Library of Congress Acquires Twitter Archive

A press release from April 14, 2010, announced that the Library of Congress acquired the entire archives of Twitter tweets.

Have you ever sent out a “tweet” on the popular Twitter social media service? Congratulations: Your 140 characters or less will now be housed in the Library of Congress.That’s right. Every public tweet, ever, since Twitter’s inception in March 2006, will be archived digitally at the Library of Congress. That’s a LOT of tweets, by the way: Twitter processes more than 50 million tweets every day, with the total numbering in the billions.

The Archives include, for example, the first ever tweet, President's Obama tweet about winning the 2008 presidential elections, and many more.

[I]f you're looking for a place where important historical and other information in digital form should be preserved for the long haul, we're [the Library of Congress] are it!

Law Library of Congress is on YouTube and iTunes

Via the Law Library of Congress, News and Events, the Law Library of Congress can now be found on YouTube and iTunes. The Law and the Library play list is available here. To find videos in iTunes, search Law Library of Congress and select the "Law and the Library" iTunes series, which is available here.

Law and the Library is a series of debates and discussions on a wide variety of contemporary legal issues. The series presented by the Law Library of Congress ranges from talks by current or former Members of Congress to pressing foreign, comparative, and international legal issues.

The YouTube Channel links to the library's webcasts, podcasts, motion pictures, list of RSS feeds, and digital collection. Users may also directly subscribe to the Library of Congress YouTube channel.

Library of Congress Puts Thousands of Historic Books Online

With a little bit of a delay, the December 24, 2009 press release announced that Library of Congress has put thousands of historic books online.

Washington — Nearly 60,000 books prized by historians, writers and genealogists, many too old and fragile to be safely handled, have been digitally scanned as part of the first-ever mass book-digitization project of the U.S. Library of Congress, the world’s largest library. Anyone who wants to learn about the early history of the United States, or track the history of their own families, can read and download these books for free.

'The Library chose books that people wanted, but that were too old and fragile to serve to readers. They won’t stand up to handling,' said Michael Handy, who co-managed the project, which is called Digitizing American Imprints.

'Many of these books cover a period of Western settlement of the United States — 1865–1922 — and offer historians a trove of information that’s otherwise tough to locate,' he said. Books published before 1923 are in the public domain in the United States because their U.S. copyrights have expired.

More information is available in a Library of Congress video.

Library Of Congress On The U.S. Constitution

The Library of Congress has launched a new site dedicated to the Constitution of the U.S., titled United States: The Constitution. Documents are available in PDF format and include citations. Check it out yourself!

The website offers the following:

• Constitutional Interpretation
• Executive Privilege
• Military Tribunals
• National Security Whistleblowers
• Presidential Inherent Powers
• Presidential Signing Statements
• Second Amendment
• States Secrets Privilege
• War Powers
• War Powers Resolutions
• Additional Constitutional Resources

Library of Congress Photos on Flicker

Library of Congress offers its collection of historical photographs via Flicker. Access the Library of Congress' photostream. You do not need a flicker account to view the images. Read more about the Library of Congress Photos on Flicker. Enjoy!

We invite you to tag and comment on the photos, and we also welcome identifying information—many of these old photos came to us with scanty descriptions!

Women's History Month

The Library of Congress dedicated a web page to the Women's History Month, providing an overview, legislative and executive branch documents.

Women’s History Month honors and celebrates the struggles and achievements of American women throughout the history of the United States. Women’s History Month had its origins in 1981 when Congress passed Pub. L. 97-28 which authorized and requested the President to proclaim the week beginning March 7, 1982 as “Women’s History Week". As requested by Congress, President Reagan issued Presidential Proclamation 4903 proclaiming the week beginning on March 7, 1982 as the first "Women’s History Week" and recognizing the vital role of women in American history:

Lincoln Celebrated 200th Birthday

On February 12, 2009, it was 200 years since Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, was born. The USA.gov dedicated a website to this bicentennial celebration as well as Lincoln's life and legacy.

Check out the entire government website with related information and other links right here.

Lincoln was first inaugurated in 1861, and was re-elected in 1864. He served throughout the Civil War, working to end slavery and to put the country back together after the war. President Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, 1865, and died April 15, 1865.

Library of Congress also celebrated the Lincoln's 200th Birthday anniversary by creating and publishing a research guide titled Lincoln and the Law. It has three parts, each featuring numerous resources, links, and related information:

• Lincoln the Lawyer
• Habeas Corpus and the War Powers of the President
• The Assassination: Trials

Check it out for yourself and let us know what you think.

African American History Month

The Library of Congress, in celebration of the African American History Month, published an excellent online bibliography including a historical overview, legislative branch documents, executive branch documents, and web resources.

National African American History Month in February celebrates the contributions that African Americans have made to American history in their struggles for freedom and equality and deepens our understanding of our Nation's history.

Google is to digitize Congressional Hearings

The Library of Congress (LC) and Google will collaborate on digitizing Congressional Hearings. The LC contains about 75,000 volumes of printed Congressional Hearings. Committees hold hearings for a variety of purposes. Testimony is received from members of congress, officials of the executive branch, policy experts, interest groups and sometimes the general public on legislative proposals, the functioning of government progress, subjects of controversy and matters under investigation. The Law Library’s hearing collection is a rich resource for anyone interested in the history of issues that still face our country today.

As part of the Law Library’s transition to the digital future, a collaborative pilot project was undertaken with Google, Inc. to digitize the entire collection and make it freely available to Congress and the world. Three collections have been selectively compiled to provide users with a test experience: Census: U.S., Freedom of Information and Privacy, Immigration.

This project aims to provide text-readable PDF versions of the Congressional Hearings and to make them available as quickly as possible.