The Library budget-slashing epidemic of 2010 shows no signs of letting up. Seems not a day goes by without news of some incredibly difficult challenge facing a library due to a budget shortfall.The Contra Costa Times is reporting that California's seminal water history archive that is housed at the University of California in Berkeley is in danger of being moved or broken up due to budget issues.Founded in 1958 by a special act of California Legislature the Water Resources Center Archive consists of a library which houses 120 years of material in a variety of formats including a strong web-based...
Russia Wants More Readers
Ot mraka k svetu. Ot bitvy k knige. Ot goria k schast'iu. [Book with slogan: From darkness to light, from battle to boo...] (1917-1921)"Discover new things!""Be guided by knowledge" "Fill in the gaps!"These are just a few of the slogans in the new advertising campaign launched by the government of Moscow to encourage and promote reading. The campaign, which is targeted at young people, also includes 100 billboards placed around the city by the Moscow Writers Union emblazoned with the words "Read Books."Gramota - put' k kommunizmu. [Literacy is the road to communism.] (1920) Alexander Gerasimov, spokesman for the Moscow Writers...
What a Long Strange Trip: Six Degrees – From Lord Byron to Kevin Bacon
click to enlargeThe Spring 2010 'Arts & Letters' issue of Lapham's Quarterly features this handy graphic; Friends, Lovers and Family. This incestuous journey through literary history is color coded for your convenience. Writers, Actors, Painters, Architects and their accompanying Muses make up this web of creativity as it meanders it's way through history, finally coming to an end on the shoulders of Kevin Bacon.In addition to the usual stellar content, the issue also features a job description posted by Annie Dillard from 1989 when she was living in the San Juan Islands off the coast of Washington State (available in...
The New Typography Collection at MoMA
Model Z, zoo duidelijk zoo klein, elke streep 5 gram Paul (Geert Paul Hendrikus) Schuitema (Dutch, 1897-1973) One would be hard-pressed to find a more sumptuous visual feast then the online exhibit, The New Typography, at MoMA http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3ATA%3AE%3Aex4672&page_number=32&template_id=1&sort_order=4
A Couple of New Blogs for the Rare Book World
First, we want to congratulate Stephen J. Gertz and Nancy Mattoon, two of Book Patrol's finest, on the launch of their new blog; Booktryst. We will miss them here at BP and are grateful for their efforts; we look forward to their top-notch coverage of the rare book and library world.Also of note: Peter Harrington Books of London has started a new blog, The Cataloguer's Desk which features contributions by Laura Massey, whom many of us know as bookn3rd. Her first post on William Moon and his pre-braille Bible was a knockout.