Aerial view of the Thomas Jefferson Building, the oldest structure in the Library of Congress complexThe Library of Congress processed 150+ million items and as you will see that is only part of what they accomplished throughout a very active year. It is mind boggling! Here is what went on at our nations oldest cultural institution in 2013: Responded to more than 636,000 congressional reference requests and delivered to Congress approximately 23,000 volumes from the Library’s collections; Registered 496,599 claims to copyright; Provided reference services to 513,946 individuals in person, by telephone and through written and electronic correspondence; Circulated more...
In The Stacks: William Burroughs Through the Lens of Allen Ginsberg
William Burroughs in front of sphinx at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC. 1953. For this installment of In the Stacks we visit the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at the University of Toronto and their fabulous collection of Allen Ginsberg's photographs. With almost 8,000 prints the collection is the largest repository of photographs by Allen Ginsberg in the world. William Burroughs at typewriter fixing Yage Letters typescript, E 7th street, NY. 1953And with 2014 being the 100th anniversary of the birth of fellow beat icon William Burroughs what better than a selection of photographs spanning almost 40 years of their seminal relationship....
Retro posters in the fight to save libraries
Original US Treasury Department circa 1917 Back in 2011 when austerity measures were sweeping through the public library systems of the Western world as a result of failed economic policies, Phil Bradley came up with an idea. "What if the #savelibraries campaign had taken place between 1914-18?" Then, the government would pump out posters intended to stir up support for whatever the issue at hand was. Pushing out the scope to include the posters of WWII years Phil Bradley went to work enlisting the posters of yesteryear in the fight to save today's libraries. Enjoy! original text read ""The camp library...
In the Stacks: Leslie Jones at the Boston Public Library
Gertrude Fisher takes unusual position to read the latest novel of her husband M.S. Merritt. November 26, 1932 Though he worked as staff photographer of Boston Herald-Traveler from 1917 to 1956 Leslie Jones considered himself more of a camera-man then a photo-journalist. And when all was said and done he had amassed "a stunning pictorial document of the history of Boston in the 20th century." The Old Bookstore, Cornhill March 1930 His collection of almost 40,000 negatives was donated to the Boston Public Library by his family in the early 1970's and now thanks to the work of the Digital Commonwealth and...
Books meet robotics in the Book Hive
[youtube]http://youtu.be/tUR3mEp26eE[/youtube] Welcome to the Book Hive, a large-scale interactive sculpture created by Rusty Squid to celebrate 400 years of public libraries in Bristol, UK. The Hive is a swarm of animated books within hexagonal cells that open and close. The Hive will continue to expand until it contains 400 books, one for each year. The project was funded by Arts Council England, whose regional director Phil Gibby states: We believe that everyone, particularly children and young people, should have the opportunity to experience the richness of the arts, museums and libraries, and by supporting excellent projects like Book Hive, we can bring together the...