librarian.net

possibly the best library hoax

“Jean Nepomucene Auguste Pichauld, Comte de Fortsas, was a man with a singular passion. He collected books of which only one copy was known to exist…. [W]hen he died on September 1, 1839 he possessed only fifty-two books, but each of them was absolutely unique. His heir, not sharing the old manâ€™s passion for book collecting, arranged for an auction to sell off the library”

Compelling no? The auction really happened, the rest of it is made up, the creation of a local antiquarian, having a bit of a practical joke. Read more at blacksundae, or see the auction catalog, itself a rarity, on Google Books.

what can you do with an old bookmobile?

Posted on 25Feb1025Feb10 by jessamyn

If you’re Tom Corwin you buy it and plan a road trip with authors talking about books that changed their lives. Oh, and make a movie about it. Latest is Daniel Handler (author of the Lemony Snicket series). Read more at BookmobileTravels.com or on Twitter at BookmobileNews.

Florida Library History, circa 1998

Posted on 22Feb10 by jessamyn

I am going to Florida on Sunday, so I have Florida on my mind. I found out about the Florida Library History Project and was pleased to know the entire thing is available online as a big PDF. Some enterprising student could, with the permission of Kathleen de la Pena McCook get it online crosslinked and searchable.

The Florida Library History Project (FLHP) began in January 1998. Letters requesting histories were sent to all public libraries in Florida with follow-up letters sent after an initial response was received from the libraries. E-mail messages were sent out to FL-LIB listservs encouraging participation in the project. A poster session was presented by USF research assistant Catherine Jasper at the 1998 Florida Library Association (FLA) Annual Conference, an event that marked FLAâ€™s 75th anniversary. At the end of this funding period, 89 library systems and organizations had provided histories. These have been compiled and are reproduced in this volume as submitted by participating libraries. Highlights include library founding, collections, services, budgets and expenditures, personnel, funding, survey results, technology, and developments.

[via]

Happy Valentine’s Day to librarians everywhere

Posted on 14Feb1014Feb10 by jessamyn

I like Valentine’s Day. I always have, whether I’m in a relationship or not. It’s one of those holidays that I try to temper my enthusiasm for because it seems so… dopey or something. My local library just started a “why I love the library” campaign with the paper hearts, just in time for town meeting day which is in a few weeks. Here are a few more library/valentine cross-over links.

Photo is from NYPL’s selection of Victorian Valentines. There are many more images to look at in their Digital Gallery.
It is Library Lovers Day in Australia. While the website is terrifically underwhelming [links to pdfs, really? no title in the HTML?] there are some neat things going on: a free sausage sizzle [last weekend, actually], a song from a few years ago, a special morning tea
The Valentine Public Library is surprisingly not taking advatage of this opportunity.
Some more promotional tie-ins: How to Love Your Library, Library Lover’s Month in Wisconsin (proclaimed by the governor in 2005), specifics about how to do a valentine-themed fundraiser and more from the Library Support website.
The Lilly Library at Indiana University lets you send an e-valentine from their Victorian Valentine collection.
The Peabody Library at Vanderbilt University did a Valentine workshop this week.
The planned library anti-Valentine’s Day party, however, didn’t go so well.
Etsy seller simplesongdesigns has a neat valentine for your favorite librarian.
Wikimedia Commons has many valentines that can be used copyright-free.
Amusing ephemera from the LoC collection, a valentine bank note form the Bank of True Love.
And, continuing my search from another LoC item claiming to be from “The Oldest Valentine Manufactory in America“, the I have come across Charles Dickens’ visit to Cupid’s Manufactory available to you in full text via Google Books and truly wonderful.

Happy Valentine’s Day.

fair use in online classes?

Posted on 13Feb10 by jessamyn

UCLA is in the middle of discussions with the Association for Information and Media Equipment over UCLA’s use of streaming videos and video clips in their online course materials. While teachers have shown videos in classes since there have been videos, the embedding of copyrighted videos in online course, even password-protected course areas, is causing new copyright discussions. While UCLA feels that the TEACH Act of 2003 applies in this case, they are nonetheless ceasing to embed videos in online courses while they try to work out a settlement. Inside Higher Ed has a longer discussion of the issues involved in this article. One of the more interesting wrinkles is that copying a DVD in order to stream it online violates the DMCA which is not covered by the TEACH Act.

Unlike most news content online, the comments really add to the discussion happening here and I suggest checking them out. [via molly]