Academic Libraries

The Card Catalog is Dead; Long Live the Card Catalog

birdie — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 15:39:42 +0000

The Boston Herald reports on a project undertaken by Greenfield, MA Community College Librarian Hope Schneider.

On a wall in the corner of Greenfield Community College's Nahman-Watson Library, 128 artifacts from the library's card catalog hang preserved in a glass case — signed by the authors who penned the very books to which the cards once led.

The project has been 14 years in the making for librarian Schneider, who wanted to memorialize the cards after the library's catalog went digital in 1999. In the years that followed, Schneider sent cards to local authors and artists, asking if they would sign their card and make some contribution to the display. A decade later, after GCC's library was expanded, she resumed her quest — sending letters across the country to novelists, poets and politicians.

Library Director Deborah Chown said Schneider's project captures a time when people would find new books through serendipity — simply because it was next to another book or classified through a similar subject matter. Chown and Schneider don't deny the advantages that new library technology offers — the opportunity to search rapidly through online databases and access books, journals and newspaper articles.

But there was also some surprise and sadness when a tour of prospective students came through the library, saw the display and didn't recognize the cards.

Library's Map Collection Poem

Lee Hadden — Fri, 31 May 2013 12:25:05 +0000

It's not often that poems are written about the special collections of libraries. However, University of Cambridge museums and collections have recently taken part in 'Thresholds', a poetry project whereby leading poets attached themselves to a different museum or library and were commissioned to write a new poem informed and inspired by the collections in that institution http://www.thresholds.org.uk/.

Imtiaz Dharker was the Poet in Residence at Cambridge University
Library. During her many visit to the library she was shown some maps
from the collection and was inspired by these, and in particular a world
map from the Abraham Ortelius' "Theatrum orbis terrarum" published
in 1584 (the map where the mended crack on the copper plate can be seen), to write a poem entitled: "When the copperplate cracks"

She can be heard reading this poem, accompanied by a video which
includes pictures of this map, at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkAhvoUzakE or
http://www.thresholds.org.uk/when-the-copperplate-cracks/

So, who can map the future?

“The Quiet Volume,” Stealth Performance piece at New York University’s Bobst Library

birdie — Thu, 02 May 2013 17:35:23 +0000

From The New York Times Arts Beat:

What is the sound of two heads reading?

On Tuesday, in a hushed sixth-floor reading room in New York University’s Bobst Library packed with students cramming for final exams, the answer might have seemed to be: nothing much.

But for three pairs of readers scattered among the laptop-laden tables, wearing special headphones hooked up to iPod Nanos and shuffling through a pile of suspiciously literary books, the act of reading was transformed into a strange — and sometimes very loud — drama of turning pages, pointing fingers and eerily drifting thoughts.

“The first thing you notice is that for a place dedicated to silence, there’s not really that much silence at all,” a British-accented voice whispered into the readers’ ears. “After a while you start to think that it might be better considered as a place dedicated to the collection of sounds.”

The readers, who had signed up in advance, were both the audience and the stars of “The Quiet Volume,” a 55-minute stealth performance piece by the British artists Ant Hampton and Tim Etchells being staged through Sunday by Performance Space 122 as part of the PEN World Voices Festival. (The piece, which also comes in a Spanish-language version, is also running at the Schomburg Center in Harlem.)

“The whole thing made you think about the nature of your sensory experience while reading, the relationship between the voice in your head and the words on the page,” said Jessica Harris, a graduate student who had just finished performing the piece with a friend.

LISTen: An LISNews.org Program -- Episode #237

StephenK — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 03:58:30 +0000

This week's program starts off with a brief essay talking about the disintegration of having a coherent "popular culture" in the United States then turns to the strange case of the Harlem Shake in Oxford. After that the episode wraps up with a news miscellany.

Beyond the Books: Harvard Libraries’ Quirkier Collections

Blake — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 16:52:43 +0000

It's common knowledge that Harvard's libraries house the country's second largest book collection. To those of you unimpressed by shelves upon shelves of dusty tomes, these more eccentric acquisitions may pique your interest. We at Flyby have compiled a list of the quirky, the bizarre, and the questionably useful relics found in Harvard's libraries.

Librarian's Research Focuses on Child Stars of Viral Videos

birdie — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 22:41:18 +0000

Interesting story from Rutgers University about an academic librarian who is pursuing a study of what happens to children in popular YouTube videos after their fifteen minutes/seconds of fame have ended.

Child-centric viral videos are turning young stars into internet sensations, but a Rutgers–Camden researcher warns against exploiting the children by cashing in on the fame.

“We just don’t know what kinds of affect this internet fame will have on these children in the future,” says Katie Elson Anderson, a librarian at the Paul Robeson Library on the Rutgers–Camden campus.

Anderson has examined the implications of the YouTube videos for her essay, “Configuring Childhood on the Web,” which is featured as a chapter in the book Portrayals of Children in Popular Culture: Fleeting Images (Lexington Books, 2012).

“Viral videos starring children have become a real phenomenon,” Anderson says. “David After Dentist,” the video in which a father taped his young son dealing with the effects of anesthesia, has been viewed more than 117 million times. “Charlie Bit My Finger,” in which a baby boy bites his big brother, has been seen more than 511 million times.

“I think the early videos — the ones with Charlie and David, for example — were organic,” Anderson says. “People didn’t really know that these videos could become viral. They just posted videos for family. Now, it seems that people are posting videos because they are seeing the fame that can result from it. There’s actually money to be made.”

Library users plead for quiet places to read, write and study

Blake — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 18:19:26 +0000

Libraries are LOUD... For rich people, that’s not a problem. They live in spacious homes, glide along in hermetically sealed cars, book weekends in restful spas, dine in restaurants where the nearest table is 6 feet away. Quiet is one of the sweetest luxuries they’re able to afford. But most rich people don’t use libraries. For the rest of us, refuge from this cacophonous world is getting harder and harder to come by. Let’s hope librarians are listening to all the patrons asking them not to take it away.

Scholrly: another attempt at academic search?

Blake — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 14:45:17 +0000

scholr.ly: Research, fine-tuned.
The first users in the early days of the Internet were professors and academics who shared their research and resources with unprecedented ease and speed. But nowadays, there is a dearth of lovingly crafted tools made for those who first popularized the Internet.
[VIA]

Cornell brings nature inside libraries

Blake — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 12:56:49 +0000

The grass is always greener, and now so are two of Cornell University’s libraries.

Students from the Department of Design and Environmental Analysis have installed small lawns in the lobbies of Olin and Mann libraries, as well as Duffield Hall and the Physical Sciences Building. The grass is surrounded by potted plants and chairs and, in at least one spot, a plastic caution sign warning students to beware of snakes.
The project was intended to help students relax during one of the most stressful times of the school year.

U Of M bookbinder reaches final chapter after 63 years

Blake — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 02:27:00 +0000

Wow!
For more than 63 years, Craven has bound books and conserved artifacts on Michigan's Ann Arbor campus.

On Friday, the 81-year-old Craven leaves campus, retiring as the longest-serving staff member in the university's history.

He began working part-time at the university in 1947 while he was still in high school in a bookbindery in the basement of the Hatcher Graduate Library.

University student who shot himself in library in critical condition

Blake — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 17:34:20 +0000

A University High School student who accidentally shot himself inside a library in Orange City is still in the intensive care unit at Halifax Health Medical Center in Daytona Beach, a police detective said Friday morning.

Has your Library Gone to the Dogs?

John — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 16:20:29 +0000

With the recent stories about disasters, legal wrangling, and futurism, let's look at a hands down, slam dunk, win-win idea for libraries: dogs! Many school and public libraries use therapy dogs in their reading programs, calming children to widespread acclaim. Academic libraries also make use of therapy dogs, calming homesick students during finals week. These projects involve minimal costs and have a profound impact. Don't let a lawyer or administrator use absurd logic to deny you this wonderful opportunity to have patrons perceive the library as a comfortable and welcoming atmosphere. And remember: refusing to allow a service animal in to a building is also a violation of federal law. What are your dogs in libraries stories?

Sandy's Devastation...NYU Med School Library Totaled

birdie — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 18:58:58 +0000

Reports from my son the NYU Med School student: The Ehrman Medical Library is totally flooded, along with all anatomy and technology labs, lecture halls, radiology equipment, MRIs etc. located at the NYU Langone Medical Center on First Avenue in New York City. Phones and servers too are down and the hospital has been evacuated.

Here is footage of the Dean of the Medical School, Dr. Robert Grossman speaking about the situation.

From their website (not updated yet):
The Frederick L. Ehrman Medical Library is the main library of the NYU Langone Medical Center. It supports the Medical Center and the School of Medicine's students and staff in creating a maintaining a world-class patient-centered integrated academic medical center. As one of the NYU Health Sciences Libraries, the Frederick L. Ehrman Medical Library enhances learning, research and patient care by managing knowledge-based resources, providing client-centered information services and education, and extending access through new initiatives in information technology.

McGill Librarians announce support of Open Access movement

Blake — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 15:30:17 +0000

Good News!

Librarians at McGill are proud to announce their support of the open access movement. McGill librarians are granting the McGill University Library a nonexclusive, irrevocable, worldwide license to exercise any and all rights under copyright relating to their scholarly articles, in any medium, and to authorize others to do the same, provided that the works are properly attributed to the authors and not sold for a profit.

Specifically, each librarian grants a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported license for each of his or her scholarly articles. The license will apply to all scholarly articles written while the person is affiliated with the Library except for any articles accepted for publication before the adoption of this policy and any articles for which the librarian entered into an incompatible licensing or assignment agreement before the adoption of this policy.

All such work by McGill librarians will be deposited in the institutional repository, making it freely available online.

The library also supports open access by making available all theses & dissertations through its institutional repository, eScholarship@McGill by digitizing rare and unique titles and making them available to the world through its digital collections, and by supporting the publication of open access journals including CuiZine, and the McGill Journal of Education.

Open Access and its impact on the future of the university librarian

Blake — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 16:06:23 +0000

We are shifting from content ownership by individual libraries to joint provision of services on a larger scale, says Stephen Barr... "This change was one which the participants felt that librarians have already embraced and see as an increasingly important role in the future, but it is also one which calls for different practices and perspectives."