Interactive Technology Engages Library of Congress Patrons

If you had the chance to see Thomas Jefferson’s hand-edited draft of the Declaration of Independence up close and personal, how much do you think you could take away from the experience? Simply viewing the dimly lit rough draft on display at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., could amount to little more than words scrawled on a very old page. To really learn about the document, visitors would have to speak onsite with a guide or independently research the document.

The library is working to create a completely different experience, however, by deploying new technologies that enrich the exhibits for both on-site and online visitors, allowing anyone in the world to learn more about many of the treasures displayed at the library.

In April, the library unveiled the “Library of Congress Experience,” computer kiosks in selected locations that let users virtually flip through and examine artifacts that are too delicate for handling, such as Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence draft, George Washington’s copy of the U.S. Constitution, John Beckley’s Bill of Rights, the Gutenberg Bible, the Giant Bible of Mainz, Martin Waldeseemüller’s 16th-century world maps, and more.

Source: Government Technology

This entry was posted on Friday, October 3rd, 2008 and is filed under Libraries and Librarianship, Search News, Technology and Internet. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.