It was almost 3 years since Maude Newton first blogged about the Camel Library Service that serves the semi-nomadic people of Northeastern Kenya. Author Masha Hamilton went for a visit in early 2006 to get some first hand experience for the novel on the Camel Library Service she was working on. The book is due out in the spring.From Hamilton's Story Behind the Book:The actual Camel Bookmobile made its first run almost a decade ago. Three dromedaries trudged through arid northeastern Kenya near the unstable border with Somalia to bring a library to settlements so remote they had become nearly...
da Vinci’s Notebooks Digitized: For Some Eyes Only
For the first time in 500 years the text of both of Leonardo's notebooks are available to be viewed side by side. This "electronic reunification" as the Chief Executive of the British Library Lynne Brindley put it of the Codex Leicester, purchased in 1994 for $30.8 million by Bill Gates, and the Codex Arundel which is housed in the British Library, is a product of the British Library program Turning the Pages 2.0.When viewing the Notebooks with Turning the Pages 2 "people can rotate and move the notebooks on the screen, and turn on a magnifying glass to see the...
March of the Librarians: A Video Tribute to ALA Meeting in Seattle
"Didn't you wonder where your librarians disappeared to last January? Ten thousand of them were in Seattle for an American Library Association convention, and I was there to capture the bizarre congregation on video." nnicckHysterical rendition of the meeting. Good Seattle footage. An instant YouTube biblio-classic.P.S. you can insert any trade show and it works.Thanks to Jeremy from PhiloBiblos for the lead
Autistic Woman Assembles an Amazing Library
This is truly a remarkable story.Her name is Amanda Baggs and her blog is Ballastexistenz. She describes herself as "a non-speaking physically disabled and autistic woman who’s lived in institutions, whose income comes from a disability check, and whose services are funded by the state."She is also a book collector. From a recent post on her blog comes this:"One of my hobbies is collecting books by autistic people. At this point, I don’t even always read them, but I love to obtain them, put them on the shelf, and keep them in order."Those words can only originate from a book...
Another New-Century Modern Architectural High Spot: The Free University Library in Berlin
Here in Seattle we are still basking in the glow of our new Rem Koolhaas designed Central Library. We are, in some ways, still in shock over this instant Modernist classic and its effect on our city and library system. For a book lover with an appreciation of architecture and design taking the elevator up to the tenth floor and walking all the way down is pretty much a religious experience.Our friends in Berlin are lucky enough to share this privilege. The Free University Library in Berlin designed by Foster and Partners is "a smart building that employs a range...