#ColorOurCollections
January 30, 2016 10:38 PM   Subscribe

"Led by The New York Academy of Medicine, the Color Our Collections event invites you to download images from library and cultural institution collections, color them, and share them on social media using the event hashtag #ColorOurCollections."
To start with, check out the natural history offerings from the Biodiversity Heritage Library and the medieval offerings from the University of Oxford's Bodleian Library.

The New York Academy of Medicine, inspired in part by a recent twitter exchange with the Biodiversity Heritage Library, is starting a week-long special collections coloring fest on social media from February 1-5, using the hashtag #ColorOurCollections.

"There is so much great coloring content in special collections, especially when looking at early illustrated books meant to be colored by hand."

Aside from the Biodiversity Heritage Library and the Bodleian Library, some current participants are:

*Smithsonian Libraries (links to PDF coloring book)
*OHSU | Oregon Health and Science University Historical Collections & Archives (links to PDF coloring book)
*NY Botanical Garden (links to PDF coloring book from the Mertz Library)
*Archives and Special Collections, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland (links to PDF coloring book)
*University of Missouri Special Collections & Archives (links to PDF coloring book - "...a selection of materials from our collections including fifteenth- and sixteenth-century woodcuts, early medical and scientific engravings, Art Nouveau illustrations, and more")
*Dittrick Museum at CRWU (links to PDF coloring book)
*Historic Scranton (two images up on their Instagram so far)
*The Armstrong Browning Library & Museum (links to curated images provided from "the world's largest collection of (Robert) Browning material & fine art")

And don't forget to check out some upcoming participants:
*James Madison University Special Collections ("Here at JMU Special Collections, we’ve spent the last few weeks scouring our collections for unique and fun images to digitize and make available for #ColorOurCollections week. We found the majority of the images within rare books in our Juvenile collection, including a 1910 illustrated copy of Alice in Wonderland...")
*University of Minnesota Bio-Medical Library (the Wangensteen Historical Library will share a page a day from their rare book collection)
*Massachusetts Historical Society (is preparing a PDF coloring book)
*Iowa State University Archives (will share images during the week)
*Europeana (will post a coloring book)

There is a Twitter list of all #ColorOurCollections participants so far, as well.
posted by flex (9 comments total) 57 users marked this as a favorite
 
Smart move by libraries to jump on the hot adult coloring book trend, though they seem to be ignoring the importance of the work that goes into segmenting the outlines, as the best popular examples demonstrate.
posted by fairmettle at 2:29 AM on January 31, 2016


Just colour in the ones they have hanging on the walls; folks won't mind, and they needed some brightening anyway …
posted by scruss at 6:52 AM on January 31, 2016


I think this is AWESOME.
posted by chainsofreedom at 7:00 AM on January 31, 2016


This post is awesome post. Thanks very much for putting it together.
posted by mudpuppie at 7:54 AM on January 31, 2016


Welp. Looks like I won't be going anywhere for awhile. Thanks for putting this all together!
posted by ezust at 9:29 AM on January 31, 2016


Color me Happy! thankyouthankyouthankyou
posted by pjsky at 9:44 AM on January 31, 2016


Oh this is fun! I had no idea my library's Special Collections (JMU) was doing anything like this. It's exciting to see the work of some of my colleagues show up here on the Blue.
posted by ashirys at 7:11 AM on February 1, 2016


I made some out of the things we have going at Open Library. And am posting this during the podcast.
posted by jessamyn at 4:56 PM on February 2, 2016 [1 favorite]


HELLO FROM THE PODCAST I AM ALSO HERE
posted by cortex at 4:57 PM on February 2, 2016 [1 favorite]


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