Manuscript sharing: NYPL and Pennsylvania to share a Bill of Rights

The Wall Street Journal reports 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.)

Dan Cohen Previews the New Digital Public Library of America at NYU

Dan Cohen, the newly named Executive Director of the Digital Public Library of America, 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 Zotero and the exhibition tool for library and museum collections, Omeka. He will be leaving George Mason University for the DPLA and Cambridge on April 18 when the DPLA officially launches at the Boston Public Library.

Robert Darnton of Harvard University's Libraries had written in the New York Review of Books 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.

A brief update on the NYPL's renovation

The original New York Public Library elevation (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Jeremiah's Vanishing New York has a brief notice on the New York Public Library's planned renovation, with links.  The blogger, 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*

Related articles

New York Times "Sneak Peak"

Bloomberg News's architecture critic isn't wild about it:  

The Village Voice (really a summary, but look at the comment by "SamInQueens)

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