A New York library acquired a machine that transfers recordings from the fragile format. Then a batch of cylinders from a Met Opera librarian arrived.
Blake
Musicians Wage War Against Evil Robots
Musicians Wage War Against Evil Robots
After the release of The Jazz Singer in 1927, all bets were off for live musicians who played in movie theaters. Thanks to synchronized sound, the use of live musicians was unnecessary — and perhaps a larger sin, old-fashioned. In 1930 the American Federation of Musicians formed a new organization called the Music Defense League and launched a scathing ad campaign to fight the advance of this terrible menace known as recorded sound.
5 Ways Libraries Used to Be Hardcore
5 Ways Libraries Used to Be Hardcore
While every profession employs miserable people doing jobs just because they’re told to, librarians are an exception. Librarians are heroes. Librarians — and firefighters. Firefighters are heroes, too. It’s no coincidence, then, that these two occupations are so well represented in porn.
Can Science Solve the Mystery of the Concrete Book?
When a sledgehammer isn’t really an option.
THE SLAB OF CONCRETE IS more than a foot tall, ten inches wide, and two inches thick. It weighs about 20 pounds, and it is cataloged in the University of Chicago’s library system as a book.
Do You Know Where These Authors (and Their Characters) Have Lived?
NY Times Book Review Quiz Bowl
Thoughts of “home” often dominate the last two weeks of the year as people celebrate the holidays, so this week’s quiz is about novels at least partly set in states where their authors have also lived at some point. To play, just make your selection in the multiple-choice list and the correct answer will be revealed.
Author Jerry Craft: Most kids cheer for the heroes to succeed no matter who they are
This essay by Jerry Craft is part of a series of interviews with — and essays by — authors who are finding their books being challenged and banned in the U.S.
Author Jerry Craft: Most kids cheer for the heroes to succeed no matter who they are
St. Paul libraries face moment of reckoning
Libraries are expanding their role, from social workers to helping homeless patrons. But some say staff are stretched too thin.
https://www.startribune.com/st-paul-libraries-face-moment-of-reckoning/600239371/
A Music Historian Takes a Top Job at the New York Public Library
Brent Reidy, the new director of Research Libraries, said he hoped to help democratize the 127-year-old library by reaching a younger generation.
Books bans and ‘gag orders’: the US schools crackdown no one asked for
Few parents are demanding censorship but rightwing politicians are passing restrictive laws nevertheless
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/21/books-bans-gag-orders-suppress-discussion-racism-lgbtq-us-schools
Secret and mysterious libraries
spooooky
While real-world libraries are, sadly, corporeally and temporally fixed (and, as far as I know, have never employed an orangutan as Head Librarian), there are still plenty of examples of libraries around the world that are secret or restricted, dealing with very different kinds of texts to the public libraries we know and love. While several of these libraries have now opened up, at least partially, their histories are still fascinating, and learning about them has that special spark of uncovering a secret.
Recent Comments