Whether it’s marveling at the dome inside Carnegie-Stout Public Library in Dubuque, Iowa, the vibrant entrepreneurship lab at University of Rhode Island in Kingston, or the bright carpets and colorful student art at P.S. 28 in Manhattan, those first few moments through the door always call home the magic that happens inside our buildings. We … Continue reading A Welcoming Space
“The reason I’m conversant in [race, social justice, and public policy] topics is because it all started at the library,” she told those gathered for the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services President’s Program at the American Library Association’s 2019 Annual Conference in Washington, D.C., on June 24. Chatelain reminisced about being dropping off … Continue reading Golden Arches, Black Franchises
You have a law degree. How did you get started in genealogy? Do you see a correlation between the two fields? I absolutely see a correlation. I love research and writing. I love reading and digging and finding clues. And that’s what genealogy is. I started doing genealogy when I was in law school. I … Continue reading Newsmaker: Kenyatta D. Berry
Violaine Iglesias, director of business development for GVPi, a company in Arlington, Virginia, that provides hosting platforms for electronic publishers, opened by saying that “Accessibility is in very high demand among higher education institutions. Publishers are only now beginning to understand that accessible and discoverable video” is a high priority for educational institutions. She said … Continue reading Making Video Content Accessible
This didn’t make sense—the books had been in an area of the library considered very dry by Hawaii standards (relative humidity in the 40s and sometimes 50s) ever since a temperature and humidity data logger was deployed there in late 2008. Mold is commonplace in Hawaii and is something UHM library has battled for years. … Continue reading The Mysterious Case of White Film on Old Books
Three librarians from the University of Virginia described their Book Traces project, an effort to discover uniquely modified copies of pre-1923 books in the circulating collections of Alderman Library, in a Sunday program sponsored by the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services. Arts and Humanities Director Christine Ruotolo explained that the university has a long-standing tradition of emphasizing book history and bibliography and, because many of their books were originally donated by distinguished faculty and notable families in the Charlottesville area, many of them have potentially valuable modifications by their former owners—marginalia, inserts, inscriptions, annotations, and even doodles that can have evidential value for humanities scholars.
For libraries and archives, digitizing materials has become a key concern, especially as more and more patrons and users go online to research information. But several factors must be considered: Copyright law Librarians interested in beginning a digitization project must first consult copyright laws. If the item is in the public domain, copyright is fairly … Continue reading Think Digitization During Preservation Week
