Rumpus Original Fiction: Clockwork
Turn the corner, let the darkness swallow you, and you’re in the stacks.
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Posts Tagged: library
Deep, Wide, and Ridiculous: Talking with Diane Seuss
Diane Seuss discusses her most recent collection, STILL LIFE WITH TWO DEAD PEACOCKS AND A GIRL.
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Less-Than-Linear: A Conversation with Georgia Webber
Georgia Webber discusses DUMB: LIVING WITHOUT A VOICE in an illustrated interview!
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Too Many Books
If you’re only holding onto that copy of Infinite Jest to prove that you finished it, it might be time to let go. At The Awl, Nell Beram offers tips for spring-cleaning your book collection: “But what if I like those books?” you say. Well, then check them out at your library.
...moreA Library for Two Countries
Situated along the US-Canada border, the Haskell Free Library and Opera House “is the only library in the world that exists and operates in two countries at once,” Atlas Obscura reports.
...moreThe Library in a City’s Time of Crisis
Libraries are major hubs that serve the community, and even more so in times when people are looking for help. Over at the Atlantic, Deborah Fallows details the efforts to preserve the San Bernardino library, which has seen an increased sense of community after the tragic shootings last year: When I asked people what felt […]
...moreBuilding Your Dream Library
For the daytime version of your library you need some natural light. How will your library illustrate the romance of pursuing knowledge if you can’t see dust particles floating in sunbeams? How are you going to achieve enlightenment without light? Book-lovers know all too well the struggle to find places to store all their books; who […]
...moreWeekly Geekery
The digital life at sea. The unlikely history of video games. All those YouTubers sound the same. Once again, the Internet is ruining all good things.
...moreWeekly Geekery
Amazon will never replace libraries. The power of an emoji. Google is Minority Report. Probably. Technology and the palimpsest.
...moreFrom Draft to Book
NPR took a tour of the Kerlan Collection, a formerly private library of first-edition children’s books as well as original artwork, drafts of manuscripts, and other ephemera housed at the University of Minnesota: This is something you see a lot at the Kerlan. Authors often discard characters and add new ones. Sketches can change radically […]
...moreTrue Hero
The poorer areas of Bogota, Colombia have limited access to books, due to not being close-by to any of the city’s libraries. José Gutierrez, a 53-year-old garbage collector, began rescuing thrown-away books 20 years ago, creating a makeshift library for the community in his house. He is now known as “Lord of the Books,” and […]
...moreBritish Library Rejects Taliban Archive
Fear of terrorism has frightened the British Library into rejecting a cache of digital archives and other documents relating to the Taliban, reports the Guardian. The archive includes more than 2 million translated words, but accepting the documents might violate Britain’s anti-terror laws. The archive included newspapers, magazines, books of Sharia law, and poetry.
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A Novel Performance: Thirty Days in Seattle’s Central Library
Are writers really introverts, or do we hide our craft out of insecurity?
...moreWhat You Can Read at the Guantánamo Bay Detainee Library
Prisoners held at Guantánamo Bay have access to 18,000 books in 18 different languages, including Arabic translations of King Lear, Anna Karenina, and Stephen King thrillers. But books deemed critical of the US government, including Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Noam Chomsky’s Interventions, and various John Grisham novels, are banned. Over at The Kenyon […]
...moreA Library of Tools
Camden County, New Jersey could become the newest location for a tool library. These libraries aren’t filled with books—instead, their contents include hand tools, like The West Philly Tool Library, a non-profit organization with more than 3,000 tools for loan. There are about 20 tool libraries around the US and a few more in Canada. But […]
...moreWeekly Geekery
Are video games the new social commentary? Are we ready to give them the weight of other media? The Internet is fomenting another revolution. Librarians: bespectacled superheroes for your rights. Growing a library. A book written pre-Internet, sheds light on the Internet. The ambivalence of privacy online.
...moreLittle Free Library Battle: 9-Year-Old vs. City Council
In Leawood, KS, a 9-year-old was forced to remove the Little Free Library he built in his family’s front yard because it’s considered an “illegal detached structure.” After he takes the issue to the city council next month, he may be allowed to return the library to its original location, but in the meantime he […]
...moreGreen Branch Library to Branch Out with Bookmobile
The Green Branch Library has done amazing work providing books and other materials about social and environmental justice to kids in Oakland. Now they’re hoping to expand their reach to kids all over the Bay Area with a a bookmobile! Check out the extraordinarily adorable Claymation video they made for their Indiegogo campaign and make a […]
...moreHow Well Do You Know Library of Congress Subjects?
Which book can be comprehensively defined by the keywords “married people,” “college teachers,” and “New England”? What about “totalitarianism” and “London (England)”? See how well you can categorize bookshelves with this quiz about Library of Congress subjects from The Toast.
...moreGo to the Library Without Leaving Your House
If you liked learning about fore-edge paintings, you’ll love the New York Public Library’s Tumblr. And the Smithsonian Libraries’ Tumblr. And the University of Iowa’s Special Collections & University Archives Tumblr. And all the other library blogs linked in this MetaFilter post, which upload pictures of all kinds of nifty stuff from their stacks, from “the original […]
...more250,000 Books Head to the Landfill
Book lovers, avert your eyes: the Fairfax County Public Library in Virginia took a quarter million books and threw them in the trash. It’s common for libraries to prune their collections, getting rid of outdated or unpopular books in favor of ones that circulate more widely, but this is an unusually high number thanks to […]
...moreNew Library in Brooklyn Vaguely Resembles Literary Wet Dream
Mellow Pages Library, a library and reading room in Brooklyn consisting primarily of publications from small publishing houses, opened its doors earlier this year. Founded by Matt Nelson and Jacob Perkins, the library prides itself in supporting lesser-known authors and publishing houses, containing publications from Magic Helicopter Press, Factory Hollow Press, Jaded Ibis Press, and […]
...moreRemembering Why We Love Libraries
Libraries have not been getting enough attention, so sometimes it’s beneficial to meditate on the anecdotal secrets and historical utilities that this community institution has provided us with over the years. From supplying research for revolutionaries to refuge for writers—there seems to be endless reasons for this space to be valued in our community, though […]
...moreWhy Reading Kept Me Out Of Jail
I wasn’t a bad kid growing up, I just liked to steal things — vodka, cigars, communion wine — and set things on fire. Once or twice I used profanity in the presence of a nun. But I only had my rights read to me once and even then the cop looked pretty bored about […]
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