libraries
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Love in the Library
What is it about the stacks that gets everyone so hot and bothered? Over at The Millions, Elisabeth Cohen explores the Mary/Magdalene dichotomy in the figure of the female librarian: The whole good-natured romp of it bespeaks a clear message:…
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The Camel Library
We’ve seen libraries on bicycles. We’ve seen libraries on boats. But what about a library on a camel? Its been happening for two decades in Mongolia. Dashdondog Jamba has traveled more than 50,000 miles over the years crossing the Gobi…
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Margaret Atwood, Eternal Optimist
You’re assuming that first of all you’ll finish the book, which is a big assumption, and then that somebody will publish it — even more optimistic — that somebody will read it — better still — and that they will…
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Who Will Stand Up for Crumbling Libraries?
In an opinion piece in the New York Daily News, David Giles calls upon the de Blasio administration to extend its efforts to strengthen infrastructure and promote equal opportunity by aggressively funding some of the NYC’s most valuable public spaces:…
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Reading Recs: Man vs. Machine
At Co.EXIST, Jessica Leber pits the algorithms of digital giants Amazon and Goodreads against the ultimate recommendation engine: librarians. Leber details her experience with the Brooklyn Public Library’s BookMatch program, in which real librarians respond to patron’s requests for reading…
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Surveillance in the Stacks
Librarians have hard-won reputations as defenders of open information and patron privacy, but what about third-party providers of library services? Slate’s Future Tense explores some recent revelations from companies like Adobe, whose Digital Editions e-book software has been criticized for…
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The Vatican Goes Digital
The Vatican Library has been digitizing its 1.6 million books and the first 500 volumes are now available, reports Business Insider. The library was founded in 1451 and the digitization project is expected to take fifteen years. The collection is…
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From Papyrus to PDF
Mike Kelley delivers a useful overview of the outlook for preservation of e-books for Publishers Weekly. In addition to the upkeep necessary to combat digital decay, which is at least analogous to the challenges of paper-book preservation, libraries are now…
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Robots Take Over the Library
In the first step of what will undoubtedly be the robot uprising, two robots will be joining the staff of the Westport, Connecticut library. The robots will primarily assist in teaching coding, but they’re also programmed to recognize faces, practice…
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Banned Books Week: A Rumpus Roundup
Sunday marked the start of Banned Books Week, a celebration of freedom, and a recognition of the threat of censorship. Libraries around the US are hosting events. Books are banned for a variety of reasons, and by a variety of organizations.…
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Young Adults Still Go to the Library
The Pew Research Center recently released a report about younger Americans’s (ages 16-29) attitudes toward libraries. As it turns out, young adults still read books, they still visit libraries—at least as much as older Americans—and many use library services. There…
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Portland’s Bicycle Library
Portland is home to Street Books, a bicycle-based library that serves the city’s homeless population and day laborers. The project started in 2011 with a temporary grant, but has since flourished into a full-time non-profit. The Oregonian takes a look…