Library of Congress's Blog, page 142

The Path a Book Takes

(The following story is featured in the July/August 2015 issue of the LCM, which you can read in it’s entirety here. The story was written by Susan Morris, assistant to the director for Acquisitions and Bibliographic Access.)

Follow the journey taken by each of the 300,000 books added to the Library’s collections annually.

Packages of books arrive at the loading dock in the Library’s James Madison Building.

Richard Yarnell reviews materials in the acquisitions mailroom where they are sorted by country of origin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Between the time a book is published and a library user reads it, as many as a dozen Library staff members will have handled the volume. They will have made a series of crucial decisions about its acquisition for the collection, analyzed and described it in the Library of Congress Online Catalog and preserved and shelved it so it can be made accessible to readers.To track the path a book takes from arrival to the reading room, we will follow “Crónicas Cuauhtemenses” by Rodolfo Torres González, a volume received from the Mexican book dealer México Norte.

The book arrives at the loading dock in the Library’s James Madison Memorial Building on Capitol Hill. This is not the first stop the book has made in greater Washington. To ensure that books are not contaminated with chemical or biological substances, the packages have already been opened, inspected and resealed at an off-site mail-handling facility in suburban Maryland–like all mail that is delivered to the Library on Capitol Hill. The Library’s mail contractors load the packages of books into upright mail cages near the loading dock and push them to the acquisitions mail room on the basement level of the Madison Building, where Library staff sort them by country of origin.

The book travels to the Mexico, Central America, and Caribbean Section of the African, Latin American and Western European Division to receive acquisitions processing. An acquisitions specialist opens the package of books and verifies that the items received are ones the Library wanted and in good physical condition. The specialist evaluates each book to determine its cataloging priority–a crucial decision that determines how full a bibliographic description will eventually be created for the book. Next, a Library recommending officer determines that the title is within scope for the Library’s collections and confirms the cataloging priority. The acquisitions specialist prepares the invoice for payment and turns the book over to an acquisitions technician, who searches the Library’s Integrated Library System (ILS) to be certain it is not a duplicate of material already received.

The technician also searches the ILS for an initial bibliographic record and creates one if none exists. If no other cataloging data exist for the book, he inserts slips in its pages to show that it needs original cataloging–cataloging created “from scratch” by Library staff. The invoice from the vendor is forwarded to the section head who approves payment. The book is carried to the security marking and targeting station, where it receives a stamp on the top edge to indicate Library of Congress ownership and security targets are inserted, which will cause an alarm to sound if the book is removed from Library premises. The book is now under physical security control, inventory control and initial bibliographic control. It is placed on a book truck and delivered to staff members who have skill in cataloging Latin American material.

Deborah Vaden completes the call number and scans the barcode.

Barbara Tenenbaum checks to see if incoming titles should be included in the Handbook of Latin American Studies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A senior cataloging specialist in the Mexico, Central America, and Caribbean Section completes the bibliographic control of the book. She reviews and expands the physical description of the book and determines which individuals and corporate entities were responsible for writing the content and publishing or sponsoring the finished book. She formulates authorized forms of names for the responsible parties and adds them to the bibliographic record in the ILS.

She also analyzes the content of the book in order to assign subject terms, using the standardized, controlled vocabulary in the Library of Congress Subject Headings. Very often, the cataloger creates new name or subject terms, in standardized forms, to provide access to cutting-edge research materials in the catalog. Finally, she assigns a classification number from the Library of Congress Classification System (LCC). Books about Mexican history will class between F1201 and F1392 in the LCC.

A cataloging technician adds information to the classification number to produce a complete call number. The call number serves as the physical address where the book will reside. All newly cataloged monographs in the general collections are shelved at the Library’s offsite facilities or in fixed location shelving on Capitol Hill in order to conserve space.

The LCC call number will always remain in the ILS bibliographic record for two reasons: other libraries that hold copies of the same book may want to use LCC call numbers as their books’ physical addresses; and the call number is hot-linked in the Library of Congress Online Catalog so that the Library’s end users can use the call number to launch online searches for other resources about the same subjects. “Crónicas Cuauhtemenses” received the call number F1391.C8835T67 2007, and it is stored in the Library’s offsite facility at Fort Meade, Maryland, where it can be retrieved and delivered to a user on Capitol Hill in a matter of hours.

The cataloged book is forwarded to the inspection shelves for the “Handbook of Latin American Studies” (HLAS) for review by the Library’s area specialist in Mexican culture. She inspects the book to determine whether it should be included in HLAS, the bibliography of publications about Latin America that has been edited at the Library of Congress for more than 70 years. The area specialist decides that this title should not receive an entry in this renowned reference tool. At this point, the book may also be considered for possible assignment to reference collections in the Library’s reading rooms.

Melanie Pollutta completes bibliographic control of incoming books and assigns the LC classification number.

“Cronicas Cuauhtemenses” has been cataloged, bound and deacidified.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, the Library takes steps to ensure the book will be available for generations to come. Like most books the Library receives from Latin America, “Crónicas Cuauhtemenses” is soft-covered. It will be sent to the Library’s Binding and Collections Care Division, which will ship it to the Library’s commercial bindery in Indiana. After it is hardbound, the book may be sent to the Library’s mass deacidification contractor near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to neutralize the wood-pulp acid in its pages. Deacidification prevents premature yellowing and extends the life of a book by 300 years or more.

The book has had a long journey from Mexico to Washington, D.C., with side trips to Indiana and Pennsylvania. When the cataloged, bound, and deacidified book is returned to the Library, it is now ready to be provided to the Library’s users in the Hispanic Reading Room, Main Reading Room or other reading rooms in one of the Library’s three buildings on Capitol Hill.

All photos by Shawn Miller

Freshening Our Perspectives

For more than a decade, the Library of Congress has been pleased to participate in an internship program sponsored by the Hispanic Association of Colleges & Universities, or HACU. Talented young Latino students work paid, 15-week internships with various Library divisions, getting a hands-on view of the options here and helping us get the work done with the kind of team vision that only a diversity of eyes can bring.

This would be a good situation from any angle; however, it is even better for the Library this year, because HACU announced today that the Library of Congress has won its Outstanding HACU Public Sector Partner Award for 2015.

“We are incredibly honored to be named HACU’s Outstanding Public Sector Partner,” said George Coulbourne, chief, internships and residencies in the Library’s National and International Outreach division. “HACU’s National Internship Program has 45 federal agencies participating, so we had some competition.”

Some HACU success stories the Library is proud to have shared in:

Lia Apodaca Kerwin, who worked in the Library’s Manuscript Division in 2005 preparing the papers of former U.S. Rep. Patsy Mink (D-HI) for use by researchers as a HACU intern, was hired as a reference librarian in the division, and later was promoted to a program specialist position in the Library’s Office of the Chief of Staff. Now she is a program specialist in the Library’s Office of Support Operations. She said HACU can help federal agencies such as the Library bring more Latino talent into their ranks. As for her own experience, “The opportunity of a HACU position at the Library of Congress was priceless.”

Eliamelisa Gonzalez, a HACU intern at the Library’s Office of Strategic Initiatives in 2010, worked on the Library’s Continuity of Operations (COOP) plan, which would allow the Library to maintain its operations in the event of an emergency that severely disrupted normal operations. She also performed new employee orientations regarding emergency preparedness, prepared training materials, updated a website and collaborated on a special project for the division chief. After working for OSI post-internship for several months, she was chosen in a competitive program by the Library’s Congressional Research Service, where she is now a human capital management specialist. “I am thankful for the HACU program, because it was the vehicle that allowed me the opportunity to come to D.C. and work at the Library,” Gonzalez said.

Kevin Pardinas, a HACU intern with the Library in 2008, now is a 5th-year associate attorney with the law firm of Quintairos, Prieto, Wood & Boyer, P.A. in Miami, Florida. He created a program manual for the Office of Strategic Initiatives that outlined ways for the Library to partner with universities and colleges. Pardinas said the most valuable aspect, for him, was “learning to work with high-level executives and administrators around the country,” which “honed my presentation skills” and made him “a much better public speaker and manager.”

Thomas Padilla, a HACU intern in 2011, now serves as a digital humanities librarian at Michigan State University. He held HACU internships at the National Archives and at the Library of Congress, and the Library offered him a fulltime job at the close of his internship. During his time at the Library he continued his graduate schooling, and he now has advanced degrees in History and in Library and Information Science. Having had “such a great experience with HACU, I looked for similar diversity-oriented support systems to help develop my skills as a librarian,” he said.

Ali Fazal, a HACU intern at the Library in 2012, now is manager of corporate business development for the mobile event app company DoubleDutch. At the Library, he worked on graphics, messaging and marketing for a program in its Office of Strategic Initiatives, the National Digital Stewardship Residency. He stayed on with the Library for seven months following his internship, then headed home to California to dig into the private sector. “Without HACU, I would have never have had the exposure … or the access to learn valuable on-the-job skills like graphic design and digital marketing, that have led me to success in my current career.”

Celia Rivas-Mendive, who worked for the EPA as a HACU Intern in the summer of 2006, now is a senior GAO analyst on the Natural Resources and the Environment team at the Government Accountability Office. She worked at the Library’s Congressional Research Service for four years following her HACU internship, via HACU’s Cooperative Education Program. “The fact that HACU took care of housing and travel logistics was critical for someone like me … someone who had never been to D.C. previously and who was moving from the West Coast. HACU changed my life by serving as a launching pad for my career in the federal government,” Rivas-Mendive said.

The Texas-based HACU, which aims to “champion Hispanic success in higher education,” started out in 1986 with 18 member institutions. Now it interacts with more than 450 colleges and universities in the U.S., Puerto Rico, Latin America and Spain. More than two-thirds of all Hispanic college students in the U.S. attend HACU member schools.

To celebrate these amazing young people—and the award they’ve made possible for the Library—today we offer this HACU haiku:

These talented kids

Diversify our outlooks —

The honor’s all ours.

Be Kind to Books Club

The following post is by Lucy Jakub, one of the 36 college students who participated in the Library of Congress 2015 Junior Fellows Summer Intern Program. Jakub is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in creative nonfiction at Columbia University. Her independent work in graphic design led her to her internship with the Library’s Conservation Division, making posters and other outreach materials that advocate care and respect for books and library collections.

“A book mark would be better!” Poster by Arlington Gregg, between 1936 and 1940. Prints and Photographs Division.

“Don’t Dog-Ear. Use a Bookmark1″ Poster by Lucy Jakub, 2015.

My job this summer has been to design posters that advocate book preservation for schools and libraries. I was inspired by the work of Works Project Administration artist Arlington Gregg, whose poster series, in simple language and bold graphics, outlined the don’ts of book handling in the 1930s. I decided to make an updated series conveying the same messages in a fresh but reverential style. Each of my designs features a literary character from the public domain, recruited to teach kids how to take care of their books: Dracula cautions against exposing paper to the sun. Dorothy and the Wicked Witch of the West demonstrate water damage.

For artists scouring the public domain for free material, the Library’s digitized collections are a gold mine. Finding public domain images that are still instantly recognizable in today’s culture, however, can be a challenge. Even the greatest hits are sometimes fuzzy to contemporary children. There are sure to be some people asking why Dorothy’s shoe on my poster is silver and not red. When Disney filmed the “Wizard of Oz,” they changed L. Frank Baum’s silver shoes to ruby so they would sparkle in Technicolor. So though Disney cannot own a copyright on Baum’s character, they own the iconic ruby slippers.

In the interest of trying to make my posters a bit more contemporary, I decided to pursue a license for a character still under copyright. I went for my personal favorite: the Amazing Spider-man. The Library’s collections include the original art for Amazing Fantasy #15, Peter Parker’s comic debut. I wanted to put him on a poster telling kids not to touch their books with “sticky fingers.”

“If any super hero is suited to encourage children to read and care for books, it is Peter Parker, super-nerd and role model for us all,” I wrote to Marvel Comics.

Unfortunately, Marvel said no and wished me well. Disappointed but not to be deterred, I set my sights on Tarzan, whose disregard for cleanliness would make him a good fit for my poster: swings from a vine, half man half beast. I initially assumed Tarzan was in the public domain and free for artists to use because “Tarzan of the Apes” was published by Edgar Rice Burroughs in 1914, and its copyright has expired.

Though the book is in the public domain now, Burroughs incorporated himself in 1923. His name and all his major characters are trademarked and owned by Edgar Rice Burroughs Incorporated to this day.

Trademarks are a little different from copyrights. A trademark essentially serves as a symbol for a commodity. It must be renewed every 10 years but in theory can exist in perpetuity as long as it is continually renewed. A copyright, on the other hand, has an expiration date past which it cannot be owned by an individual or a corporation (right now, the term is 70 years after the death of the author).

Working with Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc. was a positive experience. They were excited about being part of my project and were accommodating to the Library’s limited resources. They were giving me Tarzan, but I was giving them something, too: a highly visible and positive platform for their character.

All five of the “Be Kind To Books Club” posters will soon be freely available to download and print from the Library’s website at www.loc.gov/preservation/.

Philosophers Habermas and Taylor to Share $1.5 Million Kluge Prize

The following post, written by Jason Steinhauer, was originally published on the blog Insights: Scholarly Work at the John W. Kluge Center.

Jürgen Habermas and Charles Taylor, two of the world’s most important philosophers, will share the prestigious $1.5 million John W. Kluge Prize for Achievement in the Study of Humanity awarded by the Library of Congress. The announcement was made today by Librarian of Congress James H. Billington. They are the ninth and tenth recipients of the award.

“Jürgen Habermas and Charles Taylor are brilliant philosophers and deeply engaged public intellectuals,” Billington said. “Emerging from different philosophical traditions, they converge in their ability to address contemporary problems with a penetrating understanding of individual and social formations. Highly regarded by other philosophers for their expertise, they are equally esteemed by the wider public for their willingness to provide philosophically informed political and moral perspectives. Through decades of grappling with humanity’s most profound and pressing concerns, their ability to bridge disciplinary and conceptual boundaries has redefined the role of public intellectual.”

Jürgen Habermas

Jürgen Habermas

Jürgen Habermas is one the world’s most important living philosophers. Born in Düsseldorf, Germany in 1929, Habermas emerged as the most important German philosopher and socio-political theorist of the second half of the 20th century. His books, articles and essays number in the hundreds, and he has been widely read and translated into more than 40 languages, including Arabic, Catalan, Chinese, Danish, English, French, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish. His major contributions encompass the fields of philosophy, social sciences, social theory, democratic theory, philosophy of religion, jurisprudence and historical and cultural analysis. He continues to publish actively.

“Jürgen Habermas is a scholar whose impact cannot be overestimated,” Billington said. “In both his magisterial works of theoretical analysis and his influential contributions to social criticism and public debate, he has repeatedly shown that Enlightenment values of justice and freedom, if transmitted through cultures of open communication and dialogue, can sustain social and political systems even through periods of significant transformation.”

Charles Taylor

Charles Taylor. Photo credit: Makhanets.

Born in 1931 in Montreal, Canada, Charles Taylor, like Habermas, ranks among the world’s most original and wide-ranging philosophical minds. Educated at McGill University and as a Rhodes Scholar, at Oxford University, Taylor is best known for his contributions to political philosophy, the philosophy of social science, the history of philosophy and intellectual history, his work has received international acclaim and has influenced academia and the world at-large. Published in 20 languages, his writings link disparate academic disciplines and range from reflections on artificial intelligence to analyses of contemporary multicultural societies to the study of religion and what it means to live in a secular age.

“Charles Taylor is a philosopher of extraordinary eminence,” Billington said. “His writings reveal astonishing breadth and depth, ranging across subjects as diverse as metaphysics, modern culture, human conduct and behavior, modernization and the place of religion in a secular age. He writes with a lucidity that makes his work accessible to the non-specialist reader, ensuring that his contributions to our understanding of agency, freedom, spirituality and the relation between the natural sciences and the humanities will be of lasting import.”

About the Prize

The Kluge Prize

Endowed by philanthropist John W. Kluge, the Kluge Prize recognizes achievement in the range of disciplines not covered by the Nobel prizes, including history, philosophy, politics, anthropology, sociology, religion, criticism in the arts and humanities, and linguistics.

Administered by The John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress, ordinarily the Prize is a $1 million award. In 2015 the Kluge Prize is increased to $1.5 million in recognition of the Kluge Center’s 15th anniversary. Each awardee will receive half of the prize money.

Previous Kluge Prizes have been awarded to Polish philosopher Leszek Kolakowski (2003); historian Jaroslav Pelikan and philosopher Paul Ricoeur (2004); African-American historian John Hope Franklin and Chinese historian Yu Ying-shih (2006); historian Peter Lamont Brown and Indian historian Romila Thapar (2008); and Brazilian President and sociologist Fernando Henrique Cardoso (2012).

Learn more about this year’s recipients on our website: www.loc.gov/kluge/prize/ and on Twitter, #KlugePrize. The Prize will be conferred September 29th at a ceremony in Washington, D.C.

The following post, written by Jason Steinhauer, was orig...

The following post, written by Jason Steinhauer, was originally published on the blog Insights: Scholarly Work at the John W. Kluge Center.

Jürgen Habermas and Charles Taylor, two of the world’s most important philosophers, will share the prestigious $1.5 million John W. Kluge Prize for Achievement in the Study of Humanity awarded by the Library of Congress. The announcement was made today by Librarian of Congress James H. Billington. They are the ninth and tenth recipients of the award.

“Jürgen Habermas and Charles Taylor are brilliant philosophers and deeply engaged public intellectuals,” Billington said. “Emerging from different philosophical traditions, they converge in their ability to address contemporary problems with a penetrating understanding of individual and social formations. Highly regarded by other philosophers for their expertise, they are equally esteemed by the wider public for their willingness to provide philosophically informed political and moral perspectives. Through decades of grappling with humanity’s most profound and pressing concerns, their ability to bridge disciplinary and conceptual boundaries has redefined the role of public intellectual.”

Jürgen Habermas

Jürgen Habermas

Jürgen Habermas is one the world’s most important living philosophers. Born in Düsseldorf, Germany in 1929, Habermas emerged as the most important German philosopher and socio-political theorist of the second half of the 20th century. His books, articles and essays number in the hundreds, and he has been widely read and translated into more than 40 languages, including Arabic, Catalan, Chinese, Danish, English, French, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish. His major contributions encompass the fields of philosophy, social sciences, social theory, democratic theory, philosophy of religion, jurisprudence and historical and cultural analysis. He continues to publish actively.

“Jürgen Habermas is a scholar whose impact cannot be overestimated,” Billington said. “In both his magisterial works of theoretical analysis and his influential contributions to social criticism and public debate, he has repeatedly shown that Enlightenment values of justice and freedom, if transmitted through cultures of open communication and dialogue, can sustain social and political systems even through periods of significant transformation.”

Charles Taylor

Charles Taylor. Photo credit: Makhanets.

Born in 1931 in Montreal, Canada, Charles Taylor, like Habermas, ranks among the world’s most original and wide-ranging philosophical minds. Educated at McGill University and as a Rhodes Scholar, at Oxford University, Taylor is best known for his contributions to political philosophy, the philosophy of social science, the history of philosophy and intellectual history, his work has received international acclaim and has influenced academia and the world at-large. Published in 20 languages, his writings link disparate academic disciplines and range from reflections on artificial intelligence to analyses of contemporary multicultural societies to the study of religion and what it means to live in a secular age.

“Charles Taylor is a philosopher of extraordinary eminence,” Billington said. “His writings reveal astonishing breadth and depth, ranging across subjects as diverse as metaphysics, modern culture, human conduct and behavior, modernization and the place of religion in a secular age. He writes with a lucidity that makes his work accessible to the non-specialist reader, ensuring that his contributions to our understanding of agency, freedom, spirituality and the relation between the natural sciences and the humanities will be of lasting import.”

About the Prize

The Kluge Prize

Endowed by philanthropist John W. Kluge, the Kluge Prize recognizes achievement in the range of disciplines not covered by the Nobel prizes, including history, philosophy, politics, anthropology, sociology, religion, criticism in the arts and humanities, and linguistics.

Administered by The John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress, ordinarily the Prize is a $1 million award. In 2015 the Kluge Prize is increased to $1.5 million in recognition of the Kluge Center’s 15th anniversary. Each awardee will receive half of the prize money.

Previous Kluge Prizes have been awarded to Polish philosopher Leszek Kolakowski (2003); historian Jaroslav Pelikan and philosopher Paul Ricoeur (2004); African-American historian John Hope Franklin and Chinese historian Yu Ying-shih (2006); historian Peter Lamont Brown and Indian historian Romila Thapar (2008); and Brazilian President and sociologist Fernando Henrique Cardoso (2012).

Learn more about this year’s recipients on our website: www.loc.gov/kluge/prize/ and on Twitter, #KlugePrize. The Prize will be conferred September 29th at a ceremony in Washington, D.C.

Library in the News: July 2015 Edition

The Library’s announcement of Willie Nelson as the next recipient of the Gershwin Prize for Popular Music dominated the headlines in July, with more than 1,000 news stories running nationally and internationally.

“His voice, seemingly worn by time and burdened by experience even in his earliest recordings, attracted new audiences to country,” reported David Morgan for . “But Nelson also served as a major innovator – expanding the genre of country itself by exploring the language of blues, jazz, folk, rock and Latin, while also sparking a new sound: ‘outlaw country.”

Blog austin360 called Nelson the “patron saint of Austin” and offered up some interested stats on his career that paved the way for many distinctions, including the Gershwin Prize.

Outlets including Rolling Stone, USA Today, Hollywood Reporter, ,  and the Los Angeles Times, among many others, ran news of Nelson’s recognition.

A regular headline in the news has been the work being done out at the Library’s Packard Campus for Audio-Visual Conservation. In July, Wired Magazine highlighted the facility’s work in preserving nitrate film, among other things.

“Arriving at the Library through a combination of private donations and official purchases, these nitrate films represent a small fraction of its 1.4 million movie, television, and video recordings,” wrote Bryan Gardiner. “Still, they’re without a doubt some of the oldest and most important.

Speaking of headlines, a story in playbill.com touted “Never-Before-Seen Pictures and Anecdotes from the Creation of ‘Little Shop of Horrors!'” – and the images were from the Library. The story by Logan Culwell featured a variety of images from the Library’s Howard Ashman Collection. Ashman was the musical’s lyricist, playwright and Broadway director.

According to the Culwell, this story was one of many to come offering “an unprecedented look behind the scenes at landmark musicals through writers’ handwritten drafts and other rarities archived within the Music Division of the Library of Congress.”

Broadwayworld.com also highlighted a musical story from the Library’s collections, featuring a Library blog post written about “The Sound of Music.” Through letters in the Oscar Hammerstein collection, the story (and the Library’s blog) reveal the story of Sister Gregory of Rosary College, who was instrumental in helping to create one of the most well-known and well-loved musicals of a generation.

In June, the Library opened a new exhibition on the Bay Psalm Book, which was featured in the July issue of Fine Books & Collections Magazine.

“The first thing visitors behold upon entering the exhibit space is a case containing two copies of the Bay Psalm Book (1640), the first book printed in colonial America, of which only eleven survive,” wrote Rebecca Rego Barry. “On the left sits the Library of Congress copy–worn and incomplete, but in its original binding. It is a remarkable pairing, and any bibliophile might be pleased to make the trip for it alone.”

Continuing to make news were educators participating in its Teaching With Primary Sources Summer Teacher Institutes. Regional outlets from Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Illinois, California and Washington, among others, announced local teachers who would be attending.

The Wandering Sculpture of a Thirsty POEt: A Look into Copyright Archives

The following is a post written by Gina Apone, one of 36 college students who spent the last two months working at the Library as part of the 2015 Junior Fellows Summer Intern Program. Apone currently attends Michigan State University pursuing a dual degree in Pre-Law and Professional Writing with a minor in Public Relations. Her internship in the Copyright Office has helped her gain a better understanding of and appreciation for how the Copyright Office operates and the role its divisions play in serving the public and Congress on both a local and international level. Of particular interest has been examining and learning about the different types of copyright claims for works of art like paintings, drawings, sculptures and designs that the office examines and registers each year.

Edgar Allan Poe. 1904. Prints and Photographs Division.

As a Junior Fellow in the Copyright Office, I spent the summer examining copyright registration applications from the 1900s and uncovering various artifacts that have long been waiting in the archives of the U.S. Copyright Office. I repeatedly found myself surrounded by great people while being offered remarkable resources and unforgettable experiences.

A copyright deposit for a sculpture of Edgar Allan Poe, for example, might not sound very nerve-pinching or thought-provoking to many at a glance, but taking a second look could lead you to think otherwise. The specific photo of a bust that I came across, which is now stationed in the Edgar Allan Poe cottage in the Bronx in New York City, was submitted for Copyright registration on June 22, 1909, by Edmond T. Quinn, an established artist and sculptor from Philadelphia. His prominent work earned him gallery displays in various, well-regarded places like the Art Institute of Chicago and commendations by 1919 issues of the New York Times and the New York Tribune. He is best known for his bronze sculpture of “Edwin Booth as Hamlet” located in New York’s Gramercy Park.

 

In Quinn’s application are his handwritten notes describing the piece: “This is a bust portrait of Edgar Allan Poe. The poet is shown in his costume of about 1840…his head is inclined forward in a pensive attitude and the hair is somewhat disheveled.”

The Bronx Society of Arts and Sciences gave a plaster cast of Quinn’s sculpture to the Edgar Allan Poe Museum in Richmond, Virginia, in 1931, where it was on display as a part of the Poe shrine in the museum’s garden – that is, until it mysteriously vanished from its pedestal years later in 1987. Sometime later, the bust turned up at the Raven Inn, where police found it allegedly sitting at the bar with a mug of beer and a transcription of Poe’s poem, “The Spirits of the Dead.”

“And the mist upon the hill

Shadowy — shadowy — yet unbroken,

Is a symbol and a token —

How it hangs upon the trees,

A mystery of mysteries!”

Whether a comedic museum thief was exercising a peculiar sense of humor or the post-life Poe just got really thirsty, how and why the bust wandered off in such a puzzling, unexplainable fashion remains to be known. But the dark and haunting demeanor of the poet and his work only adds to the gripping curiousness of this account.

I remember learning about Poe and reading his famous work, like “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “The Cask of Amontillado” and “The Raven,” and being both fascinated and unnerved. Needless to say, as morbid as was the reputation he acquired with his tales of horror, Poe left a lasting impression on American literature and paved the way for writers during a time in which international copyright agreements were weak.

Copyright Deposit for “The Bust of Edgar Allan Poe,” c. 1908.
Library of Congress Copyright Office.

Unlike in Poe’s chilling tales and poems, however, you won’t be uncovering mysteries under the Library’s floorboards, but you will discover the record of works of all kinds by browsing the Copyright Office’s online catalog to your (Tell-Tale) heart’s desire. Available online are countless hidden gems dating from 1978 that are rich with history, culture and even a little mystery. (Prior to 1978, copyright records were created in analog form and housed in the Copyright Office. Once the Digitization and Public Access Project is complete, web-access to all pre-1978 records will be available.)

Working on this project and learning about pieces like this has shown me what a priceless resource the library is and how the country’s largest, ever-growing online archives can be utilized. Researching and uncovering the backstories behind these artifacts really puts into perspective the immense amounts of history that are right at my fingertips here at the Library of Congress, as well as showcases the many ways that the Copyright Office upholds its mission to administer the copyright law and to serve as a doorway to creativity and ingenuity. Will I ever be at a loss for information with the Copyright catalog so easily and readily accessible? As Poe would have put it – “nevermore” (“The Raven”).

Sources: “Poe’s Life: Who is Edgar Allan Poe?”, “15 Interesting Facts about Edgar Allan Poe” November 25, 2013, Kill/Adjectives Blog

Gifts to the Nation’s Library

(The following is a story featured in the July/August 2015 issue of the Library of Congress Magazine, LCM. You can read the issue in its entirety here.)

This 1964 “Instrument of Gift” authorizes the Library’s acquisition of the papers of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Acquisitions and Bibliographic Access Directorate.

The Library of Congress acquires materials through many different streams. Copyright deposits, purchase of U.S. collections and exchange agreements with partners around the world, among other methods, substantially underpin the Library’s acquisitions.

One lesser-known method through which the Library acquires many of its special collections is through gifts. The Library’s acquisition of gifts is administered by the gift coordinator in the U.S./Anglo Division in consultation with Library curators and recommending officers. Not all gifts are accepted for inclusion in the Library’s collections. From single items to large collections, offers of gifts are evaluated for possible acquisition in accordance with the Library’s collection development policies.

The Library receives offers of materials in various formats such as manuscripts, films, photographs and other special collections. Library curators also actively solicit gifts from individuals and collectors in their respective fields. About 70 curators, recommending officers, and other Library officials are authorized to negotiate for gifts. For example, Verna Curtis of the Library’s Prints and Photographs Division offered the following justification for acquiring a gift of photographs by Vincent Cianni:

“Rollerbladers” in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, is part of photographer Vincent Cianni’s “We Skate
Hardcore” series, 1995. Prints and Photographs Division.

“This gift adds to the Library’s representation of the contemporary photographic practice of shooting in black-and-white and printing gelatin silver prints (now in decline) and serves as documentation of an urban culture in America. The photographs enrich the Library’s photography holdings by offering striking traditional prints which chronicle a community of in-line skaters Cianni met and followed in the Williamsburg, Brooklyn, neighborhood … during the 1990s.” The collection of 33 photographs recently came to the Library.

Once recommenders determine that a proposed gift meets the Library’s collection policies, they notify Gift Coordinator Peter L. Stark, who is authorized to obtain, pay for and arrange transportation for special collections that come to the Library of Congress. For many of the gifts, Stark works closely with the Library’s Office of the General Counsel, the recommenders and the donors to ensure that the agreements are clear and understood by all involved. Some gift acquisitions are more complicated than others.

The gift coordinator also arranges for the shipping of about 125 donations via Federal Express each year for the American Folklife Center, the Prints and Photographs Division and Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division, to name a few.

Shipping large collections to the Library can create unusual challenges. Comprising more than 900 boxes, the papers of astronomer Carl Sagan were stored in a facility in Ithaca, New York, that was built into the side of a steep slope equipped with only a narrow stairway up to street level. The Sagan Collection was carried out of the facility one box at a time.

Marvin Hamlisch’s original manuscript for the song “Nobody Does It Better” is one of the many treasured items in the composer’s donated collection. Music Division.

Collections housed in various locations can also be complicated. A case in point is the recently acquired collection of composer Marvin Hamlisch.

“The collection was divided between the two coasts,” said Mark Eden Horowitz, a senior music specialist who works closely with the gift coordinator to recommend and acquire American musical theater collections for the Library. “Access to one location was hard to schedule and the collection includes rare and fragile items that required fine-arts shippers to pack. Through it all, the U.S./Anglo Division staff did the heavy lifting–both figuratively and literally.”

Often, a donor will arrange to send an initial shipment of material to the Library shortly after signing a gift agreement and then continue adding to the collection over a period of years. For example, the Manuscript Division recently received a five-box addition to the papers of conservative leader and National Review publisher William A. Rusher, whose original gift to the Library was made in 1989.

The exceedingly rare 1784 Abel Buell Map of the United States, now on display at the Library, was transported to the Library from New York City by special courier.

The U.S./Anglo Division acquires from 35 to 45 major special-format, non-book gifts per year, which each require a formal gift agreement signed by the donors and the Librarian of Congress. Stark writes approximately 250 letters per year acknowledging non-book gifts. The letters range from thanking donors for major collections to acknowledging the receipt of single gift items that “walk in” to collection divisions.

“From a single book to a large private collection, donations to the Library of Congress benefit the nation,” said Acquisitions and Bibliographic Access Director Beacher Wiggins.

Gift coordinator Peter Stark and Beth Davis-Brown, a section head in the Acquisitions and Bibliographic Access Directorate, contributed to this article.

Pics of the Week: Step Right Up, Folks!

Today we bring you a trio of images from this week’s display of items found in the Library’s collections by our Library of Congress Junior Fellows–36 interns from around the nation who dig through our collections during their 10-week stays and showcase their findings at summer’s end. Chosen each year through a competitive program, the fellows fan out across the Library, assisting with archiving, analytical tasks and other work that is valuable to us and fascinating for them.

To the right, Junior Fellow Gina Apone of Washington, Michigan, who attends Michigan State

Gina Apone and George Thuronyi

University, joins Copyright Office staffer George Thuronyi in displaying items found in Copyright’s files pertaining to a famous American circus of the 1890s, “The Great Wallace Shows.” Step right up, folks!

Below, you’ll see  Junior Fellow Joseph Patton of LeRoy, New York, who attends SUNY at Buffalo and worked this summer with the Library’s Veterans History Project, overseeing a display about the VHP histories of two Navy veterans. Norman Duberstein, a WWII Navy fighter pilot, put in a collection rich with materials concerning the Pacific war, including photos of Duberstein and others in his squadron, creative works by members of that group and two of Duberstein’s own combat diaries. The late James Davis Mayhew, who served as a radioman aboard the battleship U.S.S. New Mexico, provided photos, letters including his own cartoons, and documents pertaining to the battles his ship engaged in. The 15-year-old VHP, which specializes in oral histories in which veterans of U.S. wars are interviewed about their service, expects to collect its 100,000th oral history this year.

Joseph Patton at the Junior Fellows VHP table

And this photo shows Junior Fellows Olivia Brum of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, who attends Alfred University, and Nicolas Kivi of Midland, Michigan, a student at the University of Tennessee, speaking with Associate Librarian for Library Services Mark Sweeney about a glass flute from the Library’s Dayton C. Miller Flute Collection, which they analyzed for preservation purposes. The Miller collection, which holds nearly 1,700 flutes from around the world, is housed in the Library’s Music Division.

Junior Fellows Olivia Brum and Nicolas Kivi describing their preservation analysis of a glass flute

Hypothesis of a Culture

April Rodriguez, one of 36 Library of Congress Junior Fellow Summer Interns, wrote the following post while working in the Library’s American Folklife Center. Rodriguez recently received a master’s degree in library information studies from the University of Wisconsin in Madison. She also has a background in sound engineering and film archiving, and she was able to expand those skillsets and knowledge while interning at the Library.

Alan Lomax discussing the choreometrics analysis process. Alan Lomax Collection, American Folklife Center.

What is culture? What elements of expression make each culture unique?

These were the major questions for folklorist Alan Lomax. In the late 1960s while taking courses from anthropologist Ray Birdwhistell, Lomax became inspired to build upon Birdwhistell’s study of body movement as a form of communication. Moving from analysis of song style, previously carried out in his cantometrics project, Lomax used a process that involved examining the “dynamics of body communication.”

This means of study by Lomax is known as choreometrics. The name is intuitive, a combination of the words choreography and metrics/measurement. Lomax defined choreometrics in “Choreometrics and Ethnographic Filmmaking” as “the measure of dance or dance as a measure of man.”

The choreometrics project developed into a large undertaking supported by grants, contributions of cultural dance footage from around the world and collaborations with movement analysis experts Irmgard Bartenieff and Forrestine Paulay.

In 2004 the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress acquired Alan Lomax’s materials. Lomax had worked for the Library of Congress between 1933 and 1942. My project at the American Folklife Center has been to advance the digitization work of the films used in the analysis and teaching of choreometrics in order to provide access. For me, it has been a journey of discovery.

Quantifying a Culture

Irmgard Bartenieff and Forrestine Paulay reviewing footage. Alan Lomax Collection, American Folklife Center.

Lomax felt that scholars lacked a systematic way of analyzing cultural experiences for the purpose of comparing them to their social and historical settings. One of Lomax’s ultimate goals was to determine how patterns in the body movements employed within a culture correlated with other cultural variables.

The choreometrics team hoped to identify cross-cultural variables by distinguishing patterns of movement and changes to those patterns throughout geographic locations. Methods for analyzing and notating human movement developed by Rudolf Laban were adapted for the study. Eventually a systematic means of coding dance was formulated by the team, which led to statistical analysis of the distribution of movement within a culture.

Variables for the coding process were refined and condensed from 139 to 65 variables, measured in four fields: body attitude and movement qualities, choreography, social organization and limb use, rhythm and form.

“In every culture we found some one document of movement style. This model seems to serve two main functions for all individuals: (1) Identification: It identifies the individual as a member of his culture who understands and is in tune with its communication systems. (2) Synchrony: It forms and molds together the dynamic qualities which make it possible for the members of a culture to act together in dance, work, movement, love-making, speech–in fact, in all their interactions.” ~ Alan Lomax

Choreometrics film to be inspected. Photo by April Rodriguez.

Visual Media

“Since dance is the most repetitious, synchronic of all expressive behaviors, it has turned out to be a kind of touchstone for human adaptation.” ~ Alan Lomax

Visual media provides both a means of capturing life and when shared through playback, a window to the world. Film allows researchers to split up the action and to examine it by frame. For the choreometrics project, dance provided consistent movement from which to conduct analysis, while film provided a carrier for dance to be seen and experienced.

When Lomax was asked by Filmmakers Newsletter about improving field recording he had this to say: “I argue that, in a very real sense, the field trip belongs more to the people studied or filmed than to the anthropologist or filmmaker. It is their life, their culture he is documenting. Without their cooperation, his efforts would come to nothing. Thus no documentary film expedition can be just a personal adventure – a big ego trip – because it may also be the first and only chance for some group of human beings to be put on record and to have their say on the big media.”

The choreometrics portion of the Alan Lomax collection consists of 3,565 film elements of 8mm, 16mm and 35mm. Prior to my arrival, priorities were laid out in a report regarding which series of film would be digitized first. To orchestrate this transfer process I needed to evaluate and update the inventory of each film element. As of this writing the film inventory is ready for use. What I have found challenging about sorting through the thousands of film elements is figuring out the connections between the series of film; there are duplicated materials, but finding the best version has been elusive.

Choreometics film being inspected. Photo by Nicole Saylor.

Digitization of the Lomax manuscripts pertaining to the choreometics project has begun. The documents include correspondence, indexes, contracts, written analysis and much more. Digitization of the choreometrics film will soon follow, so stay tuned as more of the collection becomes accessible to the public. Additionally the American Folklife Center is celebrating Alan Lomax’s 100th birthday throughout the year with events and activities. For more information visit www.loc.gov/folklife/lomax/lomaxcentennial.html.

Sources: Gardner, Robert. (Interviewer). (1974). Alan Lomax (Dance and Human History) [TV series]. “Screening Room”. Boston, Massachusetts: WCVB; Lomax, Alan . (1971, February). “Choreometrics and Ethnographic Filmmaking.” Filmmakers Newsletter, vol. 4, no. 4.