Category Archives: Librarianship

Chicago Artist Theaster Gates and the Stony Island #Art Bank | CityLab #crowdfunding #community #buildings #historic #archives

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Chicago’s first-ever Architecture Biennial served as a staging ground for wild pavilions, exhibits, and installations. The fair also coincided with the debut of a major new artwork: the Stony Island Art Bank. Theaster Gates bought the Prohibition-era Stony Island Trust & Savings Bank building from the city of Chicago for $1. Yes, there was a catch: The artist had to raise the $3.7 million it would take to rehabilitate the building and put it to new use. Gates did the thing that you’re never supposed to do with a historic building: He started pulling it apart, piece by piece. READ MORE: Chicago Artist Theaster Gates and the Stony Island Art Bank | CityLab

1200 Years of #Women #Composers: A #Free 78-Hour #Music #Playlist That Takes You From Medieval Times to Now | Open Culture #historical #classical

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The Spotify playlist “1200 Years of Women Composers: From Hildegard To Higdon,” reveals that women started shaping what we now know as classical music far longer ago than most of us realize. (If you don’t have Spotify’s free software, download it here.) The playlist, which contains over 900 pieces and will take you days to listen to, begins in medieval times with the Byzantine abbess, poet, composer, and hymnographer Kassia and ends with female composers from around the world not only living but (especially by the standards of those who write orchestral music) still young, like Misato Mochizuki, Helena Tulve, and Lera Auerbach. This comes arranged by Spotify Classical Playlists, whose site describes how the playlist offers not just an anthology of women composers, but also “a brief history of western classical music…” MORE: 1200 Years of Women Composers: A Free 78-Hour Music Playlist That Takes You From Medieval Times to Now | Open Culture

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Official UK #Trailer | YouTube #adaptations #film

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The First Great Works of #Digital #Literature are Already Being Written | The Guardian #gaming #video #storytelling #art #tech

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Video games could be the greatest storytelling medium of our age – if only the worlds of art and technology would stop arguing and take notice…READ MORE: The first great works of digital literature are already being written | Technology | The Guardian

See Book Availability from Your Local #Library while [ Web Browsing] | LibraryExtension.com #books #libraries #Internet #tools #browsers #catalogs

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As you browse books and e-books on Amazon.com, the Library Extension checks your library’s online catalog and displays the availability of that item on the same page. If the book is available at your library, you’ll know instantly – with a quick, convenient link to reserve the title! READ MORE: Library Extension – See book availability from your local library while you browse Amazon.com | Library Extension for Chrome

Postage #Stamps from Bhutan That Double as Playable #Vinyl #Records | Open Culture #audio #history #coolstuff

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The tiny, Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan has a unique national aspiration that sets it apart from its neighbors, China and India. (And certainly the United States too.) Rather than increasing its gross national product, Bhutan has instead made it a goal to increase the Gross National Happiness of its citizens. There’s wealth in health, not just money, the Bhutanese have argued. And since the 1970s, the country has taken a holistic approach to development, trying to increase the spiritual, physical, and environmental health of its people. And guess what? The strategy is paying off. A 2006 global survey conducted by Business Week found that Bhutan is the happiest country in Asia and the eighth-happiest country in the world. It’s perhaps only a nation devoted to happiness that could throw its support behind this — postage stamps that double as playable vinyl records. READ MORE: Postage Stamps from Bhutan That Double as Playable Vinyl Records | Open Culture

#Library Builder’s Monument of #Books | BBC News #libraries #literacy #education #reading #nonprofit

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At some point this year, a child somewhere in the developing world became the ten millionth beneficiary of Room to Read, a non-profit organisation created 15 years ago after a high-flying Microsoft executive quit his job to help children in Nepal. The charity, which works to eradicate child illiteracy and gender inequality in education, builds libraries and stocks them with books. It’s no surprise that its founder, John Wood, invokes the spirit of the 19th Century library-building steel magnate, Andrew Carnegie. In a sense, Room to Read has outstripped its spiritual mentor, building 17,500 libraries to Carnegie’s 2,500. READ MORE: Library builder’s monument of books | BBC News

Georgia Tech Uses #ArtificialIntelligence #AI to Crowdsource #Interactive #Fiction | GT #tech #crowdsourcing #storytelling #gaming #users

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Georgia Institute of Technology researchers have developed a new artificially intelligent system that crowdsources plots for interactive stories, which are popular in video games and let players choose different branching story options. READ MORE: GT | Georgia Institute of Technology | News Center | Georgia Tech Uses Artificial Intelligence to Crowdsource Interactive Fiction

New Platform Makes #Content Of #Videos As Searchable As Text | Fast Company #search #discovery #curation #data #contextual #analysis #machinelearning

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To make poorly labeled videos easier to discover, Manhattan-based video analysis startup Dextro is launching a platform that analyzes and tags the contents of publicly available videos, using algorithms to identify common scenes, objects, and speech. Mic, a news site aimed at millennials, has partnered with Dextro and will use the platform, called Sight, Sound & Motion (SSM), to discover newsworthy videos that may otherwise be difficult to find. READ MORE: This New Platform Makes The Contents Of Videos As Searchable As Text | Fast Company | Business + Innovation

Officials threaten to destroy a #LittleFreeLibrary in Texas | LA Times #LFL #libraries #free #books #community

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More LFL in trouble…

Who would want to hurt a Little Free Library? Officials from the Department of Code Compliance in Dallas, that’s who. READ MORE: Officials threaten to destroy a Little Free Library in Texas | LA Times

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