The Library of Congress World Wide Web site is a well-designed and creative example of the multimedia potential offered by the Internet. Easy access is provided to basic LC resources like its gopher server, LC MARVEL, and LOCIS, its on-line catalog.
But much more than that is available here. Online exhibits enable net surfers to view images and read about a variety of special collections. Current exhibits include Temple of Liberty: Building the Capitol for a New Nation, The Gettysburg Address, The Russian Church and Native Alaskan Cultures, African-American Culture and History, 1492: An Ongoing Voyage, Scrolls from the Dead Sea, Revelations from the Russian Archives, Rome Reborn: The Vatican Library and Renaissance Culture. All exhibits can be viewed in real time on the Web, and can also be accessed and dowloaded via ftp. These exhibits are done by the Library itself, and also in conjunction with other libraries and collections.
The American Memory Collection is one of the most interesting parts of this Web site.Culled from the Library's many special collections, photographs, maps, drawings, recordings, books and video depict American life. Parts of this collection include: Color photographs from the Farm Security Administration and the Office of War Information, ca. 1938-1944, early motion pictures, 1897-1916, life history manuscripts from the Folklore Project, WPA Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940, political speeches by American leaders during World War I and the presidential election of 1920, and selected Civil War Photographs from the Library of Congress, 1861-1865. Future planned exhibits include: The American Variety Stage, ca. 1870-1920, "California as I Saw It": First-Person Narratives of California's Early Years, 1849-1900, Daguerreotype Photographs, 1839-1850, Documents of the Continental Congress and Constitutional Convention, ca. 1774-1790, National American Woman Suffrage Collection, ca. 1860-1920, panoramic photographs of American cities and landscapes at the start of the twentieth century.
Another interesting database located here is the POW/MIA Database. It has been established to assist researchers interested in investigating the U.S. Government documents pertaining to U.S. military personnel killed, missing, or imprisoned in Southeast Asia during or after the conclusion of American involvement in the Vietnam Conflict. The database can be searched like a catalog, and copies of documents can be ordered from the Library of Congress. This database is under construction.
Also available are selected volumes of the Country Studies/Area Handbook series. These volumes are a continuing series of books prepared by the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress, sponsored by the Department of the Army.
This site has no large opening graphics, so there is no image loading problem. Access to the exhibits is dependent upon having a browser (and helper applications) capable of handling images, sound and video, although the exhibits can be accessed without all of these capabilities. The opening page is a an uncluttered menu that allows easy movement from one section to another. Downloading text or images is quite fast and very simple.