Library of Congress Urging Use of its Digital Collection.

The Library of Congress has launched labs.loc.gov--an online space that hosts a changing selection of experiments, projects, events, and resources designed to encourage creative use of the Library's digital collections. To help demonstrate the discoveries that are possible, the site also features a gallery of projects from data challenge winners, innovators-in-residence, Hog posts, and video presentations from leaders in the field.

'We already know the Library of Congress is the ultimate treasure chest, but with labs.loc.gov, we are inviting explorers to help crack open digital discoveries and share the collections in new and innovative ways," says Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden.

'Whether you're tagging images from our digitized historic newspapers to help future visitors, or exploring the changing nature of democracy through the 25,000,000 bibliographic records the Library recently made public, we are providing tools and inspiration that will lead to new uses and new ways of looking at the materials here."

Labs will enable users at every level of technical knowledge to engage with these vast resources. Visitors can try experimental applications and crowdsourcing programs, and tutorials will provide a steppingstone for new computational discovery.

'We're excited to see what happens when you bring together the largest collection of human knowledge ever assembled with the power of 21st-century technology," relates Kate Zwaard, chief of the Library's National Digital Initiatives office, which manages the website. "Every day, students, researchers, journalists, and artists are using code and computation to derive new knowledge from library collections. With labs, we hope to create a community dedicated to using technology to expand what's possible with the...