Category: Guest Posts

Improvements Ahead for the Web Archives

Today’s guest post is from Abbie Grotke, Assistant Head of the Digital Content Management section at the Library of Congress. Users of the Library of Congress Web Archives may have recently noticed issues when trying to access archived content presented at webarchive.loc.gov. We want to give some background and explanation about the ongoing work that is happening to modernize and …

Ensuring Enduring Access to eBooks: Update on Recent Research and Analysis

Today’s guest post is from Andrew Cassidy-Amstutz, Kate Murray, Marcus Nappier, Camille Salas, and Trevor Owens of the Library of Congress. The Library of Congress recently completed a project to analyze the technical characteristics of a substantial set of eBook and eJournal files in the permanent collection and available for onsite access in Stacks, the …

Supporting Social-Emotional Learning Activities with “By the People” Transcriptions

Today’s guest post is from Annette Nakshbendi, a Librarian-in-Residence in the Digital Content Management Section at the Library of Congress. How might a Library of Congress digital resource spark classroom discussion that reaches beyond a primary source’s content and context? You may have used the Library’s digital collections to help history “come alive” for students. …

New FADGI Project: Researching Accessibility in Open-Source Digital Preservation Applications

This is a guest post from Chris Lacinak, Founder and CEO of AVP, and Kate Murray, Digital Projects Coordinator in Digital Collections Management and Services at the Library of Congress. Recognizing the importance of meeting the Library of Congress’s goals and mission related to accessibility, the Federal Agencies Digital Guidelines Initiative (FADGI) has embarked on …

Getting the Band Back Together: Recap of FADGI Audiovisual Working Group Meeting

Today’s guest post is from Kate Murray, Digital Projects Coordinator in Digital Collections Management and Services and Charles Hosale at American Folklife Center, both from the Library of Congress. I have said more than once that ‘FADGI’, pronounced ‘fah-gee’ and short for the Federal Agencies Digital  Guidelines Initiative, is a terrible acronym (Charles quips “Hey, …

3rd Edition of FADGI Still Image Digitization Guidelines Finalized

Today’s guest post is from Hana Beckerle, a Digital Imaging Specialist in the Digitization Services Section at the Library of Congress. The Federal Agencies Digital Guidelines Initiative (FADGI) Still Image Working Group has finalized the Third Edition of its influential Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Cultural Heritage Materials. The Working Group published a draft version of the …

Translating “Home,” “Index,” and “Welcome to Our Website” in 50 Different Languages: An Interview with Rick Fitzgerald

Today’s guest post is from Abbie Grotke, Assistant Head of the Digital Content Management section at the Library of Congress. Rick Fitzgerald contributed to the Library’s web archiving program for over fifteen years as a cataloger and metadata expert. He recently moved on to a new position in Collections Management Division, as a Cataloging Specialist/Problem …

Introducing the new EPUB reader for e-books at the Library of Congress

Today’s guest post is from Kristy Darby, a Digital Collections Specialist at the Library of Congress. The Open Access Books Collection on loc.gov includes approximately 6,000 contemporary open access e-books covering a wide range of subjects, including history, music, poetry, technology, and works of fiction. All books in this collection were published under open access licenses, …

Even More Fun with File Formats!

Today’s guest post is from Kate Murray, Marcus Nappier, and Liz Holdzkom of the Digital Collections Management & Services Division at the Library of Congress. Fun with File Formats is back with another installment! Our first two blog posts from December 2021 and June 2022 were very popular with readers of The Signal. No surprise that there are …

Do volunteer transcriptions improve search and discovery in loc.gov?

Today’s guest post is from Abby Shelton, a Digital Collections Specialist and By the People Community Manager in the Digital Content Management Section at the Library of Congress. How do people use crowdsourced transcriptions? Do they drive increased traffic and engagement to our digital collections? What kinds of activity do transcriptions of handwritten documents facilitate? …