Fun Stuff

Tracks in the Stacks

A couple of weeks ago, the Library of Congress received its largest-ever donation of audio recordings. Universal Music Group is shipping hundreds of thousands of masters on metal or lacquer discs, or reel-to-reel tapes – mostly from the 1930s and ‘40s – to the library’s National Audio-Visual Conservation Center in Virginia.

The LoC will not only preserve and catalog the collection; they’ll eventually digitize the songs and make many of them freely available for streaming from their website (though the record company retains all copyrights). Sony-BMG is collaborating with LoC on the project, called “The National Jukebox.”

The Decca record label supplies a substantial part of the donated material; sadly, recordings from the Chess and Motown labels aren’t included in this deal (maybe later). Some of the most recognizable artists represented in the collection are Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby, Billy Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, and Bill Monroe.

GPO goes 2.0

The Government Printing Office is gettin’ all social-networky with its new Facebook page and its Twitter feed. Keep up with the latest news from the GPO and the Federal Depository Library Program.

Putting Budget Cuts in Perspective

This quick little video (about a minute and a half) isn’t government-produced, but it’s a good reminder of how to think about large numbers – the kind that are involved in any government-related budget discussion. Being alert to rhetoric is a good way to separate solid government information from politics. [Re: the legality of destroying pennies in the process of creating an educational video... Um, I dunno. It’s probably discouraged.]