June 20, 1997

Contact:
Guy Lamolinara (202) 707-9217

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Digital Library Visitors' Center to be Open to Public Without Appointment

On June 30, the Digital Library Visitors' Center will begin offering a daily public "tour" of the Library of Congress Web site (http://www.loc.gov) at 1 - 1:45 p.m., Monday through Friday (except federal holidays).

The Digital Library Visitors' Center, in the first- floor atrium of the Library's James Madison Memorial Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E., is where the Library demonstrates how it uses technology to better serve Congress and the public. The 30-minute "tour" will be offered in the theater area of the center. Visitors will then be allowed to experiment hands-on following the demonstration using the personal computers in the center's alcoves.

Visitors will be given an initiation to the Library's on-line offerings, including:

• American Memory, a project of the National Digital Library Program that is bringing the most important of the Library's American collections to citizens everywhere via the Internet.
• THOMAS, the Library's congressional database that keeps the public informed on the workings of their lawmakers.
• Exhibitions. Major exhibitions of the Library can be viewed on-line long after they have closed in Washington. Highlights include "American Treasures of the Library of Congress," an exhibition on view in the Library's Jefferson Building.
• The on-line catalog, containing millions of bibliographic records from the world's largest library.

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PR 97-114
6/20/97
ISSN 0731-3527