Library Of Congress Joins YouTube
After several months of work, the Library of Congress on Tuesday launched its own YouTube channel. The institution, which houses the world's largest collection of audiovisual materials (some 6 million films, broadcasts and sound recordings), unveiled its page on the popular video-sharing Web site with more than 70 videos, arranged in the following playlists: 2008 National Book Festival author presentations; the Books and Beyond author series; Journeys and Crossings (a series of curator discussions); "Westinghouse" industrial films from 1904; scholar discussions from the John W. Kluge Center; and the earliest movies made by Thomas Edison, including the first moving image ever made (a sneeze by a man named Fred Ott, pictured above).
Library blogger Matt Raymond promises that is just the beginning. "We have made a conscious decision that we're not just going to upload a bunch of videos and then walk away," he wrote. "As with our popular Flickr pilot project, we intend to keep uploading additional content." The Web team is modifying some its work-flows in modest ways to make digitized content more useful. Plus, all of the videos posted on YouTube will also be available at LOC.gov, on the library's American Memory collection Web page. Read Raymond's blog post here and visit the library's YouTube channel here.
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