Library's new site celebrates bicentennial

In celebration of its 200th birthday, the Library of Congress launched a World Wide Web site Monday aimed at making history fun for children.

"The site was designed especially with young people in mind, but there are great stories for people of all ages, and we hope children and their families will want to explore this site together," said James Billington, Librarian of Congress.

The site — America's Story from America's Library — is designed to spark children's interests in history through storytelling and motion pictures.

Multimedia therefore is a prominent feature of some of the stories in the site. For example, users can view Thomas Edison's first motion picture and hear music by Duke Ellington. There also is video of the 1989 earthquake that shook the World Series in San Francisco.

LOC hopes that students will use the site as a launching pad to explore history further and research topics of interest using conventional means, such as books, according to a LOC spokesman.

LOC officials also hope that teachers will use the site to explore history through reading the numerous letters, diaries, records, maps, prints and photographs that are only available through LOC.

By taking advantage of additional activities offered at the site, users can:

* Follow the construction of famous historical sites, including the White House and Mount Rushmore.

* Find out what Abraham Lincoln had in his pockets when he was assassinated.

* Learn about the challenges of the first woman doctor.

* Learn what happened on the day you were born.

GlobalCenter Inc. and Sun Microsystems Inc. are providing the hardware and Internet services that support the America's Library site.

GlobalCenter will donate Web hosting services out of its Herndon, Va., data center. The services, donated through Sept. 30, 2001, include system support and Internet connectivity.

Sun will donate Sun Enterprise 250 and 420R servers and Sun StorEdge arrays storage hardware.