Obama taps librarian with Duke ties
A former head of Duke University Libraries has been chosen as the next archivist of the United States. On Tuesday, President Barack Obama announced the nomination of David Ferriero to run the National Archives and Records Administration. The 63-year-old Ferriero is the director of research libraries at the New York Public Library. From 1996 to 2004, he served as university librarian and vice provost for library affairs at Duke. When he left for New York, then-Duke President Nan Keohane called him "something of a Renaissance man, who combines a commitment to the life of the mind with a practical and collaborative approach."
Exhibit traces history of Hoover Institution with rich display of artifacts
It seems like an odd milestone — 90 years — for Stanford's Hoover Institution to burrow into its archives for a richly detailed exhibit that seeks to tell the story of how it all got started and why it still matters. Most groups might just wait for a more traditional centennial blowout. But 10 years shy? That would have been like celebrating America's bicentennial in 1966. But there's a good reason for the institution's timing, and it has much to do with one of the key aims of its retrospective exhibit: highlighting the special role played by the think tank's namesake and founder, President Herbert Hoover, until his death in 1964. At age 90.
Classic guide for writers marks 50th anniversary
Strunk’s “Elements of Style” probably would have vanished for good had not someone stolen one of the two copies in the Cornell library in 1957 and sent it to White. In his “Letter From the East” column for July 15, 1957, White trumpeted “the little book,” recalling its “rich deposits of gold” and eloquently ruminating on the valuable lessons he learned, lauding Strunk and his devotion to lucid English prose. Jack Case, an editor at Macmillan, was enticed by the column and eventually persuaded White to revise, expand and modernize Strunk’s book. Cornell’s archival holdings include White’s letters back and forth with Case about the project, as well as his original note-filled 1959 manuscript. Cornell also possesses three copies of Strunk’s original 1918 edition and White’s Underwood typewriter.
‘Moveable Feast’ Is Recast by Hemingway Grandson
Hemingway committed suicide before he could write that book. Seán [Hemingway], an associate curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art who had previously edited anthologies of Hemingway’s writings on war and hunting, worked with manuscripts now housed in the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston. His new edition, which will be in bookstores as early as this week, is made up of the 19 chapters that Hemingway wanted to include, in the order he had placed them. The remaining 10 chapters are moved into a section called “Additional Paris Sketches.”
"Pope's Library" to Reopen in 2010
The Vatican Library, which has been closed for renovation since July 14, 2007, will be opening its doors again in 2010. The library's prefect, Monsignor Cesare Pasini, announced this Sunday on Vatican Radio. On the occasion of the reopening, the first volume of a "History of the Vatican Library" will be published, he reported. As well, the prefect said, a congress will be organized, with a presentation by researchers who will explain their work over the past 50-60 years, and how the library is a place of investigation.
Help Us Catalog: University of Michigan’s Islamic Manuscripts Collection Going Online
From the Article: The University of Michigan Special Collections Library needs help cataloguing its vast Islamic Manuscripts Collection. But the library doesn’t plan to hire an expert. Instead, almost all of its 1,250 pieces are being scanned in-house to put the work on the Internet. And the library hopes interested scholars will get involved. [Snip] “It will be presented to the public in Wiki or blog-type interface, so people can comment on what they see. In that way, we hope we can get help from scholars all over the world in identifying the manuscripts and cataloguing them properly,” said Peggy Daub, director of Special Collections.
Twitter helps prayers find their way to Wailing Wall
For centuries, people have stuffed prayers written on scraps of paper into the ancient cracks in the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem. In recent years they could fax or e-mail their prayers — and now they can tweet them, too. The Western Wall now has its own address on the social networking service, Twitter, allowing believers around the globe to have their prayers placed between its 2,000 year-old-stones without leaving their armchairs. The service’s founder, Alon Nil, says petitioners can tweet their prayers, and they will be printed out and taken to the wall, where they will join the thousands of handwritten notes placed by visitors who believe their requests will find a shortcut to God by being deposited there.
Civil Rights Activists Champion Google Book Deal
A proposed settlement allowing Google to digitize millions of books will have huge benefits for minority populations and their access to valuable information, a group of civil rights leaders and educators said Wednesday. The Google book settlement, scheduled to be reviewed in an Oct. 7 court hearing, would allow Google to scan and make available scores of books, including millions of out-of-print titles. The digitized books will give minorities and poor people new access to titles that were formerly only available at large university libraries, supporters of the deal said during a forum at the Howard University School of Law in Washington, D.C.
A is for Acquisition, B is for British Library, C is for Conservation
The British Library has acquired the Macclesfield Alphabet Book, a rare medieval English 'model' or 'pattern' book dating from c.1500, with support from the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF), independent charity The Art Fund, Friends of the British Library and National Libraries and other individual donors. The manuscript had been in the library of the Earl of Macclesfield since around 1750, and until recently its existence was completely unknown. From today (30 July), it will be on free public display in the Sir John Ritblat Gallery: Treasures of the British Library.
The last word: Unless a buyer emerges, Prairie Avenue Books will close
Prairie Avenue Books, a retail anchor on South Wabash Avenue and touchstone institution for architects in Chicago and around the globe, will close this September unless a buyer scoops up the entire business from longtime owners Marilyn and Wilbert Hasbrouck. The decision to close, Wilbert Hasbrouck said, came a few weeks ago and was prompted by concurrent economic issues and personal choices. “My wife and I have reached the age where we’re not up to coming here every day. There were a couple of other things, too. We couldn’t deal with the sales tax in Chicago,” he explained. “According to what we call the ‘Al Gore law,’ you don’t have to pay sales taxes if you buy on the Web.
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