"The book was published by Bennett, Coleman and Co., which also published the English language newspaper Times of India. There are more than 200 pictures showing various images of life and architecture of India, from Madras fisherman to Alligator Pier in Karachi; from a view of Bombay from the Rajabai Towers; to an unconventional view of the Taj Mahal."
"With change in lifestyle and less and less time to spend, people no longer prefer the older reading places. Here are some of the most visited private and public libraries in Bangalore that are a hub for reading and recreational activities."
"The annual book fair, now in its 24th year, is organized and sponsored by the Centenary Muses, with proceeds used to fund projects and programs for Centenary students. A Centenary staple for years, the bazaar has raised nearly $60,000 each of the past five years and has helped pay for items such as computers, furniture for residence halls, athletic equipment, and other items not usually covered by the budget."
"The collections, which include the works of Charles J. Belden, Frank J. Meyers, Hugo Janssen, Stephen N. Leek, W. B. D. and Annette Gray and James K. Moore, are regarded as one of the most compelling visual archives related to the early history and development of the state of Wyoming."
"Since 1975, the Division has collected, preserved and offered access to the library’s rare and unique materials. Within the Division’s four categories - Special Collections, Archives, Exhibits and Preservation - Harold Washington houses an interesting selection of historic materials."
"University of Otago library special collections will display a collection of pulp fiction books which were published in Australia after the country banned United States pulp fiction novels. "
"Tucked behind the circulation desk at the A. Holmes Johnson Memorial Library, the Alaska Reference Room is not the most visible historical landmark in Kodiak, but it is a local museum in its own right."
"University officials said Monday the 10,000-piece collection will be transferred to UC Berkeley this summer from the Judah L. Magnes Museum, which is in south Berkeley."
"Thousands of rare books and manuscripts at Camrbidge University Library – including handwritten notes by Sir Isaac Newton – are to be made available on line thanks to a £1.5m donation."
"The Library collects material in all areas of science, engineering and technology. Holdings include 47,000 journals of scientific findings dating from 1671, 10,000 rare books including some as old as the 1470s, and there are around one-half million books on all those miles of shelving I mentioned."
" Ambassador of Iran to India, Aqa-i-Saiyad Mehdi Nabizadeh has shown a keen interest in developing Hazrat Pir Mohammed Shah Library & Research Centre. During his visit to the city on Saturday, the library had organised a day-long programme to coincide with the celebrations of 600 years of the city's foundation."
"The tablet comes from Edgar J. Banks, an early twentieth century archeologist."
"He was the first American to climb Mount Ararat and may have been the first archeologist to search for the Ark of the Covenant."
"The building, designed by the firm of McKim, Mead, and White, was once the private study and library of financier Pierpont Morgan. It is considered one of New York's great architectural treasures and its interiors are regarded as some of the most beautiful in America."
"Rare, ancient biblical artifacts spanning thousands of years will be available for public viewing at Azusa Pacific University beginning May 21 in the long-awaited opening of 'Treasures of the Bible: The Dead Sea Scrolls and Beyond.'"
"A large and important collection of works by the idiosyncratic illustrator, designer and writer, Edward Gorey (1925-2000), has been donated to Columbia’s Rare Book & Manuscript Library by Andrew Alpern. "
"The Sheridan Libraries’ Department of Conservation and Preservation has established a one-year advanced fellowship in book and paper conservation. Funded with a $30,000 grant from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, the program will offer postgraduate conservators the opportunity to work in the libraries’ unique interdisciplinary conservation program..."
"The bindings of nearly 150 books in the Law Library's Rare Book Collection show that recycling was second nature among European bookbinders as early as the 1300s"
"In 1991, Mr. Al Majid established the Juma Al Majid Center for Culture and Heritage, a non-profit reference library and research institute that boasts a collection of more than 400,000 rare books and manuscripts. The Center also hosts a department dedicated to training preservationists from around the world in state-of-the-art restoration techniques."
"'Water doesn't spare books,' she said. The books were mostly popular titles, Zempter said. No reference or rare books were affected."
"Zempter said the firefighters were the 'true heroes' because they were able to shut off the water and rescue computers in the building."
"The Princeton University Library has completed a multiyear project of digitizing a collection of 19th- and 20th-century maps that illustrate the history and development of communities around New Jersey."
"In a rare tour of North Queensland, selected pieces from the State Library of Queensland’s Australian Library of Art (ALA) begin a five-day journey of the region in Mackay today and will then travel to Proserpine, Bowen and Moranbah."
"Funded completely by donations, the Hill — also known as Special Collections — stores a wide array of rare and valuable historical materials, ranging from a first edition of Samuel Johnson’s “History of the English Language” to the manuscripts of Louisiana natives."
"A collection of 14,000 books originally assembled as part of plans for Cardiff to become the site of the National Library of Wales has found a new home at Cardiff University."
"Finally, Uganda joins the World Digital Library (WDL) project after receiving equipment worth Ush600 million ($300,000) from Carnegie Corporation of New York and Ush6 billion ($3 million) from Google."
"When Julia Gaffield made her once-in-a-lifetime discovery, she couldn't scream, laugh or even pump her fists in triumph."
"Visitors to the British National Archives just don't behave that way."
"The Rare Book Wing houses the largest rare old book collection in the state outside New York City. Its collection consists of approximately 10,000 items published between 1500 and 1700, about 100 late medieval manuscripts published between the year 1000 to the 1500s, about 100 manuscripts from the 1500s to recent times and about 300 "incunabula," or cradle books, that were published in the earliest years of printing in Europe, said Spaeth."
"The authorities have been working towards making the library a smart, connected and web-enabled place. An entire catalogue of 24 lakh books would be available in the digital format online when the e-project is completed."
"It is part of a 18-month project - funded by JISC - which showcases The University of Manchester as one of the country's leading centres for digitisation of rare books, manuscripts and archives."
"But questions have dogged this project like a bad conscience. Some objections are technical: Digital storage is great, but it's fragile. As Epstein wrote in the New York Review of Books this month, all the world's old books may soon be available at the click of a mouse, but "another click might obliterate these same contents and bring civilization to an end."
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"The collection includes 175 incunabula (early printed books before 1500), around 500 rare Bibles, Restoration and Quarto drama volumes, including a rare collection of early Shakespeare volumes, and a large quantity of high quality, limited edition British 19th and 20th century private presses."
"The 14,000 books, which include rare bibles and atlases, will be bought for £1.2 million by the University with help from the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales and the Welsh Assembly Government."
"Two parts of an ancient biblical manuscript separated across centuries and continents were reunited for the first time in a joint display Friday, thanks to an accidental discovery that is helping illuminate a dark period in the history of the Hebrew Bible."
"The Beinecke’s online exhibitions garnered more than 321,000 hits in 2009, as compared to the roughly 75,000 visitors to the building, according to statistics compiled by the Beinecke."
"The gift, in addition to other donations, will be used to turn the sixth floor of Van Pelt — where the Rare Book and Manuscript Library is housed — into a Special Collections Center that creates a more functional and user-friendly environment, Assistant Director of Management Information Services and Communication for Penn Libraries Joseph Zucca said."
"For the past few weeks, Mrs. Jaunzems has been classifying and labeling books, magazines, exhibit catalogues and professional journals by and about the artist and the period to set up the museum's first reference library."
"The British Library has announced that users of Amazon's Kindle e-reader will be able to download more than 65,000 19th century classics for free this coming spring in a special format that will have the look of a genuine first edition."
"Hosted via Microsoft's open source Codeplex project and based on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Platform, the "virtual research environment" allows researchers to create and share content and also work on specific issues such as funding proposals, the organisations claim."
"The World of the Book is a stunning book itself. Beautifully illustrated, it contains an illuminated manuscript created for the Medici family of Florence in 1479; masterpieces of early printing, such as Gutenberg’s Bible and Aldus Manutius’s Hypnerortomachia Poliphili; books recording the scientific discoveries of Copernicus, Galileo and Newton; works by the great botanical and natural history artists, the woodblock books of Japanese artist Hokusai; the productions of William Morris and the Kelmscott Press; literary greats from William Shakespeare to Virginia Woolf; children’s books, beat literature and pulp fiction, graphic novels, artists’ books and contemporary graphic design."
"France's Lyon Library and Google have signed an agreement to scan more then 500,000 books in 10 years and put them online. The French government believes this will promote their cultural globally. But the French public is a little apprehensive."
"The letters by Charles Dickens that will join The Huntington’s holdings were written from about 1838 to 1869 and are addressed to a variety of individuals, including Hablot Knight Browne (Dickens’ best-known illustrator, affectionately called “Phiz”), John Leech (another of Dickens’ illustrators), Robert Lytton (a poet, and son of novelist Edward George Bulwer-Lytton), Charles Ollier (a publisher of earlier writers, including the poets Keats and Shelley) and Mary Nichols (an American author who was published by Dickens in his weekly periodical, All the Year Round). "
"As the Africana Collections Curator for the Yale Library, Woodson has traveled from Johannesburg to Timbuktu in search of new materials — ranging from books to microfilm to “ephemera” like T-shirts and posters — to add to the Library’s 13 million volumes."
"The Delhi Public Library (DPL) has turned 60 and will showcase in an exhibition India’s growth trajectory through rare books, newspapers and gramophone records over the past six decades."
"More than 3,700 rare medical books from the Rush University Medical Center will join the library collection of the University of Chicago as part of the school's dedication to the history of medicine."
"There’s only one place you can leaf through a copy of William Shakespeare’s “First Folio” from 1623 and also touch President John Adams’ personal copy of “Common Sense” - and do it for free."
"An effective way to preserve old and fragile books is to digitize them. The National Library has started the process of digitization since 1999, but according to a library employee, the process is moving at snail’s pace. He said that while funding is not the issue, the absence of a clear-cut policy is."
"In November 2008, Frank, acting on a recommendation of an appraiser who looked over the Rush collection a few years earlier, put in a call to the University of Chicago. Would they be interested in purchasing the collection?"
"LAHORE: The renovation of the Punjab Public Library (PPL), which includes the repairing and preservation of old books and database has been halted due to a shortage of funds, Daily Times has learnt."
"University Libraries in Karnataka will be connected through 'UNI-LINK' network for which a Task Force under Bangalore University Vice Chancellor Dr N Prabhu Dev's Chairmanship had been formed."
"Just as a laser-scanning microscope assists biologists examining cell structure or a flume helps geologists measure characteristics of sediment flow, items in the special collections are part of the academic equipment to support teaching and classroom work and to enhance the learning experience at Bucknell, O'Neill noted."
"All rare books, publications, theses and dissertations of the varsity would be digitalised. A scanning centre will be established in collaboration with Digital Library of India under the ‘Million books digitalisation project’ of Carnegie Mellon University of United States."
"The McCrone Group, Inc. today announced their microanalytical examination of an illustrated miniature manuscript (or codex) of the Gospel of Mark, termed the "Archaic Mark," helped identify the manuscript as a forgery."
"Rare books, precious quilts, and historic documents are among the many materials in libraries, archives and museums that are too valuable to loose. Yet when disaster strikes, that sometimes happens."
"After the Reformation, many monasteries were abandoned, but Erfurt's Augustinerkloster functions today as a Lutheran church and cloister with regular services. It also houses 60,000 volumes of rare books in its library."
"In a quiet, windowless room deep inside the Walters Art Museum, a digitization specialist places a 900-year-old Quran into the cradle of the Stokes Imaging System."
"Very few people know that within the high security vaults of the Asiatic Library are priceless Italian and Latin books stored with great care. The rarest of the lot is the richly illustrated edition of Dante's Comedia Divina (Divine Comedy) (1757)."
"Standing among the 10,000 rare books in the stacks of the Linda Hall Library in Kansas City, Bruce Bradley, the director of the history of science special collections, pulls out a copy of "The Starry Messenger," the revelatory book in which Galileo detailed his astronomical observations made with his own "spyglass" -- the instrument that would later be known as the telescope."
"Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) has partnered with the University of Michigan in making more than half a million rare and hard-to-find books from the school's library available for sale over the Web."
"The offering is through HP's BookPrep online service that lets people search for out-of-print books in HP's repository of scanned books."
"In a bid to save part of our classical heritage, major libraries are partnering with technology companies like HP to scan previously hard-to-find works using high-resolution photography. These scans are then cleaned up to remove any blemishes caused by wear and tear."
"The digital library features unique cultural materials — including manuscripts, maps, rare books, films, sound recordings, prints and photographs — collected from libraries and archives around the world."
"One of the biggest collections of rare Chinese books outside China is to become freely available as Harvard University has agreed to digitise the titles."
"Damage was confined to multiple, backup copies of state documents, primarily Missouri state agency reports from the 1970s to early 1990s, the historical society reported in a prepared statement."
"The dedication is part of a day-long celebration, the Elizabeth York Children’s Literature Festival, which will feature a number of speakers, including author and illustrator David Slonim, authors Valiska Gregory and Linda Vieira, and rare-book dealers Jett Whitehead and Rob Hittel."
"The exhibit’s first stop will be at the University of Alberta on September 1, 2010 and will consist of a four-month display. Kicking off the event will be live readings from eight GG Award winning-authors. Meier has partnered with the Bruce Peel Special Collections Library and the Canadian Literature Centre, for the exhibit — both located on the U of A’s campus."
"Colophons will be swollen and printer slugs tumescent when Bruce Whiteman, Head Librarian at the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library of U.C.L.A. in Los Angeles, presents an address to The Colophon Club of San Francisco on October 13, 2009..."
"What has been called “the most mysterious manuscript in the world” is held within the vaults of Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Its name – the Voynich Manuscript."
"A guy who wears bifocals understands what aging is all about, so when he printed a classic treatise on the woes and benefits of becoming a codger, he also printed the first large-print edition in this hemisphere."
"And now it is the University of Illinois' 11 millionth acquisition."
"Dr. O’Bryan has donated his collection of magazines and books on World War II and Winston Churchill to the University of South Carolina. It will be on display in the Thomas Cooper library through October 26."
"The living memory of the Portuguese-American experience has a new home at UMass Dartmouth, where on Friday university officials welcomed community leaders and elected officials to celebrate the grand opening of the Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives."
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"Penn's libraries are busy making thousands of hard-to-find books and publications available online in a multifaceted effort intended to make rare literature more available to academics at Penn and around the world."
"An executive order issued by Gov. Jennifer Granholm on Wednesday hopes to ensure that come Oct. 1, Michigan's state library collections will be safe."
"Joining Princeton University and the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago, APU becomes only the third institution of higher education to own original Dead Sea Scroll fragments. These earliest known texts of the Hebrew Bible, dating back to roughly 150 B.C., were discovered in the caves of Qumran, east of Jerusalem, between 1947-56."
"The Charleston Library Society has named local historian, teacher and writer Anne Walker Cleveland as its new executive director."
"He borrowed maps from the University of Alabama’s W.S. Hoole Special Collections’ map collection. Slowly and quietly, the University of Alabama has been collecting not only maps, but manuscripts, photography, rare books relating to American music, popular culture and Southern culture. The collection is named for Hoole, who was the librarian who organized the collection."
"Established in 1877, the collections which formed the basis of the new library came from the Royal Dublin Society, then its neighbour and a sister institution. Thus in one fell swoop the library acquired more than 70,000 items, including manuscripts, maps, topographical prints, music, pamphlets and rare books."
"The Friends of the Williamson County Public Library are holding a book sale on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, August 20, 21 and 22 at the Main Library in Franklin."
"Books don't simply blend in to the shelves here in the Rare Books Division. Each one has its own special history, and Curator Michael Inman shared some of those stories with us Thursday in a behind-the-scenes look at the collection."
"Costing well over $100,000, a 62-pound handmade tome depicting the life and work of Michelangelo has arrived at the New York Public Library, fresh from publication in Italy."
"This debate over who owns digital content isn’t new. Back when my co-workers and I at the Boston Public Library began digitizing rare books, we ran into similar issues: is the owner the original copyright holder of the intellectual property itself, the creator of the digital version, or the recipient of the digital content? "
"To celebrate the 475th anniversary of the founding of the press (and 425 years printing books) Cambridge will scan 475 volumes from the library's collection of rare materials, including works by Darwin, Shakespeare, and Charles Babbage."
"Ohio State University's main library has undergone more nips, tucks and enhancements than an aging beauty queen trying to hang on to her youth."
"The John Rylands University Library has acquired a priceless collection of books, some of which date back 500 years. St Mary's Church in Nantwich housed the library, however its location, which could only be reached via a narrow spiral staircase, meant that it was all but inaccessible."
"The program was a response to a 2005 study sponsored by IMLS that found 190 million objects held by U.S. libraries and museums needed conservation treatment, and that 40 percent of the institutions did not have enough in their annual budgets to do so."
"The library includes one of only three known copies of a 1502 hymn book printed by Wynkyn de Worde - the first printer to set up a printing press in Fleet Street, later the home of the newspaper industry."
"Treasured objects and artifacts held by the Manassas Museum will be preserved for future generations with a donation of a core set of conservation books and online resources."
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"The law school library is one of only 907 libraries in the country to receive the Bookshelf grant. The IMLS Bookshelf focuses on collections typically found in art or history museums and in libraries’ special collections."
"The rare books dating from 1550 A D onwards have been undertaken for preservation and the conservation team has already digitised over 100 rare books of the University Library since January this year, Rathod said. "
"At issue is an irreplaceable library of some 12,000 rare books, 381 manuscripts and 25,000 pages of handwritten rabbinical teachings that were once held by the Chabad-Lubavitch head rabbis but were left behind when the rabbis fled for safety during the world wars."
"Thousands of manuscripts and other resources at the library will be offered to the international community within the scope of a project jointly carried out by the İstanbul-based Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation, which also runs the Pera Museum, and the Los Angeles-based Getty Foundation."
"Ex Libris® Group is pleased to announce the first academic institutions to begin collaborating with the Company as development partners for its groundbreaking Unified Resource Management (URM™) framework — the next-generation framework for library management services."
"Princeton Theological Seminary, a school with one of the largest col lections of theological books in the world, has scaled back its proposed plan for a new library to replace the aging Speer Library on campus be cause of neighbors' concerns and project costs."
"Jeans Kupferschmidt, an ancient manuscript researcher from Leipzig University in Germany, demonstrated the digitalization process at the workshop, which was attended by participants from Aceh, Solo, Banjarmasin, Balikpapan, Bandung, Batam, Denpasar, Jakarta, Kendari, Makassar, Mataram, Padang, Palembang, Pekanbaru, Pontianak, Yogya, Semarang and Surabaya."
"Most couples interested in having a wedding here are not from Indianapolis; one inquiry came from Belgium."
"Central will also host a high school graduation and many corporate events. Standing in the Rare Books room, one can look out on the cityscape and the East Garden."
"Diaghilev's Theater of Marvels: The Ballets Russes and Its Aftermath, on view June 26 through September 12, 2009, commemorates the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Ballets Russes and explores the company's historical and cultural context and international influences."
"Depending on how geeky your social circle is, you either regard the University Of Texas' Harry Ransom Center as the home to a world of untold cultural riches, or that ugly slab of international-style limestone across the street from the Dobie Center. I clearly fall in the former category."
"A new exhibit of modern stage design, Creating the Modern Stage: Designs for Theater and Opera, opened last month and is behind held through August 16 at The Morgan Library & Museum in New York."
"it’s doubled capacity to accommodate readers at 120 seats, better lighting and modern facilities-which will see most of its nearly 5,000 members spending several languid hours in the company of a tome."
"In a tiny room on the sixth floor of the Wise Library, on the downtown campus of West Virginia University, is a stash of stuff that would set the hearts of literary scholars aflutter."
"In second phase, not only newspapers and books in the NLP but also rare books and manuscripts across the county would be digitized in order to preserve the national heritage for future generations, they said."
"They said online access to these books and manuscripts would be provided to the researchers and scholars both at national and international level."
"Auburn University has acquired an extremely rare artifact from the Civil War era; General Robert E. Lee's letter of surrender."
"The University says it accepted the document as a donation from a very generous donor on April 10, 2009. That donor was identified as James L. Starr, a 1971 Auburn graduate. "
"The birth of this library is attributed to a few young mechanics working in the Royal Mint and the Bombay Dockyard in 1847. They formed a study group to share and promote knowledge."
"Their objectives at that time were to set up a library and a museum of mechanical models and architectural designs, as well as to organise lectures and discussions on science and technology, thus was born the Sassoon Mechanics Institute."
"Some 70,000 volumes of books, 10,000 other types of published material including reports, articles and brochures written in 140 different languages fill this very spacious building, whose equivalents can be seen across Europe. "
"It's a virtual archive of Thai culture, taking in the full sweep of the nation's history, religious lore, art and anthropology. There's even a book on Abraham Lincoln, written in Thai."
"Authorities from the National Library of Poland and Iran National Library and Archives arrange several meetings to strength mutual cooperation."
"An agreement between the two libraries was signed in Warsaw last week to help in the exchange of books, collections, scientific achievements, as well as to help raise information on how to collect and preserve rare collections."
"Last weekend, the second "Catalog of Chinese Rare Books" was unveiled. A total of 19 volumes from the East China city of Yangzhou were included on the prominent list."
"The Catalog of Chinese Rare Books is a compilation of books produced prior to the year 1912, which marks the end of the country's dynastic history. "
"Thieves have been stealing or damaging rare books housed at the Watson Library on the University of Kansas campus."
"Police say books filled with ancient and expensive artwork have been torn apart or stolen, causing thousands of dollars in losses."
"A copy of the Gutenberg Bible and the first printed edition of Homer's works are among ancient books being published online by Cambridge University Library."
"The Nottebohm Room is everything you'd imagine a traditional reading room should be, all dark wood paneling, inviting desks, and two stories of books that will bring a respectful hush over any book lover."
"Universities are opening up their research and rare archives to the world by allowing access over the internet. "
"University College London, UCL, today announced it would place all its research online and make it accesible to all."
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"To kick off the summer traveling season, the Lilly Library at Indiana University's Bloomington campus opened an exhibition Tuesday featuring collections relating to early automobiles and motor cars. 'Are We There Yet? The Age of the Automobile' showcases vintage catalogs, books and materials featuring topics ranging from luxury roadsters to the first Indianapolis 500."
"A unique and a precious library housing highly significant literature and manuscripts of medieval period, remains in a shambles due to authorities' apathy, in Uttar Pradesh."
"The Harry Ransom Center, a humanities research library and museum at The University of Texas at Austin, has awarded more than 50 research fellowships for 2009-10. These fellowships support research projects in the humanities that require substantial use of the Center's collections of manuscripts, rare books, film, photography, art and performing arts materials."
"National Library of Pakistan (NLP) has finalized arrangements to open two new community libraries in sectors I -10 and G-11 to provide reading more facilities to the residents of the capital."
"Four years after a multimillion-dollar public library renovation project was defeated by public referendum, library trustees are resurrecting the idea of bringing Amesbury's aging library system into the 21st century."
"Islamabad: National Library of Pakistan (NLP) has digitised over 300 rare books and manuscripts so far with a view to preserving the national literary heritage for the next generations."
"The venture seeks to promote intercultural understanding while narrowing the digital divide between nations, and its collection of rare books, maps, musical scores and recordings, photographs, and other cultural materials makes it a pretty amazing resource."
"Some faculty members at the Jesuit-run University of San Francisco are up in arms over economic contingency plans that include selling some of the university’s rare books collection and auctioning off pieces of valuable art owned by the school, the Foghorn, USF’s official student newspaper reports."
"Walk into Firestone, meander to the right short of the place where the librarians keep important stuff for adults, and one will stumble across the gem that is the Cotsen Children's Library. The rare books, shelved in a three-floor glass case to the right of the entrance, were donated to the University in 1997 by Lloyd E. Cotsen '50 - former chairman and CEO of Neutrogena."
"Beeghly Library, a circular building at Heidelberg College in Tiffin, Ohio. Built in 1967, the circular shape of the three story, open stacks Beeghly Library makes it a distinct presence on Heidelberg's campus and in Tiffin. The library was named to honor a gift from Leon A. Beeghly, an alumnus."
"A specialist in the Chinese capital is working on restoring ancient images of a different kind -- words, not pictures. Sixty-year-old Du Weisheng works as a researcher at the rare book division of China's National Library in Beijing. Over the years, he's been racing against time to rescue ancient tomes and scripts that have been damaged by water, moulding from improper storage and chewed on by rats."
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"Now that the World Digital Library has been launched on the Internet, its creators want to add new partners and content from every country in the world."
"Inaugurated April 21 at the headquarters of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris, the World Digital Library (WDL) includes about 1,200 documents from more than two dozen libraries and institutions in 19 countries."
"Justin McDaniel, a UC Riverside associate professor of religious studies, finalized the deal in 2006: $68,000 for more than 12,000 Thai-language books from a private collector's five-story house-turned-library in Bangkok. "
"The National Library of Australia has unveiled a special preview of its greatest treasures, which will be on show until 19 July."
"A librarian at Oxford's Bodleian Library has unearthed the earliest-known book dust jacket. Dating from 1830, the jacket wrapped a silk-covered gift book, Friendship's Offering."
"So far, Yale has uploaded 27 items from collections unique to the University. The contribution includes 22 pencil drawings of Amistad slave ship prisoners, a primer in Arabic calligraphy and a journal kept by a member of Ferdinand Magellan’s 1522 circumnavigation of the globe. "
"So far, the library's collections committee has discussed parting with three items, according to minutes from meetings: a Crehore piano, a series of large-scale Audubon prints, and a collection of Tichnor glass printing plates that were once used to make postcards. The library has had the Aububon prints since the mid-1800s, while the piano and glass plates were acquired in the last several years."
"Turns out the book, a family heirloom, was taken by a soldier during Hunter's Raid on VMI in 1864. The soldiers name was C.S. Gates. He thought he was getting revenge on VMI by stealing the book during the fiasco. He unknowingly stole it from Washington College or as it's now called Washington & Lee."
""'The (UI) has been digitizing books for 10 years, but only in the last three years have we done it on a really large scale,' said Betsy Kruger, the librarian who heads the UI's digitizing work.
"The UI effort is up to 15,000 volumes now."
"This extraordinary period of innovation in modern scenic design is the subject of a new exhibition at The Morgan Library & Museum entitled Creating the Modern Stage: Designs for Theater and Opera. On view from May 22 through August 16, 2009, the exhibition features over fifty drawings derived entirely from the Morgan’s holdings, principally from the collection formed by the celebrated American set designer Donald Oenslager (1902–1975). "
"With completion of the new $28-million, 47,000-square-foot David Allan Hubbard Library, and the total renovation of the 1962-vintage McAlister Library, there is room for 1.4 million items - double the present capacity."
"The school librarians say that although the books are no longer being checked out by students, they may still have value and interest to antique book collectors or others who love old books."
"The largest library in the world, which currently touts nearly 142 million items in its collections, will launch a Web site on April 21 featuring unique cultural materials from libraries and archives from around the world."
"A 110,000-square-foot building planned for Waddell Street will give librarians state-of-the art rooms to store and preserve UGA's special collections - an ever-expanding vault of rare books, manuscripts and films."
"The peek at UMW's rare collection was one of dozens of stops Lecat and Christine Ortuno, both librarians from Frejus, made during their visit to Fredericksburg in the last week of March."
"Frejus and Fredericksburg have been sister cities for nearly 30 years, and plenty of residents--artists, archaeologists, teachers, students and elected officials--have exchanged visits."
"Rare and historic books currently being conserved by an international team of specialists at the University of Ulster's Magee campus give a fascinating insight into life in the North West hundreds of years ago."
"The Recognition Fund, which is managed by Museum Galleries Scotland, awarded the money to 12 projects designed to increase the number of visitors to collections which have been recognised as being of national significance."
"Aberdeen University has been given £40,000 of funding for its project to promote seven museum collections and its rare books and archives."
"Students have relatively open access to the special collection, and can benefit from the extensive research opportunities within the 90,000 volumes of books and other manuscripts."
"'You can find just about anything and satisfy any interest here, and many classes are integrating projects to encourage student use of the department,'" Adams said.
"UNESCO and 32 partner institutions will launch the World Digital Library, a Web site that features unique cultural materials from libraries and archives from around the world, at UNESCO Headquarters on 21 April."
"The site will include manuscripts, maps, rare books, films, sound recordings, and prints and photographs. It will provide unrestricted public access, free of charge, to this material. "
"One of the benefits of living in the Washington, D.C. area is the wealth of cultural and educational institutions. As National Library Week approaches, plan a family literacy field trip to one of the largest institutions on Capitol Hill - The Library of Congress. "
"Rare and historic books currently being conserved by an international team of specialists at the University of Ulster’s Magee campus give a fascinating insight into life in the North-West hundreds of years ago. The books are part of the Church of Ireland Derry and Raphoe Diocesan Collection, which dates back to the 15th century."
"Acquisition of the 4 millionth volume for the Texas A&M University libraries will be commemorated Thursday (March 26) marking a major milestone for the state's oldest public university."
"The Bodleian's struggle to store its vast collection of books may finally be at an end, as the library has bought a new site in Swindon."
"Up to 8 million books will be stored at the new site, 28 miles away from Oxford."
"Princeton University has placed a new digital library of 200 Islamic manuscripts online for scholars to consult and study."
"These manuscripts were selected from some 9,500 volumes of Islamic manuscripts in Arabic, Persian, Ottoman Turkish and other languages of the Muslim world in the University Library's Department of Rare Books and Special Collections. Princeton's extraordinary holdings constitute the premier collection in the Western Hemisphere and among the finest in the world, according to Don Skemer, curator of manuscripts."
"Taiwan's National Central Library (NCL) and the National Library of Latvia signed a cooperative agreement Monday to establish bibliographies and indexes of Chinese literature and ancient Chinese books, a NCL official said Tuesday."
"The NEH has awarded the Sibley Music Library a two-year $273,820 grant to digitize approximately 10,000 to 12,000 musical scores which are in the public domain, reside in the Library’s general collections, and are held by not more than two other libraries in the world."
"About half of the first-edition printing of nearly 200 survive intact, including about 70 in libraries worldwide, said Leslie Overstreet, curator of natural history collections at Smithsonian Institution Libraries."
"An unknown number remain in private hands, several likely in South Carolina, where rich planters were among Catesby’s original fans. The Charleston Museum and Middleton Place have first-edition sets."
"Digitalising about 16,000 manuscripts and 5,000 rare books in different languages will be taken up by a hi-tech resource centre, which was opened in the Aligarh Muslim University on Monday."
"Rock musician and composer Bryce Dessner, of the band The National, will perform at the Rosenbach Museum & Library on Thursday, April 2 at 6:30 p.m. Dessner and a group of instrumentalists will share the results of a project called "Lincoln Shuffle' - commissioned by the Rosenbach for 21stCenturyAbe.org, an interactive website celebrating Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday. "
"Local historians will get their way at the public library — sort of."
"By shifting personnel around, the library director said she can keep the special collections room open. But library patrons can use the room only by appointment, and for only three hours one day a week."
"Priceless scrolls that are believed to date back to the 15th century were unveiled in Aberdeen yesterday in celebration of a Jewish festival."
"The scrolls were the centrepieces at Aberdeen University’s annual event to celebrate the Festival of Purim..."
"Takejiro Hasegawa made a bundle in the late 19th and early 20th centuries selling exotic crêpe paper storybooks to European travellers in Japan. Always the completist, Frederick John Horniman bought the whole series between 1885 and 1889 and had the slim stories bound into a set of four volumes."
"The News & Observer of Raleigh reported Wednesday that the state fire marshal's office nearly shut down Wilson Library a year ago. But the regulators allowed the 80-year-old building to stay open with restrictions."
"The primary problems are the lack of exits and the need for a sprinkler system, all of which would cost nearly $12 million."
"'Johnson is one of the great writers of 18th-century England,' said Greg Clingham, professor of English at Bucknell and director of the Bucknell University Press."
"'He is also, along with Montaigne, Shakespeare, Rousseau, Goethe, Tolstoy and Borges, one of a handful of humanists in the European tradition whose writings in a variety of genres continue to challenge and extend our philosophical, moral and literary experiences,' he said."
"The archives also contained the personal papers of almost 800 prominent German authors, politicians and composers, including Konrad Adenauer, the first post-war chancellor of Germany. The manuscripts and letters of Nobel Prize winner Heinrich Böll and Jacques Offenbach, a 19th century cellist and opera composer, were stored at the archive. Weimar Republic politician Wilhelm Marx and German-Jewish composer Ferdinand Hiller were among the other notables whose collections have been buried under tons of concrete. 'These are fragile papers, that are now ground to dust,' Illner told the daily."
"The road to universal online information access hasn't been an easy one. In September 2005, the Authors Guild launched a lawsuit against Google for copyright infringement. In October, five major members of the Association of American Publishers-McGraw-Hill, Pearson Education, Penguin Group, John Wiley & Sons, and Simon & Schuster-filed another lawsuit that challenged Google's digitization and dissemination of copyrighted materials without permission. "
"Around 1,000 books were damaged in the main library building in Edinburgh, after the failure of a sprinkler pipe on the top storey caused 5,000 litres of water to run through all 12 floors. The potentially catastrophic incident late on Thursday evening forced 30 library staff to work through the night to clear standing water, and to spend the day beginning the task of drying out the affected volumes. "
"While living at Evergreen, the Garretts amassed a large collection of art, books, and objets d'artes from all over the world, much of it collected during John Work's tenure as a diplomat for the US government. Over 50,000 artifacts remain in the residence. The Garrett family has been a major contributor to philanthropic causes for over a hundred years, and they remain both a charitable organization as well as patrons of the arts."
"Library Associates Companies and Tulane University Libraries are pleased to report the completion of several major milestones by the Tulane Libraries Recovery Center, established one year ago in response to the devastation of library materials by Hurricane Katrina. Now operating with a staff of 22 segmented into four teams, the Recovery Center has excelled in its ability to process and catalog materials quickly and accurately, and return these materials to the Tulane University community. More than 30,000 restored items and 17,000 donated items have been processed and delivered to Howard-Tilton Memorial Library since the opening of the Recovery Center in February 2008. "
"The holdings of three New York art libraries — the Frick Art Reference Library, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art — are now available through a Web site run by the New York Art Resources Consortium, the New York Times reports."
"BRENTWOOD — Brentwood will have the largest library in Williamson County once construction on an 11,000-square-foot expansion is completed in the fall."
"When all is said and done, the Brentwood Library will measure in at 54,000 square feet, or 4,225 square feet larger than the Williamson County Library in Franklin."
"Until recently, college students only had contact with old, rare texts in the form of anthologies, reprints or photocopies, but times are changing. More and more, students at UI and around the country are gaining access to once-restricted texts housed at their universities."
"'The Original Copy of the Constitution of the State of Oregon,' as it says on the leather-bound cover, is kept inside a cardboard box made of acid-free materials and designed especially for rare books and antiquated papers. The box, stored in a room where fixtures point to the ceiling to prevent direct light from ever touching any of the records, is moved occasionally to prevent theft."
"Leaders of the foundation that raised $4 million to restore the Jeffersonville Carnegie Library to house a valuable, rare book collection will make a pitch to the trust's board next week to keep the collection."
"Ten scanning units, called scribe stations, have been set up. In each one, a book sits on a V-shaped cradle. Two high-resolution digital cameras overhead point separately at the left and right pages of the open book. An operator sits in front, using a foot pedal to operate a V-shaped glass cover that comes down to flatten the pages being photographed or goes up so the page can be turned. A pair of pages is scanned every six seconds."
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"Gloucestershire County Council is giving specialist collectors the chance to buy spare and unused books and texts that are gathering dust in the county’s libraries."
"The items going on sale are either duplicates, unused and/or in poor and deteriorating condition. None of them directly relate to the county’s history or heritage. The money raised from the sale will be used to maintain and improve Gloucestershire’s library service. "
"Like many other great research libraries, the Library of Congress has been moving into the digital world."
"One way they're doing it is through a scanning project that has so far put 25,000 books online for anyone to read or download. "
"Buried deep below the ground here at the University of Missouri-St. Louis is a time machine. This machine has the capability to take students and researchers alike back in time to the St. Louis 1904 World's Fair, or any and all presidential elections of the 19th century, and it is available for public use every day of the week. The time machine even has a name: The St. Louis Mercantile Library."
"Chicago's Newberry Library recently got a collection of nearly 5,000 books from a seminary. It features some rare items."
"The Newberry is cataloging the books from the McCormick Theological Seminary. The books were sitting in a locked room, and some had never been studied. The library's curator of rare books, Paul Saenger, says it's like going on an archeological dig."
"A project to build a library to store and preserve one thousand years of Thang Long culture has been built by Ha Noi Publishing House, said its director, Nguyen Khac Oanh."
"The library will store rare books, manuscripts and documents about Thang Long- Ha Noi, as well as act as a depository for long-term research on Hanoi’s history."
"The digitized books will be hosted by the Internet Archive and available to be indexed by any search engine, or at openlibrary.org. Internet Archive is a nonprofit company that is working on building a digital library of internet sites and other cultural artifacts. It provides free access to researchers, historians, scholars, and the general public. "
"The Princeton University Library has acquired the papers of the American journalist, editor and author T.S. (Thomas Stanley) Matthews, a member of Princeton's class of 1922 who spent much of his long and distinguished professional career at Time magazine. "
"RAJKOT: An exhibition of rare photographs, documents and records of erstwhile princely states of Saurashtra-Kutch region is being organised at archives office on Shrof Road to mark archives week."
"A library that holds about 1,000 rare books and historical documents may be forced to move from its Jeffersonville building because temperature and humidity controls haven't worked reliably. "
" The long history between St. Norbert College and St. Norbert Abbey has been recorded through photographs, correspondence, books, journals and institutional records, creating a rich source of 19th and 20th century Catholic missionary activity among the native and immigrant peoples of Wisconsin."
"In a cost-saving measure, the Brooklyn Historical Society says it must end Saturday access to its archive, effective immediately."
"The so-called Othmer Library will still be open 12 hours per week — on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 1 to 5 pm — but the loss of Saturday hours will remain in place until at least July, said Society President Deborah Schwartz."
"A big chunk of African-American history, in Wilmington and elsewhere, can now be studied online, thanks to an effort by the State Library of North Carolina."
"The Raleigh-based state agency has put digital images of a 1910 reference book, An Era of Progress and Promise online as part of its Digital Repository."
"About 200,000 items from the Gotham Book Mart, which closed in 2007 after 87 years as a New York literary haven of international stature, have been donated to the University of Pennsylvania."
"A new book, Biblio by photographer Natasha D'Schommer, offers a rare close-up look at many of the exceptional books and manuscripts that belong to the Scheide Library, one of the most significant private book collections in the United States, which is housed in Princeton's Firestone Library. "
"The online collection will contain full digital reproductions of 150 Romance of the Rose manuscripts from the above libraries as well as the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Completion of the digital library is slated for late 2009. In the meantime, visitors to the Walters can access the collection through internet kiosks in the museum’s manuscripts gallery and leaf through medieval books, zoom in on intriguing details, and compare illuminated manuscripts from around the world. "
"Books containing the first detailed colour pictures of Bethlehem, Nazareth and Jerusalem to be published in the west have been unearthed at a museum in York."
"A complete version of The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt And Nubia by David Roberts was found by volunteers at the Yorkshire Museum."
"According to the Library of Congress, the Lincoln Inaugural Bible has not been used in any other inauguration. It is a powerful symbol of Lincoln's strength and wisdom during a time when the survival of the United States of America was at stake."
"This Bible is not distinguished unto itself. It's not a rare-edition Bible. An 1853 Oxford Bible with no historical associations would get $30 or $40 today. But by association, it becomes priceless. There is no way to put a dollar sign on it."
"“Incunabula” was one of the first complicated words I learned as a boy. It was imprinted in my mind because it was always confused with “incubus,” a demon or spirit that enjoyed sexual intercourse with humans."
"But these scribes aren’t people – they’re state-of-the-art scanning machines from non-profit Internet Archive, the library basement’s out-of-sight secret. The basement lab will play a vital role in digitizing the former Lincoln Museum collection for public access."
The Historical Society of the Cocalico Valley is publishing a letterpress broadside, today, in tribute to the printers who printed the Martyrs' MIrror book in the 1740s.
The Martyrs' Mirror book was printed at the Ephrata Cloister, in Ephrata, Pennsylvania. The Historical Society is also located in Ephrata, Lancaster County.
The Martyrs' Mirroris the largest book printed in colonial North America, and is often considered the most ambitious printing project of that era.
The book records the stories of Anabapatist martyrs in Europe, who were the ancestors of many Amish and Mennonite families here in the United States.
The broadside commemorates the beheading of Anabaptist martyr Hans Haslibacher, who was beheaded in Switzerland in 1571.
The Historical Society is home to the William and Jemima Brossman Library and Research Center, and to the Theodore R. Sprecher Museum.
The "Martyrs' Mirror Manifesto" broadside is Here.
The Historical Society of the Cocalico Valley is Here.
" A landmark cultural institution in New York City, the Gotham Book Mart was the epitome of all that is engaging and inspiring about an independent bookstore. It was an oasis where poets, writers, and lovers of literature could gather for readings, discuss and discover authors and their works, and while away hours poring over the store's eclectic and often unique inventory. "
"The imposing Shaikh Isa National Library will operate under the umbrella of the cultural centre and is part of a regional push to celebrate Arab culture."
"A grand foyer fitted with a magnificent chandelier and patterned marble floors are an impressive reminder of the 7,000 square metres of sprawling library space and its accompanying facility. The library comprises five floors, two of which are in the basement."
"I have visited The Huntington on a few occasions and roamed around most of the place - it truly is one of the jewels of the Southland - so I have seen the art and many of the other delights. This trip, however, I spent some time in the library having initially survived Mrs. Huntington's frosty gaze."
"Only about 50 known copies of the first edition 1611 King James Version of the Bible exist."
"Hardin-Simmons University now has one of them."
"The Socorro Public Library started in 1924, as an oak book cabinet housed at a local drug store. The modest collection of books was loaned out using an honor system in which users would contribute or exchange books they had finished reading for newly contributed books from other users."
"Mrs Frame said Dunedin's lucky break came in 1903 when Andrew Carnegie offered £10,000 to build a library, as long as certain conditions were observed."
"The collection written by Daniel Dafoe was donated to the university's manuscripts, archives and rare books library by Emory alumnus Robert Lovett and his wife, Miriam."
"O.K.: it’s more than a coffee-table book. The rare, 61-pound book, made recently by hand, was toiled over by scholars, artists and artisans. Called “Michelangelo: La Dotta Mano” (“Michelangelo: The Learned Hand”), the book, an Italian language celebration of his work, cost 100,000 euros (about $126,864) to make in Italy and was donated on Monday to the library, where it will be on view through Monday."
"It has survived wars, pestilence, religious reformation and the scribbled notes of unknown priests. Yet, the five-century-old Breviarium Ratisponense remains remarkably intact on the 12th floor of the University of Calgary's MacKimmie Library. The 15thcentury calf binding is original, as is the metal clasp that holds it together. Inside the back cover, two handwritten obituaries-- barely more than the names of the deceased--have been attached."
"Julia Timmins Santry was a cultivated Montreal-born Connecticut socialite and a member of the United States Chapter of the Friends of McGill University who last year established a scholarship that will be awarded annually to an outstanding student entering a full-time undergraduate degree program in the Faculty of Science."
"It’s billed as the world’s most expensive, most beautiful new book."
"Costing well over $100,000, a 62-pound handmade tome depicting the life and work of Michelangelo has arrived at the New York Public Library, fresh from publication in Italy."
"So how valuable is it? "
"Try $25,000 -- enough to buy 1,600 copies of Ken Follett's latest paperback, or to almost pay off your student loan, after graduating with a major in Medieval Studies."
"Established by the Spaniers in 1998, the Philip Young Special Collections Endowment for the Libraries supports the purchase of rare books, manuscripts and other materials for the University Libraries' Rare Books Room and Special Collections. The Spaniers created the fund in memory of Young, a world-renowned Ernest Hemingway scholar and Penn State faculty member who was Sandra Spanier’s dissertation director and a great influence on her own career."
"Mr. Thennarasu said the library would have eight floors, with a plinth area of 3,04,745 sq. ft. and would be of international standards. The ground floor, spanning nearly 35,000 square feet, would house a lobby, reception, a Braille and talking book section, two conference halls, the administrative wing’s office, a cyber café, the deposit counter and the security room."
"National Library of Pakistan (NLP) is digitising rare books and manuscripts to preserve the national literary heritage for the next generations."
“'About 70 rare books and manuscripts have already been digitised so far,' sources told APP here Tuesday adding that this step would not only help preserve the national heritage but also facilitate researchers and scholars."
"Kurt De Belder, the director of the library, spoke about the University founded in 1575 in Leiden, the Netherlands, which is one of the 20 leading education institutions in Europe, as well as delivered true information about the library. De Belder praised the initiative of Azerbaijan embassy, voiced satisfaction with the cooperation with Azerbaijan. "
"One of New Zealand's oldest schools is selling rare New Zealand books and artwork dating back to the 18th century to help fund repairs for their ageing buildings."
"The collection includes first editions of Captain Cook's voyages and books signed by former student, Noble Prize winning scientist, Ernest Rutherford."
"The Brigham Young University Hawaii Archives will put a rare copy of the original 1855 Ka Buke a Moramona — the Hawaiian language translation of the Book of Mormon — on permanent display at the Laie Hawaii Temple Visitors Center, starting with an unveiling ceremony on Friday, November 7, at 7 p.m."
"The Daily Pennsylvanian and Penn Libraries' Schoenberg Center for Electronic Text and Image are partnering to archive and digitize every edition of the paper, which has been published since 1885."
"Louis Braille was one of the movers and shakers of the blind community, a man who was far ahead of his time. He revolutionized the way blind people had access to written information, as well as giving us an alphabet of our own. "
"Rare books and manuscripts, once restricted to scholars and graduate students in white gloves, are being incorporated into undergraduate courses at institutions like the University of Iowa, Smith College, the University of Washington and Harvard. Last academic year, almost 200 classes and student tours visited the rare-books collection of the University of Pennsylvania. That’s almost three times the number of visitors five years ago, according to Mr. Pollack. "
"The Panjāb Digital Library initiative of the Nānakshāhī Trust, while being the first such endeavour by a non-governmental organization to work without a grant, has so far digitized 8,50,000 folios of manuscripts, rare books, pictures, magazines and newspapers."
"Thanks to a one-of-a-kind donation, the foremost collection of hip-hop's birth -- a lodestone of primary materials -- is now housed at Cornell University's Rare Books and Manuscripts division. Hip-hop is a cultural movement that includes emceeing (popularly known as rapping), djaying, graffiti writing and breakdancing."
"While Jackson said he expects some form of the printed book to always exist, especially in the children's book genre, he is not as optimistic for the future of the library. He noticed students studying printed textbooks in the Kent State Library, which he noted as an anomaly when compared to most universities he speaks at, where students seem to be more focused on the "technological aspect" of research."
"THE Bishop of Wrexham was given a rare privilege this week when he was allowed to hold a copy of Wales' oldest printed book."
"Bishop Edwin Regan got his hands on Drych Cristianogawl (Christian Mirror), one of the cornerstone treasures of The National Library of Wales, "
"'Objects of Wonder' displays items borrowed from 34 different departments and compilations housed at OSU. More than 700 items are on loan from collections such as the Historic Costume and Textiles Collection to lesser-known assortments from the Museum of Biological Diversity."
"The fourth-floor of Founders Memorial Library houses the Rare Books and Special Collections department. Except for a couple of students each year, its treasure remains hidden."
"The cluttered room is home to about 10,000 single-issue comic books and graphic novels that are owned by the library."
"During the next several months one of Baum’s goals is to make sure the collection is being utilized. He’s setting up partnerships with educational institutions and doing outreach activities like giving talks for local groups, such as the Alexander Hamilton Society of Kentucky."
"Emory University has purchased the papers of Marshall Frady, a journalist known for documenting the lives of prominent Southerners."
"Concerned that his students weren't seeing some of the area's most interesting history, Jeffersonville High School teacher Ken Miller went to The Remnant Trust with an idea."
"Bring some of the trust's rare and valuable books to his classes, Miller proposed."
"The photos and documents are from a donation made by Richard Johnson Jr. and are part of LSUA's latest historical collection -- the Manning Compton collection."
"The collection comes from materials from the lives of Thomas Courtland Manning and John Compton, both of Rapides Parish."
"In 2004, the Morgan Library, which is known for its collection of rare books and manuscripts, acquired nearly all the working drafts for Jean de Brunhoff's first book, as well as drawings for the first book written by his son, "Babar's Cousin: That Rascal Arthur," published in 1946. "
"Afrika Bambaataa and other pioneers of hip hop are scheduled to travel to Ithaca, N.Y., to speak at a two-day conference celebrating Cornell University Library’s acquisition of Born in the Bronx: The Legacy and Evolution of Hip Hop, a collection that documents the early days of hip hop with recordings, photographs, posters and more."
"COLUMBIA — The University of South Carolina's new library of special collections will bear the name of former U.S. Sen. Fritz Hollings, university President Harris Pastides announced Friday."
"London, UK - Narinderjit Singh, General Secretary of the Sikh Federation (UK), announced at the Annual International Sikh Convention that an international campaign concerning the Sikh Reference Library would be launched on the 300th anniversary of the Guru Granth Sahib Ji."
"MUSKEGON, Mich. (WZZM) - The Hackley Library in Muskegon is selling its' most valuable book - a rare first edition 'Book of Mormon.'"
"5,000 books were printed in 1830 by Joseph Smith, the Founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Book collectors think only 1,000 first editions still exist. "
"The Organization of American States (OAS) has agreed to join with the Library of Congress in developing the World Digital Library, which will open to the public at its formal launch in Paris next year. "
"Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk formally dedicated the newly renovated Eugene H. Maly Memorial Library at the Athenaeum of Ohio during ceremonies Sept. 4."
"As part of the dedication, the library’s rare book collection was named in the archbishop’s honor, recognizing him for his support and his many contributions to the collection."
"The Library of Congress actually has thousands of Bibles in more than 150 languages, about 1,500 of which are considered significant editions for their rare or historic value, said Mark Dimunation, chief of the library's Rare Book and Special Collections Division."
"CARDIFF’S libraries are to become self-service in the biggest revolution in their 150-year history."
"The project, which will cost up to £1m and see all branch libraries close for a week at a time over the coming months, is designed to free up staff and improve the service to library users."
"Unknown to the general public, the Conservation Institute -- established as the municipal conservation lab in 1997 -- has been handling conservation and restoration at the seven museums under within Jakarta's jurisdiction since 2002. "
"FIRE investigators probing the blaze which destroyed Plympton Library say the exact cause may never be known."
"Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service chiefs say last month's fire was so severe it destroyed any clue as to whether it was arson or not."
"A Shawano, Wisconsin man bought a book for a dollar at the Shawano City County Library Annual book sale, only to find out it's worth thousands."
"The library got a $2,500 federal grant through the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners to hire a conservation specialist who will examine the collection and recommend improvements."
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"A $7,500 grant recently was awarded by the Buffalo-based Western New York Library Resource Council to the Lily Dale Assembly for library system improvements."
"One of the projects planned will provide Internet access to the library's collection of rare books and other valuable publications."
"The Huntington Library will open a new permanent exhibition on Nov. 1, showcasing some of science's greatest achievements, from Ptolemy to Copernicus, Newton to Einstein. The 2,800-square-foot Dibner Hall of the History of Science comes as a result of the marriage of The Huntington's history of science materials with the Burndy Library, a 67,000-volume collection of rare books and manuscripts donated to The Huntington in 2006 by the Dibner family of Connecticut."
"McGill University Library in Montreal will be using a Kirtas Technologies APT BookScan 2400RA to digitize its collections. The company said that the 2400RA is capable of acquiring page images at the rate of 2,400 pages per hour. The library will be working with Ristech, a Canadian reseller, to implement the digitization solution."
"Hu Yuqing and her 29 colleagues at the Rare Books Restoration Center of the National Library have repaired 5,000m, or half of the Dunhuang scrolls in the library over the past 18 years."
"Hu is one of fewer than 200 professionals in China who can restore ancient texts."
"A darkened room in a quiet corner of a city library is showcasing a vital part of Scotland's cultural heritage that is usually kept under lock and key. As Scotland celebrates the 500th anniversary of printing, the Mitchell Library in Glasgow has put a representative sample of its extensive holdings of antiquarian and rare books on show to mark the occasion."
"Afrika Bambaataa and other pioneers of hip hop will travel to Ithaca, N.Y., to speak at a two-day conference celebrating Cornell University Library's acquisition of Born in the Bronx: The Legacy and Evolution of Hip Hop, a collection that documents the early days of hip hop with recordings, photographs, posters and more."
"The University of California, San Diego Libraries and San Diego Book Arts are co-sponsoring a Fall Festival of the Book: a series of exhibitions, lectures, and a film screening to celebrate the artistry and craftsmanship of handmade and rare books. The events, which will be held from September through October, are all free and open to the public."
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"Thanks to another multimillion dollar gift from the Athletics Department, the $108.7 million renovation of Ohio State University's main library is now fully funded."
"The guest speaker at the Ruby Gala will be author David Baldacci. Baldacci
has written 14 best-selling novels and recently released his 15th novel, "The
Whole Truth." More than 50 million of his books have been sold in more than 40
languages."
"The eight-storied library complex with a plinth area of 3,33,140 sq ft will come up on 8 acres of land adjacent to the government data centre in Kotturpuram where the earlier Jayalalithaa government planned to construct a new secretariat complex."
"Among the 300,000 titles housed in Rare Books and Special Collections at McGill University Library are collections of art and architecture, Canadiana, history, literature, philosophy (including an outstanding David Hume Collection), travel and exploration, and the history of the book. It is a true discovery library, actively supporting the teaching, learning and research needs of McGill students and faculty from all disciplines, as well as the wider scholarly community."
"Dakota County's law libraries, in Hastings and Apple Valley, offer reams of electronic and hard copy information, covering common issues such as property lines and neighbors' pesky pets. "
"The UCLA Library has received a generous $750,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to catalog more than 55,000 rare books and make them more accessible to users."
"'It will promote learning, research and the creation of new knowledge by greatly improving online access to information about our rare and unique books, which will make them more visible and useful to scholars both at UCLA and around the world,' said University Librarian Gary E. Strong."
"Wondrous treasures are unfolding within the Bowdoin College Library's George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections & Archives. Pop-up books — 1,900 of them — have been donated by collector Harry Goralnick '71. "
"STAUNTON – Treasured objects and artifacts held by the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Museum will be preserved for future generations with help from an award from the Institute for Museum and Library Services, the top source of federal funding for the nation’s museums and libraries."
"When Sitka’s Sheldon Jackson College closed a year ago, so did the Stratton Library, which houses nearly 7,000 rare books and photographs."
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" A health movement led by Cincinnati’s German-Americans, first launched in 1848, became the stage for a fitness festival that was a show of Cincinnati’s own Olympics. UC’s Archives and Rare Books Library presents the photos and history of the 1909 Turner Festival that drew more than 50,000 fans to a special-built stadium for the event."
"CAIRO: Kuwait and Egypt have a long cultural history of cooperation, with both Arab countries recently attending and holding several joint cultural activities that reflected these strong ties."
"Bihar Governor R. L. Bhatia, in Patna on Saturday, during his visit to the state's historical Khuda Baksh Library, inaugurated the online catalogue of the books, manuscripts, and periodicals housed in the institute saying the facility was a huge step in the age of Internet and globalization."
"Turning the Pages is a unique piece of software designed to allow readers to look at rare books in a natural way. With Turning the Pages, users can read the books in their original format, almost exactly as they were intended to be read by their original audience."
"Efforts have been made to prevent water damage at the main headquarters, including installing water-detection sensors and moving rare documents off-site. But judging from the building's soggy history, these measures may not be enough. "
"Det Kongelige Bibliotek: The Danish Royal Library, or the Black Diamond as it's often called due to the shape of the building, is a modern facility inside and out. Featuring cutting edge design by Danish architects schmidt hammer lassen, it employs marble and glass to create a distinctive form on the outside. "
"Canada's national archives building is so prone to leaks that it sprang another one last month just as workers were cleaning up the mess from a flood days earlier."
"The showcase building near Parliament Hill was given a second soaking June 1 when a cold-water valve in a women's washroom failed, internal documents show."
"A new Dunedin Public Library exhibition, 'Charting the Peaceful Sea - Maps of the Pacific 1642-1846', looks back in time to explore the world as we knew it hundreds of years ago."
"The Duke University Libraries has launched a digital collection of about 5,000 photographs shot primarily in China between 1917 and 1932 by Sidney Gamble, grandson of Proctor and Gamble co-founder James Gamble. The searchable collection is online at library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/gamble/."
" A museum in Texas is offering the Dubuque's Carnegie-Stout Public Library 1.1 million dollars
The Fort Worth museum wants to buy a valuable collection from them, and the money would be just enough to help the library begin its renovation project."
"More than 750,000 pictures have been cataloged for historical preservation. "The Southwest Collection itself is 23 million leaves of manuscript materials relating to the history, culture and economy of this place. Our rare books component is the largest academic rare books library within a 96,000 square miles of this place," said Monte Monroe with the Southwest Collection."
"The biggest library of Hyderabad boasting of majestic architecture of the Nizam's times now greets its over 700 daily visitors with crumbling walls, dust-laden books, rickety chairs with seats hanging loose and book shelves with broken glass panes that make a mockery of the locks guarding them."
"Anyone with access to a computer and the Internet will be able to look at the university's 376-year-old copy of Galileo's Dialogue, for example, or to flip through books that once belonged to philosopher Bertrand Russell, including the notes he made in the margins. "
"THE micro-films of 1238 rare books from the library of the Kerala Sahitya Akademi were taken and sent to the US Congress library without the approval of the general council or the executive committee of the Akademi."
"The Mount Angel Abbey hosted its second annual Festival of Art and Wine Tasting on Saturday and raised more than $95,000 for the Abbey Library."
"The event gave visitors a chance to see some of the rarest books in in the world."
"The Steele archive - thousands of letters, journals, maps and photos - will be handed over in London today in a ceremony at Canada House presided over by Prince Edward. The Prince is the honorary Deputy Commissioner of the RCMP, and Steele was the prototype Mountie, having been the third man to enlist in the North-West Mounted Police."
"Anyone with access to a computer and the Internet will be able to look at the university's 376-year-old copy of Galileo's Dialogue, for example, or to flip through books that once belonged to philosopher Bertrand Russell, including the notes he made in the margins."
"For an undisclosed price, the college purchased a second edition of his groundbreaking 'De revolutionibus orbium coelestium' ("On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres"), published in 1566, which made the then-heretical claim the sun, not the Earth, was at the center of the universe."
"'When I think about moving rare books from the bottom of the library, I weep,' he said. He pulled sandbag duty with a hulking Hawkeye football player."
"Each document has a dedicated, interactive kiosk that allows students and researchers to closely examine the library's treasures and to trace the origins of the country's founding ideas. For example, they might learn that the Bill of Rights was initially created as a diversion to prevent the anti-Federalists from rehashing the entire Constitution."
"There are 423 of them, including the first seven law books purchased by Benjamin Franklin for the library -- a 1734 set of "Statutes-at-Large," a collection of the laws of England -- and a book by British philosopher John Locke that declares that man has a right to "life, liberty and estate."
"Photographer, collector, author, publisher, archivist, and researcher Peter Palmquist assembled an astonishing collection of a quarter-million photographs during his lifetime, many of them documenting the history of Humboldt County. He was killed by a hit and run driver in January 2003 at the age of 66. "
"Microsoft has backed out of its plan to digitize tens of thousands of volumes at the Allen County Public Library, but the library is still likely to benefit from its brief involvement in the project."
"Cairo – The restoration laboratory at the Library of Alexandria's Centre of Manuscripts and Rare Books, in Egypt, is now considered one of the most modern sites in the world for recovery and preservation of antique documents. The organisation has already worked on over 2,000 rare books, 500 manuscripts and 120 maps."
"A Bible written in Old Norse nearly 400 years ago has been donated to Brigham Young University's library by a Provo resident."
"Thor Leifson, the honorary consul of Iceland emeritus, says the Bible was given to his family by a missionary who converted Leifson's relatives to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints four generations ago."
"At the Huntington, Koblik's colleagues describe him as a people person with a big smile and an ear for ideas and contrary opinions. With a jampacked calendar and a residence on the grounds -- where he lives with his wife, Kerstein, an urban planner -- he's the face of the institution. But he is never happier than when he's poking around in the bowels of the Munger Research Center, where tens of thousands of books and manuscripts reside on metal shelves in a compact storage system."
"Dockray-Miller, who teaches English literature at Lesley University in Cambridge, is publishing a paper that prints, for the first time, three prayers from a 122-page medieval manuscript secreted in the Boston Public Library's rare books collection."
"Far from gathering dust, Rauner Special Collections Library's massive collection—100,000 rare books, six and a half million unique manuscripts, the Dartmouth College archives, and a range of other materials—is being increasingly used by professors and students to inform and complement their teaching and research. More than 70 undergraduate classes are scheduled to visit Rauner this academic year, while five years ago there were only eight."
"Started by Vijay Bisht and Ajay Bisht in 1998, the shop has been catering to the DU students. But how did the collection begin? "
“'Students place orders for photocopying books from the rare books section of different libraries. But some forget to collect them or leave them behind once they are through with exams. That is how this collection grew,' says Bisht."
"With the support of Kirtas' Canadian reseller Ristech, McMaster
University will be using the Kirtas APT BookScan 2400RA to digitize rare,
out-of-print books. Once the books are digitized and processed, files will
be made available to the world on the Internet through the university
library and for sale as print-on-demand books on Lulu.com."
"LUNENBURG, N.S.–Richard Luckett knew he had a problem when a water pipe burst in his college room where 10,000 books – some dating back 400 years – lined the walls from one end to the other."
"The University of Texas library in Austin Texas has better than one million written works, and Google intends to convert them all into digital format and add them to the Google Library Project. Some of the university's collection includes some rare books and manuscripts from early Latin American history. "
"“In Jammu and Kashmir, we have a glorious history of 5000 years at our back. That is why the oldest manuscripts India presently possesses are a set of sixth century Buddhist texts, which were found buried in the hills of Kashmir 60 years ago. Our researchers have found rare ancient Sanskrit, Tibetan, Arabic and Persian treatises on number of subjects including ayurveda, diabetes, astrophysics, interpretation of dreams, surgical instruments, concepts of time and war techniques. We want to catalog and preserve all the precious subjects for the generations to come,” Zafar said."
"In a city where architectural monuments are readily torn down or gaudily renovated beyond recognition, Pashkov House, which reopened in October after an $80 million renovation, is one of the few restoration projects lauded by preservationists."
"Roy Mersky was a giant in his field who made the University of Texas law library one of the best in the nation, friends and colleagues said. Along the way, he taught worldwide, wrote prolifically and compiled a résumé more than 40 pages long. "
"WITH THE return of the Philadelphia Book Festival this weekend, and a grand expansion project for the Central Library in early stages, the corridors of the Free Library are abuzz with excitement. But beyond the library's mile-high stacks of journals, encyclopedias and novels, there are underappreciated treasures that even the most fervent book lovers don't know about. "
"The Yale Daily News (YDN) is the oldest college daily newspaper in the United States, and has been covering student life at Yale and in New Haven for 130 years. The Library has now digitized key periods from the YDN including January 1878 to June 1879, the first year of the YDN's publication; the period covering the two World Wars; the era of civil unrest, coeducation, and the Black Panther trials from 1967 to 1970; and the early years of President A. Bartlett Giamatti's administration from 1978 to 1981."
"'Audubon’s Birds of Americais the most important illustrated book ever published, I think most people would agree,' said Scott."
"The University of South Carolina was one of the first subscribers to the book in 1831, he said. Now, only 125 copies survive worldwide. "
"Edits such as this are captured in a new exhibit at the Library of Congress that allows visitors to literally zoom in on the specific words and phrases that formed the basis of the American republic. They can see different versions of historic documents and examine them line by line, using interactive, touch-activated computer screens that show the library's first high-definition scanned images of the drafts."
"Mitchel is among hundreds of librarians from Minnesota to England making digital versions of the most fragile of the books to be included in Google Inc.'s Book Search, a portal that will eventually lead users to all the estimated 50 million to 100 million books in the world. "
"AUSTIN, Texas -- The Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin has acquired a rare Plantin Polyglot Bible, containing parallel texts in Hebrew, Greek, Syriac and Aramaic with translations and commentary in Latin."
"Mitchel, 24, is among hundreds of librarians worldwide who are making digital versions of the most fragile of the books to be included in Google Inc.'s Book Search, a portal that will eventually lead users to all of the estimated 50 million to 100 million books in the world."
"'We will have first edition books, signed books, collectibles and other kinds,' said Bob Russell, a book sale volunteer who will also be running the auction. 'Every collector has (their) specialty.'"
"It is two years since the library opened its doors to undergraduates. Young students now flock to its quiet spaces and pile up on benches and balconies in the high-vaulted front hall, sparking a backlash from the library’s more established residents."
"Casey’s research included the state archives where she found documents including a preserved letter from Dyer’s husband, William, pleading the court not to hang her. In the letter, Dyer’s husband, begged the court to consider her 'inconsiderate madness,' from which Casey took the title for her book of poems."
"Goldstein and dozens of others brought their could-be treasures to UNCC on Thursday for what the library dubbed the Rare Book Roadshow -- filching from the title of public television's popular antiques show. The judgments came from Sharpe, who spent 30 years as Duke University's curator of rare books."
"Artifacts like the Waldseemüller map (the first to include the name “America”), the rough draft of the Declaration of Independence, the Gutenberg Bible and original volumes from Thomas Jefferson’s Library will be virtually at your fingertips. You’ll be able to flip through their pages, magnify sections of interest and access commentary from the Library’s top experts-all on the same touch screen,” the Library of Congress’ website informs the public."
"The institute will provide additional research to that done by the university's African American Studies Program, the university said in its announcement, advancing scholarly study and public understanding of race and black life in South Carolina and the Southeast as well as the United States and broader African Diaspora."
"The central Chabad-Lubavitch library in New York made 1,000 Passover Haggadahs, many of them rare, available on the Internet for browsing by the public. The Agudas Chasidei Chabad Library has one of the largest collections of the Passover orders of service in the world."
"The collection includes documents, rare books, maps, posters, paintings, photographs, silver, glass, ceramic ware and other artifacts relating to the Canadian Pacific Railway, the Asian experience in North America, and B.C. history."
"SRINAGAR: A 200-year-old manuscript of the holy quran was among hundreds of rare books and manuscripts donated by people to allama iqbal library of Kashmir university here, a spokesman said here on Wednesday."
"For decades, Emory has obtained the literary archives of high-profile donors like Danowski, who bequeathed his literary archives to Emory’s Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Books Library (MARBL) in 2003. Of the donors include author and poet Alice Walker, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and Salman Rushdie, world-renowned author and Emory distinguished writer-in-residence."
"The only known copy of the first Book of Hours printed in France, a tiny volume nearly 5 inches tall and 3 inches wide, has been acquired by the Morgan Library & Museum. Designed to fit into the palm of a woman’s hand, the book of prayers and devotional readings is illustrated by more than 40 woodcuts depicting religious figures and the life of Jesus."
"To better preserve the collection of more than 300,000 artifacts and 700,000 documents, maps and photographs, the facility has a new climate-controlled storage area."
"And for hardcore historians, a library and reading room containing 6,800 volumes, including 800 rare books, will be open by appointment. "
"Wilfrid Laurier University has bought its first rare manuscript, a sheepskin hymnal made 500 years ago by monks and nuns in northern Italy."
"Laurier's archives have hundreds of rare books, but this is the first manuscript."
"On Monday, March 31, Santa Clara University opened the doors of its newest building, the Harrington Learning Commons, Sobrato Technology Center, and Orradre Library. The 194,000-square-foot building merges the age-old components of liberal arts education with modern information technologies to form what is expected to become the intellectual heart of the Mission campus."
"ISLAMABAD • The National Library of Pakistan (NLP) has started digitising rare books and manuscripts with a view to preserving the national literary heritage for the next generations. "
"Diana Garrett, who serves on the Program Committee of Friends of the Princeton University Library, adopted a natural history book for her husband’s birthday, saying that she was particularly taken with an illustration of a black squirrel in the book. "
"The library housing manuscripts and other precious and rare books like the Holy Quran written by the last Mughal emperor Aurangzeb Alamgir, was thrown open recently to the public. "
"The library housing manuscripts and other precious and rare books like the Holy Quran written by the last Mughal emperor Aurangzeb Alamgir, was thrown open recently to the public. "
"In addition, the W.H. Upjohn Rotunda, the entrance to WMU's main library, was named for Mary Meader's father, an early Upjohn Co. executive, in recognition of the Meaders' a $1 million leadership gift for the expansion and complete renovation of that facility in the early 1990s. The library's Meader Rare Books Room was named in honor of the Meaders' continued support of the University libraries."
"The very beginnings of the genealogy library were some rare books stored in a janitor’s closet at the Carnegie Library, she said. Eventually, the Odom Gift Committee was formed to allocate money from the estate of Ellen Ashby Payne Odom, a trustee of the library. Its purppose was to help build a genealogy library and purchase the Emmett Lucas collection, which is the “core” of the Odom Library. Godwin said the committee included Van Platter, Eva Rice, Merle Baker, Bert Harsh, Campbell Ansley, James Kirk, Jack Short, Bill McIntosh, Jestina Lewis, and Melody Jenkins. "
"A new $46.4 million, four-story East Asian Library opens today at the University of California-Berkeley, with 450,000 items in Chinese, Japanese and Korean under one roof for students, scholars and members of the public alike."
"The university says it is the first freestanding structure at a U.S. university built solely for East Asian collections."
"The Salem Athenaeum is one of those treasures you can drive or walk past every day, perhaps admiring the view, but never really exploring. Members of this venerable organization hope to change all that, bringing more and more people into one of Salem’s loveliest and most storied buildings."
"Hitting the books will be part of Erik Ohlander's summer plans thanks to a recent grant from the Purdue University Libraries. The Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW) assistant professor of religious studies was awarded the Purdue University Library Scholars Grant, which will allow him to travel to conduct research for his current book project."
"At his suggestion, Her Majesty became a member of the mobile library and started borrowing books to read at her leisure. She had Norman elevated from a dish-washer to a page boy so that he could be near at hand. She had to keep her new hobby a secret from her staff as heads of state are not really expected to spend their time reading books. "
"Julian Blackwell, head of the Blackwell's bookstore chain and publishing company, is behind the gift to the vast, 400-year-old academic library. The money will go towards building a new exhibition hall where rare volumes will be put on rotating display for the public."
"Thor Leifson is the honorary consul of Iceland emeritus and said the Bible was given to his father, J. Victor Leifson, by the family of a missionary who converted Leifson's relatives to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when they lived in Iceland four generations ago. "
"Thor Leifson is the honorary consul of Iceland emeritus and said the Bible was given to his father, J. Victor Leifson, by the family of a missionary who converted Leifson's relatives to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when they lived in Iceland four generations ago. "
"Only about 200 copies of the Victoria Regia were made using chromolithography in the mid-1800 s, and many collectors disassembled the books to showcase the illustrations, chief curator Chris Crosman said. A chromolithograph is an image that is produced using a series of colored plates, rather than being hand-drawn. "
"Cobwebbed and coated in a thick layer of dust, Chaucer, Shakespeare and Shelley are struggling to survive on the shelves of Chaitanya Library. Bankim Chandra and Rabindranath Tagore fare no better, musty and fragile from neglect. "
"Paper and paint: One way to depart from the traditional men's-club vibe of a paneled wood bookcase is to line the back and side walls with fabric, grass cloth or wallpaper, designer Jay Jeffers says. Designer Judson Rothschild silver-leafed a client's illuminated bookcase, which 'looks like a million dollars at night,' he says."
"The most haunting of all images for Colin St John Wilson, architect of many libraries, was that of Saint Jerome, the patron saint of scholars. In the well-known painting by Antonello da Messina, now in the National Gallery, the scholar-saint sits reading in the ideal conditions of a purpose-designed, self-contained, small study room..."
"Today, 100 of Chason's books -- valued at $45,000 -- have a new home at UNC Charlotte in the Mary & Harry L. Dalton Rare Book & Manuscript Reading Room. Along with works by Walt Whitman, Phillis Wheatley and Mark Twain, they'll be available to readers in a controlled setting.Robin Brabham, UNCC rare books librarian and archivist, says the school's collection has featured American literature since 1971, when Harry Dalton donated a first edition of Whitman's 'Leaves of Grass.'"
"The University of Rochester will soon share original papers from the pen of Abraham Lincoln online, through an innovative program that puts students in touch—literally—with history. "
"Through the program, letters and other Lincoln documents will be scanned and posted online with typed transcriptions for easier reading. For some documents, graduate students will write contextual essays and lesson plans for teachers to facilitate the use of the documents as learning tools in their classrooms. "
"JACKSON, Tenn. (BP)--The Ryan Center for Biblical Studies at Union University lost approximately 10 percent of its holdings when the EF-4 tornado swept through the Jackson, Tenn., campus Feb. 5."
"Now one of the world's oldest manuscripts of Enoch has found at least a temporary a home in Jeffersonville. The Remnant Trust -- a private collection of rare books and documents aimed at increasing public interest in culture-shaping works -- unveiled the Ethiopian-language manuscript this week at its East Court Avenue building."
"In 1912 Wilfrid Voynich, an American rare-book dealer, made the find of a lifetime in the library of a Jesuit college near Rome: a manuscript some 230 pages long, written in an unusual script and richly illustrated with bizarre images of plants, heavenly spheres and bathing women. "
"EKU Archives, a department of the EKU Libraries, is lined with books and file cabinets containing letters and other historical documents from politicians, sports figures, entertainers, scientists, historians and the “average” citizen. They include a personal letter from John F. Kennedy to Carl Perkins, pages from the handwritten draft of Noah Webster’s first dictionary of the American English language, and the oldest document in the collections – a papal document written in 1319 during the reign of Pope John XXII."
"The gem of the University of Illinois' world-renowned library -- its Rare Book & Manuscript Library -- is infested with mold and will be closed down for several months."
"This collection of 269 titles represented in nearly 600 volumes comprises the classic legal works of France from the 16th through the 19th centuries, and augments the Jacob Burns Law Library's noted French Collection. Customary law, civil law, royal ordonnances, all elucidated by the celebrated French jurisconsults, are found in the New York City Bar Library's rich gathering of French legal historical works."
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"Swem also happens to house the country’s second-largest collection of dog books, the largest belonging to the American Kennel Club. The Chapin and Horowitz Collection includes an edition of the first dog book written in English, classified as a rare book, meaning that fewer than 100 institutions have a copy. The collection is one of the primary locations in Swem shown to tourists who visit. "
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"Denmark's Royal Library is risking the wrath of Muslims with plans to display controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed that sparked violent protest throughout the Islamic world two years ago. "
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"Montana State University's Renne Library flooded for the second time in a week after a water pipe burst -- this time soaking reference books and causing thousands of dollars in damage."
"Fifty years ago next month, Dr. Lawrence Reynolds turned over to Alabama his most prized possession, a collection of 6,000 rare medical books, manuscripts and artifacts. "
"The nearly five million books in at UC's satellite library in Richmond contain valuable knowledge and history. However, scholars no longer have to search through 28 miles of shelves. "
"'This is huge. This is huge for scholarship and students,' says Jo Guldi, a UC doctoral candidate. "
"The New York Academy of Medicine Library is one of the largest medical libraries in the country collecting in public health and clinical medicine. This class is for anyone who is looking to learn how to use the Academy Library to access information regarding health and medicine. "
"Included are brief tours of the public areas of the Library and the extraordinary Malloch Rare Book Room, which contains over 35,000 rare books and manuscripts, including a 9th century manuscript copy of the oldest known cookbook..."
"Though noteworthy libraries dot the five boroughs, including the new Bronx Library Center and historic branches financed by Andrew Carnegie, the natural place to start is at the famous lions on Fifth Avenue, at what is officially the Humanities and Social Sciences Library."
"The only known copy of the first Book of Hours printed in France, a tiny volume nearly 5 inches tall and 3 inches wide, has been acquired by the Morgan Library & Museum. Designed to fit into the palm of a woman’s hand, the book of prayers and devotional readings is illustrated by more than 40 woodcuts depicting religious figures and the life of Jesus."
"Over 5,000 volumes in the historic Derry and Raphoe Diocesan Library are to be restored and their contents made available to the public. The unique University of Ulster conservation and outreach initiative - funded by a grant of £500,500 from the Heritage Lottery Fund - will take three and a half years to complete."
"Locked away in rooms accessible only by swipe key card in the Leddy Library at the University of Windsor are irreplaceable and invaluable rare documents and books that tell the social history of Windsor and Southwestern Ontario."
"Columbia University Libraries and Google, Inc. have signed an agreement to digitize a large number of the Libraries’ books in the public domain and make them available online. The project, which is one of several collaborations between Google and major research libraries, will evaluate and review hundreds of thousands of volumes from the Libraries’ collections over the next six years. "
"Locked away in rooms accessible only by swipe key card in the Leddy Library at the University of Windsor are irreplaceable and invaluable rare documents and books that tell the social history of Windsor and Southwestern Ontario."
"Belau National Museum on Tuesday opened its new research library at the newly refurbished building used by the Japanese government when it still administered Palau."
"'This is known as the first Christmas card,' said Eric White, a curator for the collection. "
"Sir Henry Cole, a British narrative painter, printed the first Christmas card in 1843. Before that, people simply wrote letters. "
"Ms. Catchpole recently combed through a number of the archives' special collections to prepare a history of the Christmas card in Canada."
"Her research reveals that commercial Christmas cards became established as an institution in Canada in the 1860s -- two decades after the first commercial card was printed in London, England."
"The final touches are being made to the new City of Fairfax Regional Library for its Jan. 26, 2008 official opening, and perhaps one word that best describes the interior of the red-brick building at the corner of North Street and Old Lee Highway is 'cavernous.'"
"NEWARK — It is difficult to say which is more surprising: that the Newark Public Library owns prints by Picasso and Rauschenberg, a page of the Gutenberg Bible and a 1493 handwritten tome known as the Nuremberg Chronicles, or that William J. Dane, a dapper, refreshingly irreverent art scholar from New Hampshire, has been tending to this astounding collection for six decades."
"The vast collection actually dates to the ninth century, when the abbey established a scriptorium, a large room in the monastery where scribes or copyists of the community created ornate manuscripts. St. Gallen became the reading room of Europe."
"Texts are preserved today in its fascinating library, the Stiftsbibliothek, constructed between 1758-67, and viewed by more than 100,000 visitors every year."
"Near the impressive buildings of the Romanian Academy Library, considered to be the best in the country, you can also find the beautiful Romanian Literature Museum, on 12 Dacia Boulevard, one of the main streets of Bucharest."
"In the 18th century world of religious literature, there was a special place reserved for a collection of engravings and treatises called "Ceremonies and Religious Customs of All the Peoples of the World": It was on the "Index Librorum Prohibitorum"-- the Vatican's list of prohibited books."
"'Exploring the Early Americas,' which features items from the Jay I. Kislak Collection and Martin Waldseemüller’s 1507 World Map–the first document of any kind of use the word 'America'–focuses on the history and legacies of the Americas and the impact of European contact, culture and conquest."
"The Jewish Theological Seminary received a $500,000 gift from the estate of Tres Levinsohn of New York."
"The bequest includes $200,000 for the acquisition of rare books and manuscripts..."
"This is the home of one of the world’s best libraries. It is called the Free Library of Philadelphia — a 120-year-old institution. You can find almost anything about everything that has been written or recorded ever. "
"An antiquated photo of a nineteenth-century American soldier clad in gray has the power to breathe new life into a long-gone era by personalizing the past, Civil War photography scholar Alan Trachtenberg said in a workshop at the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library Tuesday. "
"The library recently acquired two books for its collection of rare books and manuscripts: one of the most significant Bibles of all time and the first edition of a major Benedictine text. "
"The illuminated manuscript is the literary equivalent of stained glass. The inclusion of gold or silver in the intricate decorations was designed to make each page leap out at the viewer - much as the sun shining through a church window."
"The structure was built expressly to accommodate the institute's main functions, including a museum that displays both fine art and objects from its world-class collection of Jewish-related artifacts. It provides an expanded, state-of-the-art Asher Library, one of North America's largest Jewish libraries with 120,000 volumes, 250,000 periodicals, films, videocassettes, DVDs and documents. A climate-controlled room will house 4,000 rare books and maps."
"Sealed behind thick panes of glass in a temperature- and humidity-controlled room where no direct sunlight gets in, this second floor wing holds the Central Art Rarities Collection -- containing some of Milwaukee's most fascinating and precious items that citizens rarely see. "
"With 36 million manuscript pages, more than one million rare books, five million photographs and an extensive film collection, it is no surprise that some UT students bypass the center's entrance, never to take advantage of the experience that goes with handling an original movie script or reading authors' letters."
"The recent heavy rains caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage to the University of Hawaii's Hamilton library, officials said."
"Librarians are scrambling to deal with water damage and the threat of mold after a weekend of torrential rain."
"Among the collection is what the library staff refer to as the famous "four treasures", namely the Dunhuang Manuscripts, Siku Quanshu (Emperor's Four Treasures), Yongle Canon and Zhaocheng Tripitaka."
"Readers around the world will soon have online access to thousands of rare books in Yale’s Library thanks to an agreement between the University and Microsoft Corp to digitize many volumes found only in the Yale collections."
"In August, while sorting through boxes of books for an upcoming sale, volunteers at the Bethlehem Area Public Library came across a rare find. It is a find that has now made its way into the Rare Book Collection at Lafayette and will be on display as part of the For Captive Africa exhibit opening Oct. 11."
"the thick tome was printed on the very press that is featured in Yoder's novel, "Margaret's Print Shop," published in 2005 by Herald Press, Scottdale, Pa."
"His book tells the story of Margaret and Balthaser Beck, who ran a 16th century printing business in Strasbourg and both joined the early Anabaptist movement."
"Indiana University's Lilly Library has acquired an extremely rare copy of a book detailing the origins of the well known Bavarian tradition of Oktoberfest. One of only a few copies worldwide, the book was published in 1811 and describes the harvest festival first held to celebrate the 1810 wedding of the crown prince Ludwig to princess Theresa von Sachsen-Hildurghausen."
"The Ostrih Bible, sometimes known as the “Slavonic Gutenberg,” is the first complete printed Bible in Church Slavonic, the common liturgical language of Slavic Christianity. Printed in the Ukraine in 1581, this was in its day by far the largest Cyrillic printing project ever undertaken. Edited and printed under Orthodox auspices, the Ostrih Bible (sometimes called Ostrog after the Russian form of the place name) seems to have been deliberately designed for both Orthodox and Catholic readers, as its arrangements of the biblical books has features of both traditions."
"A treasure trove of East Asian scholarship will be moving from storage to center stage with the opening of a new library at the University of California, Berkeley. "
"The collection includes more than 900,000 volumes – from woodblock editions and Buddhist scriptures to Cultural Revolution-era political posters. "
"Instead of meandering through Widener’s labyrinthine stacks, Harvard students are now beginning to use a digital alternative: scanned books, courtesy of the Harvard-Google Project. "
"More than 3,000 users accessed Google Book Search through the online HOLLIS catalog in September, Suzanne Kriegsman, the project’s manager, announced to a library staff e-mail list last week. "
"CASSOPOLIS - Cass County Historical Society received information Tuesday night from new member Taras Lyssenko about a home he owns at 26351 Hospital St. built during the Depression to house The Order of Book Fellows library."
"'I was told it was haunted,' the Chicagoan said. 'Cool. Ghosts don't eat much.'"
"There is some corner of Connecticut that is forever England. Opposite the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven is the tastefully unobtrusive steel façade of the Yale Centre for British Art. Now celebrating its 30th birthday, it houses the largest collection of British art outside the UK – 2,000 paintings, 50,000 prints and drawings and 35,000 rare books and manuscripts, all amassed by one man – the philanthropist Paul Mellon."
"The PSAs direct young readers to visit www.Literacy.gov, where they can connect to "The Storybook Adventure," a dynamic new online activity that takes them on a series of expeditions through fantasy realms, each inspired by a classic work of children's fiction. In each realm players answer questions about the story and get the chance to collect treasures from the stories as the game unfolds."
"The library project, he said, was an initiative of HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, who wanted the life and works of M.R. Kukrit to be studied and understood by new generations. "
"Talks have been organised on the history of the book, Robert Louis Stevenson, the John Murray Archive and rare books in Scotland and there's demonstrations of bookbinding. "
"Mr. Baron made hundreds of recordings of the readings and donated them to the Kelly Writers House at the University of Pennsylvania. He also donated hundreds of poetry books, many signed, to Penn's rare-books collection."
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"It stands as one of a few first-hand accounts of the Battle of Stones River published during the war. The Friends of Stones River National Battlefield purchased this rare book and are donating it to the National
Park Service. This copy is even more valuable to the park because a Civil War soldier, Corporal Dewitt C. Markle, of the 57th Indiana Infantry owned it, and wrote extensive notes inside the covers of the book.
Markle’s regiment helped secure the Federal left against several Confederate attacks on Dec. 31, 1862."
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"Lafayette College purchased a rare abolitionist book at the Bethlehem Area Public Library's book sale last week."
"The college purchased the book for its upcoming exhibit about the end of the slave trade in the United States and England, said Diane Shaw, special collections librarian at Lafayette."
" On October 25 in the Vatican's Old Synod Hall, the presentation will take place of the "Processus contra Templarios," a book published by the Vatican Secret Archives on the subject of the Knights Templar, the medieval military-religious order founded in Jerusalem in 1118 and suppressed by Pope Clement V (1305-1314)."
"Linderman Library premiered its first special collections exhibition, “Home to Roost: Ornithological Collections at Lehigh University” on Wednesday."
"Lois Fisher Black, curator of Special Collections, spoke about John James Audubon’s life, how Audubon acquired and posed his birds and the publication process. "
"Four years ago, former Mayor Fred Kalisz — in the wake of the cataclysmic 2003 loss of state aid to New Bedford — targeted the city library for more than a quarter of a $2.3 budget shortfall, way out of proportion to its share of the budget. That didn't sit well with Mayor Scott Lang, who is now set to restore the two special collections librarians."
"The Asiatic Society of Mumbai is located in this building. It was established in the year 1804 by James Mackintosh, who was the the Recorder (chief judge) of Bombay . Mackintosh was fascinated with India and soon after arriving in Bombay he and other like-minded Britishers established the Literary Society of Bombay. The purpose was the ‘promotion of literary and scientific investigations connected with India and the study of literature, antiquities, arts and sciences of the East, generally’. The Literary Society of Bombay is considered the second oldest institution of its kind in existence anywhere in the world, only preceded by the Bengal Asiatic Society. "
"2008 will mark 500 years since the first book was printed in Scotland and celebrations are being co-ordinated by the National Library of Scotland, the Scottish Printing Archival Trust and the Scottish Print Employers’ Federation, endorsed by the Scottish Government. Napier is hosting its exhibition as part of a range of events and initiatives to mark this important anniversary"
"THE first Festival of Libraries to be held in the Capital is set to see the Assembly Rooms transformed into a massive library for a day. "
"The event is being organised by the Edinburgh Libraries and Information Services Agency (Elisa), and representatives of more than 40 Edinburgh-based library and information services are expected to take part."
"BETHLEHEM, Pa. --Volunteers sorting through donated books for a book sale found an abolitionist text and a slave's memoir, both dating back to the 1800s."
"The books were discovered together last month in a single leather-bound volume that was clearly an unusual find, said Liza Holzinger, coordinator of the Bethlehem Area Public Library's book sale."
"The book was “The Adventures of Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass” by Mark Twain, edited by Charles Honce, with a foreword by Vincent Starrett and a note on “A Celebrated Village Idiot” by James O'Donnell Bennett."
"CANBERRA, Australia -- It's the oldest object of its kind in Australia's history, but up until this past summer it was buried in the bowels of the Canada's national archives collection."
"On Tuesday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper will bring it home, handing it to his Australian counterpart over lunch in the country's capital as he wraps up a week-long trip."
"Based entirely on community donations, Special Collections oozes history. It houses materials dating back to 1732 – the year its oldest book, written in Italian, was published – including a rare book collection, maps, photographs, letters and other “materials worth saving,” said Andy Poore, curator of Special Collections."
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"The Premier attended an exhibition of rare and priceless books of the library and its facilities. Construction of the library started in 1991; however, it was suspended in 1997 due to the lack of funds."
"NEW YORK – Question: If a bibliophile were to book a vacation and not care to stray but a few feet after arrival, where would he go? "
"At the urging of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF), a scholarly book pulped by its British publisher is maintaining a safe haven in U.S. libraries. Alms for Jihad was the target of a potential libel suit in England by Sheikh Khalid bin Mahfouz, whose charitable activities have reportedly been linked to terrorist activities, as conveyed in the book."
"'How high the culture of Prague Jewry must have been then at the beginning of the 16th century if it could already produce such unrivalled printed creations.' The writer Sholem Asch arrived at this conclusion in 1936, upon a visit to the Library of the Jewish Religious Community in Prague. "
"The almost 600 yearbooks that are housed on compact shelving in the rare book collection are essential for reunion planners and those who are searching their memories for that special teacher or classmate. But Local History Librarian Michael Glenn says they are a 'wonderful resource for a variety of other reasons.'"
"After breaking ground more than a year ago, the UA is ready to open a new building to house one of the largest poetry collections in the nation, university officials said."
"Pennsylvania Libraries chose Olive to digitize rare and special collections into a fully indexed and searchable online archive. This effort will allow scholars worldwide access to this material which has only been available via mail or fax, or in digital images as opposed to direct content."
"A unique building at 1508 E. Helen St. will be the permanent home of the University of Arizona Poetry Center, which began moving in Wednesday. It will take some time to relocate the more than 60,000 items in the collection, one of the largest in the country, Executive Director Gail Browne said."
"If you haven't been to Linda Hall Library of Science, Engineering & Technology, you are missing out on one of this city's most beautiful places. This world-renowned science, engineering and technology library sits on the University of Missouri-Kansas City campus..."
"I did get a welcoming, casual vibe from the equally beautiful Boston Public Library, another of Fodor's recommended visits, which boasts some of its own exciting collections (and a cafe and a courtyard). I particularly enjoyed their miniature books exhibit..."
"The Vatican Library in Rome is closing for a three-year renovation. The closure will make Saint Louis University's renowned Vatican Film Library even more important for the world's leading scholars and researchers. "
Go see: "Linnaeus in the Garden": "An exhibition of rare books related to the Swedish botanist who is credited with creating the first system for naming plants. The show coincides with the 300th birthday of Carl Linnaeus."
"Sabancı Museum: Since 1884 the grounds of today’s Sabancı Museum have been both a private and royal residence. Opened as the Sabancı University Sakip Sabancı Museum in 2002, it now hosts world-class exhibitions in a state-of-the-art environment. "
"Hundreds of rare manuscripts in Persian and Arabic languages, some dating back to 16th century, housed in Kashmir university have been digitalized and are now available online in that version, the university officials said Thursday. "
"Thanks to a project that began in the 1950s, Saint Louis University, a Jesuit school, has microfilm copies of nearly half of the Vatican library's medieval and Renaissance manuscripts."
"THE FIRST LIBRARY I KNEW was my father’s bookshop in the then cosmopolitan community of Cairo; it was burnt down in l952, in the first significant insurgency of Arab nationalists under the future president Nasser, during the last complacent period of the British Empire. "
"Inside the bag was a fragile leather-bound book stuffed with hundreds of pages of cramped handwritten notes. To all appearances, the book contained records of the First Congregational Church of Rowley dating to the mid-1600s -- and missing for decades."
"On the third floor of Meriam Library Thursday, Special Collections' staff member Debbie Besnard brought out from the back room four historical pieces from the rare book collection and two pairs of white cotton gloves so she and E-R staff could handle the artifacts. "
"Edward Gorey’s Abecedarium is a cult favorite among miniature book collectors, Bromer explains. Many customers ask for his work at Bromer’s Booksellers, the shop on the corner of Dartmouth and Boylston that Bromer owns and runs with her husband. "
"The June Price Reedy Library Endowment for the Rare Book Collection and the Woman's Board of the Chicago Horticultural Society purchased a first edition volume of Robert Thornton's famous flower anthology, Temple of Flora for the Lenhardt Library in the Regenstein Center, Chicago Botanic Garden, Glencoe..."
"Now, Scott Gwara has cleared the way for USC’s Thomas Cooper Library to acquire a 1269 manuscript written by the Order of Cistercians in Italy. The purchase was funded by a $46,229.67 grant from the B.H. Breslauer Foundation of New York."
"I did get a welcoming, casual vibe from the equally beautiful Boston Public Library, another of Fodor's recommended visits, which boasts some of its own exciting collections (and a cafe and a courtyard). I particularly enjoyed their miniature books exhibit..."
"RUSTON — The public can get a glimpse into the life of a Civil War soldier in Louisiana Tech University's department of special collections, manuscripts and archives."
"The display 'The Robert Patrick Collection: 1861-1865' features the personal diary of Robert Patrick, of Clinton, who served in Louisiana's Fourth Infantry for four years."
"Durham, NC -- Last month, more than 60 Henkel family members from around the country reunited at Duke’s Perkins Library where the family printing press, acquired by the library in 1931, is on permanent display."
"The Frankfort library and other libraries and museums in small towns across the country are treasure troves of historical documents, ranging from mundane marriage records to rare artifacts and artwork. But preservation can be a low priority for cash-strapped facilities, which often function more like community centers than museums."
"There are countless hidden treasures and gems in the many libraries around Grounds, but Alderman Library houses one of the University's best-kept secrets. Since 1992, the library has been home to the Rare Book School, an independent non-profit educational establishment furthering the study of the history of books and other related topics. At various times throughout the year, this school attracts not only internationally recognized specialists in the field but also a group of competitive and dedicated scholars who make the pilgrimage to Charlottesville to study under their expertise. "
"At the Frankfort Community Library, paintings, bronze sculptures and Asian art share space with thousands of books. But one of the library's rarest pieces — a 1776 newsprint copy of the Declaration of Independence — is tucked away in a vault."
"Eight Polish academic libraries are subscribing to WorldCat and FirstSearch following a successful pilot. The libraries all contribute to NUKAT (Narodowy Uniwersalny Katalog Centralny), Poland’s national union catalogue which serves around 60 academic and research libraries and 900 librarians. NUKAT records were added to WorldCat last year for the first time."
"In the early 1970s, Terry Belanger founded the Book Arts Press, an organization that would later produce the Rare Book School, at Columbia University's School of Library Service. When the School of Library Service closed in 1992, Belanger moved the program, its equipment and special collections to the University. "
"The title of the most mysterious book donated this year is Greek to him - literally and figuratively. 'The art book seems to be about the life of artist Spyros Vassilou,"'Mr Renjilian. What he finds intriguing are the numerous autographs in various languages that fill the inside cover of the book. 'Nobody knows anything about this book,' he said. 'We have no idea if these are the autographs of other famous artists, friends, or who it could be.'"
"In the basement, there's a section full of items on Southern history and literature, with special emphasis on the Carolinas. That's where I turned up a copy of William Gilmore Simm's 'Sack and Destruction of the City of Columbia, S.C.'"
"It's an account by one of South Carolina's foremost writers about the torching of the capital when Sherman's army came through in February 1865. "
"According to Dr Eskander, the full extent of the INLA's losses is as follows: archival materials - 60% lost; rare books - 95% lost; manuscripts - 25% lost."
"EAST LANSING, Mich. — Michigan State University is one of 12 Midwest universities that are part of a new agreement with computer search engine giant Google to digitize the most distinctive collections of the universities’ libraries."
"As part of the Google Book Search project, the agreement could result in the digitization of as many as 10 million volumes."
"A rare archive of images of Scotland's past will be safeguarded for future generations at Glasgow University.
The specially designed facility will store a series of collections by the pioneers of photography."
"Case in point is a copy of the first edition of Diologo di Galileo Galilei Linew Matematico sopra ordinario (Dialogues on the two chief systems of the world) published in 1632 AD in Florence. The book was banned by the Church and later led to Galileo’s house arrest. "
"The University Library System (ULS) of the University of Pittsburgh will receive the entire European Union depository collection-the most extensive collection of public European Community/European Union documents and publications in North America-from the Delegation of the European Commission to the USA in Washington, D.C., and make it available intact to patrons of Pitt's Hillman Library."
"The University of Louisville Libraries has launched a Digital Collections website to provide educational and research access to digital versions of selected materials from University Archives and Records Center, Special Collections and other units."
"After less than two years as director of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, William Griswold has announced he is leaving his post to become director of the Morgan Library and Museum in New York. Griswold's move puts the MIA back in the hunt for a new leader at a time when several other museums around the country are doing the same thing. "
"Seabury-Western's special collections include the Hibbard Egyptian Library and the Hale Rare Book Collection with exemplars of early prayer books. Garrett-Evangelical's special collections include the Wesleyana Collection and the Keen Bible Collection of English editions of the Bible."
"Before her death in 2001, Nora Sayre arranged to leave a special gift to Ohio State University."
"The essayist and critic promised the director of the OSU Rare Books and Manuscripts Library all the James Thurber drawings in her possession."
"Thanks to a special impact grant of $184,740 from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, a University of Iowa researcher will undertake a new analytical survey of western paper made between the 14th and the 19th centuries. "
"Audrey Geisel, philanthropist and widow of the late Theodor "Dr. Seuss" Geisel, has continued her long-running support of the UCSD Libraries with a $1-million donation - the largest the system has received in its history. "
"The gift will inaugurate the Audrey Geisel University Librarianship, a position for which Geisel handpicked UCSD's current chief librarian, Brian E.C. Schottlaender."
"But the library authorities have claimed that readers will not suffer. “The police have been instructed to allow everyone with a valid membership card and so there shouldn’t be any problem. But there could be some restrictions between 5.45pm and 6.15pm,” said Sudhendu Mandal, director of the National Library."
"The private photography library of photographer John Teti was donated to the institute. It consists of 2,000 books dating to the early days of photography."
"'At the time John Teti told me that he was going to give us the library, I thought, 'I'm going to have a heart attack right now to have this tremendous asset that I can now share with my students on a daily basis,' said Gary Samson, chairman of the photography department."
"The National Library of Scotland has kicked off a $3.6 million project to digitize its archive and make it available online. "
"The NLS, established in 1925, holds copies of every publication in the U.K., dating from the Middle Ages right up to the latest novels. "
"Kermode, who is best known for his celebrated studies on D.H. Lawrence and Shakespeare, also achieved some notoriety in the 1960s when he resigned from a literary magazine he discovered was funded by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency."
"The UCLA Library has launched "Changing Times: Los Angeles in Photographs, 1920–90," an online collection of more than 5,000 photographs from the Los Angeles Daily News and the Los Angeles Times. "
"The idea of the college library functioning as the heart of the campus might seem out of date, now that students can do research on their laptops without leaving their dorm rooms. But fears of library obsolescence have never panned out, said Robert L. Horrell, dean of libraries at Dartmouth College and a former librarian at Harvard and Syracuse universities."
"AHMEDABAD: Years of turmoil in the Kashmir valley has not only cost hundreds of human lives but also eroded the ancient historical and cultural ethos of the state in the form of thousands of rare books and manuscripts that have been burnt or destroyed by religious hardliners."
"Some of the incunabula and journals which will be available by clicking a mouse include The Platonic Dialogues for English Readers published in 1589, Calendar or state papers and manuscripts relating to English affairs from 1607-1610, The History Of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, by Edward Hyde, published in 1888, and others."
"'We're particularly eyeballing rare books and special collections in terms of having our more important and valuable material available to a wider audience,' said Chris Hives, the UBC archivist behind this growing paperless library."
"'What we have focused on most recently are smaller but important collections, like the [Charles] Darwin letters and Florence Nightingale letters.'"
"The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Development office has awarded $300,000 to Kaua'i Island Utility Co-op, which in turn will loan it to the National Tropical Botanical Garden to help pay for its new library and research center."
"The National Endowment for the Humanities has awarded the UCLA Library a grant for a project to catalog, digitize and provide online access to the Caro Minasian Collection of Near Eastern manuscripts. "
"The collection forms a rich repository of Islamic learning and contains more than 1,500 manuscripts in Arabic and Persian dating from the 14th to the 19th centuries on astronomy, government, history, language and grammar, law, literature, philosophy, religious practice, and science."
"PATNA: More than 5,000 rare manuscripts in different languages are decaying in the Patna University (PU) Central Library for want of proper upkeep and preservation. "
"Even as the library was linked with the Information and Library Networking programme of the UGC several years back, these valuable manuscripts are yet to be transformed into digital and electronic forms. "
"The University of Georgia owns the only known final copy of the Constitution of the Confederate States of America. "
"Every day I spend long hours in the Rare Book Room of the Cambridge University Library, reading books so obscure that even Firestone doesn't have them. But the Rare Book Room has wi-fi; and the splendid room where I work has DSL; so this year, the world and New Jersey are never very far away, as this column shows."
"Saanich council approved $430,000 in this year’s budget to move the archives from the building outside Saanich municipal hall to the new library under construction adjacent to Pearkes Arena."
"To mark the 300th anniversary of Carl Linnaeus' birth, The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens are mounting a small exhibition of rare books drawn from its own remarkable history of science collections and from the Torbjörn Lindell collection of Sweden."
"Carnegie Library wing of Penrose Library: When built in 1905, this bright, airy book house was state of the art, sporting the city’s first sanitary drinking fountain. It was restored to original glory in 2000 and now holds the library’s rare books. "
"New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary trustees April 11 approved an $18.8 million budget, authorized the construction of a new apartment complex, heard reports of better-than-expected enrollment and authorized the administration to proceed with planning for a new campus library."
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"A new £45 million library at Queen's University in Belfast is to be named after media mogul Sir Anthony O'Reilly."
"Medical services in the 19th century British Empire could not have functioned without the input of Irish-trained doctors, according to historians from the University of Ulster and UCD speaking at the launch of a new Centre for the History of Medicine in Ireland."
"The written works of the Oblate missionaries who served among Aboriginal people in northwestern Canada have now become the subject of research. "
"A team of Aboriginal scholars at the University of Alberta has just begun a five-year research project that involves studying rare books and manuscripts written in Cree by Oblate missionaries who worked and lived among their ancestors. "
"Heller said the Handel manuscripts, which are stored in the university's Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, is the most important Handel collection in any library in the nation. "
"The musical, written by the graphic novelist Ben Katchor and composer Mark Mulcahy, is a "multi-media 'chamber rock opera' about the pleasures and perils of bibliomania," according to press notes. Katchor created the projections and wrote the text and will direct, while Mulcahy wrote the music and will play the role of Abe Rosenbach."
"VERMILLION, S.D. -- The University of South Dakota announced Wednesday that it is the permanent home of a collection of rare books and unique materials which detail the history of the violin family of stringed instruments."
"Gifted to the Archives and Special Collections of the I.D. Weeks Library by John P. and Barbara Mahoney of Tallahassee, Fla., the Mahoney Music Collection is now open and available for research."
"Durham, NC -- Duke University Libraries is partnering with the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival to archive the festival’s award-winning films."
"The 2007 Full Frame Festival will screen more than 100 films, both curated and in competition, in multiple venues in downtown Durham April 12-15. Of the 82 films in competition, 12 prizes will be granted; these award-winning films will be slated for the new archive."
"Asiatic Society of Mumbai has a rich collection of printed books apart from its equally rich collection of Sanskrit, Prakrit, Persian, Arabian, Marathi , Gujarati, Urdu, as well as Greek, Latin, Italian and English manuscripts which includes Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita, Aranayka Parvan, Kalpa Sutra, Shahnama, Quran, Specchio della Croce and Dante's Divine Comedy. The Society has a unique album of 47 miniatures painted around in 1860s depicting rulers, important places and craftsmen and acrobats from Punjab."
"NORTH PLATTE -For book lovers, bargain seekers, antique collectors and auction buffs, the library will be the place to be this Thursday, Friday and Saturday as the Friends of the North Platte Public Library host a book sale and a rare books and antique auction."
"WHAT ONE needs to know about the Boston Athenaeum -- the stately, 200-year-old private library on Beacon Hill with a bulging collection of books, art, and artifacts: During a recent tour of its bicentennial exhibit, a little girl stomped past in blue jeans and flashing-light sneakers as if she owned the place. And, in a way, she does. Because the Athenaeum is eager to belong to children and adults in a meaningful but easy-going way."
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"There are many collections out there, but the OSU library under the direction of curator Lucy Shelton Caswell has, since 1977, amassed 2.5 million comic-strip clippings, about 250,000 original cartoons and 51,000 serial titles, including comic books. Its book titles number 34,000."
"The complex will house rare manuscripts, books, paintings and other artefacts to show the evolution of the religion."
"The Punjab government has also announced that it will honour Moshe Safdie, an Israeli architect who had been involved in designing and implementing the project."
"ST. BONAVENTURE — Construction will begin in early April on the new Paul and Irene Bogoni Rare Books Library, an addition to St. Bonaventure University’s Friedsam Memorial Library."
"Library Director Bill Kehler said that if the person who bought the volume returns it, the complete set will be sold on the Internet and the profits will be split between the library and the buyer."
""It's a very eclectic library. We have a very fine rare book collection. Our earliest book is from 1150. We have a very fine archival collection, about 15,000. They do not leave the library and the stacks are not open to the public but people can request to see something. The rare books require an appointment," Medert said."
"William (Bill) Mastoris Jr., who in retirement has earned three degrees from UTSA, has donated to the UTSA Library a 285-year-old Koran that he purchased in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1970 while serving in the U.S. Army."
" Just when you begin wondering aloud whether this muddy and squelchy excuse for a road is the ‘only way’ to a heritage site which houses over 17,000 rare manuscripts, 80,000 printed books, 5000 miniature paintings and so much more… you are confronted by it’s scholastic silence and without completing your question, you just shut up. "
"WITH voluntary donations of rare manuscripts and books coming its way, the vast treasure of rare handwritten scripts at the Oriental Institute of MSU is growing richer. Recently, the Gwalior-based Kelkar family donated around 150 manuscripts to the institute, which are believed to be 250 years old. Earlier, a family from Wai, Satara in Maharashtra had given some given rare manuscripts to the institute, and there have also been such donations from families and individuals across Gujarat. "
"AMERICAN architects plan a smaller-scale replica of China's oldest existing private library, Ningbo's Tianyi Pavilion, at the University of Rhode Island's Confucius Institute, now under construction, the Zhejiang Daily reported yesterday."
"'We’re not selling all of the collection,' McNamara pointed out. 'We are not selling the books that are critical to the history of the college.'
"McNamara said Rockford College will retain pieces related to its most famous alumna, Jane Addams. McNamara also noted no items from the archival room will be sold. "
"And when it comes to reading the stars, language should not come across as a hindrance, so they keep books in not just Hindi, but English and Bengali as well. One is not sure if the growth over the years would have satisfied the Jamshedpur lawyer who had first inspired the idea of the library but the plans for the future should sound interesting to those interested in all things to do with the future. "
"The collection of books, journals, films, clothing and artifacts spans several cultures: Armenian, Cambodian, Chinese, Hmong, Korean, Russian, Thai, Ukrainian and Vietnamese."
"It was started in the early 1980s when Lewis was coordinating multicultural programs for schools in Rancho Cordova, which was seeing an influx of Hmong and Vietnamese refugee immigrants. Many teachers were unfamiliar with their students' cultures, prompting Lewis and other educators to form the Refugee Educators' Network and build a collection of educational material for teachers and members of the community."
"A rare first edition King James Bible that languished for decades in a small storage room on the second floor of the downtown library is now at Sotheby's in Manhattan, where it just might fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars at auction in June."
"Among the recipients from the sale will be the Clara Toppan Endowment Fund, which supports the Toppan Rare Book Library; the College of Business through the Clara Toppan Endowment Fund with the Frederick W. and Clara R. Toppan Scholarship fund for undergraduate accounting students; and the George Raab Memorial Fund, named in memory of Toppan’s nephew, which will award scholarships to deserving student athletes."
"The Linden Historical Society is tracing the background of the book and trying to answer questions about what happened to the original typed manuscript, whether it was handed to the city and then lost or was it never turned in. The society is also trying to figure out who unlocked the case in the reference room that allowed the manuscript to be removed, taken apart and copied."
"Last fall some 3,000 books from the library’s 30,000-item rare book collection were donated to the Bibliothèque Nationale. Included were books from the Institut Canadien, one of the Fraser-Hickson’s two founding collections."
"The burning issue is not so much whether the greatest collection of knowledge ever gathered in one place has survived intact in the sands of the Sinai Desert; it's how an early copy of the Old Testament in its original language, believed preserved somewhere in the library's collections, might change the geographic boundaries of the Middle East, not to mention the political, economic, religious, and cultural dynamic of the world. "
"A water leak damaged the top four floors of the Lexington Public Library downtown, reaching the rare-books area and forcing the main library to close Tuesday."
"Many books, records and newspapers in the Kentucky Room on the third floor had at least some water damage, said Kathleen Imhoff, the library’s director."
"A lecture and reception next week will celebrate the Bryn Mawr College Library's recent acquisition of an early 15th-century manuscript that offers important insights into the role of women in late medieval Europe. The lecture will be delivered by Bert Roest of the University of Groningen..."
"After months of construction, the Special Collections section of McIntyre Library now has a new home."
"At a Friday afternoon reception in the section's new, fifth-floor location, university officials unveiled the newly renovated and relocated facility. The Special Collections section was recently moved from its previous location in the Old Library."
"The New Orleans unit, part of the Army of Northern Virginia, was involved in epic battles spanning four years, from the beginning of the war until the final surrender at Appomattox."
"Eshleman -- who commanded the 350 or so men armed with Napoleon cannons -- fired shots signaling the opening of the Rebels' charge at Gettysburg."
"With almost 100 rare manuscripts on display, National Mission for Manuscripts (NMM) in association with National Archives of India, the exhibition not only provides knowledge about these documents, but also instills the visitors with a sense of pride about their country so rich in heritage."
"The exhibition titled "The World is Sacred; Sacred is the World" celebrates the fourth anniversary of NMM. "
"Librarian of Congress James H. Billington has announced that the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has awarded the Library of Congress a $2 million grant for a program to digitize thousands of public-domain works, with a major focus on at-risk "brittle books" and U.S. history volumes."
"SOUTH BEND - A frozen pipe ruptured and flooded part of three floors and the basement of Hesburgh Library, damaging about 1,500 books, the University of Notre Dame said."
"The Library of Congress has been awarded a $2 million grant to digitize thousands of works in the public domain, in a project focusing on at-risk "brittle books" and U.S. history volumes, the library announced Wednesday. "
"It's official: in just over seven weeks from today, the construction site mid-campus will be transformed into the new and improved Case Library. Upon returning from spring break on March 18, students will be able peruse the stacks, examine the high-tech Library Automated Storage and Retrieval (LASR) system and study in a space that many have never known as part of their Colgate experience."
"China will take every possible step to preserve its old and rare books and retrieve those scattered overseas, an official document has said."
"These books and documents, an indispensable part of Chinese civilization, lack proper preservation and management, says a State Council document posted on the government website yesterday."
"ASTANA. Saudi Arabia is going to help Kazakhstan to restore 1,500 rare manuscripts, preserved in the stock of the National Library of Kazakhstan. A corresponding agreement has been signed in Er-Riyadh between the National Library of RK and the King Feysal Centre of Islamic Studies, MFA of RK reports. "
"Founded in 1957 by its namesake, then-UT Vice President and Provost Harry Huntt Ransom, the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center is a wide, creamy-walled building tucked in the lush green area just behind the Calhoun and Homer Rainey halls, between 21st and Guadalupe Streets. From Graham Greene's archives to the Gutenberg Bible, the center rests its solid reputation as one of the country's most notable archival, conservation and research institutions on its vastly ranged and highly notable stock. It is currently home to millions of literary manuscripts, rare books, photographs and works of art."
"Some of the books at the Philadelphia Free Library's Rare Book Collection are as old as civilization itself."
"And for the next 3 months many of them will be put on special display in the department's 3rd floor facilities... everything from clay cuniform tablets and an Egyptian Book of the Dead dating from thousands of years BC"
"But there's more: original printings of the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation are encased in glass, and the library boasts that it's the only institution other than the National Archives to possess all four of the country's so-called founding documents."
"'Seeing them together puts you right in that moment of history,' said Wayne Hammond, the Chapin's assistant librarian and one of its three staff members since 1976."
"Also part of the exhibit is "Feeding on the Everlasting," a collection of rare books from the 18th century illustrating butterflies and moths. The historical illustrations are on display at the Dodd Research Center Gallery."
"The opening reception for the exhibition “World’s Fairs and the Landscapes of the Modern Metropolis” featured Alfred Heller, the editor of World’s Fair magazine and the author of “World’s Fairs and the End of Progress.” Heller attended his first World’s Fair in 1939, and subsequently devoted his life to studying World’s Fairs and expanding his collection. The core of the exhibition is Heller’s collection of World’s Fair paraphernalia, including posters, photographs, pamphlets, government reports and vintage ephemera from 1851 to 1939."
"The one million books from the University of Texas library, considered the fifth largest academic library in the United States, will now be digitized and made available to researchers and academics all over the world. The collections at the university include a set of rare books and manuscripts relating to Mexico. The university said these volumes will be made available to readers free of cost."
"Some people who visit the acclaimed restaurant Deux Cheminees come for more than chef Fritz Blank's cuisine. They come for his books. "
"The Philadelphia mainstay that offers some of the city's finest dining also houses an impressive culinary collection that includes about 15,000 volumes: cookbooks, periodicals, menus and memorabilia."
"In its 50-year history, the Ransom Center has evolved into a world-renowned cultural institution, known for its collections of literary manuscripts, rare books, photographs and art, and its holdings in the performing arts and film. The Center houses more than 36 million manuscripts, 1 million rare books, 5 million photographs and 100,000 works of art and design."
"The top 25 books checked out in December, from Fairfax County libraries, were best-sellers by John Grisham, David Baldacci, James Patterson, Nelson DeMille, Stephen King and Alice McDermott, among others. Most are entertaining, but only a few will be considered classics in 25 years."
"The $12 million estimate appears in the university's 10-year master plan, which also includes $60 million for a new student-services center, $10 million for upgrades to the Personal Rapid Transit monorail system and a $2 million building for rare books. "
"In this era of travel specialization, San Marino hosts a site that is culturally and aesthetically diverse. Part Chinese landscape, part European art museum and part archival library, the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens are a 120-acre paradise 12 miles east of Los Angeles."
"SANA’A (Yemen): It seemed to be a long journey back in time as Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and members of his entourage walked through the stone-paved winding streets of the over 1,000-year-old Sanaía city. It is a living museum that has been preserved as it is listed on the heritage list of the UNESCO. "
"Rutgers University is receiving a gift of what the university said is the largest collection of 19th and 20th century Hungarian art outside Central Europe."
"The inner vault of the Sibley Library at the EastmanSchool is a cool, arid room housing rare books and manuscripts. When visitors walk in, they often ask to see the oldest thing in the collection. Archivist David Peter Coppen is happy to oblige."
"The 1992-95 siege of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo by Serb forces caused 14 billion euros ($18.5 billion) of damage, the author of a study said on Tuesday. "
"The loss of rich and rare books in the National Library and the Institute for Oriental Studies, both burned down, is also not included in the survey, he said."
"The outstanding collection built up over a lifetime by the late Sir Basil Blackwell was presented to the Bodleian by Julian Blackwell, pictured, president of the Oxford booksellers."
"Qatar is going to be a part of the prestigious Million Book Project (MBP), a unique concept pioneered by Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) School of Computer Science and University Libraries, it is learnt."
"The San Diego Public Library owns number 285 of the 300 or so sets that were printed, and through January, photos from the portfolios will be on display in the central library's Wangenheim Room."
"A library and art museum, the Chester Beatty is located in the secluded gardens of Dublin Castle and houses a treasure-trove of rare and valuable artefacts amassed by its founder the American mining engineer, Sir Alfred Chester Beatty."
"In the city of Jeddah, along the Red Sea and less than an hour from Mecca, a Saudi Arabian sheik is building a palace. At its heart will be the library that the sheik plans as a gift to his children, a place of potential and invention and an expression of his royal generosity. His Highness likes to give volumes away to celebrated guests like Prince Charles."
"Columbia University's Rare Book & Manuscript Library has acquired the archive of The New Leader, a magazine of political opinion and cultural criticism. "
"Repairing the libraries in Lebanon's periphery is only one attempt to restore normal cultural life to post-war Lebanon. Several parties have also been attempting to rebuild Beirut's National Library. The library was founded in 1921 by historian Viscount Philippe de Tarazi, who donated his 200,000-item book and manuscript collection. The 1924 Lebanese book deposit law greatly increased the library's inventory. "
"Locally, Florida Atlantic University Libraries has spent more than $80,000 to go digital, using the Internet and advanced technologies to display its special collections."
"...The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens has installed the Rapid Responder® crisis management system (CMS) to aid in protecting its collections-based research and educational institution.
"The MU Libraries received a $200,000 grant to provide special care to old, rare and unique books. "
"The William T. Kemper Foundation, a philanthropic organization, awarded the grant, according to a news release from the UM system Libraries. "
"Rare books, back issues of periodicals and government documents are now housed in the building that Mr. Stalin described as `an object of pride for the state of Tamil Nadu'."
"JOHN ADAMS went on a shopping spree in the summer of 1774. He was in Philadelphia attending the First Continental Congress when he wrote Abigail, 'I have spent an estate on books.' Today that 'estate of books' belongs to the people of Boston and it is on exhibit at the Boston Public Library."
"Many people are not even aware that it exists, yet the Lumpini public library will celebrate its 51st anniversary this year. A recent upgrade to its IT facilities and a new digital literary programme provide even more reasons for seeking out Thailand's first public library, which is located in the heart of the city at Lumpini Park. "
"MYSORE: D P Madhusudhan of the Oriental Research Institute, presented 150 manuscripts collected by Srinivasan, a resident of Kumbakonam. "
"The University of Toronto is now the new home for Dun & Bradstreet Canada's historical business archives. D&B Canada recently donated hundreds of volumes of their Mercantile Agency Reference Books profiling Canadian businesses between 1865 and 1984."
"Europe's leading resource for the study of the History of Medicine, The Wellcome Library, has been successful in its bid at Sotheby's to purchase a rare book from the personal collection of the late John Dee, the eminent Elizabethan mathematician and astrologer."
"Officials at Lauinger Library say they are looking into using Google Book Search, a program that uploads rare manuscripts and artwork to the Internet, allowing users to read books online."
"The fundraising evening, which was hosted by BBC personality and UU alumina Gerry Anderson, is part of a joint project between the University and the Diocese of Derry and Raphoe to rescue books in the historic Diocesan Library. "
"There are over 5,700 books in the collection, some date back to the time of the Siege of Derry and many are in a poor state of repair. "
"Google will digitize hundreds of thousands of books from the Library, including selected portions of the Library's American history, literature, and humanities works collections, and make them searchable online through Google Book Search."
"Williamsburg, Va - The library under construction at William & Mary Law School has been named the Wolf Law Library to honor alumnus and Vice Rector of the College Henry C. Wolf, Law School Dean W. Taylor Reveley III announced recently."
"The library also boasts a remarkable rare-book trove, kept in a climate-controlled room that houses the Wainwright Collection, primarily the work of early French jurists on pre-Napoleonic Civil Law, and the Canadiana collection of early Canadian, British and American titles. "
"The family of F.M. Denton, the professor who established the Electrical Engineering Department at UNM in 1927, has donated a first edition copy of “Relativity and Common Sense,” a book written by Denton just before he came to UNM. The book is especially valuable because it was signed by Albert Einstein."
"In the course of the last month the library was enriched by the exclusive private book collection of Maroukhian, that includes many valuable books of social, political, philosophical, critical, legal, national and cultural importance, as well as over 3000 books in Armenian and English."
"An anonymous gift from a descendant of American statesman Patrick Henry will enable the University Library to expand its activities related to early U.S. history. "
"The donation has endowed the Barksdale-Dabney-Henry Memorial Fund for Teaching and Research on Patrick Henry and Early Americana. The endowment is a memorial to descendants of Henry among the Barksdale-Dabney-Penick families."
"Caught in the crossfire of two premiere institutions, rare and 'antique' books and journals housed in Calcutta Medical College’s central library are in a state of permanent ruin. The National Library has refused to take the books, which are housed in the medical college’s central library at present."
"The American University in Cairo’s Rare Books and Special Collections Library has received a grant of $127,450 from the US National Endowment for the Humanities to preserve and improve access to the archives of Hassan Fathy and Ramses Wissa Wassef, two of Egypt’s most prominent twentieth-century architects, renowned for their use of traditional elements, such as domes and vaults, wooden mashrabeyya screens, and mud brick construction, in their buildings."
" The family of renowned cartoonist and illustrator Whitney Darrow, Jr. '31 recently donated more than 1,000 of his original cartoons to the University Library, adding breadth and depth to a collection already noted for its holdings in comic and satiric art."
"The gift to the graphic arts collection in Firestone's rare books department, includes 325 drawings originally published in The New Yorker and 746 illustrations from Darrow's 18 books."
"Judith Kearney, a librarian at the Mission Houses Museum and the Association of Hawai'i Archivists' newsletter editor, said that the archivists are concerned about the building, as well as the collections inside."
"The solution of tasks set for the Academy is substantially aided by the establishment of close relations with different scientific-research centres of the world. Thus, scientific relations have been established with Sorbonne University (France) and Kyonhi University (South Korea) in the fields of history, archaeology, ethnography, and bio-technology. Cooperation is developed with the French National Library in the studies of ancient and rare manuscripts."
"On Friday, the Texas State Library and Archives Commission will hand over papers of the Texas Legation, more than 250 documents that were official correspondence of the Republic of Texas and housed in its legation office in Washington, D.C."
"LEXINGTON, Ky. − Who sets type by hand in the digital era? The King Library Press, founded at the University of Kentucky Libraries in 1956, maintains the ancient craft of printing with moveable type. UK Libraries will celebrate the press's contributions to the campus and state, and its 50th anniversary at festivities scheduled for Nov. 17 - 18 on the university campus."
"Grab a Bus ($2.50) to the University of Sydney Library. Wander through the rare book collection then re-educate yourself on French philosophers for a few hours, search for Derrida. If you need to, grab a quick nap on a couch somewhere, no one will notice."
"Where better to start than the first ever printed image of witches on a broomstick (pictured overleaf)? Held in the collections of both the National Library of Scotland and Glasgow University Library, this lively woodcut was made in 1489 to illustrate the Latin Book Of Witches And Pythonic Women. Writing in the form of a dialogue, German lawyer Ulrich Molitor debated the vexed question of whether or not witches really existed, and concluded that they did."
"The crowd was small but steady all Saturday afternoon in the Rare Books Room at the State Library of Louisiana. DeSalvo, owner of The Faulkner House bookstore in New Orleans, offered free book appraisals as part of the fourth annual Louisiana Book Festival."
"The family of Whitney Darrow Jr., a 1931 Princeton alumnus and longtime cartoonist for The New Yorker magazine, has donated a collection of more than 1,000 of Darrow’s original drawings to the Princeton University Library."
"A rare book on Canadian hockey will come to Concordia Archives, thanks to the generosity of Brian Malone, a resident of Champlain, a suburb of Quebec City. "
"Published in 1899, Hockey: Canada’s Royal Winter Games was written by another native of Quebec City, Arthur Farrell, who won two Stanley Cups with the Montreal Shamrocks and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. "
"The youngsters were amazed by articles, some 600 years old, in the State Library of Victoria Travelling Treasures roadshow which visited the city."
"Shakespeare's 1685 Fourth Folio, Sydney Parkinson's A journal of a voyage to the South Sea, in His Majesty's ship, the Endeavour, 1773 and Copernicus' 1566 second edition De Revolutionsibus mystified the onlookers."
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"The once-decaying library has been restored with money raised by the Jeffersonville Carnegie Library Foundation, including $1.5 million from the Ogle Foundation, to house the Remnant Trust collection of about 800 rare books and documents."
"The Timeline of Liberty, a bas-relief sculpture including 56 figures of thinkers and writers about liberty and human dignity, also was unveiled last night in Warder Park, near the library's entrance."
"Germantown's latest step forward in its library system is actually a journey to the past."
"Workers and volunteers have been unpacking boxes of rare genealogy books as the suburb prepares for the opening of the Germantown Regional History and Genealogy Center in November. "
"Sixty thousand volumes delivered by three semi-tractor trailer trucks recently changed the face of the University of Cincinnati Law Library thanks to the generosity of former Indian Hill resident Alfred K. Nippert Jr."
"Rather than making me grit my teeth, my noisy neighbour inspired me to go on an investigative journey, visiting the largest libraries on main campus to observe other breaches of etiquette. You see, there are three groupings for noise allowance on campus: the 'Common Areas,' which allow conversational noise, because the space is intended for group work; the 'Quiet Areas,' where oral communication is limited to whispering; and finally, a few 'Silent Areas,' which ask students not to talk at all. "
"Few students venture into the bowels of the library - into the dark, ruddy peace of the Archives. The reading room is precisely framed with portraits, a glossy wooden conference table, and a perimeter of densely packed books. Some of the volumes are so old their original color is barely recognizable; others are tightly bound, yearning to be opened."
"Victoria Van Hyning, a 2006 graduate and Assistant to the Archivist/Special Collections Librarian Gail McCormick, has spent much of the past year working with some of the rarest books in the Julia Rogers Library. She shares McCormick's vision to make this remarkable collection an attractive destination for many students."
"These are among the 4,000 linear feet of company documents, test photos, film reels, and other memorabilia recently donated to Harvard Business School by the group that bought Polaroid last year. The collection was amassed over six decades by Land, the Cambridge scientist and inventor best known as the father of the instant camera."
"Land's collection is being catalogued by manuscript librarians in massive new research archives below the school's restored Baker Library. The boxes of papers, which would stretch three-quarters of a mile laid end to end, are the archives' largest single collection, occupying an eighth of its space. Harvard will open them to academic researchers and other scholars next year."
"Founded in 1919 as a private, nonprofit institution, today the Huntington Library holds about five million rare books and manuscripts in their private collection, and solidifies them as one of the largest and most complete research libraries in the United States. The preservation and proper storage of these rare textbooks will be assured as the library’s Munger Center will be utilizing several Spacesaver high-density systems."
"To raise money for the construction of a new seminar room inside SU's Special Collections Research Center, SU's Library Associates will host a Rare and Select Book Auction this week. The sale will include books donated by SU faculty and alumni, Library Associates board members, as well as duplicates from the SCRC's own inventory, which includes 100,000 rare books. "
"The damage from a fire Saturday morning at the Folger Shakespeare Library on Capitol Hill was contained to a third-floor, costume-storage area above the building's theater. "
"However, water- and smoke-related damage to the Folger Theatre and elsewhere in the east wing closed the building and will postpone by about a week the first performance of "A Midsummer Night's Dream," which was scheduled for Thursday. "
"Dubai: The Shaikh Mohammad IT Education Project and Al Azhar have jointly launched a new online service to enhance global access to Al Azhar library's rare manuscripts."
"The joint venture is part of Al Azhar's effort to communicate to a larger Muslim audience using the latest information and communication tools, said Grand Imam Dr Mohammad Sayed Tantawi, Shaikh of Al Azhar. "
"Many valuable items washed up in this quiet corner of the world and are now among the 200,000 rare books in its possession. Treasures of the library include Renaissance cartography, an illustrated Bestiary, and a priceless 15th-century Spanish Hebrew bible, dating from around the time that Christians expelled Muslims and Jews from southern Spain."
" The 'book hospital' is what staffers at the Boston Public Library call the room where its broken books are mended. Unfortunately, the waiting list of deteriorating books needing treatment there is far longer than the library has the money and staff to restore."
"Among the books needing attention: a 16th-century Hebrew scroll written on animal skin parchment, John James Audubon's famous 1841 miniature 'Birds of America,' and a book of New England algae specimens from 1857."
"The Science Museum is relocating its prestigious library to Wiltshire in the wake of a financial crisis that led to fears that it might lose the unique collection altogether."
"The 120-year-old library, which includes original works by Galileo, Newton and Einstein, has been housed for the past 14 years in Imperial College Library in central London."
" Monte Arlington Grover's descent from being a happy newlywed to her 1895 death by starvation is chronicled in what is possibly the only remaining personal scrapbook created by a Western prostitute during the Victorian era."
"Carol Bowers, an archivist at the University of Wyoming American Heritage Center, contributed a chapter about Grover's scrapbook to “The Scrapbook in American Life,” a collection of essays that recently was honored with the Pioneer America Society's 2006 Alan B. Noble Award for excellence as the best-edited book on North American material culture. The editors are Susan Tucker, Patricia Buckler and Katherine Ott. "
"GULBARGA: Karnataka High Court Chief Justice Cyriac Joseph will inaugurate the Vijnaneshwara Research Library at the Vijnaneshwara Bhavan at Martur, about 16 km from here on October 5."
"The Vijnaneshwara Bhavan has been constructed by the Vijnaneshwara Souharda Sahakari, a Gulbarga based co-operative institution headed by the former Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court and former governor of Bihar and Jarkhand Justice M Rama Jois, at Martur, where the legendary Vijnanaeshwara, author of ‘Mitakshara’, which was the basis for the development and growth of Indian jurisprudence in general and the Hindu jurisprudence in particular, had lived."
"African American history taught and understood as part of American history, not a separate subject, is the focus of an in-depth exhibit at the Rosenbach Museum and Library in Philadelphia."
"On this warm September evening, Rosenbach museum members gathered to see an unusually diverse collection of rare books, letters, posters and artifacts, all from the Rosenbach’s private collection and all dealing with the experience of blacks in America. The Look Again exhibit’s message is laid out in its subtitle: ‘African American History IS American History,’ meaning there really is no way to learn or discuss American history without recognizing that African American history is involved at each step of the nation’s development."
"CHENNAI : A Bangalore-based Union Theological College received an award and grant from U.S. Ambassador David C. Mulford for preservation of ancient palm-leaf manuscripts on Wednesday at the US Consulate General in Chennai."
"The principal of the college, O. V. Jathanna, received $ 15,000 granted from the Ambassador's Cultural Preservation Fund for preservation of palm-leaf manuscripts and rare books in the college archives and converting the information into microforms."
"Besides, very old and rare manuscripts in Ladakh, which are 600 to 700 years old shall be digitized and archived by the Bank. "
"Says Dr. Drabu: 'We have initiated a process. Two things are essential for this project. One is finance which JK Bank shall take care of. Secondly, there is need of specialists/ experts in the field who can locate the things to be preserved and give technical guidance in preserving them.'"
"By the way, the Rare Book Department offers a rare treat: the William Elkins room installed as it was in 1947, with major collections of Oliver Goldsmith, Dickens and various American literary treasures. Like the Free Library itself on Logan Square, it's a wonderful place for people who love books. "
"The University of Calcutta got richer on Wednesday after some rare books of Biman Behari Majumdar were donated to the varsity. The books are mostly on Vaishnava literature. 'The books were mostly locked in almirahs and it was difficult for us to take care of the rare and priceless collection. So we thought of donating it to the university,' said Soumitra Majumdar, grandson to Dr Majumdar, IRTS, chief public relations officer, Eastern Railway. "
"Paradise Lost is a paradise found at the University of South Carolina."
"The purchase of a collection of works by and about poet John Milton places Thomas Cooper Library 'in the top 10 in the world among Milton collections,' says Patrick Scott, director of special collections."
"GRAND RAPIDS -- Think books are destined for the ash heap amid a society agog with DVDs, video games and MP3 downloads? "
"Grand Rapids Public Library proposes to shelve those digital desires during its second annual Celebration of the Book, said Marcie Lewis, president of the Ryerson Library Foundation, co-sponsor of the event. "
"The largest of Yale University's 28 libraries, Sterling Memorial Library, located on Wall Street in New Haven, houses more than four million volumes and serves as the hub of the school's library system."
"New York attorney and Yale alumnus John W. Sterling passed away in 1918, leaving Yale $17 million with the stipulation that Yale build 'at least one enduring, useful and architecturally beautiful edifice, which will constitute a fitting memorial of my gratitude to and affection for my Alma Mater.'"
"Under construction for 18 months, the Joseph Regenstein Jr. School, located on the garden grounds at 1000 Lake Cook Rd. in Glencoe, will open to the public Sept. 23, following a week of celebrations for members, donors and staff."
"Come Wednesday, two distinctly Maryland birds - the Baltimore oriole and the raven - will await admirers from their unusual perch in the Maryland State Law Library in Annapolis. The ruby-throated hummingbird and the summer red bird sit there now. "
"They are part of the library's rare collection of John James Audubon's 19th-century Birds of America prints, newly returned from desperately needed art conservation. "
"An extremely rare handwritten manuscript of the Jamea Kabira Supplication was donated to Mashhad’s Astan-e Qods Razavi Library by Naser Rezaii, the Astan-e Qods Public Relations Office announced on Wednesday.
"The 16-page manuscript, which was written on deerskin parchment, is a valuable artistic and religious work transcribed by Seyyed Hassan Tafreshi in 1867, said the library’s expert and appraiser of handwritten works, Mohammad Vafadar-Moradi."
"The Department of Special Collections at UCLA's Charles E. Young Research Library — a standard-bearer among discriminating packrats — has acquired carpets, furniture, passports, board games and stuffed penguins, along with 330,000 rare books and 30 million manuscripts. "
"Meanwhile, the university's Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library History and Special Collections has amassed an astonishingly varied trove, including acupuncture charts, ads for patent medicines, Japanese medical prints used to educate shy patients, and AIDS posters made for public health campaigns worldwide."
"As a teenager, Thomas Christopher Greene lugged books up from the basement of the Worcester Public Library and sorted them.
“'I worked in circulation,” he said. “I wasn’t very good at it.'"
"The rare book collection of the Lillian Goldman Law Library at Yale Law School has grown by approximately 1,300 volumes with the addition of an "indefinite loan" of valuable books on Roman and canon law from the library of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. "
"The library will have two Reading Rooms overlooking the wooded ravine to the east. A new Rare Book Room will display treasures such as Chief Justice John Marshall’s family Bible, and pleadings signed by George Wythe in 1745."
“'Since the law library serves as the intellectual center and the heart of the William & Mary Law School,” Heller said, “the new library will offer superior facilities for individual and group study, as well as state-of-the-art, technologically advanced and flexible facilities for instruction and research. It will have energizing space that encourages learning, interaction and the sense of community for which Marshall-Wythe is known.'"
"The Allen County Public Library has an estimated 10,000 books in its collection that fit this general description, said Associate Director Steve Fortriede. And a strange thing is starting to happen – demand for these relics appears to be on the increase, elevating them almost to collectors’ status. And that is forcing the library to rethink how it’s going to protect books it didn’t even realize had that much value."
"James W. Craven started working in the University of Michigan's book conservation division more than half a century ago when he was just 14 as a summer job."
"In the years since, he's repaired hundreds of books - some quite valuable - taught a number of budding book conservators and been the go-to guy when it comes to books restoration."
"'People will take a hit,' said Michael Joseph, a rare-book librarian at the New Jersey Reading Room in the Alexander Library building on College Avenue. 'Reduced hours means reduced availability.'
The reading room will now close Mondays, restricting access to the state's most comprehensive collection of New Jersey primary-source materials, including rare journals, manuscripts and maps.
"At the British Library, they are unburdened by the glove problem. Sarah Jane Jenner, preservation coordinator, says white gloves have never been worn at the library and is unsure where the idea came from. (In Silverman and Baker's paper, they suggest the practice spread to rare-book and archive reading rooms about 20 years ago and was probably born from curators being sucked in by archive-supply salespersons' putting on gloves as standard practice.)"
"The MU journalism library in Neff Annex is closed for at least the next few weeks due to last week’s discovery of an undisclosed number of moldy books. Journalism professor Berkley Hudson described the mold as 'fuzzy white film on some of the spines.'"
"AN HISTORIC library once frequented by Frederick Engels and Karl Marx has had its future secured thanks to a heritage grant of almost £100,000. "
"Chetham’s Library in central Manchester, the oldest surviving public library in the English-speaking world, was founded in 1653 in a 15th century building, but water has seeped into the masonry over the years, causing major unseen structural problems. "
"Al Ain: The Zayed Central Library of the UAE University has set up a new section for special collections, such as rare books, course material and curriculum guides."
"The section was inaugurated yesterday by Shaikh Nahyan Bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, during UAEU's annual staff congregation."
"ON the night of November 4, 1966, Florence was struck by the greatest catastrophe in its modern history. The banks of the rampaging River Arno burst, submerging parts of the city beneath 6m of mud and floodwater. The torrent damaged 14,000 works of art and millions of rare books, providing the director of Florence's institute of conservation, Umberto Baldini, with the greatest challenge of his career. "
"Thousands of rare books and manuscripts at the Jamia Milia Islamia University would soon be available in a digital format."
"The varsity has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing for digitisation of rare books and other cultural treasures in the institute’s Zakir Hussain Library."
"In 2006, to celebrate the tercentenary of the birth of Benjamin Franklin, APHA will join the Library Company of Philadelphia and the McNeil Center of the University of Pennsylvania for a conference to be called "The Atlantic World of Print in the Age of Franklin." The conference, which is being sponsored by McNeil Center and the Library Company, will be held in September 2006 at the University of Pennsylvania. Due to the generosity of the sponsors, this conference will be free, except for a modest sum for the banquet."
"The Fairfield Historical Society won a matching grant in the amount of $105,931 which will be used to pay for the costs of preparing, packing, and moving the Society's collections to the new Fairfield Museum and History Center, located on the historic Town Green. The project will ensure the safe and secure transport of museum artifacts, rare books and manuscripts, to the new Fairfield Museum and History Center."
"Within the pages of a rare 450-year-old manuscript sitting in a vault at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia lie hundreds of lines of music that haven't been performed for centuries."
"The choral chants, illustrated with elaborate full-page illuminations, were written between 1554 and 1555 at a convent in present-day Belgium. By next June, the 440-page book and its deteriorating calf-skin covers will be restored, and a group of Australian singers will perform its songs of worship at Halifax's St. Mary's Basilica."
"After a $4 million renovation of the century-old Carnegie Library is completed in late October, it will become home to the Remnant Trust collection of 850 rare books and handwritten manuscripts by thinkers focusing on the importance of liberty and human dignity. "
"The collection's most ancient items — cuneiform cylinders from the Middle East — are about 4,000 years old, Remnant Trust President Kris Bex said."
"The Government District Library, Dharamsala, which not only houses priceless old books but also several rare manuscripts, is in a shambles. Many books have either been destroyed due to heavy rain or eaten by moths and termites. But the district administration is yet to swing into action to save them. "
"There are as many as 40,000 rare books in the library which was set up way back in 1954 and of these at least 20,000 have been exposed to the vagaries of the weather and the years."
"The first fundraiser planned by the Worcester Public Library Foundation will be held in September. The goal will be to raise monies to begin the crucial restoration of rare materials. An evening program with a dinner and readings by several authors with Worcester or Massachusetts connections will be offered. Among the authors who will read from their own books are Dennis Lehane, author of “Mystic River,” John Dufresne, Adria Bernardi and Thomas Christopher Greene. "
"But the library's collection of more than 6 million volumes, growing at a rate of 80,000 per year, has long been too much for the Klementinum to handle. For the past 10 years, the library has tried to relieve the strain by storing its overstocked books in a facility in Hostivař in Prague 10. In 1997, it began converting some of its book collection into electronic format to free up additional shelf space."
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"In 1971, the eyes of the world were focused on New Haven, where members of the Black Panther Party were on trial for the killing of a suspected police informant. It had all the elements of intrigue, along with the added voltage that came from occurring in the middle of one of the country's most turbulent periods."
"During the trial, which was closed to cameras, only one man was allowed to create a visual record of courtroom events, Woodbury resident and noted portraitist Robert Templeton (1929-1991).
Now, approximately 20 of Mr. Templeton's drawings from the trial have been acquired by Yale University for inclusion in its Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library collection."
"The most hidden words and diagrams of Archimedes' greatest works now are coming to light inside a particle accelerator here. Scientists in the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory slowly are scanning an X-ray beam half as thick as a human hair over the ancient parchment in hope of recovering his thoughts from more than 2,000 years ago. "
"What they're working with is 'the ugliest manuscript I have ever seen,' said William Noel, curator of manuscripts and rare books at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, home of the Archimedes palimpsest — meaning a document containing hidden text. "
"Blair Hedges, an avid collector of Renaissance prints along with animals, has devised a clever method for figuring out just how old some of these prints are. Historians have been unable to determine exact dates for hundreds of early prints and books, and Hedges thinks the answer lies in science."
"But not everyone in the world of rare books and prints has embraced this guidance from an outsider, published in June in a British scientific journal that they ordinarily never would read."
"Much of the life of Brooke Astor, now at the center of a bitter family squabble over her assets, is compiled in detailed records at the New York Public Library."
"A total of 362 boxes holding the history of the Vincent Astor Foundation sits in a storage room below Bryant Park. Donated by Astor herself, they can be accessed at the library in room 328 - fittingly, the Brooke Russell Astor Reading Room for Rare Books and Manuscripts."
"After years of planning and massive fundraising, Ohio State University's (OSU) ambitious $105 million renovation and library construction project is about to begin. The university will use two firms to move the library collections and offices in preparation for the renovation of the William Oxley Thompson Library, which will close this fall. The project is set for completion in 2009. The main library's 1.5 million books, meanwhile, will be dispersed mainly to three sites. The bulk of the collection will be housed in a "swing space," equipped to handle the general stacks at a university facility about two miles off-campus. That space will also provide seating for about 200; bus service will connect it to the campus. About 100,000 volumes, including the rare books and manuscript collections already moved, will reside at a nearby depository, while the other materials and journal subscriptions will stay on campus in Sullivant Hall."
"Library and Archives Canada came embarrassingly close to buying a valuable historic map they already had in their collection. Shouldn't the information collectors get their information straight? VAL ROSS investigates."
"TIRUPATI: Founder director of Universal Digital Library and head of Special projects at Carnegie Melon University, USA, Raj Reddy inaugurated the digital library at the Central Library of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams, here on Tuesday."
"Blair Hedges, 49, an avid collector of Renaissance prints as well as animals, has devised a clever method for figuring out just how old some of these prints are. Historians have been unable to determine exact dates for hundreds of early prints and books, and Hedges thinks the answer lies in science."
"But not everyone in the world of rare books and prints has embraced this guidance from an outsider, published last month in a British scientific journal that they would ordinarily never read."
"Same goes for the Skirball Museum at Hebrew Union College."
"There are only three like it in the U.S. and it's just amazing," he says. "Especially the rare book room that's almost never open to the public. It's full of all these incredibly old books that made it through World War II because they were hidden or buried."
"Tuskegee University's Library Services recently received two grants to further preserve and make more accessible the historical African-American data housed in its special collections on campus. "
"Through a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), Tuskegee University will receive $148,183 along with the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library at the University of Alabama for its "Bringing Alabama's African-American History to Light: a Model Partnership" project. "
"Art collector Bartolomé Gil Santacruz of Badajoz, Spain, Mayor of Albuquerque Martín Chavez and Alcalde de Alburquerque, Spain Ángel Vadillo Espino participated in a formal presentation of a rare art book to the Center for Southwest Research at University Libraries recently."
"A history major as an undergraduate -- as were his children, Gail Lapidus Dubosh '84, Janet Lapidus Nova '88 and Roy Lapidus '93 -- Lapidus is president of the American Jewish Historical Society, a member of the advisory council of Princeton's Department of History, and he sits with the Judaic Studies advisory council. He is also a book collector, with a particular interest in books and pamphlets relating to the American Revolution, the slave trade and Judaica. His gifts to Princeton have included rare books pertaining to American Jews in the 18th and 19th centuries and endowment of the Sidney and Ruth Lapidus Professorship in the American Revolutionary Era. "
"A forklift will be required if someone wants to read Ohio State University's original edition of The Scarlet Letter."
"The classic novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne is one of 225,000 rare books that the university is keeping temporarily in a climate-controlled, three-story warehouse in Columbus during a $105 million library renovation."
"With money tight on campuses, it is increasingly difficult for university libraries to persuade administrators to enlarge collections when a single volume can cost tens of thousands of dollars."
"That is where the Newberry, an independent research library, steps in. Under the partnership run by Saenger, when a desirable rare book comes up for sale, the library puts up two-thirds of the money and one of the schools one-third. The Newberry keeps the book eight months a year; the school can have it for four."
" Saint Augustine's "De Vita Beata" (which, in Latin, means "On the blessed life") was not likely a bestseller even in its time, which was more than a half a millennium ago, but today it is a prized volume."
"And in the Connecticut River Valley, it may be the oldest printed book to be found. It resides in the rare book collection of Smith College. Scholars believe it was printed in 1467 in Cologne, Germany. "
"The museum also aims to instill a sense of pride among Indians. “We will showcase India’s contribution to science, maths and culture in ancient times,” adds Bhatkar."
"Other plans include renovation and digitisation of the library, which houses more than 1,10,000 books and a huge manuscript collection."
“These books are being codified and classified. Soon we will also be connected to big libraries in the world,” says Gadgil. The institute is almost through with the Mahabharat project with an English translation for the layman to understand. "
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"Following its partnership with Peking University Library two months ago, Baidu.com (BIDU), the largest search engine in China, has now reached another strategic partnership with Chinese National Science Digital Library (CNSDL)."
"With this cooperation, Baidu is poised to offer the world's largest selection of Chinese book searches."
" With money so tight on campuses, it is increasingly difficult for university libraries to persuade administrators to spend money to enlarge rare book collections when a single volume can cost thousands or tens of thousands of dollars."
"That is where the Newberry, an independent research library at 60 W. Walton St., steps in. Under the partnership run by Saenger, when a desirable rare book comes up for sale, the library puts up two-thirds of the money and the school one-third. The Newberry keeps the book eight months a year; the school can have it for four."
"Seven universities hit by Hurricane Katrina are each getting free online access to more than 10,000 scientific, technical and medical books from the publisher."
"They'll also get free online access to and another 5,000 or so texts to be published next year."
"Located on the top floor of the Judah L. Magnes Museum since 1967, the Western Jewish History Center collects, preserves and provides scholarly access to archival and oral history collections from the Jewish com"
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"The waning interest in the golden habit of reading in today’s Internet age can be gauged from the fact that “not even a quarter” of its near-12,000 members set foot inside Qatar National Library (QNL), the country’s oldest standing library."
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"The Wairarapa Archive is about to celebrate another milestone with the bringing together of the region's rare historical reference material, previously closely guarded under lock and key at the Masterton District Library."
"The material includes rare books, vertical files, old newspapers, the microfiche reader and genealogical data will be placed on new shelving in the archive. "
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"NEW YORK Autograph manuscripts by master composers are, naturally, invaluable resources for music scholars and specialists. The manuscript of Chopin's Variations for Piano and Orchestra on the theme "Là ci darem la mano" from Mozart's "Don Giovanni," for example, definitively reveals Chopin's first thoughts about this ambitious early work. But examining the manuscript recently at the Morgan Library and Museum, I was struck more by what it reveals about the character of its 17-year-old composer. And this is something that all music lovers, not just specialists, can glean from seeing the score."
"Rare Manuscripts placed at Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan (Deemed University), Ganganath Jha Institute campus, will finally get a new lease of life."
"In a bid to save more than 60,000 manuscripts, the National Manuscript Mission, New Delhi has taken the initiative of cataloguing and documentation without incurring any financial burden over the institute."
"One of the biggest projects of its kind ever launched by a UK university, it aims to create a building that will house ancient manuscripts and state-of-the-art technology under the same roof. Due to open in 2010, it will be one of the first new academic libraries to be built this century and will provide an important blueprint for libraries of the future."
Botanical Research Institute of Texas: "Preserving a million dead plants and a collection of rare books requires a state-of-the-art facility, Sohmer says. And homey as it is, the current space can't keep up with BRIT's growing needs. The organization is at work on architectural plans for its proposed new headquarters, and Sohmer is hoping for room enough to add, potentially, another 2 million specimens to the herbarium."
"The works of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and James Dickey will soon have their very own home at the University of South Carolina."
"Wednesday, a special ceremony was held to break ground on a new wing of the Thomas Cooper Library."
" Among the highlights of the exhibition is an edition of George Staunton's An Authentic Account of an Embassy from the King of Great Britain of China published in 1798."
"The beautifully produced five-volume set of the former, the only copy that exists in the world, is a genuine and copious account of Lord George Macartney's mission to China and the court of the Qing emperor Qianlong from the King George III between 1792 and 1794."
"The Libraries has chosen this to be digitized it as its one millionth e-book. "
"The new Munger Research Center provides 90,000 square feet (8,400 m²) of space for the Huntington Library, San Marino, California, home to one of the world's most important collections of rare books, an extensive botanical garden and a museum of fine art. "
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"Shrinking budgets have led to backlogs in library preservation departments at Hopkins and across the country. Conservators are left wondering: If we don't preserve it, who will?"
"Russian federal archives contain more than 600 million documents, each year drawing historians, linguists, literature theorists and amateur genealogists from Russia and abroad. Gaining access to archives and libraries is not complicated, but it helps to know the rules."
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" A collection of ancient books including 2000 lithography books and 100 manuscripts brought from private collection owners has been transferred to Iran from the Netherlands after four months of negotiations between the experts of Iran’s National Library and the owners of the collection. Categorizing this collection has been started by experts of the National Library, where the books will be kept in. "
"The Newberry Library and the Chicago
History Museum worked together to create a solution to keep key maps and
manuscripts in the city of Chicago. The Chicago History Museum, in an
effort to bring its collections closer to its primary mission of
documenting the history of the city, decided to part with 1,000 maps and
manuscripts last year. In order to keep the treasures in Chicago, the
museum generously gave the Newberry Library an opportunity to make a
private offer for any maps of interest."
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"A new online Performing Arts Encyclopedia has been developed to serve as a centralized guide for users interested in exploring the performing arts. The encyclopedia focuses on music, motion picture, broadcasting, recorded sound, manuscript, rare book and other nonbook collections."
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"Other Mobilians knew him through the Mobile Opera, the Mobile Symphony, his involvement in restoring more than 30 homes in the city's Oakleigh Historic Garden District, his founding of a medical museum, and his relationships with his alma mater, Tulane University, and with Spring Hill College, where he and his wife, Charlotte, funded the Eichold Fine Arts Center and Rare Book Room."
"It was thrilling. I felt a chill run up my back as I happened upon the pictures in a plain manila envelope in a box of a 1940s Roosevelt biographer's research materials. For a geek, this is paradise - what meeting Michael Jordan or Cher, or winning the lottery signifies to a more balanced person. I wanted to shout out loud as I "discovered" the prints, or do one of those Macaulay Culkin arm-cocking gestures from "Home Alone," or a Jim Carrey pelvic rant, or, like Roosevelt at the site of his first buffalo kill, perform an "Indian war dance."
"Despite the antiquated approach, Russian archives seem to be better catalogued than those in the United States, said Ryan Jones, a graduate student researching Russian environmental history. "As I understand, there was a lot of investment in their organization during Soviet times, both to facilitate access and to figure out what needed to be kept from scholars," he said."
"Paulson Investment Co. Inc. donated $1 million to the University of Oregon's libraries."
"The donation from Portland-based Paulson, the Northwest's largest independent brokerage firm, will support the University of Oregon libraries' special collections, a repository housing rare books, manuscripts, historical photographs and other unique materials. The Special Collections Reading Room has been renamed the Paulson Reading Room in honor of Paulson Investment. "
"Oxford University has become embroiled in a bitter argument with the most unlikely of foes. The Nikkon Dental University is refusing to return a rare 16th Century book which was stolen from Christ Church over ten years ago. The book, ‘De Humani Corporis Fabrice’ by Andrea Vesalius, was stolen from Christ Church along with seventy-three other books by music lecturer, Simon Heighes, in 1995."
"Over the next eight years, seventy- three of these were located and recovered by the college, but Vesalius’ work, on the topic of human anatomy, has not been returned. It was sold to the Nippon Dental University in Japan and is currently on display in their Museum of Medicine and Dentistry. However, despite repeated appeals by Oxford for its return, Nippon is refusing to negotiate it."
" New Delhi: With over 50 lakh manuscripts present in several parts of the country, the National Mission for Manuscripts (NMM) has launched a massive survey programme across the country to find out, document and preserve manuscripts within five years' time period."
"His Majesty's remarks came during the visit he paid on Tuesday to Saint George College of Oxford University in London, during which HM also toured the college's library that contained rare manuscripts, depicting the high level of advancement the old Islamic and Arab civilization was enjoying."
"A bit more of the world may now be on a mission to engage with it and those who go are unlikely to be disappointed. One of the cathedral's better kept secrets is the Wren Library, built by Christopher Wren, the architect of St Paul's in London, in 1674."
"Described by Roy Strong, former curator of London's Victoria and Albert Museum, as "one of the most beautiful rooms in England", the library contains 10,000 rare books dating from before 1801; 260 of which are from before 1501. The oldest volume is a handwritten 10th-century manuscript of homilies by the Venerable Bede."
"One of New York's great cultural treasures has reopened after a three-year renovation. The Morgan Library and Museum has expanded above and below the ground."
"In a city filled with world-class museums, the Morgan has always stood out because it remains, essentially a library. And what a library it is."
"A number of prestigious libraries -- including Harvard University's -- have such books in their collections. While the idea of making leather from human skin seems bizarre and cruel today, it was not uncommon in centuries past, said Laura Hartman, a rare book cataloger at the National Library of Medicine in Maryland and author of a paper on the subject."
"What Ms. Lorenz is doing is the critical if somewhat invisible part of a larger project that has occupied this jewel-like and treasure-rich town in the former East Germany ever since a fire a year and a half ago damaged or destroyed 72,000 volumes in the Duchess Anna Amalia Library, which was one of the greatest collections of old books and manuscripts in the world."
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"And there's the Voynich Manuscript, an illustrated manuscript that sits in Yale's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. It's been around for more than 400 years and written in some mysterious language that no one has ever figured out. The wind was taken out of some cryptographers' sails in 2004 when a study of the text made a convincing case that it's nothing but 232 pages of gibberish."
"A treasured part of the new Minneapolis Public Library will be found on the fourth floor. That's where guests will be treated to the special collections department."
"Inside the sparkling granite and glass building is found a piece of its past -- it's the repository for thousands of rare books and historical items."
" The contrast between the old Morgan Library and the new Morgan Library and Museum is like night and day."
"The old library was a dark, sleepy place with a small entrance on a side street and a warren of dimly lit corridors and exhibition rooms. The yawns started as soon as you paid your admission."
"Now, following a three-year renovation during which the rare manuscript and medieval art collection founded by financier J.P. Morgan was closed to the public, a new entrance leads to an expansive, glass-enclosed courtyard suffused with light. "
"USC’s substantial, growing collection of political papers, rare books and manuscripts will have a new home by the fall of 2008 in two wings that will begin rising this summer on the east and west sides of the Thomas Cooper Library."
"The $18 million project will improve access to the most diverse collection of post-World War II political papers in the state, and one of the most important such archives in the nation."
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"In the 1960s, there were 800 underground newspapers in the United States. Many lasted a short time, but for eight and a half years, The Great Speckled Bird told the other side that other Atlanta newspapers were afraid to touch."
"Issues of The Bird from 1968 through 1976 are archived on microfilm in the Woodruff Library at Emory University and some hard copies are available through Emory’s rare manuscript section."
"The Rs. 2-crore museum will be a treasure house of rare manuscripts, books and sketches of eminent Urdu writers and poets. It will also showcase the growth of the language and the contributions made by a galaxy of writers down the ages."
"Chittagong University (CU) authorities have taken initiative to bring its central library under computerised automation system to rid the students and researchers of the hassle of finding out desired books searching through manual catalogue."
"CU Central Library is among the remarkable libraries in the country with a rich collection of different books, journals and other reading materials."
"But the students, teachers and researchers of the university are to struggle a lot to get a desired book from the catalogues that lie in huge piles in the library."
"Queen Arwa mosque contains on wealthy library full of rare manuscript books about Islam and Arabic language. The library contains on a manuscript of the Holy Qur'an was written creatively since more than 700 years ago. She encouraged woman's education; so; we can find many manuscript books were written by educated woman. Therefore; Jiblah city is called the city of knowledge, information and science. It acted as information and knowledge sources for knowledge students and researchers in the medieval ages."
"Archives of one of the most prestigious literary journals will soon reside within the walls of the University library system."
"Editors of the Hudson Review, a half-century-old New York magazine of literature and arts, have chosen Princeton to house its valuable archives."
"Academic libraries are the forefront of a revolution in the distribution of resources and services, and are far from becoming outmoded by developments in Information Technology, a visiting official from Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, has said in a presentation yesterday."
"H Thomas Hickerson, Associate University Librarian for Information Technologies and Special Collections and Director of the Division of Digital Library and Information Technologies, was speaking on ‘Academic Libraries: Dinosaurs facing extinction - or engines of change?’"
"LONDON: An expert on handwritten books has said that the lack adequate maintenance facilities in depositories of manuscripts is responsible for the decomposition of a large number of rare works, Mehr news agency said."
"Sadeq Eshkevari proposed the establishment of an international foundation for protecting handwritten books. He said that national library has made a public call to owners of handwritten books to donate their books to the library as a trust in order to protect them from damages."
"A collection of rare books and reference volumes tracing the history of science and technology, including original works by Isaac Newton and the scientific library of Louis Pasteur, has been donated to the Huntington Library in San Marino, officials announced Monday."
"The Burndy Library, which contains 67,000 books and reference volumes and a collection of scientific instruments, will reposition the Southern California institution as one of the leading centers in the nation for scholarly research in science history, Huntington Library President Steven S. Kolik said."
"DURHAM, N.C. Some events for this week's N.C. Festival of the Book at Duke University:
Thursday, April 27:"
"_ 8 p.m., Duke Chapel: Keynote on writing for social change by Barbara Kingsolver, author of "The Poisonwood Bible."
"ATHENS, Ga. — Laid out on a table-length display at the University of Georgia library one day each year is the document that established a government to rival the one in Washington, plunging Americans into civil war."
"The only known copy of the Confederate Constitution draws hundreds of visitors to Athens every April 26, which is Confederate Memorial Day in Georgia."
"NEW YORK -- The Pierpont Morgan Library, closed for almost three years, showed off its $106 million renovation on Tuesday with expanded space to display its priceless collection of artworks and manuscripts, which include three Gutenberg Bibles."
"The expansion includes a modern, glass-and-steel addition by Italian architect Renzo Piano, who designed the Pompidou Center in Paris and is now working on the expansion of New York's Whitney Museum of American Art, among other projects."
"The Morgan Library is not just a well-preserved relic from Manhattan's Gilded Age, but a modern museum with world-class collections and a full schedule of special exhibitions."
"Tehran -- The Netherlands is to transfer a collection of ancient manuscripts including 2000 stone inscriptions and 100 paper manuscripts to Iran in a near future."
"'Three Iranian collection owners residing abroad have collected numerous precious manuscripts from Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and Central Asia for 12 years and since one of these three people is residing in The Netherlands, the entire collection was sent to him by the other two to be kept in a single place. Last year they offered Iran’s National Library to submit this collection to this center so that it may be kept inside Iran,” said Habibollah Azimi, director of handwritten and rare manuscripts of Iran’s National Library.'"
"The Anderson Memorial Library in Emporia is the second oldest Carnegie Library in Kansas."
"It's quite unique. Made of limestone, there's a wood framed dome, artful pressed tin ceilings and colorfully ornate stained glass windows."
"We hear the name 'Carnegie,' but who is he and what exactly is a Carnegie Library."
"SALT LAKE CITY - Police arrested one man and recovered most of the 13 religious books stolen this week from the Daughters of Utah Pioneers museum."
"BEIJING -- Zhang Ping was engrossed in fixing a crack in a 10th-century Buddhist manuscript recently, using special paper, paste and, most of all, his patience."
"Looking up from his work, the usually-calm National Library of China (NLC) ancient-book restorer looked somewhat anxious."
"'We are still halfway through repairing the dilapidated scrolls from the Dunhuang Grottoes in Northwest China, which would stretch 10,000 metres if placed end to end. We need another six years to finish the job.'"
"TIRUPATI: The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) has decided to entrust the task of digitising the Tamrapatras (manuscripts of brass leaflets) containing Annamacharya Sankeertanas to Chennai-based Soft India Private Limited."
"These Tamrapatras are several hundreds years old and more sacred than the valuables with the TTD as they contain the sankeertanas of the saint poet."
"THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The State Archives Department has ambitious plans to decipher old and rare manuscripts in the state and put them on the internet. But there’s a catch. The department can’t get hold of enough translators to do the job it has in mind."
‘‘The manuscripts are mostly in old scripts such as ‘Vattezhuthu’ and ‘Kolezhuthu.’"
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"Michael and Jinny Isakson, formerly of Bismarck, have made a donation to The Library Foundation Inc., which funds projects at Bismarck Public Library."
"The Isaksons gave $150,000 to the foundation, adding to the coffers that have provided the library's computers, rare books, CDs and more."
"The UC Davis Library will unveil a historic collection of Western Americana, one of the largest private collections ever to be donated to a university library. The collection, donated by a Sacramento-area couple, contains more than 20,000 volumes, many of them extremely rare, as well as Western and Native American artifacts. The collection ultimately will be available to researchers and members of the public."
""As one of the central cultural institutions in Croatia, the mission of our institution is to promote Croatian culture, research and science," said Josip Stipanov, director of the National and University Library. "Leveraging the flexibility and power of the Endeavor solution will not only enable our staff to become more efficient in their daily work, but it will also provide citizens with the enhanced ability to interact with a wealth of historical and contemporary resources."
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"Bancroft Library officials have selected more than 350 of the library's rarest and most historic holdings for an exhibit celebrating the library's 100th year."
"Running through Dec. 3, the exhibit combines pieces of California history with first editions of Copernicus and Galileo, ancien tEgyptian papyri with images of the Beat poets, mementos of the Black Panther movement with an extremely rare and fragile 16th century scroll illustrating the life, loves, wars and rituals of Cuicatec rulers who lived in what is now Oaxaca, Mexico. The scroll, called the Codex Fernandez Leal, is probably the most valuable item in the library's collection."
"'On your marks! Get set! Get a plate! Graze!'announced Edward Hoyenski, assistant to the curator in the Rare Book Room to kick off the taste competition."
"The competition was part of NT’s seventh annual Edible Books Festival Monday in Willis Library’s Rare Book Room."
"Beijing: China will adopt Egyptian techniques used to preserve the murals in the pyramids to save a number of Chinese ancient books which are in bad shape."
"'China's ancient books may be destroyed by acidification within a hundred years if repair techniques are not improved,' director of the rare book department of the National Library of China, Zhang Zhiqing said.'"
"A rare manuscript charting the birth of modern science has been saved from a possible overseas sale just minutes before it was due to go under the hammer."
"Robert Hooke's minutes of the Royal Society from 1661 to 1682 had sparked huge worldwide interest and were expected to fetch between £1 million and £1.5 million at auction."
"But the Royal Society - an independent scientific academy dedicated to promoting excellence in UK science - agreed to buy the manuscript from the anonymous seller at the last minute for an undisclosed sum."
"In a partnership with the Newberry Library in Chicago, the University purchased partial ownership of a 15th century legal manuscript."
"The manuscript, written primarily in Latin, details the laws of Brno, now a Czech Republic city. Susan Noakes, director of the Center for Medieval Studies, said the manuscript will provide insight into everyday life during the 1400s."
"The full gamut of human knowledge is here and registered missing, from A Discourse Concerning the Causes and Effects of Corpulency, by Thomas Short MD, of Sheffield, in 1728, to the Book of Snuff and Snuff Boxes (1956). There are 22 diet books, four Shakespeare plays, Jimmy Greaves's autobiography and a Jamie Oliver cookbook. Someone has absentmindedly failed to return to the shelves A Forgotten Conference, a 1962 history of the negotiations at Beijing."
"FARMINGTON -- The Lewis Walpole Library, an affiliate of Yale University housing one of the world's foremost collections of 18th-century literature and art, needs a serious makeover."
"It's not easy designing a 13,000-square-foot addition, resembling a barn, that would offer more room to researchers and security and climate controls worthy of the library's rare and priceless collection of manuscripts, prints, books, drawings, paintings, furniture and other objects from the period."
"As the competition for the George W. Bush Presidential Library heats up, interest in White House history could be cooling off."
"Attendance at most presidential libraries and museums is down – way down, in some cases. The number of visitors is declining at eight of the 11 libraries, including both sites in Texas."
"The trend toward books as décor-only is jarring to book collectors such as Utt."
'You should collect what you love,' Utt says."
"Or, at the least, invest in something you want to read."
"Addis Ababa - An international project to digitalize rare Ethiopian manuscripts, illustrated religious works, and historical photographs dating back 150 years in a collection at Addis Ababa University was inaugurated Friday."
"The project was jointly financed by UNESCO and the Cultural Preservation Programme of the German Federal Foreign Office to help the university's Institute of Ethiopian Studies restore and preserve its collection of cultural and historical relics."
"City council has opened the book on demolishing and rebuilding the central library within four years, after agreeing to an ambitious construction plan worth $150 million."
"The alarming state of affairs was revealed in a survey by the Beijing Municipal Cultural Heritage Administration in December which was conducted after many rare books were damaged when a heating pipe burst at BECP."
"Museum officials fear that this might not be an isolated disaster. The 81 museums hold about 620,000 cultural relics in their collections; and about 80 per cent are vulnerable to changes in weather conditions. "
"The bound book, for example, began to replace the roll or scroll only toward the end of Antiquity. It evolved during the Middle Ages into the major means for the transmission of knowledge that remained until the advent of the Internet Age; medieval scribes and artists exercised remarkable inventiveness to turn the illuminated manuscript into an object of the most exquisite beauty."
"merging technologies are key to meeting the challenge of integrating knowledge, and the Penn Library is harnessing--in some cases even developing—the best of them. A tool of our own devising, featured prominently on Library web pages, allows you to search across multiple resources, such as catalogs, databases, research guides, and various web services, in a single query."
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"These are among thousands of items sequestered in the lower level of Ekstrom Library in Rare Books and in Photographic Archives. Together, they are known as Special Collections — special because their holdings are rare, unique and exceptional."
"Rare Books’ collections emphasize literature, popular culture and the history of books and printing. Among its holdings are literary manuscripts, vintage World War posters, antique maps, materials that document the cultural life of Louisville and historic mathematics and astronomy texts that draw researchers from throughout the world."
" Every year in early April, bibliophiles, book artists and food lovers around the world gather to celebrate the book arts and the literal ingestion of culture. Participants create edible books that are exhibited, documented then consumed on the spot."
"April 1 also is the birthday of the celebrated French gastronome Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826), and, being April Fool’s Day, it also is “the perfect day to eat your words and play with them, too,” said the event’s creator, California artist Judith A. Hoffberg."
"INDIANAPOLIS -- The book that 10-year-old Sean Fry held in his hands March 3 at Park Tudor School in Indianapolis was printed about four centuries before his birth."
"Fry and his fourth-grade class spent the morning browsing through antique books provided by the Remnant Trust, a Southern Indiana nonprofit organization that seeks to put old books -- including rare ones -- in the ungloved hands of the general public."
" Johns Hopkins has been awarded a $500,000 challenge grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities that will provide the Sheridan Libraries an endowment for collections and a librarian to support the university's Leonard and Helen R. Stulman Jewish Studies Program."
"The Stulman Jewish Studies Program was established in 2002 to coordinate the many academic activities at Johns Hopkins dedicated to the study of Jewish history, literature, language, politics and religion. Drawing on faculty from nearly every department in the humanities and social sciences, the program gives students the opportunity to explore more than three millennia of Jewish culture, ranging from biblical to contemporary. The creation of this interdisciplinary program has brought with it a rapid expansion of research and teaching in Jewish studies, an expansion that has in turn placed new demands on the libraries' collections."
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"KOLKATA, INDIA " The Bandhab public library in Joynagar has a rich collection of rare books of ancient history and archaeology but it does not have chairs that could allow readers to sit and study."
"The library also does not have tables in the reading room for keeping books and studying. In addition to this, the library is ill-equipped to take proper care of rare books. The managing committee of the library had requested the government to provide tables, chairs and an almirah. But its appeal has not been heard as yet. "
"Tim Barrett, a research scientist with the University of Iowa Center for the Book, is beginning the first of a three-part project with the help of a $15,000 grant from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation and the UI Office of the Vice President for Research. The second and third parts of the project will depend on additional funding."
"Barrett anticipates that his non-destructive techniques will yield a wealth of information relevant to the care and conservation of rare books and works of art on paper, and add new insights into papermaking history and the production of durable archival papers. "
" Academia Historica has been charged with digitalizing national government archives and presidential documents while Academia Sinica is focusing on plants, shellfishes, maps, Formosan aborigines, the Taiwan Provincial Consultative Council, diplomatic and economic records, historical and cultural relics archaeological data, rubbings, archaic texts, rare books, ethnological data, the Grand Secretariat Archives, and Mandarin and Formosan language archives."
"The library project, naturally, is dedicated to preserving local historical archives, newspapers, journals, and periodicals held there, as the National Museum of History is working to preserve its collections including artifacts, calligraphy and painting, specimens, archives and research information."
"The Commission announced in September that it wanted to put Europe’s cultural heritage on the internet by turning books, photos, records and films into a massive digital library."
"If successful, the initiative will rival Google’s controversial library project, which takes the book collections of several research libraries – about 15 million books – and makes this content searchable online."
"This will then be expanded to archives and museums, resulting in two million books, films, photographs, manuscripts, and other cultural works being accessible through the European Digital Library by 2008. This figure will grow to at least six million by 2010, but is expected to be much higher as, by then, potentially every library, archive and museum in Europe will be able to link its digital content to the European Digital Library, says the Commission."
"There were printed books of the works of Aristotle, Karl Marx, Jeremy Bentham, John Locke, David Hume, Plato, St. Augustine, Machiavelli, St. Thomas More, John Stuart Mill, John Peter Zenger, Alexis de Tocqueville, Thomas Paine, Homer (the Greek, not the Simpson) and Adam Smith."
"Upper school librarian Jane Kokotiewicz passed around a page of a Gutenberg Bible and an original printing of the Declaration of Independence."
"CHICAGO -- In a secluded corner of the Newberry Library, archivists slowly take apart the yellowing book considered the Mayan Bible for its epic narrative of the Sovereign Plumed Serpent and other gods creating the world."
"Like other Newberry treasures over the years -- a Shakespeare first folio, letters from Columbus -- the Popol Vuh attracts scholars."
"The exhibit -- which features items ranging from personal diaries to political posters -- offers the public a sampling of 300 items chosen from 65 million stored within the archives, documenting some of the most riveting events that have transformed the world over the past century."
"The university hopes the exhibit will introduce more people to the archives, long a source of inspiration to scholars. Unlike most universities, Stanford welcomes to public to explore its archives -- under supervision."
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"Decades before Gustave Eiffel built his tower, Henri Labrouste was the supreme fashioner of cast iron, leaving his mark from the 1840's to the 1860's with a pair of magnificent libraries, the Bibliothèques Ste.-Genevieve and Nationale. Dominique Perrault's futuristic design for the Bibliothèque François Mitterrand, widely ridiculed since it was completed in 1994, has nonetheless served as a quai-side anchor for the revitalization of the 13th Arrondissement, across from the rejuvenated neighborhood of Bercy."
"Our city is home to some of the world's finest collections of books."
"Scholars from all over the world visit the libraries of Cambridge University, which contain treasures ranging from rare and beautifully-illuminated manuscripts to some of the earliest printed books."
Continue reading ""Cambridge (England) Tops Bestseller List""
"And rush there fast, for lack of state funding could well mean these rare manuscripts will be history even at the well-stocked library, officials here said."
"The library stocks true copies of over 8,000 such original manuscripts, dating as far back as the 13th century, in Hindi, Bangla, Telugu, Tamil, Gurmukhi and Granth (an ancient script)."
"But ironically, the state government has no scheme to conserve, or even reprint, these manuscripts. And the little grant from the Union government is not enough to preserve the manuscripts, Dr Chandraprakash Dwivedi, Assistant Director of the Sansthan, said. 'Some of these manuscripts are invaluable, and we want to get them published (as books), but for the lack of funds...'”
"A UNIQUE collection of antique books and manuscripts found gathering mould in Durham Cathedral will be saved from ruin."
"The irreplaceable books and manuscripts, some dating back to medieval times, were becoming damp because of holes in the rectory roof where rain was coming in."
"Now, English Heritage has donated £65,000 for much-needed repairs to the roof and guttering of the cathedral's rectory and Librarian's Loft, where thousands of extremely rare and valuable books are kept."
"Fifteen months after Google announced a book-scanning project of biblical proportions -– an effort to digitize the entire book collections of the New York Public Library and Harvard University libraries, among others -- the company is still secretive about how they are solving key technical problems and won't say how much they've accomplished so far."
"However, a similar if smaller project -- the Million Book Project at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh -- has been underway for about seven years. It could provide some clues. The project's director, computer scientist Raj Reddy, says he and his colleagues have no more knowledge about Google's methods or progress than anyone else, but they are tackling many of the same challenges."
"Some books are not only rare, they are beautiful. A good example in the rare books collection of the Special Collections Research Center is The Aurelian: A Natural History of English Moths and Butterflies, together with the Plants on Which They Feed (London, 1766) by Moses Harris."
"Like some other rich Londoners, Moses Harris (1731?-1785?) collected insects. Entomology was a popular pastime in an era in which new exciting specimens could come in from the British colonies. He produced The Aurelian, which was first published in 1766 and reprinted in an updated version by John Obadiah Westwood in 1840. There were charges of plagiarism of the work of Jacob L'Admiral against Harris, whom Westwood defended in the reprint. "
"Driven by literary taste, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today took a substantial time out from his busy schedule and spent over three-and-a-half hours at Khuda Baksh Oriental Public Library perusing rare manuscripts."
"Kumar went through the rare manuscripts including Shahnama written by Hussaini in 16th century, 11th century Arabic Manuscript Kitabul isais containing pictures of over 300 Zari butti and their ayurvedic qualities and badshahnama of Mohammad Amin Kazwini among others, library director Prof Imtiaz Ahmad said."
"NIZHNY NOVGOROD, Russia The bloody battles of World War II never reached this picturesque city at the juncture of the Volga and Oka Rivers, but a treasure of Hungarian books dating back to the 15th century, a collection that has returned home after six decades here, serves as a painful reminder of the war."
"Wait — maybe a library is more than just a food- and noise-free environment. Maybe a history on Pittsburgh’s 110-year-old library system is worth a read. Bear with me, and I think you’ll learn that libraries aren’t as boring as they sound. Who knows, you might even wind up wanting to get a library card."
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"The library, housed in the Ortigas Building in Pasig City, has one of the most comprehensive Filipiniana collections in the country, assembling the collection of Morton Netzorg (for decades the foremost dealer in Filipiniana books in the United States) with the personal reference library of historian Dr. Gregorio F. Zaide."
"The Karger’s Library’s historical collection boasts rare manuscripts like the Basel Haggada and other valuable documents from the 16th and 17th century. These Hebrew manuscripts, which were mainly written by Christian specialists of Hebrew language and published by Sebastian von Munster, are primarily grammar books and lexicons. "
"First of all, it's not a cage."
"The gate that divides the archives from the rest of the second floor of Beeghly Library is not there to keep students out -- or as a minister once joked, to keep the librarians in."
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"With a unique treasury of American, European, and other global 19th- and 20th-century fairs and expositions, Alfred Heller's collection cut a wide swath on October 11, 2005, at Christie's in New York City-a celebration of both popular and serious books, publications, engravings, photographs, stereoviews, artworks, maps, advertising, and ephemera of historic accomplishments, and dreams."
"Cornell University librarian Sarah Thomas figured it was a scam."
"The chance to become one of the world's top Native American history libraries - at a bargain-basement price - doesn't just fall into your lap."
"But in November 2000, the state ttorney general's office was looking for a way to keep a Native American collection of 40,000 books and thousands of manuscripts within New York state. Thomas checked with Cornell's rare book experts and concluded the opportunity was legitimate. "
"n 1905 the University of California purchased historian Hubert Howe Bancroft's personal library — a "massive accumulation of books and manuscripts," as its caretakers describe it today. But it was not until early May 1906, following the earthquake and fire of April 18, that its contents were ferried across the bay to Berkeley. Fortuitously, the Bancroft Library, then located on Valencia Street in San Francisco, was the only library of any note that did not burn to the ground during the disaster."
"Moscow: - Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed into law a bill approving the return of the Sarospatak Reformed College's book collection to Hungary."
"The books have been kept in the archive of the Lenin Scientific Library in Nizhny Novgorod. They were brought to the Soviet Union after World War II."
" Here is a first edition of D.H. Lawrence’s “The Rainbow.” Carmin holds the oldest book in the collection, a pocket Bible from 1250. Next he digs out the three-volume “Les Roses” by Pierre-Joseph Redouté, which features hand-colored copperplate etchings of the roses Napoleon’s ex-wife Josephine grew while in exile at Chateau Malmaison. Also in the collection are Beatrix Potter’s first kids book, a limited edition of Seamus Heaney’s “Glanmore Sonnets” from 1971 and a poem, “Mountain Blue,” in a book that folds out into the shape of Mount Rainier."
"“It is my fortune that I visited this unique library today. I am very happy to see that rare manuscripts have been preserved here so carefully. These treasures are more precious than all diamonds taken together. These manuscripts keep us abreast with our culture and history,” the governor who went to visit the Khuda Baksh library after the swearing-in ceremony."
"The library, a central institution, has an impressive collection of old Islamic works on literature, culture and history and also stores a seventh-century handwritten manuscript of the Quran."
"n a secluded corner of the Newberry Library, archivists slowly take apart the yellowing book considered the Mayan Bible for its epic narrative of the Sovereign Plumed Serpent and other gods creating the world."
"Like other Newberry treasures over the years--a Shakespeare first folio, letters from Columbus--the Popol Vuh attracts scholars."
"But unlike any other rare text at the library, the Popol Vuh also draws immigrants from Guatemala and Mexico, descendants of the Mayans who make their way to the library so they can reverently page through the 188-page book full of elegant script, in Spanish and the Mayan language of Quiche."
"A few individuals give new meaning to the idea of spending forever in the library—their skin binds three of the books in Harvard’s 15-million-volume collection."
"Without extensive genetic testing, Harvard librarians still do not have the “foggiest notion” of how many volumes wrapped in human hide exist throughout the system, says Director of University Libraries Sidney Verba ’53. But they have identified three such volumes in the Langdell Law Library, Countway Library of Medicine, and the Houghton Collection. The three books range in content from medieval law to Roman poetry to French philosophy. "
"The center court has a modest collection of pre-colonial earthenware from the Calatagan, Batangas, excavations of the 1960s and it leads to a gallery dedicated to Jose Rizal and another gallery for rare books and maps. At the very end of the museum is the library -- the heart of the museum -- with a sizable collection of Filipiniana books and periodicals (most interesting being pre-war magazines and the pre-martial law photos and newspaper clippings that provide a window to the recent past)."
"In 2005, Paulson Investment Company, Inc. made stock donations to the University of Oregon Libraries. The donations have created the Paulson Investment Endowment Fund for Special Collections, a repository housing rare books, manuscripts, photographs and other material. The gift will lead to the renaming of the former Special Collections Reading Room in honor of Paulson Investment Company, Inc."
"NEWPORT, R.I. (AP) -- The Redwood Library and Athenaeum has stood as a proud vestige of old-world Newport for more than two and a half centuries, but a dramatic scare two years ago threatened the future of the country's oldest lending library."
"Library director Cheryl Helms rushed to the Redwood on the night of Nov. 19, 2003 to find a portion of the ceiling collapsed and thick chunks of plaster on the ground. "
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"The University of California–Los Angeles (UCLA) has announced the formation of a rare book school within the Department of Information Studies at the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. The chartering of the school comes at a time of "renewed interest in special collections coupled with a growing need for training in the field of rare books and manuscripts," said professor Beverly Lynch, founding director of the new school."
Moscow: "Russia's Duma, parliament's lower house, approved a law on Friday authorising the return of a collection of precious books belonging to the Sarospatak Calvinist College Library in NE Hungary."
"The volumes were taken away by Soviet troops in November 1945. The bill, approved in its third and final reading, provides for the return of 134 volumes, including 96 books in Latin, 33 in Hungarian and six in German. The collection includes prayer books and volumes on medicine, law and history."
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" The name change involves a venerable specialty library, the one that houses the rarest treasures of the entire U. of I. Library. As of Jan. 1, 2006, the former Rare Book and Special Collections Library will be known as The Rare Book & Manuscript Library (RB&ML)."
"One of 38 departmental libraries within the University Library, The Rare Book & Manuscript Library is the principal repository for early manuscripts, rare books and literary archives in the broad fields of art, education, history, literature, the natural sciences, technology and theology. The University Library, with more than 10 million volumes, is the largest public university collection in the world."
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Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: "A Derry Township family's $1 million gift will be used to fund improvements to the St. Vincent College Library, which will be renamed in their honor."
"College officials announced the gift from Dale and Darlene Latimer at a news conference Friday morning. The gift will fund a number of programs at the library, which will be known as the Latimer Family Library."
"'This gift will recognize the treasured role that the library has in our Benedictine educational tradition, and it will provide substantial enhancements and resources to ensure that the library continues to meet the needs of current and future students at St. Vincent," said James F. Will, vice chancellor and president of the college near Latrobe. "It will provide immediate support for physical enhancements, as well as provide endowment funding to meet long-term, critical needs and to maintain and expand the library's electronic resources.'"
"The humanities collections that will be the focus of the project include circulating books, bound periodicals and rare books and other special collections. The latter group includes some 12,500 volumes, ranging from an 11th-century hand-inscribed Latin prayer book to a 1998 facsimile of the 'Leningrad Codex.'"
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"PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Brown University’s library boasts an anatomy book that combines form and function in macabre fashion. Its cover — tanned and polished to a smooth golden brown, like fine leather — is made of human skin."
"In fact, several of the nation’s finest libraries, including Harvard’s, have such books in their collections. The practice of binding books in human skin was not uncommon in centuries past, even if it was not always discussed in polite society."
"THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Mahakavi Ulloor Memorial Library and Research Institute Thiruvananthapuram is celebrating its silver jubilee. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy will inaugurate the silver jubilee celebrations on January 11. The meeting will be chaired by N.P.Unni, president of the Ulloor Memorial. G.Balamohan Thampy, president of the Kerala State Library Council will deliver the Dr.P.K.Narayana Pillai memorial lecture."
" Thus, from the British Library's castoffs -- rescued by a New England champion of the printed word -- a major collection of American newspapers from the 19th and early 20th centuries now resides at Duke University."
"More than 6,000 bound volumes make up the American Newspaper Repository that Duke received a year ago from Nicholson Baker, a Maine novelist and old-newspaper enthusiast. Baker housed them temporarily in a New Hampshire warehouse before donating them to Duke."
"Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANNU) Vice-Chancellor A M Pathan today said the varsity would establish an Urdu Museum soon."
"The proposed museum would have collection of rare manuscripts related to Urdu language, literature and its history, Prof Pathan said, inaugurating the three-day workshop on 'Preventive and Curative Conservation of Manuscripts and Documents'".
" A FIVE-MINUTE walk away from the Bugis station of Singapore's Mass Rail Transit system, a spanking new sixteen-storey tower block is testimony to the fact that the era of digital libraries is already here. While e-books or electronic versions of books have been available for at least two decades, the island state is arguably the first to translate the technology into a virtual reality for its citizens."
"And not just for readers in Singapore. From Bangalore, I could register within minutes to become a user of Singapore's National Library at its portal, www.nlb.gov.sg and access an awesome range of resources — including its newly created digital library."
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"Researchers hope to discover insights into the mind of the 19th-century prime minister William Gladstone by studying more than 32,000 books from his private collection."
"He served four terms as prime minister under Queen Victoria and left his personal library to the nation on his death in 1898. Many books have his handwritten comments in the margins."
"So don't discount the old school too soon. As Book City says on its bookmark: "Introducing the new Bio-Optic Organized Knowledge device BOOK, a revolutionary breakthrough in technology; no wires, no electric circuits, no batteries. Even a child can operate it."
" The Indian Council of Philosophical Research (ICPR) cannot find space in its new building for its library of 40,000 rare books."
"For the new building is just 4,000 sq ft instead of the previous one—three-storeyed Butler Palace— which was 15,000 sq ft."
"Besides ancient books or rubbings of ancient bronze and stone carvings of China, 330,000 rare books bought from Western countries including academic works from 1473 to 1926 will also be available to the public, the paper said."
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"A division of the Ayala Foundation, the Filipinas Heritage Library is a place of escape—away from the noise and the busyness of the rest of the world, and into the generous, colorful pages of history. It has over 15,000 contemporary books on Philippine history, art, language, religion and the social sciences, a collection of over 2,000 rare books with beautiful goatskin covers and brittle pages, a microfilm archive, and an extensive library of slides and photographs."
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"Scholars have discovered an old Bible in the University of Manitoba's archives is a rare first edition, first printing of the King James Bible."
"We had hoped that it was going to be a first editing, first printing, but we couldn't confirm it until now," said Dr. Shelley Sweeney, head of archives at the University of Manitoba Libraries."
"The British Library is to extend a ban on pens to all its reading rooms to protect its precious collections."
"From January, the home of the Magna Carta and Lindisfarne Gospels will only allow pencils."
"Pens have already been banned from the library's Rare Books and Music, Manuscripts, Maps, Oriental and India Office and Philatelic reading rooms."
"Students can now browse online hundreds of thousands of rare research materials from Cardiff University’s Special Collections and Archives."
"Launched by the University’s Information Services Directorate, the dedicated Special Collections and Archives website called ‘Scolar’ allows researchers quicker access to key materials for their work."
"NEW BEDFORD -- A senior at UMass Dartmouth was visited by federal agents two months ago, after he requested a copy
of Mao Tse-Tung's tome on Communism called "The Little Red Book."
"Two history professors at UMass Dartmouth, Brian Glyn Williams and Robert Pontbriand, said the student told them he requested the book through the UMass Dartmouth library's interlibrary loan program."
"The student, who was completing a research paper on Communism for Professor Pontbriand's class on fascism and totalitarianism, filled out a form for the request, leaving his name, address, phone number and Social Security number. He was later visited at his parents' home in New Bedford by two agents of the Department of Homeland Security, the professors said."
"More than 1000 librarians, publishers, and vendors jammed into the 25th annual Charleston Conference in South Carolina, November 2–5. Created by College of Charleston librarian Katina Strauch, the meeting brings together everyone in serials and acquisitions."
"This year several speakers focused on book collections—print-on-paper books housed in bricks and mortar. Add in the discussions on ebooks and you could feel the back-to-book backlash."
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"Iran has the largest collection of handwritten books in the world, declared the Director General of Handwritten Books Department of Iran National Library Habibollah Azimi."
"He told that several years ago, Turkey ranked first with 300,000 volumes of handwritten books and was followed by Iran, India and Pakistan respectively. However currently, Iran has 400,000 volumes of handwritten books at Iran National Library, Ayatollah Marashi Library and a number of other private libraries, he noted."
"It also stems from the John Johnson Collection of Printed Ephemera, from which single-sheet and three-dimensional printed children’s games have been taken."
"John de Monins Johnson, printer to the University of Oxford (1925-1946), began collecting printed ephemera in the late 1920s and continued up to his death in 1956."
"While experts have already declared this book as “irreversibly damaged”, the 17th Century original manuscript of ‘Kadambari Katha in Gurmukhi’ is a pile of faded, torn and brittle pages. This is just the tip of the iceberg, as the university’s envious rich collection of around 20,000 old and rare books, dating back to 17th century and 1,492 original manuscripts (many of which are donated by the alumni), is deteriorating."
"It is the job of the 32 conservators and technicians at Etherington Conservation Services to halt or reverse the decomposition of paper documents, photographs, books and other items. If an item arrives irretrievably damaged, it is digitally documented to salvage the information. The business is one of the largest and most prominent private conservation practices in the world."
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"MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan - When night fell after the Oct. 8 quake, many survivors burned broken furniture to stay warm. Some, however, stormed the shattered state-run Khursheed National Library, pulling out books and newspapers to make bonfires."
"An estimated 10,000 books went up in smoke that night. Three days later, half the library's books - including Qurans - had been turned into ashes, when the army stepped in and stopped it."
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"He described the time a homeowner in Los Angeles called Sotheby's to say she had opened an old footlocker in her attic and discovered a pile of manuscripts."We had her photocopy a few pages and fax them to us." The papers were confirmed to be the first half of the manuscript for Mark Twain's "Huckleberry Finn." They had Brink's bring the papers at once to New York, and they were later reunited with the second half of the book in the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library."
"Google's recent foray into massive library storage has led the publishing industry to cry foul on the grounds of copyright infringement. If users can procure just the lines of text they need, why lay out good money to buy a whole book? In response, online advocates argue that access to these extracts will fuel print sales. Moreover, short written segments (a chapter, a recipe) can be sold like songs from the iTunes store."
"A Newport library is trying to salvage rare books and historic artifacts that fell victim this weekend to bad luck. The Redwood Library and Athenaeum had previously moved some of its antique furniture, colonial military maps and rare books to a specialized art storage facility in Dedham, Massachusetts."
"NEW YORK—Millions of rare artifacts in museums and libraries across the United States are slowly disintegrating because of improper storage, according to a survey said to be the largest ever look at the condition of such collections."
"Damage is occurring at institutions of all sizes but is worse at small-town museums and historical societies, said the report, to be made public today at the New York Public Library."
"Bucharest - Romania decided on Friday to return the country's oldest museum including a priceless art collection, the Brukenthal Palace in the Transylvanian town Sibiu, to the protestant parish from which it had been expropriated in the Communist era."
"The museum also houses a library with about 280 000 rare books and about 600 pieces of antique furniture."
"Former owner Baron Samuel of Brukenthal had opened the palace to the public in 1790, when he governed the Transylvania under the Habsburg empire from 1777 to 1787."
"Roughly $13 million went into the library renovations, which included such talks as the ceiling work, a new addition, foundation repairs, the replacement of the slate roof and a new climate control system to help preserve the books and artwork for years to come. Looking back, Ms. Helms and Director of Library Services Lynda Bronaugh can calmly talk and even joke about the project, but in the months after the ceiling collapse, it seemed like one calamity mounted after another."
" One of Oxford's most critical funding needs is for its libraries, which the university has earmarked for a 100 million- pound facelift. The Bodleian Library, which, as the world's first copyright library, gets one copy of every book published in the U.K., opened in 1602. Next door are the Radcliffe Camera, an 18th-century library and Oxford landmark, and the Sir Gilbert Scott-designed New Bodleian, which opened in 1940."
"Underneath the three buildings and reaching up into the New Bodleian are the stacks housing 130 miles (209 kilometers) of shelves with 4.5 million books. Among the titles are 10,000 medieval, Western illuminated manuscripts that are adorned with colorful illustrations, an original copy of Franz Kafka's ``The Trial'' and the maps used to plan D-day."
"More than 100 books in the Somali language - which has only had a written form since 1972 - have been collected by Cardiff Library."
"Librarians have gathered the books in order to serve the 8,000-strong Somali community in Cardiff."
"Obviously, there is a strong case for the universal library that Google wants to create. No one wants to stand in the way of the diffusion of knowledge. But the cost would be too high if the future publication of books, particularly learned books, was prejudiced. I am an interested party, at the interface between university authors and university libraries. So far as I am concerned, Google must accept the rights in intellectual property. The survival of the book depends on that."
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"IPSWICH — As Boston continues to celebrate the 375th anniversary of Puritan settlers' arrival in the Massachusetts Bay Colony aboard the Arbella, two Ipswich treasures are part of an exhibit at the Boston Public Library."
"Photographs of the Ipswich Historical Society's 1599 Geneva Bible and poet Anne Bradstreet's "Several Poems" are on display at the library through the end of the year."
"The National Library of Scotland recently unearthed the two broadsides, or early newsletters, documenting the last days of Watt, who was hanged for high treason in Edinburgh in October 1794.
Watt and his associate, David Downie, who was later reprieved, were tried for being members of a seditious organisation, the Friends of the People, which had links with the infamous Jacobins in France, who had helped purge the country's aristocracy"
"After serving for nearly four years as caretakers to roughly 5,000 bound volumes of newspapers from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Baker and Brentano donated their American Newspaper Repository to the Duke University library."
"It is in unique collections like these that Neal sees a bright future for libraries. In fact, at the April 2005 Association of College and Research Libraries annual conference in Minneapolis, Neal told an audience of librarians that in the digital age, librarians are poised to enter a new “golden age” of special collections, spurred by digitization and greater online access to primary resources."
"Calling upon schools and colleges in the respective states to take steps to digitise old and rare books in their own languages for the benefit of future generation, he informed that in his office, over ten million pages of old and rare books had been digitised."
"Talking about preservation of manuscripts, the President suggested that the state-of-the-art Nano technology could be used to preserve, retrieve and document them."
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"The Library of Congress is launching a campaign today to create the World Digital Library, an online collection of rare books, manuscripts, maps, posters, stamps and other materials from its holdings and those of other national libraries that would be freely accessible for viewing by anyone, anywhere with Internet access."
"This is the most ambitious international effort ever undertaken to put precious items of artistic, historical, and literary significance on the Internet so that people can learn about other cultures without traveling further than the nearest computer, according to James H. Billington, head of the Library of Congress."
"n honor of the bicentennial celebration of Lehigh founder Asa Packer’s birthday, Graphic Design III students presented books they designed in commemoration of Packer’s achievements and social philanthropy on Thursday in the University Center."
"The books will become a permanent part of Lehigh’s special collections, which serves as the repository for the university’s collection of rare books and manuscripts."
"As befits the editor of the Collins Library (best known for reclaiming the notorious English As She Is Spoke), the author favors bookstores and libraries over most other repositories of the past. A visit to Columbia's rare-book room—and the incongruity of looking at daguerreotypes on blond-wood tables under buzzing fluorescent lights—prompts a flight of fancy about the suite of period rooms Collins would build for his ideal library, equipped in this case with a fainting sofa, a damasked ottoman and "the yellow pallor of a gaslight chandelier." While Collins's facts are occasionally unreliable (not Swift's "Modest Proposal" but Defoe's Shortest Way With the Dissenters was the "hoax meant to be so absurd that it would backfire on its erstwhile proponents") the charm of his manner and the originality of his critical intelligence mark this sensitive rendering of Paine's afterlife."
"Bamako, Mali: Mali and South Africa have laid in Timbuktu (1,000 km from Bamako) a foundation stone for the construction of the Ali Baba Research and Islamic Documentation Institute."
"The institute will include a library aimed at preserving the ancient manuscripts about the history and culture of this Islamic holy city, reported the Mali news agency on Wednesday."
" Many of the books at the library of Tehran University’s Law College were destroyed in a fire that broke out on Wednesday morning, the Persian service of CHN reported."
"The extent of the damage to the library is still not clear, with experts hoping that its rare manuscripts are still intact."
" Fairfield, Connecticut — Pequot Library is temporarily abandoning its plan to sell 38 rare books."
"The rarities, some of which date to the 1500s, are potentially worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Part of a collection donated 107 years ago by benefactor Mary C. Wakeman, they are stored at Yale University."
"While it's not clear how many extant books actually have been bound in human skin, many older libraries (such as the library of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia which has four such books, including one with a visible tattoo) have such tomes in their collection, suggesting that anthropodermically bound books number somewhere in the hundreds. Many of these books were likely bound in the 18th or 19th centuries, though some may be centuries older, while a few may even be younger."
"After retiring as a state official, Malik Fadjar, former religious affairs minister during President BJ Habibie's administration and former education minister during the administration of President Megawati Soekarnoputri, is realizing his long-cherished dream of owning a good library."
"On Oct.22, his dream came true with the opening of his library, called Rumah Buku Cerdas (Smart Library or RBC). You can find in this library Malik Fadjar's own collection and books donated by a number of parties."
"Two extremely rare editions of the Book of Mormon printed in the 1840s have been stolen from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' Institute near the University of Utah."
"The safe that contained an 1840 edition printed in Nauvoo, Ill., and the 1841 edition printed in Liverpool, England, was kept in a cupboard in an office inside the Salt Lake University Institute of Religion. A secretary noticed the safe was missing on Tuesday."
"The 1840 edition and the 1841 edition are worth about $35,000 and $25,000, respectively, said Ken Sanders, who owns Ken Sanders Rare Books in Salt Lake City."
"Leeds University's cookery collection, which includes hundreds of cookery books from as far back as the 15th century, is among five of its archives which have been commended for their importance."
"The library houses 93 million archival letters, maps, church records, diaries and state and business records. It has magazines, newspapers, local government records, architectural drawings and plans, Bible records, genealogical notes and charts, sheet music, posters, prints and engravings, postcards, paintings, sculpture and photographs."
"Its book collection includes volumes from the late 15th century, while the archival collections contain records from the early 17th century."
"Accredited journalists and research scholars will henceforth be granted access to the Parliament Library following a decision by Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee to have optimum utilisation of the rich deposits available at the facility."
"The Richard T. Liddicoat Gemological Library and Information Center contains the world's largest collection of books on gemology and jewelry. The Cartier Rare Book Repository and Archives, the climate-controlled area Schupak recalled, holds many important volumes, one of which dates back to the 15th century."
"Microsoft announced a "strategic partnership" with the British Library that will allow the software group to digitise 25 million pages of content -- the equivalent of 100,000 books. The deal with one of the world's great libraries will be seen as an attempt to make up lost ground in its battle with Google, which only on Thursday unveiled its first digital book collection."
"Everything old is new again. With the entrance of Microsoft into the mass book digitization process, the status of books as “the next big thing” in digital content has been confirmed. Newspapers and the general trade press continue to treat Yahoo!’s participation in the Open Content Alliance as its way of competing with Google Print in this now critical content arena. However, most of the activities in OCA appear to be centered around libraries and the Internet Archive, a not-for-profit organization."
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"Among the rare buys are a Jerusalem Bible illustrated by surrealist painter Salvador Dali, leather-bound Congressional papers from the late 1700s, a 1909 publication of Georgia's Confederate Records and books signed by former President Jimmy Carter. The items on sale have been donated and don't come from the archives' collection."
"Durham, N.C. -- Distinguished scholar John Hope Franklin will be one of the featured speakers at a Nov. 18 symposium celebrating the 10th anniversary of the John Hope Franklin Collection of African & African American Documentation at Duke University."
"With new projects starting seemingly every day, Alice Schreyer, special collections librarian at the University of Chicago, agrees with Neal’s assessment that libraries are on the cusp of a new “golden age” for special collections. “There have been marvelous joint efforts on several fronts,” she says. In the past, Schreyer notes, special collections could be rather isolated but no longer. “The most exciting thing about this 'golden age’ is creating partnerships with faculty and librarian colleagues,” she says. “What excites me most is how much at the center special collections has become."
"Nearly 75,000 manuscripts, centuries old, are housed at L D Institute of Indology here. While these manuscripts were till recently preserved using traditional methods, the institute has now built a laboratory for treating some of the damaged ones. It is also approaching people, monasteries, temples and madrasas so as to collect and preserve the ancient treasure."
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"We know that there are over 12 thousands manuscripts belonging to the Azerbaijani nation that are beyond the boundaries of our country at present," says the deputy-director of the M.Fuzuli Institute of Manuscripts of ANAS and a candidate of philological sciences Pasha Kerimov."
"The library welcomes donations of books and references. The biggest donation came from a donor in Kuwait who provided the first collection of 1000 rare books and references, worth tens of thousand dollars."
"On a recent rainy Thursday, the main entrance hall of the Palmer Seminary was filled with people staring at a book in a cabinet. Bluff-faced men wore suits with significant bulges at their waists and suspiciously watched the crowd, while dignitaries of the seminary and Eastern University loitered."
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"SALEM — A love of poetry — and quick work by firefighters — kept a water-line break last night from ruining the Salem Athenaeum's rare book collection."
"Director Jean Marie Procious said if it were not for an evening poetry reading, no one would have discovered the water line break, which occurred around 8:40 p.m. in the athenaeum's basement. The private library holds Revolutionary-era texts important to the history of the city and surrounding areas."
" LOUISVILLE, Kentucky: Information about a collection of rare Baptist history materials housed in the Boyce Library at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary is now accessible online."
“The archives are an invaluable resource for information about Baptists, particularly in North America,” he said. “Several of our collections, such as our Baptist associational minutes and church minutes collections, our rare book collection and our founders collection, provide resources that give us a window into Baptist identity and Baptist distinctives through the ages. All of these collections are available for Southern Baptists to use.”
"Through the years, certain legends have come and gone on campus, but one persists throughout the decades: a haunting in the Archives and Rare Books Department at Blegen Library."
"Among the books is the spirit of a UC Classics professor who was killed in an auto accident in the 1950s."
"Some of the notable elements of the exhibit include the original Treaty of Peace signed in 1765 by the Delaware Nation, agreeing to become allies of the King of England, a $5 receipt signed by Geronimo in 1896, and a non-English Bible published in 1685 by John Eliot, a preacher in the Massachusetts Bay area. Selected works of artists such as George Catlin and Karl Bodner are also displayed, among other works of art chronicling Native American life as far back as the 16th century."
"Over five million rare and one-off books and items stored in the underground vaults of the Rs 100-crore Bhasha Bhavan building and the old annexe of the National Library are in danger of being damaged by water seepage.
At risk of being destroyed are original manuscripts of Tagore and Netaji, their letters and rare, one-off world maps.
The books and manuscripts, preserved in the two-storeyed underground vaults, were ruined after water seeped through the walls and flooded the room. At the old annexe, the ground floor, which houses the maps and rare books departments, is water-bound."
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"Both Meaders are longtime supporters of WMU, and Edwin E. Meader is a former adjunct professor of geography at the University. The W. H. Upjohn Rotunda, the entrance to WMU's main library, was also named for Mary Meader's father, in recognition of the Meaders' leadership gift to the expansion and complete renovation of that facility in the early 1990s. W.H. Upjohn was an early executive of the Kalamazoo-based Upjohn Co., which is now part of Pfizer Inc. and remains the Kalamazoo area's largest employer."
"The library's Meader Rare Books Room was named in honor of the Meaders' continued support of the University Libraries and its rare books collection. Their gift to establish the Upjohn Center is one of the largest individual gifts the University has received."
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"Search giant Google Inc. has expanded Google Print, its controversial book-scanning project, into eight European countries."
"Native language sites have been launched in France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium and Spain. At each of the new Google Print locations, users can see snippets of the book where their search term appears."
"The Harrison County Library System lost around 175,000 volumes, totaling $3.5 million, to its book collection alone. The storm destroyed first-edition William Faulkner books, local genealogy records, two-thirds of the books in Biloxi's library and all of the children's and fiction books in Gulfport."
"Today the library, which is a nonprofit organization, has archives that contain approximately 5,000 books by or about African Americans, 500 rare books and pamphlets and 2,500 boxes of other archives.
The society, believed to be the oldest continuously operating African American historical and cultural institution west of the Rockies, is at 762 Fulton St. in the Fillmore neighborhood. The three-story building is decorated inside and out with brightly colored murals and images of noted African Americans such as Duke Ellington and Eartha Kitt and society founders Jim Herndon and Francis Miller. The library is on the second floor."
"From a 443-year-old Latin copy of "Diogenis," to a seven-year-old Columbus State University catalog, the CSU Archives is displaying the marvelous and the mundane this month.
The items on the first floor of CSU's Schwob Library are part of an exhibit celebrating the archives' 30th anniversary. They are a tease toward the third floor, where the archives have been since 1975."
"KAZINFORM. /Yelena Ilyinskaya/ - The cultural heritage of Kazakhstan has been replenished with 77 ancient manuscripts about the history, culture and economy of ancient Kazakhstan.
The files were brought from Europe by the scientific research bibliographic expedition of the National Library as a part of the Cultural Heritage Program of Kazakhstan for the years of 2004-2006. This news has been discussed today at the conference in Almaty National Library."
"For book lovers, there's nothing like thumbing through a book once held by Benjamin Franklin. Or studying the debate a reader had with author James Thomson Callender - in beautiful script, on page after page - in The History of the United States for 1796; Including a Variety of Interesting Particulars Relative to the Federal Government Previous to That Period.
Those are among the delights found at the Library Company of Philadelphia, the country's oldest cultural institution and its first lending library."
"Spertus has more than a half a million pieces in its collections, including rare books, maps, music, film and records of the Chicago Jewish archives that need to be stored in humidity- and temperature-controlled areas."
"A 1493 copy of Christopher Columbus' letter describing his first voyage to the New World has been sitting among the rare books and manuscripts in Yale University's Beinecke library for more than 50 years, but now the owner wants it back - to sell.
The European explorer's account of his search for treasure and a new route to Asia established his fame around Europe. Today those words could be worth more than $1 million."
Russian Center in Bangladesh:" This centre has a library that is not only truly worth visiting but also for getting immersed into for its infinite riches. Of special interest is a unique collection of rare books. The precious collection offers books by prominent European writers, philosophers, theologians, explorers and well-known scholars. The library has a collection of newspapers and magazines of the ancient and current time. The library preserves all our national dailies, magazines and different special issues. For this reason, avid readers and learned person are regularly thronging the place to slake their thirst for knowledge."
"Mervat Seifeddin, director of the Graeco-Roman Museum in Alexandria, announced that the museum would close for two years as it is a subject of a development project for comprehensive restoration of the building, which was constructed in 1895. Showcases will also be renewed, and display methods developed to bring it in line with the latest museological standards. Seifeddin told the Weekly that the development project would also rearrange the museum garden with a view to developing it into an open air museum as well as installing new lighting and ventilation systems. To facilitate the visitor's path, a number of information billboards would be provided along the museum corridors. The museum's library, which includes an overwhelming number of Arabic, English and French volumes written by travellers who visited Egypt from the 11th century to modern times, will be also restored, and all its rare books will be documented on CD to make them available for students, researchers and whoever is interested in such topics."
"ANN ARBOR, Mich.—The University of Michigan's Special Collections Library invites the world to learn more about locomotives and railroading through its extensive collection of railroad material.
The collection contains more than 14,000 items and through digitization a monthly magazine titled "The Locomotive World" is now available.
"The North Carolina State Libraries celebrated the kick-off of their $10 million capital campaign with the Carousel of Knowledge Thursday in the Brickyard. A Carousel was set up along with basketball hoops to host contests with the NCSU basketball teams and a concession area with free food."
Buffalo, New York: "It is known as the map that changed the world, William Smith's 1815 charting of Great Britain's underside.
The London Geological Society keeps its rare copy behind blue velvet curtains, which are swept open three times a week for visitors.
The Buffalo library keeps its copy folded in a box. At least it did.
The map recently became the centerpiece of the first of a series of exhibitions meant to showcase the library's 30,000-title Rare Book Collection, its multimillion-dollar pride and joy."
"Humanities Two is paltry, however, compared to where the real action is: Rare Books and Music, Oriental and India Office Collections, and Manuscripts. One is only allowed to use a pencil in these hallowed rooms, which tends to weed out, as Eliane Glaser puts it, "the normal people. You see a lot of strange behaviour in Rare Books. I remember a time when a young man's mobile phone went off and all these grey-haired academics rose up as one and closed in on the poor guy. I really thought they were going to lynch him."
"BERKELEY – The University of California, Berkeley, has obtained a rare Hebrew Bible that has served as the foundation for almost all Bibles published since its own printing in the early 1500s.
Paul Hamburg, librarian for UC Berkeley's Judaica collections, said there are likely only a dozen sets left in the world of the four-volume Second Biblia Rabbinica, including half a dozen or so in private ownership."
"By using modern technologies many scholars are making knowledge of Buddhism available for the general public and youngsters. Many Buddhist scholars in Dharamshala town are digitalizing rare Buddhist manuscripts to preserve them and give them a virtual home on the Internet.
Funded by the National Mission for Manuscripts (NMM), the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, has taken on the task of locating, collecting and cataloguing all available Tibetan manuscripts in and around the Himachal Pradesh."
"Also on the cards is a digitised archive which will preserve the 1000-plus rare books and manuscripts with the library.
‘‘Among the rare documents we have is a letter from Jagadish Chandra Bose, seeking Rs 2000 for his laboratory. Most of the documents are brittle and need to be digitised immediately. We will have to engage trained staff and maybe hire a professional agency to get the new system in place,’’ said Prof Sengupta."
"Even with its gothic architecture, Sterling Memorial Library might seem a lot younger than its years.
From September to April, the University will celebrate the 75th anniversary of what many call "the heart of the University." Festivities have been planned for the library's anniversary, including special exhibits and lectures by authors David McCullough '55 and Jamaica Kincaid."
University of Hawaii: "The thread of flood, loss and recovery, among other connections, has gone into the creation of the gallery's ambitious new exhibition, "Making Connections: Treasures from the University of Hawaii Library," which Klobe describes, with some relief, as a "phoenix rising."
"Tiruchirapalli, Sept 14: To preserve rare and old books, the National Library at Kolkota was utilising the latest 'Mark II' technology to digitise the works in a phased manner, the institute director, Dr Sudendhu Mandal said today.
Digitisation of over 15,000 books, comprising seven lakh pages, published before the year 1900 had been completed last year. 'We may accomplish about 10 lakh pages this year," he told PTI."
"The Bancroft Library, thought of by many as a repository of materials relating primarily to Western Americana, is home to a surprising range of rare and valuable resources, including papyrus fragments dating back to 300 B.C., medieval manuscripts, several hundred texts from the 15th century, works from the Renaissance, Shakespeare folios, the Mark Twain Papers, and much more. This summer, after more than a year of planning, Bancroft staff began moving the collections to temporary quarters while their building undergoes a general upgrade and seismic renovation, scheduled for completion in 2007. The move has been as extensively choreographed as a ballet."
"American volunteers with an Israeli charity said on Monday that they were trying to rescue an ancient Torah scroll in a New Orleans synagogue flooded by Hurricane Katrina.
"We are trying to get a helicopter so we can have an aerial view of the place, to figure out what's more suitable to get access," said Rabbi Isaac Leider, from Zaka, an Israeli rescue and recovery group."
"Representatives of the Bosnian community said they will produce 613 copies of the ancient book, which is the guidebook used during the Passover Seder meal, and will put them on sale in time for next year’s Passover celebrations at a price of around 1,000 euros.
The original manuscript is held at the Sarajevo National Museum where it is preserved using climate control conditions."
"The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library currently holds the collection, which were loaned to Yale for safekeeping in 1952 by the Pequot Library of Southport, Conn. But some of Pequot's current trustees have asked the University to return the documents, and the suburban library has alleged in a court application that Yale officials threatened to terminate protection of the documents unless Pequot ceded ownership of the collection to the University."
"The Chicago Botanic Garden has received a $170,614 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities in Washington, D.C., to catalog its rare book library. The two-year grant will support a rare book cataloger and assistant. Leora Siegel, manager of the Chicago Botanic Garden Library, estimates about 3,500 titles will be cataloged."
"Louisiana State Librarian Rebecca Hamilton writes: “The New Orleans City Archives at the Main Library are not underwater and are dry. The camera took pictures at a weird angle and made it look to staff like it was underwater but they are not. A company called Munter’s has been hired by the library to remove them and get them out of New Orleans. They are safe. Someone broke some windows and was living in the library but they did not hurt anything. I am in tears I am so happy. NOPL’s Geri Harris thought all was lost and we are all relieved to know that so much of Louisiana’s history has been spared.”"
"“If you’re going to be a professional researcher in a field you need to look at primary sources,” Devaney said. “Many scholarly articles are people’s interpretation of a primary resource.”
Desmet said it doesn’t matter which medium students use as long as they know how to properly research."
"--China’s oldest handwritten copy of the Qur’an, threatened by erosion and decay, will be better protected after a 440,000 yuan (US$ 54,300) grant aimed at preserving the ancient manuscript, China’s Qinghai provincial authorities revealed on Thursday.
The fund, earmarked by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, will be used to repair and protect the sacred Islamic texts, said Ma Weimin, deputy director of the Qinghai Bureau of Cultural Relics. "For example, (the money will be used) to make a replica of the existing Qur’an for public display, and to use vacuum treatment to store the original book."
"A SIX million pound extension to Cambridge University Library's storage facilities will be up and running this autumn.
The penultimate phase of the library's development programme - an extension to the rear of the building - will enable the university's extensive archives, going back to 1266, to be housed for the first time in ideal conditions, along with the scientific and astronomical records of the Royal Greenwich Observatory and many of the library's rare book collections."
"If the Council for Cultural Affairs has its way, the public library will soon become a lifelong center of culture and learning in townships and villages.
In a recent interview, CCA head Chen Chi-nan (陳其南) said that township libraries were at the bottom of the multi-tiered public library system and needed to reinvent themselves or become obsolete."
"HOSPET: Department of Manuscriptology, Kannada University, Hampi, in association with National Mission for Manuscripts, New Delhi and Karnataka Writers’ and Artists’ Association, Bidar is organising a manuscripts training and awareness camp from August 31 to September 3 in Bidar."
"With upwards of 400,000 books, 130,000 works of sheet music and seven million manuscripts, workers at the Lilly Library must rotate the large number of rare publications they display. John James Audubon's "Birds of America," however, remains in the foyer year-round."
"PORTLAND, Ore. - Think black and red when you picture Jim Carmin's 176-page roster of American Indian literature. The voluminous printout reads like a wish list for those interested in capturing the zeitgeist - or spirit of the times - of the nearly 40-year renaissance in fiction, poetry, short stories and drama penned by indigenous people of North America.
Black is for the titles Carmin's already acquired as part of Multnomah County Library's goal of creating a body of Native American literature within its Special Collections department. With $62,000 plus many extra unexpected donations, Carmin - the librarian in charge of the John Wilson Room Special Collections Room - has accumulated 1,000 items in the new collection. A quick scan of his lengthy roster, though, reveals enough red to underscore the idea that the goal is to cover the gamut."
"A million rare manuscripts, palm leaves, copper plates and age-old classical literature are to be digitised under a project jointly undertaken by Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and the Indian ministry of communications and information technology.
CMU will provide proprietary software and hardware to the Digital Library of India (DLI) for $5 million."
"In 2004 Loreto Apilado began conducting a six-session workshop on book repair at the Lopez Memorial Museum for collectors, librarians and individuals who want to learn the right way to preserve books. The “right way,” stresses Apilado, begins by first studying a book’s anatomy, and the respective tools designed to address each of its specific damages."
"NEW ROCHELLE — Former members of the Thomas Paine National Historic Association are furious over the sale of some of Paine's works — including a first edition of "Common Sense" that some say helped sway New York state to join the American Revolution — to pay for museum repairs and to set up an interest-bearing fund."
"Currently undergoing renovations, this main library, like its other branches, have all automated systems. Recently, a new self-checkout system was installed in the main library, where checking out the books has become even more convenient. One of the branches in Um Sequim is totally electronic. It's also the first full eLibrary in the region.
Mohammed Jasim Al Oraidi, Head of the Section, Public Libraries, said: "The Public Libraries cover all aspects of life, whether it be political, economical, social or religious. It also has a vast collection of fiction and factual books. Public Libraries stress upon three aspects: size, format and topics. The size is in millions, the formatting is in different types of periodicals as well as books, available in both traditional as well as modern formats."
"SHRUBA MUKHERJEE writes about the National Mission for Manuscripts which has taken upon itself the task of preserving and documenting rare, though neglected, manuscripts that would otherwise be lost forever."
"COLLEGEVILLE — The Hill Museum & Manuscript Library at St. John's University has met a fund-raising goal that keeps it in the running for a matching grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The NEH will provide $1 for every $4 raised by the HMML for its Malta Study Center as part of a four-year fundraising drive that began in August 2003....
The Malta Study Center collection at HMML contains more than 16,000 documents, dossiers of documents and a research collection of 800 books from Malta. It is one of a few libraries in the United States that actively collects books and other works about the history of Malta, and researches the role of Malta as a crossroads of the Christian and Muslim worlds."
"The historic Picton Reading Room in Liverpool library is to be restored after winning a £16m government grant.
The imposing columns and dome of the 153-year-old building will undergo extensive repair work for the first time.
Once completed, rare books and the seven miles of archives, including letters from Queen Victoria, Disraeli and Florence Nightingale, will go on display to the public."
"The premises of once highly guarded Amar Mahal, which was residence of Dogra rulers would now be thrown open for the intelligentsia and litterateurs.
Former Sadar-e-Riyasat and Member Parliament Dr Karan Singh said that, the Amar Mahal that houses the rich treasure of over 25000 rare books and manuscripts especially on the selective faculties of History, Political Science, Hindi, Sanskrit, et al has entered into an agreement with the Jammu University for the knowledge enhancement of research scholars and academicians who can avail facilities of the Amar Mahal library."
"Medieval manuscripts, texts, photographs, official records, audio tapes, music, rare indigenous scripts, suppressed and neglected transcripts from Africa, Asia, Russia, South America and Europe will all be preserved and digital copies made available to researchers in the British Library following the first awards from the Endangered Archives Programme sponsored by the Lisbet Rausing Charitable Fund. Grants totalling more than £600,000 have been awarded to twenty projects around the world."
"But the historic library's collections make the Boston Athenaeum a rare treat for history, art and literature lovers.
Athenaeums were precursors to today's public libraries. Established as private literary societies in the 18th century, people paid a membership fee for access to their books and papers.
Founded in 1807, the Boston athenaeum houses its impressive collection of books, paintings and sculpture in a five-story building that contains quiet reading rooms, a book conservation laboratory, a children's library and an art gallery."
"Over the last several months, publishers have begun opposing the Google Print for Libraries program (http://print.google.com) and grumbling litigiously about copyright issues. After consulting with the publishing community, Google has responded to the opposition. It now offers what appear to be two carrots but what may actually turn out to be one carrot with a string attached and one carrot that could become a stick. While the publishers decide which to munch, Google will temporarily stop digitizing in-copyright books from its library partners and will concentrate, instead, on accelerating its public domain book digitization (defined as any book published before 1923 or ever published by the U.S. government). The moratorium will last until November. The new provisions offer all copyright holders the right to opt out of the program or, if they prefer to acquire saleable digital copies of their backlists via library-held copies, to get the same copies that the libraries get for their own publications."
"...It was researched by one of the special interns selected for the project, Mary Brazelton, a Harvard University student from Washington's Maryland suburbs. She found that one member of the play's audience that night -- T.D. Bancroft -- saved the fragment and later wrote that the dark stains were blood that dripped from President Lincoln as he was carried out of the theater after being shot by John Wilkes Booth.
Bancroft wrote about his treasure in a pamphlet issued to celebrate Lincoln's 100th birthday, preserved among the library's rare books. He donated the stained fragment to the Kansas Historical Society and took the precaution of copyrighting a photo of it."
"...But a set of complex codes in a vault at Washington University remains impervious to computer attack, no matter how sneaky. That's because the codes are in rare books, some of them over 500 years old. Together they form the country's finest collection about the history of code-making and - breaking.
Codes seem more natural in technological ages like ours than in the 1500s. But there has always been fascination about secrets."
"Despite tall promises made by the then Defence Minister, Mr George Fernandes, the SGPC, even after a lapse of two decades, has not received the invaluable manuscripts and books taken from the Sikh Reference Library by the army. These books and manuscripts were taken in gunny bags and big trunks by the army to an unknown place after Operation Blue Star.
Though the SGPC had raised the issue with President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam during his visit to the Golden Temple, the issue still remains unresolved, much to the chagrin of Panthic organisations."
"The deportation of the Chechens in 1944 did enormous damage to Chechen literature. Rare books and manuscripts were destroyed and burned. Unique works by the children of this long-suffering people may be found in archives and private libraries in neighboring republics."
ATLANTA, GA - "Surprisingly, they are some of the most important and most unique libraries in the country," Dr. Jay Hakes explained. "They are Presidential Libraries."
Dr. Hakes is the Director of the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta, one of eleven Presidential Libraries operated by the National Archives and Records Administration and the only Presidential Library in the Southeast."
"The Civil Rights movement, which caught fire back in 1960 in Greensboro, North Carolina, at the Woolworth's Restaurant, is now having its resources put online by UNCG's Jackson Library.
The library recently recieved a grant of $10,000 by the Greensboro Community Foundation and has begun the process of making all the transcripts from interviews, information, pictures and documents available online for the public."
"The Immanuel Velikovsky Papers now are available for research use in the Princeton University Library's manuscripts division in the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections. They were donated by Mr. Velikovsky's daughter, Princeton Township resident Ruth Sharon.
Mr. Velikovsky earned a medical degree from the University of Moscow in 1921 and lived in the '20s and '30s with his family in Palestine, where he pursued a specialization in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. He moved to the United States in 1939 and began research into the history of Egypt, Greece and the Jewish past.
He is best known as the author of a number of controversial books, primarily arguing that ancient myths, legends and accounts of catastrophic events related in the Bible and other texts have a basis in fact."
"Thousands of tiny, unwanted visitors live on the shelves of Montgomery's main library, and they have claimed the lives of 15 rare books.
Mold spores are growing on the spines of hundreds of bound magazines in the basement. Water damage also is evident on the floor and shelves housing rare books on the second floor."
"Two years ago, there were only three titles by Native American writers in the Multnomah County Central Library's John Wilson Room, where the special collections and rare books are kept safe and cool.
Today, there are hundreds of novels, plays and collections of short stories and poems by Native Americans, and the goal is to collect all such books published in the U.S. and Canada. It's an ambitious project but one that fits well with the other core collections in the Wilson Room, according to librarian Jim Carmin."
"One document with pertinent historic significance to today that was recently unearthed is the correspondence from the commandant of the French side to the Dutch side authorities about the escape of the slaves from Diamond Estate to the French side in 1848 when emancipation was proclaimed there.
The document was discovered when Blijden was requested by the Culture Department to look for information on slavery. The information was passed on to the department and may have played a part in the planning of the upcoming re-enactment of Diamond Estate 26 Escape set for the Cole Bay border point on June 30 at midnight."
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"New Delhi: For moth-eaten, attacked by fungus and brittle manuscripts lying undiscovered in the national capital, help is at hand, finally.Trained in locating and preserving manuscripts, a band of 125 students from Delhi have fanned out in the historical city and its suburbs in an adventurous hunt for the priceless written documents of India’s cultural heritage with the objective of preparing a ‘manuscripts map of Delhi’."
"Public libraries are facing an array of threats that could radically change their role in society, the new president of the American Library Association warns.
Michael Gorman, who began his term as ALA president last month, said in an interview Tuesday that the concerns include Web giant Google's plans to digitize the nation's libraries, government intrusion into personal library records, and funding shortfalls."
"Letters written by DH Lawrence and 800-year-old records from the Duke of Newcastle's estate are among documents now accessible online thanks to funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF).
Amateur historians and professional researchers alike now have online access to details of nearly 150,000 documents, with the completion of a major cataloguing and preservation programme at the University of Nottingham."
"STARTING Sunday, Walled City residents can expect a visit from some people on a mission. A team of 125-odd suryevors from the National Mission for Manuscripts are starting a door-to-door hunt for rare manuscripts in the city.
During the 10-day-long survey, the mission will also be providing conservation kits to manuscript repositories and private collectors."
"The Tamil manuscript section of the Sarasvati Mahal Library, Thanjavur, comprises more than 3,000 manuscripts. Several of these deal with medical practices based on observations of the hospital Raja Serfoji established. Many others are those with rare commentaries of ancient Tamil works on religion and philosophy.
A rare treasure that shows the privileged status women enjoyed is the commentary on Saint Nammazhwar's Thiruvaimozhi written by Koneri Dasi, a Devadasi presumably from Kumbakonam."
"It isn't all that unusual to hear folks around Tahlequah talk about their Cherokee ancestry. After all, it's the capital of the Cherokee Nation.
What is kind of different, though, is to hear them talk about their Cherokee ancestry with a French accent.
Jehame Lefranc, a University of Avignon student, is spending a month in Tahlequah doing research for his doctoral dissertation at the Special Collections department of the NSU John Vaughan Library."
"Their meeting, "Emblems in the 21st Century: The Materials and the Media," is set for July 24-30 at the Illini Union, 1401 W. Green St., Urbana. The event is the Seventh International Conference of the Society for Emblem Studies."
"Emblems are symbolic pictures with accompanying texts. Emblem books developed in the 16th century and remained popular for more than 200 years. Several thousand such books issued from printing presses throughout Europe."
"The Arizona State University Hayden Library archives and special collections people have dusted off Darth Vader, Jabba the Hutt and a Millennium Falcon for the viewing pleasure of visitors."
"The ‘first family’ of Calcutta — which owned the land that the East India Company took on lease in 1698 to set up its trading outpost, and instituted what is widely believed to be the first Durga puja in the city in 1610 — now wants to share its legacy with those who have a passion for things past.
“We set up The Saborno Sangrahalaya in 1999 to highlight our family’s contribution to the history of the city and dispel misconceptions about its foundation day. But after winning a legal suit in 2003 and setting the record straight, our aims have changed,” says Probal Ray Chaudhury, the 25-year-old scion of the eldest wing of the Saborno Ray Chaudhury family."
"WINTERTHUR, DE.-A symposium co-sponsored by Winterthur Museum & Country Estate and The Library Company of Philadelphia will consider numerous genres of printed ephemera, tracing their origins in Europe, their transit to American shores, and further development in this country."
"Among the other items obtained was a hardbound, first-edition copy of Kennedy's first book, "Why England Slept," an elaboration of his senior thesis at Harvard on Great Britain's failure to prepare for war against Hitler in the 1930s."
"Also recovered was the left-hand suede glove that Kennedy wore on the frigid day of his inauguration in January 1961. The right-hand glove has long been a part of the John F. Kennedy library's collection of artifacts, which also includes 48 million pages of documents, 200,000 photos, 7.5 million feet of film, 7,000 hours of audio cartoons and 500 original editorial cartoons."
"KALAMAZOO--A grant to Western Michigan University Libraries will not only keep the diaries of eight Civil War soldiers alive, but will help share these treasures with the world through the technological innovation of digitization."
"The $95,619 grant from the Library of Michigan will be used to digitize the Civil War diaries of eight men who served in several Midwestern Union regiments. The diary entries represent a wide variety of experiences and perspectives, ranging from that of musician to a prisoner of war."
Fairfield, Connecticut — Pequot Library's plan to sell 38 rare books is being opposed by relatives of the woman who donated them 107 years ago.
"The basic objection is they feel this application is a breach of trust by Pequot Library," said Amy E. Todisco, attorney for Jim Biggs of Westport, during Monday's Probate Court hearing in Sullivan-Independence Hall. "We're objecting under any circumstances to the sale."
"Historical Braille books from the National Library for the Blind will be preserved for future generations to enjoy, thanks to a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF)."
"The £46,700 grant will help safeguard the Heritage Collection at the National Library for the Blind (NLB), the second largest Braille lending library in the world."
"Finding information about ancient Greek inscriptions used to take years of research and countless hours tracking down answers in the library. Through contributions by Case classicist Paul Iversen's work with the Packard Humanities Institute (PHI) Greek Epigraphy Project, classics scholars now can access and search more than 150,000 inscriptions through a comprehensive digitized database in a matter of minutes."
"In the 16th century, India was ruled by the Mughal emperor Akbar (reigned 1556-1605), who commissioned his court painters and scribes to produce a beautiful illuminated manuscript of the Khamsa. That volume is now the centerpiece of a striking exhibition at the Walters Art Museum."
"The Islamic Manuscript: Conservation, Cataloguing, Accessibility, Copyright and Digitization conference is sponsored by the Thesaurus Islamicus Foundation (TIF) in association with the Center for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at the University of Cambridge."
"Ben Primer, the associate university librarian for rare books and special collections at Princeton University serves as the city's consultant for archiving. He said the city has many historical records that could shed new light on several subjects."
""The Changing Book: Transitions in Design, Production & Preservation" is sponsored by the University of Iowa Libraries. The conference will provide perspective on the continuing role of the paper book, trends in production, preservation and visions for the future."
"Many people have written obituaries for the paper book as technology has become more prevalent, but it has managed to endure so far," said Gary Frost, UI Libraries Conservator, one of the event's organizers. "At this conference, we'll see if those death announcements are valid or premature."
"BELGAUM: Here is good news for Kannada writers. About one lakh Kannada books are going global -thanks to the Department of Library, Karnatak state."
"P Y Rajendra Kumar Director of State Library Department told media persons here on Thursday that Carnige Mellon University of Pitsburg (USA) is launching a web site called ‘Digitisation of Indian Books' in which Kannada literature is also included."
"The Newberry has a collection of one-and-a-half million rare books and historical documents. It was founded in 1887."
"Hackney is perhaps best known as a former president of the University of Pennsylvania, where he helped raise over $1 billion. Hackney also served as chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities during President Clinton's first term."
"After 170 years of inhabiting the buildings that housed the pre-revolutionary Senate and Synod, Russia's largest and oldest archive, containing 6.5m manuscripts documenting history from Peter the Great to the Bolshevik coup, is being evicted by the Kremlin."
"The 20th floor of the Myongji building is not only a venue for the Taepyeonggwan club members, but a shrine for humanities scholars here and abroad. It houses what is believed to be the world's largest collection of antique and rare books containing foreigners' accounts of ancient Korea."
"Famed for providing a window on to the world of historical art and literature, the Chester Beatty Library (CBL) last week embraced the future when it officially launched a new multimedia tour on handheld computers aimed at the enhancing the experience of the thousands of visitors that pass through its doors every year."
"Rare documents and books, many from the early years of the American republic, are on display at South Dakota State University through the end of December."
"Outbidding stiff competition, the state government spent $656,760 yesterday to obtain 11 rare documents, maps and books from the 17th and 18th centuries, material that the state's director of archives described as "the Dead Sea Scrolls of the settlement of New Jersey."
"Twenty-nine documentary collections in 24 countries have been inscribed on UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register. These additions bring to 120 the total number of inscriptions on the Register to date. They include, for the first time, collections from Albania, Azerbaijan, Colombia, Cuba, Italy, Lebanon, Namibia, Portugal, Sweden, Ukraine, United Kingdom and United States of America. The Director-General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura, approved the inscriptions, which were recommended by the 14-member International Advisory Committee of UNESCO’s Memory of the World Programme."
"Mr Coates said there had been many similar recent dumpings of books by public libraries in Brighton, Liverpool and Hampshire. He said that with 300 public libraries in London, there should have been collaboration to find a better home for the books than the bottom of a skip."
"The 'H.H Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Project to Preserve Al Azhar Scripts and Publish Them Online' said today that the project's website www.alazharonline.org has received tremendous international interest with more than 30,000 visitors from all over the world in the last three weeks, 45 % of them from the US alone."
"Years ago, in the basement of Yale University's rare-book library, I stumbled upon two Louis XV armchairs that once belonged to Gertrude Stein. They were upholstered in needlepoint by Alice B. Toklas according to Picasso's designs. Those chairs long haunted me."
"MOBILE, Ala. - While books on tape remain library favorites, tech-savvy patrons have something new to borrow - audio books and e-books for listening on home computers or handheld devices like iPods."
"The New York Public Library will launch a digital audio book collection allowing cardholders to download audio books from the Internet, 24 hours a day and 7 days a week."
"Many colleges and universities are moving library collections off-campus. Others are curtailing book buying in favor of digital resources. Not Chicago."
"The University Board of Trustees has approved a $42 million plan to expand the University Library by more than 3.5 million volumes and create by June 2009 one of the nation’s largest university collections of materials under one roof at the center of the Hyde Park campus."
"Buried in the dump were more than 400,000 fragments of papyrus — bits of documents, pieces of scrolls and pages from old books written between the 2nd century B.C. and the 8th century and preserved ever since in the hot, dry climate."
"HYDERABAD: In tune with the modern advancements, Osmania University has embarked on a project to digitise books and manuscripts of its main library, which is a treasure trove of over one lakh titles and 4,000 manuscripts."
"A previously unknown composition by Johann Sebastian Bach has been discovered by researchers in Germany.
The vocal piece was found among papers removed from the historic Anna Amalia Library in Weimar before a devastating fire there last September."
"As hundreds of old and rare books are wasting away at Calcutta University’s Central Library, the city’s scholars, book lovers and the university alumni have started a debate on how to save the priceless volumes."
"Close to 10,000 researchers armed with MA degrees in Sanskrit, Literature or History are marching to institutions, libraries and villages to document an estimated 25 lakh ancient manuscripts. Leading this nationwide project to document details like material, script, language, subject, place of availability and number of pages is the National Mission for Manuscripts of the Department of Culture."
"But the most striking works come from the Golestan Library, the former Royal Library of Iran. Pages from a famous moraqqa or "patchwork [album]" in which rare paintings and specimens of calligraphy were originally collected by Jahangir, the Mogul emperor of India (1605-1627), are on view for the first time since the 1936 London "Exhibition of Persian Art." A double page with a royal banquet in a garden painted in the 1470s or 1480s and a sheet with a camel fight are both signed by Behzad, an artist whose name has the same resonance in Iran as Leonardo's in the West."
"CAIRO The long-awaited online library of Al-Azhar, the oldest and highest Sunni institution in Egypt, (www. alazharonline.org) that aims to promote a moderate image of Islam by making Al-Azhar’s holdings of manuscripts available online is now accessible for those interested in knowing more about Islam."
"AUSTIN - Papers belonging to Watergate reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein and related to Deep Throat - now revealed as former FBI man W. Mark Felt - will likely be delivered to the University of Texas Ransom Center this fall, Director Tom Staley said."
"The range of the Bancroft's collection of books, records, photographs and artifacts is breathtaking, and so is the volume. The manuscripts alone take up 35,000 linear feet of space, which means that in the unlikely event they were laid end to end they would stretch more than 6.628 miles."
"The University of Cincinnati will return a piece of history this month when it sends a rare German book back to Germany."
"The book, titled Die Andachtige Pilgerfahrt, or "The Devout Pilgrimage," by Vincentius Briemle, was published in Munich, Germany. A World War II GI brought it to the United States. The book is a two volume account containing descriptions of travel to the Holy Land in the 1700s."
"THERE is a treasure house in Panjab University that is not well known. Its at the AC Joshi library which houses a one-room section that has 20,000 rare books and 1,491 manuscripts, a priceless storehouse of ancient wisdom."
"ST. LOUIS - Sixty years after four priceless books were retrieved from a burning castle in the final days of World War II, Germany has regained possession of the century-old books."
"ROME -- A 17th-century book seized by the Nazis was returned to Rome's Jewish community on Monday, one of thousands Jewish volumes taken by looting German forces during World War II."
"In the final days of World War II, the books were retrieved from a burning castle in Stuttgart, Germany, by an Army captain from St. Louis, John Hewitt Doty. They were returned to German possession Thursday by two of Doty's nephews, who did so without compensation."
"The pages are from hand-written books composed between 1100 and 1550 in Germany, France, Italy, England, Switzerland and the Netherlands. Otto Ege, a book collector in the early 1900s, tore one page from 50 different books from this era and packaged them into 40 boxes, Stoicheff said."
"CAIRO: – In one of the biggest e-projects in the Muslim world, Al-Azhar has launched a long-awaited Web site featuring digital copies of its huge and rare library."
"Langley, BC: Obtaining original manuscripts from the Greek New Testament normally requires traveling to numerous access-limited locations worldwide, but now it can also be done with one visit to Canada’s Trinity Western University in Langley, British Columbia, near Vancouver."
"With a card catalogue room the length of a football field, there's plenty of material to care for: Some of the oldest bibles printed, letters between kings and the world's largest collection of ancient maps, to name a few."
"Fung Ming-chu, head of NPM's Books and Documents Department, gave a presentation titled "Chinese Rare Books and Regional Studies on Southeast Asia: A Look at Relevant Research across the Taiwan Strait over the Past Two Decades."
"Manipur has been on the boil with the radical Metei Erol Eyek Loinasillon Apunba Lup (MEELAL) or the United Forum for Safeguarding Manipuri Script and Language demanding the introduction of Manipur's ancient Meiteimayek script in place of the existing Bengali script."
"GARDINER, Mont. (AP) --A new center housing Yellowstone National Park's 5.3 million-piece collection of artifacts and archives is set to open this week near the park's northern entrance, giving the public one-stop access to items previously scattered in the park, officials said Monday."
"The renovation, by Italian architect Renzo Piano, will turn the Morgan's three buildings into "a cultural village," library director Charles Pierce said during a recent tour of the construction site. "It will be a setting for the enjoyment of beauty and the contemplation of some of the sublime achievements of Western civilization."
"A digitisation programme for converting rare books and manuscripts into digital format has been initiated at the National Library, Kolkata, Rampur Raza Library and Khuda Baksh Library."
"BENTONVILLE — The Walton Family Foundation announced Thursday it has purchased the historic American work of art "Kindred Spirits" and will permanently house Asher B. Durand’s masterwork in a major new art museum to be built in Bentonville."
"The service contains thousands of images of rare books, manuscripts, maps and paintings considered to have artistic value. So far there are around 14,000 images available through the service but the library wants to increase this figure to over 100,000."
"The collection is full of firsts: the first American book on viticulture, by John Adlum (1823); the first African-American cookbook, by Malinda Russell, published in Paw Paw, Mich. (1866); and the Jewish Cookery Book, the first such in America, written by Esther Levy (1871)."
"Last week the greatest treasure of the tiny tribal state, a library containing thousands of rare manuscripts and books, dating hundreds of years back, was burnt down. The physical losses ran into several crores of rupees, but the real value can never be calculated, as the national treasure of the rarest of manuscripts and literature is lost forever."
"It was burnt because the local Meitei movement, actively supported by the Communists and the church, wanted the Bengali script to be replaced by Meitei and the library contained books in the Bengali script..."
"CATSKILL - The New York Public Library is planning to sell 19 of its artworks, including one with ties to the Catskill region, to fund its research libraries."
"Honolulu real estate developer and book lover Don Graham, who used Sanchez's services to restore a collection now valued at $10 million, narrowed the assessment of Sanchez. "He's the finest there is," Graham said."
"16,000 volumes of "Dunhuang surviving works" collected in National Library of China are in great need of immediate reparation, the 5,000 metres long ancient text in particular. The total amount of ancient documents in various libraries and museums across the country stands at 300 million, most of which are serious damaged, demanding immediate and effective reparation. However, the special personnel qualified for the reparation of ancient documents in National Library of China are less than 10 and those less than 100 nationwide.
"SAN LUIS OBISPO – A powerful documentary photography exhibit that illustrates immigrant youngsters living on the Central Coast will be displayed in the Special Collections department of Cal Poly’s Kennedy Library from May 23 through June 20."
"SAN LUIS OBISPO – The country’s largest archives by and about renowned architect Julia Morgan, housed in the Special Collections Department of Cal Poly’s Kennedy Library, will be cataloged for easy access by scholars and students worldwide, thanks to a recent National Endowment for the Humanities grant and matching funds from the university."
"When the construction dust settles at Utah State University this fall and some 1.5 million books and documents are moved across campus, high-tech robotic cranes will begin stalking the shelves on behalf of patrons in the new Merrill-Cazier Library."
"WASHINGTON - A damaged Torah, a centuries-old Bible and other rare documents important to Iraq's few remaining Jews were rescued from a flooded cellar in Baghdad, only to remain in limbo here."
"With numerous plays, movies, songs and even a restaurant chain taking its name, Herman Melville’s “Moby-Dick” has become an American icon. Now U of L owns a rare first-edition copy of the classic."
"The Russian Cabinet was set Thursday to discuss legislation on the return of a valuable trove of rare books that victorious Soviet troops carried out of Hungary during World War II, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported."
"NEW YORK -- The Pierpont Morgan Library, which is closed for a $102 million expansion and renovation, hopes to raise its public profile after it reopens sometime next year."
"If lawmakers approve Gov. Bob Taft's proposed state biennium budget that cuts $22 million for public libraries, the Coffman family could be out of luck -- and so could the many others who rely on the library's resources"
"The library and museum is the largest presidential library in the country, complete with Abraham Lincoln's presidential briefcase and a copy of the Gettysburg Address in the president's own hand."
"Whatever happens, transforming millions more books into bits is sure to change the habits of library patrons. What, then, will become of libraries themselves?"
"After decades of gathering dust on library shelves, the April 19, 1965 issue of Electronics magazine has suddenly become a very hot commodity. And it's not because vacuum tubes are making a comeback."
"A University of Louisville library has acquired a rare first edition copy of the American classic "Moby Dick," published in 1851."
"University President James Ramsey announced Monday that the Ekstrom Library had acquired the rare book, written by Herman Melville, from a dealer in California for $35,000."
"LONDON: The British Library is facing the possible loss of one of its most important manuscripts, the world's oldest Bible, to a Middle Eastern monastery."
"The fear is raised weeks after the institution was told by a Government advisory panel that a 12th-century manuscript in its collection was looted from a cathedral near Naples during World War II and had to be returned."
"The city's public library system will sell 19 artworks from its collection, including two portraits of George Washington by Gilbert Stuart, to raise money to buy rare books and other collections."
"The UCLA Library Special Collection's acquisition of the A&M Records Collection will enhance UCLA as a destination for the study of American music and popular culture, scholars say."
"Students may wonder if they've spent too much time in the stacks when they glimpse hundreds of books floating in the air around the staircase that winds through three underground floors connecting the University of California, Berkeley's Doe and Moffitt libraries."
"Nathaniel H. Morison, the first provost of the Peabody institute, called the stacks in the Peabody library "a cathedral of books." Three hundred thousand rare and old books from Special Collections line the balconies."
"Library boards, directors and county officials decide how much of a library's budget should be spent on books versus DVDs. Sometimes books win, hands down. Other times, DVDs take a slice of the funding pie."
"The Helsinki Commission heard of the struggle to reclaim a piece of Jewish heritage Wednesday that has been held for nearly a century by the Russian government."
"Visitors to Kroch Library often request to see the Gettysburg address, which is protected within a frame. They can also see the letter Lincoln enclosed when he mailed the copy to Bancroft, which is dated Feb. 29, 1864."
"'I'm greatly moved by the music I collect,' he said. 'We both love it. My principal interest... it should be preserved for posterity and for people to come and study.'"
"For that reason, the English-born couple has donated pieces of the collection to Florida Atlantic University libraries since the 1980s, not long after they married. The result is the Richard Beattie Davis Music Collection, which contains about 500 works from Hummel, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov and others."
"There are other intriguing dictionaries too. Margaret displays "The smallest dictionary…published around 1900, it's 27 millimetres by 18 millimetres, 384 pages and it comes complete with its own magnifying glass. It's very difficult to actually read," Margaret confesses, "(But) it's fascinating that somebody would go to the trouble of publishing and binding something that fits on the end of your finger."
"The Internet is often considered as a marvel. Marshall Mc Luhan, a communication theoretician foretold that humans will prefer computers instead of books. Currently, there are more than 50 million web sites on the Net, and no less than 817, 447 147 Web users – the majority of whom being in Asia, Europe and North America respectively."
"Armagh library housing one of Ireland's finest collections of historical documents may be moved because of budget pressures."
"The Irish and Local Studies Library's status is being reviewed because of the drive to cut costs at the Southern Education and Library Board."
"The centre is used by academics and visitors and its website is frequented by individuals from across the world."
"The university is seeking to rationalise its vast book collections, which have grown over the years in 40 libraries, including the one built by Sir Thomas Bodley in 1602, which draws hoards of tourists as well as scholars from around the globe. At the same time Oxford plans to create a "hybrid" library of books and online resources and is digitising its 19th century books in collaboration with the search engine Google."
"The Maui Friends of the Library is donating $1,000 to the University of Hawaii to assist in the repairs of the University of Hawaii’s Hamilton Library, which was damaged by a flood in October."
"There's something sexy about the Milton S. Eisenhower library. Maybe it's the titles of books on the shelves like Lesbian Gothic: Transgressive Fictions and The Best American Erotica. Maybe it's the naughty silence on D-Level. Maybe it's the cool thrill of grasping a first-edition copy of La Constitution Francaise in your shaking hands in the Cage."
"It is The Pennyroyal Caxton Bible, a complete King James version illustrated with 232 black-and-white engravings by American artist Barry Moser, printed on custom paper, bound by hand in vellum with its title stamped in 24-karat gold on the cover."
"A 12th century manuscript owned by the British Library must be returned to Italy because it was looted during WWII, an independent panel has ruled."
"The symposium, titled ;Hot Type in a Cold World II: Recasting Gutenberg,' presents a 21st-century look at the types used for the first printed book: the 42-line Bible produced by Johann Gutenberg in the mid-15th century. In 1999, the Sunday Times of London, and several similar publications and academic polls named Gutenberg the "Man of the Millennium."
"Research on Mahatma Gandhi will now be easy. No more leafing through thousands of pages of documents and manuscripts, researchers will have all data just a mouse click away. The Sabarmati Ashram Preservation Trust has initiated a project to make digital copies of all manuscripts available in its archives and also develop a system to look through them on computer. The archives have over 34,000 letters collected by the trust after 1951 when the then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru decided to preserve the ashram as a monument."
"A rare 1943 document -- a psychological analysis of the personality of Adolph Hitler that predicted, among other things, his eventual suicide -- has just been made available to the world at large on the Cornell Law Library's Web site."
"The books came from Thomas Bray, a highly educated Englishman with a big job in the Old World. As the Church of England's commissary for Maryland, he started a trans-Atlantic book club of sorts, shipping heavy volumes in Latin and Greek to the newly settled colony and its seaport city, Annapolis."
"Tucked away in a room at 101 Callahan Drive is a treasure trove of information — information about George Washington, about the Masons and about early Virginia history. It is called the George Washington Masonic National Memorial Library and it is located on the sixth floor of the George Washington Masonic National Memorial."
"It's all here, part of the UO Knight Library's Special Collections archive. An estimated $50 million to $100 million worth of stuff donated and collected over the years, mostly used by undergraduates working on research projects."
"Patrons accustomed to reading and sipping coffee at big bookstores will likewise be allowed to have food and drink inside the library area of the building and to bring books into the restaurant."
"The list covers three pages, with 25 to 30 names on each page, adding up to 92 members, who had borrowed 155 volumes between 1964 and 2004. Many of the defaulters had taken three books, which is the maximum number of books a member is allowed to borrow. Some defaulters have returned the books ever since the list was published."
"The Czech national library will make a bid next week for a rare 14th-century book fragment to be sold at auction in Paris, a library official said Wednesday."
"Library staff want to acquire a valuable fragment of a Latin translation of the Czech Dalimil Chronicle, which is to be auctioned on March 17."
"National lottery funding should be introduced to tackle the "scandal" of Britain's shabby and neglected public library services, according to a report yesterday which says that well-stocked, attractive shelves, rather than IT terminals, are the bedrock of its future."
"The University Libraries Archives and Rare Books Library holds a new treasure by the only person to single-handedly design and illustrate the Bible in the 20th century. It’s one of only 400 copies worldwide of the Pennyroyal Caxton Bible, created by artist, engraver and printmaker Barry Moser and completed in 1999."
"Most of UVA's newest library-- a nearly 73,000 square foot structure-- Harrison/Small they're calling it-- lies buried under the grass along McCormick Road."
"The New York Public Library is putting hundreds of thousands of its images online, allowing free personal downloads of material including maps, Civil War photos and illuminated medieval manuscripts."
"A website containing more than 650 sound recordings of English accents and dialects, including from the South West, was today going online for the first time."
"The British Library website includes more than 55 hours of recordings. The site features pairs of recordings from more than 250 locations in rural England and multiple extracts from urban centres."
"Nearly 30 percent of the nation's libraries serve communities of fewer than 2,500 people, including almost 3,000 libraries in towns where the population is measured in the hundreds."
"A large and tasty slice of Americana has found a home in the Longone Center for American Culinary Research, at the University of Michigan's William Clements Library."
"A donated collection of artifacts and literature on gastronomy forms the core of the center's holdings, telling the history of food in America before the mid-20th century. The collection includes more than 100 manuscript cookbooks dating from 1698, menus, diaries and advertisements, catalogs, magazines and graphics."
"Some school administrators in Ohio say tight budgets are forcing them to choose between classroom teachers and library staff when cuts must be made. More than 200 librarian jobs have been eliminated in the past two years, said Suellyn Stotts, past president of the Ohio Educational Library Media Association."
"Satpathy's library has ancient manuscripts like "Manu Samhita" and centuries-old palm leaf manuscripts."
"My great grandfather was the custodian of these manuscripts," Satpathy told IANS in an interview."
"Government officials have removed several documents from the archives of the late Sen. Henry M. “Scoop” Jackson housed at the University of Washington’s Allen Library in Seattle."
"The National Museum of Taiwanese Literature is inviting the public to flip through pages of Taiwan's literary past and find their cultural roots by launching an exhibition on the development of Taiwanese literature."
"'It's a balance,' he [Luis Herrera] said. One of his goals is to 'build a community of readers.' At the same time, he added, "technology is a tool to enhance information. I think it's a tremendous ally.'"
"Bangor University is proposing to sack eight of its 12 librarians because students can find the information they need on the internet."
"Bangor, which is part of the University of Wales, has become the focus of a national campaign to save the "Bangor eight" as unions fear the cuts could be replicated in university libraries elsewhere."
"One million books, 10 million documents and 14,000 archaeological artifacts have been lost in the US-led invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq - the biggest cultural disaster since the descendants of Genghis Khan destroyed Baghdad in 1258, Venezuelan writer Fernando Baez told Inter Press Service."
"More than 100,000 ancient Indian manuscripts and 15 million historic documents in Urdu, Persian and Arabic and 5 million English manuscripts are being digitised by the Juma Al Majid Centre for Culture and Heritage in Dubai."
"Author Chris Crutcher is banned temporarily from Grand Rapids Public Schools, but at local libraries, his book "Athletic Shorts" is flying off shelves."
"I haven't had a chance to re-read it because all our copies are checked out," said Mary Robinson, young adult librarian at Herrick District Library in Holland."
"Philanthropist David W. Packard has stepped forward to fund excavations at the ancient city of Herculaneum in Italy, where scholars believe a Roman library lies buried beneath 90ft of lava from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD79."
"A new library for St. Norbert College received a huge boost Tuesday with the announcement of a $7 million gift - the largest in the school's 106-year history."
"The donation comes from Miriam B. and James J. Mulva. She is a 1969 St. Norbert graduate and is on the college's board of trustees; he is a De Pere native whose mother, Phyllis Mulva Martine, worked for several years on the library staff. James Mulva is chairman and CEO of Houston-based ConocoPhillips."
"Goodbye frayed carpet and dated fixtures. Hello coffee shop and wireless Internet."
"Booktastic! is a new literary board game designed for readers, book lovers, families and educators. Players move around a quaint town square of bookstores to buy, sell and trade books with money earned from correctly answering questions or sharing opinions prior to each turn."
"Dubbed as one of the most ancient libraries in India - the 400-year-old Sarasvati Mahal Library in this south Indian town in Tamil Nadu state is badly in need of patronage. "
"The collection was previously owned by Charles Gould, a book collector from Pasadena, Calif., who spent some 70 years collecting books, ephemera and materials used in the printing process by several major English and American private presses."
"In addition to housing memorabilia from the late Chief Justice the special collections wing showcases pieces from the College’s collection of treasures and artifacts including the sixth largest known collection of Thomas Jefferson letters, one of the largest known collections of fore-edge paintings as well as memorabilia from alumni including actress Glenn Close, astronaut Dave Brown and Broadway costume designer William Ivey Long."
"The country's busiest library, it averages over 12,000 visitors a day and is open to those over 18."
"This has never been done before,” said Dr. Al Filreis, PennSound co-director, English professor and director of Penn’s Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing."
"The collection, which includes approximately two thousand books and artifacts, will be given to Hamilton in five installments over a 10-year period by Dr. Walter A. Brumm, a retired sociology professor from California University of Pennsylvania. The total estimated value of the combined installments is $625,000."
"The Marian Anderson Collection of Photographs at Penn has more than 4,000 images of the opera and concert star, along with her music library and personal letters and papers which she gave Penn in 1977."
"It can add a sleek style to the library environment, while allowing students to indulge themselves during those long and strenuous study nights," said junior Caroline Parker. "Just like bookstores have their own coffee shop, we too can enjoy the luxury in our own school library."
"Rare book lovers are in for a treat when they enter the Central Public Library, where hundreds of books published as long ago as 350 years including Yusuf Julekha, Shahanma, Bheda, Puran, Rare birds book, Ved, Puran and Encyclopedia of World Art went on display yesterday during the first day of a three-day rare book show."
"I have a warped sense of what the world is like, and I am poking barbed gentile fun at society," said Zinman, a businessman and antiquarian book-collector, explaining what inspired him to make the "five-figure" donation to the porcelain gods."
" A selection of used books, souvenirs and the rich aroma of coffee will debut this week at the Waterloo Public Library."
"In Seattle, the $165 million Rem Koolhaas-designed central library — with a four-level spiral ramp and a unique glass box structure — has drawn raves from architecture critics and become an instant landmark. The $92 million Salt Lake City library, designed by Moshe Safdie with a rooftop garden and a five-story atrium called the "urban room," is a popular gathering spot."
"Rowena Morrill, a book illustrator from New York, has been painting images portraying the world of science fiction and mystical fantasy for nearly 30 years."
"Edward Hoyenski, Rare Books and Texana Collection assistant curator, learned that Morrill happened to be in town this week and managed to arrange a last minute appearance for her."
"...this set of nearly 2,500 children’s books has been sitting dormant on the shelves for years, only recently seeing daylight after the group volunteered to help catalog them."
"A UMass Amherst computer science professor has developed an automated keyword-retrieval program that could make searching handwritten documents easier for researchers and students."
"While the Wisconsin Historical Society contains one of the largest American history archives anywhere, fewer people have visited in recent years -- 40 percent fewer than in 1987 -- as more of them, including students at the nearby University of Wisconsin, turn to the Internet as their basic research tool."
CBS is reporting this news story also, here.
...same story also reported online by: Janesville Gazette, Boston Herald, Hampton Roads Daily Press, New York Newsday, Orlando Sentinel, Chicago Tribune, LA Times, Baltimore Sun, Connecticut The Day, Porterville Recorder etc.
"A lot of work goes into repairing and maintaining the 225,000 rare and old documents housed at the Charles Deering McCormick Library of Special Collections, according to the library's Web site. The special collections library, located on the third floor of Deering Library, includes a 4,000-year-old Mesopotamian tablets and 19th century paintings in addition to old books."
Read this news story.
"...the new main library collection includes unique volumes, such as a 9th century manuscript of the Book of Epistles in Greek, 15th century parchment scrolls, Cicero’s letters in Latin and a copy of Griboyedov’s Woe from Wit."
“We shall scan these rarities to make them available to mass readers in an electronic form,” Ms Pantsa said"
"So the historical society and many other institutions with large collections are doing something they see as means of survival: They're going digital creating and uploading images of many items in their collections for all the World Wide Web to see."
"Hans Peter Kraus, one of the foremost booksellers of the second half of the 20th century, and his wife, Hanni, assembled the collection."
"Hans and Hanni Kraus generously donated their collection of Drake materials to the Rare Book and Special Collections Division of the Library of Congress in 1980."
The Minnesota Historical Society acquired the document through a local rare book seller, who received it from an individual in Vancouver, B.C. The $40,000 cost was raised through donations.
"A 900-year old book on astronomy in Sanskirit Kiran Tilak translated into Arabic by Al-Biruni, a distinguished astronomer, historian and Indologist of the 11th century, has been preserved in the library."
"The North Plains man decided to sell cords of firewood for $200, each measuring 4 feet high, 4 feet wide and 8 feet long, to benefit the future library."
(Its library system is world-class.)
"We're the largest public genealogical collection in the nation," says Krull, a Williams College grad. Last year, he adds, 2 million people used the library, borrowing 5 million books. And that was with two of the 13 branches closed."
"Many have heard people moving and talking in the basement were the bathroom is located."
"If your lucky you will see the librarian who was thought to have been killed down there on a late shift."
(The library should promote the hauntings. Ghosts are good for business.)
"the Library of Congress' decision to post 2,240 maps and charts and 76 atlases and sketchbooks on the Internet is the most exciting news Civil War students have received in years."
You can see what all the buzz is about here.
"Thanks to the indifference of the officials, the library with thousands of rare books and manuscripts has turned into a heap of rags."
"With only one yuan, or 12 U.S. cents people can read for a whole day."
"This is the best manuscript collection in North America, possibly the world," said Deborah Schoenfeld, a doctoral candidate at the University of California, Berkeley."
Browse this extraordinary manuscript collection online here.
"The directors of the four Indiana libraries believe the donations are the largest ever given to them by an individual."
(A five-year project will digitise 10,000 ancient manuscripts.)
"In the 8th century, empress Shotoku had a short text printed onto a million paper scrolls and had each of them inserted in a wooden pagoda. Only a few of them have survived.
The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek owns one of these pagodas; it will be on show in the exhibition."
"...to buy computers and software..."
(So does this mean libraries are going to become extinct? Or will this just be a minor thing, like libraries now lending videos?)
"They represent some of the great ideas in intellectual history"
The collection, not at MIT, contains 50,000 rare books, 30,000 secondary titles and other materials related to Newton.
Scholars are paying more attention to the academic aspect of the use of innovative digital means to theoretically eternally conserve, especially in an undisturbed way, the country's magnificent cultural heritage, including Buddhist manuscripts, painted scrolls and other historic documents.
"The library board has received estimates from auction houses, including Sotheby's, which valued the letters at nearly $160,000."
A controversial John Singer Sargent mural "depicts Christianity as ascendant over Judaism."
"This is a major gift, the most significant in my 20 years here...It's the kind of material librarians kill for."
They checked out 2,700 books and made a book fort. "Who needs snow forts when you have library books?"
Hmmmmm. Irish lottery is being used for book & library stuff also. (See article I posted below.) There's a Lottery / Library trend here.
It's the 90th birthday of John Hope Franklin, a leading historian in the field of African-American history, American race relations and Southern regional history.
(Genealogy TV show will be coming to U.S. soon also. Get ready for U.S. library genealogy frenzy.)
So Libraries aren't really important, he suggests.
"The elegant, graying man in the tweed jacket and lime-green V-neck sweater looked as if he had lost his way while window-shopping on Madison Avenue..."
"Jo Ann Smith, a volunteer with the Friends of the Batavia Public Library, discovered quite a gem in a box of donations: a first-edition, first printing, signed copy of Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged."
"Faces seen peering out windows, figures seen moving about, books moving by themselves."
“A large number of school libraries, community libraries, children libraries, public libraries, libraries belonging to religious institutions… have either been completely destroyed or severely affected”
Iran Library and Library of Congress to Collaborate
Literary detente is good. Literary jingoism is evil.
Library Closes Last Vertical File in America
"Nowadays, you've got the Internet...We put a soda machine in its place."
Michigan County: Jails are In. Libraries are Out.
Maybe they can open a library in the jail.
New Mexico Libraries are Alive and Well
"Which cultural destination is the most popular in New Mexico? If you guessed libraries, you're right."
Welsh Library Buys Dylan Thomas Archive
"'The National Library of Wales is delighted to have acquired for the nation this important and little-known group of papers from the Dylan Thomas Estate', said Dr Ceridwen Lloyd-Morgan, head of the Library's Manuscripts Unit."
Albert Small: Collector of Rare Declaration of Independence Items
A Collection of Important Americana (including a Declaration-of-Independence floorboard)
Rare Books and a Grapefruit-Sized Cow Hairball
"the air heavy with history, the hush broken only by the whisper of turning pages"...and a cow's huge hairball
Montana Libraries on Cutting Edge of Technology
"...fears that technology could render libraries obsolete may be farfetched."
Burning the Gutenberg Bible in the New York Public Library
2 Thumbs Down for "The Day after Tomorrow" Movie.
A Texas Baptist Seminary Receives Donation of a 1653 Henry Hammond First Edition
Donated by E. Earl Ellis, research professor of theology emeritus
Bill Gates Gives $749,000 to Iowa Public Libraries
...for computers and technology.
China is Creating the Third-Largest Library in the World
...they also started their National Digital Library on Tuesday.
North Carolina Libraries Awarded Grant to Display Collections in Cyberspace
"This is really the push of the future," said Patricia Samford, director of Historic Bath."
The Virginia Center for Civil War Studies: A Treasury of Civil War History
This 5-year-old center "houses thousands of books on the war - reportedly second in number only to the Library of Congress."
John Steinbeck Libraries are Dying
"Facing record deficits, the Salinas City Council voted Dec. 14 to shut all three libraries..."
Armenia Book Collection Donated to California Library
"This is, you could say, the Shakespeare of Armenia," said Vardanyan, referring to a biography of author Hovhannes Tumanian."
Asiatic Society to Digitise Rare Manuscripts
"We have planned to digitise 48,000 valuable manuscripts in 26 languages and upload the contents on our website (www.Asiaticsocietyca.Com)"
2000 Rare India Manuscripts to be Restored
"More than 2000 rare manuscripts, many of them from 15 and 16 centuries, lay untouched and uncared for in the almirahs of the Tagore Library (Lucknow University."
Martha Irvine Explains How to Google for Rare Books
"Michael Gorman, president-elect of the American Library Association, thinks the value of helping people from anywhere in the world view a library's special collections is "almost priceless."
Some Libraries Create Alternative to Google
Ten major international libraries have agreed to combine their digitised book collections into a free text-based archive hosted online by the not-for-profit Internet Archive.
Mary Lewis Gives $80,000 to Pittsburg-Area Library
"She had stacks of books in every room in the house, including the kitchen, where there were more than 100 cookbooks."
Sarah Wyman Whitman, America's First Professional Book Designer ...on exhibit in Boston
Sometimes an artist is forgotten when her kind of art goes out of fashion. Such was the case with Boston's remarkable Sarah Wyman Whitman, America's first professional book designer.
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