15 Awesome Webcasts for Librarians from The Library of Congress
The Library of Congress has published a great number of webcasts from experts, educators, authors and professionals discussing a wide variety of subjects, many of which may be of particular interest to fellow librarians. Here are 15 such webcast productions from the largest library in the world:
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- Publishing the Declaration of Independence – Robin Shields, a retired reference librarian, discusses the American Declaration of Independence, focusing on its distribution through early American newspapers.
- Domestic Engraving & European Letterpress – Gaylord Shanilec, Wisconsin wood engraver, talks about his intricately realized multi-colored engravings inspired by his rural Midwestern surroundings. Russell Maret, a New York-based private designer and letterpress printer, discusses the high and low corners of European alphabetical history for both form and content.
- Books That Shaped the World – In keeping with the theme of this year’s National Book Festival theme, Library of Congress staff share their thoughts and opinions on books that shaped the world.
- Cultural Institutions & Wikipedia: A Mutually Beneficial Relationship – The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has become an enthusiastic and vocal participant in this movement to build bridges with Wikipedia and its community. Using specific examples, Dominic McDevitt-Parks discusses how NARA views the partnership as a vehicle for increasing access to holdings, citizen engagement, and openness, while addressing practical concerns and challenges institutions will likely face if they choose to become involved.
- Resurrecting the Ancient Library of Alexandria – Co-founder of the Canadian Institute for Middle Eastern Research in Calgary as well as the Forum of Alexandria in Ottawa, Hassan Eltaher discusses the considerable cultural and historical project of reviving Egypt’s ancient library at Alexandria.
- The Emancipation Proclamation: Bringing History Together – For the first time in history, the Library’s first draft of the Emancipation Proclamation along with two artifacts associated with the creation of the document were brought together at the Library for a photoshoot for Smithsonian Magazine.
- A Digital Shift: Libraries, Ebooks and Beyond – Cory Doctorow, science fiction novelist, blogger and technology activist, discusses the challenges facing authors and cultural heritage institutions with the increasing use of electronic texts.
- Networks of Outrage and Hope: Social Movements in the Internet Age – Sociologist Manuel Castells examines the Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street and other social movements that have emerged in the Internet Age. He shares his observations on the recurring patterns in these movements: their origins, their use of new media, and their goal of transforming politics in the interest of the people. Castells presents what he sees to be the shape of the social movements of the Internet age, and discuss the implications of these movements for social and political change.
- Covering America: A Narrative History of a Nation’s Journalism – Christopher B. Daly, associate professor in the Department of Journalism at Boston University, discusses the development of journalism in America from the early 1700s to the digital revolution of today.
- The Creative Society & the Price Americans Paid for It – In his book “The Creative Society and the Price Americans Paid for It,” Louis Galambos, professor of history at The Johns Hopkins University, asserts that entrepreneurial thinkers have always been the staple of American progress.
- Mapping Water Use from Space – Martha Anderson talks about using images from the Landsat satellite program to monitor water use and drought on U.S. farms with pinpoint accuracy to measure evapotranspiration, the total amount of water used in the process of growing crops.
- Diving Deep in a Pool of Pictures: Prints and Photographs Online Catalog – Prints and Photographs Division staff provide an overview of the Prints and Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC), highlighting features researchers have found useful for discovering, analyzing, and sharing pictures from the Division’s collections.
- The Somali Collections at the Library of Congress – Abdulahi Ahmed discusses the Somali collections at the Library of Congress. Abdulahi Ahmed is a specialist in the African and Middle Eastern Division of the Library of Congress.
- Dignity of the Human Person – Six distinguished scholars, in an informal conversation, probe the meaning of human dignity from a variety of historical, philosophical, religious, medical and social perspectives.
- Looking Homeward Towards Earth: The Power of Perspective – In 1968, Apollo 8 astronaut, William Anders, took an image of planet Earth as it emerged from the lunar horizon. The picture, “Earthrise,” changed forever society’s view of our celestial home, according to NASA Chief Scientist Waleed Abdalati. The image of Earth–beautiful and vulnerable, and suspended in dark stillness–inspired an appreciation that there is one human race, whose fate hinges delicately on mankind’s collective actions. Abdalati demonstrates the tremendous power of the space-based perspective in science, exploration and in daily life.