I have been thinking quite a bit about the concept of the semantic web, aka Web 3.0. As is my habit when I want to know about something, I head to the library, and check out a pile of books.

I checked out the book Semantic Web Programming. I have only read the introductory chapters thus far –  I will delve into the programming aspects after the comps in the Spring.  But for now I want to get my head around what, exactly, is the “semantic web.”

The semantic web is about data, and accessing information from sources throughout the Web. A semantic web application is a Web site or program that gathers information into a useful form for the user.

One particular implementation that I forsee is a vast improvement in the traditional OPAC Web interface. Current implementations are based on a relational database model. Semantic web applications will allow deeper and richer connections. Let’s say you are researching “penguins.” If you searched an OPAC on the Library of Congress Subject Heading “penguins” you would only find books specifically cataloged as “penguins.” However, there might be valuable information via the broader term, “birds;” or the narrower term, “captive penguins.” Semantic data relationships are object oriented, allowing those relationships to have inheritance rules (Hebeler, et. al, p. 15). In other words, information could be discovered via the related terms and not just the specific term that the cataloguer had chosen. Furthermore, a properly written symantic web application will draw information from other sources, in addition to the data in the OPAC database. Also, this would result in more intelligent results than blind keyword searches.

This is certainly the direction that the Web search engines will be moving.

I am sure in time my understanding will increase. I am looking forward to getting to know this technology better.

Hebeler, J., Fisher, M., Blace, R., Perez-Lopez, A.  Semantic Web Programming. Indianapolis: Wiley Publishing, Inc., 2009.

from the Library of Congress subject headings weekly lists in September and October 2009:

Weapons of mass destruction in art [Not Subd Geog] [sp2009007321]

Invaded Space – Adam Richardson

DjahalLand (Illustration, concept art and design for visual development)

Parthenon (Athens, Greece) in literature [Not Subd Geog] [sp2009007816]

At the height of the Napoleonic Wars, the 21-year-old newly wedded Mary Nisbet, Countess of Elgin, a Scottish heiress and celebrated beauty, enchanted the power brokers of the Ottoman Empire, using her charms to obtain their permission for her husband’s audacious plan to deconstruct the Parthenon and bring its magnificent sculptures to England. Two millennia earlier, Aspasia, a female philosopher and courtesan who presided with her lover, the visionary politician Pericles, over Athens’ Golden Age, plied her wits and allure with equal determination, standing with him at the center of vehement opposition to his ambitious plan to construct the most exquisite monuments the world had ever seen.

In parallel stories that resonate hauntingly, Aspasia witnesses the dramatic events that lead to the construction and dedication of the Parthenon, and Mary Nisbet witnesses that same magnificent building’s deconstruction and demise.

–from the author’s website

Dakota beadwork [May Subd Geog] [sp2009007918]

Oglala Lakota (Oglala Sioux) beaded horse mask from the National Museum of the American Indian. “Said to have been used by the chief of the Teton Sioux to lead a parade at Pine Ridge Agency, July 4th, 1904.” Part of the Song for the Horse Nation exhibit.

Arm in art [Not Subd Geog] [sp2009007864]

-from Joe Pepper’s Flickr photostream

-from _drawinglines Flickr photostream

Pug in art [Not Subd Geog] [sp2009008273]

According to pugsinformation.org, a series of pug figurines created by German sculptor and porcelain modeller Johann Joachim Kändler served as a secret emblem for an underground German Freemason lodge, the “Mopsorden” – the “Lodge of the Order of the Pug”.

Waves in art [Not Subd Geog] [sp2009007738]

Jonathan Villeneuve - “Faire la vague – Do the wave” [installation]

Jesse Higman – “Spiral”
“This Wave Painting was poured on a table specially constructed to curve the flow of water. You can still see the hole in the canvas at the apex of the spiral. For the texture, I mixed a special Golden medium called GAC which lists as a precaution that it may cause foam if stirred aggressively. I use an egg beater to mix. The “paint” I use contains tiny mica flakes which give the painting an iridescent sheen. As the foam bubbles make their way along to the hole, they collect particles of mica which make tiny islands.” -from the artist’s website

Shout out: the format of this post was inspired by lower east side librarian’s highlights from the weekly LCSH lists.

The push by the Library of Congress to digitize primary documents continues. Together with the National Endowment for the Humanities, the LOC has posted the 1,000,000th newspaper page at its sweet Chronicling America site. Chronicling America’s charge is to enhance access to America’s historic newspapers through their National Digital Newspaper Program.

And you’d think I’d be happy with a million pages to play with. I mean, it’s 1,000,000 pages. Which is, you know, a lot. The 1,000,000 pages covers newspapers in 14 states and the District of Columbia from 1880 to 1922.

But once you get in the collection, it’s easy to get a little greedy. Wouldn’t it be nice to have some coverage from the Civil War? The Great Depression? Prohibition? WWII?

Still . . . 1,000,000 pages. Westward expansion, Populism, Spanish-American War, Teddy Roosevelt, World War One. There’s some biggies in there.

So I think I’ll be okay. Pretty sure you will too.

The search feature is very easy to use with the option to select specific keywords, dates, places and papers. There is a nice geographic mix of large and small papers and even a few college papers thrown in. I haven’t dug in too deep but it looks like there is also a nice political mix.

The search results are also easy to use. Zooming features make it easy to find what you want on the page and the software highlights your search words. You can view a written transcript of the page, download as a PDF, an image file or simply print from your browser. These options make it easier for you as a teacher to get exactly what you want.

The LOC folks have also put together a mini topic guide and a link to their front page collection at Flickr.

Pretty sweet stuff. Definitely something you should be having your students use.

Even if it only has 1,000,000 pages.

Listen to the first part of our chat with Bruce Hart.

FCB this week talks with Bruce Hart, COO of Terremark’s Government Group.

Hart is no stranger to the federal government, either. He served as Deputy CIO and then Deputy Director for Science and Technology for CIA before moving into the private sector.

Today we learn a bit about what he and his company are doing in the cloud for the government, as well as what your IT manager should know before making the move.

Helping the federal government
For GSA, we are hosting, on our enterprise cloud out of our network access point (NAP) . . . USA.gov and also Data.gov. Both are citizen-facing, federal public Web sites that provide more efficient access to federal information to citizens all over the country.

For the Library of Congress, what we do is a little different. We host what’s called myLOC.gov. It’s also a public-facing Web site, but we provide a higher level of services in a more traditional hosting sense. We provide for them something we call High V managed hosting. We do virtually everything end-to-end in a dedicated environment just for them.

Defining the cloud
one of the things about cloud is its ubiquity has created a circumstance where not everybody knows exactly what’s being talked about.

In Terremark’s terms, what we mean when we say cloud — our enterprise cloud is a service offering that basically is about compute power. It’s called infrastructure-as-a-service in federal terms.

There are also cloud definitions higher in the stack — platform-as-a-service, software-as-a-service. What we sell is computing power where a client buys the resource, rather than a server — a physical box — from us using virtualization technology across some transport layer — some kind of a network, often the Web.

They buy just the amount they need . . . And they can configure it within a matter of three to five minutes, create a virtual machine — a server that acts like a physical server; load their operating system on that; load their applications on the operating system; then they’re up and running.

What you should know and do before making the move
Federal IT decision makers tend to be, and I don’t mean for it to sound pejorative — server hoggers. (I used to be one myself). They like to have direct access to the hardware and the software upon which their mission is conveyed. It’s very important to them.

So, the first thing you have to do is give up that sense of immediate physical control and literally take advantage of the aspects of the cloud that are so powerful.

You also have to recognize that you’re working on virtual machines. While they actually feel like physical machines, they have their own inherent weaknesses which have to do with the fact that there are multiple [virtual systems] residing on a single physical box somewhere outside of your immediate control.

The controller for those virtual machines is essentially a piece of software in its own right — the hypervisor.

So, from a purely security point of view, if an attacker can get access to that physical machine and can control the hypervisor, there’s some prospect that he can control or work across all the virtual machines that exist on that physical box.

On Wednesday, we’ll learn more about how 21st century security could help mitigate such an attack and we’ll get perspective on why everyone in your office should learn about the cloud.

The dome of the Library of Congress Reading Room--Looking out from behind Moses

We made it to the metro in record time—only two and a half hours from Reading, with two coffee-induced rest stops along the way.  We stopped first a the Greenbelt station, as it was the closest to 95 and on the right metro line; we continued on our way to New Carrollton after finding the seven ‘designated overnight’ spots filled; the parking lot attendant agreed with our decision to move on, so move on we did, even though this necessitated a running-through-the-station-with-a-suitcase transfer at L’Enfant Plaza.  After finally arriving at the Chinatown stop, we ascended the escalator into the sunlight and…rain.  Rain?  Rain.  It was pouring.  No, the word ‘pouring’ would imply rain falling down.  This was blowing sideways.  We trudged through this wind and rain, two and a half long blocks to the hotel, which we would not even have found if not for the (blessed) rain; you see, the hotel was covered in plastic.

The Renaissance Marriott DC was cloaked in black plastic.  I suppose we got a really good deal on a four star hotel, but what we stayed in was a two star hotel at best.  So many things were wrong with this hotel, and I could have overlooked all but one.  First, when we arrived, the key card machine was ‘down’.  We had to be escorted to our room by a very nice man, and though he was very nice, the idea of leaving again–which  was our plan–with no idea how to get back into the room without a key was a bit unsettling.  Fortunately, as we exited the lobby on the way to lunch we were informed that the machine was back up, and were handed keys.  It was too bad this was after we checked into our 15th floor room ‘with city views’–according to the receptionist–that actually looked out on hundreds of other windows that all overlooked the roof of the lobby.  We could not open the curtains the entire time we were there, lest every single other person staying at the hotel see our every move; my husband checked, and no one else opened their curtains, either.  This gave the room the feel of the inside cabin on a ship.  It was not pleasant.  But I didn’t even get to the most unpleasant thing, nor did I talk about how my husband ordered me creme brulee in the hotel bar/restaurant, only to  have them serve me what can only be described as cheesecake (ok, it can’t ‘only be described as cheesecake’, it WAS cheesecake).  The most unpleasant thing was the sewer line break during our first afternoon in town, which rendered the lobby un-walk-through-able, and made us very, very happy that we were staying on the 15th floor.  The smell was unbearable, and we were quite worried that we’d be left without working plumbing, which is not ok, even in a one-star hotel.  Needless to say, we will not be staying there again.

Chinatown

Our first short trip was to find food, and there was no lack of food to be found in nearby Chinatown.  We ended up having some appetizers at a nearby Irish pub right out side the big, brightly colored gate all Chinatowns must have by law, or at least that’s how it seems.  We then ventured into town to begin the official Tourism Fest.

Library of Congress

Transferring trains is annoying, as it involves lots of jogging through crowds at multi-level metro stations, but we eventually found our way to Capitol South, which is a short block away from the Library of Congress.  Yet from that block away you could clearly see the line forming out front–I assumed correctly that it was the first of many security lines we’d stand in that weekend.  Visiting anything worth visiting in DC requires a procedure step-for-step identical to that of boarding an airplane.  We arrived at around 3:00 in the ‘afternoon’, which was perfect, as the sun was just beginning to dip down far enough to illuminate the inside of the building through the many intricate windows and skylights.  We joined the last tour of the day, which turned out to be quite a large tour; we found out later that the day after Thanksgiving, for whatever reason, was the busiest day for the Library of Congress.  I found this odd, as I would have thought that everything in or around the Mall–with a capital m–would be empty, as everyone would be at the lower-case-m mall.  I was a bit annoyed by our tour guide, as she was very clearly stalling in order to allow the other groups to get through the different areas of the building first.  We sat in a very lovely room in the depths of the building listening to her prattle on about the history of the building, right down to how it was funded and Thomas Jefferson’s love of the French.  And don’t get me wrong–I did want to know the history of the library, I simply would have preferred to hear it while TOURING the actual building.  There were several points in the ‘tour’–the sitting in a chair part–that I very nearly stood up and screamed ‘can we PLEASE just get on with it?’ But I didn’t.  The actual tour was nice–once we were actually on our way.  It was generally a good trip, and I’m glad we went, though I wish I’d known about the tunnel–there is a tunnel between the LOC and the Capitol Visitor’s center.  Had we the time, we could have taken this tunnel and thus avoided having to stand in a security line twice–once on Friday for the Library, and again on Saturday for the visitor’s center.  This is a good tip that should be included in every guide book.

Inside the Library of Congress

We stayed at the LOC (as I can now call it, now that we’ve ‘gotten to know each other) until almost 6:00; as tours that had already started were allowed to finish even after the doors closed.  We made it into the gift shop just before they shut the doors behind us, and scored our only souvenirs of the entire trip–a set of Library of Congress stained glass skylight coasters for me (yes, you read that correctly) and a very nerdy Library of Congress mug for my husband, which he planned to sip from whilst reading the NY Times and feeling generally superior.

Doug at Fogo De Chao

We took the metro back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.  It was very cold out, so we decided to take a cab to dinner.  Doug’s only request for the entire trip was that we visit a restaurant he’d wanted to experience the last time we were in town–a pseudo-chain restaurant called Fogo De Chao.  There’s one in maybe six or eight other major cities, and we had passed one in Philadelphia the weekend before with a considerable line out front in the cold, waiting for a table.  But with the help of Open Table.com, we walked right in and were guided to ours.  Fogo is a Brazillian steakhouse, and I don’t know if these types of places actually exist in Brazil, but if they do, I cannot imagine the collective cholesterol of the Brazillian people.  We were instructed to take our time exploring the ‘salad bar’–which contained not only salad, but countless types of cheese including a giant wheel of parmesan the likes of which I’ve only ever seen on Iron Chef, cured meats, and marinated vegetables.  I could have made a meal out of this ‘salad bar’ alone.  But as soon as we were done–correction, as soon as I was done, as Doug didn’t spend too much time with the veggies–we were to flip our little coaster-like discs to green, and commence with The Eating of the Meat.  Once your little card is flipped, men with grilled meat on sticks–all kinds of grilled meat on sticks–showed up at the table and sliced pieces off onto your plate.  I think there was maybe a three second delay between the flipping of the cards and the arrival of the first man.  And you had to turn the card back over if you wanted to even begin to eat any of it, as waiter after waiter would show up with meat after meat after meat.  I started with a lamb chop, which was possibly my favorite, though everything was fantastic.  I also had pork ribs, sirloin, fillet, and fillet wrapped in bacon.  I turned down several other items, at which point I was specifically asked what I’d like more of (ribs for me, fillet for Doug, and of course I took some additional fillet just for good measure).  Side dishes arrived, and while my husband ignored them, I sampled all of them and found them to be just as good as the main course–fantastic garlicky mashed potatoes with cheese on top, caramelized bananas that even my husband eventually gave in to, and these little rolls that could only be described as heaven on earth–they were like a small, savory, cheddar doughnut.  Only better.  There was one other side, but I cannot for the life of me remember what it was, only that I think my husband and I fought over it.  I think the excessive amounts of meat may have caused some memory loss, I don’t know.  What I do know is that it was a really good time; my husband was happy, no one was rushing us, and the food was great.  I honestly didn’t expect to like this restaurant–not even a little, but it really was one of the best meals I’ve had.  And thus ended day one.

It was a good day.

This is the print that was chosen as one of the best prints of 1949 and was exhibited in the National Exhibition of Prints held at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C

SEE OTHER WORKS BY THIS ARTIST

Thomas Mann’s article, “What is distintive about the Library of Congress in both its collections and its means of access to them, and the reasons LC needs to maintain classified shelving of books onsite, and a way to deal effectively with the problem of “books on the floor”", has already made the rounds of many blogs and listservs; to access the PDF version, click here. As always, Thomas Mann presents a good read and persuasive arguments against transforming the Library of Congress into something it isn’t.

To back up, the mission of the Library of Congress is:

The Library’s mission is to make its resources available and useful to the Congress and the American people and to sustain and preserve a universal collection of knowledge and creativity for future generations.

This is from their mission and strategic priorities 1997-2004. The document goes on to list four priorities that touch primarily on how LC is to acquire, organize, preserve, maintain, secure, sustain, make available to Congress and the American people for present and future use the collection of human knowledge and creativity.

It is unprecedented in human history — and a uniquely American offer — to open public access to an institution that is in many respects the working library of a government and a de facto national library.

—-

What does Thomas Mann suggest the Library of Congress is turning into? In short, he is criticising a report by Deanna Marcum called “The Meeting on Digital Strategy”. His argues that Deanna compares LC to Google, newspapers and their for-profit business model, and Amazon and their business model of making a profit rather than promoting scholarship. In this sense, Thomas Mann suggeststhat Deanna Marcum is one of many who want to turn the Library of Congress into a for-profit business that purports to provide “easy” digital access to current and quick information. It is a striking commentary. However, Thomas Mann provides some persuasive arguments about why LC cannot do this.

• Preservation
  • From reading LC’s mission statement as well as Thomas’ summary of it, it is clear that LC strives to preserve past and current knowledge and human creativity. It receives as part of this goal millions of free books thanks to the mandate that all copyright books in the US be deposited in LC. In terms of providing access to these resources, LC is unique in that it provides sometimes the only copy of that item. Because not everything has been digitized and items still in copyright are not digitized, this means that LC is the only place to consult these materials. If this stopped, then access to these resources would no longer be available. As Thomas Mann points out, this would be a serious blow to scholarship.
• Scholarship
  • LC has in its mandate to provide resources for scholars as well as Congress and US citizens. In this sense, it is not just a question of finding quick and easy information that may or may not be relevent. The one stop search box and search results based on keywords is not practical. Thomas Mann gives a good example. What is a person is looking for a document about square footage and population statistics. But the document does not have such keywords as square footage, sq. ft., population, statistics, stats, or some variation of those words. Then any search with these keywords will not yield the wanted document. However, with the amount of results that such a search on Google would turn up, the person probably wouldn’t know the existence of such a document. The key to LC’s way of organizing information is that it does not rely on keywords but a classification based on a hierarchy of subjects as well as a classification alpha-numeric string denoting the primary subject. So if the document does not have any keywords of population or statistics, this would be reflected in the subject headings. Thomas Mann argues that this type of information allows scholars to find relevent information.
• Access to scholarship and quality of cataloging
  • Given the last example, Thomas Mann points out that easy access to information depends on the quality of cataloging. He was able to find the resource needed because the catalogers at LC put in subject headings and a call number. Unlike Google or Amazon, LC describes each resource and provides several ways of accessing that resource (author, subjects, title, …).
• Non commercial
  • Another aspect that Thomas Mann sees as separating LC from other libraries is that it is non commercial. Given its mandate to preserve and provide access to human creativity and knowledge, LC is going to collect and make available resources that simply are not current, do  not fit into any business model, and will not make a profit for LC. In fact, Thomas Mann says that without the help of taxpayers money, LC would have folded years ago because it is not in the money making business.

Thomas Mann asks us to question the drive to digitize collections in terms of what is being digitized and the type of access provided with online resources. He also asks us to look at what libraries are and what the Library of Congress means to the United States. If it is a de facto national library, should this be clearly stated in its mission? This is an interesting article and well worth reading whether or not you agree with Mann.

Law librarians need help just like the rest of us, and the following resources provide it.  First is the Law Librarian Blog, which provides plenty of useful information for law librarians working in academic libraries or in law firms, although it is directed more towards the former group.  Second is the Law Library of Congress webpage.  While it is not a blog (although one can easily find the Library of Congress blog and search for posts on law libraries), it does have plenty of good information for academic law librarians, and those working in law firms, including links to legal blawgs.  Next is Strategic Librarian providing advice mostly for librarians working in law firms.  Although emanating from a consulting company, it does offer some valuable insights.  Last but certainly not least is the Library Law Blog.  This last blog is for all sorts of libraries, but it never hurts to be informed.

The Law Librarian Blog is an American resource not connected with any specific law library.  Its editors are law librarians (including one from a federal district court) and law faculty.  Although it is directed primarily towards academic law libraries and faculty with posts on research, resources, and law schools, the blog also offers job postings — such as an opening for a librarian position at the Fifth District Court of Appeals in New Orleans — and legal oddities.  (Note to Mac owners: don’t smoke near your computer!)  The blog has a good topical archive available on the right-hand-side of the page, an RSS feed on the lower left-hand-side (you’ll have to scroll down, but it’s worth it if you want to work in an American law library).  You can also subscribe to the blog (right under the RSS feed).  The blog also provides links to other important blawgs, including the American Bar Association Journal’s 100 blawgs of 2009.   The Law Librarian Blog might not be beautiful to look at, but it conceals a wealth of information and has plenty of personality.

On to the grande dame of American law libraries, the Law Library of Congress.  OK, it’s not a blog (or a blawg), but it does provide useful information for law librarians, especially in its two centre pieces, Current Legal Topics and Global Legal Monitor.  In the Online at the Law Library section just below, there is a link to useful online legal resources arranged by subject.

The Library also has a Facebook page and a Twitter feed, mentioned on the right-hand-side of the homepage.  The Facebook page has links to resources mentioned in the Current Legal Topics and Global Legal Monitor sections of the homepage and as well as other useful information about legal cases and the Library of Congress.  As “the national law library” (like its Facebook profile states), the Library’s focus is federal and international, but not exclusively.  All in all, a very useful resource for those interested in American legal matters.

As noted above, Strategic Librarian is produced by a library consultant, but the information she provides, such as developing a strategy for a law library’s Web 2.0 policy, is quite useful.  She covers the implementation of Web 2.0 technologies by law libraries, as well as current trends in the Information Age.  While I might not entirely agree with the prices some legal resource publishers charge, I do have to agree with the author that the publishers should be able to recoup the cost of developing those services.

The layout of the blog is straightforward, with a long list of tags (i.e., Categories) as well as links to her top posts and other library and knowledge management blogs.  She also provides extensive internal links to the resources she cites, a search tool, and contacting the author through meebo.  Posts like Managing Law Firm Library Overhead Expenses in 2009 make the blog a valuable resource.

Lastly, for a change of pace, it’s the LibraryLaw Blog.  The authors provide information about legal matters involving libraries, like copyright and freedom of information issues, such as Crews: Important studies on ereserves.  In the case of Cambridge University Press et al. v. Patton et al., Kenneth Crews of Columbia University provided expert testimony that defended Georgia University’s reserves policy against the demands of the publishers.  The blog also covers other copyright issues like the Google Books settlement and questions of privacy and possible trespass.  The blog is well written and covers a host of interesting legal issues librarians face, and it has an extensive category list (including a tag for “Canada,” although the last update was from 2007) for easy searching.  It also has a Twitter feed.  Although it is an American resource, the LibraryLaw Blog is a good source of information and inspiration to hard-pressed librarians.

Next: law librarian blogs.

The LC explains web archiving.  We now have videos from Europe and the US on the subject, when will the National Library make one?

I’m not sure what your mental image is of the Library of Congress. Mine used to be quiet reading room, huge stacks, grumpy shushing gray haired librarians and stuffy atmosphere. (And, of course, that huge underground facility where they stored Indiana Jones’ Ark of the Covenant!)

But my mental image has changed over the last few years. There has been a huge push during the last decade to digitize a huge amount of the information housed in the Library. That push resulted, along other things, in the incredible American Memory site. Resources for educators followed together with goodies for kids and families.

But what has really changed my mental image of the LOC is their push in the last year or so to become fully engaged in the Web 2.0 / social networking world. Library officials announced several months ago the Library’s entry into Facebook.

They are also active on Flickr, YouTube, Twitter, and iTunes U.

And while the Library continues to serve the public in traditional ways, connecting through the Web makes their resources more accessible to you. More importantly, these non-traditional methods make the LOC content more accessible, and much more relevant, to your students.

In January of 2008 the Library of Congress (LOC) added their first picture to the photosharing site Flickr.  A little over 9 months later, their photos on Flickr had been viewed over 10.4 million times.  Why did the LOC join a social media photosharing site? According to their FAQ on the topic they had three main goals:

• To share photographs from the Library’s collections with people who enjoy images but might not visit the Library’s own Web site.
• To gain a better understanding of how social tagging and community input could benefit both the Library and users of the collections.
• To gain experience participating in Web communities that are interested in the kinds of materials in the Library’s collections.

The LOC choose Flickr because it had a vibrant and large photosharing community with built in tagging, comments, and notes.  The community conversations were focused on photos and photography; and, it offered APIs that allowed for batch loading of photos and extraction of community provided information.

The LOC’s experiment with Flickr is considered a pilot project and they have published a report [pdf] on their first nine months of the project.  Their reporting indicates that they accomplished their goals: by October 2008, their photos on Flickr were averaging 500,000 views a month.  Interestingly, 82% of this traffic was referred from within Flickr; only 3% came from search engines.  Traffic to their own web site increased as well.  During the first 5 months of the pilot project, average monthly visits to the LOC’s own Prints and Photographs Online Catalog rose 20% compared to the same period the year before.  I think it would be interesting to also know how much traffic came to their flickr stream via the links on the LOC site, which seem to be a bit buried on the Prints and Photographs Reading Room page.

The LOC’s Flickr project helped their staff gain experience with Web 2.0 conventions as well.  For example, LOC let the Flickr community tag their photos.  During the first nine months, there were 67,176 community added tags, of which 14,472 (21%) were unique tags.  The data they are generating from this project is helping them research social tagging as a method of organization.

I think this is a great project and an amazing way for a library to open up its digital photos. Indeed, the LOC believes that their Flickr project has opened new avenues for making the Library’s visual collections not only available but also useful.  You can read more about the project on the LOC’s Photos on Flickr page.

(Image: Zeppelin Passenger ship from LOC Flickr stream – no copyright restriction)

“Hold everything,” said Boppo.

Everyone obeyed as much as possible. Joe held the birthday card with their parents’ urgent cry for help. Nancy held the bull-whip in readiness. The baby held the last note in the “Star Wars” theme song. Einstein held his breath.

Want to know if the baby and Einstein ever breathed out?  What Nancy did with the bull-whip?  Well then, go read the rest of the latest episode of The Exquisite Corpse Adventure, this one penned by the witty Gregory Maguire and illustrated by Chris Van Dusen.

A PROCLAMATION
For a Publick Thanksgiving.

ALTHOUGH, Considering the Judgments of GOD, which are on the Earth, in the great Distress & Desolation brought upon many Nations, both by WAR and PESTILENCE.

And Considering also particularly, the awful Tokens of GOD’s Righteous Anger against us, Especially, in the Contagious SICKNESS which has been in divers Places of the Land, and in the continued RAINS, by which great Losses have been sustained, It becomes Us to be deeply Humbled before the LORD.

IT is Nevertheless our Duty to Acknowledge the many Instances of Divine Goodness, which the LORD whose Ways, are not as Ours, has Graciously vouchtaled Us and which are never to be forgotten………..Namely,

THE Smiles of Providence on the BRITISH Empire, and particularly, On Our Sovereign Lord the KING, in the Prosperity of His Life and Reign: On Their Royal Highnesles the PRINCE and PRINCESS of Wales, and and on all the Branches of the ROYAL FAMILY, not only, in Their Happy Increase, by the BIRTH of the Royal Prince WILLIAM AUGUSTUS, but, also, in the Lives of Others of Them when in Hazard by Sickness, have been Mercifully Spared.

THE PEACE which has been Continued, and Confirmed to Our Nation, after so many Endeavours to interrupt It.

THE Preservation of the British Dominions from the Raging PESTILENCE, which has laid so many Places waste, within their View, and Neighbourhood.

THE General HEALTH that has been Enjoyed in the Land, notwithstanding, The SMALLPOX has prevailed so much, in the Principal Place of our Neighbouring Province.

THE Preservation of Our COLONY, in so great a Measure from that Contagious Sickness, when We have been in great Danger of It; The Continuance of Our Privileges both Civil and Sacred; The Peace which we have Enjoyed: And the good Supply of the Fruits of the Earth, which the present Year has been Crowned with.

WHICH are, (All of them) Blessings from the LORD, whose Mercy therein We ought to Celebrate with great THANKFULNESS.

I have therefore thought fit, with the Abbice and Consent of the Council, and at the Desire of the Representatives, to Appoint, and do hereby Appoint Wednesday, the Eight Day of November next, to be Observed as a Day of publick THANKGIVING throughout the Colony. Exhorting all both Ministers & People, with Unseigned Devotion, to Bless the Name of the LORD, and praise him for all the Wonders of his Goodness; And, to Beg that the mercy which we Adore, may in all the needful Instances thereof be manifested to Us.

And all Service Labours on the said Day is hereby strictly prohibited.

Given in New-Haven, the Fourteenth Day of October, Anno Domini 1721, In the Eight year of the Reign of Our Sovereign lord GEORGE, by the Grace of GOD of Great Britain, France and Ireland, KING, Defender of the Faith, &c.

G. SALTONSTALL.

GOD Save the KING.

~Image and Text from the Library of Congress American Memory project

As we continue adding websites to our del.ici.ous collection of bookmarks, we want to keep you informed of our favorite recent additions, organized by subject:

Fine Arts

Bruce Nauman Leave the Land Alone: Documentation of Bruce Nauman’s performance of Untitled (Leave the Land Alone), 1969/2009.

The Empire That Was Russia: The Prokudin-Gorskii Photographic Record Recreated: A Library of Congress exhibition documenting the work of photographer to the Tsar Sergei Mikhailovich Prokrudin-Gorskii.

French National Library’s Image Bank: A searchable collection of digital materials from the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.

Inventing Marcel Duchamp: The Dynamics of Portraiture: Website for the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

Vézelay: Benedictine Abbey of Sainte-Marie-Madeleine: A searchable collection of digital images of the Abbey of Sainte-Marie-Madeleine at Vézelay, photographed by Alison Stones, and cataloged by the Digital Research Library at the University of Pittsburgh.

Architecture/ Design

Arch Daily: An the online source of continuous information for a growing community of thousands of architects searching for the latest architectural news: projects, products, events, interviews and competitions among others.

E. A. Seguy’s Butterflies: A digital collection of Seguy’s collotypes from the New York Public Library.

Environmental Design Archives: Gertrude Jekyll: Archival material from the University of California at Berkeley. The Jekyll collection includes presentation drawings, planting plans, plant lists, surveys, photographs, and correspondence relating to residential gardens throughout the United Kingdom.

Plastics Network: Website of an international collaborative project to promote an understanding of the study of plastics and design.

Tom Eckersley Poster Archive: A collection of digital images of Eckersley’s posters hosted by the Visual Arts Data Service, VADS, created from the artist’s archive at the University of the Arts in London.

Liberal Arts

American Treasures of the Library of Congress: Online exhibition displaying some 250 items from the Library of Congress collections, including some not currently on permanent display. The organizing principles of this exhibition are Memory, Reason and Imagination.

Literature, Arts, and Medicine Database: “The Literature, Arts, & Medicine Database is an annotated multimedia listing of prose, poetry, film, video and art that was developed to be a resource for teaching and research in MEDICAL HUMANITIES, and for use in health/pre-health, graduate and undergraduate liberal arts and social science settings.”

Transatlantic Slave Trade Database Images: A collection of images of places and vessels involved in the Transatlantic Slave trade, as well as slave portraits. This collection is part of the Voyages database project, which has collected archival data from all over the world to create an invaluable resource for scholars of the slave trade.

Van Gogh: The Letters: A project of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, offering all 902 letters to and from Van Gogh in digital format, with scans of the originals, transcripts and annotations.

Voice of the Shuttle – Cultural Studies: Voice of the Shuttle (VoS) is a subject gateway for humanities and humanities-related resources on the Internet.

Museums

Bauhaus 1919-1933: Workshops for Modernity: MoMA exhibition displaying “over 400 works by some 100 Bauhaus teachers and students that reflect the extraordinarily broad range of the school’s output.”

New Ceramics Galleries, Victoria and Albert Museum, London: “Purpose built in 1909 for the display of the Ceramics collection the newly refurbished galleries tell the story of world ceramics, with 3000 objects on display from the earliest Chinese pottery to contemporary ceramic art.”

RISD Museum: The Brilliant Line: An exhibition of engravings from the Early Modern period.

Reunion des Musees Nationaux: A digital collection of art images from French museums.

The Virtual Museum of Iraq: Online exhibition of objects from Iraqi museums created by the Italian National Research Council.

As presidents go, Coolidge hasn’t gotten a lot of ink from historians. Sure, there are some biographies out there — and Amity’s in the works, of course. But for the most part, the literature is pretty thin. Among 20th century presidents, only Warren Harding can give Coolidge a run for his money in the “unexamined life” category.

The relative paucity of the Coolidge historiography extends beyond books to articles. But there have been at several important efforts to coordinate new Coolidge scholarship, including conferences at the Kennedy presidential library (papers here at the Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation) and a 1995 symposium at the Library of Congress (papers published in 1998 but out of print now).

Coolidge buffs are well familiar with these essays, but I thought it might be useful to highlight them for people not in the know already. The Library of Congress volume is especially had to find. Or even turn up on a Google search unless you know what you’re after.

It’s important to point out that the most sustained effort to encourage Coolidge scholarship has come from the Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation. They keep the flame alive.

Plusieurs personnes et organismes mettent à la disposition de la communauté internaute des ressources gratuites si elles sont utilisées à des fins pédagogiques. Elles sont identifiées le plus souvent par le logo http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons.

Voici la deuxième et dernière partie de mon billet sur les  sites internet qui proposent des images à fins pédagogiques et qui conviennent à des projets en univers social, donc en histoire. Je vous rappelle qu’il vous revient de vérifier les conditions d’utilisations, qui peuvent différer d’un site à l’autre. Habituellement, on demande d’indiquer le créateur ou bien l’organisme qui diffuse l’image. Parfois, il est interdit de modifier l’image.

Wikipédia

Wikipédia contient une bonne quantité d’images historiques, qui proviennent de sources variées.

Adresse: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accueil

Plan de Montréal durant le régime français 1731

Bibliothèque et archives du Canada

Le site internet de Bibliothèque et archives du Canada est très dense. Pour trouver des images, je vous suggère d’aller directement à la section Art et photographie où il y a des bases de données et des expositions virtuelles. Quelques ressources particulièrement intéressantes: Canadian Illustrated News :Les nouvelles en images : 1869-1883, Images anciennes du Canada: illustrations tirées de livres rares, Photographies et Art documentaire.

Adresse: http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/art-photographie/index-f.html

Château Frontenac, Quebec, P.Q. 1909

Library of Congress

La collection numérique de la Library of Congress contient des photographies et des oeuvres imprimées portant sur l’histoire des États-Unis, mais on y trouve aussi des images montrant d’autres pays. Il y a 1 200 000 images disponibles en ligne, mais attention, elles ne sont pas toutes dans le domaine public. Aussi, certaines images ne sont disponibles pour le téléchargement qu’en très petit format.

Adresse: http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/catalog.html

Gallica

Gallica est le portail numérique de la Bibliothèque nationale de France (BNF). On peut intégrer facilement dans un blogue les images sélectionnées, voir à droite de l’image où c’est écrit vignette exportable. Lorsqu’on copie le code html, la légende apparaît automatiquement avec l’image. Très pratique.

Adresse: http://gallica.bnf.fr/

Samuel de Champlain // Gouverneur Général du Canada (N.elle France) : Né à Brouage en 1567 // Fonde Québec en 1608 et meurt dans cette ville en 1635 : [estampe] / Ducornet Ec. c. f.
Source: Bibliothèque nationale de France

Billets reliés (abonnés par courriel: si les liens qui suivent ne fonctionnent pas, cliquez sur le titre de ce billet):

• Histoire: des images libres de droit (première partie)
• Images anciennes de Trois-Rivières et d’ailleurs
• CyberMuse: Musée national des beaux-arts du Canada
• Guide de la photographie ancienne

“A camera is a tool for learning how

to see without a camera.”

Dorothea Lange, 1895-1965

“White Angel Breadline”
By Dorothea Lange, San Francisco, California, 1933
National Archives, Records of the Social Security Administration

The Library of Congress has implemented a way to visualize relationships between LOC Authorites and Vocabularies within their site.   Accessing the visualizations is a bit tricky.  From the Library of Congress’ main page, you need to click on the resources for librarians and then click on the Authorities and Vocabularies link.  This brings you to a site designed for humans and computers to be able to access LOC Authorities.  Clicking on Library of Congress Subject Headings brings you to the main search page.  This site is a different one than the Subject Heading Authority page because it revolves around linked data and is mine-able by computers.  You can search for a specific LOC Authority and click on the visualize tab to see a word web of the relationships to broader, related and narrower terms for that authority.

This visualization is a step in the right direction; it lays out the relationships between authorities.

This visualization tool would be difficult to use if you do not know about authorities and LOC Vocabularies.  If you are looking for an authority this tool is a nice change from the usual hierarchy found in the LOC Subject Heading Search, but I’m not convinced that this tool adds value to the data set.

Looking this visualization with cricket as an authority with its five related terms isn’t necessarily easier than looking at a list of broader or narrower terms.  The visualization would be most useful in organizing terms when there is an abundance of terms.  Unfortunately when you try to access the visualization of authorities with many relations, such as “games” you get this:

I don’t really believe that browsers can’t handle more than 20 semantic relations…this makes it sound like 19 relationships are fine, but at 20 my computer will explode because 20 semantic relations make things so unstable…  This “browser” problem needs to be fixed for this tool to be useful, not to mention the exciting visualizations are going to be the ones with the most relationships.

Identifying the relationships between authorities would seem to be the difficult part, but in reality the difficult part is to convey this information in meaningful, pleasing visualizations.  The meaning is present in this too, to an extent, now it needs expanded and the focus needs to be on making this a pleasing tool to use.  Also, this word web might not be the best way to express relationships between authorities.  The word web is much better than the hierarchical outline, but it feels as if more value could be added through a different visualization theme.

Interior, Library of Congress

Thursday, November 19, 2009
Waxing Moon
Uranus Retrograde

I’m on the road all day, headed back to NY. I’ve got a post up on Kemmryk about loss, since this is the first anniversary of my grandmother’s death.

I am so sore that I’m almost looking forward to the long bus trip back home!

Hit the ground running early — breakfast at the same great cafe as yesterday. Again, here are the highlights — I’ll be doing some essays to go into more detail in a few days:

Ford’s Theatre — where Abraham Lincoln was shot. Didn’t go in — too many noisy kids. Loved the real gas lights outside. The Petersen House — where Lincoln died — was closed today because it’s getting re-roofed.

Library of Congress — I had no idea that it’s just about the most beautiful building in America. And Jefferson’s “starter collection” library practically made me weep with joy — especially since he read novels as well as Aristotle!

Supreme Court — they were busy and working and tons of security.

Folger Shakespeare Library — lovely, unusual exhibition on the way Elizabethans imagined China.

US Botanic Garden — can you imagine, there are roses still in bloom outside in mid-November?

Museum of the American Indian — stunning and amazing and fascinating and wonderful and somewhat sad. I found some wonderful books and also joined the Smithsonian Institute as a member. It’s worth it — there’s no admission in any of the museums, and I’ve gotten far more out of them than membership cost.

National Gallery of Art — lovely galleries, one of the worst meals in recent memory.

Visits with politicos — very quick and friendly; Capitol HIll was VERY busy today. Good. That’s why we pay ‘em. Unfortunately, I think I’ve developed an allergy to politicians — I start sneezing around them.

Hirschorn Museum — I ducked in to see the Anne Truitt exhibit because I love her TURN so much. And found a book I really, really needed in the store.

“The Castle” — the original Smithsonian building — absolutely gorgeous.

Hit the Macy’s sale on the way back, since the sale was about 75% off. No skirts. Too hot. I lasted 12 minutes, and remembered why I hate shopping in department stores so much, and, until the recent skirt kerflamma, I hadn’t been in a department store other than Target in years.

Back to the hotel, really sore and hurting. Downed a couple of Advil, read the paper (I LOVE the print version of the WASHINGTON POST), and went to a local Italian place for dinner, which was excellent, although I’m not sure why they were playing Spanish guitar music in an Italian restaurant.

Back to the hotel, soaked (this time in bath salts). Tried to figure out how I wound up with so many books to haul back — I thought I was SO careful. Thank goodness I made them ship up all those government reports.

Packed, typed up notes, worked on some writing.

Tomorrow, I have to hit the ground running yet again in preparation for Maine next week and getting the Christmas story finished so it can get out to the printer.

Devon