Library of Congress's Blog, page 189

The National Book Festival – Be There, Sept. 22-23

Heads up, all you fans of the Library of Congress National Book Festival – it's going to be two days again this year, with more than 100 authors, following last year's successful launch of the full-weekend approach.

The festival will be held on the National Mall between 9th and 14th Streets on Saturday, Sept. 22, 2012, from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and on Sunday, Sept. 23 from noon to 5:30 p.m., rain or shine. As in all its 12-year history, the event will be free and open to the public.

The delightful Rafael López, whose work summons imagery of Mexican street life, surrealism and myths, is this year's artist for the festival commemorative poster.

Rafael López, a man seen (and seeing) through his art

His illustrations for "Book Fiesta!" written by Pat Mora, won the 2010 Pura Belpré Illustrator Award.

Additional festival-related events will take place in the days and weeks preceding the much-anticipated yearly gathering, which celebrates the joys of books and reading. More information, including authors who will attend, will be posted as planning for the festival continues at the festival's website.

The 2012 Library of Congress National Book Festival will feature award-winning authors, poets and illustrators in several pavilions dedicated to categories of literature. Festival-goers can meet and hear firsthand from their favorite authors, get books signed, have photos taken with mascots and storybook characters and participate in a variety of learning activities.

Here's a sampling of one of the popular children's events launched at last year's festival: the Okee Dokee Brothers (Joe Mailander and Justin Lansing), singing on the Family Storytelling Stage sponsored by Target, one of the festival's longest-term sponsors.

More author talks and performances for kids from last year's festival can be found here.

Who are the authors and illustrators you'd like to see at the 2012 Library of Congress National Book Festival?

Today in History: U.S. Enters World War I

From time to time, I'd like to blog about notable historical events or otherwise interesting advents in our nation's past, courtesy of Today in History, which mines the American Memory collections to discover what happened in our nation's history on each date throughout the year.

Today's "TIH" marks the day in 1917 the United States entered World War I. The immediate cause of America's entry into the war was the German announcement of unrestricted submarine warfare and the subsequent sinking of ships with Americans on board.

American troops arrived in France at the rate of 10,000 a day. More than 2 million U.S. troops were deployed through the course of the conflict. Among those American troops was Cpl. Frank Buckles, who was the last known World War I veteran until he passed away last year at the age of 110. His oral history collection is part of the Library's Veterans History Project (VHP). As a tribute, its "The Great War" presentation provides a virtual tour of some of the most compelling collections in VHP archives and features stories of nearly two dozen men and women who served in WWI.

On Nov. 1, 1918, an armistice was signed, ending the war.

Further resources on this important day in history can be found here.

Read Poets Society

2012 National Poetry Month poster featuring "Our Valley" by Philip Levine / Chin-Yee Lai

April marks National Poetry Month, a time for poets and lovers of poetry everywhere to unite, recite and delight in the art and in those who have created it. The annual commemoration was inaugurated in 1996 by the Academy of American Poets.

Some of my favorite poets include Byron, Tennyson, Yeats and Neruda. And I plan to make sure to dig out some of their best-loved verses to commemorate the month. How about you? Who will you be reading?

The Library does much to celebrate thanks to its own Poetry and Literature Center. On tap this month are a slew of events, including an April 4 reading by this year's winners of the Library of Congress's Witter Bynner Fellowship, an April 13 reading by Japanese-American poet Garrett Hongo and the ever-popular Shakespeare's birthday celebration on April 18. (Webcasts of these events should be available on our site in the coming weeks.)

Established in the 1940s, the Poetry and Literature Center has been almost exclusively supported since 1951 by a gift from the late Gertrude Clarke Whittall, who wanted to bring the appreciation of good literature to a larger audience. The center administers several prestigious prizes in poetry and also sponsors an active series of public poetry and fiction readings, lectures, symposia and other literary events in addition to its full April schedule.

Make sure to also check out its blog, From the Catbird Seat, to stay updated on the latest musings.

The Library's website is also an excellent resource for American poetry. The Poet Laureate of the United States (currently Philip Levine) is chosen by the Librarian of Congress, and the holder of the position maintains an office on the top floor of the Library's Thomas Jefferson Building. Levine will actually be on hand to introduce the Witter Bynner fellows at the April 4 event.

While I could list enough to fill several blog posts, I'll point you to this handy resource guide that offers a comprehensive list of the various poetry resources available on the Library's site.

 

See It Now: A Bully President

The national him / Gordon Ross. June 15, 1910. Prints and Photographs Division.

A Nobel prizewinner, a paleontologist, a taxidermist, an ornithologist, a field naturalist, a conservationist, a big-game hunter, a naval historian, a biographer, an essayist, an editor, a critic, an orator, a civil-service reformer, a socialite, a patron of the arts, a colonel of the cavalry, a ranchman … the list goes on. Add to that the 26th president of the United States, and you've got Theodore Roosevelt.

Teddy was a beloved figure in American politics and a favorite subject of political cartoonists. His exuberance, larger-than-life personality and exploits lent themselves perfectly to the medium. As author Rick Marschall has stated, "Presidents were boring up until Roosevelt and boring after him."

Marschall was on hand at the Library late last year to discuss his new book, "Bully! The Life and Times of Theodore Roosevelt," the webcast of which is now available. You can watch it below.

The Library's collection of political cartoons includes a variety of Roosevelt-related items, many coming from Puck, America's first successful humor magazine. Roosevelt was favored on the cover more than 80 times in his career.

The youngest president at age 42, Roosevelt was also the first to have his life and career chronicled on film. The Library's online presentation includes a selection of 87 motion pictures that represent different times and phases in his life.

Perhaps one of the most bully boons in the Library's presidential collections are the papers of Teddy Roosevelt. Numbering some 250,000 items, they constitute one of the largest among our presidential holdings. While plans for future digitization are still being made, selections from his diaries can be see here.

Wait, there's more. Scattered throughout the institution's various American Memory collections, online exhibitions and other resources are assets pertaining to TR, all collected in this handy guide.

Braille Music Scores Provide Lifeline to Blind Musicians

(The following is a guest article about the Braille music collections of NLS and the musicians who use them written by my colleague Mark Hartsell , which recently appeared in the Library's staff newsletter, the Gazette.)

Ayaka Isono lost her sight to a rare retinal disorder in 2001 at age 29 and, devastated, figured her career as a pianist was over.

"I couldn't see the score, I couldn't work with conductors, I couldn't play ensembles, I couldn't write new music," says Isono, who performed in chamber groups with some of the top players in the country and occasionally performed with the San Francisco Symphony and Oakland Ballet Company.

Ayaka Isono

Depressed, she didn't touch her piano for three years. She never played, never went to concerts, never listened to music.

Now, Isono performs again, using braille music scores for solo piano and chamber ensembles that she downloads and prints at home. She teaches, too, using braille instructional material.

Isono is one of thousands of visually impaired musicians whose work depends upon the collections of the Music Section of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS), a program of the Library of Congress.

"I can't imagine my career without them. I really can't," says Isono, a native of Japan who now lives in the Bay Area. "I get so many materials from them."

World's Biggest Collection

The music collections at NLS represent the world's largest source of material for visually impaired musicians and music lovers – more than 30,000 braille transcriptions of musical scores and instructional texts; large-print scores, librettos, reference works and biographies; instructional recordings in music theory, appreciation and performance; and talking books and magazines.

Each year, the Music Section fills between 2,500 and 3,000 requests from a wide range of people who suffer from blindness or low vision – professional players seeking scores to perform, blind students or teachers in need of instructional material, or aficionados who just want a good book about a favorite musician.

Very few sources exist around the world for braille musical scores and instructional texts, says John Hanson, head of the Music Section.

NLS commissions many braille transcriptions of scores and instructional material – such commissions represent about half of its acquisitions each year. Libraries for the blind in Italy, Great Britain and Switzerland, for example, also commission material, and NLS makes the balance of its acquisitions each year from such institutions.

"They regularly add to their music collections, and I buy them whenever I can," Hanson says. "Otherwise, there is really no where else to turn."

Still, much more material is available today than in decades past.

Paul Kurtz

Paul Kurtz, a retired counselor and computer programmer who was blind from birth, first took up the trumpet as a seventh-grader in the mid-1960s.

At the time, he could find only one braille instructional text for his chosen instrument, a 1933 Arban method book he got from NLS.

The dearth of material – even through the 1970s and '80s – discouraged him from pursuing a music career. The time he spent tediously transcribing braille music and text for his own use cut into the time he would have spent teaching or playing.

"It hindered any professional aspirations I had toward teaching," says Kurtz, who today plays with several bands in his native Jacksonville, Fla.

Though NLS will have specific pieces transcribed on request, Kurtz and other musicians often pay to have pieces and texts transcribed into braille and donate them to the Music Section – an effort to ensure future generations of visually impaired musicians have the material they need.

Kurtz alone has paid for the transcription of more than 20 method books.

"I stand on many long-suffering shoulders of people who got us to here," he says. "That's why I don't mind doing my part in the braille music for trumpeters project. The Library is the fountainhead and the producing engine for all of the future efforts to come out, in braille, large print and audio."

A Lifeline for Musicians

That material provides an important resource for blind musicians trying to adapt to their impairment, learn their craft or make it in the business of music.

Jessica Bachicha was born blind, took her first music lessons at 12 and decided as a teenager to pursue a career in music.

But Bachicha, a soprano, didn't know music theory or read braille music. Instead, she just memorized everything. A session at a music institute in Connecticut showed her the limitations of that approach.

Soprano Jessica Bachicha (left) and pianist Choo Choo Hu performed a program of Spanish songs at the Anderson House in the District./Mark Hartsell

"I went into my first jazz piano class and was completely left in the dust," says Bachicha, a native of New Mexico. "I was in tears by the end of the class because I had no idea. That really inspired me to learn theory. I was like, 'Oh, my gosh, this is a whole new world."

Part of that new world was learning to read braille music. A teacher told her of the collections at NLS, and Bachicha began to make use of its braille instructional texts, histories and scores.

Inspired, she earned a bachelor's degree in music from the University of New Mexico, a master's at the New England Conservatory and a doctorate at Catholic University.

Having a source of braille musical material at NLS helped her develop as a musician in ways she otherwise couldn't, Bachicha says.

"When I went off to college it was a lifesaver in my theory classes, in my history and in my voice classes," she says. "I began to learn a lot more volume of material as well."

Bachicha now works part time at the National Federation of the Blind in Baltimore while she pursues music.

In recent years, she played the Queen of the Night in Mozart's opera "The Magic Flute" at Catholic University and Violetta in Verdi's "La Traviata" with the Bel Cantanti opera company. In January, she made her New York debut at Carnegie Hall.

The biggest challenge now, she says, is convincing people not to be afraid of her blindness and to give her a chance in what already is a highly competitive field.

"I'm still waiting for that conductor to come along," Bachicha says. "It's just waiting for somebody who can not only say, 'Oh, yeah, I think you can definitely do it," but somebody who can say, 'I know you can do it and I'm going to pay you to do it.' "

Access Better than Ever

Advances in technology make it easier than ever for visually impaired musicians such as Bachicha, Isono and Kurtz to access material.

At one time, the Music Section offered only a limited number of hard copies of braille scores that would be mailed to patrons around the country – a problem if the music was already checked out or if a patron needed a piece quickly.

Now, about 10 percent of the collection – and growing each year – is digitized and available via download.

The Library's Web-Braille format makes braille music scores, for example, available in an electronic format via the Internet. Patrons can download a score and either read it with a braille display device or print a hard copy with a braille printer.

Portable braille "note-taker" devices allow the musicians to store entire music libraries and transport them to use during rehearsals or classes.

"It is better today, and it is getting better by leaps and bounds," Kurtz says.

All this was new to Isono when she lost her sight – she didn't know any blind people, had never even heard of braille music.

But a teacher who taught her to read braille text also told her about braille music. That led her to the collections at NLS and, eventually, back to her place at the piano.

"I told myself, 'I can do this. I can read braille music,' " Isono says. "I didn't expect myself to be back in this professional music field again. It really feels good to do full-time music again."

Tweeting Live: Stress and Its Impacts

We all have dealt with stress at one time or another – whether it's the demands of work, family responsibilities, day-to-day hassles of life or all of the above. Frankly, for many people, being "stressed out" is just part of their regular routine.

According to Dr. George Chrousos, chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at the Athens University Medical School in Greece and a professor at Georgetown University Medical School, stress plays a sizeable role in a person's health and in society, often triggering such psychosocial factors as addiction, obesity and poverty.

The Library's John W. Kluge Center is presenting a two-day conference, "The Profound Impact of Stress: Human Biology and Social Implications for the Individual and Society," next week on March 26-27. At the conference, experts will discuss the information emerging from the most recent biomedical research. They will also present research on the interrelationship of social conditions and human health and what might be done to mitigate the effects of stress.

We will be live-tweeting both days, starting at 8:30 a.m. Follow us on Twitter, @LibraryCongress and use the hashtags #stressimpact #klugectr to see the latest in stress research and join the conversation.

If you're in town and able to attend the conference, it will be held in Room 119 of the Thomas Jefferson Building. Don't forget to add the hashtags to your tweets so you can also be part of the event.

The complete speakers list and agenda may be found here.

 

The Year of the Girl

I have a pack of Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies in my freezer. I treat myself to one or two occasionally, although it's hard limiting myself since you really can't eat just a couple. I can't buy Samoas anymore because I won't stop until I eat the whole box.

While we may be enjoying the beginnings of spring, Girl Scout cookie season is also upon us. And, while many of us will happily succumb to the guilty pleasure, these are cookies with a cause. According to the Girl Scouts, "every cookie has a mission," from teaching girls how to manage money, to supporting our overseas troops, to funding a camp for city kids.

As you dig into your favorite box this month, you'll also be celebrating the 100th anniversary of Girl Scouts of the USA. On March 12, 1912, Juliette "Daisy" Gordon Low gathered 18 girls from Savannah, Ga., for the very first troop meeting. Since then, the organization has grown to include more than 3 million young women and adults. Some of our nation's most notable women have roots in the organization: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, astronaut Sally Ride and former first lady and National Book Festival chair Laura Bush.

Girl Scouts Troop #1 with founder Juliette Low, right. 1917/Prints and Photographs Division

The Library's online photograph collections are a wealth of interesting Girl Scout-related items, including images of troop members engaging in a variety of activities and spending time with first ladies.

While I myself never made it past Brownie status, you can't help but be inspired by the enthusiasm of the organization's membership. A quick scan of the news in recent days reveals stories about girls organizing a museum exhibition, collecting donations to send some 2,700 boxes of cookies to troops stationed overseas and working with a local humane society to collect food and other items.

You can also peruse historic newspaper collection to see what the Girl Scouts of yesteryear were up to.

Take Those Comics Seriously!

Comics and cartoons are well-loved because they're funny.  Most of us think of them as a break in the monotony of a working day, a light moment, a chuckle over our morning coffee.

But for some, mirth is money.  Those people tend to take their comics more seriously.

Take, for example, the reaction to "The Yellow Kid" drawn by Richard Outcault in his "Hogan's Alley," one of the first comic strips in the U.S., which emerged during the New York newspaper wars around the turn of the last century.  Here's the Yellow Kid in his characteristic baggy yellow garment.

Hearst's competitors hated "The Yellow Kid"

The Library of Congress has many editions of early newspapers in its "Chronicling America" online collection and examples of early newspaper comic supplements in its Prints & Photographs online catalog, where this item was found.

In "Park Row," Allen Churchill's book about the newspaper wars between moguls Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, he notes that "New York went wild" over Hearst's "Yellow Kid," although writers from competing papers disparaged the character.

Quoting Max Nordau, Churchill wrote: 'The Yellow Kid is the exact and ultimate expression of degeneracy. Notice the bald head (on a boy), the two teeth, the abnormal head and abnormal feet, the formless shirt of yellow – color of decay.'"

Comic strips and kids will be also be the subject of a talk at noon on Thursday, March 29 in the Library's James Madison Building Dining Room A. In "Sketching the Secret Tracts of the Child's Mind: Theorizing Childhood in Early American Fantasy Strips,"  Lara Saguisag will discuss her research at the Library into such comics as "Little Nemo in Slumberland" and "Wee Willie Winkie's World."

Of course we still value a good cartoon today – what would The New Yorker magazine, or your favorite newspaper (or graphic novel) be without them?

And newspaper wars over cartoons are not quite yet submerged in the mists of time.

Consider this photo, taken late in 1989 in Denver.  It records a caper carried out by five pranksters from the Denver Post staff, showing what they thought about the Rocky Mountain News taking the comic strip "Garfield" away from the Post and then rubbing it in through a Christmas display. (Thanks to John Leyba – prankster No. 5 — for the photo.)

The Great Garfield Caper

 

Full of Hot Air

A bat in the belfry? Maybe. A tree growing in Brooklyn? Sure. A light in the attic? Of course. But, a dirigible in the Library's Jefferson Building? It happened.

Walking the institution's resplendent halls, you come across lovely murals, elaborate ornamentation, gilded embellishments, and, as it turned out the other day, two rather large balloons – mini dirigibles in fact.

So, what were they doing? The balloons in question were floating about on March to film scenes for a project by artist Isabella Streffen, who was a visiting British Research Council Fellow at the Library's John W. Kluge Center last year. Her project, titled "Hawk & Dove," is a film using footage shot from two seven-foot remote-controlled zeppelins (the Hawk and the Dove) that moved around both the Library of Congress and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library in a "balletic dogfight" to "explore the role of knowledge in the shaping of political debate."

Isabella Streffen with her two dirigibles, the Hawk and the Dove./Richard Hollinshead

Streffen's film developed directly out of her six-month Kluge Center residency, where she researched the early history of ballooning and military visioning in the Library's Gaston and Albert Tissandier archive. She was also inspired by the unexpected residency of "Shirley," our rather famous Cooper's Hawk who camped out in the Library's Main Reading Room while Streffen was doing her research.

"Hawk & Dove" debuts as part of the 5×5 Project, which is exhibiting 25 ground-breaking public art installations created by artists from around the world as part of D.C.'s National Cherry Blossom Festival Centennial celebration. More information on the project, sponsored by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, can be found here.

Streffen's film will be screened at the Library of Congress on April 24 at noon in the Whittall Pavilion and at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library April 26-28.

The Library is also part of the larger Cherry Blossom Centennial celebration, which you can read bout in this previous blog post.

 

Pic of the Week: A Simple Sunset

O setting sun! though the time has come,

I still warble under you, if none else does, unmitigated adoration.

~ Walt Whitman, "Song at Sunset"

This picture was taken from the sixth floor balcony of the James Madison Building recently, as the sun set over Washington, D.C., bathing the sky in a lovely peach hue. Frankly, it has me longing for the spring and perhaps enjoying this time of day al fresco, particularly as the weather here of late has been perfect for such a thing .

Sunset from the balcony of the Madison Building./Abby Brack

I have to admit that I wasn't familiar with the above poem by Whitman poem and just so happened to run across it the other day. But it is fitting don't you think? Looking at the picture certainly does give that sense of wonder and amazement that the Good Gray Poet puts into verse.

This particular poem is part of Whitman's larger work, "Leaves of Grass." The Library houses the largest archival collection of Walt Whitman materials in the world, including several editions of his seminal work, as Whitman revised the compendium many times over the course of his life.