tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29669723442067792332024-03-14T05:51:31.868-04:00BibliowonkCommentary on book and rare book, publishing, libraries, eBooks, technology, forgery, and museums.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger74125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2966972344206779233.post-57169384977657940452014-01-06T12:27:00.000-05:002014-01-06T12:30:27.604-05:00Rosenbach-Free Library of Philadelphia is completeThis <a href="http://articles.philly.com/2014-01-02/news/45767021_1_free-library-rosenbach-museum-siobhan-reardon" target="_blank">story</a> at philly.com reports on the completion on December 24, 2013 of the acquisition of the Rosenbach Library by the Free Library of Philadelphia. The state attorney general had no objection to the merger. The April 2013 story didn't go into detail about the board changes, described in this article, which suggests more of a "merger" than earlier reports. <br />
<br />
Is it a merger of the two organizations, or an acquisition of the Rosenbach, with its collections and some of its donors, by the FLP? It seems to be both. Time will tell. <br />
<a name='more'></a>In the corporate merger of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citigroup" target="_blank">CitiCorp and Travelers Group</a> in 1998 there was the assumption that it was a merger of equals, but time proved that to be untrue, as Travelers's corporate culture eventually changed Citi. People who worked at Citibank before and after have told me that the merged Citi became more cut-throat. I can't comment, but over time the true nature became apparent. But I'm comparing very different merger-acquisitions.I think the Rosenbach-FLP is positive and will be a good thing for both institutions and collections. Bravo to the Pew Memorial Trusts for encouraging this merger.<br />
<br />
One speculative thought. I do <u>not</u> know the corporate structure of the FLP, but I wonder if the Rosenbach foundation, which the FLP will now partly control, will prove a fruitful private-public venture rather like the New York Public Library's <a href="http://www.nypl.org/help/about-nypl/history" target="_blank">Astor, Tilden & Lenox Trust</a>. The NYPL is the public system (the branches) which is tax-payer supported, and the special collections (mostly endowed and mostly at 42nd Street) which relies on endowments and tax-payer subsidy. While I've never investigated the extent of support from the endowments (primarily for book purchases and some professional salaries) vs. the tax-payer support at the NYPL, I do sense great strength in the model, especially in securing additional private funds. All best wishes to the new consolidated Rosenbach and FLP. May this major change bring new energy to you scholarly and public programs!<br />
<br />
Previously:<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://bibliowonk.blogspot.com/2013/10/update-on-rosenbach-philadelphia-free.html" target="_blank">Update on the Rosenbach-Philadelphia Free Library merger</a></li>
<li><a href="http://bibliowonk.blogspot.com/2013/04/rosenbach-library-and-museum-to-merge.html" target="_blank">Rosenbach Library and Museum to merge with Philadelphia Free Library [updated] </a></li>
</ul>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2966972344206779233.post-76530271541406849952014-01-03T22:01:00.000-05:002014-01-03T22:01:39.961-05:00The Future of Libraries and the Huntington Library (Edward Rothstein at NYT)<span class="userContent">Edward Rothstein of the <i>New York Times</i> has a </span><span class="userContent"><span class="userContent">fascinating piece </span>on the
Huntington Library's new exhibitions. I think he falters a bit in his review, but his conclusion strikes me as solid and suggestive: </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span class="userContent">[The Huntington] is developing its own syncretic style, with [aspirations
towards] European culture at the foundation. This a<span class="text_exposed_show">pproach
has its tensions. .... And in the library show, the idea of aspiration
is almost undercut by later exhibits that are more concerned with
grievances and injustices. Yet at the same time, aspiration is not
really jettisoned. The spirit of ambitious wonder is preserved in
permanent exhibitions like “Beautiful Science” — a haunting evocation of
scientific exploration told through the library’s holdings. </span></span></blockquote>
<span class="userContent"><span class="text_exposed_show"></span></span><br />
<span class="userContent"><span class="text_exposed_show">Rothstein points with some slight irony to the tension between iconic great books and objects (which the public expects to be preserved) with the new non-canonical materials that fit more with contemporary scholarly research. There's definitely a tension, which I don't think Rothstein unpacks, but perhaps those issues can't be unpacked in a short review piece for the the <i>Times</i>. A lot of that non-canonical material will end up on the web for preservation and dissemination, and I'm not sure that the public will be as supportive of spending money to conserve and exhibit it. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span class="userContent"><span class="text_exposed_show">Source: Edward Rothstein, "<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/21/arts/design/the-library-re-imagined-at-the-huntington.html?pagewanted=all" target="_blank">A Treasure House of Shifting Aspirations</a> ‘The Library Re-Imagined,’ at the Huntington" (New York Times, Dec 20, 2013)<br />.</span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2966972344206779233.post-39831797903559156512013-10-17T06:30:00.000-04:002013-10-17T06:34:29.769-04:00The End of "The End of Libraries"Jacob S. Berg at BeerBrarian blog <a href="http://beerbrarian.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-end-of-end-of-libraries.html" target="_blank">writes a response</a> to those "End of Libraries" articles which he notes tend to be written by well-off males. This response is a series of links to research and articles about the value of libraries. In a nut-shell: libraries are efficient (delivering $4 in services for every $1 spent), their presence in schools tends to improve test scores, and they help even-out the information and digital divides for less-affluent families. And in the comments, some people note that these authors of these pieces seem to have no children. (It's too bad that he and others go on about the whiteness and maleness of these writers--the real problem is social and economic <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissism#Hotchkiss.27_seven_deadly_sins_of_narcissism" target="_blank">narcissism</a> and the fact that many of these people influence leaders and budget discussions.) Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2966972344206779233.post-76208322612939910092013-10-14T11:25:00.004-04:002013-10-14T11:31:20.961-04:00Update on the Rosenbach-Philadelphia Free Library merger<div>
This is an update to my previous <a href="http://bibliowonk.blogspot.com/2013/04/rosenbach-library-and-museum-to-merge.html">story</a> posted about the merger of
the Philadelphia Free Library and the Rosenbach Library. My article
noted involvement of the Pew Memorial Trusts in the merger. There's more to
this than meets the eye.<br />
<br />
An opinion <a href="http://www.nonprofitquarterly.org/philanthropy/569-the-new-goals-at-the-pew-charitable-trusts-and-the-fate-of-the-nonprofit-sector.html" target="_blank">article</a> from 2007 by
Marie C. Malara, "The New Goals at the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Fate of the Nonprofit Sector" (<a href="http://www.nonprofitquarterly.org/"><i>Nonprofit Quarterly</i></a>, volume 14, summer
2007:70 – 72). In this piece, the author attacks president of
Pew, Rebecca W. Rimel, who wishes to make Philadelphia (Pew's home) into a
major center for the arts in the US. The author cites the case of the
Barnes Foundation which Pew interfered with in order to move it
to Center City Philadelphia. She regards this as a betrayal of the Pew's
founding principles.<br />
</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
The article, perhaps rightly, did not receive much play outside the supporters of the old Barnes Foundation. My own take? I don't agree with the thrust of this piece. Merger is the continuing story of foundations urging smaller organizations to consolidate in order to survive and (we all hope) thrive. Pew and Rimel may make some mis-steps, but I don't think it's necessarily a case of bad faith and betrayal of founding principles. There's a lot to be said for Rimel's vision in an extended (post-1980) period of economic contraction and reduced government funding. Still, pieces like this one should make us pause, and ensure that we're really engaged in an alignment of activities, mission and founding ideas. </div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2966972344206779233.post-56678864508383935752013-07-10T22:24:00.002-04:002014-02-20T11:06:17.519-05:00The Voynich Manuscript and Fakery [updated][Update 10/14/2013 See comment below.] The latest New Yorker has an <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2013/07/the-unread-the-mystery-of-the-voynich-manuscript.html" target="_blank">article</a> about the Voynich manuscript by Reed Johnson. The article helpfully reviews the provenance (some of it possibly putative) as well as the modern history and reception of the very strange manuscript.<br />
<br />
In one throw-away line, Johnson notes that some people have questioned whether the manuscript is as ancient as claimed:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The hoax hypothesis can’t be ruled out. But if the Voynich is a fake,
it’s an elaborate one. A twentieth-century scam artist would have to
have located a hundred and twenty sheets of blank six-hundred-year-old
vellum in anticipation of the invention of radiocarbon dating (which did
not yet exist when the manuscript first reëmerged, in 1912).</blockquote>
This reasoning strikes me as naive. By the early twentieth century, some art forgers were certainly using antique materials (not in expectation of radiocarbon dating, but in expectation of trying to fool better trained experts), and the use of such old materials and old techniques was far more common in the 1920s. Eric Hebborn's <i>Art Forger's Handbook</i>, while slender on history, is very suggestive about the overlap between early art restoration and forgery--indeed some early 20th C restorers tried their hand at outright faking. (I'm ignoring the question of whether the manuscript's <i>code </i>is medieval or modern, which is a major buttress to it authenticity in Johnson's reasoning--but, frankly, that evidence could be argued either way, as the "Hoax" section of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voynich_manuscript#Hoax" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a> suggests.)<br />
<br />
In terms of provenance, the descent sketched by Johnson has some gaps, and the overall provenance could go either way, but the romantic story about Rudolph II makes me a bit suspicious. It sounds a little too good (to be true) and while the story might have been tarted up by Voynich to sell the manuscript, it wouldn't surprise me that an anonymous forger used the story and references to create this minor masterpiece that still excites the fancy of writers and laypeople.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2013/07/the-unread-the-mystery-of-the-voynich-manuscript.html" target="_blank"><b>The Unread: The Mystery of the Voynich Manuscript</b></a> (<i>New Yorker</i>, July 9, 2013)<br />
<br />
<b>Update 2/20/2014</b>: Professor of Applied Linguistics, Stephen Bax, at the University of Bedfordshire, claims to have made a start deciphering some of the coded language by comparing names and known images to medieval Arab manuscripts. From a university <a href="http://www.beds.ac.uk/news/2014/february/600-year-old-mystery-manuscript-decoded-by-university-of-bedfordshire-professor" target="_blank">press release</a>:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Although Professor Bax’s decoding is still only partial, it has
generated a lot of excitement in the world of codebreaking and
linguistics because it could prove a crucial breakthrough for an
eventual full decipherment.</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“My aim in reporting on my findings at this stage is to encourage
other linguists to work with me to decode the whole script using the
same approach, though it still won’t be easy. That way we can finally
understand what the mysterious authors were trying to tell us,” he
added.<br />
</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“But already my research shows conclusively that <b>the manuscript is
not a hoax, as some have claimed, and is probably a treatise on nature,
perhaps in a Near Eastern or Asian language.</b>” [emphasis added]</blockquote>
Obviously, this is preliminary and will probably be altered as time goes on. -PWR<br />
(update: fixed some typos. Update 10/14/2013 update for comments)<br />
(update 2/20/2014: Professor Bax news) Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2966972344206779233.post-7304893163932487482013-05-29T23:34:00.002-04:002013-05-29T23:45:27.897-04:00Manuscript sharing: NYPL and Pennsylvania to share a Bill of RightsThe Wall Street Journal <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324787004578497601561471328.html">reports</a> on an interesting 100-year sharing agreement between the New York Public Library and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for a manuscript Bill of Rights.The NYPL received the manuscript on donation in 1896 and its provenance before then appears to be uncertain. The WSJ article notes that only fourteen copies of the Bill were made (one for each state and for the federal government) and that Georgia, Maryland, New York and Pennsylvania are all missing their copies. Georgia's and New York's were probably lost to fire. (NYS's great and tragic 1911 Library fire destroyed a lot of early state history, including a lot of colonial era manuscripts.)<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
What's suggestive in this case, and merely alluded to, is that <a href="http://www.archives.ncdcr.gov/news/bill_of_rights1.htm">North Carolina</a> had used replevin (and a sting operation) in 2003 to get possession of a Bill of Rights that had got into private hands back in the Civil War (when it had been looted by a Union soldier). It's possible that replevin litigation had been raised with the NYPL. (As the linked North Carolina press release above makes clear, Pennsylvania had been approached regarding sale of the NC document. Also, this brief <a href="http://www2.archivists.org/sites/all/files/AAv075n1-13.pdf" target="_blank">review</a> by Elena S. Danielson in <i>American Archivist</i>, beginning p.11, notes some of the other legal issues, and make clear that the Union soldier should have returned his illegal loot; the same review on p.14 notes the current legal approaches, which vary from state to state, which includes preserving the documents and making them available to the public.)<br />
<br />
Not mentioned in the WSJ article is the Bill of Rights at the Library of Congress, whose original owner cannot be identified. Is it the federal copy? Another state's copy? It was donated (per Danielson's review) during WWII through the good offices of the legendary Americana dealer Dr. A.S.W. Rosenbach.<br />
<br />
It's not entirely clear that the Bill of Rights at NYPL is the Pennsylvania copy, and the NYPL, even though it restricted access, did preserve the manuscript and make it available to researchers and for limited exhibition. Pennsylvania had been anxious to acquire a copy for its Constitution Center in Philadelphia, so this is a good deal, and is much cheaper than an outright purchase or litigation. (And litigation is no sure thing: the State of Maine lost litigation in attempting to get apparently official printed copies of the Constitution out of private dealer hands. Again, the Danielson review does a nice job of summarizing these points.)Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2966972344206779233.post-49946619728562235562013-05-27T15:56:00.000-04:002013-05-27T15:56:27.796-04:00Our stories: morality vs stuff happens (Paul Krugman quotation)<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<h5>
<span class="usercontent"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">"Everyone loves a morality play. 'For the wages
of sin is death' is a much more satisfying message than 'Shit happens.' We all
want events to have meaning." -- Paul Krugman,
"<a href="http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2013/jun/06/how-case-austerity-has-crumbled/">How
the Case for Austerity had Crumbled</a>," <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New York Review of Books</i>, June 5, 2013</span></span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"></span></h5>
</blockquote>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Krugman is often my source for interesting one-liners or <a href="http://bibliowonk.blogspot.com/2013/03/incestuous-amplification-paul-krugman.html">neologisms</a>. What I do think Krugman misses in this quotation (from an
admittedly longer and more complex article) is that while stuff happens, there
is also a human tendency to want a more complex agent than an accumulation of
events--or a <a href="http://bibliowonk.blogspot.com/2013/03/conspiracy-theories-among-engineers.html">mistake</a>. Yes, we want to give meaning to events and stories, and the
meaning in my mind is much more interesting than (dull, drab) reality. It's this impulse that in extreme forms can power <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_theories">conspiracy thinking</a>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Krugman's piece is an interesting review of the theory behind austerity, primarily as it has played out in Europe, but also in the GOP. </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2966972344206779233.post-34603227883228299962013-05-16T19:44:00.000-04:002013-05-16T19:44:46.502-04:00PBS's Lucy Bernholz on the Digital Public Library of America PBS commentator and philanthropy blogger Lucy Bernholz writes a <a href="http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2013/05/digital-public-library-dpla-raises-questions-ownership-permanence-access">largely positive column</a> at PBS, although she also notes the current limitations of the DPLA. Some of her main points bear noting here:<br />
<ul>
<li> <b>Ownership and Intellectual property</b>: "Instead of a stand-alone collection, it is the set of common software codes and processes that connect existing collections and adapts for future ones." (Her discussion of "ownership" which I omit, is worth seeing.)</li>
<li><b>Permanence</b>: "We can’t predict where technology will take us, so the DPLA has built itself to adapt from within while also aligning with those who can push it along." </li>
<li><b>Access</b>: "The DPLA has tried from the beginning to be inclusive and welcoming in designing its software, its governance structures, and its future scope of work — open meeting policies, bylaws, and draft articles of incorporation are all on the site. I’m not an expert in the design of digital materials for the visually impaired, but the FAQ offers detailed information on how the site is set up to reach these users." (I had missed the DPLA's commitment to visually impaired users, but I say Bravo! It's about time that our cultural institutions encouraged software developers to follow the spirit as well as the letter of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americans_with_Disabilities_Act_of_1990">Americans with Disabilities Act</a>.</li>
</ul>
<br />
It's also hard to disagree with her conclusion: "The DPLA is an experiment worth watching as it navigates these new waters and celebrating as it unfolds. When the time comes for the actual party, I’ll be there." But <a href="http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2013/05/digital-public-library-dpla-raises-questions-ownership-permanence-access">read the original</a>. She's a good writer.<br />
<div style="left: -1988px; position: absolute; top: -1999px;">
The DPLA
is an experiment worth watching as it navigates these new waters and
celebrating as it unfolds. When the time comes for the actual party,
I’ll be there. - See more at:
http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2013/05/digital-public-library-dpla-raises-questions-ownership-permanence-access#sthash.gFtLLbNU.dpuf</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2966972344206779233.post-48744023511864024582013-05-03T16:14:00.006-04:002013-05-27T16:06:22.171-04:00On Reviewing Books (quotations)Gratuitous quotes, that is. These are just some quotations that I wanted to share on book reviewing:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I was going to suggest some hard-won guidelines for responsible
reviewing. For instance: First, as in Hippocrates, do no harm. Second,
never stoop to score a point or bite an ankle. Third, always understand
that in this symbiosis, you are the parasite. Fourth, look with an open
heart and mind at every different kind of book with every change of
emotional weather because we are reading for our lives and that could be
love gone out the window or a horseman on the roof. Fifth, use theory
only as a periscope or a trampoline, never a panopticon, a crib sheet or
a license to kill. Sixth, let a hundred Harolds Bloom. -John Leonard, <i>New York Times Book Review</i> (July 18, 2004)</blockquote>
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Me,
I always claim to be in the "bring it on" school [of criticism]. One
sentence of smart, well-placed criticism means more to me than a
thousand words of praise. Bravos don't make me a better writer. - Rachel
Toor, <i>Chronicle of Higher Education</i>, July 14, 2006</blockquote>
Have a good weekend! <br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2966972344206779233.post-64289433759224736382013-04-21T18:31:00.001-04:002013-05-16T23:14:22.071-04:00Digital Public Library of America: Some announcements and reviews (updated)Probably the <a href="http://http//arstechnica.com/business/2013/04/the-digital-public-library-of-america-adding-gravitas-to-your-internet-search">best third-party article</a> on the Digital Public Library of America appeared in Arts Technica, with the not-so-good title of "<a href="http://arstechnica.com/business/2013/04/the-digital-public-library-of-america-adding-gravitas-to-your-internet-search/#p3">The Digital Public Library of America: adding Gravitas to your Internet Search</a>."<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
In the coming years, the DPLA has a few evident goals: getting contemporary works into the database, working with state and regional libraries across the nation to bring their archives under the umbrella of the DPLA, and making sure all of the amassed metadata is clear and concise so that others can use it. The organization currently offers access to items like daguerreotypes, portraits, older scientific articles, pamphlets, and old books. These items have been donated by other institutions and are hosted on those sites. Currently, when you search at the DPLA website, you’re taken to, say, the archive hosted by the Biodiversity Heritage Library or the Uintah County Library in Utah. That second archive might represent the more interesting goal of the DPLA: to get small town libraries and archives online and linked up to the DPLA API. Of the 42 state and regional libraries that have digitized all or part of their archives, Cohen says seven are currently searchable through the DPLA site. “I’m going to be trying to get the next 35 to work with us,” [Dan] Cohen told Ars.</blockquote>
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br /><br />
There's a more <a href="http://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2013/04/23/the-digital-public-library-of-america-has-arrived/">general announcement</a> on the Scholarly Kitchen blog by Joseph Esposito, who notes the DPLA "is not a library at all, but an intelligently constructed catalogue to
many libraries, which are contributing their collections. DPLA, in
other words, is a “pointer” service, which is, I think, exactly what the
world wants." Esposito stresses the DPLA's invitation to developers to write new applications, and argues that the DPLA people <i>understand </i>the web and developers. However, he misses a lot of the strengths of the DPLA, and worries out loud about the everything-should be-free people (which become a point of discussion in the comments).<br />
<br />
UPDATE 4/23/2013: A piece <a href="http://librarycity.org/?p=7389">from David Rothman</a> on his website LibraryCity is critical of what he calls the "the academic-and-hacker mindset" at DPLA and its emphasis on academic scholarly concerns and special collections (including exhibitions) versus the interests of typical public and K-12 library users. In a <a href="http://librarycity.org/?p=7321">separate post</a> focused primarily on school libraries and K-12 education, he urges that the DPLA give greater (if not equal) weight to K-12 educational concerns. Rothman argues in both posts above and in others previously published that the DPLA should either fully commit to a public library model or rename itself as an academic library. (Don't let his tone put you off. Rothman raises good points, although his prose raises too many points into too small a space and he repeats himself. He's a Virginian educator and librarian, who is profoundly concerned about libraries, education, and primary and secondary school education; he was innovator on e-readers, he founded the Teleread news site and has started lobbying for a DLA endowment.)<br />
<br />
Updated 4/24/2013: Scott McLemee at the Inside Higher Education website, April 23, has an <a href="http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2013/04/24/commentary-digital-public-library-america">viewpoint piece</a>, praising the DPLA: "DPLA is the work of people who understand that design is not just icing
on the digital cake, but a significant (even decisive) factor in how we
engage with content in the first place." He warns (with a dated and not-terribly helpful metaphor) "One thing to keep in mind is that DPLA is not so much a library as an
enormous card catalog, with the “shelves” of books, photographs, and so
forth being the digital collections of libraries and historical
societies, large and small, all over the country." And McLemee ran some searches that turned up bad links (Walt Whitman), quirky holdings (Benjamin Franklin and Phyllis Wheatley). McLemee's searches suggest ways that the DPLA's search could be made more helpful to end users. (I'll be writing a post on improving the DPLA's tech side.<i>)</i><br />
<br />
Other coverage: <br />
<ul>
<li>Lincoln Fuller, ProfHacker, <a href="http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/a-first-look-at-the-digital-public-library-of-america/48729">had a notice</a> at the <i>Chronicle of Higher Education</i> website, April 22. He links to other coverage and describes his own experience. Best insight: "One of the remarkable things about the DPLA is its openness. The governance of the DPLA is open in that its planning <a href="http://dp.la/info/about/history/materials/">initiatives have been open</a> and available for public comment. The source code that runs the DPLA is <a href="https://github.com/dpla">available on GitHub</a>, and developers have been organizing “hackathons” to improve the code...."</li>
<li><i>Time </i>has a <a href="http://entertainment.time.com/2013/04/18/new-digital-library-launches-internet-ancient-library-of-alexandria/">short notice</a>, comparing it the Library of Alexandria. (This struck me as very insubstantial, but it appeared in general interest national media, not just <i>The Atlantic</i>.)</li>
</ul>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2966972344206779233.post-34300025739102980792013-04-18T09:37:00.003-04:002013-10-14T12:32:31.088-04:00Rosenbach Library and Museum to merge with Philadelphia Free Library [updated]The Rosenbach Library & Museum of Philadelphia, and the <a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.freelibrary.org/" rel="homepage" title="Free Library of Philadelphia">Philadelphia Free Library</a> have <a href="http://www.rosenbach.org/learn/news/free-library-philadelphia-foundation-and-rosenbach-museum-library-announce-intent-join">announced plans to merge</a>. The press release notes that bridge funding for the merger (the details of which have not been announced) has been provided in part by the <a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.pewtrusts.org/" rel="homepage" title="The Pew Charitable Trusts">Pew Charitable Trust</a>.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption zemanta-img-attribution" style="text-align: center; width: 300px;">Rosenbach Museum and Library 2008-2010 Delancey Place Philadelphia, PA 19103 Home of Dr. A.S.W. Rosenbach (1876-1952) and his brother Philip, book dealers and collectors The Maurice Sendak Building, ca. 1860 Townhouse (Photo credit: <a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rosenbach_museum01.jpg">Wikipedia</a>)</td></tr>
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Although this is described as a merger, when a larger organization takes over management of a small organization, it's more often a take over. I don't details and I can only speculate, but I believe that the merger will be good for researchers and staff as well as collections. It makes a lot of sense for smaller institutions to seek the aid of larger ones, and the merged institution can achieve economies that would be impossible for an independent Rosenbach. The Rosenbach was the private collection of the legendary pair of early 20th C book and manuscript dealers, the Rosenbach brothers. The Rosenbach, in addition to its extraordinary manuscript collection and holdings such as Joyces's <i>Ulysses</i>, has more recently been the recipient of many of Maurice Sendak's illustrations and manuscripts.<br />
<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a>A minor point is the support from the <a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.pewtrusts.org/" rel="homepage" title="The Pew Charitable Trusts">Pew Charitable Trust</a>. Word on the street is that foundations like the Pew have been encouraging small organizations like small historical societies and museums to join with larger organizations. I think the underlying thinking is to encourage greater economies, discourage competition for scarce money (such as grants), and to create larger, healthier institutions. In my own non-profit work, I have sometimes been told by foundations that we need to review our business model--how a non-profit gets money for its activities and operations-to ensure that we fulfill our mission. Foundations like Pew often have the bigger picture that small institutions don't have, and they've been using their perspective and influence to shape the field of research institutions as they can. It will be interesting to see how other small institutions survive in a time of reduced giving.<br />
<br />
<b>UPDATE </b>4/21/2013: The <i>Philadelphia Inquirer</i> ran a <a href="http://articles.philly.com/2013-04-18/news/38619297_1_a-s-w-rosenbach-rosenbach-museum-derick-dreher">story</a> by Peter Dobrin about the merger and noted that "Money is ultimately driving the merger. Though the Rosenbach laid off much of its staff in June after being hit with a deficit, no immediate crisis exists, leaders say. .... But operating grants are harder to land, and by living within its means the library and museum is not realizing its potential.... The Rosenbach's budget requires that 75 percent of income be raised annually; the other 25 percent is from admission and membership fees, endowment income, and shop revenue." The story notes that no employees will be laid off, and it's uncertain whether the Rosenbach board will remain separate. Open issues: "whether the Rosenbach would maintain a separate corporate
structure; whether the Free Library Foundation would absorb its
endowment; issues relating to donors; whether two boards would be kept,
and, if so, what their responsibilities would be." Also note that the Free Library is considering deaccessioning. (hat tip to Jeremy Dibbell at Philobiblos.)Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2966972344206779233.post-75805747704097794402013-04-17T11:50:00.000-04:002013-04-21T18:34:28.599-04:00DPLA Launch event canceled but DPLA to go live on Thursday April 18<div>
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The <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Public_Library_of_America" rel="wikipedia" title="Digital Public Library of America">Digital Public Library of America</a>'s launch event, to have taken place at the Boston Public Library where a bomb exploded on Monday during the Boston Marathon, has been canceled. The DPLA will still go live on Thursday April 18. Article <a href="http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2013/04/17/event-canceled-digital-public-library-launch-go">here</a>. The DPLA will have a larger event in the fall which will evolve into their DPLAfest. The Library's Executive Director, Dan Cohen, is quoted "I see the building of a new library as one of the greatest
examples of what humans can do together to extend the light against the
darkness. In due time, we will let that light shine through." (h/t <a href="http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2013/04/17/event-canceled-digital-public-library-launch-go">Inside Higher Education</a>. Their source <a href="http://dp.la/get-involved/events/launch/">here</a>.)</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2966972344206779233.post-44965987601739471432013-04-14T21:14:00.003-04:002013-05-16T23:26:57.307-04:00The Marks of a Hoax: Dickens and Dostoevsky<br />
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Russian literature specialist Eric Naiman describes a fake anecdote in "<a href="http://www.the-tls.co.uk/tls/public/article1243205.ece">When Dickens met Dostoevsky</a>," (<i>TLS </i>10 April 2013), and the bizarre, convoluted, trail that led him to find multiple pseudonyms of someone who seems to be a disgruntled independent scholar. I think some points turned up in his detective work show the typical marks of a hoax, and point to the deeper civilizational issues raised by falsehood.<br />
<br />
Naiman traces "the connections between A. D. Harvey, Stephanie Harvey, Graham Headley, Trevor McGovern, John Schellenberger, Leo Bellingham, Michael Lindsay and Ludovico Parra" who may be real friends of "A.D. Harvey" or pseudonyms. (The erotica connection may make your head spin!)<br />
<br />
The Dickens-Dostoevsky story is supposed to have appeared in a letter of Dostoevsky describing a meeting with Dickens during his first visit to London. The visit to London happened. The visit to Dickens, in which he bared his soul never happened. But it sounded so good. The fake story originated in an unassuming scholarly note by "Stephanie Harvey" in a Dickens journal, citing an obscure note in an obscure Soviet journal. (Dickens lovers cited the piece in reviews, which brought it to the attention to Russian lit specialists who questioned the story's authenticity.) The fake story itself has some interesting marks of a successful and, indeed, powerful fake.<br />
<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a>From the article:<br />
<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Confirmation bias: "The newspaper’s [i.e., the <i>NY Times</i>] collective unconscious was unable to give the story up. It demands retelling, and by now Dickens and Dostoevsky can be found meeting all over the web. Their conversation appeals to our fancy while, as Gates realized, comforting us with a reaffirmation of what we already know."</li>
<li> Modest or small seems more real: "The hoax wasn’t clever because it
convinced so many Dickens scholars; rather, it was clever for the same
reason it convinced them: because it was modest." (In other words, a small lie is harder to debunk, but any politician knows this to be true.)</li>
<li>Wish fulfillment: The story had Dickens speaking tellingly of his own work in a way that we wish he had spoken, making perfect pull-quotes! </li>
</ul>
In reading the article, the level of cover-up, fabricated citations (and fabricated journals, articles, novels, and quotations), reminds me of some Borges short stories--and the fabrications of the Americana manuscript forger, <a href="http://www.blogger.com/">Mark Hofmann</a>, although it's important to stress that one of Hofmann's motivations was money which appears not to have been this case here.. <br />
<br />
Naiman's conclusion on the multiple nested aliases and sneaky reviews in its effects on scholars and humanities scholarship:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
... submitting articles under fictitious names to scholarly journals might well have a <i>chilling effect on the ability of really existing independent scholars to place their work. </i>Nor is it just the embarrassment caused to editors who might in an ideal world have taken more pains to check the contributions of Stephanie Harvey or Trevor McGovern, but who accepted them in good faith, partly out of a wish to make their publications as inclusive as possible. The worst thing here, if they are fictitious, <i>is a violation of the trust that remains a constitutive element of the humanities.</i>There is, it seems to me, a fundamental difference between posting partisan, anonymous reviews on Amazon, where there is no assumption of proper evaluative standards or impartiality, and placing similar reviews or hoaxing articles in academic journals, which are still the most hallowed sites for the development and transmission of humanistic ideas. The former is a cheap act of virtual graffiti; the latter may be the closest a secular scholar can come to desecration. [<i>emphasis added. PWR</i>] </blockquote>
Like theft from cultural institutions, fakes and hoaxes have a chilling effect on research, access and collegiality. Each of them is a gross violation of the trust which each generation owes to the next and which we owe to each other as we extend the boundaries of knowledge.<br />
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(Minor updates 5/16/2013 to clarify some points in the opening, middle and end.)<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2966972344206779233.post-2898481052902558522013-04-10T17:36:00.000-04:002013-04-10T17:36:00.650-04:00eBooks and doing the reading for students<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container zemanta-img" style="float: right; margin-right: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
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<a href="http://flaglerlive.com/52818/coursesmart-spying/">Pierre Tristam</a> at FlaglerLive (Flagler County, FL) writes about new EdTech software from CourseSmart that allows teachers to see how much of the reading a student has done. Setting aside pedagogy and the old tradition of fooling the prof, Tristam argues about the nature of reading:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Reading is one of the few truly private activities left us, depending
entirely on the isolation created between book and reader, and the way
the reader chooses to engage with that book: reading a page over five
times, skipping five pages, underlining five lines, cursing at five
others. It’s all between the reader and the book, an act that shares
some of the intimacies of sex (and passion) down to its exhilarations
and disappointments (a bad writer having a lot in common with a lousy
lover). Reading a textbook may not rate in the same category. But it’s
no less intimate. The act of reading a textbook still belongs
exclusively to the reader. <i>How</i> you read a textbook is irrelevant. If you’re performing well in class, that’s all that should matter. </blockquote>
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Amazon has been spying on its readers for some time now<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2966972344206779233.post-67002947012973562602013-04-06T09:56:00.002-04:002013-05-16T23:27:57.029-04:00Uncomfortable truths: Vichy FranceRobert Paxton writes an informed and interesting <a href="http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2013/apr/25/vichy-lives-in-a-way/">review</a> (pay walled) at the <i>New York Review of Books</i>, on Vichy's continuing influence. (Most interesting aside: " I was surprised myself to learn that Mozart had been little played in France before 1940, and that his prominence since 1945 in the French operatic and symphonic repertoire is one of the legacies of the occupation." Which doesn't explain Offenbach's reference in <i>Tales of Hoffman</i> to "le devin Mozart"--just lip service?) One highlight:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Surprise is not really warranted, however. The historiography of Vichy
France since the 1970s has consisted largely of refuting the early
postwar view that Marshal Pétain’s regime was an alien import imposed
for the moment by Nazi force. Recent historians have reinstated Vichy
firmly within the continuities of French history. Vichy France reacted
to what had gone before, especially to the Popular Front of 1936, and
tried to prepare for a postwar world that it believed was just around
the corner. Historians have abundantly analyzed the breaks and
continuities in France across World War II—what was radically changed in
1940 and again in 1945, and what went on very much as before. The
breaks were exceptionally sharp at both turning points, but there were
authentic continuities of personnel and of institutions, especially in
technical matters. </blockquote>
<br />
<a name='more'></a>In contemporary politics, Paxton notes that the European welfare state was a conservative, paternalistic response to liberalism and Marxism (this is well-known). What surprised me was:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
All the modern twentieth-century European dictatorships of the right,
both fascist and authoritarian, were welfare states. The current
American conservative agenda of a weak state associated with
laissez-faire economic and social arrangements would have been anathema
to them, as an extreme perversion of a despised individualistic
liberalism (in that term’s original sense). They all provided medical
care, pensions, affordable housing, and mass transport as a matter of
course, in order to maintain productivity, national unity, and social
peace. [....] But they provided these benefits in a paternalistic way, simultaneously
eliminating any kind of independent worker power strong enough to
produce what workers really wanted—higher wages and shorter hours. [....] They replaced unions with “corporatist” committees composed of both
workers and managers empowered to deal with workplace issues (though
without any say in management). Then they felt free to lengthen hours
and squeeze wages. </blockquote>
And Paxton adds this fascinating footnote: "Since European fascist and authoritarian states combined social welfare
measures with low wages and low consumption, their form of the welfare
state differed profoundly from the consumption-driven Keynesian model.
See a slightly different typology in Gøsta Esping-Andersen, <i>The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism</i> (Princeton University Press, 1990)."<br />
<br />
Paxton himself stirred up the waters of post-war Vichy historiography in 1972 with his book, <i>Vichy France</i>. There's a nice <a href="http://www.historytoday.com/martin-evans/robert-paxton-outsider">discussion of Paxton</a> and his influence by Martin Evans from 2001 in <i>History Today</i>. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2966972344206779233.post-42528089580574410532013-04-04T23:28:00.001-04:002013-05-16T23:30:35.872-04:00Dan Cohen Previews the New Digital Public Library of America at NYU<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.dancohen.org/" rel="homepage" title="Dan Cohen">Dan Cohen</a>, the newly named Executive Director of the <a href="http://dp.la/">Digital Public Library of America,</a> spoke at NYU's Humanities Initiative on Thursday,
April 4, 2013 about the DPLA. Dan who was closely involved with the development
of the scholarly tool <a href="http://www.zotero.org/">Zotero</a> and the
exhibition tool for library and museum collections, <a href="http://omeka.org/">Omeka</a>.
He will be leaving George Mason University
for the DPLA and Cambridge
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Robert Darnton of Harvard
University's Libraries <a href="http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2013/apr/25/national-digital-public-library-launched/">had
written</a> in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New York Review of
Books</i> earlier this week, but it was great to hear Cohen talk about
underlying concepts and infrastructure issues. He provided much more detail
than Darnton did. Although people will try to tell you that the web is
America's digital public library, the web in fact, cannot handle local history
and archival materials which are either hard to find, scattered, poorly
described or behind "gates." The DPLA will knit together widely
separated library and museum resources for research, classroom and general
interest. Cohen pointed to the ideal of the American public library which is
open to all, never tracks your activity, and doesn't judge how you use the
information it provides, whether for research, leisure or business. He noted
that America's
public libraries can be community centers, but they also help people start
businesses, and we cannot underestimate their impact (including the financial
impact) on communities.</div>
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<a name='more'></a>Cohen said that the DPLA had three major components:</div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l4 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Portal to discovery</b>, which allows
you to search across all US libraries, where all that content would be
enriched with metadata contributed either by major content providers like
Harvard Libraries, National Archives, ARTSTOR, or New York Public Library,
or by 'hubs" like state or regional digital libraries. The content
would not be limited just to book or manuscripts--there would also be
artwork and objects usually found in museums. (At this point, Cohen
announced that the NYPL had just partnered that day with the DPLA.)</li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l4 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Platform to build upon</b>, using open
data and APIs, programmers would be able to easily access part or all of
the DPLA's data. The API would make their data easy to use. Already the
Chattanooga Public Library had sponsored an AppFest. </li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l4 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Public Option</b>. The DPLA would be
an advocate for the 'public option' for making its content free and
unrestricted. He contrasted Kindle, Apple and Overdrive with their
restrictions--not that he had anything against those products. In fact you
could even download the entire DPLA's data file if your hard drive were
big enough! Their content will have the <a href="http://creativecommons.org/choose/zero/">CC0</a> (cc-zero) license
which is the most open license, but they will be willing to work with
organizations who require more restrictions. (Cohen was a bit unclear
about how exactly this would be done, but it sounded like the DPLA had
done a lot of thinking about this.)</li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.blog.imagethink.net/storage/DPLA_HK_4o4.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1319815121131" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://www.blog.imagethink.net/storage/DPLA_HK_4o4.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1319815121131" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The DPLA in an ImageThink graphic from the Oct 2012 plenary session (<a href="http://www.blog.imagethink.net/line-by-line/2011/10/25/with-pixels-and-pictures-digital-public-library-of-america.html" target="_blank">source</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Cohen then filled in details on these points. The DPLA would
rely on some individual "content providers" like Harvard Libraries,
the Smithsonian Institution, the National Archives, New York Public Library,
Boston Public Library, and ARTSTOR (which is donating 10,000 public domain
images from its large database). As important as these content providers were "service
hubs"--typically state (or regional) digital libraries which provided
support to small local libraries and historical societies with unique
materials. The state or regional digital libraries (there's a total of 42) would
pull in the scanned items, regularize them, add meta data (more on this below),
and sometimes would host the files. DPLA is partnering with many of these state
and regional libraries to get grant money (generally in the $500-700K range)
for digitization and cataloging. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What were some of the metadata features that the DPLA and its
partners were looking for?</div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in;">Geocoding
(latitude and longtitude, local and regional place names). You'd even have
the ability to draw a circle on a map and ask for similar pictures to what
you'd just pulled up.</li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in;">Timeline.
(Not demonstrated but suspect that it will be a slide-bar (wrong word?)
that can be adjusted at either or both ends.)</li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in;">Faceted,
meaning that you can narrow on many, many various criteria that may not be
available on the content provider's site. </li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The DPLA will also open with <b>seven online exhibitions </b>from
its digital state libraries.</div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in;">The
DPLA has partnered with <a href="http://www.europeana.eu/">Europeana</a>,
the European Digital Library, and plan a joint exhibition on immigration
to America,
with European institutions and American institutions providing materials
that could be seamlessly set side by side in the exhibition.</li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in;">The
DPLA had adapted the EDL's Europeana Data Model (EDM), although the DPLA's
extended the ELM to link data (URI's) to allow them to collate similar
materials across different libraries and collections. He demonstrated with
LC's authority files. (See the <a href="http://dp.la/wiki/Main_Page">DPLA
info wiki</a> for more information, including links to their adaptation of
the EDM.)</li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in;">They're
looking into interoperability with TROVE, the Australian digital public
library.</li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The DPLA's API </b>already had some programs ready to launch on
April 18:</div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l3 level1 lfo4; tab-stops: list .5in;"><a href="http://www.historypin.com/">History Pin.</a> Takes historical
photos, adds longitude and latitude and overlays it on contemporary maps.</li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l3 level1 lfo4; tab-stops: list .5in;"><a href="http://stacklife.harvard.edu/">Stacklife</a>. An open source project
from Harvard Libraries which visually reproduces spine labels of books
that would be shelved nearby by subject, to reproduce the effect of
serendipitous browsing on library shelves.</li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l3 level1 lfo4; tab-stops: list .5in;"><a href="http://dp.la/entries/bookworm/">Bookworm</a>. A new search interface
for library cat that searches collections of catalog records</li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He anticipated the ability to lay historical maps over
Google maps, and he even hoped that people would be able to take Caterina
Fake's <a href="https://findery.com/">Findery</a> to link historical photographs
to nearby great bars and restaurants.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Public Option and
restrictions</b>. The DPLA could become an enormous back-end to small local
public libraries. However, the DPLA was concerned about restrictions on
information. Despite the positive court case on 'first sale,' Cohen was
concerned about the difficulty faced with current eBooks, where contract law (a
license) was superseding copyright law. He pointed to commercial newspaper
databases like ProQuest, which had licenses prohibiting your from downloading
the entire newspaper. He had no problems with commercial ventures like
Proquest, but he felt that we need to protect the public sphere--the question
was how? Through advocacy? Through buying stuff?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For advocacy on restrictions and licensing he pointed to a number of projects:</div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list .5in;"><a href="http://librarylicense.org/">librarylicense.org</a> (from Harvard's
Berkman Center) which will launch very soon and will promote a particular
license for publishers and authors--since most books make most of their
money in the first five years, copyright after that period would be free
for libraries, even while the publisher still sold the book.</li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list .5in;"><a href="http://www.knowledgeunlatched.org/">Knowledge Unlatched</a> is a new
model to try to have libraries pay upfront for first copies, allowing publishers
to recoup their editorial and publishing costs, and then liberate the
book.</li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list .5in;">A
slightly different approach is <a href="https://unglue.it/">Unglueit</a>,
a recently launched site which Cohen described as like Kickstarter for
book rights--crowdfunding to buy out the copyright holder, and leaving the
books to the public domain. Cohen hoped that the DPLA might direct traffic
to sites like this.</li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Digitization to the
People. </b>Cohen wants the DPLA to help small collections. Rather than going
to the state and regional libraries, Cohen speculated by "<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scannebago">Scannebagos</a></span>"
(originally from North Carolina),
a Winnebego camper with space for scanning and adding metadata on-site so the
materials could stay on site. Similarly, he was excited by <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://historyharvest.unl.edu/">History Harvest</a></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">,</b> a
project at Nebraska
that had undergrads scanning and researching local history. Partnering with the
DPLA, they hoped to go nationally.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The DPLA is starting to make things happen in interesting
ways.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://dp.la/files/2011/11/DPLA2a-e1320628054588.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="87" src="http://dp.la/files/2011/11/DPLA2a-e1320628054588.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">DPLA logo (<a href="http://dp.la/about/elements-of-the-dpla/" target="_blank">source</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>In the Q& A period</b>, Cohen addressed some serious
questions.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Q. What about when files "go away" or are moved?
The DPLA system relies on links, not owning the content. A. Yes, this is a
problem, but some state and regional "hubs" were already tracking
physical location and keeping copies. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Q. Was excited by the Scannebago--one source (Clearight?)
says that half of all artifacts are unknown or uncataloged. How was DPLA going
to help small historical societes digitize? A. For now the DPLA would work with
state public digital libraries, but the DPLA may offer some form of hosting for
small historical societies without their own infrastructure.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Q. What about recorded sound and moving images? A. Tougher,
partly because there will be copyrights for the composter/publisher <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and</i> for the performer. They were
definitely interested and were aware of the problem. Cohen had just attended an
AHA conference where historians of sound were heavily restricted in what they
could share, and it was really holding up the field. How could you really do
the history of America
without music?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Q. Will the DPLA become a receiver of rights from authors,
etc.? A. Not yet determined. The DPLA was planning to convene a meeting with
authors in the fall. For now they were "arming authors" with contract
language that would "liberate" the book (especially academic books)
before regular copyright ran out. Cohen's own book on digital humanities had a
special proviso protecting its copyright under the Act of 1790 (14 years and
one renewal).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Q. Business model and funding? A. Funding in the planning
phase came from Sloan, NEH, ILMS and private donations including Knight and
Mellon. In their current and ongoing phase the DPLA was looking for private,
public and individual contributions, and was considering a lot of different
options, including working with publishers. However, they were a very small
organization and he didn't anticipate them having a large staff. Europeana is
only about 50 people.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Q. What about graduate students who themselves created
digital collections? A. Some private collectors have come forward with their
materials, but he was wondering if Zotero might provide a short-term solution
if they partnered with Zotero Cloud or Omeka.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Other stories:</div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list .5in;"> </li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list .5in;">Matt
Rocheleau’s article for the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Boston
Globe</i>, <a href="http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/back_bay/2013/04/prototype_of_digital_public_li.html">Prototype
of Digital Public Library of America to launch in Boston this month</a>;</li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list .5in;">Tim
Carmody’s article for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Verge</i>,
<a href="http://www.theverge.com/2013/4/3/4178980/how-the-digital-public-library-of-america-hopes-to-build-a-real">How
the Digital Public Library of America hopes to build a real public commons</a>.</li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list .5in;">Nicolas
Carr's article for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Verge</i>
(April 2012), <a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/427628/the-library-of-utopia/">The
Library of Utopia</a>.</li>
</ul>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="zemanta-related" style="clear: both; margin-top: 20px; overflow: hidden;">
<h4 class="zemanta-related-title">
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0New York, NY 10007, USA40.7136487 -74.00871259999996740.7016132 -74.02888259999996 40.7256842 -73.988542599999974tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2966972344206779233.post-90669671367222195532013-03-11T11:20:00.002-04:002013-03-11T14:29:10.576-04:00Review by Catherine S. Sezgin on Jonathan Keats' art forgery bookCatherine Schofield Sezgin at the ARCA (<a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_for_Research_into_Crimes_against_Art" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="Association for Research into Crimes against Art">Association for Research into Crimes against Art</a>) reviews <i>Forged: Why Fakes Are The Great Art of Our Age</i> by Jonathon Keats (Oxford UP 2013). (Keats is a conceptual artist living in San Francisco.) Sezgin's review is a series of excerpts, one on <a href="http://art-crime.blogspot.com/2013/02/jonathan-keats-forged-han-van-meegeren.html">Han van Meegeren</a>. Other of Sezgin's segmented reviews of Keats's book include:<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://art-crime.blogspot.com/2013/02/jonathan-keats-forged-eric-hebborn-1934.html">Eric Hebborn</a> (the notorious English forger who wrote a forgers' handbook)</li>
<li>Alceo Dossena </li>
<li>One <a href="http://art-crime.blogspot.com/2013/02/jonathan-keats-forged-what-is-belief.html">part</a> on What Is Belief? And the story of Lothar Malskat.</li>
</ul>
While the stories are fascinating (Hebborn's is the most problematic, in my opinion), the questions of real and authentic, which Keats tries to deal with don't seem to be answered by Sezgin, who is in a position (I think) to really grapple with them. (Based on other comments on Keats, his position seems to be rather post-modern, questioning what's a forgery and what's authentic--but I need to read his book.)<br />
<br />
Update: Some additional links:<br />
<ul>
<li>Publisher's <a href="http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/ArtArchitecture/History/?view=usa&ci=9780199928354">book description.</a> "Keats uncovers what forgeries--and our reactions to them--reveal about changing conceptions of creativity, identity, authorship, integrity, authenticity, success, and how we assign value to works of art. The book concludes by looking at how artists today have appropriated many aspects of forgery through such practices as street-art stenciling and share-and-share-alike licensing, and how these open-source "copyleft" strategies have the potential to make legitimate art meaningful again."</li>
<li>Oxford UP <a href="http://blog.oup.com/2013/03/art-forgers-artists/">video interview</a> with Keats </li>
<li>Jonathon Keats <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathon_Keats">wikipedia article</a> on his career </li>
<li>And some unrelated Youtube videos relating to forgery:</li>
<li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jKbbajb5pE">Eric Hebborn, Master Forger</a> </li>
</ul>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2966972344206779233.post-12890868936407426262013-03-08T08:00:00.000-05:002013-05-27T16:04:08.114-04:00Conspiracy Theories... among Engineers<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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Where do conspiracy theories come from?<span class="usercontent"> I was fascinated by <a href="http://arstechnica.com/apple/2013/02/does-apple-really-assign-engineers-to-fake-projects-as-a-loyalty-test/">this link</a> at the technology news site ArsTechnica. The article tries to debunk an urban rumor, "Does Apple really assign engineers to “fake” projects as a loyalty test?" It struck me as a classic conspiracy theory. What gives rise to such thinking? Engineers
come to believe in "fake" products rather than the more mundane (and less interesting) conclusion that management consists of human beings who sometimes change
their minds or make mistakes. OR that a junior engineer will be placed on a project that may be slated for possible elimination. No one in management would put new, inexperienced or unseasoned hires on mission-critical projects. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="usercontent">(There are conspiracy theories on stolen elections, vast left/or/right conspiracies, terrorist attacks, foreign soldiers landing on
the coasts (WWII), Catholic bishops infiltrating American schools (Nativists),
or space aliens or… or. </span><span class="usercontent"><span class="usercontent">The great World War II movie <i>Tora! Tora! Tora!</i> answered many of the conspiracy
theorists about the source of the delay in notifying Pearl Harbor--US
intelligence knew of the imminence of an attack, but assumed it would be
the Philippines (not Hawaii) and the warning got bogged down in
military bureaucracy. The warning was not delayed because FDR
wanted to get us into the war. But then conspiracy thinking is so much more
interesting than the reality of screw-ups and boredom.</span> I think, in the end, conspiracy theories are ego-boosts insofar as we know something that no one
else really knows. In the case of these new Apple engineers, these young people are coming from college and probably have egos, so they can't imagine being put on a real project that gets killed, instead they can only imagine that they were working on a secret fake product that management never intended for the outside world. But I could be wrong, like so many of us were wrong about doubting the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/19/fake-rock-plot-spy-russians">fake rock used by the British to spy on the Soviets</a>.)</span><br />
<br />
<span class="usercontent">Wikipedia has a round-up of sources in its article on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_theories#On_conspiracism">Conspiracy Theories </a>(which is very incomplete but still a good starting point). In fact, the engineers at Apple are engaging in a kind of paternalistic conspiracy theorizing, not mentioned in the Wikipiedia entry. Conspiracy thinking can also be a way of dealing with lack of communication or even a bunker mentality.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="usercontent">And some conspiracy theory links:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span class="usercontent">Wikipedia's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_conspiracy_theories">List of Conspiracy Theories</a> (much too short)</span></li>
<li><span class="usercontent">Business Insider's "<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/technology-conspiracy-theories-2013-5">10 Of The Wildest Technology Conspiracy Theories</a>" (May 5, 2013)</span></li>
</ul>
<span class="usercontent">(Edited 5/16/13 to add some more thoughts on conspiracy theories and <i>Tora! Tora! Tora!</i>, and edited again for the comments on Wikipedia and these links.)</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2966972344206779233.post-21155559700130009062013-03-06T18:54:00.000-05:002013-03-06T18:54:19.023-05:00Digital Photographs and Concepts of Art (James Reilly)<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span class="usercontent">From <a href="http://www.getty.edu/conservation/publications_resources/newsletters/27_1/technology.html">Getty</a>, James Reilly, the
photograph conservation expert, comments about what digital photography has
done: </span></div>
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<span class="usercontent">The important point is that, as the analogue structure goes away,
it further erodes the notion that photography is a major art </span><span class="textexposedshow">form in and of itself. .... Digital has undermined the
notion of photography as an art form in itself. With digital, yes, you start
with something, but it doesn’t even have to be a camera image. It's so cerebral
and manipulative. The art is in the manipulation. There is still a final
product, but getting there is so different.</span></div>
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<span class="textexposedshow">Granted that Reilly is speaking from the
perspective of a conservator who works a lot with museums, and I think he might be excessively pessimistic but I also think he has his finger on an interesting point, and this viewpoint may help explain why some formerly industrial processes like print-making, letterpress printing and analogue photography are making a significant comeback among artists.</span><span class="textexposedshow"></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2966972344206779233.post-45637981259985069312013-03-06T18:39:00.003-05:002013-05-27T16:03:47.072-04:00Incestuous Amplification (Paul Krugman)<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container zemanta-img" style="float: right; margin-right: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
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<a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Paul_Krugman_2_BBF_2010_Shankbone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: clear:right;"><img alt="English: Paul Krugman at the 2010 Brooklyn Boo..." border="0" class="zemanta-img-inserted" height="200" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/56/Paul_Krugman_2_BBF_2010_Shankbone.jpg/300px-Paul_Krugman_2_BBF_2010_Shankbone.jpg" style="border: medium none; font-size: 0.8em;" width="144" /></a></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption zemanta-img-attribution" style="text-align: center; width: 300px;">Terminologist and Economist: Paul <br />
Krugman at the 2010 Brooklyn Book <br />
Festival. (Photo credit: <a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Paul_Krugman_2_BBF_2010_Shankbone.jpg">Wikipedia</a>)</td></tr>
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"<a href="http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/29/incestuous-amplification-economics-edition/">Incestuous Amplification</a>." <span class="usercontent">What a wonderful phrase, which Paul Krugman describes as
"a term for how highly dubious ideas become not just accepted, but viewed
as certainties. “Incestuous amplification” happen when a closed group of people
repeat the same things to each other – and when accepting the group’s
preconceptions itself becomes a necessary ticket to being in the
in-group."</span></div>
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Krugman is talking about his fellow economists, but this concept also works with other small or closed groups, and that includes scholars in a given discipline.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2966972344206779233.post-56424840589809105962013-01-24T11:21:00.003-05:002013-01-24T11:21:57.622-05:00Resurrexit!I have neglected this blog for the last two years, but want to start posting again. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2966972344206779233.post-32028953146359205812013-01-24T11:20:00.001-05:002013-03-06T19:29:50.614-05:00A brief update on the NYPL's renovation<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container zemanta-img" style="float: right; margin-right: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:New_York_Public_Library_Wikipedia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: clear:right;"><img alt="New York Public Library Elevation" border="0" class="zemanta-img-inserted" height="221" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/1c/New_York_Public_Library_Wikipedia.jpg/300px-New_York_Public_Library_Wikipedia.jpg" style="border: none; font-size: 0.8em;" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption zemanta-img-attribution" style="text-align: center; width: 300px;">The original New York Public Library elevation (Photo credit: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:New_York_Public_Library_Wikipedia.jpg">Wikipedia</a>)</td></tr>
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<span class="entry-source-title-parent"><span class="entry-source-title-parent">Jeremiah's Vanishing New York</span> has a <a href="http://vanishingnewyork.blogspot.com/2013/01/nypl-demolition.html">brief notice</a> on the New York Public Library's planned renovation, with links. </span><span class="entry-author-parent">The blogger, <span class="entry-author-name">Jeremiah Moss, reports that the New York City Landmarks Commission has approved the Library's plan to renovate the landmark Fifth Avenue location. The plans include removing the building's book stacks (a structural component of the building) and consolidating the Science and Industry Business Library (SIBL, now at 34th and Madison) and the MidManhattan (circulating) Library. *sigh*</span></span></div>
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Related articles</h4>
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/19/arts/design/new-york-public-library-offers-peek-at-renovation.html?_r=0&adxnnl=1&smid=fb-share&adxnnlx=1355930791-ksbXgbRdWWG55frJ/dkxeg" rel="nofollow">New York Times "Sneak Peak"</a> </div>
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<a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-19/n-y-pubic-library-norman-foster-evict-a-million-books.html">Bloomberg News</a>'s architecture critic isn't wild about it: </div>
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The <a href="http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2012/04/new_york_public_library_renovations.php">Village Voice</a> (really a summary, but look at the comment by "SamInQueens) <br /><ul class="zemanta-article-ul zemanta-article-ul-image" style="margin: 0; overflow: hidden; padding: 0;">
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2966972344206779233.post-4148746687509697402010-07-22T18:34:00.000-04:002010-07-22T18:34:00.646-04:00Peter Osnos on Google Editions at the Atlantic's blogs<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2010/07/what-is-google-editions/60061/">What Is Google Editions? - Culture - The Atlantic</a><br />
<blockquote>
Peter Osnos on Google Editions:<br />
<blockquote>
Assuming the program works as planned, Google Editions will put up for sale a vast universe of trade e-books, plus technical and professional titles and out of copyright works (which will be free) for use when, where and how the consumer chooses. The consumer will put the books they buy on Google's cloud (which means its enormous servers) and can access their personal library at will. Suppose you start reading on your iPhone and switch to your tablet or desktop—the book will pick up where you left off.</blockquote>
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There's also Alex Wilhelm's panic-stricken article at TheNextweb.com: <a href="http://thenextweb.com/us/2010/07/21/how-google-plans-to-crush-the-e-book-market/">How Google Plans To Crush The E-Book Market</a><br />
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<blockquote>
The dirty little secret about open access publishing is that despite the fact that although you may give up a line in your CV (although not necessarily), your work can be discovered much more easily by other scholars (and the general public), can be fully indexed by search engines, and can be easily linked to from other websites and social media (rather than producing the dreaded “Sorry, this is behind a paywall”).</blockquote>
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(Postscript 4/13/2013: Cohen has been named founding Executive Director of the Digital Public Library of America. <a href="http://bibliowonk.blogspot.com/2013/04/dan-cohen-previews-new-digital-public.html">Link to his talk about the DPLA</a>.)<br /><div class="zemanta-pixie" style="height: 15px; margin-top: 10px;">
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2966972344206779233.post-21527478426099303562010-05-26T19:02:00.000-04:002010-05-26T17:03:53.992-04:00Google Editions updateLibrary Journal with a report on Mak Nelson's comments on Google Editions, <a href="http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6729290.html?rssid=191">Getting To the Details with Google Editions</a>: "No role for libraries, but publishers and booksellers get their questions answered."<br />
<br />
Note this:<br />
<br />
<blockquote>
<strong>How does Google make its money?</strong><br />
<span>“The majority of revenue from these sales goes to the publisher.
How does Google make money? Advertising. How do we monetize
advertising?... We go to advertisers [and] say our user base is
growing.” [....] </span><br />
<strong>Will Google support the <a href="http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6721294.html" target="_blank">agency model</a> </strong><span><strong>of pricing, in which in which the publisher sets the prices and retailers get a fixed commission?<br />
</strong>“If a publisher has an agency model, we will discuss that model with them.”</span></blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0