New York University’s Tamiment Library Acquires The Nation Archives July 22, 2015 – Posted in: Special Collections

“To read The Nation is to see the evolution of the American Left.” – Timothy Naftali, director of the Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives Currently celebrating its 150th anniversary The Nation is America’s oldest weekly magazine. It was where the likes of James Baldwin, Ralph Nader and Hunter S. Thompson published their first work. It is where the leading writers, thinkers and leaders this country has produced have shared their thoughts on the…

Project REVEAL: The Harry Ransom Center takes a huge digital step forward July 9, 2015 – Posted in: Books and Technology, Content, Special Collections

One of the kinks in the harried digital evolution for university special collections and archives has been the focus on getting their best stuff processed first. This selective approach to digitization, which of course has its roots in the pervasive financial and human resource constraints faced by most repositories, can have a profound long-term effect on what information finds the public realm. Project REVEAL, which stands for Read and View English & American Literature, by The Harry…

Brewster Kahle says ‘Digitize Everything’ June 9, 2015 – Posted in: Books and Technology, Content, Libraries, Special Collections

[youtube]https://youtu.be/fDGKfVJQRkk[/youtube] What a perfect way to follow up my look at John Palfrey’s new book BiblioTech: Why Libraries Matter More Than Ever in the Age of Google then with a short video from EDUCAUSE Review Online of Brewster Kahle talking about the absolute necessity of digitizing everything we can get our hands on. Kahle, the founder of the Internet Archive, has been at the forefront of the digital revolution, especially when it comes to the…

BiblioTech: Keeping Hope for Libraries Alive in the Digital Age June 7, 2015 – Posted in: Libraries, Of Interest: Featured Books / Reviews, public libraries, public school libraries, Special Collections

John Palfrey’s lucid, passionate account of the state of American libraries reminds us both how important public libraries are to a healthy democracy and how close they are to going the way of the dodo bird. We are in the midst of a tectonic societal shift from print to digital and without a concerted effort to transform the library into its 21st century equivalent we just might lose these hubs of democracy for good. The…

Poetry is Wanted Here! April 29, 2015 – Posted in: Content, In the Stacks, public libraries, Special Collections

We can’t let National Poetry Month go by without a taste of some of the poetry goodness that lives within the confines of the Digital Public Library of America. From the postcard above featuring an excerpt from a poem by Alex Caldero proclaiming ‘Poetry is wanted here!’ to a sampling of dust jackets, to a lunch poem from second graders, poetry is alive and well at DPLA. The First book of poetry [Title-page]. 1811 The pleasures of poetry.…