PBS's Lucy Bernholz on the Digital Public Library of America

PBS commentator and philanthropy blogger Lucy Bernholz writes a largely positive column at PBS, although she also notes the current limitations of the DPLA. Some of her main points bear noting here:

•  Ownership and Intellectual property: "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.)
• Permanence: "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." 
• Access: "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 Americans with Disabilities Act.

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 read the original. She's a good writer.

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

On Reviewing Books (quotations)

Gratuitous quotes, that is. These are just some quotations that I wanted to share on book reviewing:

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, New York Times Book Review (July 18, 2004)

Digital Public Library of America: Some announcements and reviews (updated)

Probably the best third-party article on the Digital Public Library of America appeared in Arts Technica, with the not-so-good title of "The Digital Public Library of America: adding Gravitas to your Internet Search."

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.

Rosenbach Library and Museum to merge with Philadelphia Free Library [updated]

The Rosenbach Library & Museum of Philadelphia, and the Philadelphia Free Library have announced plans to merge. 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 Pew Charitable Trust.

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: Wikipedia)

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 Ulysses, has more recently been the recipient of many of Maurice Sendak's illustrations and manuscripts.

DPLA Launch event canceled but DPLA to go live on Thursday April 18

The Digital Public Library of America'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 here. 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 Inside Higher Education. Their source here.)

The Marks of a Hoax: Dickens and Dostoevsky

Copy of a Photograph of Charles Dickens (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Russian literature specialist Eric Naiman describes a fake anecdote in "When Dickens met Dostoevsky," (TLS 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.

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!)

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.

eBooks and doing the reading for students

PROmedia eBook Reader (Photo credit: PiAir (Old Skool))

Pierre Tristam 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:

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. How you read a textbook is irrelevant. If you’re performing well in class, that’s all that should matter.

Amazon has been spying on its readers for some time now