Classic American crime novels will see new life in a new publishing collaboration between the Library of Congress and Poisoned Pen Press, an imprint of Sourcebooks. The Library of Congress Crime Classics series will feature a rich and diverse selection of books originally published between the 1860s and the 1960s, the Library announced today.

Titles are drawn from the Library’s collection of hard-to-find and out-of-print books, with cover designs inspired by images from the Library’s collections.

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In celebration of Constitution Day, the Library of Congress is launching a new website – constitution.congress.gov – for the Constitution Annotated, the authoritative source for how the Supreme Court has interpreted the nation’s governing document over the years.

With advanced search tools and a modern user-friendly interface, the new website makes the 3,000 pages of the Constitution Annotated fully searchable and accessible for the first time to online audiences – including Congress, legal scholars, law students and anyone interested in U.S. constitutional law.

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A new exhibition at the Library of Congress explores the fascinating evolution of visual storytelling styles in comic art – from panels in early newspapers to contemporary images of some of the most famous and funny characters in print. “Comic Art: 120 Years of Panels and Pages” opens Sept. 12 and will be on view for a year in the Graphic Arts Galleries of the Library’s Thomas Jefferson Building.

The exhibition draws from the Library’s extensive collection of comic art, which includes some of the earliest comics, including the first successful newspaper comic strip featuring Richard Outcault’s “The Yellow Kid,” early drawings of “Peanuts,” superheroes including Batman, Superman and the Incredible Hulk in modern comic books, and much more.

“The Yellow Kid,” first published in a panel in the New York World newspaper in 1895, is credited with sparking the rise of comics as a new American art form. By the middle of the 20th century, a growing number of diverse comic artists were examining their own life stories and commenting on culture and politics while expanding into graphic novels, fanzines and web comics. Comic art characters and narratives have also spread across film, television, books and marketing to reach even more people.

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The Library of Congress kicked off the 2019-20 school year by welcoming two teachers to its Capitol Hill campus who will work closely with the Library’s learning and innovation team to help make primary sources from the Library’s collections more accessible for teachers throughout the United States.

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From hot summer days in Mississippi to windy nights in the Caribbean, the Library of Congress’ latest crowdsourcing campaign, launched today, challenges virtual volunteers to explore folk and music traditions through the eyes and writings of one of America’s most famous 20th century folklorists, musicologists and oral historians: Alan Lomax. The new campaign — “The Man who Recorded the World: On the Road with Alan Lomax” on the Library’s crowdsourcing platform By the People — asks the public to help transcribe over 10,000 pages of field notes, letters and diaries from the American Folklife Center’s Alan Lomax Collection.

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Book lovers of all ages came together by the tens of thousands to celebrate reading and meet their favorite authors Saturday at the 19th annual Library of Congress National Book Festival, held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. Thousands more watched the festival’s Main Stage streamed live on the Library’s YouTube platform. Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden announced the date for the 20th anniversary National Book Festival as Saturday, Aug. 29, 2020.

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Three organizations working to expand literacy and promote reading in the United States and worldwide will be awarded the 2019 Library of Congress Literacy Awards at the National Book Festival gala, Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden announced today.

Hayden and philanthropist David M. Rubenstein will award the top prizes to: ProLiteracy Worldwide of Syracuse, New York; American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults of Baltimore; and ConTextos of Chicago.

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The Library of Congress has restored and made available online the Gandhara Scroll, a manuscript dating back to around the first century B.C., that offers insight into the initial years of Buddhism. The scroll is one of the world’s oldest Buddhist manuscripts.

The scroll originates from Gandhara, an ancient Buddhist region located in what is now the northern border areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan. The scroll tells the story of buddhas who came before and after Siddhartha Gautama, the sage who reached enlightenment under the Bodhi tree in eastern India around the fifth century B.C. and the religious leader on whose teachings Buddhism was founded.

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The Library of Congress National Book Festival will expand to include a yearlong series of events – to be known as National Book Festival Presents – featuring high-caliber authors, their books and related Library treasures beginning this fall, following the signature daylong festival on Aug. 31, the Library announced today.

Neil Patrick Harris, an accomplished actor, producer, television host, author and magician, will kick off the new series at the Library on Sept. 11 with his new book, “The Magic Misfits,” a bestselling series that is his debut for middle school children. In addition, on Sept. 24 prominent Haitian-American writer Edwidge Danticat will discuss her new book, “Everything Inside: Stories." Also, Joy Harjo begins her formal duties as the new U.S. poet laureate Sept. 19 with an inaugural reading of her work, including from her new book “An American Sunrise.”

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Request ADA accommodations five business days in advance at (202) 707-6362 or ADA@loc.gov.

The papers of President James A. Garfield, who was assassinated in the first year of his short presidency, have been digitized and are now available online for the first time from the Library of Congress.

The Garfield collection includes approximately 80,000 items, mostly dating from 1850 to 1881. The collection is online at: loc.gov/collections/james-a-garfield-papers/about-this-collection.

Garfield’s papers include correspondence, diaries, speeches, records of his Civil War military service, legal records, genealogical material, college notebooks, tributes, scrapbooks and other materials relating to Garfield’s life, career and death. Subjects in the collection include Ohio and national politics, the disputed election of 1876, tariffs and national finance, Garfield’s family life, as well as details of the shooting of President Garfield at a Washington, D.C., train station, his medical care and the national drama surrounding his death.

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Letters About Literature, a Library of Congress national writing competition, has announced its winners for 2019. The national program asks students in grades 4 to 12 to write to an author about how his or her work affected their lives. More than 29,000 students from across the country participated in this year’s initiative.

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The 2019 Library of Congress National Book Festival will offer an outstanding lineup of authors for readers of all ages for the festival’s 19th year, with more than 140 nationally recognized authors, poets and illustrators, as well as the addition of stages devoted to science and international subjects.

On Saturday, Aug. 31, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, doors will open at 8:30 a.m., with programs beginning at 9 a.m. and running until 8 p.m.

The stellar lineup includes U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, eminent historians David McCullough and Michael Beschloss, celebrity D.C. chef and humanitarian José Andrés, graphic novel superstar Raina Telgemeier and Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction recipient Richard Ford.

The 2019 festival also will invite visitors to Explore America’s Changemakers, part of a yearlong initiative coinciding with a series of exhibitions, events and programs at the Library. Among numerous festival programs dedicated to the theme of Changemakers, a special panel will feature new books on Winston Churchill by Andrew Roberts, Frederick Douglass by David Blight and visionary women including Rachel Carson, Jane Jacobs, Jane Goodall and Alice Waters, by Andrea Barnet.

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Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden today announced the appointment of Joy Harjo as the nation’s 23rd Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry for 2019-2020. Harjo will take up her duties in the fall, opening the Library’s annual literary season on Sept. 19 with a reading of her work in the Coolidge Auditorium.

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Michelle Light, formerly director of Special Collections and Archives at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, has been named director of the Library of Congress Special Collections Directorate.

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Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden today announced that Jane Sánchez, the law librarian of Congress, has been named the deputy librarian for Library Collections and Services, effective June 10.

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Local educators across the nation have been selected from a pool of more than 280 applicants to participate in the Library of Congress’ Summer Teacher Institute, part of the Teaching with Primary Sources program.

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The John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress today announced the appointment of Frances Lee, Princeton University professor of politics and public affairs, as the inaugural chair in congressional policymaking at the Library.

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The Library of Congress today announced the appointment of 40 undergraduate and graduate students to its highly competitive Junior Fellows summer intern program. This year’s Junior Fellows program, which runs from May 28 to Aug. 2, includes 32 special projects across divisions of the Library of Congress. The program will expose the Junior Fellows to the breadth and depth of the work that takes place at the world’s largest library.

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World renowned opera singer and recitalist Jessye Norman has donated thousands of items documenting her illustrious 50-year career to the Library of Congress. The acquisition was announced on Thursday evening during a conversation with the celebrated soprano in the Coolidge Auditorium before an enthusiastic crowd. The audience listened to Norman discuss her decades-long career, her role as a trailblazer in classical music and her passion for mentoring young artists. The program was part of the Music Division’s “Concerts from the Library of Congress” series.

The collection of about 29,000 items consists of musical arrangements written specifically for Norman, including orchestrations of songs by George and Ira Gershwin and the sacred music of Duke Ellington; business papers related to Norman’s opera and concert performances; publicity materials; concert and opera programs; mockups of album art work; fan mail; recordings; and professional and amateur photographs, providing a visual record of her legacy as a performer.

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Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden announced today that Richard Ford, author of “Independence Day” – the first novel to win both the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award – will receive the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction during the 2019 Library of Congress National Book Festival on Aug. 31.

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Historical news reports and breaking news bulletins published by the Washington bureau of The Associated Press from 1915 to 1930, documenting a full chronology of world and national events, have been digitized and are now available online from the Library of Congress.

The collection includes news dispatches from key moments in history, from the sinking of the Lusitania ocean liner in 1915, drawing the U.S. into World War I, through the roaring 1920s to the stock market crash of 1929 and the outbreak of the Great Depression.

The AP collection includes 375 volumes of wire copy, totaling more than 387,000 images.

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The John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress today announced the appointment of Simon Martin, an anthropologist and specialist in Maya hieroglyphic writing, as the 2019-2020 Jay I. Kislak Chair for the Study of the History and Cultures of the Early Americas. Martin will begin his tenure in November 2019.

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In commemoration of the 75th anniversary of D-Day, the Allied invasion of Normandy during World War II, the Veterans History Project (VHP) at the Library of Congress today launched an interactive online experience that features unique journeys of veterans who were part of the invasion.

The digital efforts include an interactive Story Map, “D-Day Journeys: Personal Geographies of D-Day,” and a new online website feature, “D-Day: 75th Anniversary.” 

The Story Map draws from VHP collections, and chronicles the individual journeys of four veterans who took part in the invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944: Preston Earl Bagent, Robert Harlan Horr, John William Boehne III and Edward Duncan Cameron.

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The National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) at the Library of Congress will honor two of its cooperating libraries for their outstanding service to readers who are visually or physically disabled.

The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (CLP-LBPH) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, will receive the Regional Library of the Year Award, while the Staunton Talking Book Center (TBC) in Staunton, Virginia, will receive the Sub-regional Library/Advisory and Outreach Center of the Year Award.

The awards will be presented at an event in the historic Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., on May 16.

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Festival Lineup on Aug. 31 Features José Andrés, Barbara Kingsolver, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Among Dozens of Authors

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will be among the featured speakers at the 2019 Library of Congress National Book Festival, along with dozens of best-selling authors, novelists, historians, poets and children’s writers, the Library announced today. This year’s festival will be held Saturday, Aug. 31, from 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C.

Ginsburg will discuss her book “My Own Words,” a collection of writings and speeches from throughout her life, discussing gender equality, the workings of the Supreme Court, interpreting the U.S. Constitution, being Jewish, and the law and lawyers in opera. The book, written with her authorized biographers, was Ginsburg’s first book since becoming a Supreme Court justice in 1993. It’s been called witty, engaging, serious and playful.

The 2019 festival will invite visitors to Explore America’s Changemakers, part of a yearlong initiative coinciding with a series of exhibitions, events and programs at the Library. Exhibitions opening this year will explore the fight for women’s voting rights and Rosa Parks’ groundbreaking role in civil rights history. Changemakers are everywhere. Everyday citizens become trailblazers and history makers, shaping America.

Among numerous festival programs dedicated to the theme of Changemakers, a special panel will feature new books on Winston Churchill by Andrew Roberts, Frederick Douglass by David Blight and visionary women including Rachel Carson, Jane Jacobs, Jane Goodall and Alice Waters, by Andrea Barnet.

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