http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20000422/tc/books_to_bytes_1.html -
Yahoo!- |Tech|- Tech Headlines- Sources: |AP|-
Saturday April 22 2000 - 12:50 PM ET -
Library of Congress Adds Web Items -
By CARL HARTMAN - Associated Press Writer -
WASHINGTON DC (AP) - Looking forward and backward,
the Library of Congress is holding a 200 - year
birthday bash on Monday, opening a new Web site for kids and showing off a reconstruction
of Thomas Jefferson's own library - the core of
the world's biggest collection.
It's not just books. Last time it counted, the library had
9,429,184 books, including music, bound newspapers
and other printed material. It also had 53,120,327
manuscripts and over 13 million films, prints, photos,
drawings and posters.
Almost 119 million items in all. They include clay
tablets 4,000 years old with information about the
economy of Sumeria in Asia Minor, Librarian James H.
Billington notes.
The library has been putting about a million items
annually on its Web site called American Memory,
largely historical material like the papers of George
Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Maps and photos,
too. It expects to reach 5 million by the end of this
year.
The new Web site -http://www.americaslibrary.gov- was due to go on line Monday with 3,000
items, educational items for children and
families. Additions will depend largely on private contributions, which spokesman Guy
Lamolinara estimated as covering three - quarters of
the costs.
For the year that ended last Sept. 30, Congress
appropriated $391,660,000 for all the library's
activities.
In 1800, when Philadelphia was still the capital,
President John Adams signed a bill providing $5,000
``for the purchase of such books as may be necessary
for the use of Congress at the said city of Washington,
and for fitting up a suitable apartment for containing
them.''
Now anyone can get a reader's card or tap the
resources at -http://www.loc.gov- the library's main Web site. Last year it recorded
nearly 2 million on - site visits, compared with
inquiries from 568,317 personal visits.
In 1813 U.S. troops invaded Canada and burned the
parliament's library. The next year the British burned
Washington and the 2,000=book library was ruined.
Jefferson, 71 and deep in debt, sold the government
his collection of 6,487 books, one of the country's best,
for $23,940. The library calculates that would be
$213,000 in today's money. Later fires destroyed many
of them.
Jerry Jones, owner of the National Football League's
Dallas Cowboys, gave a million dollars toward a
reconstruction of the original collection. ``In the heart of (Washington) Redskins'
territory it is particularly appreciated,'' Billington
said.
The reconstruction contains not only the same titles
as Jefferson owned but precisely the same editions
that he bought. They are arranged in a circle of tall
shelves as they once were above the entrance hall to
his home at Monticello. Mark Dimunation, head of rare
books at the library, is still looking for several hundred
and his meticulously marked the gaps in his
reconstruction.
Jefferson remains the library's hero. Its main building,
where the birthday celebration takes place, is named
for him.
There's also an exhibit of his inventions, letters and
other writings. They include a scrap of paper on which
he jotted a few lines intended for the Declaration of
Independence. They denounce the British people, in
addition to King George III, for oppressing the 13
colonies. Other delegates diplomatically cut them out
of the text, much to his indignation.
Another item in the show: a cartoon of Jefferson's time
titled ``Philosopher Cock,'' portraying him as a rooster gazing down at a hen with
a black human face and a bandanna around her head - an
allusion to reports of his relations with a slave, Sally Hemings.
-
On the Net:
http://www.americaslibrary.gov-
http://www.loc.gov-
-
Copyright © 2000 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in
the AP News report may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The
Associated Press.
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