Librarian of Congress James Billington, his grandson Nelson and Nelson’s friend Julia try out myLOC.gov and its feature, “Create Your Own Experience.” - Kristina Nixon
Visitors to the Library of Congress Pavilion at the 2008 National Book Festival experienced some of the ways that the Library collects, preserves and provides access to knowledge; sparks imagination and creativity and celebrates achievement.
As the day’s festivities began, a crowd began to gather at the Library’s pavilion to learn how to preserve their home library materials, engage in interactive educational games available on computers and write the name of their favorite authors and books on the ever-popular graffiti wall.
Early in the day, the Library of Congress Experience table was filled to capacity with visitors wishing to learn more about the Library’s new exhibitions and companion Web site, myLOC.gov. Library staffers responsible for the Web site watched from a short distance, looking for ways the interface could be tweaked to the users’ advantage.
A girl of about age 7—after sizing up the huge blank canvas that was the pavilion’s “Graffiti Wall”—seized a marker to become the first visitor to ink the name of her favorite book: “Nancy Drew.”
The crowds steadily increased as festivalgoers paused to watch two videos about the Library: an overview of the Library, produced by the History Channel; and extra features included in some DVD packages of Disney’s “National Treasure II—The Book of Secrets,” which was filmed at the Library.
Kimberly Peach shares some tips on how to preserve precious old books and papers with Rita Wenham in the Library of Congress pavilion.
- Nancy Alfaro
Some gathered to see demonstrations of the Library’s pilot photo-tagging project with Flickr while others got a preview of the multilingual World Digital Library (an international collaborative digital project that will be launched in April 2009). Demonstrations of how rare documents are digitized mesmerized people of all ages. A special “Did You Know?” display revealed some of the more intriguing items in the Library of Congress’ collections, from the copyright for the design of the Statue of Liberty to the personal papers of Johnny Carson.
D.C. resident Richard Miller was surveying the pavilion’s display on preservation and restoration of home library items. He also came to the festival hoping to hear some favorite authors speak. A frequent visitor to the Library, Miller is a fan of its movie screenings.
“I’ve been [to the Book Festival] three times over the years,” said Georgie Almon, a graduate student pursuing a degree in International Development at George Washington University. “I really like books in general, and it’s a great promotional event for literacy.”
This year she brought a friend, fellow GWU International Development graduate student Ryan Evans. “I’m new to Washington. I’ve been here a month and I’m enjoying the festival,” Evans said. “The World Digital Library is very cool.”
