This online exhibition is quite simply remarkable. Based on the National Library of Ireland's Yeats exhibition (which runs through the end of this year), the interface (broadband recommended; Flash required) simulates the experience of walking through the actual exhibition: explore display cases, wander through the various rooms, watch videos, etc. The library holds the largest and most important collection of Yeats manuscripts in the world and many of these are are on display, along with letters, rare editions of the poet's works, and the like.[Via]
Expand the Public Domain : Release the ‘Orphans’
UPDATE : May 20th - Lawrence Lessing has a must read op-ed on the issue in the New York Times titled "Little Orphan Artworks"**************************************************************************In the copyright world 'orphans' refer to all the books, films, pieces of art etc. that are banished to the storage rooms of museums and libraries across the country because their creators cannot be found.There are literally millions of items that go unprocessed because the places that house the material are afraid of being sued. With potential fines upward of $150,000 per item it is safe to say they will go unprocessed for a long time unless...
The Library of Congress Hits the Jackpot on Flickr
No one saw this coming.The plan was simple enough. The Library of Congress teamed with Flickr for a pilot project called The Commons, which basically consisted of LOC opening a Flickr account and uploading a little over 3,000 images (the LOC houses 14 million prints, photographs and other visual materials!)The goal was to address two of the major challenges the library faces:1. "how to ensure better and better access to our collections, and2. "how to ensure that we have the best possible information about those collections for the benefit of researchers and posterity."The result was astonishing and could arguably be...
Fore! Amazing Golf Collection Lands at the University of British Columbia
Meat-packing magnet Sam Martz has given his 4,700+ collection of golf books to UBC.It is the greatest collection ever assembled on the sport that will be kept intact and available for public perusal. Martz believes he has put together the third-largest collection of golf books in North America, behind the collection of the United States Golf Association and one that is in private hands.The University of Chicago houses the collection of Arthur W. Schultz which is made up of 1,600 books but according to Ralph Stanton, head of rare books and special collections for UBC, "doesn't come close to the...
Happy Birthday ‘A Christmas Carol’
Today marks the 164th anniversary of the publication of 'A Christmas Carol' by Charles Dickens.First published in 1843 'A Christmas Carol' went on to sell 6,000 copies in 5 days! I am sure that would translate into bestseller numbers today.Though known as 'A Christmas Carol' the full title of the work is A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas and was written by Dickens to raise money to settle some debts.The University of South Carolina Libraries has an online exhibit celebrating all the Christmas related books and stuff of Dickens. The exhibit is titled The Man...