Interactive Library of Congress Experience Debuts
Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 4/14/2008
- New access to rare documents
- "Inspiration Across the Nation" seeks submissions
- "Living Legend" awards
With interactive technology, digitized documents, and much AV material, the Library of Congress (LC) has launched the “Library of Congress Experience,” along with a companion web site. The Experience includes new ongoing exhibitions, dozens of interactive kiosks, and a continuing online educational experience, LC said. 
In an outreach effort to connect past and present, an “Inspiration Across the Nation” campaign solicits examples of stories, poems, video, audio, and photos from ordinary citizens. The library dangles a carrot: select entries will become be part of LC’s permanent collections.
The “experience” debuted on Saturday, as three bronze doors to LC’s historic Thomas Jefferson Building were opened to the public for the first time in nearly two decades. Two orientation galleries that flank the Great Hall each offer a multimedia “overture” on a multi-screen collage. A Passport to Knowledge leads to the Experience’s “greatest hits.” A new exhibit, “Creating the United States,” explores the documents, words, and phrases key to the country’s founding. The companion web site offers interactive versions of the same exhibition content and more. LC relied on significant support from corporations and foundations: $15 million in private funds (with some $8 million donated in services), according to the New York Times.
In a review cheekily headlined We Hold These Truths to Be User-Accessible and in Hypertext, New York Times critic Edward Rothstein questioned the name, suggesting that “the word ‘experience’ seems to promise something disruptive in this context,” but concluded that touch-screen kiosks that magnify images and link to other information sources are well-suited to conveying how documents changed between drafts and to discover thematic connections. Still, he said, since displays currently “err on the side of brevity,” they should provide more depth.
"Living Legend" awards
During a public celebration on Saturday, LC presented seven “Living Legend” awards, which since 2000 have honored “artists, writers, activists, filmmakers, physicians, entertainers, sports figures and public servants who have made significant contributions to America’s diverse cultural, scientific and social heritage.” This year’s recipients:
- Race-car driver Mario Andretti
- Civil Rights activist Julian Bond
- Jazz pianist and composer Herbie Hancock
- Historian David McCullough
- Columnist and commentator Cokie Roberts
- Baseball star and pioneering manager Frank Robinson
- Broadcast journalist Bob Schieffer.
