I’m on the ALA Library Research Round Table. The LRRT offers the Ingenta Research Award every year, & the deadline for submitting proposals has just passed, on March 31. Yesterday I got an email from the LRRT Chair that included this: I regret to advise you that we cannot award an Ingenta grant this year. Unfortunately, no one applied for the Ingenta grant and it is clear that we need.. Read More
Festival of the Book
Paul beat me to the punch on blogging this, but here is the text of the email I got recently announcing the 2006 NC Festival of the Book: Subject: News: ’06 North Carolina Fest. o/t Book Greetings from the ’06 NC Festival of the Book: We’re proud to announce the launch of a totally-revamped and newly-updated festival site: www.ncbook.org There you’ll find a schedule of confirmed festival programs, as well.. Read More
The old home town: hotbed of radical librarianship
I posted the other day about my home town of Newton, MA Fighting the Power, as it were. And now comes this follow-up, also from John, who is rapidly becoming a regular stringer for my blog. Editorial from The Boston Globe: When librarians protect terrorists I still say that the Newton Library Director did the right thing, since after all the FBI agents who showed up at the library didn’t.. Read More
The old home town stands up to The Man
Thanks to John, human news aggregator and Reporter-At-Large for PomeRantz, for sending this one along. The Homer Street branch featured so prominently in this story was my home library for many many years, since I was about 8 or so and that branch was first built. Newton library forces FBI to get warrant to seize computers, from the Boston Globe A matter of principle — and law — made Newton.. Read More
State’s new library catalog
NCSU Libraries Unveils Revolutionary, Endeca-Powered Online Catalog The NCSU Libraries announced today the first library deployment of a revolutionary new online catalog. Leveraging the advanced search and Guided Navigation® capabilities of the Endeca ProFind™ platform, the NCSU Libraries’ new catalog, which is located at www.lib.ncsu.edu/catalog/, provides the speed and flexibility of popular online search engines while capitalizing on existing catalog records. Update: Lorcan Dempsey has an excellent post on State’s.. Read More
The ghoulish side of librarianship
Some of nation’s best libraries have books bound in human skin, from The Boston Globe The Boston Athenaeum, a private library, has an 1837 copy of George Walton’s memoirs bound in his own skin. Walton was a highwayman — a robber who specialized in ambushing travelers — and he left the volume to one of his victims, John Fenno. Fenno’s daughter gave it to the library.
Google/LC World Digital Library
This is all the news the last couple of days: Google Gift to Digital Library, from NY Times $3-Million Gift From Google Jump-Starts Library of Congress’s Digital Cultural Archive, from the Chronicle James H. Billington, the librarian of Congress, said the World Digital Library would be modeled after the library’s American Memory Project… I’m extremely gratified that this project is being undertaken by LC, & funded by Google — rather.. Read More
Scholary Communications Librarian jobs
Carol Tobin tried to comment on my recent Interesting job posting at Duke posting, but for reasons unknown authimage was giving her grief. So here’s her comment, promoted to the status of actual post. Actually Duke is just getting on board with position that they have had at NCState for a number of years and that we have had planned for years at Chapel Hill. It finally got funded for.. Read More
Special Collection Oddities
‘What’s the Most Unusual Item in Your Special Collections?’, from the Chronicle I’m particularly fond of the pasta poetry: The University of Chicago has, among other odd items, a limited-edition book of poetry printed on a raw pasta noodle — “alas, becoming more brittle by the year,” writes Alice Schreyer, director of special collections. Wilson Library runs Treasure Tours once a month. I’ve gone on 2 of these tours now,.. Read More
Interesting job posting at Duke
This job just got posted to the Duke Library Jobs page: Scholarly Communication Officer (Term Appointment) The Scholarly Communication Officer will coordinate scholarly communication activities for Duke University by providing leadership and educating the university community about intellectual property issues and their impact on the nature and conduct of scholarly inquiry and instruction. Required: ALA-accredited MLS or J.D. or equivalent combination of relevant academic preparation and experience. It’s interesting to.. Read More