Quote from: BADecker on May 28, 2017, 06:56:02 PM

The US Library of Congress Just Put 25 Million Records Online, Free of Charge

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Quote from: http://www.sciencealert.com/the-us-library-of-congress-just-put-25-million-records-online-free-of-charge

Knowledge is power, the old saying goes, but it isn't much use if it's hidden away so we're excited to learn that the US Library of Congress is making 25 million of its records available for free, for anyone to access online.

The bibliographic data sets, like digital library cards, cover music, books, maps, manuscripts, and more, and their publication online marks the biggest release of digital records in the Library's history.

"The Library of Congress is our nation's monument to knowledge and we need to make sure the doors are open wide for everyone, not just physically but digitally too," says Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden.

"Unlocking the rich data in the Library's online catalogue is a great step forward. I'm excited to see how people will put this information to use."

Researchers and analysts will get most use out of the new records, but there's plenty of potential for them to be used in apps and databases as well. The Library hosted a Hack-to-Learn workshop looking at how the data could be used.

Read more and click the links at http://www.sciencealert.com/the-us-library-of-congress-just-put-25-million-records-online-free-of-charge.

Cool

If it belongs to the American people, then it should be readily available for free for us to access at any time. We shouldn't have to go to a physical library to get access.