VOA标准英语2010-Website of the Week - Library of Congress（在线收听）

More than one million searchable and browsable images

Art Chimes | Washington, DC 09 April 2010

 
Photo: Library of Congress
The Library of Congress contains a treasure trove of photographs and other images.

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Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Time again for our Website of the Week, when we showcase interesting and innovative online destinations.

This time, we crack open the vaults at the Library of Congress to unearth a treasure trove of photographs and other images, from Japanese woodblock prints to century-old color photographs of the Russian empire to pictures documenting 20th century America.

"The Prints and Photographs Online Catalog is the primary access tool to learn about and explore the picture collections at the Library of Congress," says Helena Zinkham, acting head of the Prints and Photographs Division at the Library of Congress. "There are descriptions for many millions of pictures and about one and a quarter million have the digitized image right with the catalog record."

Zinkham says the vast collection is more accessible than ever, thanks to a redesign unveiled this week, updating some shortcomings in the pioneering  website that dates back to the 1990s.

"The pictures are right on the same page with the catalog description. We're able to have a browse index, in other words, an alphabetical index for the entire catalog. We can retrieve thousands and thousands of records for every search."

And Zinkham says the site now incorporates slide shows and up-to-date sharing tools.

The head of Public Reference Services at the Library of Congress, Barbara Natanson, says the print and photo collections get a lot of use from a broad range of online visitors.

"A lot of documentary filmmakers. We have people who are publishing books. We have students themselves from every grade level. We have people who are doing family history or genealogy, who may be looking for the sites that are connected to their families, or even members of their families themselves," says Natanson.

And also curious users who just want to browse through more than a million images of art and the art that is real life at the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Online Catalog or get the link from our site, voanews.com.