- The Times (UK, subscription required) reported this week that newly-released phone taps "have exposed how Marcello Dell'Utri, a senator and old friend of Berlusconi, received books from Marino Massimo De Caro. ... In one phone conversation with De Caro in 2012, Dell'Utri says one book he wants is so valuable, it will come with 'truffles on it'." Dell'Utri was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2014 for ties to the Sicilian mafia; he has maintained that he did not know the books he was receiving from De Caro were stolen. The texts of the phone taps were originally reported in La repubblica.
- The British Library has turned down an archive of material related to the Taliban, with librarians saying that housing the collection could violate anti-terrorism statutes, which prohibit the collection "of material which could be used by a person committing or preparing for an act of terrorism" as well as the "circulation of terrorist publications."
- This year's National Book Festival commemorates the 200th anniversary of the sale of Jefferson's books to the nation to rebuild the destroyed Library of Congress. In the Washington Post, Mark Dimunation presents a few of Jefferson's favorite titles.
- As part of the processing of Toni Morrison's literary archive, staff at Princeton have been working to recover files from 5.25" floppy disks. Elena Colon-Marrero outlines the process used.
- From Damian Fleming, a list of free digitized manuscripts containing Old English.
- Kazuo Ishiguro's literary archive has been acquired by the Harry Ransom Center for just over $1 million.
- At The Collation, Erin Blake shows how Hamnet is one big data set, and offers some advice on parsing exported MARC data.
- Rare Book School is now accepting applications for scholarships and the IMLS-RBS Fellowships.
- Michael Beckerman reports for the NYTimes about the discovery of missing parts of Adam Michna's 1653 musical work "The Czech Lute," found in a Franciscan library in Slany, near Prague.
- Alison Flood reports for the Guardian on the sale of two James Joyce letters, which fetched more than $24,000 at RR Auction in Boston.
- At Early Modern Online Bibliography, Eleanor Shevlin discusses and reviews ArchBook, an open-access collection of essays "about specific design features in the history of the book."
- Jessamyn West has posted about her discussions with the White House personnel office about what the next Librarian of Congress should be able to bring to the table.
- Tim Cassedy writes in the LA Review of Books about the new app OMBY, "a game that you win by unscrambling Moby Dick, a few words at a time."
- The Library of Congress and Levenger Press are publishing Mapping the West with Lewis and Clark, examining "the critical role that maps played in Jefferson's vision of a formidable republic that would no longer be eclipsed by European empires."
- Items from the Kerry Stokes Collection, including the Rothschild Prayerbook, will be on display at the University of Melbourne's Ian Potter Museum until 15 November. A lecture series accompanies the exhibition.
- In Humanities, Steve Moyer reports on the use of spectral imaging and reflectance transformation imaging on the Jubliees palimpsest.
- Ancestry.com and Gannett Newspapers are collaborating to digitize the full archives of some 80 daily newspapers.
- Elizabeth Ott highlights an utterly fantastic new acquisition at UNC Chapel Hill: an 18th-century perspective "peep show" of a printer's shop at work.
- The British Library will loan the Codex Sinaiticus to the British Museum for an exhibition exploring religion in Egypt after the pharaohs.
- In the Deccan Herald, Pradeep Sebastian explores the fascination with biblio-theft, highlighting a few recent cases.
- Michelle Tay writes for Blouin Artinfo about Sotheby's auction of selections from Pierre Bergé's collection of rare books, which will begin with a sale in December.
- A long-sought Nazi "gold train" may have been located in southwestern Poland after a death-bed confession. The armored train is believed to have been carrying weapons, gold, art, and possibly Nazi archives. Authorities are urging treasure-hunters to stay away, as they fear that the hidden train may be booby-trapped.
- Satellite images reveal the extent of the destruction being wrought on the ancient city of Palmyra by ISIS.
Reviews
- The Butterflies of North America: Titian Peale's Lost Manuscript; review by Dana Jennings in the NYTimes. The manuscript, left unfinished when Peale died in 1885, is being published by the American Museum of Natural History.
- Rosemarie Ostler's Founding Grammars; review by Barbara Spindel in the CSM.
- Paul Kingsnorth's The Wake; review by Jennifer Maloney in the WSJ. This one sounds fascinating ...
Showing posts with label Blumberg. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blumberg. Show all posts
Sunday, August 30, 2015
Sunday, August 03, 2008
Links & Reviews
- In the NYTimes, Caroline Winter (substituting for Bill Safire) discusses the history of the capital I as an English pronoun. I disagree with her proposal (simply because it's silly and not necessary) but the historical background is interesting.
- Des Moines police detective Ronald Foster has been named the Des Moines Rotary Club's Police Officer of the Year. What's the relevance to us? Foster assisted in the Blumberg investigation a few years ago.
- I've added a link to the Brattle Book Blog.
- More commentary on the Amazon/ABE deal has continued to come through - I've been updating my original post on the topic here.
- Jeanne found a handy Interactive Copyright Slider for American works. I like it, and I've added a link to the sidebar.
- When I was younger, the Guernsey Memorial Library in Norwich, NY, was the "big library" we went to occasionally. Now its director is in some seriously hot water after an audit revealed some suspicious expense claims. Among other problems: "The director authorized and processed transactions with little or no oversight by the board, resulting in numerous questionable expenditures, including more than $2,100 on travel, more than $1,500 on restaurants, more than $3,000 on food and beverages, nearly $800 on gifts, more than $2,300 on other unsupported purchases from online book vendors, discount stores and grocery stores, and $2,500 to a vendor for a theatrical performance." Yikes. [h/t LISNews]
- Tech Digest notes the BL's really nifty Turning the Pages digitization project.
- From NPR's "Living on Earth," a segment on the po'ouli, a little Hawaiian bird which went from discovery to extinction in just three decades. There's also a book on the subject, here.
- From BibliOdyssey, satirical maps from World War I.
- Travis comments on the Codex Sinaiticus digitization project in the context of the theft of that document.
- Via LISNews, a neat digital map of early modern London.
- John Bell points out some upcoming Revolutionary War reenactments in the Boston area. The Continental and British encampments will be held on different weekends to prevent incidents.
- Parisian bookman Simon Berès died on Monday, Scott Brown reports at Fine Books Blog. Berès' collection sold at auction in June 2006 for more than $17 million, and he earned much acclaim for donating a rare Stendhal manuscript to the French nation rather than putting it on the block.
- A house fire destroyed more then 30,000 books - many of them rare - from the collection of Barry Cavanaugh of Plumstead, PA. The blaze consumed the 1740 farmstead and most of its contents, according to media reports. No one was physically hurt. More at Book Patrol.
- Over at Paper Cuts, a(nother) debate over the Dewey Decimal System.
Reviews
- In the NYTimes, Nicholson Baker reviews Ammon Shea's Reading the OED, which he describes as "the 'Super Size Me' of lexicography," and Thomas Mallon reviews Lee Israel's Can You Ever Forgive Me?
- In the Telegraph, Allan Massie reviews The Magnificent Monarch: Charles II and the Ceremonies of Power by Anna Keay, and Freya Johnson reviews Ophelia Field's The Kit-Cat Club: Friends Who Imagined a Nation.
- Des Moines police detective Ronald Foster has been named the Des Moines Rotary Club's Police Officer of the Year. What's the relevance to us? Foster assisted in the Blumberg investigation a few years ago.
- I've added a link to the Brattle Book Blog.
- More commentary on the Amazon/ABE deal has continued to come through - I've been updating my original post on the topic here.
- Jeanne found a handy Interactive Copyright Slider for American works. I like it, and I've added a link to the sidebar.
- When I was younger, the Guernsey Memorial Library in Norwich, NY, was the "big library" we went to occasionally. Now its director is in some seriously hot water after an audit revealed some suspicious expense claims. Among other problems: "The director authorized and processed transactions with little or no oversight by the board, resulting in numerous questionable expenditures, including more than $2,100 on travel, more than $1,500 on restaurants, more than $3,000 on food and beverages, nearly $800 on gifts, more than $2,300 on other unsupported purchases from online book vendors, discount stores and grocery stores, and $2,500 to a vendor for a theatrical performance." Yikes. [h/t LISNews]
- Tech Digest notes the BL's really nifty Turning the Pages digitization project.
- From NPR's "Living on Earth," a segment on the po'ouli, a little Hawaiian bird which went from discovery to extinction in just three decades. There's also a book on the subject, here.
- From BibliOdyssey, satirical maps from World War I.
- Travis comments on the Codex Sinaiticus digitization project in the context of the theft of that document.
- Via LISNews, a neat digital map of early modern London.
- John Bell points out some upcoming Revolutionary War reenactments in the Boston area. The Continental and British encampments will be held on different weekends to prevent incidents.
- Parisian bookman Simon Berès died on Monday, Scott Brown reports at Fine Books Blog. Berès' collection sold at auction in June 2006 for more than $17 million, and he earned much acclaim for donating a rare Stendhal manuscript to the French nation rather than putting it on the block.
- A house fire destroyed more then 30,000 books - many of them rare - from the collection of Barry Cavanaugh of Plumstead, PA. The blaze consumed the 1740 farmstead and most of its contents, according to media reports. No one was physically hurt. More at Book Patrol.
- Over at Paper Cuts, a(nother) debate over the Dewey Decimal System.
Reviews
- In the NYTimes, Nicholson Baker reviews Ammon Shea's Reading the OED, which he describes as "the 'Super Size Me' of lexicography," and Thomas Mallon reviews Lee Israel's Can You Ever Forgive Me?
- In the Telegraph, Allan Massie reviews The Magnificent Monarch: Charles II and the Ceremonies of Power by Anna Keay, and Freya Johnson reviews Ophelia Field's The Kit-Cat Club: Friends Who Imagined a Nation.
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