AUGUST 1995 • NO. 1

FROM

THE

LIBRARIAN

❦

—James H. Billington

The Librarian of Congress

Library replaces mainframe

computer to speed user access

The electronic nerve center of the Library of Congress (LC) recently underwent a major upgrade—an improvement that will speed access to the massive amount of data stored on Library central processing

units (CPUs).

Library hard drives hold one-half of one terabyte, or

500 billion bytes of data. (To put

that in perspective: a PC hard

drive holds about 200 million

bytes of data; one byte is the

equivalent of one character or

number.) Technical personnel

saw symptons of computer transactions about to overwhelm two older mainframes storINFORMATION

TECHNOLOGY

SERVICES

See Speed page 3

THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

A periodic report from

THE NATIONAL DIGITAL LIBRARY PROGRAM

of-the-century photographs from the Detroit

Publishing Company; 1,300 of Carl Van

Vechten’s portrait photographs of celebrities

taken between 1932 and 1964; and 167 books

and pamphlets from the National American

Woman Suffrage Association.

We are working on future contributions. Appropriated resources, philanthropic funds, and institutional collaborations (see page 4) will enable the Library

to digitize 5 million items by the year 2000.

We are fortunate indeed to be at this place at this time

to share in and contribute to the emerging electronic

community’s National Digital Library some of the world’s

richest intellectual properties.

Through these periodic summary reports we hope to

bring you highlights of the Program’s exciting work. Let

us know from time to time how we are doing.

New technologies foster new opportunities. Technologies have always

served as catalysts, causing one historical period to recede and the next

to advance. We are in such a period now. The

technological developments of the past 20 years

are facilitating the growth of an electronic community of unimagined reach and richness.

The library is embracing this online world through its

National Digital Library Program. We provide over the

Internet more than 27 million records, including bibliographic data; summaries and status of federal legislation;

copyright registration records; and foreign law abstracts

and citations.

Our online offerings include legislative, historical, and

cultural collections. (The story on pages 2-3 describes our

digitization of America’s most beloved and significant

“treasures” in the Library’s collections.) In 1995, we will

have made available 351 pamphlets by and about African-Americans from the period 1880-1920; 25,000 turn-
THE NATIONAL DIGITAL LIBRARY PROGRAM

2 AUGUST 1995

Library’s treasures

going digital

Americana dominates initial choices

From the 108 million items in the Library

of Congress, curators and other subject

experts are selecting a number of collections to become part of the first phase of the

National Digital Library Program.

In a staff forum in April 1995, the Librarian

of Congress, James H. Billington, sketched out

criteria for collections and items to be digitized.

As a first principle, the Library will select “items

of the broadest possible interest, and second, items unique to

the Library of Congress.” Initially, the Library does not seek to

be comprehensive, but rather will draw on its

rich resources to demonstrate the potential of

the digital library. Digitized materials will represent key aspects of the Library’s collections.

Over the coming months, the Library will convert a small group of extremely rare and historically significant items known as its “treasures,” with American materials dominant.

These rarities are a crystallization of the

Library’s immense holdings and will be part

of a rotating exhibition in the restored Jefferson

Building in 1997. This exhibition, on display

through the bicentennial year of the Library in

2000, is supported by the Xerox Foundation.

Digitizing the treasures will allow those who

cannot visit the exhibition to study these materials online, while for those able to view them

directly, the digitized images will serve as both

an enticement to visit and an inspiring reminder of the exhibit.

The collections

of the Library of

Congress belong

to the American

people. We have

a responsibility

to make the

enormous riches

of this institution

as accessible as

possible to as

many people as

possible.

THE NATIONAL

DIGITAL LIBRARY

PROGRAM—

A LIBRARY FOR ALL

AMERICANS

HISTORICAL

COLLECTIONS

—James H.

Billington,

The Librarian

of Congress

The greater part of the Library of Congress’s

contribution to the National Digital Library will

consist of special collections or unique items

relating to the American experience. Beginning

with the early years of the Republic through the

turbulent 1970s, the digital materials encompass

a diversity of formats and subjects. Anchoring

the digital collections will be the papers of

George Washington and Abraham Lincoln as

well as those of Ulysses S. Grant. A cluster of

materials already online documents the period

of the American Civil War, including more than

1,000 Civil War photographs. The Alfred Whital

Stern Collection, containing material by and

about Lincoln and the Civil War era, will also

be made available.

Several large collections to be digitized cover

decades and even centuries, tracing the evolution of architecture through drawings, blueprints, and photographs from the Historic

American Buildings Survey/Historic American

Engineering Record; the development of American music in broadside songs and sheet music;

and aspects of theater arts in stage posters, playbills, and program books of the Federal Theatre Project. Other valuable materials include

the papers and photographs of Margaret Mead,

paper prints and fragments of lost films from

the turn of the century, political cartoons, social-issue posters, and maps from all periods of

North American history. Together the digitized

images will form a multifaceted library of

unique materials of aesthetic, cultural, historical, political, and social importance. Later

phases of conversion will augment these selections.

NOTE: See the next page for a list

of the “treasures” already digitized

and those being digitized.

For additional information,

contact Sarah Thomas,

Acting Director, Public Service and

Collection Management I,

 202/707-6072

STHO@LOC.GOV
THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

AUGUST 1995 3

Speed

In the spirit of

Thomas

Jefferson,

THOMAS

provides

extensive

legislative

information on

the Internet.

Uniform

Resource

Locator:

http://

thomas.loc.gov

VISIT

THOMAS

from page 1

ing the Library’s data. Mainframes were averaging about 12 million internal transactions and

4 million external transactions each month.

When measured in millions of instructions per

second (MIPS), use of the Library’s CPUs had

doubled over 5 years. Mainframes do all the

Library’s computing—LOCIS (Library of Congress Information System); Bill Digest and other

files for Congressional Research Service;

COPICS (Copyright Office Publication and Interactive Cataloging System); and many internal administrative systems.

Six months ago, LC technicians heard of a

used mainframe ready for trade-in by the U.S.

Postal Service. Its resale price was $4.5 million;

the Library negotiated a purchase for the tradein value: $3 million.

A big problem was timing the replacement

of the two mainframes with the newer, faster

one. The Library’s Information Technology Services and Amdahl Federal Service Corp. of

Reston, Va., planned carefully to achieve the

exchange without users being aware of it. Two

days were needed to do the work. To ensure

that lost Saturday computer time was minimal,

the operation began at 9:30 p.m. on Saturday

during the Memorial Day weekend, giving engineers until early Tuesday to complete the task.

Detailed maps of cable locations and port connections ensured efficient procedures and protection of the data, which were never in any

danger throughout the process. Even with a 4-

hour setback—a critical part failed, and engineers had to obtain and install another—the

new mainframe was in place and all its 2-plus

miles of cable were connected by noon Monday—18 hours ahead of schedule.

Can users tell the heart of the Library beats

faster? Yes. Response time has dropped 68 percent.

For additional information,

contact Judy Stork,

Information Technology Services,

202/707-9739; JSTO@LOC.GOV

SELECTED

Treasures being digitized

Treasures already online

Thomas Jefferson, Rough Draft of the

Declaration of Independence, 1776

Benjamin Henry Latrobe, Elevation for

west front of the Capitol, 1811

Abraham Lincoln, First and second

drafts of the Gettysburg Address,

1863

James Madison, U.S. Constitution,

printed by Dunlap & Clay Poole,

with Madison headnote, 1787

George Washington’s Commission as

Commander-in-Chief, with John

Hancock’s signature, 1775

George Washington, Inaugural Address,

1789

Pierre Charles L’Enfant, Manuscript

plan for Washington, D.C., 1791

Francis Scott Key, Manuscript copy of

“The Star-Spangled Banner,” 1840

Abraham Lincoln, Preliminary draft of

the Emancipation Proclamation, 1862

Ulysses S. Grant, Commission as Lt.

General, signed by Abraham Lincoln,

1864

Walt Whitman, Early draft of

“O Captain! My Captain!” 1860s

Alexander Graham Bell, Notebook

sketch for telephone, 1876

Justice Felix Frankfurter, Draft opinion

regarding Brown vs. Board of Education, 1955.

TREASURES
THE NATIONAL DIGITAL LIBRARY PROGRAM

4 AUGUST 1995

THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

Institutions join in

National Digital Library

Federation agreement

The Library of Congress, the Commission

on Preservation and Access, and 14 other

research libraries and archives have

signed the National Digital Library Federation

agreement. The agreement symbolizes the cooperative effort of the institutions to collect and

make digitized materials accessible to all those

who need and want them—students, scholars,

citizens.

Recognizing “the important leadership role

that the Library of Congress has played in raising as a national issue the need for such a national digital library,” the participants agreed

to establish a collaborative management structure, develop a coordinated approach to fundraising, and formulate selection guidelines that

will “ensure conformance to the general theme

of U.S. heritage and culture.”

FIRST CLASS MAIL

POSTAGE & FEES PAID

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

WASHINGTON, D.C.

PERMIT No. G-103

THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

THE NATIONAL DIGITAL LIBRARY PROGRAM

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20540-5250

OFFICIAL BUSINESS

PENALTY FOR PRIVATE USE $300

 In addition to the Library of Congress, those

institutions signing the agreement on May 1 are:

Columbia University, Cornell University,

Emory University, Harvard University, National Archives and Records Administration,

New York Public Library, Pennsylvania State

University, Princeton University, Stanford University, University of California at Berkeley,

University of Michigan, University of Southern

California, University of Tennessee, and Yale

University.

For more information, contact

Winston Tabb, 202/707-6240

WTAB@LOC.GOV

—James H. Billington

The Librarian of Congress

The Library of Congress is

proud to be a member of the

Federation and to continue its

leadership role in building a collection of digitized materials that will

bring unique materials reflecting

America’s heritage and culture to all.

A PERIODIC REPORT FROM

THE NATIONAL DIGITAL LIBRARY PROGRAM

Reports will be published about 12 times a

year, using gift funds. Comments and

suggestions are welcome.

Editorial Direction

Suzanne Thorin, Chief of Staff

Office of the Librarian

202/707-5220; SUTH@LOC.GOV

Laura Campbell, Director

National Digital Library Program

202/707-3300; LCAM@LOC.GOV

Managing Editor

Caroline Krewson

202/707-5220; CKRE@RS.8.LOC.GOV

ISSN 1083-3978

■ Produced by Nancy Brooks Publishing Services ■