Deanna Marcum, Associate Librarian for Library Services Library of Congress
Service units, divisions, and offices within the Library have submitted the information in this briefing document for the attention and use of Library of Congress staff who will attend the American Library Association Annual Conference in Washington, D.C., June 21-27, 2007. The document covers initiatives undertaken at the Library of Congress since the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Seattle, Washington, in January 2007. Information in the printed document is valid as of June 11, 2007.
Read the Library of Congress Update for ALA Midwinter: June - December 2006
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Library of Congress Exhibit Booth
Visit the Library of Congress Exhibit Booth #1741 at the Washington Convention Center in downtown Washington, DC. The exhibit booth coordinator is Jane Gilchrist. Exhibit hours are:
- Saturday-Monday , June 23-25, 9:00 am-5:00 pm
- Tuesday, June 26, 9:00 am-3:00 pm
Library of Congress staff making presentations in the Booth theater will include: Diane Barber, Angela Cannon, John Hanson, Georgette Harris, Jan Herd, Georgia Higley, Margaret Kruesi, Everette Larson, Cheryl Lederle-Ensign, Gregory Lukow, Valda Morris-Slack, Tracy Raye North, Kevin Novak, David Pachter, Joanne Rasi, Matt Raymond, Mark Sweeney, Deb Thomas, and members of the Digital Reference Team.
The Booth theater presentations have been scheduled to offer topics from the full range of library specialties each day. Several theater presentations will be given only once. John Hanson will present “Music at the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped” on Saturday at 10:30 am. Gregory Lukow, chief of the Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division, will give a one-hour overview of the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center from 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm on Sunday, June 24. At 1:00 on Monday, staff of the Digital Reference Team will present “Programs via Webconference: Broadening Your Reach in a Digital World.” Tracy Raye North will discuss the Handbook of Latin American Studies on Monday at 2:00. Diane Barber, acting chief of the Cataloging in Publication Division, will present the Cataloging in Publication (CIP) Survey on Tuesday, June 26, at 10:00 am.
Matt Raymond, the Library’s Director of Communications, will be at the Booth theater from 12:00 to 1:00 each day, Saturday through Tuesday, to present “News from Your National Library: New Visitors Experience, National Book Festival, Lifelong Literacy Campaign.”
The American Folklife Center has supplied a disk with stories from the StoryCorps booths, which have criss-crossed the country collecting sometimes poignant, sometimes humorous, always entertaining stories about Americans. The StoryCorps interviews will be featured in the booth at the end of each day.
A complete schedule of booth theater presentations, including perennial favorites, is found on the “The Library of Congress at ALA Annual” Web site at URL <http://www.loc.gov/ala/an-2007-booth.html>. Incentive give-away items at the booth include, from the Cataloging Distribution Service, Class Web keyboard brushes; Desktop on the Web magnetic memo boards; copies of Understanding MARC Bibliographic and Understanding MARC Authority Records; LC Classification Poster and Pocket Guide; the CDS Catalog of Bibliographic Products and Services; and assorted brochures from other Library of Congress units.
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CONGRESSIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE (CRS)
Availability of CRS Products to the Public: CRS Position as of May 2007
As set forth in the Legislative Reorganization Acts, CRS was established as a shared Legislative Branch resource, serving all Members and committees with authoritative, objective, and non-partisan expertise across the full range of legislative policy issues. It does so in a confidential relationship – a Congressional expectation that is not only clear from the legislative history of its creation, but also from annual statutory restrictions placed on publication of its work. The prohibition on publication of CRS products without oversight committee approval has appeared in the annual appropriations acts for the Legislative Branch for over fifty years. This provision is intended to preserve the role of CRS as a confidential resource solely available to the Congress. The appropriations acts, supplemented by Congressional guidance that CRS has received over the years, and supported by judicial opinions, leaves to the Members and committees the decision whether, on a selective basis, to place CRS products in the public domain. Members have long made CRS products available to interested persons either directly, by inclusion in Congressional publications, or more recently through their office or committee Web sites.
U.S. COPYRIGHT OFFICE - reported under OFFICE OF THE LIBRARIAN, CONGRESSIONAL RELATIONS OFFICE and under OFFICE OF STRATEGIC INITIATIVES
OFFICE OF THE LIBRARIAN
Dr. James H. Billington, the Librarian of Congress, is the recipient of the inaugural Lafayette Prize given by the French-American Cultural Foundation for contributions to the development of relations between the United States and France.
Dr. Billington will be interviewed by Brian Lamb of C-SPAN on Monday, June 25, from 4:00 to 5:00 pm in the Coolidge Auditorium of the Thomas Jefferson Building. Staff and ALA participants are encouraged to attend this conversation.
On Monday, April 30, German Chancellor Dr. Angela Merkel officially transferred the Waldseemüller map from the German government to the American people in a ceremony in the Great Hall of the Thomas Jefferson Building. Congressional Majority Leader Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) accepted the map on behalf of the people of the United States. The Waldseemüller map was drawn in 1507 and is the first map known to use the name “America.”
CONGRESSIONAL RELATIONS OFFICE (CRO)
Oversight
The Library’s oversight committees, which consider any legislation relating to the Library’s operations and programs, have been very busy at the staff level while undergoing transition.
At the outset of the 110th Congress, Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald (D-CA) was selected by Speaker Pelosi to chair the Committee on House Administration. Chairwoman Millender-McDonald honored the Library by giving the keynote address to staff for African American History Month; her keynote speech is available on the Library’s Web site. Chairwoman Millender-McDonald passed away from cancer on April 22, 2007. The Library honored her memory with a biographical feature on its public Web site homepage, acknowledging the Chairwoman’s role in inspiring the creation of a content-rich multimedia Web site for each of the six commemorative months celebrated by the Library each year.
On May 24, Rep. Robert A. Brady (D-PA) was nominated as Chair by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and approved by the Democratic Caucus. Congressman Brady served as interim Chair of the Committee since the death of Chairwoman Millender-McDonald. He is also Chair of the House Administration's new Subcommittee on Capitol Security and of the Joint Committee on Printing.
The new roster of House Administration committee membership is as follows:
Democrats
- Rep. Robert A. Brady, PA-1st, Chairman
- Rep. Zoe Lofgren, CA-16th
- Rep. Mike Capuano, MA-8
- Rep. Susan Davis, CA-53
- Rep. Charles Gonzalez, TX-20
- Rep. Artur Davis, AL-7
Republicans
- Rep. Vernon Ehlers, MI-3, Ranking Member
- Rep. Dan Lungren, CA-3
- Rep. Kevin McCarthy, CA -22
The Joint Committee on the Library of Congress and the Joint Committee on Printing held their organizational meetings on April 18. The JCL consists of Sens. Feinstein (Chairman), Dodd (D-CT), Schumer (D-NY), Bennett (R-UT, and Stevens (R-AK), and Reps. Lofgren (D-CA), Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Ehlers (R-MI_, and Lundgren (R-CA). The JCP chairmanship is vacant pending replacement of the late Rep. Millender-McDonald; current members of the JCP are: Reps. Brady, Capuano, Ehlers, and McCarthy and Senators Feinstein (D-CA), Inouye (D-HI), Murray (D-WA), Bennett (R-UT), and Chambliss (R-GA).
Appropriations
The Library is awaiting Congressional action on the FY08 appropriations bills. The Library requested funding required to maintain and improve the Library’s physical infrastructure and develop the operational capacities essential to addressing challenges posed by the ever-expanding digital environment. To meet these basic needs, the Library requested a total budget of $703.3 million ($661.6 million in net appropriations and $41.7 million in authority to use receipts), an increase of $99.716 million, or 16.5 percent, over the FY07 base. In addition, the Library has requested $21.5 million to partially restore funding for the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program that was rescinded in the FY07 continuing resolution (the NDIIPP rescission totaled $47 million, endangering another $37 million in matching funds already committed by pending partners).
For the 110th Congress, the House reconstituted the Legislative Branch subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee; new committee member Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) chairs the subcommittee in the 110th Congress, and Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) chairs the subcommittee in the Senate. Chairwoman Wasserman Schultz served as the keynote speaker for the Library’s celebration of National Women’s History Month. The Librarian presented the Library’s FY08 budget in testimony before the House subcommittee on March 22 and the Senate subcommittee on May 3. In addition, the House subcommittee held several “big picture”overview hearings on selected agencies, including the Library; Dr. Billington and Chief Operating Officer JoAnn Jenkins testified about the Library’s transition into the digital age.
Legislation
The Library will be seeking reauthorization for the National Sound Recording Preservation Program during the 110th Congress; current authorization expires in 2008. The Library also anticipates that Congress will renew efforts to pass the AOrphan Works@ legislation that was the subject of hearings in 2006. Sen. Leahy (D-VT) has continued to work on drafting consensus legislation, but introduction of a bill has been put aside temporarily pending completion of House and Senate Judiciary work on patent reform. Rep. Boucher (D-VA) has again introduced his Fair Use legislation [H.R. 1201].
House and Senate bills have been introduced in reaction to the internet royalty determination of the Copyright Royalty Board in March [H.R. 2060 and S. 1353]. The Board was established in 2004 to replace the Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panels, which had overseen the royalty rate-making and distribution process since 1993, with an independent panel of three full-time judges with subject matter expertise whose decisions would have precedent for future determinations. The legislation would nullify the Board-determined rate, set new rates, and establish different standards to apply in future ratemaking processes.
In the non-copyright area, Rep. McCarthy (D-NY) re-introduced her Civil Rights Histories bill [H.R. 998] directing the Library and the Smithsonian Institution to establish a program for participants in the civil rights movement modeled on the Veterans History Program.
Other legislation that could affect Library programs and service include:
CRS reports: H.R. 998, which would make publicly available on the Internet information available through the Congressional Research Service Web site.
Earmarks: H.Res. 169, which would require earmark information be made available publicly over the Internet.
Tax benefits of donating original works: H.R. 1524 and S. 374 and 578, which would restore preferential tax treatment for artists, composers, authors and others who wish to donate their original works to non-profit organizations such as libraries and museums.
Congressional Focus on the Library
CRO continues to work to engage Congressional interest in a number of Library initiatives this year. We will be inviting members to attend/participate in a number of signal events coming up this year: the upcoming opening of the Culpeper-based National Audio-Visual Conservation Center/Packard Campus; the 175th anniversary of the Law Library, the 7th annual National Book Festival on September 29; the 20th anniversary of the appointment of Librarian of Congress James H. Billington; and the deposit in the Library’s collection of the archive of the National Endowment for Democracy.
The Veterans History Program continues to be a particular focus for members. On April 17, Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) and Reps. Ron Kind (D-WI) and Zach Wamp (R-TN) participated in a Library news conference with Dr. Billington, filmmaker Ken Burns, and officials from PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) and WETA (the local PBS affiliate) announcing a collaboration to gather oral histories for the Veterans History Project in conjunction with the broadcast of Burns’s new film, The War, on PBS in September. In recognition of Memorial Day, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) hosted a Veterans History Project initiative in her district in South Florida recruiting local high school students to conduct interviews of veterans to be eventually archived at the Library of Congress.
Leadership
Starting with record-setting numbers of Congressional swearing-in events in January, the Library continues to be a venue of choice for leaders of both chambers in the 110th Congress. The Senate Republican Conference held an all-day policy conference in the Members Room on Feb. 2. On March 29 Congress hosted a reception in the Great Hall of the Thomas Jefferson Building honoring the Tuskegee Airmen following a Congressional Gold Medal ceremony in the Capitol. Speaker Pelosi plans to hold a Democratic Conference issues luncheon in June. More than twenty other leadership and member events are currently on the calendar between now and the end of December, 2007.
OFFICE OF SECURITY AND EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS (OSEP)
The Office of Security and Emergency Preparedness continued developing the Library’s security program, focusing especially on building the emergency preparedness program. The office hired a new Emergency Management Program Officer in April to head the Library’s emergency preparedness program. The Library’s new Emergency Public Address System (EPAS) has been installed in the Madison Building, with installation projected to be completed in the Library’s remaining buildings on Capitol Hill by the end of 2007. The EPAS will tie together emergency and public safety notifications with the Police Communications Center consistent with efforts throughout the Capitol complex.
OSEP and the Collections Security Oversight Committee continued strengthening the Library’s collections security program through the Strategic Plan for Safeguarding the Collections, which integrates physical security, preservation, and inventory management controls protecting the Library’s collections. A major initiative was the launching of a year-long Library-wide staff collections-security-awareness campaign on April 17 during National Library Week. The campaign, “Safeguarding the Collections: We Are the Key,” includes four posters to be distributed quarterly, articles, and a new staff collections-security-awareness Web site.
At the kickoff event on April 17, the guest speaker, Dr. Bonnie Magness-Gardiner, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s art theft program manager, had an absorbing presentation about the theft of cultural property and the role staff members play in safeguarding collections. She was joined on the program by LC Chief Operating Officer Jo Ann Jenkins and Librarian of Congress James H. Billington, who gave an impassioned talk about the importance of staff in safeguarding the collections. He presented posters to those staff members and contractors featured in the posters and in the April 13 Gazette article preceding the event. Approximately 800 posters have since been distributed throughout the Library in this campaign.
NATIONAL BOOK FESTIVAL
The Library has timed its press announcement and launch of the 2007 National Book Festival Web site to coincide with the ALA Annual Conference in Washington. Photos and bios of the authors, illustrators, and poets lined up for 2007 presentations in the Children, Teens & Children, History & Biography, Mysteries & Thrillers, Fiction & Fantasy, Poetry, and Home & Family pavilions of the National Book Festival will be featured on the Web site. The festival date is September 29, 2007, and the location is once again the National Mall.
For the first time, the new festival poster will be available for distribution at the ALA Annual Conference. The Library encourages conference participants to visit the Library's exhibit booth for a copy. The well-known children's illustrator, Mercer Mayer, is the 2007 festival artist.
LIBRARY SERVICES
Library of Congress Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control
Associate Librarian for Library Services Deanna Marcum has convened a Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control to examine the future of bibliographic description in the 21st century. Composed of leading managers of libraries, library organizations, OCLC, Inc., Google, Inc., and Microsoft, Inc., the working group is chaired by Dr. José-Marie Griffiths, dean of the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Building on the work and results of the Library's Bicentennial Conference on Bibliographic Control for the New Millennium (2000), the new group will present findings on how bibliographic control and other descriptive practices can effectively support management of and access to library materials in the evolving information and technology environment; recommend ways in which the library community can collectively move toward achieving this vision; and advise the Library of Congress on its role and priorities. At its initial meeting at LC on November 2-3, 2006, the Working Group decided to hold three invitational regional meetings during 2007. The first regional meeting was held at the headquarters of Google, Inc., in Mountain View, California, on March 8, 2007, and focused on Users and Uses of Bibliographic Data. The second regional meeting took place at the American Library Association headquarters in Chicago, Illinois, on May 9, and focused on Structures and Standards for Bibliographic Data. The final regional meeting, on Economics and Organization of Bibliographic Data, is planned for the Library of Congress Capitol Hill campus on July 9. Each meeting is preceded by distribution of a background paper giving an overview of the current environment in which bibliographic control operates. In August, the Working Group will meet again to draft a report and recommendations by September 1 for public comments, which will be taken into account in the group’s final report, to be issued by November 1, 2007. More information on the Library of Congress Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control is available at a special public Web site, URL <http://www.loc.gov/bibliographic-future>.
ACQUISITIONS AND BIBLIOGRAPHIC ACCESS DIRECTORATE (ABA)
Bibliographic Enrichment Activities Team (BEAT)
The Bibliographic Enrichment Advisory Team (BEAT) initiates research and development projects to increase the value of cataloging products to library users. The team’s best-known project is the enrichment of online catalog records by providing electronic table of contents data (TOC). In fiscal 2006 (October 2005-September 2006), BEAT-developed software supported the inclusion of TOC in more than 28,488 records for Electronic Cataloging in Publication titles and enabled links to and from another 21,044 Library of Congress catalog records to D-TOC, or digital tables of contents, which resided on a server.
The BEAT ONIX projects linked LC catalog records to tables of contents, publishers’ descriptions, sample text, and author information provided by publishers in ONIX (Online Information Exchange), the standard for communicating book industry product information in electronic form. The Library of Congress now receives ONIX data for more than half of all publications issued commercially in the U.S. At the end of calendar year 2006, there were 636,415 links from Library of Congress catalog records to ONIX-derived enhancements, including links to 33,510 sample texts and publishers’ descriptions of more than 272,000 publications.
The D-TOC project scans and links the tables of contents to catalog records for publications not already covered by BEAT’s ECIP or ONIX TOC projects. All cataloging production divisions now select publications for the D-TOC project, to ensure coverage in all subject areas. Moreover, BEAT has added publications in Chinese, German, Japanese, and Korean to its TOC projects in addition to English-language materials. The D-TOC project has also increased its coverage of specific LC collections, beginning with materials in United States history, as they are processed in the Library’s long-term inventory program, the Baseline Inventory Program. Additionally, BEAT continues its collaboration with the Library of Congress Local History and Genealogy Reading Room, providing TOC links for family histories in class CS71 of the Library of Congress Classification. Another initiative provides TOC links for publications listed in the Library's exhibition catalogs and bibliographies.
The newest BEAT projects link English-language summaries to catalog records for legal materials and for titles in Chinese, Japanese, or Korean.
As of March 2, 2007, the co-chairs of BEAT are Jeffrey Heynen, chief of the LC History and Literature Cataloging Division, and David Williamson, cataloging automation specialist. David continues as BEAT’s principal software developer and Webmaster. More information about BEAT and all of its projects may be found at URL < http://www.loc.gov/catdir/beat>.
Cataloging Distribution Service (CDS)
Cataloger’s Desktop. This CDS Web-based service (with 1,000 subscribers and 5,300 concurrent users) now includes more than 200 resources. For a free 30-day trial subscription visit URL <http://www.loc.gov/cds/desktop/OrderForm.html> . Product demonstrations can be seen throughout the day at the LC exhibit booth and at scheduled booth theater presentations. A new brochure about Desktop is available at the booth.
Classification Web. This is CDS’s best selling Web-based product with close to 1,780 subscribers. For a free 30-day trial subscription visit URL <http://www.loc.gov/cds/classweb/application.html> . Product demonstrations can be seen throughout the day at the LC exhibit booth and at scheduled booth theater presentations. A new brochure about Class Web is available at the booth.
Cataloger training products. Five new workshops are imminently available: Principles of Controlled Vocabulary and Thesaurus Design, Metadata and Digital Library Development, Digital Project Planning and Management Basics, Fundamentals of Series Authorities, and Fundamentals of Library of Congress Classification. A brochure is available at the LC exhibit booth that describes the courses in detail. Visit URL <http://www.loc.gov/catworkshop> for updates on course development status and URL <http://www.loc.gov/cds/training.html> for updates in course materials availability status.
Classification schedules. Two new editions of LC Classification Schedules have been published since ALA 2007 Midwinter Meeting: T: Technology, and Q: Science. Coming later in 2007 are the following: E-F: History, America, M: Music and Books on Music, and N: Fine Arts. Visit URL <http://www.loc.gov/cds/classif.html> for the latest information on the LC Classification.
Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Materials (Books), 2007 Edition. This is actually a new publication rather than a new edition. It is the thoroughly revised and expanded replacement for Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Books, 2nd Edition, 1991. The publication is a collaboration between LC and the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section of ACRL, the Association of College and Research Libraries, a division of ALA. In preparation now, Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Materials (Serials) will be published later in 2007. Other publications in this series are also being planned for future publication.
Library of Congress Subject Headings 30th Edition (2007) will be available immediately after the ALA Annual Conference.
MARC 21 Documentation. The 2006 Updates to the MARC21 formats are newly available. New editions of Concise Formats and MARC Code List for Languages will also be published in 2007.
Free PDF versions of selected publications. The latest issues of the following publications are available at URL <http://www.loc.gov/cds/freepdf.html> as they are published: Cataloging Service Bulletin; updates to Library of Congress Rule Interpretations; updates to Subject Cataloging Manual: Subject Headings; updates to CONSER Cataloging Manual; updates to CONSER Cataloging Manual; updates to Descriptive Cataloging Manual; and updates to MARC 21 format documentation.
CDS promotions. The newly revised Summer/Fall 2007 CDS Product Catalog is available at the LC exhibit booth. Also available at the booth will be a Cataloger’s Learning Workshop brochure, a Classification Web & Cataloger’s Desktop brochure, LC Classification posters, CDS Web products keyboard brushes, and single copies of Understanding MARC Bibliographic, Understanding MARC Authority Records, and What is FRBR?
CDS division administration. The following staff will continue to manage CDS in 2007: Barbara Tillett, acting chief; Tom Yee, assistant chief of CPSO will continue to assist Barbara in her CDS responsibilities; Bruce Johnson and Loche McLean, rotating acting assistant chiefs.
CDS continues to experience slower than desirable service to customers, due to a greater than 40% decrease in staff as of January 3, 2006.
Cataloging in Publication (CIP)
John Celli, chief of the CIP Division, retired on March 2 after 27 years of Library service. Diane Barber is currently acting chief of the division.
Albert Kohlmeier, technical assistant to the chief, retired from the Library on March 31.
Effective January 2007, the conventional (paper) program ceased to function as a standard mode for obtaining Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication (CIP) data. The electronic CIP (ECIP) program is now the standard. Paper applications are restricted to the following:
- Books in non-English languages (other than modern Western European languages)
- Books with diacritics (other than those occurring in modern Western European languages) appearing anywhere on the title page
- Books consisting chiefly of graphic images, tables, charts or mathematical or chemical formulas, etc.
Paper applications that do not meet these criteria will be returned to the publisher. The CIP publisher liaison staff will assist publishers in making the transition to the electronic mode (http://cip.loc.gov/). Publishers unable to participate in the ECIP program should consider the Electronic Preassigned Control Number program (<http://pcn.loc.gov/>) as an alternative.
The CIP Review Group was charged by the Bibliographic Access Management Team to reevaluate the CIP program with a view to reducing costs, improving throughput, and improving selection for the LC collections. The Review Group has submitted its report, which is based on three surveys of the publisher, library, and MARC Distribution Service customer communities. The CIP Advisory Group meeting on Saturday, June 23 (Doubletree Washington–Director’s Ballroom), from 10:30 am to 12:00 pm will discuss the report. Diane Barber will present the CIP Review Group report at the LC Exhibit Booth Theater on Tuesday, June 26, at 10:00 am. In addition, a tour of the ABA Directorate and demonstration of ECIP cataloging are available in the Madison Building on Friday afternoon, June 22. To participate in the ECIP tour, please email Susan Morris at smor@loc.gov
Cataloging Policy
“AACR2 compatible” headings. With the implementation of the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, 2nd ed. (AACR2) in 1981, the Library of Congress implemented a policy of “AACR2 compatible” headings to reduce somewhat the immense workload of adopting AACR2. The “AACR2 compatible” headings policy was to retain headings that differed only slightly from the “pure” AACR2 form such that they would still be easily found by the user. In the continuing effort to work toward the goal of simplifying or eliminating outdated cataloging policies, practices, and documentation, CPSO has recommended, and LC ABA management has approved, the eventual elimination of the “AACR2 compatible” headings. Many catalogers have used their good judgment when adding the death date or making other changes to “AACR2 compatible” headings and fully updated the headings, while other catalogers have been uncertain about doing so. To stem the confusion, CPSO has revised Library of Congress Rule Interpretations (LCRIs) to replace the current policy with a new, more relaxed policy for dealing with “AACR2 compatible” headings. The revised LCRIs may be viewed in PDF format at URL: <http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/AACR2-d.pdf [PDF: 246 K / 32 p.] > The LCRIs will be part of Library of Congress Rule Interpretations, 2007 update 2.
Elimination of exceptional practices in the Descriptive Cataloging Manual and Library of Congress Rule Interpretations. In keeping with the goal of overall reduction/ simplification of documentation, the Cataloging Policy and Support Office (CPSO) in consultation with the British Library (BL) and the National Library of Medicine (NLM), has secured agreement from these partners to eliminate the DCM Z1 instructions that required LC/PCC catalogers to consult with these agencies when modifying NLM- or BL-created name authority records. CPSO is currently working with Library and Archives Canada (LAC) to simplify the workflow procedures currently in place for the verification of Canadian corporate names; a Web form is being tested that will greatly speed up the process of verification. The BL and NLM exceptions were removed as of the DCM Z1 update for May 2007. The changes for LAC are scheduled to go into effect in August 2007.
Implementation of Bibliographic Level code "i" for integrating resources. LC and OCLC staff are currently finalizing plans to implement the Ldr/07 value for Integrating Resources for the distribution of LC and PCC-created records in the coming months. (PCC is the Program for Cooperative Cataloging.) Once value “i” is implemented, LC and PCC-authenticated records for integrating resources will follow the same patterns as CONSER bibliographic records: created and updated in OCLC (by LC, CONSER, or BIBCO participants), and distributed by LC CDS as part of the MARC Distribution Service-Serials product. LC is also developing a plan for converting records created for integrating resources in the last several years following an "interim" model (created as monographs, with Continuing Resource 006/17=2 (Integrated entry)). Announcements with further details will be made in the coming months.
Non-roman data in authority records. The major authority record exchange partners (LC, OCLC, British Library, National Library of Medicine, Library and Archives Canada) have agreed to a basic outline that will allow for the addition of non-roman references in name authority records. The non-roman references will be added following MARC21's “Model B” for multi-script records (that is, the references will be in ‘regular’ MARC fields, not in 880 fields). LC and the NACO nodes will be working on guidelines for the addition of these non-roman variant forms in the coming months, and community input will be sought. Inclusion of non-roman data in authority records is expected to occur no earlier than December 2007.
Subject cataloging policy. At the request of the Director for ABA, the Cataloging Policy and Support Office undertook a consideration of the pros and cons of precoordinated subject strings, defined as the combination of subject elements in a single heading in anticipation that a search may be performed on that combination. The CPSO report included a review of relevant literature. On June 13, the ABA Directorate Management Team endorsed the CPSO report’s recommendation that the Library of Congress continue to apply LCSH in a precoordinated fashion. The Management Team also accepted a suite of recommendations aimed at making precoordinated LCSH easier to apply, including recommendations for projects to create many more subject-subdivision strings in order to facilitate machine validation of headings. The Management Team will explore additional means to reduce the cost of subject cataloging and ensure its relevance in search environments that extend beyond library catalogs.
At the end of February 2007 there were 300,065 subject authority records in Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), making LCSH by far the largest subject authority file in the world. New subject authority records are added annually at a relatively stable rate of 6,000-8,000 records. The 30th edition of LCSH will be available in June 2007, shortly after the ALA Annual Conference.
The Library of Congress will be increasing the number of subject authority records it distributes to subscribers of the Cataloging Distribution Service’s (CDS) MARC Distribution Service–Subject Authorities. The additional authority records will reflect LCSH strings for topics and places followed by free-floating subdivisions. Historically it has been the practice to create this type of subject authority record only when it was needed to support a reference in another subject authority record, or to authorize a heading/subdivision combination before the subdivision was declared “free-floating.” The decision to provide more subject string authority records for popular and frequently-assigned headings is intended to minimize the need for cataloging staff to devise pre-coordinated strings “from scratch” when assigning subject access points. This will also make systems more effective at automatically validating LCSH subjects. This policy change is intended to reduce the cost of subject cataloging, and is being made in response to customer requests. See URL <http://www.loc.gov/cds/notices/2007-05-25-Subject_Authority_Validation_Records.pdf [PDF: 23K / 2 p.]> for more information.
As a follow-up to the announcement made at the American Library Association (ALA) Midwinter 2006 Meeting, the Library of Congress Cataloging Distribution Service will begin to issue genre/form authority records (MARC 21 tag 155) no earlier than September 3, 2007. This effort represents the final phase of the planned expansion of LCSH to include records representing subdivisions (MARC 21 Tag 18X), and genre/form headings, originally announced and initiated in 1998. In working to define the guidelines for the creation and application of these headings, CPSO has drafted instruction sheet H 1913 for the Subject Cataloging Manual: Subject Headings. The draft is available in PDF format at URL <http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/h1913dft.pdf [PDF: 162K / 5 p.] > Note that this instruction sheet covers only the development and use of genre/form headings for motion pictures, television programs, and videos; however, the plan is to create similar instruction sheets for other areas where genre/form headings can be created and applied, such as music, radio, law, etc. Because this instruction sheet will serve as the model for these other subject areas, CPSO invites comments, suggestions for improvement, etc. CPSO expects that this draft instruction sheet will be finalized after the 2007 ALA Annual Conference so that basic documentation will be in place to support the initial distribution of the genre/form headings; however, as with all documentation, improvements will be made over time as experience is gained in the development and application of the 155 form/genre headings. Note that the CDS announcement at URL <http://www.loc.gov/cds/notices/genreform.pdf [PDF: 25K / 1 p.]> includes a few sample proposed 155 headings; as others are input a list will be drawn up and made available for consideration before the ALA annual meeting. Please send comments, suggestions, etc. to Janis Young at <jayo@loc.gov>.
Beginning with Weekly List 1 for 2007, the Library of Congress Subject Headings Weekly Lists and Library of Congress Classification Weekly Lists are now available as free RSS feeds. Users may subscribe to the feeds by clicking on the RSS link in the lower left corner of the Web page at URL <http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/rsslcsh.html> and selecting "Library of Congress Subject Headings Weekly Lists" and/or "Library of Congress Classification Weekly Lists."
Library of Congress Classification. Available in 2007 are new editions of H (Social Sciences), M (Music and Books on Music), PN (Literature (General)), Q (Science), and T (Technology). There will also be new editions of N (Art) and E-F (History: America) before the end of 2007.
Database improvement unit. Under the direction of the Subject Headings Editorial Team leader in CPSO, the database improvement unit has updated approximately 900,000 records since the unit was formed on June 28, 2004. The team corrected obsolete subject headings and descriptive access points in bibliographic records as well as name authority records. The team is keeping current with subject heading updates to bibliographic records prompted by the LCSH Weekly Lists. Other discrepancies for these same headings such as wrong tag, typos, or incorrect dates have also been corrected.
Cooperative Cataloging Programs
The Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) Participants’ Meeting at ALA will be held Sunday, June 24, 2007 from 4:00-6:00 p.m. in the Washington Convention Center. An agenda will be posted at <http://www.loc.gov/catdir/pcc/>. The meeting will focus on the LC Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control.
In the fiscal year to date, PCC member institutions have created 41,850 new BIBCO (monograph) records; 13,327 CONSER authentications (serials); 108,706 new name authority records; 5,774 new series authority records; 1,932 new subject authority records; and 1,107 new LC classification numbers. In all cases, these figures are higher than contributions at the same time last fiscal year.
Of special note this past year have been the formation of a CJK NACO funnel to facilitate contributions in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean from a previously under served part of the library community. The Biblioteca nacional de México hosted NACO training for itself and several Latin American institutions interested in NACO participation. A new PCC Task Group is forming to study ways to ease international participation in PCC programs. This coming fall, the set of cataloger training courses projected under the terms of an LC/ALCTS/PCC memorandum of agreement will be completed.
Members have resolved two major policy questions. The Library of Congress decision to cease performing authority work for series has seen an upsurge in work by members. In May the Cooperative Cataloging Team at LC hosted several days of series training for authorized libraries and for future series trainers. Training materials and documentation are fully revised and up to date. A PCC Task Group on series work is being formed, with a report expected at the end of this calendar year. The adoption by the PCC Policy Committee last November of a “CONSER Standard Record” sparked considerable discussion among members. The CONSER standard record has been implemented by the membership effective June 1, 2007.
There will be numerous PCC-related activities in conjunction with ALA. On Friday, 22 June 2007, a workshop on Chinese geographic names will be given with LC staff from CPSO, Coop, and the Regional and Cooperative Cataloging Division. A demonstration of an online subject-training course will follow. CONSER specialists will offer the SCCTP CONSER Standard Record Workshop. Two two-day workshops sponsored by LC, ALCTS, and the PCC will be offered: Basic LC Classification Seminar and Comprehensive Series Training. During the following week, staff from LC and other institutions will conduct a truncated NACO training session for CJK NACO contributors.
Electronic Resources Cataloging – see also Electronic Resources Management System under ILS Program Office
The Computer Files and Microforms Team, Special Materials Cataloging Division, has completed the cataloging of all electronic computer games that were work-on-hand, as requested by the Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division. Approximately 500 items were cataloged as part of this project.
Team members participated in other work details and projects throughout the ABA Directorate including briefing and preparing a resource package on cataloging electronic resources for staff of the Jakarta Field Office.
Music Cataloging
Card Catalogs Inventory Project. Music catalogers examined the Music Card Catalogs in four separate initiatives. The final and most extensive sampling of all six Performing Arts Reading Room card catalogs and the SMCD (Special Materials Cataloging Division) shelflist occurred in late 2006. Cards were searched in the LC ILS (Voyager) and in OCLC. The sampling identified scores as the largest group of materials needing online access. This sampling produced the statistics necessary to begin serious consideration and potential designs for a retrospective conversion project.
CD Sorter & CD Add. Developed in Library Services, the CD Sorter software allows staff to quickly identify second or surplus copies, and the software efficiently creates holding and item records when a copy must be added. SMCD has begun using this software in order to weed out added and surplus copies from Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division CD receipts, freeing technicians to spend more time creating records for items not already in the database.
Elimination of book backlog. In September 2006, two special projects were created to clear the book backlog as part of a Library Services-wide effort to address large caches of work-on-hand. In the Do Not Acquire Project, Music Division selecting officials reviewed the backlog, identifying ca. 250 items to be removed from the MSR cataloging stream. Of these, 192 were sent to MDEP (Materials Duplication and Exchange Program), to be exchanged for materials of value from the Library’s exchange partners abroad. In the Encoding Level 3 Workflow for Music Books Project, the Music and Sound Recording teams developed a special copy cataloging project designed to clear the shelves of older books, many in obscure languages or on obscure topics. Copy was imported from OCLC or RLIN, mostly by technicians. The encoding level was set at 3 to avoid “bumping” records in the utilities. Cataloging was considered minimal level: neither the descriptive nor subject cataloging was reviewed, and no headings were created. Class numbers were added where not already present. There was not a huge number of books available for this treatment; approximately 106 titles were added to the LC ILS.
Leased metadata. Beginning in January 2007, the MSR teams began a pilot to create bibliographic records for popular music CDs with metadata leased from the All Music Guide services of All Media Guide, LLC. LC receives weekly updates to the AMG CD database. With MBRS/SMCD-developed software, the technicians locate and import AMG metadata and output the result into a Voyager MARC encoding level 3 record. While the data must be adjusted to meet LC’s input standards and needs, this process will all but eliminate the need for original keying of a massive quantity of data, including contents notes. To date, 750 records using AMG metadata have been input and are available to users via the LC Online Catalog.
Musical Theater Sheet Music. The Music Division has approximately 1,440 boxes of musical theater sheet music (LC Class: M1508). The vast majority of this is neither in Voyager nor in the Division’s card catalogs. We have established a project to input song titles, show titles, composers, lyricists, and publication dates into an Access database (designed by the Network Development and MARC Standards Office) from which will be created MARC 21 records for Voyager and MODS records for the Performing Arts Encyclopedia. The MARC 21 records will be collection level records (per show title) and the MODS records will be for individual songs. Public access to these records will occur as soon as production has reached a critical mass.
New Sound Recording Formats Guidelines. In order to address the burgeoning problems of cataloging new and hybrid sound recording formats, SMCD, in consultation with MBRS, CPSO, and OCLC, documented guidelines for LC catalogers and technicians. These guidelines include instructions for various CD, DVD, and audio electronic resource formats most of which have begun to appear over the last three years. Though it was originally designed as an LCRI, the need for efficient and timely updating of the document has caused CPSO to mount the guidelines at the following URL: <http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/soundrec.pdf [PDF: 490K / 12 p.] >. Though there will be links via Cataloger’s Desktop to this document from the appropriate rules in Chapter 6 of AACR2, the document is currently available to the public at this URL.
Reorganization. As part of a planned reorganization of music and sound recording cataloging, Music and Sound Recordings Teams 1 and 2 will move from the Special Materials Cataloging Division to the Music Division. They will continue to catalog printed and manuscript music, music-related electronic files, books about music, and sound recordings of certain music genres, e.g., classical and ethnographic recordings. Music and Sound Recordings Team 3 (MSR3) will move from the Special Materials Cataloging Division to the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center (NAVCC) in Culpeper, Va. One staff member has already reported and two others will report to NAVCC in early summer 2007. Likewise in early summer 2007, MSR3 staff members who have elected to stay in Washington will be reassigned to positions in Library Services for which they have the necessary job skills. MSR 3 will be dissolved when all staff members have been reassigned. Meanwhile MSR 3 will operate normally and assist the MBRS sound recordings workflow.
National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC)
The National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections Team (NUCMC) worked with sixty-three repositories, fourteen of which were new participants in the program. The team provided new or improved access to papers of the following Members of Congress: Thomas Gerstle Abernethy (University of Mississippi), John Quincy Adams (Kislak Collection), Noyes Barber (New London County Historical Collection), Isaac C. Bates (New London County Historical Society), James A. Bayard, Jr. (Historical Society of Delaware), James Bayard, Sr. (Historical Society of Delaware), Thomas F. Bayard (Historical Society of Delaware), John C. Calhoun (Maine Historical Society), Richard Keith Call (Kislak Collection), Joseph Cilley (Maine Historical Society), Joshua Coit (New London County Historical Society), Robert Pinckney Dunlap (Maine Historical Society), Edward Everett (Maine Historical Society), Andrew Jackson (Kislak Collection), Thomas Jefferson (Kislak Collection), Augustus Emmett Maxwell (Kislak Collection), James Monroe (Kislak Collection), Charles Pinckney (Kislak Collection), Robert Morris (Kislak Collection), George Washington (Kislak Collection), and David Levy Yulee (Kislak Collection). The NUCMC home page at URL <http://www.loc.gov/coll/nucmc> had 37,557 “hits” in the first seven months of FY07. With the approaching demise of RLIN, the plan is to move NUCMC cataloging production into OCLC. NUCMC staff will be taking input/update training when the OCLC Connexion 2.0 software becomes available.
Rare Book Cataloging
The Rare Book Team cleared 5,605 items through March 31, 2007. The team cleared 4813 items for the Rare Book and Special Collections Division, 99 for the Prints and Photographs Division, 321 for the Law Library, four for the Geography and Map Division, one for the Hispanic Division, and 368 for the general collections. RBSCD collections addressed included African American Pamphlets, American Almanacs, American Imprints, artists' books, Bailey Pamphlets, Bible, Bollingen, Breckinridge Pamphlets, Carpenter-Kipling, Carson, Chandler-Kipling, Colt-Kipling, Copyright Paperbacks, DePol, Drake Pamphlets, Duane Pamphlets, English Printing, Friedman Twain, Goudy, Hazard Pamphlets, Holmes, Houdini, non-Vollbehr incunables, Henry James, Jefferson, Jefferson Miscellaneous Pamphlets, Kipling (Rare Book), Kislak (rare and reference), Kraus Sir Francis Drake, Markoe Pamphlets, McManus-Young, Miscellaneous Pamphlets, Moore Pamphlets, “Pamphlet Pamphlets,” Pforzheimer Bruce Rogers, Political Pamphlets, Pre-1801, Press, Rare Book (including Hogan, Juvenile, and Peace Pamphlets), Rare Book Reference, Reynolds Pamphlets, Rosenwald, Spanish American Imprints, Stern, Thacher, Theological Pamphlets, Third Reich, Thorndike Pamphlets, Toner, Vollbehr, Waterman Pamphlets, Wolcott Pamphlets, YA Pamphlets, and Yudin. Law Library collections addressed included American and English trials, Blackstone, Consilia, Russian Imperial, general rare Law, and general Law. Prints & Photographs work included Third Reich albums.
Completed cataloging projects included the American and English trials (1,868 titles on trial proceedings and publications about trials, chiefly 18th and 19th centuries represented); Kislak rare books and most of the reference books (2,080 titles total on pre- and post-Colombian America; cartographic and manuscript materials cataloged by other Library units); the original American Almanacs collection (3,896 volumes covering the 17th through 19th centuries; some additional titles continue to be added on transfer from the general collection); the original William Blackstone collection (296 titles on English law; current purchases are being added to this collection); Third Reich and other German posters (finding aid and collection-level record created for 410 items); Kipling (Rare Book) monographs (393 titles of early Rudyard Kipling editions not among the Carpenter, Chandler, and Colt collections; a few serial titles remain); the Hogan gift (86 children’s titles donated by attorney Frank J. Hogan); and the Peace Pamphlets (44 titles; cataloged as part of general rare; 19th-century anti-war pamphlets).
Shelf-Ready Projects
The Library is in the third year of its program to obtain LC core-level bibliographic records and shelf-ready services from its Italian book dealer, Casalini libri. Casalini now performs call number labeling as well as security marking and targeting, LCCN labeling, and security barcode labeling for those books for which LC purchases LC core-level cataloging–about half of all its Italian book acquisitions. The current agreement, which runs through fiscal year 2007, is nearly the same as for the previous fiscal year in terms of price. However, LC now has the right to distribute the Casalini records via CDS immediately rather than embargoing them for a period of time. Law materials continue to be excluded from the Casalini agreement.
The Library has begun a small pilot project with Kinokuniya, one of its Japanese book dealers.
Bibliographic Access Divisions and Serial Record Division Production:
Bibliographic Records Completed | FY07, Oct.-April | FY06, Full Year |
---|---|---|
Full/Core Original | 115,924 | 199,223 |
Collection-Level Cataloging | 1,872 | 4,130 |
Copy cataloging | 41,783 | 71,436 |
Minimal level cataloging | 32,107 | 54,381 |
Total records completed | 191,686 | 329,170 |
Total volumes cataloged | NA | 346,182 |
Authority Work | FY07, Oct.-April | FY06, Full Year |
---|---|---|
New name authority records | 55,241 | 97,392 |
New Library of Congress Subject Headings | 4,431 | 6,692 |
Total authority records created | 59,672 | 104,084 |
COLLECTIONS AND SERVICES DIRECTORATE
Collections Access, Loan and Management Division (CALM)
The CALM Digital Reference Team (DRT), serving as the public interface for the Library's digital collections, presented 26 video conference to 441 participants and 3 Web conferences that served 19 participants in the first five months of 2007. On-site presentations and workshops totaled 13, serving 180 participants. The DRT projects that it will answer 8,000 Ask-A-Librarian Webform inquiries during the first half of 2007 and expects to hold 720 chat sessions.
Working with the Education and Outreach Team of OSI, DRT is editing the more than 700 Today in History entries on the Library of Congress Web site. The Library of Congress Blog frequently mentions the featured TIH to highlight such historic events as the founding of Jamestown, Va. (May 14) and the linking of the transcontinental railroad (May 10).
The DRT has created a Web guide highlighting the history of the District of Columbia and added to the group of Webguides that focus on civil rights. “Guide to Washington DC Material” and “Civil Rights Resource Guide” are available on the site; a complete list is accessible at URL <http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/bibguide.html>. A series of Webguides about the various wars involving the United States is nearing completion with guides to the War of 1812, Mexican War, and the Spanish American War undergoing editing.
Also, the list of OPAL (Online Programming for All Libraries) Web conferences and discussions includes hosting LC specialists and curators presenting sessions titled “One Woman's Journey: Mary Ringo” and “African American Authors Translated into Chinese.” A complete listing of current and archived Web discussions is found on the OPAL Web site at URL <http://www.opal-online.org/archivegenealogy.htm>.
Angela McMillian, Digital Reference Specialist, is a the recipient of an ALA 2006-2007 Spectrum Scholarship. She will attend the eighth Spectrum Leadership Institute to be held in Washington, D.C., during the June 2007 ALA Annual Conference.
European Division
Georgette Magassy Dorn, Chief of the Library's Hispanic Division serving as Acting Chief of the European Division.
Polish Specialist Ronald Bachman retired on March 30, 2007, after 32 years of service.
The European Division and the Embassy of the Republic of Serbia organized an exhibition of posters from the National Library of Serbia entitled “Radoslav's Times.” Some of the posters are facsimiles of a manuscript fragment by Radoslav of Athos from the first half of the 15th century, others are 20th century cartoons by Aleksandar from Pancevo. The exhibit is on view May 9-June 30, 2007.
Harold M. Leich, Russian and Greek Specialist, selected the book dealer Oinos (owned by Kostas Papadopoulos) in Athens as the Library's approval plan dealer for Greece.
Federal Research Division (FRD)
FRD Military Legal Resources Web site. Continued funding from the Army Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School has allowed FRD to significantly increase the size of the Military Legal Resources Web site <http://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/Military_Law/military-legal-resources-home.html>. The site now has 69,210 full-text, searchable document pages relevant to U.S. military law. The 42-volume collection, “Trial of the Major War Criminals Before the International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, 14 November 1945–1 October 1946, Nuremberg, Germany, 1947–1949" is nearing completion, with volumes 1 through 30 now available in full text on the Web site. The two companion series, the 8-volume “Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression” and the 15-volume “Trials of War Criminals Before the Military Tribunals Under Control Council Law No. 10,” both in English and German, are in the queue for processing. The first collection includes documentary evidence and guide materials for the International Military Tribunal. The second is the official condensed version of the Nuremberg trials. The FRD effort will make available in digital form complete sets made up of LC and Army JAG (Judge Advocate General Corps) copies. FRD is now discussing options with the U.S. Air Force for a more centralized Web presence for USAF military legal resources via FRD.
FRD Country Studies. Five new books are underway (Colombia, Iran, Indonesia, North Korea, and Sudan) and nearing various stages of completion. Funded by the Department of Defense, the new books will no longer be Army publications but publications of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
FRD Country Profiles. Funded by the Department of Defense, the FRD Country Profiles Web site at URL <http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/profiles.html> has 49 profiles, some of which have been updated during 2007.
Hispanic Division
Katherine D. McCann and Tracy North, Acting Editors of the Handbook of Latin American Studies, presented online demonstrations of new methods of searching the HLAS database at the annual meeting of the Seminar for the Acquisition of Latin American Library Materials (SALALM) in Albuquerque, NM, in April. They also briefed the Bibliographic Instructions Subcommittee on suggested search strategies and tips for using HLAS.
Volume 62 of the Handbook of Latin American Studies, prepared by the Hispanic Division, will be published this summer by the University of Texas Press. At the 2007 SALALM meeting, Katherine McCann and Tracy North unveiled HLAS Web, a new web interface for searching records in the annotated bibliography of books, book chapters, journal articles, and conference papers on Latin American from volumes 50 (published in 1990) to the present.
HLAS Online, the trilingual interface for searching all HLAS records since the first volume (1936), continues to offer Open URL linking capability for records from volumes 50 onward, both within LC using the FindIt! feature and at institutions that subscribe to linking software. For more information see URL <http://www.loc.gov/hlas/>.
Humanities and Social Sciences Division (HSS)
News of Staff. Two HSS staff members, Cheryl Adams and Cassy Ammen, representing Library Services visited Virginia Tech to assist its library in planning for an historical archival collection of materials relating to the April 16, 2007 shootings. Also on the team were Michael Taft, Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center, and Alan Haley, Conservation Division.
Art Emerson, the Australia and New Zealand Reference Specialist, delivered a paper, “The Almost Magic Pudding: A Brief History and Overview of Australian Materials at the Library of Congress,” to the joint conference of the Australian and New Zealand Studies Association of North America and the American Association for Australian Literary Studies held at Georgetown University in March 2007.
Sibyl E. Moses was guest curator of the Newark, N.J. Public Library’s Black History Month exhibition on “The Creativity and Imagination of African American Women Writers in New Jersey,” based on her book African American Women Writers in New Jersey, 1836-2000, which won recognition from the American Association for State and Local History and the New Jersey Center for the Book, as well as mention in the Congressional Record.
Judith P. Roach, Head, Local History and Genealogy Reading Room, retired in April 2007.
Barbara B. Walsh, Reference Specialist, also of LH&G, retired in February 2007.
Bruce Martin, Research Facilities Officer, retired in June 2007.
Jade Alburo and Julius Jefferson joined HSS for one year as part of the CIRLA (Chesapeake Information and Research Libraries Alliance) Fellows program.
Electronic Reference. In March 2007 Sheridan Harvey, the Women’s Studies Specialist, conducted an Online Programming for All Libraries (OPAL) presentation discussing the digitized diary of Mary Ringo's journey west in 1864 (URL <http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gdc/gcmisc.awh0014>) and how one can use other parts of the LC Web site to complement and expand on the diary. According to the OPAL Web site, “these live events are held in online rooms where participants can interact via voice-over-IP, text chatting, and synchronized browsing." Eighteen people from LC and elsewhere signed on and participated in the session. The session is archived at URL <http://www.opal-online.org/Ringo20070321.htm>.
The Local History and Genealogy and Main/Microform Reading Room staff answered 4,247 QuestionPoint requests from January through May, 2007. QP is a major source of reference inquiries.
Collection Development and Acquisitions. Growth of the Microform Custodial Collections: After the receipt of 88,473 items in FY07 through May 2007, the Microform Reading Room custodial collections contained approximately 7,966,642 items through May 2007.
Growth of the Machine-Readable Custodial Collections: After the receipt of 6,912 items in FY07 through May 2007, and the removal of 1,270 items from the collections, the Machine-Readable custodial collections contained approximately 74,648 items through May 2007. The 1,270 removed items, consisting of electronic video games, were transferred to the Motion Picture, Broadcast, and Recorded Sound Division.
Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division
National Audio-Visual Conservation Center (NAVCC)
Construction and relocation. Major construction on the Library’s new National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, located near Culpeper, Va., was completed in April 2007. Following receipt of a certificate of occupancy, MBRS Division staff in Washington, DC and Dayton, Ohio, began relocating to the center in May. Approximately 40 administrative, curatorial, processing and preservation employees are now working at the center, along with 15 contract operations and maintenance staff. The rest of the MBRS staff, along with equipment and remaining collection items, will be relocated to Culpeper through the remainder of the year. To date, over 95 percent of the Library’s film, video and sound collections – 5.7 million items – have been moved to the center’s new 140,000 square foot storage building.
The center has been built for the Library by the Packard Humanities Institute, and when the Institute formally transfers the finished 45-acre property to the government this summer, it will be the largest private-sector gift in the history of the Library of Congress. The new facility will be named the Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio-Visual Conservation. It will be linked to the NAVCC reading rooms on Capitol Hill, which will remain the main site for patron access to the audiovisual collections preserved at the Packard Campus.
Library staff currently working at the NAVCC are ramping up operations in the facility, a process that will continue during the coming year until the complex officially opens next spring. Digital playback from Culpeper to the NAVCC reading rooms in Washington will begin in August. Build-out of the new film laboratory in Culpeper will be finished in September, and the existing film lab in Dayton, Ohio will close down permanently later in the fall. New preservation and curatorial staff will continue be hired, with preservation production slowly increasing until the center completes its initial operational ramp-up to year-one production levels in June 2008.
Systems development. MBRS continues to develop the new workflow, production and archiving systems that will be implemented throughout the NAVCC, both at the Packard Campus and in the reading rooms on Capitol Hill. The center will be a completely integrated and automated facility designed from top to bottom to optimize preservation productions. New high-throughput audiovisual systems have been developed specifically for Culpeper and will enable dramatic increases in the amount of collection items that can be preserved. Some will allow for the digitization of multiple content streams at the same time, while others will run on robotic systems that will be able to run 24 hours a day with minimal operator intervention. New software has been developed that will integrate the center’s systems (production, financial, scheduling) and collections databases. Work will be scheduled on a centralized system and tracked throughout the facility utilizing business process software that will automate and streamline workflows. Each staff member will have a common, integrated interface to NAVCC and existing Library systems. A scheduling and preservation management program will assign equipment, staff and production rooms to specific tasks. Reports will be generated and costs tracked to show ongoing production output. This system will also provide researchers in the reading rooms with a robust search engine that can call up digitized content for immediate access on demand.
Communications Engineering Inc. (CEI) is currently installing and integrating all the facility’s “front-end” preservation production and data capture systems, as well as all audiovisual viewing and projection equipment. On a parallel track, the Library’s IT department conducted extensive testing on the “back-end” digital storage archive, with thousands of different test data packets sent successfully to the system. This petabyte-level archive, built by the integration firm GMRI, will store the digital preservation files produced at NAVCC in a secured environment with a mirrored off-site back up. The archive is currently being relocated from Capitol Hill to Culpeper.
Finally, the first of several SAMMA robotic systems for digital videotape preservation was received by MBRS and is now being installed at the Culpeper campus following successful testing of its interface with the digital storage archive. The mathematically “lossless” compression standard – JPEG2000 – chosen for the SAMMA, and for the digital preservation of all videotape formats at Culpeper, has been fully tested and met our highest expectations for image quality and resolution.
New Acquisitions
Tony Schwartz Collection. The Library has acquired this collection of over 10,000 recordings, videos and films from New York-based media guru and sound documentarian Tony Schwartz. The collection contains Schwartz’ weekly radio program documenting the people and sounds of New York that aired for 31 years (1945-1976) on WNYC. It also includes his work on campaign films and commercials for presidential and other political candidates; radio and television commercials for hundreds of corporate clients; actualities of New York City street sounds; 30 years of off-air recordings including all of Richard Nixon’s speeches and press conferences and many McCarthy-era broadcasts; recordings of folk musicians performing in Schwartz’ own studio; and recorded conversations with many prominent people.
American Archive of the Factual Film. This unique film archive, founded by Iowa State University over 30 years ago, has been acquired by the Library and is in the process of being relocated to the NAVCC in Culpeper. The archive is comprised of non-theatrical business, industrial, training and documentary productions, including over 4500 educational films shown in classrooms and 1000 government-produced films. With over 14,000 titles, the collection dates from 1912 through the 1980s, with the majority from the 1940s-1960s.
Prints and Photographs Division (P&P)
The Prints and Photographs Division maintains a Web home page at URL <http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/>. For up-to-date information about newly online collections and recent and upcoming activities in P&P, see the “What's New” page at URL <http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/whatsnew.html>.
New reference aids
Pictorial Americana. Six more chapters are available in a Web site offering selections originally made for a 1955 publication of engaging images arranged by topics. Recently added lists feature images relating to: Holidays, Hotels, Household appliances, Industry, Labor, and Medicine. Staff have added tips for finding further images on the topics represented. The full table of contents is at URL <http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/list/picamer/toc.html>.
Spanish Civil War Posters Collection Information. “About the Collection” information available through the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC) now discusses the background and scope of the posters with links to related resources at URL <http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pp/spcwhtml/spcwabt.html>.
Recently cataloged / digitized collections or groups of pictures
Baseball Player Portraits. Photographer Paul Thompson captured 25 famous baseball players in vivid close-up images deposited for copyright in 1910-11. Many were models for American Tobacco Co. baseball cards, including the Gold Borders (T205) and Triple Folders (T202) series. Available online through URL <http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/whatsnew.html#processed>.
Andrew J. Russell Photographs. Captain Andrew J. Russell, of the 141st New York Infantry, was the first U.S. Army photographer. Working under the direction of General Herman Haupt, Russell documented the work of the United States Military Construction Corps between 1861 and 1865. P&P recently scanned 281 images from three groups (LOTs). More information at URL <http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pp/cwphtml/cwprel.html>.
National Photo Company Collection glass negatives. Scanning of glass negatives from this news photo service, which operated in Washington, D.C., between 1909 and the 1940s, is well underway. Scans of the negatives (which total 34,600) are added to PPOC as they are made ready, offering ever-growing glimpses of the political, social, and sporting scene, particularly in the capital city, from the 1910s through the 1930s. More information at URL <http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pp/npcohtml/npcoabt.html>.
Aeronautics - Group records enhanced. Nearly 400 catalog records describing groups of images relating to aviation and aircraft have been enhanced to include more detailed description and indexing of subject matter represented. The enhanced records will make it easier to retrieve relevant pictures and to perceive the strengths of P&P’s aviation holdings, which include early experiments in flight and developments in commercial and military aviation.
Exhibitions and Publications
On the Cutting Edge: Contemporary Japanese Prints is in the Great Hall Galleries, 1st floor, Thomas Jefferson Building, March 29-June 30, 2007. The online exhibit is at URL <http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/cwaj/>.
Bridges, the fifth title in the Norton/Library of Congress series, is an abundantly illustrated book that surveys American bridges from coast to coast, exploring how they express a set of structural ideas. Full citation: Richard L. Cleary, Bridges: A Norton/Library of Congress Visual Sourcebook. New York: W.W. Norton; Washington, DC: Library of Congress, 2007. A fuller description is available at URL <http://www2.wwnorton.com/npb/nparch/073136.html>.
New Acquisitions
Photographic Portraits of Actress Charlotte Cushman. The Library recently purchased a unique half-plate ambrotype portrait of Cushman and the only known vignetted daguerreotype of the actress. View images and descriptions at URL <http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/whatsnew.html#acquisitions>.
Rare WPA Posters. The Library acquired five colorful posters created by the Works Progress Administration to advertise America’s national parks, circa 1938. The posters fill a major gap in the Library’s existing collection of about 900 WPA posters. View images at URL <http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/whatsnew.html#acquisitions>.
Serial and Government Publications Division
J. Mark Sweeney was appointed chief of the Serial and Government Publications Division on February 6.
The National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP) continues to progress in developing a national program to enhance public access to historic newspapers. This program, sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress and following on the success of the United States Newspaper Program, began in 2005 with six institutions awarded NEH funds to each digitally convert 100,000 selected historic newspaper pages to technical specifications established by LC. These digital assets are then delivered to LC to be combined into a sustainable digital resource and made freely available to the public.
In March 2007, the Library released to the public the Web site Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers (URL <http://www.loc.gov/chroniclingamerica/>) . At this time, the site provides access to more than 300,000 digitized papers selected by state awardees (California, Florida, Kentucky, New York, Utah, and Virginia) representing the period 1900-1910. The Library of Congress has provided newspapers published in the District of Columbia. In addition to digitized newspaper content, the Chronicling America site also provides a Newspaper Directory of bibliographic and holdings information (approximately 138,000 titles and 900,000 holdings) collected under the United States Newspaper Program (USNP) and representing American newspapers published from 1690 to the present. Under the current awards, the site will grow to more than 700,000 pages in the next few months.
Over time the Chronicling America Web site will continue to grow in number of pages as well as both geographic and chronological coverage as NEH makes additional awards. In June 2007, NEH announced eight new two-year awards (total $2,577,596), including three new awardees and five returning. The 2007 awards will include content published from 1880-1910 and represent the following states: California, Kentucky, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York, Texas, Utah, Virginia. The Library of Congress will continue to contribute materials from its own collections representing the District of Columbia, as well as other content digitized to NDNP specifications and digitally acquired.
NEH and LC will announce the 2008 NDNP Program and Technical Guidelines in August 2007. The deadline for application will be November 1, 2007, with these new two-year awards announced in June 2008.
PARTNERSHIPS AND OUTREACH PROGRAMS DIRECTORATE
Kathryn Mendenhall continues as the interim director for Partnerships and Outreach Programs.
Center for the Book
The Center for the Book is the reading, literacy and library promotion arm of the Library of Congress; it also encourages the scholarly study of books and print culture. The center frequently hosts public programs at the Library of Congress and has stimulated the creation of two national reading promotion networks: affiliated centers in 50 states and the District of Columbia, and a coalition of more than 80 non-profit organizations. It plays a major role in the annual National Book Festival, and works with libraries and academic and research organizations around the world. The center’s program, publications, and projects must be supported by tax deductible contributions from individuals, corporations, and foundations, or by funds transferred from other government agencies. The Library of Congress supports its four staff positions.
To help mark the 30th anniversary of the Center for the Book in 2007, the American Library Association’s Library History Round Table is presenting a program honoring John Y. Cole, the center’s founding director. Titled “Washington, D.C., the Nation, and the World: Papers in Honor of John Y. Cole,” it will take place Sunday June 24, 10:30 am-12:00 noon, Washington Convention Center (WCC), Room 147B. The panel of speakers includes: Maurvene D. Williams, Jane Aikin, Donald G. Davis, Jr., and Jonathan Rose.
The Center for the Book recently announced its National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature program, a joint initiative with the Children’s Book Council. The Librarian of Congress will name an award-winning author or illustrator to the post for a two-year term; the National Ambassador will encourage the appreciation of young people’s literature throughout the U.S. through both personal and media appearances.
On May 1, CFB announced the winners of the 2007 Boorstin Awards for innovative reading promotion projects: the State Centers for the Book of California, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, and Maine.
The center’s Web site at URL <http://www.loc.gov/cfbook/> provides information about its projects; forthcoming events at the Library of Congress, including the National Book Festival; state center affiliates and their programs; organizational partners in the U.S. and overseas; storytelling festivals; community “One Book” reading and discussion programs; and other literary events taking place across the United States. Specific information is also included about projects such as Letters About Literature, River of Words, and Read More About It. The center continues to work closely with other Library offices in the Library’s Lifelong Literacy initiative.
Kluge Center/Office of Scholarly Programs
The John W. Kluge Center will welcome twelve new Kluge Fellows this summer and fall for periods of study ranging from six to eleven months. All are recipients of the most advanced degree in their fields of study within the past seven years. Supported by an endowment from Library benefactor John W. Kluge, their fellowships will enable these scholars to use the Library of Congress’s collections to pursue postgraduate research. The twelve new Kluge Fellows come to the Library from Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the U.S.
National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped
American Library Association Annual Conference participants and network library staff are invited to the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped open house from 1:00–4:00 pm on Monday, June 25. The open house will feature tours, refreshments, and demonstrations of the digital talking-book machine. Directions to the facility at 1291 Taylor Street NW, Washington, D.C., will be available at the LC exhibit booth in the Washington Convention Center.
NLS is featured in Library Trends, vol. 15, no. 1, Spring 2007. “Serving the Blind and Physically Handicapped in the United States of America,” an article discussing the history of free library service for blind and physically handicapped individuals, was written by Frank Kurt Cylke, Michael M. Moodie, and Robert E. Fistick, who discuss the technological changes the program has made in its efforts to provide accessible reading services.
On April 17, NLS presented the third Network Library of the Year Award to the Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Free Library of Philadelphia (Pa.), and the first Network Subregional Library of the Year Award to the Washtenaw County Library for the Blind and Physically Disabled of Ann Arbor, Mich., during the annual luncheon for network librarians.
The Digital Transition Advisory Committee held its first meeting January 30-31, 2007, at NLS. Composed of network library representatives, consumers, Chief Officers of State Library Agencies’ members, and NLS staff, the group discussed the progress made in the development of the digital talking-book system. The committee will assist in identifying concerns that administering agencies, network libraries, and patrons have about changes taking place during the transition from the analog system to the digital system, scheduled to begin in 2008.
Forty-eight centenarians have been welcomed into the NLS 102 Talking-Book Club. NLS Network Division assistant chief Stephen Prine assisted the Washington Talking Book and Braille Library, Seattle, with inducting 48 of its patrons who are 100 years old or older into the national 102 Talking Book Club on May 12, 2007. NLS established the club in 2005 to recognize these lifetime readers. Currently NLS serves 3,672 patrons who are between the ages of 100 and 115 years old. Since May 2006, the state of Washington has honored 56 centenarians, and fifteen Washington libraries have inducted a total of 207 centenarians since the 102 Club began in 2005.
Talking-book rigid discs reach the end of life cycle. NLS has authorized its national network of libraries to begin removing recorded disc books from their collections. Rigid discs, or records as they are commonly known, played the first talking books in 1934. Their withdrawal signifies another milestone in the conversion to digital talking books. Network libraries will follow established guidelines for removing the records and copies will still be available from NLS.
In April, NLS approved the digital talking-book machine, cartridge, and container for production during a Critical Design Review at Batelle, the digital system designer, in Columbus, Ohio. With the conclusion of the design phase of the Digital Talking Book, NLS is on track to complete the transition from analog audio technology. An RFP (Request for Proposal) has been issued for the cartridge and RFPs for the machine and container will be issued soon.
PRESERVATION DIRECTORATE
Statistical Summary
By mid-2007, the Preservation Directorate has completed over 5 million assessments, treatments, rehousings, and reformatting projects for books, paper, photographs, audio-visual and other items. Through the coordinated efforts of the Directorate’s divisions and programs, almost 4 million items to date are reported repaired, mass deacidified, microfilmed or otherwise reformatted. Items treated include George Washington’s obituary and personal copy of the Dunlap printing of the U.S. Constitution with his personal notes written while the Constitution was being debated in Congress; Thomas Jefferson’s Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union; James Madison’s Memorandum on an African Colony; and Woodrow Wilson’s childhood textbook, The Elements of Physical Geography.
Mellon Photograph Survey
The Directorate, supported by a generous grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, is planning a summer workshop on surveying photograph collections.
IFLA PAC Center Initiatives
Directorate staff worked with the Royal Library of Sweden, the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), and the IFLA Preservation and Conservation (PAC) Section, moderating a panel at a Liber Think Tank on the “Future of the Book as a Cultural Artifact.”
Emergency Outreach
Following the advent of Hurricane Katrina, the Division has held a total of 10 salvage workshops (7 internal and 3 external) and trained a total of 103 people of whom 58 were Library of Congress staff, 31were from other federal agencies, and 14 were from seven public libraries and Auburn University. LC staff in twelve divisions have been trained in salvage, and fourteen staff in four divisions have been trained in relocation of collections in-house in the event of an emergency incident with more such training scheduled for late summer 2007. Working with the Federal Library and Information Center Committee (FLICC) and other initiatives, the Directorate has provided or is scheduled to provide outreach and on-site workshops, information and supplies for entities in the Gulf States of Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama and Puerto Rico. In addition, Preservation staff aided the DC Public Library, Georgetown Branch after it suffered a fire in May and consulted about preservation of memorabilia in response to the needs of Virginia Tech University in April.
Educational Outreach
Directorate staff were filmed and interviewed on two occasions by the TV show History Detectives. Both involved ultraviolet, infrared, and stereomicroscopic examination, first of an illustration of suffragettes, and second, of a document signed by Thomas Jefferson. Preservation staff will present eight talks for the ALA Annual Conference.
Staff taught a semester-long course for the Catholic University of America School of Library and Information Science that covered preservation management, environmental control, storage, housing, exhibition, conservation, binding and collections care, preservation reformatting, research and mass deacidification this spring.
The Directorate is hosting nine fellows and interns, including 2 HACU (Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities) Interns, a MIAP (Moving Image Archiving and Preservation) Intern, an award-winning visiting professor, and two post-doctoral fellows.
A new Web site on care of family treasures was added at URL <http://www.loc.gov/preserv/>.
Preservation of Treasures Program
With the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Alcoa Foundation, the Directorate is mid-way toward creating a permanent, oxygen-free housing for the 16th century Waldseemüller Map that depicts the name “America” for the first time. The Alcoa Foundation contributed over $100,000, as well as materials, to the project. Although the size of the encasement is unprecedented, upon its completion the map will be able to be safely displayed on a long-term basis and will form one of the Library’s highlights when the passageway from the Capitol Visitors Center opens in 2008.
Conservation Division (CD)
In fiscal 2007 to date, the CD has treated over 7,600 unbound paper-based items, including more than 400 photographs. More than 602 rare books were treated. Staff rehoused over 86,000 paper-based items, including over 40,000 photographs. They also surveyed over 950,000 paper, photographic and other documents. Over 70,000 items were labeled. Of particular note: the entire Conservation Division staff worked together to assess, design custom housing for, re-house, stabilize, and develop model treatments for a rare collection of 1800 charts from Geography and Maps titled "Atlantic Neptune," which was the first systematic mapping of the Atlantic coasts of North America, produced for the British Admiralty (1774 to 1781). Among the collections treated or stabilized for the American Folklife Center were the Local Legacies Collection of objects from the collections of U.S. Senators and Representatives including T-shirts, buttons, and campaign materials.
Binding and Collections Care Division (BCCD)
BCCD continued to provide general preservation assistance through the Question Point process, coordinating answers to over 380 inquiries to date. More than 103,000 volumes were commercially bound, and over 2,000 books were treated. The first intern for BCCD will arrive this summer from the University of Texas, Austin Preservation Management program. Also this summer, the Division will be receive its new Peachey Board-Slotter, an electric machine for slotting detached book boards so that they can be rehinged in a noninvasive way.
Preservation Reformatting Division (PRD)
PRD has successfully converted to date 3,046,000 units (e.g. print pages, photographs, posters) of Library material through a combination of preservation microfilming (2,980,000), preservation facsimile (3600 pages), and digitization (62,000 pages) for service to Congress and the public. Interviews for a new PRD Chief have been completed and a selection should be announced in the near future.
Preservation Research and Testing Division (PRTD)
PRTD undertook almost 1,200 analyses for safety assurance and 1,500 for quality assurance, as well as over 5,700 analyses to provide information for forensic studies, characterization, treatment development, calibration, and other studies for research project activities. For example, some new and exciting data was obtained regarding magnetic tape sticky-shed syndrome using gel permeation chromatography (GPC) and Direct Analysis in Real Time mass spectrometry (DART-MS). Data from GPC indicate that polymer degradation associated with sticky-shed syndrome may be similar to classical polymer degradation via transient elongational flow, and the DART-MS can be used to quickly identify magnetic tapes that have sticky-shed syndrome. Other exciting results were obtained for intact collection objects, such as a 13th century Persian manuscript page, analyzed using the new environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM) because its large chamber can accept objects that are as large as 30 x 31 x 8 cm (12 x 12 x 4 inches) in size: Previously unseen structural features, such as pentimenti on gold, were discovered that could not be observed using light microscopy.
New PRTD hires, research and upgrades. The Preservation Directorate hired a new materials science lab manager for PRTD. The Division is also working on position descriptions to hire new scientists to oversee programs for traditional, audio-visual, and digital collection materials, as well as quality assurance.
The Division is hosting several visitors this summer. An Eli Lilly Award recipient will be the Division’s first visiting professor and will test a new tool to measure polymer degradation to aid ongoing projects focusing on film and paper deterioration. A Muskie Fellow mathematician is reviewing acquisition statistics to determine predictability of deterioration by collection format. Post-docs from the University of Washington, as part of a National Science Foundation grant, will measure the hand skills of conservators, using haptic technology to develop a virtual reality training system with bio-feedback, similar to that used by medical students and being developed for conservation in the United Kingdom. An intern from Pepperdine University will work with equipment designed to “sniff out” volatile organic compounds from decaying books. HACU science students are characterizing inks, pigments, paper, coatings, photographic materials, and other organic materials.
The traditional materials research program is focusing on a study to examine the rate of light-fading of colorants in argon atmospheres, such as that used to slow degradation in treasure cases, to compare favorable findings purported by collaborative studies at the Getty Research Institute. The audiovisual research program is working to determine, duplicate and counter mechanisms for the formation of sticky shed in magnetic tapes found in audio and videotapes. The digital research program presented findings on DVD/CD longevity and durability at the recent Society for Imaging Science and Technology meeting. Findings from natural and accelerated aging studies include: (1) naturally aged CDs deteriorate over time, with failures caused by deterioration of the macro- and micro-structure of the CDs, including loss of the reflector surface, degradation of the polycarbonate, pin-hole defects, and edge rot; (2) CDs that are subjected to rapid warming from cold temperatures (such as rapid warming after cold storage or after cold shipment) undergo delamination or flaking of the aluminum reflector surface; (3) adhesive security labels negatively impact CD longevity; (4) laser-engraved security labels do not negatively impact CD longevity; (5) there is a wide distribution of service life depending on initial disc quality.
Laboratory upgrades continue, as equipment is installed, calibrated and put through training paces. Examples of projects using the new equipment include analysis of trace metals in ancient and modern papers by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES); compositional analysis of lithographic transfer drawings by Direct Analysis in Real Time mass spectrometry (DART-MS); identification and characterization of Japanese colorants by scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) and colorimetry; and characterization of sticky shed in magnetic tapes by gel permeation chromatography (GPC) and DART-MS.
NEH Digitizing Sound Initiative. Fidelity testing continues on a prototype 2-D scanner developed by DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and delivered to the Library for evaluation, in compliance with the “Image, Reconstruct, Erase Noise, Etc.” (I.R.E.N.E.) project. Funds for the next iteration to develop a method for scanning 3-D groove profiles are being sought.
Topics in Preservation Science (T.O.P.S.) lecture series. Dr. Carl Haber, Senior Scientist, Physics Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, was scheduled to discuss “Capturing Recorded Sound through Imaging: The I.R.E.N.E. Project and Future Prospects” on June 18, explaining two-dimensional imaging and three-dimensional surface profiling for the purpose of capturing sound recordings from phonographic records. Kristen Overbeck Laise, Vice President, Collections Care Programs, Heritage Preservation, will discuss “A Public Trust at Risk: Findings of the Heritage Health Index” on July 16. This was the first survey to assess the condition of U.S. collections held by institutions, large and small, from internationally renowned art museums, research libraries to local historical societies and archives.
Dr. Nels Olson, chief of PRTD, left the Library in May to return to his former employer in the biotech industry.
Mass Deacidification Program
To extend the life and utility of collections through appropriate treatment and technologies, the Directorate to date this year has deacidified 155,867 books and 670,500 document sheets as part of its 30-year initiative to stabilize over 8.5 million general collection books and at least 30,000,000 pages of manuscripts. Deacidification is an economical approach to keeping books and manuscripts available in usable form. It results in extending the useful life of acidic and slightly brittle paper by a minimum of 300 percent. This assures in most cases that treated books will survive for 300 to 1000 years rather than becoming extremely brittle, degraded, and unusable in less than a century, requiring much more expensive reformatting at more than 600 percent of the cost of deacidification. The technology thus achieves economies of scale and future cost-avoidance as a dramatic preventive preservation activity.
TECHNOLOGY POLICY DIRECTORATE
Integrated Library System Program Office
Integrated Library Management System. The Library has implemented a new timeout alert that improves the usability of the OPAC. OPAC sessions are currently set to expire after five minutes of inactivity in order to balance equitable access for users and system performance. The new OPAC timeout alerts a user that the session will timeout in one minute and counts down the seconds remaining. If the session does expire, the alert feature enables the user to return to his or her previous search. The Library will continue to monitor external use and seek ways to increase and improve access for users.
The LC Online Catalog is one of the sources included in the Library’s New Search function available at URL <http://www.loc.gov/>. Users are now able to search the LC Online Catalog; the Library of Congress Web site; the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog; THOMAS (for legislation and Congressional activity ); and American Memory at the same time.
LC staff recently completed field testing (beta testing) of the Voyager 6.2 release. The Library will likely upgrade to Voyager 6 in 2008, but a firm date has not yet been set. In January 2007 the Library began migrating all ILS workstations to a Windows XP platform.
Electronic Resource Management System (ERMS). A pilot team of catalogers and acquisitions specialists was formed in April to explore the use of ERMS and how it will be better integrated into the Library’s infrastructure related to technical services functions. Team members were trained on the ERMS software and have been updating and maintaining the license, bibliographic, and holdings maintenance functions. At the same time Library Services has begun re-structuring the ERM WebOPAC pages to better conform with the Library’s Voyager OPAC and system-mandated guidelines for Web presentation. The Library has begun receiving ONIX for Serials SOH formatted files from one of its suppliers and will be working on loading this data into the ERMS test version. A new release of the ERMS is expected this summer. After implementation of the new release, the Library will begin experimenting with the importation of SUSHI (Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative) statistics from some of the content providers and how these statistics can be incorporated into useful reports for collection development staff. Efforts are underway to upgrade the current ERMS knowledgebase with enumeration data to improve the presentation of electronic holdings, making a holdings presentation that is more compatible with the presentation of inkprint serials.
Find It! OpenURL Resolver. The Library of Congress OpenURL resolver, Find It!, improves linkages between bibliographic citations and full text accessible to Library staff and patrons. OpenURL also links to a variety of Web services, including tables of contents, abstracts, the Library's print holdings, Web search engines, and citation management software. Using SFX software from Ex Libris North America, Library staff process monthly software and knowledgebase updates. As of summer 2007, Library Services purchased unlimited LC SFX user licenses, enabling the Library to begin exploring ways to offer Find It! OpenURL services to offsite Library patrons.
Archival EAD Finding Aids. Archival institutions such as the Library of Congress routinely create detailed inventories and guides to describe the collections of primary source material under their control. With support from the EAD Technical Team, staff in the Collections and Services Directorate have created more than 400 XML-encoded EAD (Encoded Archival Description) finding aids, providing access through the Library's EAD search system to more than 18 million archival items. Bibliographic records in the Library of Congress Online Catalog use persistent identifiers (handles) to link users from the Catalog to EAD finding aids. Keyword indexes and browse listings--for names, subjects, collection titles, collections by date, and collections by repository--are updated monthly with names and subjects extracted from collection-level catalog records.
LC EAD finding aids are harvested monthly for RLG/OCLC’s ArchiveGrid "union catalog" of archival finding aids. EAD XML documents also generate PDF copies of the Library’s finding aids which are prominently indexed by Web search engines, increasing the visibility of the Library's unique archival collections.
LC Handle Server. Persistent identification of LC-managed electronic resources is controlled by the Library’s handle server, using software maintained by the Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI). The Library's handle server currently contains approximately 1.5 million handles, ensuring that patrons have easily citable and permanently maintained links to the Library’s digital content. To expand access by Web search engines to digital content found in American Memory and the Prints and Photographs Online Catalog, a Library “sitemap” project assigned handles to several thousand digital items in 2007. This spring, the National Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped also began to assign handles to its newly generated digital talking books.
As part of its support of handles, LC participates in the CENDI Persistent Identifiers Task Force. CENDI is a federal interagency working group of senior scientific and technical information managers. The Library has also served in an advisory capacity to the Government Printing Office and the Congressional Research Service in their recent explorations of handle technology.
LCCN Permalink. LCCN Permalinks, expected to be in production this summer, will provide persistent LCCN-based URL links to bibliographic records in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Using the new Library Web domain “lccn.loc.gov,” MARCXML records retrieved from the Catalog through its Z39.50/SRU gateway use bath.lccn queries to search both LCCNs and cancelled LCCNs. Retrieved records are processed by XML stylesheets to create Web displays that replicate the look and feel of the Online Catalog. LCCNs found in LCCN Permalink URLs are normalized using the info:lccn URI (uniform resource identifier) specifications.
Network Development and MARC Standards Office (NDMSO)
METS and Digital Library Standards Prototyping. NDMSO continued support for the digital performing arts site LC Presents: Music, Theater, and Dance and the American Folklife Center, including especially the Veterans History Project (VHP). The work involved use and development of standards such as METS (Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard), MODS (Metadata Object Description Schema), and TEI (Text Encoding Initiative).
LC Presents (URL <www.loc.gov/lcp>) had new releases where METS profiles were developed to model encyclopedia-type articles (biographies, articles, etc.). The new releases were: Ragtime, African American Band Music and Recordings, 1883-1923, and Amazing Grace.
For the Veterans History Project (VHP) site (URL <www.loc.gov/vets/>) a new collection, World War I, the Great War, was completed. In the VHP site, NDMSO began to use METS with JPEG 2000 files, especially with new displays involving scrapbooks.
For the American Folklife Center, METS is being used to expose bibliographic records from the Center’s Sound Recordings Catalog. The bibliographic records from that old, specialized catalog are being made available in both textual and digitized image form, including records for material in the Folklife collections from the 1930s Work Projects Administration (WPA) initiatives and the early field recordings of Alan Lomax.
MARC 21 (<www.loc.gov/marc>) and MARCXML (<www.loc.gov/marcxml>). An important proposal for the MARBI meetings at ALA Annual is a set of changes needed by the German and Austrian communities to support their movement from the domestic MAB format to MARC 21. In addition there is a Discussion Paper for changes to the Classification Format (and a few for the Bibliographic and Authority formats) to enable the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) editorial system to be redeveloped with a MARC 21 basis. The DDC management is planning to use the format to communicate changes in the schedules, particularly among translators of DDC, such as the German National Library. The MARC 21 Web site was updated with these and other discussion papers and proposals for the summer 2007 ALA Annual Conference MARBI meetings.
NDMSO continues to maintain MARCXML, an XML version of the traditional MARC 21 record, with the goal to maintain stability and upward compatibility in the record interchange environment while providing a tool to enable the community to move forward to new technologies. XSLT (Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations) transformations are provided on the MARC Web site for download and use to convert data from MARC 21 to MARCXML, MODS, MADS (Metadata Authority Description Schema), and DC (Dublin Core).
Using XSL-FO (Extensible Stylesheet Language-Formatting Objects), NDMSO produced MARC 21 Update No. 7 from a new XML file for the format documentation and made it available for free from the CDS Web site in April. The printed update was also distributed.
With the approval of the techniques for converting Unicode to MARC-8, work is underway to revise the MARC 21 Specifications to provide guidance for the use of all of Unicode in the MARC environment. Since many issues will need to be worked out by implementors and bibliographers concerning sorting and indexing, it is not expected that the community will move too rapidly to expand from the MARC-8 subset to full Unicode, but several institutions are already experimenting with new scripts that were not available in MARC-8.
Metadata Object Description Schema (MODS) (<www.loc.gov/mods>). The XSLT stylesheets for conversion of MODS Version 3.2 to and from DC and MARCXML have been completed and posted. Version 3.2 was released late last year and included changes needed by the Digital Library Federation (DLF) Aquifer Metadata Working Group and the DLF/OCLC Registry of Digital Masters. Development also took place on Version 3.3 of MODS. The major features of 3.3 are better support for holdings and for collection description. The Version 3.3 proposals were distributed for community-wide review in April 2007 via the open membership MODS listserv.
PREMIS (Preservation Metadata Implementation Strategies). The new PREMIS Editorial Committee (EC) meetings via conference calls became biweekly in January because of the activity associated with the revisions of the Data Dictionary and schemas. The Data Dictionary and schemas have been available for almost two years and the EC is reviewing all comments that have been submitted; many are now based on actual use of the Data Dictionary. The EC either decides about a change within the EC or refers the issue to the PREMIS Implementors Group (PIG) listserv for broader discussion, especially for more complex issues.
Implementing the PREMIS Data Dictionary: a Survey of Approaches, an early guide to implementation of PREMIS, was completed by Deborah Woodyard-Robinson in New Zealand under contract to LC. It is available in PDF on the PREMIS Web site at URL <www.loc.gov/premis>. Several institutions have been looking into using PREMIS in METS, with profiles being considered to share the practices. Such profiles would be available from the PREMIS Web site.
Information Retrieval with SRU and Z39.50. SRU (Search and Retrieval via URL), which is seeing wide uptake in the XML/digital resource area, has had a number of developments recently. Version 1.2 will soon be published, after it is officially approved by the SRU Editorial Board. In April 2007 formation of an OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) Technical Committee named Search Web Services was begun. It will use SRU version 1.2 and Amazon’s OpenSearch as input and the target is that SRU version 2.0 will result from the OASIS work.
For bibliographic searching there is a proposal for an index set to be used with the Contextual Query Language (CQL, the query language used by SRU) that is ready to be taken to NISO (National Information Standards Organization) for standardization. Work has also began on a mapping of OpenURL keys so CQL and correspondences with OAI, the Open Archives Initiative. These developments, that assist with the interaction of these important standards, may be combined into a “bibliographic profile.” As they develop they will be available on the SRU Web site.
There will be a meeting June 18-19 in Washington primarily to discuss items related to moving SRU to standardization. Agenda items include the OASIS process, bibliographic profile, Xquery, Opensearch, Z39.92, and record metadata.
The Z39.50 Maintenance Agency continues to maintain the Z39.50 Web site which is essential to implementors. Several new implementors have been added to the implementor list, which is extensive, and new Z39.50 software, both free and commercial, continued to be listed on the software page, as well as hosts available for testing, and profiles.
URIs. LC has applied for an “info:lc” namespace, for “Library of Congress Identifiers.” When it is approved, LC will register XML namespace URIs via this “info” namespace. (As an example, <link> info:lc/xmlns/rmd-v1is assigned as the XML namespace URI for the SRU record metadata namespace.) LC might also use this “info:” namespace to register metadata elements.
OFFICE OF STRATEGIC INITIATIVES
Laura E. Campbell, associate librarian for strategic initiatives and chief information officer for the Library of Congress, on June 4 received the prestigious 2007 EMC Information Leadership Award from the Computerworld Honors Program. For almost two decades, Computerworld Honors has acknowledged individuals and organizations that have used information technology to benefit society. Campbell leads LC’s National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program and National Digital Library Program.
During 2007, the Office of Strategic Initiatives (OSI) continued to play a crucial role in the Library of Congress’s transition to an institution ready to meet the challenges of a century in which information is increasing exponentially, especially in born-digital form, with commensurate expectations for access to that information. The Library is building an information utility for the future. OSI’s longtime experience in the creation and dissemination of digital content, combined with its national program to preserve digital materials, gives it a unique perspective that is essential to the Library’s continued ability to meet the information needs of the U.S. Congress, students, teachers, scholars, researchers and lifelong learners.
This experience is rooted in oversight of the National Digital Library Program (NDLP), which provides access to millions of digitized materials from the Library of Congress’s collections and those of its partners. The NDLP began in 1994 (before the creation of OSI) and led to the creation of one of the most extensive educational Web sites on the Internet: <www.loc.gov>.
In December 2000 Congress asked the Library to lead a national program to collect and preserve important digital content -- the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program – and the Librarian of Congress created the Office of Strategic Initiatives. Information Technology Services, a directorate of OSI, supports not only these programs but also the technology needs of the entire Library.
The National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP) has achieved several critical milestones in this unprecedented program to build a national infrastructure to save America’s digital heritage, which is at risk of loss if it is not now preserved. NDIIPP continues to be the major focus for the OSI service unit.
On Monday, June 25, NDIIPP will host several events at the Library of Congress during the ALA Annual Conference. The programs are open to all and are listed on the Library’s Web site for ALA at URL <http://www.loc.gov/ala>.
NATIONAL DIGITAL INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE AND PRESERVATION PROGRAM (NDIIPP)
The digital heritage of the nation depends in great measure on the success of NDIIPP and other programs with similar mandates. As the amount of digital information continues to be created at a pace almost too great to be measured, the need for this program to collect and preserve at-risk information increases exponentially.
The program’s Web site is at URL <http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/> During 2007, the site was completely revamped with an emphasis on reaching the general public while still serving the needs of information professionals.
NDIIPP States Initiative
The Library has continued to build on the positive results of the 2005 States Consultation Workshops that helped identify the pressing digital preservation issues facing state and local governments. In 2006, the Library released Preservation of State Government Digital Information: Issues and Opportunities, a report of the Library’s convening workshops with the states. The findings of the report confirmed that the Library has a role to play, and in May 2006, the Library released a Request for Expressions of Interest for Multi-State Demonstration Projects for Preservation of State Government Digital Information. Successful projects funded under this initiative will build on the initial set of NDIIPP investments in establishing a network of preservation partners exploring the viability of highly collaborative, decentralized digital preservation approaches.
The Library intends to support multistate demonstration projects that reveal methods for preserving state government digital information by means of developing partnerships, distributing responsibilities and sharing technical expertise and infrastructure components. The intent is to demonstrate practical solutions at the state level useful for potential widespread adoption, as well as to learn how multistate consortial arrangements might be part of a network of preservation partners.
Initiative on Preserving Creative America
In July 2006 OSI issued an announcement that sought expressions of interest in a project to preserve the digital content produced by the private sector, including but not limited to motion pictures, sound recordings, still photography, graphics, illustration, interactive games, literary arts and other media.
The request grew out of a strategy meeting held by the Library in Los Angeles in April 2006 in which NDIIPP gathered more than 50 private sector producers of digital content to assess their interest in, and plans for, the long-term preservation of their digital content. Participants in the meeting, which launched the NDIIPP Preserving Creative America project, discussed a range of issues pertaining to digital preservation and explored potential relationships between the Library of Congress and those engaged in or associated with the creation of digital content in the United States today.
Digital Preservation Partnerships
Since 2000 the Library of Congress has made significant advances in demonstrating the feasibility– and importance– of a national network of partners to collect, preserve and make available a “universal” collection of born-digital materials. NDIIPP continues to build a national network of collaborative institutions committed to sharing the best practices for digital preservation. These partners are building large collections of at-risk content and developing advanced research into tools, services, repositories and overall infrastructure for digital preservation. Individually, the partners have made significant strides over the past year in making the challenges of digital preservation more achievable.
Partnership with Stanford University-CLOCKSS
The Library of Congress entered into a three-year cooperative agreement in June 2006 with Stanford University to provide approximately $700,000 in support of Stanford’s CLOCKSS (Controlled Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) digital archive pilot and related technical projects. Stanford is matching the award dollar-for-dollar.
Since 1999, Stanford has been developing preservation software as part of its LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) program. The LOCKSS program, initiated by Stanford University Libraries, is open-source software that provides libraries with an easy and inexpensive way to collect, store, preserve and provide access to their own, local copy of authorized content. The CLOCKSS program (www.lockss.org/clockss) is a collaborative, community initiative to build a trusted, large-scale, dark archive (an archive that is accessible only in case of emergency, such as a loss of data at another site). CLOCKSS is intended to provide a decentralized and secure solution to long-term archiving, based on the LOCKSS technical infrastructure. Its governance and administration structure are distributed to ensure that no single organization controls the archive or has the power to compromise the content’s long-term safety or integrity.
Partnership with SCOLA
In June 2006, the Library of Congress entered into a cooperative agreement that will ensure that high-interest foreign news broadcasts such as those from Al-Jazeera, a news and current affairs television channel based in Doha, Qatar, and from Pakistan, Russia and the Philippines are archived and available for future research. These broadcasts are of special interest to Congress.
The agreement is with SCOLA, a nonprofit educational corporation that receives and retransmits television programming of long-term research value from around the world in native languages. Under this cooperative agreement, a minimum of 3,750 hours of programming in digital form will be archived by SCOLA over a six-month period and made available to the Library of Congress and its researchers. NDIIPP is providing funding support. SCOLA is matching the $250,000 provided by the Library. The agreement, subject to continuing matching contributions from SCOLA, was for an initial period of six months, renewable up to four years.
SCOLA (<http://www.scola.org/>) has agreements with approximately 90 countries to obtain and disseminate copies of foreign television programs. While in the past SCOLA has retained broadcast material for only a brief period, it is developing a capability to archive the programs it now transmits digitally.
Library of Congress-National Science Foundation Research Awards
In 2005 the Library and the National Science Foundation formed a partnership to develop the first digital-preservation research grants program (DigArch). The grants support pioneering research into the long-term management of digital information. The principal investigators of the DigArch programs have been active participants in Library of Congress meetings, and they presented their work at the January 2006 Digital Preservation Partners meeting in Berkeley, Calif. Final reports from a number of the participants are expected this year.
Partnership with San Diego Supercomputer Center
The aim of the NDIIPP partnership with the San Diego Supercomputer Center is to build and measure trust and utility in a third-party bit-storage and preservation facility. Two content types, namely digital photographs and Web content, are being used as test data in this project. Eight test scenarios are being developed for the purpose of this project. Some of the test scenarios and required storage are already set up, test data has been transferred to San Diego and tests are under way. The SDSC hosted the NDIIPP semiannual partners meeting in January 2007.
Electronic Deposit for Electronic Journals Project
Copyright deposit represents the largest acquisitions channel for the Library of Congress. In general, all U.S. publishers are legally required to submit for deposit two copies of each of their publications to the Copyright Office in the Library. For more than a century, this mechanism has allowed the Library to build the largest and finest collection of knowledge in the world and preserve the vast array of American creativity, while minimizing the cost to taxpayers of acquiring these rich materials.
In the current initial phase of the project, the scope is limited to electronic journals (or e-journals). It is envisioned that future phases will provide support for other types of electronic content. E-journals were chosen because they represent a major trend in scholarly communication, are increasingly available only as digital-format content (without print counterparts) and are widely perceived by research libraries to be at great risk of loss unless steps are taken now to preserve them.
The project is sponsored by the Copyright Office, Library Services and the Office of Strategic Initiatives. A working group comprising senior managers from service units across the institution performs customer and stakeholder management. It has met on a biweekly basis since September 2005. The working group has also formed teams to explore specific subject areas and to engage key stakeholders outside the working group. The members and stakeholders have been chosen according to subject matter expertise, technical expertise or responsibility relevant to the execution of this project.
Section 108 Study Group
The Section 108 Study Group, convened under the aegis of the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program in 2005, and co-sponsored by the U.S. Copyright Office, continued to make excellent progress in 2007. The goal of the group, named after the section of the U.S. Copyright Act that provides limited exceptions for libraries and archives, is to prepare findings and make recommendations to the Librarian of Congress for alterations to the law that reflect current technologies. This effort will seek to strike the appropriate balance between copyright holders and libraries and archives in a manner that best serves the public interest.
Currently, section 108 provides limited exceptions for libraries and archives to make copies in specified instances for preservation, replacement and patron access. These provisions were drafted with analog materials in mind and do not adequately address many of the issues unique to digital media, either from the perspective of rights owners or libraries and archives.
The Section 108 Study Group is a 19-member committee of copyright experts from various fields, including law, publishing, libraries, archives, film, music, software and photography. The Study Group has intensive two-day meetings on an every-month basis; a public roundtable was held in Chicago on Jan. 31, 2007. The group continues to work through significant differences of opinion toward the common goal of a workable and balanced section 108.
The Section 108 Study Group continues to cooperate closely with the NDIIPP Digital Preservation Partners in gathering information on how copyright law affects digital preservation. This data will provide a crucial factual foundation for the study group’s recommendations in 2007. The group’s Web site is at URL <www.loc.gov/section108>.
Web Content Capture Project
Because the Web has become a major source of born-digital information, NDIIPP supports a Web Capture Team to collect and preserve Web sites. The team has launched a Web site devoted to the project (<http://www.loc.gov/webcapture>).
The team has captured 66 terabytes of digital content to date. This total represents more than 1 billion documents downloaded from the Web. This is the equivalent of digital text information from more than 66 million books (1 megabyte per book of text only).
NDIIPP and NDL Program Public Awareness
A May 14, 2007, op-ed in The Washington Post by James Barksdale and Francine Berman spoke of the importance of preserving digital content and why NDIIPP funds should be restored. Barksdale is former chief executive of Netscape Communications and is a member of NDIIPP’s National Digital Strategy Advisory Board; Berman is director of the San Diego Supercomputer Center, which is an NDIIPP partner.
The Washington Times on April 26, 2007, ran a front-page story in its Life section on NDIIPP and the challenges of saving born-digital content.
The New York Times on March 11, 2007, ran a major piece on the National Digital Library Program, called “History, Digitized (And Abridged).”
NATIONAL DIGITAL LIBRARY PROGRAM
In 1994 the Library established its National Digital Library Program (NDLP), following a five-year pilot in which digitized versions of rare Library materials were distributed on CD-ROM to 44 schools and libraries nationwide. With the advent of the public Web in 1994, the Library was able to distribute these materials more widely and at less cost. By 2000, more than 5 million historical items were offered in American Memory, the NDLP’s flagship Web site at URL <memory.loc.gov>. During the next decade, the Library’s Web site has grown into one of the largest repositories of noncommercial high-quality content online. There are now more than 11 million digital files in American Memory alone and more than 22 million digital items on all the Library’s sites.
More than 111 million site visits were made to the Library’s various Web sites during fiscal 2006. This statistic accounts for all major sub-sites of www.loc.gov, such as American Memory, America’s Library, THOMAS, Online Catalogs, Exhibitions, and Global Gateway.
Partnership with the National Endowment for the Humanities: The National Digital Newspaper Program – see also Serial and Government Publications Division under Library Services
In April 2005 the Library and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) announced that six institutions had received more than $1.9 million in grants from NEH in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP), a long-term effort to develop an Internet-based, searchable database of U.S. newspapers now in the public domain. Two-year projects in California, Florida, Kentucky, New York, Utah and Virginia are digitizing 100,000 or more pages of each state’s most historically significant newspapers published between 1900 and 1910. The Library of Congress is also adding newspaper content to this program. The NDNP Web site, called Chronicling America, was launched in March 2007 a URL <http://www.loc.gov/chroniclingamerica/>.
Educational Outreach
The Office of Strategic Initiatives is expanding the use of the Library’s collections by educators and their students. Several OSI programs and services have made the Library’s online primary sources important tools for teachers who want to incorporate these materials into their classroom activities.
Teaching with Primary Sources Program/Adventure of the American Mind Transition
At the request of Congress, the Library was authorized to develop and administer a professional development program for educators based on the pilot An Adventure of the American Mind (AAM) program, which was active in seven states. OSI is expanding the AAM program into the new national Teaching with Primary Sources Program.
Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) was officially launched with the first consortium meeting in Washington and a new Web site at URL <www.loc.gov/teachers/tps>. An advisory board was also formed.
One of the TPS initiatives will be a “virtual institute,” an online program that will provide programming to educators not currently in TPS partner areas. The Library has also contracted with the Center for Children and Technology for a research study of the best practices of the current AAM national program.
Learning Page
The Learning Page Web site (<memory.loc.gov/learn>) was specifically created for teachers and their students and features educational ways to use the Library’s online primary sources in the classroom. All lessons in the site are aligned to meet National Teaching Standards. A “Library of Congress News for Teachers” RSS feed is now available, which offers information on new Library content and professional development opportunities for educators.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SERVICES
Information Technology Services (ITS) supports the technology needs of all Library service and infrastructure units and their staff members, and in the process provides a flexible, sustainable and secure Library-wide information and technology environment. The architecture fosters innovation and organizational learning, enabling the rapid and effective transition to interoperable solutions.
In fiscal 2007, ITS began a rollout of a new desktop using the Windows XP Operating System to the Library staff. The Windows XP Operating System is being deployed as part of the Workstation Configuration Management (WCM) project. The goals of WCM are to improve the reliability and availability of the Library’s Office Automation System and are based on improvements in the Windows XP Operating system that have been developed since its release several years ago. WCM has successfully deployed approximately 1,500 workstations and is currently preparing to deploy to the last two Service units: Library Services and the Copyright Office.
ITS has continued with the Certification and Accreditation (C&A) of Mission Critical Systems. Currently, four systems have been fully accredited, 12 accreditation packages are completed awaiting final accreditation, and two certification efforts are presently being conducted, for a total of 18 systems.
For THOMAS, ITS is working on updating the indexing and search system. The new system, currently in beta testing, introduces new ways to find information on THOMAS. For example, it now is possible to search all of THOMAS from one search box. ITS has also added new capabilities for sorting results and refining searches. Public opinion on the system is currently being collected.
ITS provides support to the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center (NAVCC), which will include transferring the collections of the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division to a state-of-the-art facility in Culpeper, Va. ITS provides continuing IT support by hosting and providing maintenance of the infrastructure, network, archive and archive interface.
For the Copyright Business Process Reengineering electronic Copyright Office (eCO) effort, ITS provides individual development, test, training and production environments; coordination, planning and communication with organizations within the Library and contractors and service providers outside the organization; and testing and installation of existing Copyright applications and systems supported by ITS.
ITS updated the System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) process and Project Management (PM) Handbook in fiscal 2007, including improvements in both the content and presentation of this information. ITS management continues to encourage and monitor the use of PM and SDLC practices, which has resulted in an increase in the quantity and quality of project management and system development documentation. This will greatly facilitate the maintenance and support of these systems.