Both are world-famous authors who wrote some of their best known works in their sheds. But, as Roald Dahl’s centenary is celebrated across the country, his widow reveals how heavily the children’s author was influenced by Dylan Thomas’s hut when building his own.
From How Dylan Thomas’s writing shed inspired Roald Dahl – BBC News
You will not find me among either group; in the second instance out of hard experience but in the first out of love, pure love, from the time of my first encounter, circa 1979, with John Cheever’s all-too-brief preface to his Stories, which contains the following passage, in which I now detect a premonitory stirring, two decades ahead of schedule, of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay: “These stories seem at times to be stories of a long-lost world when the city of New York was still filled with a river light, when you heard the Benny Goodman quartets from a radio in the corner stationery store, and when almost everybody wore a hat.”
“The most important asset of any library goes home at night – the library staff.” – Timothy Healy
“Librarians are among the most misunderstood professionals anywhere,” says Philip Croom, associate dean of the Rare Books and Special Collections Library of the American University in Cairo. “None of us thought we’d grow up to be one and then somehow we find ourselves working with the most extraordinary objects, collections and people.”
From Librarians abroad: ‘None of us thought we’d grow up to be one’
A Florida elementary school is using its vending machine to drop knowledge on its students.
The vending machine at Umatilla Elementary School started dispensing books to students on Monday as part of the state’s literacy week.
Umatilla Elementary Principal Dianne Dwyer said most of the children are more excited for the books than they would be for candy. The machine gave out more than 100 books Wednesday.
“We do need to restock the machine,” Dwyer said.
From Florida school uses vending machine to dispense books instead of snacks
Stanford Libraries has received a $25 million gift from the Harold C. and Marilyn A. Hohbach Foundation to create a vibrant collections-centered research hub and endow the Silicon Valley Archives program.
The first floor of the East Wing of the Cecil H. Green Library will be renovated and re-named Hohbach Hall. (Image credit: L.A. Cicero)
The newly renovated space in the East Wing of the Cecil H. Green Library will be named Hohbach Hall and will include a new Special Collections classroom, as well as spaces for group study, seminars, events and exhibitions.
A chance discovery, hidden away in a series of 16th-century books deep in the archive of Bristol Central Library, has revealed original manuscript fragments from the Middle Ages which tell part of the story of Merlin the magician, one of the most famous characters from Arthurian legend.
Talk about a “giving tree”! When a 110-year-old cottonwood tree in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, needed to be removed, Sharalee Armitage Howard—a librarian, artist, and bookbinder—transformed it into an amazing Little Free Library. Now, instead of providing shade, the tree will share books.
From Librarian Transforms 110-Year-Old Tree into Jaw-Dropping Little Free Library | Little Free Library
With a community of over 65 million users, Wattpad is bursting with creative potential. From the paranormal to Shrek slash fiction, Wattpad Books will be able to choose from a pool of diverse and innovative material. However, the key to finding these stories is not through data analysis of popular trends, but ensuring that the editors that decide the merit of recommended works do not come from the same homogeneous background the company has so often criticized. It’s only by ensuring that there is a diversity of backgrounds and opinions at the editorial level to find the groundbreaking books, that Wattpad can meet its objective of truly transforming the literature we read.
From We Need Diverse Books, But Wattpad’s Machines Aren’t The Way
We’re kicking that work off today in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania—where Benjamin Franklin established America’s first free public library—by hosting in-person workshops for job seekers, small businesses, librarians and nonprofit leaders. Later this week, we’ll be continuing the Pennsylvania workshops in York and Erie, then heading to more states like Connecticut and Maryland. We’re looking forward to people across the country joining us at their local library to learn digital skills, from online marketing tips to how to use a spreadsheet. We’ll have plenty of Googlers available for one-on-one training and to answer your questions. Follow our events page to see when we’ll be visiting your state.
From Grow with Google is heading to libraries in all 50 states, starting today
Coeducation was a means to shore up a first-rate student body. It was not the result of a high-minded moral commitment to educate women. It was about what women could do for previously all-male colleges — how women could help elite universities renew their hold on the “best boys.” Women, in short, were there to improve the experience of men.
From ‘Keep the Damned Women Out’ – The Chronicle of Higher Education
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