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Skeleton roams the library

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While libraries wait out the Covid-19 pandemic they remain eerily quiet. So quiet in fact, that at the Lied Library at the University of Nevada Las Vegas there has been a skeleton sighting! When school is in Mandy the Skeleton is on loan for students to prepare for their anatomy and physiology exams. While things are shut down Aaron Mayes, the curator for visual materials at UNLV’s Special Collections and Archives, has let Mandy have a run of the place. More images and story at Las Vegas Review-Journal: Meet the skeleton who is watching over the UNLV library

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Illustrations by James Firnhaber

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James Firnhaber is a young and rising freelance illustrator living in Philadelphia. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post and Philly Magazine. Firnhaber influences include his love of mythology, magical realism and traditional animation. Here is a sampling of his book-themed work. Enjoy! Alice in Wonderland - created for a reading campaign     untitled - illustration based on the novel The Book Thief, 2018   untitled - completed for school assignment   Star Speaker, 2016   Curative AI Based on an article about Google Photos’ AI and it’s ability to curate emotionally moving slideshows, 2019...

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DIY: Build your own book arch

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Scott Hill, the proprietor of Sandman Books in South Florida,  has shared his secrets on how to make your very own book arch. It begins with a familiar bookseller quandary - what to do with all those books one acquires "that are simply at the end of their lives". Hill decided to do something fun and went to work building a book arch. He built his first one in 2013 and when his shop moved in 2019 he was back at it. The arch has become a bit of tourist destination and next month the first wedding vows will be...

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Cheeseheads Rejoice: American Cheese, 20 Slices, by Ben Denzer

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There is a fun piece over at Saveur by Jamie Lausch Vander Broek, the Art & Design Librarian at the University of Michigan, about one of her recent acquisitions, American Cheese, 20 Slices, by Ben Denzer.  Vander Broek curates the Artists Books Collection at UM and talks about how Artist Books are a perfect way to make strong connections between students, faculty and library "because they represent a sweet spot between the things the students and faculty make (art, design) and the things the library has (books, information)." She also muses about how the purchase of the book for the collection stirred...

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The latest from Google: An interactive art installation that turns your words into poetry

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Talk about enhancing a construction project. Google has unveiled Poetrics, an interactive art installation at the future site of their new offices in the Kings Cross neighborhood of London. Poetrics is the result of  a competition run in partnership with University of the Arts London’s Central Saint Martins to create an “interactive experience for the Kings Cross community”. The installation utilizes Google's voice search technology and the Google Speech platform and features 17 LED panels that display the words spoken into various microphones placed around the building site as randomly created poetry. “We saw Poetrics as an opportunity for people to have a collective and meaningful...

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