LC Launches Blog

-- Library Journal, 04/25/2007

The Library of Congress turned 207 years old yesterday, and for the anniversary launched its first-ever blog, which is either proof that blogging has become indispensable or maybe just that blogging has jumped the shark. LC blog moderator Matt Raymond titled the first blog posting "What Hath God Wrought?," a reference to the first words ever transmitted electronically, by Samuel Morse in 1844. "If you're reading this, then you probably know how blogs are an intrinsic part of that larger medium," Raymond wrote. "The Library of Congress knows it too." Raymond will occasionally be joined by others in posting to the LC blog, including LC curators and Librarian of Congress James H. Billington. LC also will create "audience-specific blogs." Further, LC has pledged that its born-digital blogs will be saved and preserved in perpetuity under its National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program.