Archive for the New Visitors Experience Category (16 posts)

A Library for You

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What is a library?

“A quiet place for study and reflection” is one answer that might spring to mind.

If you take advantage of story times and author talks, you might say, “A social place for programs and gatherings.”

Our view here at the Library of Congress is the image of a treasure chest, filled with limitless information and services, ready to explore and amaze if you open it up.

So today, the Library of Congress is introducing a new visual brand that seizes on this concept and amplifies it. It can change to feature different collection items, stories, images and sounds. The potential is limitless, like the Library itself.

What does this mean for you?

The launch of this new visual brand coincides with the upcoming release of the Library’s new strategic plan, a user-centered plan that will drive the Library’s direction over the next five years.

The plan aims to make the Library’s collections and services more accessible to more of you. A fresh visual identity is intended to signal that something new is happening here, and we want you to be a part of it.

In the coming weeks, we will share not only our new strategic plan, but a series of other announcements reflecting our goal to make the nation’s library a place you can connect with in new and meaningful ways.

What is a library? There is no right or wrong answer. But we hope in the coming months and years you will come to think of the Library of Congress as part of your answer.

Last Chance to See “Creating the U.S.”

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On May 5, the Library will close its popular exhibition “Creating the United States.” The exhibition has been on view for four years and seen approximately 2 million visitors passing through its space. Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David McCullough once called it the one exhibition every American should see on a visit to Washington, D.C. Notable […]

Shiny, Appy People: Library Gets iPhone App

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Developers for the iPhone and iPad have been able to say “there’s an app for that” about a quarter-million times–the total number currently available in Apple’s App Store.  But not until now has there been an official app for the Library of Congress.  (So far it’s the first and only app–don’t be fooled by imitators!) […]

By the Time We Got to Bookstock …

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Right now, here and there all over the world, people are sitting down with a good book and enjoying a good read. Sprawled on the lawn, curled up on the sofa, sitting on the steps in the piazza — they’re communing with a great author, or a funny author, or an author who’s telling them […]

The Joys of Jabbing Jefferson

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When revolutionary-turned-president Thomas Jefferson still walked the streets of Washington, D.C., there were people who wanted to give him a good jab with their index finger and hand him a piece of their minds. These days, here on Capitol Hill, you can give Thomas Jefferson a jab … and dig a little deeper into his […]

Herblog

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From time to time, we ask ourselves: Where is the outrage? Well, for an amazing 72 years, it was on editorial pages, especially that of the Washington Post–in political commentary by the influential cartoonist Herblock (Herb Block), who made presidents and other public figures, from Herbert Hoover to George W. Bush, ink-stained and wretched. The Library […]

Stat of the Day: Visitors Up 47 Percent

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I thought I would pass along a statistic that has been floating about for the past couple of days: Our total number of visitors from January to April 2009 increased a whopping 69 percent over 2007!  (We’re comparing against 2007 because the same period in 2008 had too many variables, including an extended building closure […]