June 6, 1995

Contact: Guy Lamolinara (202) 707-9217

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Library of Congress To Demonstrate New Initiatives at ALA Annual Meeting

The Library of Congress exhibit booth at the Annual Meeting of the American Library Association (ALA) in Chicago will offer visitors a chance to see the latest digital initiatives of the nation's library. The Library's booth number is 612. Exhibits are open June 24 through June 27.

New homepages have been established on the Library's World Wide Web server (http://www.loc.gov) under the "Services and Publications" category.

The Library's American Folklife Center homepage offers hypertext links to information about its reference services, publications, Archive of Folk Culture, concerts and events.

The National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) site gives a brief overview of NLS programs, a searchable list of publications, links to other libraries for persons who are visually and physically impaired, and even the opportunity to listen to a sample of a talking book.

The new Serial and Government Publications homepage provides general information, periodical and government publication resources, and links to resources for current news topics, such as President Clinton's proposed 1996 budget.

The Cataloging Distribution Service homepage has a subject index and table of contents to a catalog of products and services, general information, and the ability to place orders electronically.

THOMAS, the online congressional database that debuted January 5, will be available as part of the demonstrations of the World Wide Web (WWW). THOMAS now offers the text of the Congressional Record as well as hypertext links to "hot legislation" -- bills that have received recent floor action.

The THOMAS Uniform Resource Locator is http://thomas.loc.gov or telnet (connect) to thomas.loc.gov and login as thomas. It is also accessible from the Library's homepage.

New to the Library's Web server is the on-line version of the exhibition "Temple of Liberty: Building the Capitol for a New Nation." There are now eight on-line exhibitions on the Library's Web server.

Other stations in the exhibit booth will offer demonstrations of LOCIS (Library of Congress Information System) on Internet. LOCIS offers, in addition to the Library's on-line catalog (books, microforms, serials, music, visual materials, manuscripts, etc.), status of federal legislation, copyright files and information about products of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped.

LC MARVEL (Machine-Assisted Realization of the Virtual Electronic Library), the Library's Campus-Wide Information System, will also be on view. MARVEL combines the vast amounts of information available about the Library with easy access to diverse electronic resources over the Internet.

LC MARVEL uses the Gopher software from the University of Minnesota. To access LC MARVEL telnet to marvel.loc.gov and login as marvel. Connection is also possible through a local Gopher client or another Gopher server by pointing to marvel.loc.gov, port 70. It is also possible to connnect to LOCIS from MARVEL.

Visitors to the booth will be able to take a look at digitized versions of two dozen of the Library's collections, such as the recently recovered notebooks of Walt Whitman.

The Center for the Book will have representatives on hand to answer questions about its reading promotions, such as the "Shape Your Future -- READ!" program.

The Cataloging Distribution Service will demonstrate several of its newest products.

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PR 95-088
6/6/95
ISSN 0731-3527