Public Collectors is the brainchild of Marc Fisher. Its goal is to allow "large collections of materials to become accessible so that knowledge, ideas and expertise can be freely shared and exchanged," and is "founded upon the concern that there are many types of cultural artifacts that public libraries, museums and other institutions and archives either do not collect or do not make freely accessible."Tremendous potential here for the book world. Creates an opportunity for collectors to add their wares to the public domain allowing the gems of their collections to be accessed by scholars, researchers and other interested parties.Now...
The WisdomTree Bookshelf by Jordi Milà
click to enlarge"The WisdomTree is for people who see books as a source of knowledge and emotions and not simply as decorative objects. Its fluid and organic shape is inspired by growth of a plant. The books that represent the fruit of knowledge are supported by pieces covered in leather." - Jordi MilàMore images at Contemporist
Rebound Designs by Caitlin Phillips
Earth Day, 2009.Nell Greenfieldboyce's feature Judging a Book (Bag) By Its Cover on NPR's All Things Considered gives us a glimpse into the world of Caitlin Phillips.For five years now Phillips has been transforming discarded books into functional purses.Why purses?"The book kind of pretty much decided what form it was going to be," she says. "The spine becomes the bottom of the purse, because I keep the cover completely intact." She adds handles and a vintage button to match."Highlights:Book most often requested - Pride and PrejudiceBooks out of bounds-Phillips "won't cut up the Quran, although she will sometimes cut up...
Earliest Known Dust Jacket Found at Oxford
click to enlargeA librarian digging through the archives at the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford has found the earliest known example of a publisher's dust jacket. The dust jacket, which had been separated from the book it was created for, was found bound with other booktrade ephemera.It belonged to:Friendship's Offering for 1830. London: Smith, Elder, & Co., 1829Mark Godburn has more on this historic discovery at his website, 19th Century Dust Jackets.The previous record holder, discovered by John Carter in 1934, was a jacket issued in 1832 on the English annual, The Keepsake for 1833.Image courtesy of Bodleian Library, University...
Obama and Sendak on the South Lawn
Storytime was part of this year's White House Easter Egg Roll festivities. Here's a 5 minute video of President Barack Obama reading Maurice Sendak's "Where The Wild Things Are" on the South Lawn of the White House.The first lady and children followed by reading If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Joffe Numeroff and illustrated by Felicia Bond.C-Span has more video here.Event doubles as a tremendous plug for the upcoming film adaptation of "Where The Wild Things Are"Here's the trailer for that:Thanks to the LibraryThing blog for the lead