The Library of Congress unveiled its redesigned Web site at the annual conference of the American Library Association (ALA) held June 13-19 in Atlanta. The site retains its current address (www.loc.gov), but pages will feature new layouts, color graphics drawn from the Library's own architectural and decorative details, and more efficient navigational paths, all developed with the user in mind.
At the forefront of the new Web site is the Get It Online section, which includes links to the Library's digital collections. These pages include the award-winning American Memory; THOMAS (legislative information); Exhibitions, a presentation of the Library's major exhibitions over the years; and America's Library, a site created especially for kids and families. In addition, links to the Library's electronic catalogs and other databases help users locate books, photographs, films, sound recordings and other assets that are available either online or physically at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
The redesigned home page and sub-pages reflect the complexity of the Library and the diversity of its collections and services, making them more accessible without compromising their content. "These pages have been redesigned to appeal to a broad cross-section of users, to attract them to the Library's Web site and keep them coming back," said Jill Brett, Public Affairs Officer.
The Library's Web site received more than a billion hits last year and has been recognized for excellence by a number of publications.
