Library of Congress Cataloguing Web Sites Related to Supreme Court?

Got this via e-mail yesterday; it looked legit, but I'm wondering whether anyone else has gotten this or knows more about it:

To Whom It May Concern:

The United States Library of Congress has selected your Web site for inclusion in the historic collection of Internet materials related to the Supreme Court, and we request your permission to collect and display your Web site.

The Library of Congress preserves the Nation's cultural artifacts and provides enduring access to them. The Library's traditional functions, acquiring, cataloging, preserving and serving collection materials of historical importance to the Congress and the American people to foster education and scholarship, extend to digital materials, including Web sites.

The following URL has been selected:

leiterreports.typepad.com

The Library of Congress or its agent will engage in the collection of content from your Web site at regular intervals. The Library will make this collection available to researchers onsite at Library facilities.

The Library also wishes to make the collection available to offsite researchers by hosting the collection on the Library's public access Web site.  The Library hopes that you share its vision of preserving Web materials about the Supreme Court and permitting researchers from across the world to access them.

If you agree to permit the Library to collect your Web site, please click the following link to signify your consent. This link also includes a separate consent for permitting the Library to provide offsite access to your materials through the Library's Web site.

Of course, since there's more on the criminal war monger Bush than the Supreme Court on this site, perhaps this is really a front for F.B.I. surveillance?  Doubtful...why would they write?

Comments

[thsutton]

It's probably legitimate. The Library of Congress MINERVA project have done similar things for the 2000 and 2002 elections and 11 September 2001.

[Dean C. Rowan]

I ran a Google search for "United States Library of Congress has selected your Web site for inclusion in the historic collection" (sans quotation marks). The results included a handful of blogs and blog-like sites describing the receipt of a similar, but not identical, message. There are a couple of aspects of the message that make me skeptical: I've never heard LC referred to as "the United States Library of Congress," although it's obviously not an incorrect denomination; and the grammar and tone are oddly stilted.

Nothing much of objective value here, just a gut feeling. There's more about the MINERVA project, including contact information, at http://www.loc.gov/minerva.

[Pozinski]

I also received an invitation. I followed the link they provided in the e-mail, which took me to the LOC's website. I doubt the LOC is now working for the FBI, especially given how librarians reacted to the library records power given to the FBI under the PATRIOT Act.

[Jim Milles]

Brian,

I got the same email regarding Out of the Jungle, even though we haven't really posted anything about the Supreme Court. I'm sure it's legit.