National Digital Library Program Research Articles

Applying the Digital Curation Lessons Learned from American Memory

American Memory, launched in 1995, was the Library of Congress’s debut web presentation and the primary product of the National Digital Library Program. More than 700,000 described digital items in 90 collections were added to American Memory in those first five years, including content from 23 external organizations. These materials were digitized, assembled and presented without tools designed specifically for the work and before the development of approved standards for the creation, presentation, or exchange of digital content. Valuable lessons about all levels of digital curation emerged from this early foray into digital library work, and many of the issues have persisted into current digital library efforts at the Library. This article focuses primarily on lessons learned about the conceptualization, creation, receipt, and preservation actions for digital content. It describes how strategies developed early on to manage the diverse and heterogeneous digital content helped inform later practices and were applied to legacy data in an effort to ensure their sustainability, flexibility and shareability into the future.

Inside an American Factory: Films of the Westinghouse Works, 1904, http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/papr/west/westhome.html. Created and maintained by the Library of Congress National Digital Library Program, Washington, D.C. Reviewed Aug. 24, 2007

This collection of twenty-one films of the Westinghouse Works, shot in 1904, provides a fascinating glimpse into factory work and new technology at the turn of the century. Archivists believe that the films were created to celebrate the role of the Westinghouse Company in delivering electricity, and thereby progress and modern living, to America. The films were shown daily to packed houses at the Westinghouse Auditorium at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair (the Louisiana Purchase Exhibition), where American industrial progress was a major theme of many exhibits. Audiences would have marveled at the moving images (it would be several years before commercial movie theaters became commonplace) and also at the production of the generators, turbines, and motors that made electrical power possible. The films should be of interest to scholars of industrialization as well as scholars of film technology. Although the films were part of an early attempt at...

The Spanish-American War in Motion Pictures, http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/sawhtml/sawhome.html. Created and maintained by the National Digital Library Program team, Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Reviewed Feb. 22-27, 2006

The Spanish-American War in Motion Pictures, http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/sawhtml/sawhome.html. Created and maintained by the National Digital Library Program team, Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Reviewed Feb. 22-27, 2006

The New Deal Stage: Selections from the Federal Theatre Project, 1935-1939 <http://memory. loc.gov/ammem/fedtp/fthome.html>. Created and maintained by the Library of Congress National Digital Library Program, Washington, D.C. Reviewed Sept. 26-28, 2005.

The New Deal Stage: Selections from the Federal Theatre Project, 1935-1939 <http://memory. loc.gov/ammem/fedtp/fthome.html>. Created and maintained by the Library of Congress National Digital Library Program, Washington, D.C. Reviewed Sept. 26-28, 2005.

A Phenomenological Study of an Emergent National Digital Library, Part I: Theory and Methodological Framework

The activities surrounding the National Digital Library Program (NDLP) at the Library of Congress (1995–2000) are used to study institutional processes associated with technological innovation in the library context. The study identified modalities of successful innovation and the characteristics of creative decision making. Theories of social change and organizational rationality and the social construction of technology (SCOT) approaches provided the theoretical basis for this study. The underlying design for a phenomenological approach is discussed, together with the method for constructing a descriptive narrative that synthesizes the phenomenon under study (an emergent national digital library program). Theory, methodology, data collection, and the summary of findings, with implications for practice, are presented here. The accompanying article, Part II, presents qualitative data and the application of the interpretive phenomenological framework, documenting the variability of the innovators’ perspectives about this formative event.

A Phenomenological Study of an Emergent National Digital Library, Part II: The Narratives of Development

Institutional processes associated with technological innovation in the library context and the key transformative event, the completion of the National Digital Library Program (NDLP) at the Library of Congress (1995–2000), are discussed in this article and the accompanying article, Part I. Interviews with seven key participants of the program conducted in 2002 at the Library of Congress (with policy makers and digital library developers) are interpreted here in terms of loci of control (external/internal) shaping the process of innovation and its institutionalization—the coercive and normative pressures of society, and the professional field of librarianship. Their perceptions are synthesized into a realist narrative in which their voices are still recognizable. Their tales of development show that organizational change driven by external forces and involving individuals who crossed boundaries of organizational fields can be very successful in forcing organizational isomorphism and integration of digitiz...

“California as I Saw It”: First-Person Narratives of California's Early Years, 1849–1900 . Library of Congress, National Digital Library Program: American Memory Project. Reviewed Oct. 2004.

“California as I Saw It”: First-Person Narratives of California's Early Years, 1849–1900 . Library of Congress, National Digital Library Program: American Memory Project. Reviewed Oct. 2004.

정보의 경제성에 관한 담론

This study is an attempt to re-examination of information value and it´s economic efficiency from the viewpoint of information science. This study focuses on the analysis of the considerable discussions about added value of information and cost-benefit analysis of information. This study shows that the researches of information value or value-added information have dealt with the effect of information use and the measuring information efficiency concerns cost-benefit analysis of information services. A case study on ‘the national digital library program’ is also demonstrated as a pilot model for the cost-benefit analysis of information services.

American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940

Journal Article American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936–1940 <http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/wpaintro/index.html>. National Digital Library Program, Library of Congress. Reviewed December 2000–March 2001 Get access Thomas Thurston Thomas Thurston New Deal Network, New York, New York Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 88, Issue 2, September 2001, Page 752, https://doi.org/10.2307/2675264 Published: 01 September 2001

Interfaces and tools for the library of congress national digital library program

This paper describes a collaborative effort to explore user needs in a digital library, develop interface prototypes for a digital library and suggest and prototype tools for digital librarians and users at the Library of Congress (LC). Interfaces were guided by an assessment of user needs and aimed to maximize interaction with primary resources and support both browsing and analytical search strategies. Tools to aid users and librarians in overviewing collections, previewing objects and gathering results were created and serve as the beginnings of a digital librarian toolkit. The design process and results are described and suggestions for future work are offered.

A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: Congressional Documents and Debates on the Internet

The yellowing pages ofthe early House and Senate Journals and the published debates ofCongress reveal a compelling picture ofthe history of the Republic. In the past, these volumes have not been easily accessible to most secondary or college students; their dense text and poor indices can seem daunting even to scholars. But now the Law Library ofCongress is making the documentary records of Congress readily available over the World Wide Web. The online collection A Century ofLawmakinghr a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 17744873 presents the early published records ofCongress as an integrated suite of documents. By offering a combination of facsimile digital images and searchable text, it makes these documents accessible and usable in an entirely new way. A set of online reference tools further enhances the collection. This new electronic version makes it much easier for teachers and students to explore these congressional materials. The grand themes of American history emerge through the debates and legislation of the members ofCongress. As documents are added to the site, students will be able to trace the story of the Louisiana Purchase and westward expansion, or follow the debates over slavery. They will discover dramatic scenes such as Henry Clay and Thomas Hart Benton trading insults on the Senate floor during the National Bank debate of 1832. The Law Library of Congress, established as a separate depart ment ofthe Library ofCongress in 1832, houses the world's largest and most comprehensive collection of legal materials?more than two million volumes. In 1995 Congress agreed to provide support for the National Digital Library Program ofthe Library ofCongress, in order to expand remote access to the library's rare and educationally valuable holdings in American history and culture. A public/private partnership funds the program, and the Law Library's online histori cal collection will form a major part of this effort. The collection was selected to present documents from early congressional history: the records, papers, and laws published from the First through the Forty-second Congresses, as well as records of the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention. The end ofthe Forty-second Congress marks the end ofthe publication of the Congressional Globe. From the opening of the Forty-third Congress, the debates were published as the Congressional Record, the form in which we know it today. A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 17744873wi provide Internet access to the following materials: The Journals ofthe Continental Congress (17 74-1789), Farrand' s Records ofthe Federal Convention ofl 787, and Elliot's Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption ofthe Federal Constitution; The Journal ofthe House of Representatives, the Journal ofthe Senate, and the Journal ofthe Executive Proceedings ofthe Senate(l 789 1873), the constitutionally mandated records ofCongress; The Annals ofCongress (1789-1824), the Register of Debates (1824-1837), and the Congressional Globed 833-1873), the published debates of Congress; The Journal of William Maclay, United States Senator from Pennsylvania, 1789-1 791; The American State Papers (1789-1838), the legislative and executive documents published by Congress; The United States Statutes atLarge(l 789-1873), the legislation ofCongress.