Hello fellows and friends, First let me remind you that you do not need any special software to view American Memory maps and newspapers and the zoom utility inside the browser window still works as it always has. That said, you may or may not have noticed that Lizardtech no longer has the download file for the stand-alone viewer for MrSID on its site. (Huh? see <http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amviewer.html#map>.) Here's the scoop. Although the stand-alone viewer works fine with American Memory SID files (we use the "old" flavor), it does not work with some other sites' newer SID files. The ExpressVIEW Browser Plug-In works with the old and new SID files and will let you do the slider-zooming-magic you've seen us demonstrate with the stand-alone viewer. But there's a catch. Once you install this plug-in, your browser will open the file when you click on the "download MrSID image" link. If you really want to download the whole file to your hard disk, download fromt he LINK ... right-click (PC) or click and hold (MAC) on the link and then choose "save target as" (IE) or "save link target as" (NN) and save the file. BTW, this is also a great technique for saving TIFF, audio, and video files to your local computer for later use. (How? see the bottom of <http://memory.loc.gov/learn/start/tech/printsav.html>.) The ExpressVIEW Browser Plug-In does not have a SID to TIFF converter utility (needed if you want to print whole map or newspaper pages). The Lizardtech website has a stand-alone utility, but I understand its "how to use" instructions could be better. Staff in the LC's Geography & Map Division are working on something here...more later. Please be patient with this. As alternative to the above paragraph, we are hoping to get permission to make the MrSID Stand-Alone viewer (for PC and MAC) available from American Memory, along with the user guides, however neither Lizardtech nor LC is likely to provide technical support (except a little Ask A Librarian help). The good news is that I've never seen the software cause problems for anybody. Feel free to email me off-list if you have questions/comments or a MrSID emergency to [log in to unmask] or via the AskALibrarian service here: <http://www.loc.gov/rr/askalib/ask-memory.html>. One other thing: although we don't have it in writing, I have heard that the Lizardtech people do not mind if people share existing copies of the stand-alone viewer with others, as long as it is clear that the product is no-longer supported. Betty _________________________________________________________ Elizabeth L. Brown Digital Reference Specialist Library of Congress, Washington, DC 20540-4604 [log in to unmask] telephone: 202/707-2235 Library of Congress American Memory Home Page: http://memory.loc.gov/ _________________________________________________________