can be used to heal both broken bones and cultural conflicts, James Billington, the 13th librarian of Congress, said Wednesday.

The Yale School of Medicine held the opening ceremony for the interactive exhibit “Medical Inventions and Innovations” in the school’s Harkness Auditorium yesterday afternoon. The ceremony coincided with the 60th annual lecture sponsored by the Cushing/Whitney Medical Library Associates, delivered by Billington.

Billington’s talk, titled “Freedom as Strategy: The Importance of an Ideal,” focused on the issues of globalization and intercultural understanding. More from the Yale Daily News.