Dear Friends and Colleagues,

We regret to announce the cancellation of the 2019 Kellogg Lecture. The lecture will be rescheduled to a date in 2020. Registrants have received notices via Eventbrite about the cancellation.

Announcements for the new date will be posted to the Law Library’s blog, sent via our News & Events email list, and posted as a new Eventbrite page.

We hope that you will join us next year.

The Law Library of Congress

Join the Law Library on Tuesday, December 10, 2019 at 5:30 p.m. as we commemorate Human Rights Day with a viewing of the Shall Not Be Denied Exhibition and a panel discussion moderated by Dr. Colleen Shogan, the assistant deputy librarian of the Library Collections and Services Group and the Library’s representative on the Women’s Suffrage Centennial Commission. The panelists include Corrine McConnaughy, associate professor of political science at George Washington University and author of The Woman Suffrage Movement in America: A Reassessment, and Elaine Weiss, journalist and author of The Woman's Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote.

Register at humanrightsday2019.eventbrite.com. We recommend reserving your tickets early, as these will go quickly and space is limited! We will not livestream this event, so you will want to be in the room!

The Law Library of Congress is excited to bring you a new series of webinars focused on foreign and comparative law. The Comparative Law Webinar Series of classes is designed to shed light on some of the comparative law issues researched by the foreign law experts at the Law Library of Congress. This entry in the series provides an overview of the EU and UK perspectives on Brexit, including the UK legal and political actions for Brexit, the Benn Act, the Withdrawal Agreement, art. 50 of the TEU, post-Brexit payments, and the future EU-UK relationship. The webinar will be held on Thursday, January 23rd at 2pm.

Click here for more information and to register perspectives-on-brexit.eventbrite.com.

We hope you can join us for the 2020 Supreme Court Fellows Program Annual Lecture! The Law Library of Congress and the Supreme Court Fellows Program will present a conversation with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil M. Gorsuch on Thursday, Feb. 20 at 3:30 p.m. in the Library of Congress Coolidge Auditorium in the Thomas Jefferson Building, 10 First Street S.E., Washington, D.C.

David M. Rubenstein, trustee of the Supreme Court Historical Society and chair of the Madison Council of the Library of Congress, will moderate the program.

The event is free and open to the public, but tickets are required. Please register via Eventbrite: https://supct2020.eventbrite.com.

Request ADA accommodations five business days in advance at 202-707-6362 or ADA@loc.gov.

With the upcoming national election in Israel on March 2, the Law Library of Congress is holding a webinar from the Foreign and Comparative Law Webinar Series on “What You Need To Know About the Upcoming Israeli National Election.” The webinar will be held on February 27, 2020 at 10:00 am. To register to attend the webinar, use our Eventbrite link. 

The Foreign and Comparative Law Webinar Series of classes is designed to shed light on some of the foreign and comparative law issues researched by the foreign law experts at the Law Library of Congress.This entry in the series will address general principles of the Israeli government system, rules governing national election, the method of distribution in Knesset seats, government formation procedures, prime-ministerial qualifications and term limits and the legal implications of a Knesset Member’s indictment and immunity status on presidential discretion in assignment of government formation. Topics may be adjusted as warranted to address ongoing developments.

For more information on the webinar, please read our announcement blog post.

We are excited to launch Herencia: Centuries of Spanish Legal Documents! Going live this week, this is the Library's first crowdsourced transcription project in languages other than English.

The Law Library of Congress invites you to help improve access to our unique collection of historic Spanish legal materials through the Library's crowdsourcing platform, By the People (BTP). BTP is a virtual volunteering website where anyone with an internet connection can transcribe digitized Library collections to improve discoverability and use while engaging with the materials.

Our aim is not to translate the collection items but to transcribe the documents word-for-word so we can make it easier for researchers to find primary source materials.

Donate your time and expertise as a virtual volunteer. Volunteers will have the opportunity to transcribe and tag these documents online and/or review other volunteers’ transcriptions. No specific time commitment or qualifications are required.

Have questions on how to transcribe these documents? We are hosting a webinar that will provide instruction on how to identify and transcribe the special scripts in the collection.

We encourage you to register in advance using the link below:

How and Why to Transcribe Herencia: Spanish Legal Documents

Thursday, February 27, 2020

12:00 PM – 1:00 PM (ET) (English Version)

2:00 PM – 3:00 PM (ET) (Spanish Version)

To celebrate the launch of the Herencia: Centuries of Spanish Legal Documents campaign, we will be hosting an on-site transcribe-a-thon here at the Library of Congress on March 19, 2020 at 5:00 pm ET! 

Register to join us in person in the Great Hall of the Thomas Jefferson Building for a fun evening of transcribing with fellow volunteers. You do not need to read Spanish, Latin, or Catalan to participate in this project!

Can't make it to the event? We will have a virtual transcribe-a-thon happening ALL DAY on March 19! Register as a virtual attendee to join a worldwide community of transcribers.

Want to know more about how to host a Transcribe-a-thon so you can join in virtually? Register for our upcoming webinar on instructions and tips for hosting a successful transcription event! We’ll cover how to join in on March 19 and how to organize independently.

On March 19 at 7:00 p.m. in the Jefferson Building, National Book Festival Presents Jeffrey Rosen in a discussion of his new book, “Conversations with RBG: Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Life, Love, Liberty and Law,” with Dahlia Lithwick, a senior editor at Slate. Book sales and signing to follow. Co-sponsored by the Law Library of Congress.

Click this link to register for this FREE event and purchase a copy of "Conversations with RBG" (purchase of book not required for attendance).

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This event is part of the Law Library's NIGHT OF LAW at the Thomas Jefferson Building. We also invite you to join our 5:00 p.m. activity, Transcribe-a-thon for Herencia: Centuries of Spanish Legal Documents. Be sure to register for both events!

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The Library will be closed to the public, including researchers and others with reader identification cards, until Wednesday, April 1, 2020 at 8 a.m. to reduce the risk of transmitting COVID-19 coronavirus. During the closure, all Library-sponsored public programs, including the National Book Festival Presents Jeffrey Rosen with Dahlia Lithwick, are postponed or canceled.

If you’ve never taken advantage of our Ask-a-Librarian service, allow us to introduce you!

Through the Library's online reference service, the Law Library can help you with:

• Legal and legislative research assistance for US federal and state, foreign, international, and comparative law
• Queries on resources unique to the Law Library of Congress

Learn more about this FREE service on this guest post by Chief of the Public Services Division Andrew Winston.

The Law Library of Congress and the American Bar Association will present the Law Day 2020 program, "Social Movement Changing America: The Legacies of the 19th Amendment" on Thursday, April 30 at 3:30 p.m. EST.

The event will be held online. Click here to be taken to the registration page.

Law Day is a national day set aside to celebrate the rule of law and an opportunity to understand how law and the legal process protect liberty and promote justice. This year's Law Day theme--“Your Vote, Your Voice, Our Democracy: The 19th Amendment at 100”--dovetails with the Library of Congress' exhibition, Shall Not Be Denied: Women Fight for the Vote, which celebrates the ratification of the 19th Amendment.

Our Law Day 2020 event is on Thursday, April 30 at 2:00 p.m. ET. Spots are filling up for this online event, and we are almost at capacity! If you want to view it live, click this link to register now.

Law Day is a national day set aside to celebrate the rule of law and an opportunity to understand how law and the legal process protect liberty and promote justice. This year’s Law Day theme–“Your Vote, Your Voice, Our Democracy: The 19th Amendment at 100”–dovetails with the Library of Congress’ exhibition, Shall Not Be Denied: Women Fight for the Vote, which celebrates the ratification of the 19th Amendment.

The Orientation to Law Library Collections Webinar is designed for patrons who are familiar with legal research, and would instead prefer an introduction to the collections and services specific to the Law Library of Congress. This webinar is an online version of the one-hour onsite orientations taught by legal reference librarians from the Law Library of Congress. The webinar will be held on Wednesday, May 13th at 11am.

Click here for more information and to register orientation-law-library-collections-5-13-2020.eventbrite.com.

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Amid prevalent chaos and uncertainty over access to the essential services and commodities during the lockdown, we bring you the latest updates from your city.

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Américas Award Events in the Hispanic Reading Room

Join us for these two Hispanic Heritage Month events this Friday, September 27, 2019, in the Hispanic Reading Room

AUTHOR READING WITH FRANCIE LATOUR, 11:00 am
Author Francie Latour will read from Auntie Luce’s Talking Paintings (2019 Américas Award Honor Book),  a story about a young American girl who visits family in Haiti and finds herself through her Haitian auntie’s paintbrush. Book sale will follow. The Américas Award encourages and commends authors, illustrators and publishers who produce quality and classroom-ready children’s and young adult books portraying Latin America, the Caribbean, or Latinos in the United States.

Free tickets available via Evenbrite

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AMÉRICAS AWARD CEREMONY AND WORKSHOP, 5:00 pm-7:30 pm
Each year the Consortium of Latin American Studies Programs (CLASP) and the Hispanic Division celebrates winning titles by holding an award ceremony at the Library of Congress during Hispanic Heritage Month. All are welcome to attend the ceremony and workshop following.

2019 Award Winners
Islandborn by Junot Díaz and illustrated by Leo Espinosa (Dial Books, 2018)
Undocumented: A Worker’s Fight by Duncan Tonatiuh (Abrams Books, 2018)
2019 Honor Books
Auntie Luce’s Talking Paintings by Francie Latour and illustrated by Ken Daley (Groundwood Books, 2018)
The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo (HarperCollins, 2018)

Following the awards ceremony, author/artist Duncan Tonatiuh, CLASP, the Learning and Innovation Office, and the Hispanic Division at the Library of Congress offer a hands-on workshop inspired by Tonatiuh’s award winning codex Undocumented: A Worker's Fight.

Participants will create visual reflections on their own life experiences and combine them in an accordion folded book displayed in the Hispanic Reading Room through Hispanic Heritage Month. This maker opportunity enables participants to experience hybrid reading and writing traditions through Mesoamerican codices and Tonatiuh’s book. A reception as well as a book sale and signing will follow.

Free tickets available via Evenbrite

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Click here for more information on these and other related events.

Friday, November 8 - 12:00pm

Location:  Mumford Room, James Madison Memorial Building (6th floor Rm 649) 101 Independence Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20540

Sarah Aroeste, Shai Bachar, and Ellie Falaris Ganelin perform Ladino music and offer educational commentary about this language. Ladino is the language of Sephardic Jews expelled from Spain during the Inquisition, and spoken in Mediterranean and Balkan regions before the Holocaust. It is an endangered language because numerous speakers were killed during the Holocaust. Aroeste describes Ladino as a pan-Mediterranean language crossing linguistic and cultural boundaries. A display of rare Ladino books curated by the Hebraic Section in the African and Middle Eastern Division at the Library of Congress accompanies this performance.

Free tickets available via Eventbrite

Brought to you by the General and International Collections and Acquisitions and Bibliographic Access Directorates in cooperation with

Please request ADA accommodations at least five business days in advance by contacting (202) 707-6362 or ada@loc.gov.

The annual online release of material from the Archive of Hispanic Literature on Tape has gone live! These year's release includes recordings with Jorge Luis Borges, Vinicius de Moraes, and renowned Latinx poets such as Carmen Giménez Smith, Valerie Martínez, and Rigoberto González. Curated here in the Library of Congress since 1943, the AHLOT is a collection of audio recordings of poets and prose writers from Latin America, the Iberian Peninsula, the Caribbean, and the Latinx community in the United States reading from their works. Every year we make 50 new recordings from this collection available for online streaming.

Click here to see the complete list of authors recorded for this project.

Happy New Year/ feliz año/ feliz ano novo from the Library of Congress’ Hispanic Division! We feel privileged for the opportunities 2019 offered to continue our mission of sharing the Library’s wonderfully rich Luso-Hispanic collections. We are thrilled to welcome 2020 and look forward to its surprises. 

In case you missed it, here are some highlights from this past year:

Jaime Conlan and Sam Awad, an intern and Librarian in Residence, shared accounts of their work in the “Library of Congress, 4 Corners of the World” blog. We are grateful to learn with these budding professionals. 

We inaugurated a new series of events in our Reading Room’s vestibule to connect the public with distinctive collections and services against the backdrop of the impressive Portinari Murals. With nearly 30 partners, we welcomed 765 participants to combined collections displays, presentations or readings, and maker workshops.  Some highlights included a reading with Portuguese award-winning poet Ana Luisa Amaral; an homage to the late Argentine poet Alejandra Pizarnik; a Wikipedia edit-a-thon and a workshop with Chicano muralist Mario Torero.

We continue to create more online accessibility to recordings from the Archive of Hispanic Literature on Tape and to recent acquisitions on and from Latin America through the Handbook of Latin American Studies, with volume 73 published and 74 on the way.

In 2019, the Hispanic Division also celebrated the impressive career and retirement of Juan Manuel Peréz (July), while welcoming Liliana Lopez (September) Dani Thurber (January).

We look forward to expanding our efforts and continue connecting users, creators, and learners with our treasures and resources. Please let us know if there is something you would like to see us prioritize in 2020 and stay tuned!

Many of our effort are possible thanks to generous support of the Huntington Endowment, for which we remain grateful, now 80 years after the establishment of the Hispanic Reading Room.

When the news of the day seems overwhelming, nothing can soothe frayed nerves more than an interlude, however brief, with poetry or with nature. Continue reading

April is National Poetry Month!

Celebrate by listening to some of the poets recorded for our Archive of Hispanic Literature on Tape (AHLOT), and learn about noteworthy Latin American poetry publications by consulting the Handbook of Latin American Studies (HLAS).

We also invite you to listen to our La Biblioteca podcast. Here are some episodes focused on poetry:

• Listening to Pablo Neruda
  (With poet and literary critic, Marjorie Agosín)
• Listening to Octavio Paz
  (With U.S. Poet Laureate Emeritus, Juan Felipe Herrera)
• Listening to Álvaro Mutis
  (With literary scholar, Charlotte Rogers)
• Listening to Raúl Zurita
  (With translator and literary critic, Anna Deeny Morales)
• Listening to Carlos Drummond de Andrade
  (With literary critic, Vivaldo Andrade dos Santos)

Click here for more information.

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