The Library's Public Affairs Office (PAO) has developed the Wise Guide, a new online monthly magazine that guides newcomers and casual visitors to educational and useful resources on the Library's Web site in a digestible, visually appealing way.
![Wise Guide](images/learn.jpg)
The Wise Guide made its public debut in the Library's pavilion at the second National Book Festival in October 2002, and a variety of internal audiences have previewed the magazine with enthusiasm. Guy Lamolinara, now with the Office of Strategic Initiatives, and John Sayers developed the site in conjunction with 415, a San Francisco-based Web design firm.
The monthly Web magazine, which can be accessed from the Library's home page at www.loc.gov, features seven "articles" each month. Each article links to Library Web pages containing rich online materials from throughout the Library. Users unfamiliar with the network of pages on the Library's Web site will find the Wise Guide a helpful introductory tool.
For example, the inaugural issue (now archived on the site) featured four rediscovered notebooks of Walt Whitman. The Wise Guide article linked to several online Whitman resources, including a Whitman Collection home page with links to Gazette stories and Preservation Directorate photos describing how the Library recovered and restored the notebooks. Ultimately, links lead the searcher into all of American Memory. The first four issues are now in the Archives section of the site. December's issue includes:
"What's this dog doing with his nose in a cone?" This item invites users to learn about Nipper, the famous dog on the label of RCA Victor Records. The story is part of an American Memory Special Presentation in the "Emile Berliner and the Birth of the Recording Industry" collection in the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division.
"Whose toes are those?" The photographer doesn't say, but this Wise Guide story is based on the recently published Library of Congress-Kales Press book, "When They Were Young," which is also a current Library exhibition (on view through March 22).
"A Man with a Mission … in California." The Library's Global Gateway Web site is the inspiration for this article on the missions of California. The reader is provided with a link to the "America, Russia, and Meeting of Frontiers" presentation online.
"Miles of Aisles. What Place Has 530 Miles of Them?" From the "Fascinating Facts" brochure, available from "The Library Today" section of www.loc.gov, comes this and other amazing facts about the world's largest library.
And from the January issue:
"You say you want a revolution? These guys started it all." This article discusses the formative years of the United States, between 1774 and 1789, when 13 British colonies became a nation, with links to an American Memory site with more details about the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention, and to THOMAS, explaining what the 108th Congress is doing today.
"You think it's cold? This is cold!" This item links to information about Siberia in America, Russia, and the Meeting of Frontiers on the Global Gateway: World Culture & Resources Web site, with many fascinating stories drawn from the Library's wealth of international materials. Users can even view Meeting of Frontiers in Russian as well as English.
This new feature is part of a larger effort to entice users to visit the Library's Web site, one of the leading online providers of electronic, educational content. In support of this effort, the Library of Congress is once again partnering with the Ad Council to create a public-service advertising campaign. The first campaign, one of the most successful in Ad Council history, has resulted in more than $150 million in donated television, radio and Web public-service ads that promoted "America's Library," the Library's educational site for families and kids.
The new companion campaign, which targets an adult audience, tells viewers that "It's Fun to Know History." The DDB Chicago advertising agency donated its services to create and design the ads.
A private, nonprofit organization with a 60-year history of marshaling volunteer talent from the advertising and media industries to deliver critical messages to the American public, the Ad Council has produced thousands of public-service campaigns that address pressing social issues of the day. Examples include Smokey Bear's "Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires," McGruff the Crime Dog's "Take a Bite Out of Crime," the United Negro College Fund's "A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Waste," and "Friends Don't Let Friends Drive Drunk."