myLOC
On dozens of myLOC stations deployed throughout the Library of Congress, visitors can learn about the architecture around them, play a treasure hunt–like game of discovery, and collect items on display for exploring in more detail online.
This interpretive media system provides visitors with recurring contextual opportunities to make the most of their visit, better understand the magnificent spaces surrounding them, collect items on display for later rediscovery online, and to play a library-wide treasure-hunt–like game. Each of the three dozen stations shares the same interface while serving content specific to each gallery in which it is deployed. Through a unique barcode printed on a Library of Congress Passport that each visitor receives, the personalization system captures a visitor’s decisions so their experiences are connected through each station and to their personalized Web page at myloc.gov.
The first of four sections in the interface Explore this Space features high-resolution images of nearly every notable architectural feature in the immediate gallery along with insight from an architectural historian. An introduction to what’s on view in each gallery, a list of must-see items throughout the library, as well as a window into each day’s tours and events are all featured in Plan My Visit. Visitors can find every item within the immediate gallery in Build My Online Collection, where objects can be added to their collections on their myloc.gov pages. Younger visitors can play Knowledge Quest—an episodic game that spans stations in every gallery as well as the Web. Each quest consists of over a dozen challenges, each of which is connected to an item on display: a visitor drags an enhanced viewer over an item to reveal hidden hotspots that give information and a challenge to complete. A dynamic wayfinding system is accessible in any section of a myLOC station for locating any item, gallery, or featured event in the library.