MetaFilter posts tagged with library

2,131 books fell over... and the librarians cheered

oneswellfoop — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 17:05:36 -0800

The Seattle Public Library has set a new record for the longest domino chain... made of books (full video)

Hiring the Next Wave of Multicultural Librarians

the man of twists and turns — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 08:49:32 -0800

For starters, he’s preparing for a career in librarianship, an industry largely dominated by white women. As an African-American male, Alston is what some would consider a double minority. Many of his friends and relatives wonder about his future after having spent many years earning a master’s and now a Ph.D. in library science. “What will you be doing all day?” “What’s the future viability of libraries?" Someone even teased him once, “That’s no kind of profession for a man.”

Here we glimpse a future in which all mysteries are solved

theodolite — Sat, 08 Jun 2013 15:19:07 -0800

Toute la mémoire du monde (1956: 21 minutes) is a remarkably lovely documentary short by Alain Resnais about the Bibliothèque nationale de France in the age of print. Via The Funambulist. Resnais previously and more previously.

Happiness is having your own library card

MartinWisse — Tue, 28 May 2013 09:05:50 -0800

Do you like libraries? Do you like comics? Then Library Cartoons, Comics and Drawings is relevant to your interests. Need more? There's always Libraries in Pop Culture. Not satisfied yet? Unshelved is the internet's longest running librarian comic, previously featured for its pimped out bookcarts contest, but also worth visiting for the regular Friday bookclub.

Where You Are Is Where This Library Goes

Cash4Lead — Mon, 27 May 2013 11:08:50 -0800

The folks at Mellow Pages, a community-run library/salon in Brooklyn (recently profiled in the NYT), have put together a how-to guide for building a similar kind of space in your neighborhood: short version here, long version (and Google Doc) here.

The Last of the Great Chained Libraries

brundlefly — Sat, 18 May 2013 15:01:26 -0800

"On a beautiful sunny day last week, the Turning Over a New Leaf project team decided to take a day off from the office to visit a spectacular chained library in the small town of Zutphen (located in the eastern part of the Netherlands). Built in 1564 as part of the church of St Walburga, it is one of only five chained libraries in the world that survive ‘intact’—that is, complete with the original books, chains, rods, and furniture."

RED: "Well, we ought to file that under Educational too. Oughtn't we?"

Fizz — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 08:49:44 -0800

Guantánamo prison library for detainees. [tumblr] New York Times reporter Charlie Savage set up a Tumblr dedicated to cataloging some of the books available in the Guantánamo prison library for detainees.

Digital Public Library of America launches their beta today

griffey — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 10:09:24 -0800

Today at noon eastern time, the Digital Public Library of America launched its beta website... The Digital Public Library of America, having worked since 2010 to try and find ways to organize and group an array of disparate digital resources, finally launches it's beta today. While it's come under some criticism from parts of the library community, the DPLA is moving forward by providing both access to resources and an API upon which existing libraries can build their own tools. Previously on the blue.

The dark side of the moon

verstegan — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:33:42 -0800

When it first surfaced in 2005, it was hailed as 'the most important Galileo find in more than a century'. Then, in June 2012, news broke on the Ex Libris mailing list that the unique 'proof copy' of Galileo's Sidereus Nuncius containing his original drawings of the Moon was in fact a highly sophisticated forgery. The full story is still unclear, but the finger of suspicion points at Marino Massimo de Caro, who in his brief reign as director of the Girolamini Library in Naples removed thousands of rare books in what has been described as a 'premeditated, organised and brutal' sacking of the library. Meanwhile, experts are still marvelling at the quality of the forgery: "We’ve seen missing pages replaced in facsimile, but no one dreamed that an entire book could be forged, something that is now more easily possible because of modern technology."

All this energy calling me, back where it comes from....

zarq — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 11:42:16 -0800

The Cleveland Memory Project is an archive of photos, postcards, videos, recordings, clippings, ebooks, personal papers, maps and other historical "goodies" about the city. "It's a collaborative endeavor of many local historical societies, public libraries and government agencies who have mounted their own local history." On Flickr. The site contains over 50,000 photos. Print and video interviews with the Project's chair: librarian Bill Barrow.

The Atlantic - Benj Edwards

East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 10:23:43 -0800

The Copyright Rule We Need to Repeal If We Want to Preserve Our Cultural Heritage

Public Libraries: Stealing Authors' Paychecks?

Rykey — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 17:34:40 -0800

"We can't give everything away under the public purse. Books are part of the entertainment industry. Literature has been something elite, but it is not any more. This is not the Roman empire, where we give away free bread and circuses to the masses."

UK children's author Terry Deary (Horrible Histories series) on Britain's public libraries. Neil Gaiman and others respond.

"His writing is not about something; it is that something itself."

the man of twists and turns — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 11:15:58 -0800

In theory: the unread and the unreadable - "We measure our lives with unread books – and 'difficult' works can induce the most guilt. How should we view this challenge?"

On questioning the quality of a publisher

Wordshore — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 03:06:54 -0800

Dale Askey is a librarian. He blogs. In August 2010, Dale was a tenured associate professor at Kansas State University, where librarians are granted faculty status. There, Dale blogged about the quality, and prices, of publications from Edwin Mellen Press. Edwin Mellen Press has served McMaster University (Dale's current employer) and himself with a three million dollar lawsuit, alleging libel and claiming aggravated and exemplary damages. The court action in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. The response from McMaster University and from the Canadian Association of Professional Academic Librarians. More detail from the Philosophy & Religion Librarian at Princeton University, who concludes: "If these reports are true, the Mellen Press is suing a librarian for claiming the press has a 'weak list of low quality books' and trying to sue (presumably) a professor for opining that Mellen books wouldn’t count towards tenure. But are they true? I don’t know what to say. If the reports are true, it does seem that there’s a lawsuit designed to repress the academic freedom of a librarian expressing a professional opinion. And if so, it’s one of the rare cases that illustrate why even academic librarians need their academic freedom protected." Further from The Chronicle of Higher Education, Boing Boing, the Progressive Librarians Guild and Leiter Reports. The latter also held a recent poll "Which are the best book publishers in philosophy in English?"; the best and worst, as voted.

A story about a library on fire.

seanmpuckett — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 05:26:53 -0800

Saving the ancient manuscripts of Mali from Islamic extremists.

LOC amassing tweets at breakneck pace, needs help to make it accessible

sundog — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 22:53:36 -0800

The Library of Congress posted a Jan 2013 update on its mission to archive public tweets, announced back in April 2010 (previously). 170 billion tweets so far, adding more than .5 billion per day. Search for a term? Prepare to wait ~24 hours. The pdf report includes details of the agreement with Twitter such as, "The Library cannot provide a substantial portion of the collection on its web site in a form that can be easily downloaded." They have met 2 out of 3 mission goals for the Twitter archive: "to acquire, preserve and provide access to a universal collection of knowledge and the record of America’s creativity for Congress and the American people." In the past 2+ years, the LOC and Gnip still have not been able to implement a solution to allow researchers to search Twitter's gift in a usable manner. Storing 133TB of compressed data on redundant tapes helps with archiving, but certainly contributes to search response times measured in hours (if not days). Entrepreneurs, big data scientists: Contact LOC Director of Communications @GayleOsterberg via (what else?) Twitter.

Trove

misterbee — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 21:09:23 -0800

Trove, an initiative of the National Library of Australia, is a vast online repository of digitised books, images, historic newspapers, maps and more.

"A clam for supper? a cold clam; is that what you mean, Mrs. Hussey?

Miko — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 05:40:59 -0800

"New Englanders learn quickly to dismiss the chowder where tomato ruins its gorgeous broth, where references to New York tarnish its name...However, few know how such distinctions came about in the first place, what processes were involved that resulted in one person's disgust of another's beloved creation, and why, to this day, do we stand by such convictions?" The New England Chowder Compendium, from the McIntosh Cookery Collection at the UMass Amherst library. Link via Elsa - thank you!

Ex Libris Houdini

filthy light thief — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 20:53:46 -0800

Ehrich Weisz may not have had much formal education, but he grew up to be Harry Houdini, self-educated stunt performer, escape artist, and owner of "one of the largest libraries in the world on psychic phenomena, Spiritualism, magic, witchcraft, demonology, evil spirits, etc., some of the material going back as far as 1489." Houdini bequeathed much of his collection to the Library of Congress, which received 3,988 volumes from his collection in 1927, including a number of magic books inscribed or annotated by well-known magicians. Archive.org has more of the Harry Houdini Collection online. He also put a great deal of research into his tricks, as seen in his letter to Dr. W. J. McConnell, a physiologist at the U.S. Bureau of Mines, written up after Houdini's watery grave stunt in 1926.

Scottish Literary Sculptural Mysteries Return!

mephron — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 14:42:12 -0800

This week in Scotland, it is Book Week. Many note authors are supporting it with free events. And so is the mysterious sculptor who seized the imagination of people worldwide with her books made sculpture. She (one of the few things known about the sculptor) has done a series of five mystery hidden sculptures to help celebrate Book Week. Each of them is related to a Scottish story or author. A complete gallery of the sculptures can be found here. A summary of the original ten book-sculptures and their appearances. [Previously on Metafilter.]

Thunder is good, thunder is impressive; but it is lightning that does the work

Wordshore — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 00:03:05 -0800

The author Samuel Langhorne Clemens, a popular MetaFilter topic, was born 177 years ago today (November 30th 1835) in Missouri. The printer, riverboat pilot, game designer, journalist, lecturer, technology investor, gold miner, publisher and patent holder wrote short stories, essays, novels and non-fiction under the pen name Mark Twain. This included The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (recently adapted into a musical), one of the top five challenged books of the 1990s, published in 1884-85 to a mixed reception and with an ending that still causes debate. The extensively quoted author of the Tom Sawyer stories, Mark's work and life are still the subject of research, imitation, analysis, interpretation (disturbing claymation) and inspiration (nsfw). Mark lived his last few years in Redding, Connecticut, where he donated many books to the local public library association. Footage of Mark Twain at his home; photographed in 1867, 1902, with family, as a lecturer and with various friends. Mark died on April 21st 1910 and is immortalised in Google doodles, stamps, benches and forthcoming commemorative coins. His works are widely available online in various digital formats, for ebook readers and at your local public library and bookshop. He also liked cats.

"I often read dozens of books simultaneously."

the man of twists and turns — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 00:22:22 -0800

My 6,128 Favorite Books - "Joe Queenan on how a harmless juvenile pastime turned into a lifelong personality disorder."

Firestorm on Fifth Avenue

beisny — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 12:57:45 -0800

No one expected the force of the tempest that hit the New York Public Library in late 2011—not its new president, Anthony Marx, and maybe not even the literary lions up in arms over plans for an ambitious, $300 million renovation. Will the “palace of culture” on Fifth Avenue become a glorified Starbucks, as some fear? Interviewing all sides, Paul Goldberger walks the controversy back to its flash point: the nature of the library’s 21st-century mission and the values at the center of the Norman Foster–designed project. - Paul Goldberger, Firestorm on Fifth Avenue

Librarians are doing it for themselves

Wordshore — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 06:17:16 -0800

What really concerns librarians; what do they discuss when they self-organise and decide for themselves? After the inaugural UK event, the second UK Librarycamp, with around 200 attendees, was recently held; reflections by Frank Norman, Carolin Schneider [1] [2], Sarah Wolfenden, Amy Faye Finnegan, Shambrarian Knights, Michelle, Jennifer Yellin, Jenni Hughes, Bookshelf Guardian, Amy Cross-Menzies and Simon Barron, and by one of the organisers. Unlike traditional library conferences, where proposals have to fit in with a theme, are submitted months in advance, and scrutinised by a panel, librarycamp follows the camp / unconference / bar format. Attendees can propose anything, right up to and including the day of the event. Sessions are strongly attendee-involved. The event is free to attend (funded by donations, crowdsourcing and sponsorship) and on a weekend, making it a personal, rather than an employer-sanctioned, event. Similar events have been held in the USA and Australia. UK librarycamp has led to several regional and local librarycamps, such as Library Camp South West and Leeds (another review) (video). Pictures of the 2012 UK librarycamp, and of the 2011 one.

"Some remarkable Books, Antiquities, Pictures and Rarities of several kinds, scarce or never seen by any man now living."

Kattullus — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 13:35:31 -0800

Musæum Clausum is a catalog of invented books, pictures and antiquities written by 17th Century Englishman Sir Thomas Browne. It is a fantastical and witty meditation on the ravages of time on literature and other works of man. The Musæum Clausum is perhaps the finest example of the invented, or invisible, library, a genre which seems to have originated with Rabelais. The genre has been of special interest to Beachcombing's Bizarre History Blog (older posts), where he has written about the invisible libraries of writers such as Charles Dickens, Neil Gaiman, H. P. Lovecraft and invisible libraries in video games. The natural medium for invisible libraries might be pictures, and Musæum Clausum inspired a suite of etchings by Erik Desmazieres.