Sender: Meyer, Laurel

Subject: Assignment 2 Effective Websites

* URL (including the http://)

http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/

* Web site name

Prints & Photographs Reading Room (Library of Congress)

* Goal, purpose, target audience of the site.

The purpose of this site is to provide access to millions of documents and images that are stored at the Library of Congress. It would appeal to history buffs, teachers, and students. In fact there is link to http://www.loc.gov/rr/ where are links to resources for kids, families, librarians, publishers, researchers, teachers, and visitors. The goal is to make available a vast resource of material to people who would never be able to see it otherwise. They are now celebrating one million digital images online.

* List the ways in which it makes effective use of the web medium (e.g. search, animation, forums, forms, online purchases, etc.)?

With one million digital images online, the search feature is especially useful. I got lost in time searching for vintage pictures and architecture.

There is a Prints & Photographs Online Catalog, but the ordering looks a little complicated. There is also a link to Razzle, which is somehow an affiliate. There you can order online; cards, prints, apparel, stamps, and posters.

Why is the information at this site better accessed on the web rather than in print?

I don’t know that it is better, maybe it isn’t. For some things a hard copy is much more impressive. Where the advantage comes here is in the quickness of locating an item and the compactness of the catalog. I don’t know how big, or how many printed catalogs it would take to hold one million items, but it would be huge.

Then you would have to look up the original item because there would only be room for tiny images in such a catalog. Here you can save images to your computer and they often have the document/image available in two or three resolutions. All in all I think this is a good tradeoff, convenience rather than time consuming physical searching or cumbersome hard copy lists.


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