| Title | Description |
| Serendipitously browsed: gems of american scenery |
I went to the Windsor Library in Windsor Vermont this weekend to take a look at their seed library. It was really neat. The whole building was terrific with large photographs of people from the community. Jim and I poked around in their historical books room and found this gem. It’s a collection of stereoscopic [...] |
| Link roundup, things you might like |
When nerds collide – some advice on managing groups of volunteers for one-off library projects I failed to communicate the “why” of this project to the volunteers. Before turning my volunteers loose, I needed to explain the general workflow of the library. By saying, “here is a list of books to pull” or “adjust the [...] |
| What is going on with New York?s public libraries? |
I know people are probably pretty up on the general level of change, upheaval and consternation that are happening surrounding NYPLs big changes, most notably the changes at the Central Library but also the closure and sale of the Mid-Manhattan branch. You may not know about the closure and sale of some of the Brooklyn [...] |
| ?Who are your guys?? some radical librarian resources |
I listen a lot to Marc Maron’s WTF podcast about comedy. He interviews pretty much everyone you’ve ever heard of in the comedy world (and some people you may not have heard of) and one of the things he always asks people are “Who are your guys?” like who did you come up with in [...] |
| National Library Week starts now |
Happy National Library Week. This is the week that encompasses a few more days worth celebrating including National Library Workers Day on Tuesday, National Bookmobile Day on Wednesday and Support Teen Literature Day on Thursday. Oxford University Press is giving away free access to the OED for folks in North and South America through Saturday. [...] |
| Barbara Gittings, that lady in the ?hug a homosexual? booth |
Just a photo that came across my stream, taken for Life magazine but not published there. This is from ALA, in 1971. I saw the photo and wanted to know more about it. As a former member of SRRT and someone who knew about early GLBT activities within ALA (and in the current political climate) [...] |
| On government and libraries ? two important things |
1. Supreme Court KIRTSAENG v WILEY decision came down, supporting first sale doctrine even for copyrighted works made abroad. This is good news for Team Library. Here’s more analysis from ACRL that declares it “a total victory for libraries” 2. Now that we’ve gotten a nice little bump from the We the People petition to [...] |
| LACMA launches new collection site with 20k public domain images |
The Los Angeles County Museum of art said on their Tumblr on Friday “Dear Tumblr-verse, Merry Christmas: we just gave you 20,000 high-resolution images, for free. Now we have just one question: what are you going to do with them?” This announcement is a next step in LACMA’s ongoing experiment to open up more of [...] |
| some show and tell |
Just having one of those days where I am in favor of a picture-based approach to what I’ve been interested in. Press release | official website Run your OPAC on a min computer that costs under $50. Local Tools has software for tool lending libraries Prefab Library, the library website service |
| Another victory for public and open access |
If you paid for it, you should be able to read it. For publicly financed science research, the Obama administration agrees. I’m aware that this decision wasn’t just because of this We The People petition (which I signed) but it’s nice to think that the petition has an effect. Read the entire memorandum here (pdf) [...] |
| I got a Kindle |
I am aware that I am dreadfully behind the times, but the Kindle I wanted finally hit a price point that I felt was worth it and I got one: a Kindle Keyboard 3G/Wifi model. It’s nice. I’ve been tinkering with it. Here are some initial impressions. 1. Now that the Kindle Fire and other [...] |
| Original ?comics are bad for you? research declared shoddy. Thank your librarian. |
Behavioral problems among teenagers and preteens can be blamed on the violence, sex and gore portrayed in the media marketed to them – that was the topic of televised public hearings held by the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency in 1954 to address the scourge of comic books. The hearings, which resulted in the [...] |
| Should it be okay to sue librarians for saying your books are bad? |
Learned about this story two days ago and by the time I could put something together it has zipped around the internet already. Long story short: blogging academic librarian (and librarian.net favorite Dale Askey) makes negative probably-factual statements about a publisher. Publisher sues librarian and his current employer (who was not his employer at the [...] |
| storytime: hunting a time capsule at NYPL and elsewhere |
Thomas Lannon occasionally posts on NYPLs blog. He is the assistant curator of their manuscripts and archives department. He also figures into this Fast Company story about a time capsule created by a group called the Modern Historic Records Association. The time capsule was never found, not exactly, but this story, an early example of [...] |
| interview with Michael Barera, Ford Presidential Library?s new Wikipedian in Residence |
White campaign tab with “WIN” in bold, red letters accompanied by a small red fish. I had read with interest the articles that came out recently about the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library getting a Wikipedian in Residence. For more info, see this a short article about the library’s exhibits coordinator Bettina Cousineau talking about [...] |
