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Program The Source

Visual Descriptions

Overview

The Source is a place where curiosity is valued, research is modeled, and community is celebrated. In The Source, we invite you to step into the shoes of a researcher at the Library of Congress. You can explore a curated collection of replica items from across the Library’s divisions and reading rooms. The Source has two rooms, the Welcome Room and the Collections Room. There are staff and volunteers stationed in each room to assist you. Guests seeking assistance can approach the Meet Librarians Desk in the Welcome Room and a staff member will arrive to assist you.

Welcome Room

When you enter The Source, you come first to the Welcome Room. The goal of the room is to introduce you to the Library.

To your right from the entry doors is a large model of a card catalog. Above the card catalog are examples of materials from the Library’s collections – photographs, posters, maps, and more. For example:

  • An image of the Wright Brothers depicts undertaking their first flight in 1903. Orville Wright is lying prone in the cradle operating at the controls of the machine, while Wilbur Wright runs alongside to balance the machine
  • A cover of a Wonder Woman comic depicts Wonder Woman raising her fists above her
  • The back cover of a comic book about baseball player Jackie Robinson. Robinson holds the bat with two hands and looks to his left, and
  • Painted examples of musical instruments include violins and a painted “accordion-style” camera.

On the opposite side of the room from the card catalog, to the left from the entry doors, is the Meet Librarians Desk. Follow the wall around the Meet Librarians Desk to one of three doorways. These doorways lead you to the Collections Room.

Card Catalog

There are ten interactive drawers in the card catalog. Each drawer explores a different theme. They are about 3 feet from the floor. When you pull these drawers, sounds and images emerge.

Explore the Card Catalog

Inside the drawers are:

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and copies of catalog cards for the book that were created for the Library’s main card catalog are in the drawer. Books and a little dog (Toto) caught up in a tornado emerge and you will hear the whoosh of wind when you open this drawer.

Copies of sheet music for the song “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” and a record are found in the drawer. Images of musical instruments – a trumpet, violin, and others – along with musical notes and the opening sounds of a trumpet emerge when you open this drawer.

A copy of an original drawing for the comic book “Spider-Man” and an early sketch of mickey Mouse are found in the drawer. Doodles and sketches of a cartoon mouse emerge and you will hear the scratch of a pencil on paper when you open this drawer.

Images of a mother and daughter celebrating the Brown v. Board Supreme Court decision that overturned school segregation, a disability rights advocate in front of the Capitol, and a young suffragist are found in the drawer. Sounds of people marching and talking and symbols of ways to take action, including a pen and paper, a gavel, a check mark, a bull horn emerge followed by a model of the Capitol when you open this drawer.

Front pages of newspapers representing major events in history, including the sinking of the Titanic, the moon landing, and the March on Washington are found in the drawer. An image of the Saturn rocket that launched Apollo 11 emerges followed by drawings of newspapers reporting on progress in human flight, and the sound of Neil Armstrong reporting from the surface of the moon when you open this drawer.

Images of soldiers and an illustrated envelope from World War II and a photo of a Boy Scout interviewing a veteran are found in the drawer. Sketches of illustrated envelopes emerge when you open this drawer.

Copies of a bilingual book in English and Arabic, the Magic Horse, and a book printed in India, Hope is a Girl Selling Fruit, are found in the drawer. The word “library” in multiple languages appears as text and the voices of Library staff saying “library” in different languages emerge when you open the drawer,

Copies of Thomas Jefferson’s recipe for macaroni and Rosa Parks’ recipe for pancakes, written on the back of an envelope, are found in the drawer. The ingredients for making pancakes and the sound of mixing emerge when you open this drawer.

A photograph of Abraham Lincoln and a copy of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address are found in the drawer. A sketch of Lincoln and the sounds of the presidential march emerge when you open the drawer.

Pictures of kids playing hand clap games in the 1970s and hopscotch in the 1940s are found in the drawer. An animation of a hopscotch board and feet hopping, along with the sounds of kids playing emerge when you open the drawer.

Explore the spinning books

The questions on them are:

This fireproof building opening in 1897. The Library of Congress was founded in 1800 and was originally housed inside the U.S. Capitol. By the 1870s, the growing collection needed its own purpose-built space.

Items at the Library are given a “call number,” a unique set of numbers and letters that act like an address. The Library primarily sorts items by type and subject.

The Library has 25 million+ books stored on 800 miles of shelves in three buildings on Capitol Hill and more in storages areas beyond Washington, D.C. If you put all the shelves end-to-end, they would reach from here to Chicago!

As a research library, materials can only be used by the public inside The Source and, if you’re over 16, in the Library’s reading rooms. Everyone is welcome to explore the Library’s collections online at loc.gov.

Not quite, Authors and artists send copies of their works to be registered at the U.S. Copyright Office at the Library of Congress. Some, but not all, of these works become part of the Library’s collections.

As soon as you create something in a tangible form, such as writing a story, drawing a picture, or recording a song, you are automatically a copyright owner. You can officially register your creation with the U.S. Copyright Office at copyright.gov.

Meet Librarians Desk

This desk is meant to model a “research interview” that librarians conduct with researchers to help them on their search. Three monitors display six short looping videos. Each video features a different librarian telling a story about how they helped to guide a researcher through the research process. Each librarian also suggests a zone to explore in the Collections Room.

The walls around the desk outline steps of the research process:

  • asking questions,
  • searching for items,
  • exploring ideas, and then
  • creating something new or making change.

Follow the wall around the Librarian Desk to one of three doorways. These doorways lead you to the Collection Room.

Collections Room

There are five zones within the Collections Room. When you enter the room:

  • Film is to the left,
  • Text Zone is to the right,
  • A Researcher Desk is straight ahead in the center of the room,
  • Image is in the far-right corner, and
  • Sound is in the far-left corner.

The Zones are distinguished by archways made up of three-dimensional paint-dipped objects related to that format. Overall, there are over 200 replica items from the Library’s collection to explore in this room.

There are staff and volunteers stationed in each room to help visitors. Guests seeking assistance can approach the Meet Librarians Desk in the Welcome Room and a staff member will arrive shortly.

Film Zone

There is a replica film projector slightly to the right within the center of the archway. To the left of the archway are drawers with replica film reels. The reels are organized into topics: animations, entertainment, ads and promotions, actualities (real life), newsreels, and documentaries. These play film clips when placed on the projector. These films are not described, so please ask a staff member for support.

Across from the Film Zone, to the right when you enter the Collections Room, is the Text Zone.

Text Zone

Within the archway of the Text Zone is a model microfilm reader. Under the microfilm reader are replica microfilm reels. When you place a reel on a projector, newspaper pages appear.

Within the Text Zone, you can flip through a bound volume of replica newspapers from across the United States from November 1897, when this building first opened. There is also a rack of replica newspapers with the front pages of 10 historically significant events or papers:

  • Declaration of Independence,
  • The North Star,
  • Lincoln Assassination,
  • The Titanic Sinks,
  • World War I Declared,
  • WW2 Victory in Europe,
  • March on Washington,
  • Moon Landing,
  • 9/11 (the kids page of the Washington Post), and
  • a recent newspaper page.

There is also a wall with small shelves that hold 40 replica manuscript items. Manuscripts are unpublished papers. These represent the breadth of content found at the Library, and are from the Music Division, Manuscript Division, American Folklife Center, and Veterans History Project. Please ask a staff person for support in selecting and reading these items.

To the far right of the Text Zone, you can find a shelf of books include books in braille from the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled.

Share Wall

As you move into the Collections Room from the Welcome Room, you first encounter a large “Share Wall” on your right.  Visitors can write reflections about the other Collection Room activities and hang them on small hooks on the Share Wall.  Paper and pencils to write those reflections are available across from the Share Wall, at the Researcher Desk.

Researcher Desk

Across from the Share Wall on the left is a large “researcher desk.” This models the reference desks in each reading room at the Library. Behind the desk are sets of archival boxes featuring curated stories from real researchers at the Library.

Topics of the boxes are:

  • Environment
  • Ghost Army
  • Newsies
  • New York City in the 1970s
  • Declaration of Independence
  • Cartoonists
  • Basketball
  • Women’s Voting Rights
  • Boundary Breakers
  • Painting Science
  • Bathysphere

Sound Zone

Within the center archway of the Sound Zone, toward the right side of the arch, is a replica phonograph. Under the phonograph and to the left of it are drawers with 50 replica records under five topic areas: sounds, broadcasts, poems and stories, oral histories, and the Veterans History Project. Select a record to play on the phonograph or on a small screen within the zone, called an “Investigation Station.” Or, ask a staff member for assistance with accessing the mobile cart in this zone. Within it is an early “talking book” – a portable record player with recordings of books read aloud that were shipped to blind or print-disabled readers via the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled in the 1940s.

Image Zone

Across from the Sound Zone is the Image Zone. Request assistance for verbal descriptions of the items in this zone. There are:

  • 40 Images stacked in a set of slots within the zone
  • 24 Posters featured in a flip book
  • 24 Portraits featured in a flip book
  • 21 Large Format objects in 4 sliding frames: Historic Landmarks, Views of DC, Federal Theater Project, Little Mermaid
  • 28 Maps in 6 drawers, with five examples each: Washington, DC, World (including one tactile map), Land, Sky, Sea, Imaginary Worlds (3 examples)
  • Replica Stereoscope Viewer and 25 stereograph cards
  • A shelf of globes including a tactile globe

As a culminating experience, all visitors are encouraged to reflect on their findings by creating a page at the Library’s digital Source Book. The interactive Source Book is between the Image and Sound Zones and is a digital-only experience. Please visit the Researcher Desk to ask a staff member to assist you with the Source Book activity.

We encourage you to continue your research journey at home – continue exploring sources at loc.gov!