libraries
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3-D Printers Modernize Libraries
American libraries have always been a place for ideas and the exchange of knowledge. In recent years, libraries have invested in computers and other new technologies. One of those popular technologies has been 3-D printers. Now, libraries with those tools…
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Pedal-Powered Libraries
Huron, Ohio has a new library branch. Unlike the existing libraries, this one is mounted on a tricycle. The innovative library contains a foldout display case mounted between its wheels.
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From Newspaper Stand to Library
Defunct newspaper distribution boxes are being repurposed and finding a second life as Little Free Libraries. Southern Indiana will be receiving 24 new Little Free Libraries made from News and Tribune boxes no longer in use for the newspaper. The libraries…
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A Library of Dissidents
The Czech Republic has a special library for dissident programming. The Presidential Library of Václav Havel hosts events intentionally challenging to authority and mainstream culture, reports OZY. The library itself is based around the works of Havel, who remains a…
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A Library in an Abyss
A Swedish artist has converted an old mining shaft into a library that disappears into an endless abyss. The library is actually a sculpture, part of a 55-piece show, Sculpture by the Sea, located in Denmark. Colossal takes a look…
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Learning to Work with Rare Books
In 1983, Terry Belanger created a curriculum for librarians to learn how to deal with rare books at Columbia University. Nine years later, the University of Virginia hired him and the Rare Book School moved to Charlottesville. The school now has 80,000…
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Librarians in Wartime
Over the holiday weekend, Linton Weeks wrote for NPR’s History Dept. on the critical role of librarians in World Wars I and II. Weeks spoke to Cara Bertram, an archivist for the American Library Association: The books that did make…
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Stacks on Stacks
Consumer culture impossibly demands that we acquire possessions ad infinitum while condemning the clutter these objects inevitably produce. Over at Lit Hub, Susan Harlan surrenders to the stack: After all, how does a book find its place? Where does it…
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Exploring a Megalibrary
At Atlas Obscura’s Places index, a contributor shares photos and the history of Mexico City’s Biblioteca Vasconcelos, a “megalibrary” that combines five separate (and disparately designed) library-sized collections within one building.
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A Library for Lumberjacks
Lumberjacks of yesteryear cut trees from remote camps before shipping the lumber to sawmills. One mill owner built his lumberjacks a rolling boxcar library so the workers could enjoy books even while in distant logging camps. The Bonner mill library…
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Library Queries
Before there was Google, there was the New York Public Library. Library patrons could query librarians by writing out questions on notecards. The NYPL found a set of vintage cards, and has been publishing them on Instagram. The Guardian shares some of…
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The Rise of the Private Library
The American public library system has been one of the earliest victims of conservative austerity. But while the public library system slowly collapses, a new modern iteration of the members-only lending library has risen. These specialized libraries collect fees from…