Ryan

Saving a Jewish world, one book at a time

A profile of the National Yiddish Book Center from today’s Washington Post:

[NYBC Director Aaron] Lansky created the world’s greatest repository of books in a language spoken and written by 11 million of the world’s Jews until the 1940s, when the Holocaust nearly consumed that culture. The center … houses 120,000 Yiddish titles. Another million or so volumes sit in an old silk mill in Holyoke, where the weight of so much literature causes the support beams to bend. And still the books arrive, 100 on Monday, another 500 on Thursday.

“Early on, I found myself interested less in the details of the Holocaust than by this question: So who were these Jews they wanted to murder? What was this culture they wanted to destroy?” Lansky said. “I discovered in Yiddish the language by which Jews made sense of the modern world.”

Complete article (registration required). Lansky is also the author of the wonderful Outwitting History: The Amazing Adventures of a Man Who Rescued a Million Yiddish Books, which I can’t recommend enough.

January 20, 2005 by Books Music

Scholarly electronic publishing bibliography

An useful site stumbled on while looking for something else at the British Library:

This bibliography presents selected English-language articles, books, and other printed and electronic sources that are useful in understanding scholarly electronic publishing efforts on the Internet. Most sources have been published between 1990 and the present; however, a limited number of key sources published prior to 1990 are also included. Where possible, links are provided to sources that are freely available on the Internet.

An interesting article about the development of the bibliography is also available. Apologies if this is a repeat.

January 18, 2005 by Internet Libraries Publishing

Library borrowing declining in Scotland

From BBC News:

Library borrowing continued to decline last year as Scottish councils again failed to meet their own targets for new books.

New Audit Scotland figures, released on Thursday, show the number of items borrowed, including books and audio tapes, fell by over 1.5m.

The report also highlighted the changing role of public libraries.

Complete article. Audit Scotland’s report is available here.

January 13, 2005 by Librarians Libraries

Unscientific library webcam roundup

Sure, webcams are very 2000 (or so), and many of you are probably sitting in a library right now – but with a few minutes on my hands and an interest in looking at a library other than my
own, I decided to see what library webcams are
still out there. Here’s a few I found:

Oregon State University, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, Virginia Military Institute, San Mateo, CA Main Library, University of Minnesota Deluth, Willard Library (Evansville, IN), Watton Library (Norfolk, UK), Penn State Hazelton, O’Neill Library, Boston College, Walsh Library, Fordham University, General Library, Universidad de Alicante (San Vicente del Raspeig, Spain), Carnegie Public Library (Albany, MO), Arnold Bernhard Library, Quinnipiac University, California State University San Bernardino, and Sonoma State University.

January 12, 2005 by Internet Librarians Libraries

New issue of First Monday available

The January issue of First Monday is available:

“Artists’ earnings and copyright: A review of British and German music industry data in the context of digital technologies” by Martin Kretschmer

“What’s the Buzz about? An empirical examination of Search on Yahoo!” by Nicole Bladow, Cari Dorey, Liz Frederickson, Pavla Grover, Yvette Knudtson, Sandeep Krishnamurthy, and Voula Lazarou

“Sensible design principles for new networks and services” by Kalevi Kilkki

“The penguin in peril: SCO’s legal threats to Linux” by Ishtiaque Omar

“Can many agents answer questions better than one?” by Boris Galitsky and Rajesh Pampapathi

January 10, 2005 by Legal Issues Music Yahoo

On the eve of ALA, a battle call

On the eve of ALA, a standard but still welcome defense of the profession from ALA president Carol Brey-Casiano and BPL head Bernard A. Margolis:

Next week a storied team with more than 64,000 members and millions of loyal fans will gather in Boston to try to lift a “curse” that has been haunting them for decades.

For the American Library Association, the situation is even more haunting than the 86-year “curse of the Bambino.” Despite the fact that more people are using libraries than ever before, their funding continues to decrease. More than $80 million has been cut from public library budgets in the past year alone, which has weakened or closed libraries in more than 40 states …

Patrons may not realize how important the library is until they arrive to find the doors shuttered, the computers dark, or the periodicals missing. At that point it will be too late. We must act now to ensure the future of the library …

Complete article from the Boston Globe.

January 6, 2005 by American Library Association Libraries

Google Library Project: FAQs by librarians

A round-up of some of the questions asked, with answers from Google, library managers involved in the project, and others:

What’s next for Google? Are there any other prized content collections in its line of sight?

I asked Google representatives about other kinds of public domain books, e.g., “copyleft� (author’s permission granted in advance) or government documents, e.g., GPAccess content. They indicated that “all of that is on target. It’s a matter of prioritization.�

Complete article from Information Today via librarian.net.

January 3, 2005 by Google Librarians Libraries

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