The Library of Congress. The Library of Congress is the nation's oldest federal cultural institution, and it serves as the research arm of Congress. It is also the largest library in the world, with more than 120 million items. The collections include books, sound recordings, motion pictures, photographs, maps, and manuscripts.
How do libraries serve network people? How are library organization, services and technologies co-evolving with the behaviours of their users? This blog looks at library logistics, collaborative sourcing, the collective collection, and evolving metadata and bibliographic practices. It is also interested in how libraries support changing research and learning needs, and on how the curatorial traditions of archives, libraries and museums come together in the digital environment. These issues touch on broader Web 2.0 questions, and on organizational responses.
The Cataloger's Reference Shelf is based on 21 MARC manuals and other reference works published by The Library of Congress and frequently accessed by technical services staff. A must see for catalogers!
VIAF (The Virtual International Authority File)
A joint project with the Library of Congress, the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, and the Bibliothèque nationale de France, VIAF explores virtually combining the name authority files of all three institutions into a single name authority service. The goal of this project is to facilitate research across languages anywhere in the world by making authorities truly international.
Among the National Library of Scotland's greatest treasures are the earliest surviving detailed maps of Scotland, made by Timothy Pont over 400 years ago, in the 1580s and 1590s.
Project to develop a transferable model for e-library use in higher education and to provide dissemination and training in e-library use, and is supported by project funding through HEFCE