Anti-Slavery Collection at Boston Public Library Gets a Digital Makeover
Library launches crowd-sourced transcription project to make 12,000 pieces of abolitionist correspondence searchable.
Posts Tagged ‘digitization’
Library of Congress Shares Rosa Parks Collection
.A collection of 7,500 manuscripts and 2,500 photographs relating to civil rights icon Rosa Parks is now available for public viewing, thanks to the Library of Congress and the Howard G. Buffet Foundation. The Foundation has loaned the collection to the Library of Congress for ten years. Buffet, son of billionaire Warren Buffet, bought the items at auction after a long legal fight between Parks’ heirs and friends. Parks died in Detroit in 2005. At the time of purchase in 2014, Buffet told the Associated Press, “I’m only trying to do one thing: preserve what’s there for the public’s benefit. … I doubt that she would want to have her stuff sitting in a box with people fighting over them.”
Osher Map Library Brings its Globes to the Public
Want to see some large antique globes, but don’t want to put on pants and trek to Portland, Maine? The Osher Map Library has you covered with its new digitization project. Globes were once incredibly common for use in mapping and exploring the world, but now it can be hard to get up close and personal with these delicate items. Luckily for map- and history-lovers, the Osher Map Library is working hard to get its collection of nearly three hundred vintage globes online and available for viewing at all hours of the day.
Surveying the Digital Inclusion Survey
The Digital Inclusion Survey, which collected information from September to November 2013 about public libraries, is a significant way to see how libraries are excelling and where they are falling short in digital literacy, programming, and technology training.
Two States Creating State-Wide Library E-book Collections
A recent Library Journal Online article examined a newly passed bill in Connecticut that gave the state’s library board of trustees the authority to create a state-wide e-book collection. Connecticut’s small size means there are no county governments and therefore no individual library systems. A Connecticut library card is valid in every library in the […]
The Nation’s First Fully Digital Public Library: How a Texas County Made it Happen
In September 2013, the nation’s first completely digital public library opened in San Antonio, Texas. Named BiblioTech, a play on the Spanish word for library (biblioteca), the building is located on the south side of Bexar (pronounced “Bear”) County. BiblioTech is a county-operated facility that serves the City of San Antonio and Bexar County. Home to 1.7 million, Bexar County completely encircles the city of San Antonio, which is celebrated for the historic Alamo and world-famous Riverwalk, and is now home to the first digital public library. The small, 4,800-square-foot space boasts 20,000 e-book titles (with a plan in place to increase that number by 10,000 every year over the next five years), 600 e-readers, 200 child-enhanced e-readers, 48 computer stations, 45 iPads, ten laptops, four interactive surface tables, two study rooms, and a small café. What you will not find is one single hardcover or paperback book.
Chronicling America: Building a Digital Collection
Digital preservation is a solution to the “archivist’s dilemma”—how do you provide access without worrying about loss?
From smaller library initiatives to the Library of Congress’ Chronicling America’s digital newspaper project, digital preservation provides access to information through an accessible, retrievable and searchable database.
Frenemies: An Amazon Story of Courtship
Amazon recently announced the Amazon Source collaboration proposal for independent bookstores , “empower[ing][ them] to sell Kindle e-readers and tablets in their stores” by offering a discount on the price of Kindle tablets and e-readers. Stores also have the opportunity to make a commission on books purchased for that device anywhere, anytime. In examining this proposal, it seems at the very least as harmful as a wolf in sheep’s clothing, but at most a diabolical deal with the devil.
Digitization and Community Building
When Boston Public Library’s digital imaging lab began operating in the fall of 2005, it was focused on digitization as a means to conserve and preserve the library’s special collections. A range of items such as photographs, maps, manuscript pages, postcards, and prints are digitized in this lab with high-end digital camera systems and flatbed scanners.
Google’s Digitization Project – Full Steam Ahead
Opines on the settlement between the Association of American Publishers and Google, which seems to allow Google to continue their massive digitizing project.
