Category Archives: Librarianship

The Library of Congress is wrecking CDs to learn how to save them | Engadget

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Like it or not, CDs rot over time — your well-worn copy of Soundgarden’s Superunknown might not play anymore. Just how they rot is frequently a mystery, though, which is why the Library of Congress is currently destroying CDs (including those you donate) in hopes of improving its archival techniques. Researchers are using a combination of artificial aging tests and simple observations to see what factors trigger decay, sometimes with surprising results. As the Library tells The Atlantic, data loss varies widely between manufacturing processes, the lasers in CD players and even individual discs; experimenters can subject two identical copies of an album to extreme heat and lose only one of them.

Read More: The Library of Congress is wrecking CDs to learn how to save them | Engadget

Awesomely Gross Medical Illustrations From the 19th Century | WIRED

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In the 19th century, doctors couldn’t use photographs to teach their students to distinguish between benign or cancerous growths. Or how teeth looked in patients affected by hereditary syphilis. Or the stages of cholera.

So the physicians, surgeons, and anatomists of the 1800s built close relationships with artists, craftsmen, and publishers to produce beautiful (yet horrifically off-putting at times) illustrations. In The Sick Rose: Disease and the Art of Medical Illustration, Richard Barnett collects up the best examples of these images. They—and the accompanying chapters of text, organized by disease—are endlessly fascinating.

 

Excerpted from The Sick Rose: Disease and the Art of Medical Illustration, by Richard Barnett, published this month by Distributed Art Publishers.

VIA: Awesomely Gross Medical Illustrations From the 19th Century | Science | WIRED.

Lifetime Sets ‘The Red Tent’ Mini Starring Rebecca Ferguson, Minnie Driver & Morena Baccarin | Deadline.com

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Another bible-themed longform project is heading to the small screen. Lifetime is going into production with The Red Tent, a two-night miniseries adaptation of the best-selling novel by Anita Diamant published in 1997. Read More: Lifetime Sets ‘The Red Tent’ Mini Starring Rebecca Ferguson, Minnie Driver & Morena Baccarin | Deadline.com

I highly recommend the book and think the the TV production is well-casted!

The US is opening up the Smithsonian’s digitized art collection | Engadget

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The White House promised that it would open up government data last year, and it’s now expanding those plans in some intriguing directions. For one, it’s opening up the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s digitized collection; you’ll soon get to build apps and other tools using the institution’s artwork as a foundation. Even curators don’t have that much access right now, the administration says. via The US is opening up the Smithsonian’s digitized art collection | Engadget

From the White House Continued Progress and Plans for Open Government Data:

  • Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection: The Smithsonian American Art Museum’s entire digitized collection will be opened to software developers to make educational apps and tools. Today, even museum curators do not have easily accessible information about their art collections. This information will soon be available to everyone.

And The Winner Of TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2014 Is… Vurb | TechCrunch

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And The Winner Of TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2014 Is… Vurb | TechCrunch

Vurb is a web and mobile contextual search engine. When you type a query in Vurb, you get everything you need without having to leave the search engine. The company is rolling out search for Places, Movies, and Media. It will soon launch search for add People, Startups, and others. For example, if you search for a film, you get a trailer, showtimes, reviews, a link to watch the movie on Netflix, the IMDb score and more.

Read More: And The Winner Of TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2014 Is… Vurb | TechCrunch.

See also: Vurb’s Contextual Search Engine Blows Away Those Stupid Lists Of Links | TechCrunch

 

Hachette Says Amazon Is Delaying Delivery of Some Books | NYTimes.com

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Amazon has begun discouraging customers from buying books by Malcolm Gladwell, Stephen Colbert, J. D. Salinger and other popular writers, a flexing of its muscle as a battle with a publisher spills into the open. The Internet retailer, which controls more than a third of the book trade in the United States, is marking many books published by Hachette Book Group as not available for at least two or three weeks.

READ MORE: Hachette Says Amazon Is Delaying Delivery of Some Books | NYTimes.com.

Apps for Outdoor Learning | The Digital Shift

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With spring in the air, students typically clamor to get outside—and teachers would often like to follow. April is an ideal time of year to explore outdoor learning opportunities, and these apps and sites can lead the way. READ MORE: Apps for Outdoor Learning | Cool Tools | The Digital Shift.

I would also recommend the Encyclopedia of Life’s Tools & Resources page for more tools to enhance outdoor educational activities.

50 Of The Best Kids’ Books Published In The Last 25 Years | HuffPost

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Little kids may insist you read the same books over and over at bedtime (sometimes more than once in the same night), but that doesn’t mean you can’t stop trying to add variety to the mix. This new list, compiled by Reach Out and Read, a nonprofit organization that advocates for literacy, and book recommendation site Goodreads will help you do just that.

Goodreads came up with the idea for this list as a way to celebrate Reach Out and Read’s 25th anniversary. Together, the two put together fifty top picks published in that time period. Whether you are looking for popular classics or a few unknown gems, you’ll certainly find something great to add to the rotation here.

VIEW: 50 Of The Best Kids’ Books Published In The Last 25 Years | HuffPost

62 Free Live Webinars for Librarians in May | Ellyssa Kroski | OEDB.org

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Professional development opportunities are still in full swing this month with an incredible 62 Free Live Webinars going on in the area of libraries and librarianship. So don’t switch to a summer schedule yet!  Instead, look into attending some of these amazing sessions this month!!

SEE: 62 Free Live Webinars for Librarians in May | Ellyssa Kroski | OEDB.org.

Who Painted This 300-Year-Old Guidebook to Every Imaginable Color? | Gizmodo

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More than two centuries before Pantone divided the visible spectrum into six-digit color codes, a mysterious Dutch artist crafted this extraordinary guide to painting in watercolor. Hundreds of subtly varying colors were mixed by hand for this one-of-a-kind, encyclopedic volume. READ MORE: Who Painted This 300-Year-Old Guidebook to Every Imaginable Color?  | Gizmodo