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In the Stacks: Fire at the Library February 3, 2020 – Posted in: Content, In the Stacks, Libraries, public libraries

Street lined with fire engines during Los Angeles Central Library fire It was the largest library fire in the history of the United States. 400,000 books were destroyed and over 700,000 were damaged by water or smoke. It took firefighters over seven hours to put out the fire with little flare ups continuing for several days.  The epic blaze was the basis of Susan Orlean’s 2018 bestselling and New York Times Notable Book of the…

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The Oldest Golf Club Lands the Greatest Golf Book Collection January 22, 2020 – Posted in: Bookselling / Collecting, Content, Private Libraries

Clubhouse at St. Andrews Founded in 1754 the R & A is the oldest golf club in the world. It plays host to the British Open every summer and is the top golf destination in the world. Now thanks to Scotland native Alastair Johnston it will be home to the greatest collection of golf books.  Alastair Johnston and his golf books Currently the library stands at 28,000 books with hundreds of new additions planned to…

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Radiohead Public Library is now open January 21, 2020 – Posted in: Content, Libraries

They have been at it since 1985. By 2011 they had sold more than 30 million albums and last year they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. To celebrate this amazing run Radiohead has introduced their very own Radiohead Public Library. From the band’s announcement: Radiohead.com has always been a) infuriatingly uninformative and b) surprising. The most surprising thing to do next, therefore, is to suddenly become incredibly informative. So that is…

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The Bookseller “spurred me on”: The deeply troubling Carnegie Library theft January 17, 2020 – Posted in: Bookselling / Collecting, bookshops, Content, Special Collections

One was the sole archivist for and head of the rare book room at the Carnegie Library. The other was an antiquarian bookseller and proprietor of Caliban Books. They both recently pleaded guilty for their part in one of the biggest library heists on record, stealing millions of dollars worth of material from the Carnegie library. For pretty much as long as they were at the helm of their respective workplaces Greg Priore and John…

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Trouble in the Land of Little Free Libraries December 22, 2019 – Posted in: Content, Libraries, Library Architecture

                     Todd Bol, the founder of Little Free Library, died in 2018. (Jim Mone/AP) The Washington Post is reporting on a feud in the Little Free Library world between the founder’s younger brother Tony and the Little Free Library nonprofit that Todd Bol co-founded. In early 2019, Tony Bol started Share With Others, a for-profit company that sells wooden boxes with a storage area for books.…

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