Libraries

Nebraska Library Commission hears from public over controversial new appointment

At a Nebraska Library Commission meeting on Friday, citizens expressed concerns over Gov. Jim Pillen’s appointment of Terri Cunningham-Swanson to the commission.

Cunningham-Swanson was ousted from the Plattsmouth Board of Education earlier this year, with those in favor of her removal claiming she cost taxpayers thousands in legal fees and made efforts to ban more than 50 books from libraries in Plattsmouth.

During public comment on Friday, many speakers shared the same notions, including Cunningham-Swanson’s son, D’Shawn Le’Vell.

“I personally think the appointment of my mother reeks of corruption on the part of Governor Pillen,” he said. “My mother is massively unqualified to be in this position.”

The Internet Archive just lost its appeal over ebook lending

The Internet Archive has lost its appeal in a fight to lend out scanned ebooks without the approval of publishers. In a decision on Wednesday, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that permitting the Internet Archive’s digital library would “allow for widescale copying that deprives creators of compensation and diminishes the incentive to produce new works.”

September 4, 2024 by Blake Books Legal Issues Libraries

“No one else is saving it”: the fight to protect a historic music collection

The ARChive of Contemporary Music, which houses more than 90m songs and is supported by names such as Martin Scorsese, is in need of a new home

The Arc preserves copies of every recording in all known formats. It has electronically catalogued more than 400,000 sound recordings and digitised 200,000 with the Internet Archive – more than any other public university or private library in America. It also contains more than 3m pieces of material including photos, videos, DVDs, books, magazines, press kits, sheet music, ephemera and memorabilia.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/nov/16/archive-of-contemporary-music-new-york

November 16, 2023 by Blake Libraries Music

Libraries with individually owned bookshelves spreading in Japan – The Japan Times

Moves are spreading in Japan to set up private libraries where each bookshelf is owned by individuals who display books on their hobbies or those that they recommend.

Such libraries are helping revitalize local communities by creating a place where people can mingle through events. Around 50 such facilities have been created throughout the country.

October 11, 2023 by Blake Book Stores Libraries

Why the smell of vinegar shut down a Toronto library’s historical newspaper archive

But in the years since, libraries, archives and collectors have discovered “safety film” actually poses a huge threat to film-based archives and collections because it eventually breaks down. An early indication is the smell of vinegar, which comes from acetic acid that the film gives off as it degrades. Eventually, the film shrinks and cracks until the image is lost.

The destructive and contagious chemical decay is aptly called “vinegar syndrome” — and it means the clock is ticking for those trying to preserve history from this era in Toronto, across the country and around the world.

August 21, 2023 by Blake Archives Libraries

New policies address paper mills and unprofessional conduct – The Official PLOS Blog

On February 1, 2023, PLOS introduced two new policies: one addressing manipulation of the publication process and the other outlining standards for professional conduct. Here, we provide brief excerpts and information about the policies for which the full text is on our journals%u2019 Ethical Publishing Practice pages.

New policies address paper mills and unprofessional conduct

February 19, 2023 by Blake Libraries

New Year, New Weed

The biggest takeaway from this project was that deselection of materials had a largely positive impact on the age of the collection, greater than just adding brand new materials could. It’s like trying to mix a grey paint; you’re going to need to dump a whole lot of white onto your black paint to get it to lighten up. It’s so much more effective if you take all the old, unused stuff away first. Committing to keeping up with how we are progressing towards our goals is the only way I would have found out that the time invested by liaison librarians into collection development has been paying off – and more importantly, just how much of an impact their actions made. I think it is so much more valuable to see that quantitative comparison in the data than to simply say “good job.”

January 20, 2023 by Blake Books Librarians Libraries

The Most Unique Libraries in the World

Even for those who read only sporadically, there is a certain fascination with spaces that hold books, be they some of the world%u2019s most beautiful libraries or the world%u2019s most stunning bookstores. Booklovers are forever searching out books wherever they go, which can sometimes lead to discovering some extraordinary spots that allow you to bend sideways and read what%u2019s on offer. Here are some of the world%u2019s most unusual libraries, ranging from libraries resembling the Escher Stairs to one hidden inside a tree.

https://www.fodors.com/news/photos/the-most-unique-libraries-in-the-world

January 15, 2023 by Blake Libraries

The Colleagues Who’ve Left

Last year I started a chart tracking colleagues who had left my institution. When I left for the winter break finally, the number stood at 37 and I’m sure I missed a few. These are spread across the university, though nearly half are from the Library. It includes people I worked with regularly enough that their leaving had a significant impact on me, with a sprinkling of high level administrators whose transitions always end up with creating waves of change likely to reach me at some point. I started tracking because I knew that the volume was going to be high and that I would need to be able to see at year’s end — at scale — how significant the disruptions had been.

January 13, 2023 by Blake Librarians Libraries

Secret and mysterious libraries

spooooky

Hidden Knowledge: Secret and Mysterious Libraries Around the World

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.

February 21, 2022 by Blake Libraries Uncategorized 1