Competitive Book Collecting Is a Thing | Smithsonian #books #collections #collecting #bibliophiles #bibliographies #competitions


Competitive Book Collecting Is a Thing: Young bibliophiles duke it out in the National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest READ MORE: Competitive Book Collecting Is a Thing | Smithsonian

Mysterious Stacks Of Books In NYC Are Connecting Strangers From Around The World | HuffPo #books #community #engagement #libraries #reading


Could this be a new chapter in the way we interact with one another? Shaheryar Malik has left stacks of books from his own library at popular destinations all over New York City. He doesn’t stick around to see if anyone takes one of his books, nor does he re-visit his stacks. Instead he leaves a bookmark with his email address printed on it inside each book, in the hopes that he’ll hear back from whomever decided to pick that book up. READ MORE: Mysterious Stacks Of Books In NYC Are Connecting Strangers From Around The World | HuffPo

Rare example of lost #language found on stone hidden 2500 years ago | Ars Technica #languages #historical #archives #Archeology #artifacts #writing


At a dig outside Florence, a group of researchers have unearthed a massive stone tablet, known as a stele, covered in Etruscan writing. The 500-pound stone is 4 feet high and was once part of a sacred temple display. But 2500 years ago it was torn down and used as a foundation stone in a much larger temple. READ MORE: Rare example of lost language found on stone hidden 2500 years ago | Ars Technica

Minecraft helps kids with #autism build richer lives | CNET #MMOG #Minecraft #disabilities #tech #virtualworlds #STEM #social


All kids love building new worlds in Minecraft. But for those living with an autism spectrum disorder, it’s also providing them with ways to engage in school and build healthy social lives. READ MORE: Minecraft helps kids with autism build richer lives | CNET

11 #Shakespeare Tragedies Mapped Out with Network Visualizations | Open Culture #dataviz #data #visualizations #analysis #plays #books


Every story has its architecture, its joints and crossbeams, ornaments and deep structure. The boundaries and scope of a story, its built environment, can determine the kind of story it is, tragedy, comedy, or otherwise. And every story also, it appears, generates a network—a web of weak and strong connections, hubs, and nodes. Take Shakespeare’s tragedies. We would expect their networks of characters to be dense, what with all those plays’ intrigues and feasts. And they are, according to digital humanities, data visualization, and network analysis scholar Martin Grandjean, who created the charts you see here:  READ MORE: 11 Shakespeare Tragedies Mapped Out with Network Visualizations | Open Culture

Library Offers Homeless People Mental Health Services, And It’s Working | HuffPo #mentalhealth #libraries #outreach #homeless


Of the 5,000 people who visit the San Francisco Public Library every day, about 15 percent of them are homeless, PBS reported. After years of watching this underserved demographic float through to get Internet access, a restroom and often, just refuge from the cold, the library realized it was in an auspicious position to stage effective interventions.

So, in 2009, the library hired Leah Esguerra, who is believed to be the nation’s first psychiatric social worker to be employed full time at a library, SFGate reported. Since the program started, about 150 homeless people have received permanent housing, and another 800 have enrolled in social and mental health services, according to PBS. READ MORE: Library Offers Homeless People Mental Health Services, And It’s Working | HuffPo

First-ever Tor node in a Canadian library | Boing Boing #privacy #libraries #intellectualfreedom #rights #censorship #anonymity #Internet #Canada


Library workers at Western University’s Graduate Resource Centre in London, Ontario, had a workshop from Alison Macrina, the library organiser whose Library Freedom Project won a battle with the US DHS over a library in New Hampshire that was offering a Tor exit node as part of a global network that delivers privacy, censorship resistance, and anonymity to all comers. Western’s librarians were so taken by Macrina’s presentation that they’ve turned on Canada’s first library-based Tor node. There is no clear law in Canada about libraries and Tor, and Macrina and the Western library folks say they’re spoiling for a fight. READ: First-ever Tor node in a Canadian library | Boing Boing

How Master’s Degree Became New Bachelor’s In The Hiring World | Fast Company #mentoring #education #HigherEd #employment #careers #recruiting #HR


Which justifies shelling out the $$$ for my MLIS!

More employers are looking to hire candidates with advanced degrees than ever before. READ: How The Master’s Degree Became The New Bachelor’s In The Hiring World | Fast Company | Business + Innovation

Scientists Discover That James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake Has an Amazingly Mathematical Multifractal Structure | Open Culture #literature #books #math #analysis


Source: Scientists Discover That James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake Has an Amazingly Mathematical “Multifractal” Structure | Open Culture

Rediscovered Manuscript Shows How Isaac Newton Dabbled In Alchemy | Gizmodo #manuscripts #science #books #libraries #archives #historical #isaacnewton


The 17th century manuscript, which was handwritten by Isaac Newton, describes a procedure for making mercury—a substance that alchemists thought could turn lead into gold. Sir Isaac Newton Image: Godfrey Kneller As reported in Chemistry World, the US Chemical Heritage Foundation has purchased the document, which languished in a private collection for decades. The newly surfaced manuscript was authored by an American chemist but handwritten and owned by Isaac Newton.

Source: Rediscovered Manuscript Shows How Isaac Newton Dabbled In Alchemy