Library of Congress starts YouTube channel

The Library of Congress has launched a YouTube channel that features some of the 6 million films, broadcasts and sound recordings in the library’s collection.

The channel was started with more than 70 videos, arranged in several playlists that include author presentations from the 2008 National Book Festival, the Books and Beyond author series, and Journeys and Crossings, a series of curator discussions.

Other playlists include Westinghouse industrial films from 1904, scholar discussions from the John W. Kluge Center and the earliest movies made by Thomas Edison.

Library officials said they modeled the YouTube channel after the library’s Flickr project in which visitors are able to comment and tag historical photographs, and officials intend to regularly upload additional content.

The videos posted on YouTube will also be available in the American Memory section of the library's Web site. American Memory provides free online access to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music. The materials from the Library of Congress and other institutions chronicle historical events, people, places and ideas.