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Illustration: Tom Deja In a year complicated by a global pandemic, the community of vendors providing technologies to libraries made important strides to meet pressing needs and make ongoing progress in their longer-term initiatives. Though the pandemic disrupted library services—as well as funding—in 2020, concerted efforts were made to fulfill the demands of users to […]
Illustration: Shane Tolentino Mindy Moran* planned on a career as an academic librarian. Since graduating with her MLS in 2016, however, she has not found a permanent position in a university or college library. She also has realized: “I may or may not actually end up working in a library” at all. Even before COVID-19 […]
Illustration: Shane Tolentino Gloria Vela, fresh from receiving her MLIS and earning her Texas school librarian certification, did all the right things when she applied for school librarian jobs. She set up a tidy workspace well-lit for Zoom interviews. She applied makeup, styled her hair, and made sure her 6-month-old miniature Australian shepherd, Olive, was […]
Reference Desk Associate T. J. Rankin (left) and Circulation Supervisor Brenda Choy create “job fairs in a bag” at Tyler (Tex.) Public Library. Photo: Tyler (Tex.) Public Library When in-person programming is unsafe, how do you help community members find much-needed employment? Tyler (Tex.) Public Library (TPL) came up with a novel way: creating a […]
In early March 2020—before the COVID-19 pandemic struck the US in full—a typical Tuesday evening at the Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales branch of Denver Public Library (DPL) would bustle with activity, the smell of coffee brewing, and the murmurs of many voices. Some people would practice English together, while others worked on homework assignments or drilled […]
Photo: Lori Barra Since her first novel, The House of the Spirits, was published in 1982, Isabel Allende has written frequently about the interior lives of women. Her latest book, The Soul of a Woman (Ballantine Books, March), is a collection of essays that follows the trajectory of Allende’s life and evolving approach to feminism—as […]
Monique Sugimoto, librarian and archivist for Palos Verdes Library District’s Local History Center, points out over the coast. Photo: Erik Jay From housing former military installations to settling neighborhood squabbles over lighthouse design to becoming overpopulated with wild peacocks, Palos Verdes Peninsula, about 25 miles south of Los Angeles, is full of history. Monique Sugimoto, […]
Abby Shelton, the newest Digital Collections Specialist working as a community manger on the By the People team. I’m thrilled to share that Abby Shelton has joined the Digital Content Management section as a new Digital Collections Specialist working as a community manager on the By the People Program. To that end, I’m also happy to […]
The following is a guest post by the 2021 Innovator in Residence Courtney McClellan, a research-based artist who lives in Atlanta, Georgia. With a subject focus on speech and civic engagement, McClellan works in a range of media including sculpture, performance, photography, and writing. Courtney’s Residency initiative “Speculative Annotation” will be an experimental browser-based application that […]
Google just announced what they’re calling Google Earth’s biggest update in years. With Timelapse in Google Earth, 24 million satellite photos from the past 37 years have been compiled into an interactive 4D experience. Now anyone can watch time unfold… Source of Article
Three years ago, I shared out some news about the newly created Digital Content Management Section. Our unit was just starting up and we had a lot in store for our future that I wanted to talk about on this blog. Coming up on the third anniversary of that post, presents an opportunity to reflect […]
April 12, 2021 by Catherine A. Aster Digital library The Digital Library Systems and Services Access and Discovery Team completed a multi-week development work cycle for Spotlight at Stanford on 7 April 2021. The work cycle focused on continuing the enhancement and support of the Spotlight at Stanford platform to ensure the greatest possible flexibility […]
March 2021 LC LABS LETTER A Monthly Roundup of News and Thoughts from the Library of Congress Labs Team Spotlight: Of the People program As we’ve shared before, the Of the People program connects the Library of Congress more deeply with Black, Hispanic, Indigenous and other communities traditionally underrepresented in library collections by expanding its collections, using technology […]
In today’s post, I interview a By the People volunteer, Maddie, who has gone above and beyond! By the People is a crowdsourced transcription program launched in 2018 at the Library of Congress. Volunteer-created transcriptions are used to make digitized collections more accessible and discoverable on loc.gov. You can read our other Volunteer Vignettes on the Signal here and here. Carlyn: What […]
In 2020, LC Labs began the Humans in the Loop experiment to explore ways to responsibly combine crowdsourcing experiences and machine learning workflows. As you may know from following along with LC Labs’ investigations into these methods, machine learning’s reliance on pattern recognition and training decisions made by human annotators makes it really good at […]
Olivia Dorsey, Innovation Specialist at the Library of Congress. Olivia is working on Computing Cultural Heritage in the Cloud (CCHC). We’re thrilled to share that Olivia Dorsey recently joined the LC Labs team as an Innovation Specialist! Olivia will be working on the Computing Cultural Heritage in the Cloud (CCHC) initiative at the Library. The […]
Just a couple of quick updates. First, in December, I posted about my initial experience with Alberta’s new(?) FOIP process. And then I actually submitted that request on January 26. So the fact that I was never notified that my submission was incomplete is a strike, for sure. But on February 16 I did get […]
Jack Miller dusts shelves at the main location of Gail Borden Public Library District in Elgin, Illinois, pre-pandemic. Photo: Gail Borden Public Library District in Elgin, Illinois Before COVID-19 came along, 18-year-old Jack Miller, who has autism, visited the main location of Gail Borden Public Library District (GBPLD) in Elgin, Illinois, three times a week. […]
Illustration: ©PureSolution/Adobe Stock As the pandemic has limited in-person library services this year, many libraries are relying on their websites more than ever to deliver the services their communities need and expect. But a website is useful only if it enables patrons to find and do what they need. The increased importance of library websites […]
The American Library Association’s (ALA) annual Emerging Leaders (ELs) program recognizes the best and brightest new leaders in the library profession, allowing them to get on a fast track at the Association by participating in planning groups, networking, gaining an inside look at ALA structure, and serving in leadership capacities early in their careers. At […]
