New Interactive Library of Congress Site to Debut April 12

The Station believes that, in the wake of The Great Chuck Hollis Zero-Capacity Incident of 2008 (see this item directly below), we must now present a real news item in order to assure our readers that what we have is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Terremark Worldwide, a large provider of managed IT infrastructure services, is now helping to power and store data for the newly digital Library of Congress.

Terremark has helped build and will support interactive kiosks in the library’s Thomas Jefferson Building and a new interactive Web site, myLOC.gov, as the companion to the new onsite Library of Congress experience that will be launching April 12.

As you may already know, the Library of Congress is the largest library in the world, maintaining more than 138 million items on more than 650 miles of shelves. No problem for Terremark to handle, though. Users will be able to access virtually anything they want from the LOC through this new subscription service.

Many a data storage company has made capacity comparisons to the LOC; for example, even some of the more modest USB-connected adjunct storage drives now can hold more data than all those digital volumes in the world’s largest library.

MyLOC.gov, a site that will use Terremark’s Highly Managed Hosting, a service that provides high levels of support and availability. The newly redesigned Web site will provide visitors with a highly interactive and educational experience while also serving as a central repository for all kinds of digital content, a Terremark spokesperson told The Station.

“Technology and interaction with historical artifacts are crucial to engaging the imagination and critical-thinking skills of young people, which is why this partnership with Terremark is so important to our mission of making our unparalleled collections more broadly accessible and creating lifelong learners,” said James H. Billington, Librarian of Congress.

The Library of Congress is expecting more than 3 million new user accounts on myLOC.gov within the first year.

Don’t forget to check it out on Saturday, April 12.