No, this not a new Olympic sport for librarians. It is the latest prototype from the lab of Masatoshi Ishikawa, a professor at the University of Tokyo.They're calling the process 'book flipping scanning'. It allows one to scan a book by simply flipping its pages in front of a a high-speed camera. Currently, it can digitize a 200-page book in a minute.Here's the details, courtesy of the robotics blog of IEEE Spectrum:The camera operates at 500 frames per second, with a resolution of 1280 by 1024 pixels. For each frame, the system alternates between two capture modes. First it shines...
Slumming With Charles Dickens: New York Library Relives His American Tours
Getting A Head Start On The Competition: Union College's Dickens in America.Although 2012 marks the bicentennial of Charles Dickens's birth, Union College in Schenectady, New York is jumping the gun with an exhibit at the Schaffer Library entitled Dickens in America. The Schaffer is showcasing several rare volumes of the author's works, including a recently acquired first edition of A Christmas Carol. The exhibit highlights the Victorian novelist's celebrated lecture tours of the United States in 1842 and 1867-68, and includes archival materials from several of Dickens's contemporaries. The collected papers of noted author, editor, statesman, and lawyer John Bigelow,...
Irish Rare Books, MSS, and Art Auction a Real Corker
Naomh Pádraig (387-493).Saint Patrick banished snakes from Ireland. Fortunately, he allowed bookworms to stick around.Oh, Danny Boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling From Jimmy Joyce to William Butler Yeats...Beginning today, March 17, 2010 - St. Patrick's Day - Irish bookhounds and hounds of rare Irish books, art, and eiriana - or simply those blessed with the luck o' the Irish - can get a sneak-peek at a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow when Bloomsbury - New York previews The Irish Sale, to be held next Tuesday, March 23, 2010, presumably to allow hangovers ample time...
The Most Magnificent Book Store in the World
The glorious interior of El Ateneo book store in Buenos Aires.In 1919, Max Glucksman, a recent immigrant to Buenos Aires, Argentina, had a vision to build the grandest, most splendid theater in all of South America. He succeeded. There, Argentinians could enjoy performances across the full spectrum of the arts, and see and hear local favorites. The legendary composer, singer and instrumentalist Carlos Gardel, the King of Tango, was a frequent artist in residence.In 1924, Glucksman began to broadcast Radio Splendid from the building’s fourth floor. In 1929, he converted the venue into a movie palace, and premiered the first...
Gender-Bending Chickens and the Bookbirder Report
Grrl Scientist at rest.GrrlScientist is the pseudonym of a colorful parrot who writes by typing with her beak. A science/nature/bird blogger in flight, at roost she's an evolutionary biologist//ornithologist and freelance science and nature writer from Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Her Ph.D. is in ornithology, and she spent her two-year postdoc reconstructing the molecular phylogeny of parrots of the South Pacific Islands; somebody had to. Devorah Bennu is strictly for the birds. Based upon her profile pic, she appears to be a Yellow-Bibbed Lory (Lorius chlorocerus).As such, she writes with a brush-tongue full of nectar. I used to keep a...