library of congress information
Looking through the library of congress for a project
August 17, 2024 · 182 words · 1 min read · tech, programming
Library of Congress is really an incredible repository of content. Just scrolling through library of congress is a fascinating mental exercise.
One of my focus was creating news snippets across time from newspapers. Library of Congress has a sereis called Chronicling America . which has collected photocopied and OCRd newspapers from 1800s
It’s incredibly well managed and beautifully managed.
Every newspaper is identified using an LCCN and there’s pretty viewer as well a bulk downloader. which provides all content with the data. Based on my initial exploration the OCR is fairly on point and I like how it handles the column and row separations really well.
I’m working on converting this wall of text into a dataset of news content with date.
bulk downloading.
based on the task assignment each newspaper is bundled as tar files.
There’s a file count limit of 10 file for 10 minutes. But other than that everything is fine.
lccn
Library of Congress Control Number is a well thought system to identify individual resources. there’s an easy way to go from lccn to newspaper name and information.
Frodo: “It’s a pity Bilbo didn’t kill Gollum when he had the chance.”
Gandalf: “Pity? It’s a pity that stayed Bilbo’s hand. Many that live deserve death. Some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo? Do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. Even the very wise cannot see all ends. My heart tells me that Gollum has some part to play in it, for good or evil, before this is over. The pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many.”
Frodo: “I wish the Ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.”
Gandalf: “So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other forces at work in this world, Frodo, besides that of evil. Bilbo was meant to find the Ring, in which case you were also meant to have it. And that is an encouraging thought.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring