It was 50 years ago today that ham-radio enthusiasts had the first opportunity to hear an odd beeping sound coming from the heavens: It was Sputnik, the first artificial satellite. A recent CBS Sunday Morning segment reminded us that today (Oct. 4, 2007), marks the 50th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik by the Soviet …
A staff member here at the Library pointed me to this article in The New York Times about a revamped test immigrants must pass before they may become citizens. The article talks about the pros and cons of both the old test and the new.? The aim, according to the story, was to get away …
What an exciting day!? With the National Book Festival just hours away, things are really hopping here. I began early this morning trying to meet Dr. Billington at the White House for some joint media interviews with Mrs. Laura Bush, but my entrance was delayed by a ?suspicious package? on 17th Street that turned out …
I blogged the other day about some new PSAs we have released in conjunction with the Ad Council that highlight lifelong literacy. And now we have added a new, interactive feature to our Literacy.gov Web site. You can go on a ?Storybook Adventure? by following this link and clicking on ?play? once the animated banner …
There has been a bit of a blogospheric brouhaha over what the Library of Congress charges to make its entire Copyright database available (see here and here, for example)?enough so that we have now put out this statement: Regarding Pricing on Bulk Access to Copyright Cataloging Information Recent questions and concerns have arisen regarding the …
It?s called the ?National Book Festival,? so this year we?re doing something a little different to help make it even more truly national. This year we have launched a ?Young Readers? Toolkit? on the NBF Web site. There we provide a whole set of tools to help you host your very own book festival in …
Tonight the final touches will be put on the Library?s West Side Story exhibition (thus the headline), which opens tomorrow, Sept. 26, and remains on view in the foyer of the Performing Arts Reading Room (room 113 of the Library?s James Madison Memorial Building) through March 29. ?West Side Story: Birth of a Classic? marks …
Beginning this Sunday, Sept. 23, many Americans will be rapt as they watch the stories from Ken Burns? latest series, ?The War,? on PBS. The series focuses on firsthand accounts of those who were affected by World War II?much like the goal of the Library?s Veterans History Project. If you get a chance, check out …
The 2007 National Book Festival is drawing closer and closer (Sept. 29 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.) People come to the Book Festival for a lot of reasons, but the big draws, of course, are the authors and the opportunity for their readers to interact directly with them. For those who can?t make …
Some strong but, unfortunately, inaccurate words have been used regarding a small handful of the 50,000+ oral histories of the Veterans History Project (part of the Library?s American Folklife Center). News reporters and others have been using terms like ?fraud? or ?misrepresentation? to describe the incorrect listing of 24 veterans on the VHP Web site …