Colleen Theisen, a librarian at University of Iowa’s Special Collections and University Archives, recently found these awesome fore-edge paintings on a series of books from the 19th century.
The books are a four volume series by Robert Mudie, one volume for each season of the year, and the paintings reflect each of those seasons. The artist of these mini paintings is unknown.
The full story: Stunning, Tiny Paintings Found On Vintage Books | HuffPost Books.
32 free webinars that are relevant for librarians and information professionals.
via 32 Free Library Webinars in September | Ellyssa Kroski – OEDB.org.
Excerpt of article content specific to libraries:
Tools in a digital library context often provide similar benefits, although they tend to be different in nature. I would say that a basic tool for any digital librarian is likely a computer running a LAMP stack:
L = Linux
A = Apache web server
M = MySQL
P = A “P” programming language such as Perl or Python
With that, there is very little you can’t do. Well, that is, once you install the dependencies of whatever else you’re wanting to run. But you get the idea. It’s a basic platform from which much else is made possible. It’s an essential tool set.
Some of the other digital library tools in my repertoire include:
Swish-e – I’ve used this indexing software since the mid-90s, and haven’t seen a reason to change. With it, I’ve set up and maintained a variety of web sites that function as if they are database-supported but in fact are simply flat XML files that are indexed using Swish-e (see, for example, FreeLargePhotos.com).
XSLTProc – Sure, there are many options for XML processing out there and I won’t attempt to defend this particular decision except to say that it is easy to use and does what I need it to do (process XSLT stylesheets against specified XML files). Again, it underpins a number of my web sites.
Nano – You can stop laughing now. Seriously. Stop laughing. I mean it. Nano is a simple text editor (before it was Pico, which was what the PINE linemode email system used for message editing). I use it to do simple editing tasks in text files and programs on the server. I know it isn’t nearly as cool emacs, or even vi, but hey, it’s what I’m used to.
Tools are power. They give you capabilities you would not have without them.
So, You Want to be a Law Librarian?, by Janelle Beitz and Mari Cheney | Letters to a Young Librarian
An interview with two academic law librarians.
I have been pulling together all of my posts on studies and reports on the value of public libraries for my work with the Federation of Ontario Public Libraries. I thought I might as well post it here too. I’m sure I’ve got some dupes in here but c’est la vie! Hope you find it useful! There are many useful talking points and proofs in this research.
See the very mega megapost: Value of Libraries Megapost | Stephen’s Lighthouse.
An Alabama legislator who does not support efforts to repeal the sweeping U.S. education initiative known as the Common Core Standards says he believes the reading list issued in conjunction with the standards needs to be revised.
State Senator Bill Holtzclaw (R-Madison) told Alabama Media Group this week that he believes The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison, should be banned from high school libraries, despite the fact that this book is on the Common Core Standard’s recommended reading list for 11th-graders.
See the full story: Alabama Legislator Bill Holtzclaw Calls On Schools To Ban Toni Morrison Book | Huffington Post.
The Wall Street Journal recently ran an article about the high (and increasing) number of public middle and high schools going without professional school librarians in the state of New York. Existing positions were being eliminated, new schools were being created without any librarians on staff. I started a discussion on the LIS Career Options LinkedIn group asking whether this was part of a broader trend across the country. The response: absolutely…
…Since school librarianship is the LIS discipline I know least well, I imagined that there might be many solid transferable skills that individuals could repurpose for new job opportunities. The response: not so much.”
See the full story: Infonista | Alternative Jobs/Career Paths for Former School Librarians.
The world of mapping and presenting data sets through geographical representations is no longer relegated to GIS librarians and highly trained technologists. New free and open source applications now make it possible to create complex and robust data visualizations in the form of maps that display statistics and poll results. Here’s a guide to 20 free applications and data sources.
via Do-It-Yourself GIS: 20 Free Tools & Data Sources for Creating Data Maps | Ellyssa Kroski – OEDB.org.
There are 6 data visualization tools listed and 14 sources for GIS mapping data.
Also see my list of Interactive Mapping Resources on The Modern MLIS. I have categorized resources as either digital libraries, visualization tools or stargazing maps. There is only a little overlap with Ellyssa’s list.
You may also like: Ten Places to Find and Create Data Visualizations | FreeTech4Teachers
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