Library of Congress Labs Letter May 2020

Our Projects

Jamming with the Newspaper Navigator Dataset
On Thursday, May 7th, Innovator in Residence Ben Lee presented the Newspaper Navigator dataset containing over 100 million images extracted from the Chronicling America database using a machine learning algorithm. Over 130 participants tuned in remotely to get a sneak peek of this complete dataset now available on news-navigator.labs.loc.gov.

Participants then had a chance to play with the data in a “data jam” portion of the event. Many people shared their creative uses of the images from the dataset on Twitter using #NewspaperNavigator. Check them out in the latest post on the Signal or become a “jammer” yourself! And if you make something, keep sharing with us @LC_Labs or by emailing us at LC-Labs@loc.gov.

For more information about the technical process underlying the project, check out Ben’s recently released white paper at https://arxiv.org/abs/2005.01583.

Citizen DJ in BETA
At the end of April, Innovator in Residence Brian Foo and LC Labs rolled out user testing of Citizen DJ, a new music-making and exploration tool launching later this summer. The project has already received attention from nearly 100,000 interested users in this phase of the process, and Brian continues to seek feedback on the tool’s beta version now available on citizen-dj.labs.loc.gov.

As Brian discusses in this blog post on the Signal, user feedback is a vital part of the design process. Please participate if you’re interested!

Junior Fellows Arriving Soon!
The Digital Strategy Directorate will be hosting five remote Junior Fellows this summer, who will be working on creating a digital representation of a Library of Congress collection of their choice and re-imagining creative strategies for getting LC Labs resources into the hands of even more users.

Thanks to the Library’s Internship And Fellowship Programs Office, which transitioned the internship to a virtual program, we’re able to host our Junior Fellows remotely this summer. Stay tuned to meet our 2020 Junior Fellows and explore the creative projects they design!

LC Labs in the News

Several of our projects have recently been featured in the news. Here are some of the highlights:

• “Library of Congress Unveils New Digital DJ Tool” in The New York Times.
• “Millions of historic newspaper images get the machine learning treatment at the Library of Congress” in Tech Crunch.
• Innovator Brian Foo on NPR Morning Edition.
• “The Librarians of the Future Will Be AI Archivists” in Popular Mechanics.

Curio

• Post-1900 public domain Sanborn maps for 25 more states are now online!
• The papers of Presidents Andrew Johnson, Chester Arthur, and William McKinley are online for the first time! Check them out on https://loc.gov or our new mobile collections app.
• In 1977, 14 fieldworkers from American Folklife Center set out to document arts in Chicago. This amazing new StoryMap uses interviews, music , photos and other materials as a pathway into the sights and sounds of the time!

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For more information about LC Labs, visit us at labs.loc.gov

Questions? Contact LC Labs at LC-Labs@loc.gov