Gallery: Digitizing the past and present at the Library of Congress – Boing Boing

The Library of Congress has nearly 150 million items in its
collection, including at least 21 million books, 5 million maps, 12.5
million photos and 100,000 posters. The largest library in the world, it
pioneers both preservation of the oldest artifacts and digitization of
the most recent–so that all of it remains available to future
generations.

I recently took a tour of two LoC departments that exemplify this
mission: the Preservation Research and Testing Division in Washington,
D.C., and the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center in Culpeper, Va.

The library’s preservation specialists use the latest technology
to study and scan ancient books, maps and other historical artifacts.
—Bob Beschizza, BoingBoing