Level 3 Provides Network Infrastructure to Library of Congress

ompany Enables Preservation and Digitization of Library’s
National Audio Visual Conservation Center Collection

Level 3 Communications’ Wholesale Markets Group today announced it has delivered fiber optic links to the Library of Congress. Level 3 is providing the underlying infrastructure to the National Audio Visual Conservation Center (NAVCC). The NAVCC supports the preservation and digitization of the national copyright collection of films, television, radio, and recorded sound. Under the terms of the multiple-year agreement, Level 3 has installed and will maintain the connectivity that extends the Library’s Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) network.

The NAVCC, opening in mid 2007, will house over one million theatrical films, newsreels and television programs, in addition to educational, industrial and advertising material, including over 150,000 reels of nitrate film. The Center will also centralize the Library’s collections of nearly three million commercial sound recordings and radio broadcasts including early voice recordings of historical figures.

“We are very pleased to support the Library of Congress’s important preservation and digitization efforts,” said Jerry Hogge, senior vice president of Level 3’s Government Markets. “Our high-quality bandwidth solutions and networking expertise will help preserve America’s multimedia cultural heritage. Level 3 has a broad base of Federal customers, and we are proud to add the Library of Congress to this important group of strategic customers.”

The Library of Congress is the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution and serves as the research arm of Congress. It is also the largest library in the world, with more than 134 million items on approximately 530 miles of bookshelves. The collections include more than 32 million books and other printed materials, 2.8 million recordings, 12.5 million photographs, 5.3 million maps, and 59.5 million manuscripts.

The Library’s mission is to make its resources available and useful to the Congress and the American people, and to sustain and preserve a universal collection of knowledge and creativity for future generations.