Library of Congress's Blog, page 183

NBF … This Just In …

Author Bob Woodward will join the lineup for the Library of Congress National Book Festival, speaking at 2:45 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 23 in the History & Biography Pavilion about his new book “The Price of Politics.”

More about the two-day, free-and-open-to-the-public National Book Festival at www.loc.gov/bookfest.

 

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Congress.gov Unveiled Today

Library of Congress and Capitol Hill staff gathered today in the historic Thomas Jefferson Building for a special event launching Congress.gov, a new public beta site for accessing free, fact-based legislative information. Featuring platform mobility, comprehensive information retrieval and user-friendly presentation, the new site eventually will replace the THOMAS system, introduced in 1995.

“Thomas Jefferson believed that there should be little interfering with Congress and its constituents,” said Librarian of Congress James H. Billington in his opening remarks during the event. “Congress.gov reaffirms for the 21st century Congress’s vision of a vital legislative information resource for all Americans.”

He then introduced Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Calif.), chairman of the Committee on House Administration, and Rep. Gregg Harper (R-Miss.), Vice-Chair of the Joint Committee on the Library, who also made remarks.

“Time marches on and it’s time now for [THOMAS’s] worthy successor,” said Lungren. “Transparency is the hallmark of American government, and Congress.gov will ensure that we meet that bedrock commitment and that we will succeed.”

“As we gather here today, the Library has been a key resource for the public to understand Congress,” said Harper. “Congress.gov will play an important role in improving transparency and efficiency. I hope our constituents will enjoy this new resource and look forward to the Library’s continued efforts.”

Also in attendance at the event were The Hon. Nancy Erickson, Secretary of the Senate; Bob Reeves, Deputy Clerk of the U.S. House; Dan Strodel, Chief Administrative Officer of the U.S. House; Davita Vance-Cook, Acting Printer of the United States, U.S. Government Printing Office; and Martina Bradford, Deputy Senate Sergeant-at-Arms.

One thing both congressmen mentioned and a point that was reiterated throughout the presentation was that the site is optimized for mobile devices, effectively displaying information and maintaining readability.

The Congress.gov site includes bill status and summary, bill text and member profiles and other new features like comprehensive searching across bill text, summary and statuses; persistent URLs for search results; Members’ legislative history and biographical profiles; and maintenance of existing features such as links to video of the House and Senate floor, top searched bills and the save/share feature. The site also features several new multimedia presentations on the legislative process. You can read more about the site here.

With the release of the beta site, the Library hopes to gather user feedback and have an opportunity to refine functionality while other content is incorporated, including the Congressional Record, committee reports, nominations, treaties and communications. Congress.gov will operate as a beta site for approximately one year as this work is completed. During that time, THOMAS will continue to operate as usual.

Data for the information system is provided by multiple legislative branch partners in this effort, including the Office of the Secretary of the Senate, the Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Office of the Senate Sergeant at Arms, the Office of the Chief Administrative Officer of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Government Printing Office.

 

Closing the Book

The Library of Congress, with collections that are universal and comprise all media, has a long history of acknowledging the importance of books. Its “Books That Shaped America” exhibition is currently on view through Sept. 29 in the Southwest Gallery of the Thomas Jefferson Building. The exhibition is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. every day except Sunday.

The titles on view have had a profound effect on American life and encompass all genres, from history to biography to fiction to religion. Their settings are like a travel through time, from the founding of our nation to the old west to the jazz age to the future.

The Civil War – a period in our nation’s history that impacted how we lived our lives and governed ourselves for years to come – is also represented well among several books on the list.

Frederick Douglass, “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” (1845)

Published less than seven years after Douglass had escaped and before his freedom was purchased, this slave narrative relates Douglass’s experiences growing up a slave in Maryland and was a testament for the need to abolish slavery.

Harriet Beecher Stowe, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” (1852)

This best-selling novel of the 19th century was extremely influential in fueling antislavery sentiment during the decade preceding the Civil War. With her vivid sketches of slave sufferings and family separations, Stowe hoped to awaken sympathy for oppressed slaves and encourage Northerners to disobey the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850.

Walt Whitman, “Leaves of Grass” (1855)

The publication of the first slim edition of Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass” in 1855 was the debut of a masterpiece that shifted the course of American literary history. By his death in 1892, Leaves was a thick compendium that represented Whitman’s vision of America over nearly the entire last half of the nineteenth century. Among the collection’s best-known poems is “O Captain! My Captain!,” a metaphorical tribute to the slain Abraham Lincoln.

Stephen Crane, “The Red Badge of Courage” (1895)

Crane’s book has been called the greatest novel about the American Civil War. The story follows a young recruit in the Civil War who learns the cruelty of war and is notable for its vivid depiction of the internal conflict of its main character.

Margaret Mitchell, “Gone With the Wind” (1936)

Mitchell’s book set in the South during the Civil War won both the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award, and it remains popular, despite charges that its author had a blind eye regarding the horrors of slavery.

 

 

 

Toni Morrison, “Beloved” (1987)

Morrison won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for fiction for her post-Civil War novel based on the true story of an escaped slave and the tragic consequences when a posse comes to reclaim her. The author won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1993, and in 2006 The New York Times named “Beloved” “the best work of American fiction of the past 25 years.”

The Library continues its look at the Civil War with a new exhibition, “The Civil War in America,” opening on Nov. 12. You can read more about it here. This blog post also serves as a sort-of “kick-off” to a weekly blog series offering an in-depth look at some of the special items that will be on display, those of which you can read more about here. The posts will run every Wednesday until the exhibition opening.

Countdown to Book-Stravaganza

Scouts can get a badge for attending the Festival.

Just days stand between the book-lovers of the USA and the Library of Congress National Book Festival!

But don’t just stare at the countdown clock on the Festival website … check out the speaking and book-signing schedules for our 125 authors, or listen to the podcasts already available from some of this year’s authors.  That will take you away from whatever you’re reading, but it won’t necessarily be a bad thing …

This will be the second year that the Festival will be all weekend – both Saturday (from 10 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.) and Sunday (noon to 5:30 p.m.) on the National Mall.  It’s FREE – that’s right, there is no admission, no ticket is needed, there will be no gate to pass through – and it will go on rain or shine, under the cover of our shiny white tent canopies. If there’s a hint of rain and you aren’t in a chair, bring an umbrella and just stuff in around the edges. Everybody does.

In addition to the major pavilions – History & Biography, Fiction & Mystery, Contemporary Life, Poetry & Prose, Teens & Children, and Children – once again, for younger kids, Target is sponsoring the Family Storytelling Stage, featuring authors and entertainment for those just rounding the corner on one of the great discoveries of life – reading.  There you will find authors ranging from Goosebumps guy R.L. Stine to author Jeff Kinney, friend to wimpy kids everywhere, and musical acts from Disney Junior’s Choo-Choo Soul with Genevieve to Hip Hop Harry.

Going with kids? Check out the portion of the website with activities just for them.  Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts can get a badge this year for attending; here’s where to find it.

And don’t miss the Library of Congress Pavilion, where you can find out more about a world-renowned resource that you own and that you can use and enjoy in many ways.  In that pavilion Saturday at 11 a.m., you can hear from Chet Van Duzer and John W. Hessler, authors of a new Library of Congress book about Martin Waldseemüller, mapmaker of the early 1500s.

Saturday, of course, the Library will offer the Pavilion of the States, where literacy organizations from all 50 states and the major U.S. territories will share the magic of their local programs and authors.  On Sunday, that gigantic tent will become two new pavilions: Sci Fi-Fantasy-Graphic Novels (featuring such authors as Christopher Paolini and Craig Thompson) and Special Programs, featuring everything from J.R.R. Tolkien expert Corey Olsen to the winners of a Library of Congress/DC Public Library summer essay contest, in which kids were invited to write about “A Book That Shaped Me.”  The Festival’s supremely talented poster artist, Rafael López, will speak at Special Programs Sunday afternoon, and he will sign books and posters both Saturday and Sunday.

C-SPAN2 Book TV plans to cover both days live, and rebroadcasts the Festival as well. If you can’t attend in person, or if you do but want to revisit the talks you saw (or the ones you couldn’t see because of schedule conflicts), the Library will post all the authors’ presentations on the Festival website in coming months.

And now, a word for our sponsors: the people who make all this possible.  They are David M. Rubenstein, who co-chairs the National Book Festival Board; Target, The Washington Post, Wells Fargo and the Institute of Museum and Library Services; the National Endowment for the Arts and PBS KIDS; Barnes & Noble; Digital Bookmobile powered by OverDrive, LEGO Systems, Inc. and Scholastic Inc.; the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction, The Hay-Adams hotel and the National Endowment for the Humanities.  We also thank the Junior League of Washington (celebrating its 100th anniversary this year!) which provides hundreds of volunteers and The Links, a service group comprised of African-American women who are bringing hundreds of kids from the region to this year’s Festival.

Library in the News: August Recap Edition

There were ample headlines about the Library of Congress in August that really gave a flavor of the institution’s collections, people and mission.

Leading the way was a great feature in Delta’s Sky Magazine on the Library’s use of technology to preserve the nation’s past and future.

At a time when so many libraries are suffering, the people who work at massive national libraries remain busier than ever,” said reporter Steve Marsh. “At the important, historically charged U.S. Library of Congress, they’re using advanced technology to solve the cultural mysteries of the past.”

Continuing to make news was the Library’s list of “books that shaped America.”

NPR’s Lynn Neary spoke with Mark Dimunation, chief of the Rare Book and Special Collections Division, about the process of assembling the collection.

More than creating an ultimate, perfect list, the goal was to spark conversations about the significance of literature,” Dimunation said.

He also talked about some of his favorite books on the list, including “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” The Bible and “The Catcher in the Rye.”

In her story for the Tampa Bay Times, reporter Colette Bancroft said, “Influence is a difficult thing to measure, but the list, compiled by ‘curators and experts’ at the Library of Congress and winnowed from a much longer list to create a reasonably sized physical exhibit, certainly consists of books that have made an impact — on our society, on our government, on our daily lives, on our imaginations.”

August seemed to be a big month for highlighting some interesting photo collections from the Library. The Huffington Post looked at a series of portraits showing bulldogs in costume. On its Planet Money Blog, NPR featured images showing how currency was made a century ago.

The Library’s online collection of Civil War portraits includes many unidentified individuals. One of the goals of the collection is to solve those mysteries where possible. The Washington Post ran a story on one such ID – of Confederate soldier Stephen Pollard.

He is a wild-haired young man with an intense look, two pistols in his belt and what looks like a short musket in his hands,” wrote Michael E. Ruane. “His face is familiar and has been reprinted in books and used in a famous documentary about the Civil War.

And it turned out that the identity had been known in Georgia but apparently not far beyond,” he continued.

Also running the story was the New York Daily News, KASU (Arkansas State University radio) and NPR.

With August came the 100th anniversary of when U.S.-made movies earned their own copyright designation. The Library’s Packard Campus for Audio-Visual Conservation houses the nation’s greatest collection of early film and works to preserve past and present works for future generations.

“Congress carved out a film copyright designation on Aug. 24, 1912, and within weeks, filmmakers were registering their dramas, documentaries and comedies,” wrote Anthony McCartney in his story for the Associated Press, which was also picked up by the Washington Post, Northwester, Yahoo and the New Haven Register among other outlets. “The vaults at the Library of Congress’ Packard Campus for Audio-Visual Conservation in Culpeper, Va., represent decades of work by copyright officials to not only protect the rights of filmmakers but also preserve their movies for future generations.”

And last, but certainly not least, PBS Newshour did a picture slideshow presentation on its website featuring Library presidential campaign materials. Highlighted were political cartoons, sheet music and photographs relating to William Henry Harrison, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Calvin Coolidge, among others.

 

 

 

From Russia, with Music

(The following is a guest article written by my colleague Mark Hartsell, editor of the Library’s staff newsletter, The Gazette, about a two-year project to bring together a Rachmaninoff archive.)

Music Division chief Susan Vita and Librarian of Congress James H. Billington (center) talk with Glinka museum director Mikhail Bryzgalov at the Library in May. / Abby Brack Lewis

The Library of Congress and a Moscow museum recently completed a project that, for the first time, brings together the original music manuscripts of one of the great composers of the 20th century – works that had been separated over the past century by thousands of miles and the Russian Revolution.

The Library and the Glinka National Museum Consortium of Musical Culture between them hold nearly all of the original manuscripts of Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff, best known for his great “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini,” Piano Concerto No. 2, Prelude in C-sharp Minor and “Vocalise,” among other works.

The institutions digitized their manuscripts over the past two years and, in May, formally exchanged copies in a ceremony at the Library.

The exchange allows musicians and scholars, for the first time, to study the composer’s manuscripts side by side.

“Our ultimate goal in entering into this project was to make these important research materials as accessible as possible to researchers and performers,” said Jan Lauridsen, assistant chief of the Library’s Music Division.

Insights for Musicians

The study of original manuscripts allows musicians and scholars to gain insight into compositions and the methods of their creators – decisions, for example, on omissions, additions and revisions.

The work of Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes serves as a case in point.

Andsnes this year received a nomination for a Grammy Award for his recordings of Rachmaninoff’s third and fourth piano concertos – a project for which he prepared by studying the composer’s scores and sketches at the Library.

Rachmaninoff debuted his Piano Concerto No. 4 in 1927 to generally bad notices – reviews that prompted the composer to cut and revise the piece several times over the next 14 years.

“I thought it was very fascinating that there were big chunks of music that were just taken away in the 1941 version,” Andsnes said. “I wanted to look at the score and compare it to the other two versions and see what the process was for Rachmaninoff and figure out what he tried to do and why. That was wonderful to sit with these different versions.

“When you look at the manuscript, you often see the energy of how it is composed. You see the insecurities – things have been crossed out – and other suggestions. It’s very interesting to see that process.”

A Refugee from Revolution

Rachmaninoff composed the bulk of his work in the late 19th and early 20th centuries before he fled his native Russia for the West following the Russian Revolution in 1917.

He composed several important works – Piano Concerto No. 4 and “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini,” among them – over the next quarter-century while he lived in New York, California and Switzerland.

Rachmaninoff died in 1943 in California, and his widow, Natalie, began donating his post-Russia archive to the Library eight years later.

The Glinka, meanwhile, eventually acquired the manuscripts from the composer’s Russia years.

The collaboration between two institutions separated by thousands of miles brings together complementary pieces of Rachmaninoff’s work – early sketches he made in Russia but turned into completed works years later in the West, revisions to early works that the composer made later in the United States or Switzerland.

For example, Rachmaninoff made early sketches of “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini” in Russia, sketches now held by the Glinka. He finished the piece in 1934 while living in Switzerland, and the full score of the completed work resides in the Library.

The manuscript exchange allows musicians and scholars, finally, to make a side-by-side study of the versions of this great work – its 18th variation provides one of the best-known themes in classical music – from the earliest inspirations Rachmaninoff captured on paper to the full score.

For now, the material is not accessible online – most of the Library’s holdings of Rachmaninoff are not yet in the public domain – but it is available to researchers who visit the Library or the Glinka.

The opportunity to study the original manuscripts and digital versions of the originals in one location is irreplaceable, Andsnes said.

“When you sit with the actual manuscript,” he said, “there is a kind of a holy feeling of touching this paper that the composer has been working with – that’s magic.”

Last Chance!

Two exhibitions from the Library of Congress are closing this month, so if you’re about town, now is your chance to check them out before they are gone.

“Sakura: Cherry Blossoms as Living Symbols of Friendship” closes Sept. 15 in the Graphic Arts Galleries. The Library opened the exhibition in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the gift of 3,000 flowering cherry trees (“sakura” in Japanese) as a symbol of enduring friendship between Japan and the United States.

The Inside Adams blog in March posted a great story on the history of the Japanese flowering trees and their ties to the U.S.

On Sept. 26, “To Know Wisdom and Instruction: The Armenian Literary Tradition at the Library of Congress” closes in the South Gallery. The exhibition marks the 500th anniversary of Armenian printing and UNESCO’s designation of Yerevan – the capital of the Republic of Armenia – as its Book Capital of the World, 2012. You can read more about it here.

Both exhibitions are located in the Library’s Thomas Jefferson Building and open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. every day except Sunday.

If you can’t stop by and see them in person, you can check them out online:

The Armenian Literary Tradition at the Library of Congress

Sakura

In Retrospect: August Blogging Edition

The Library of Congress blogosphere in August was full of great posts from our many expert curators and staff. Here is just a sampling:

In the Muse: Performing Arts Blog

The Musical Worlds of Victor Hebert

On Aug. 16, the Library opened a new exhibition on composer Victor Herbert.

The Signal: Digital Preservation

Digital Preservation Depicted in (Weirdly) Varied Images

Digital preservation is viewed through the lens of popular culture.

Picture This: Library of Congress Prints & Photos

Child Labor Photos – What Do Children See?

Photos from the Library’s National Child Labor Committee (NCLC) get a little youthful input from the children of curator Barbara Orbach Natanson.

From the Catbird Seat: Poetry & Literature at the Library of Congress

What It Means to Be Here

Rob Casper, director of the Library’s Poetry and Literature Center, talks about the legacy of the Poetry Office.

Inside Adams: Science, Technology & Business

An Early History of Life Insurance

2012 Junior Fellow Alec Torte gives a history of the New England Mutual Life Insurance Company.

In Custodia Legis: Law Librarians of Congress

Legal Pirates, Treasure and Murder:  A Tale from the South Seas

Kelly Buchanan, chief of the Foreign, Comparative and International Law Division I, discusses the legal angles of a sunken ship and its treasure from 1806.

Teaching with the Library of Congress

Ten Tips to Start the Year with Primary Sources

Here are some ideas from teachers and librarians for ways to use the Library’s primary sources in the classroom.

Copyright Matters: Digitization and Public Access

Current Copyright Search Capability: Tell Us What You Think

Who wants to know? Copyright wants to know what users like and don’t like about their existing online search functionality for copyright records.

 

 

Rock the Vote

(This is the second in a series of posts featuring presidential campaign items from the Library’s collections. Read the first here. )

Politics and music have enjoyed a rather persistent relationship. And it’s never more evident than during campaign season when candidates use music to connect with voters. The tradition can be seen as far back as the presidential election of George Washington, although he was uncontested.

"Hays the True and Wheeler Too!" 1876. Music Division.

Often set to popular songs of the day, during the early 19th century, most tunes were in celebration of the candidate and not necessarily about campaign issues. It wasn’t until the election of 1840 that the songs became issue-based and were really used to try to affect the outcome of an election. During this time, partisan politics was well developed, and the Democrats and Whigs – the two major parties of the day – used the power of song as a campaign tool.

One of the best-known campaign songs was inspired by William Henry Harrison: “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too” touted Harrison as a war hero at the 1811 Battle of Tippecanoe, and his vice president, John Tyler. The “media blitz” that resulted sang Harrison into his presidency.

Both parties also published “songsters,” pocket-sized books perfect for an impromptu street corner rally. The earliest songsters included only lyrics printed along with the titles of well-known tunes to which they were to be sung. Two songsters from the 1844 contest between James K. Polk (1795–1849) and Henry Clay (1777–1852) offered their followers relevant new words for old standards like “Yankee Doodle.” By 1884, some songsters would include written music arrangements, including the “Blaine-Logan Songster” that served to promote a specific ticket.

Blaine and Logan Songster. 1884. Music Division

These songs connected with voters through their leisure activities. Families would buy the music and sing the songs together.

So, who wrote these songs? Writers were often hired by the campaign to put together something catchy that would stick with voters so they would remember the candidates’ names – “We Like Ike.” Well-known musicians were also sometimes enlisted to compose a ditty: “Harding You’re the Man for Us” (1920) was written and sung by Al Jolson; Ira Gershwin reworked “It Ain’t Necessarily So” from “Porgy and Bess” for Adlai Stevenson in 1952.

By the last quarter of the 20th century, political parties turned more and more to newspapers, radio and television, which provided immediate access to mass audiences. Increasingly, candidates began to adopt existing songs from popular recording artists as their own. Although composers still wrote music in celebration of their favorite candidates, sheet music became less and less significant in campaigning.

Al Jolson. “Harding You’re the Man for Us.” New York: Al Jolson, 1920. Music Division

Make sure to check out the Library’s online exhibition, “Voices, Votes, Victory: Presidential Campaign Songs,” for more.

 

See It Now: Take Your Pick

So many great webcasts are being added to the Library of Congress website daily, that it has become hard to pick just one to feature, as I’ve done in the past. And, the programming here at the institution is so diverse, you’re sure to find something of interest.

Here is just a sampling of some of the webcasts recently added:

History of the Guide Dog Movement

Jane Sheehan and Don Olson discussed the history of the guide dog movement, the trends of the movement today, and how the movement impacts both blind and sighted communities.

Nobel Laureate Herta Muller

The Library of Congress, in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut, presented a reading and discussion with Nobel Laureate Herta Muller, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2009.

In Search of Sacco and Vanzetti

Journalist Susan Tejada spent years in the Library of Congress and elsewhere investigating the case or anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti and presented her research in this lecture.

Persian Traditional Music Project

This illustrated lecture revealed the background and importance of Golha radio programs which were broadcast in Iran from 1956 through 1978. Jane Lewisohn discussed the artistic, literary and social significance of preserving and promoting Persian literature and music in general.

So you don’t miss out on anything, make sure to subscribe to the RSS feed or email service for Library webcasts under the Library Website Updates heading.