Web is gateway to resources in Library of Congress

You don't have to travel to Washington, D.C., to do research in the vast collections of the largest library in the world. The Library of Congress homepage http://www.loc.gov is your gateway to accessing its rich resources from the comfort of your desk chair.

The entire "Online Catalog" of the Library of Congress http://www.loc.gov/catalog with its 12 million records, including books, serials, computer files, manuscripts, maps, music, sound recordings and visual materials, is fully searchable 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The American Memory Historical Collections http://memory.loc.gov/ammem, part of the library's ongoing National Digital Library Program, currently comprise more than 70 multimedia collections of digitized documents, photographs, recorded sound, moving pictures and text from the library's Americana collections. Search, view and listen to these materials by following the directions on the American Memory pages. Zoom in on the details of a map of the new world, view films of San Francisco before and after the 1906 earthquake, examine images of the first ladies of the United States, study African-American sheet music from 1850-1920, enjoy baseball cards from 1887-1914 and explore so much more that is part of the social, intellectual and artistic history of this country.

THOMAS http://thomas.loc.gov, named after Thomas Jefferson, is a database of federal legislative information. The full text of House and Senate bills, their status and a record of the roll-call votes are here. The text of the Congressional Record and Congressional committee reports also are searchable. Links to House and Senate committee homepages are provided, as well as schedules for committee hearings. Many historical documents, including the Federalist Papers, papers of Thomas Jefferson and impeachment documents also are available.

The Global Legal Information Network http://lcweb2.loc.gov/law/GLINv1/GLIN.html is a database providing access to laws, regulations and other legal sources from a growing number of countries around the world. It features the full text of documents in the official language of the country of origin, with summaries in English.

In 1870, copyright functions in the U.S. were centralized in the Library of Congress, and today the Copyright Office http://www.loc.gov/copyright has a major presence on the Library of Congress homepage. Application forms for copyright registration, information circulars, links to U.S. copyright law and other copyright sites on the Internet and access to copyright records cataloged since 1978 are provided here.

Scattered throughout the Library of Congress pages are tips on downloading, playing back or obtaining through the mail materials represented in the library's collections. Scattered throughout the UB Libraries' homepages are links to the various segments of the Library of Congress homepage. One point of departure is from the "Online Resources" http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/e-resources region of BISON. Scroll down and click on "Other Library Catalogs," scroll and click on "Library of Congress." This brings you to the opening screen for the Library of Congress Online Catalog. To travel to the main page, scroll to the bottom of the screen and click on "Library of Congress Home."

So, grab a sandwich-unless you're in the library-rev up your computer and have your fill of the riches in our nation's library.

-Austin Booth and Nina Cascio, University Libraries