Contact: Guy Lamolinara (202) 707-9217

April 18, 2007

Library of Congress Nominated for Two Webby Awards

Honoree Status Also Achieved in Five Categories

The Library of Congress's award-winning Web site at www.loc.gov has been nominated for two prestigious Webby Awards, which are presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences.

The Library is nominated for an award in the Government category for its overall Web site and specifically for the subsite THOMAS (www.loc.gov/thomas), which provides current information on the workings of the U.S. Congress.

The vote is being conducted at www.webbyawards.com, with a deadline of April 27. The awards will be announced May 1.

In 2006, the Library won the People's Voice Webby in the Cultural Institutions category. The Webby Awards, established in 1996, are one of the industry's leading awards. The People's Voice awards are voted on by the public from among five nominees chosen by the academy. The academy evaluates hundreds of award entries on six criteria: content, structure and navigation, visual design, functionality, interactivity and overall experience.

The Library also garnered Official Honoree status (in the top 15 percent among all entrants) for Education; Best Practices; Best Navigation/Structure; and for being among the top Web sites from a Cultural Institution. Its webcasts were recognized in the News/Documentary/ Public Service category.

The Library's Web site, which is one of the federal government's most popular, has been winning awards since it was first launched in 1994 with the goal of placing 5 million items online from the collections of the Library and those of its partners. Today, more than 22 million digital objects are available.

The major sites within www.loc.gov are as follows:

• American Memory, the flagship site of more than 11 million items of American history and culture;
• THOMAS, a Web site that offers daily updates on the workings of the U.S. Congress;
• Global Gateway, a bilingual site that features the international collections of the Library and those of its partners;
• Exhibitions, which offers virtual tours through more than 60 of the Library's current and past exhibitions; and
• Catalogs, which offers access to the catalog records of the world's largest library.

With more than 134 million items, the Library of Congress is the world's largest repository of information, furthering wisdom and the principles of democracy and freedom through knowledge. Its collections are universal in scope and available in all formats on which information is recorded. In 1994 the Library formally launched its National Digital Library Program, beginning with the American Memory Web site. The Library's overall Web site has since grown into an unrivaled source of multimedia materials - maps, manuscripts, books, music, film, recorded sound, prints, photographs - that tell the story of America from before colonial times to the present. The site also includes materials originating overseas that demonstrate the intersection of United States history with that of other nations.

# # #

PR 07-088
04/18/07
ISSN 0731-3527

Back to top