Librarian on the stairs

[lawrencepubliclibrary]

Happy National Library Week 2017

Libraries Transform.  Lawrence Public Library is passionate about you, our community, and how we can affect positive transformation in the town we love, on both an individual and collective level for everyone. This week, we’re unabashedly celebrating what libraries are all about, and you’re invited!

We provide expertise from staff like Lauren.  Our public computers and free wi-fi help students of all ages, make it easy to apply for jobs online, and provide access to online tax forms. You can even schedule free one-on-one help with our Tech Staff and learn more about your new gadget.

Life is busy! We want you to love spending time in the library, so we’ve made sure you have convenient and healthy food options within seconds of your study-story-craft-computer spot. The Merc Co+op’s in-house cafe helps satisfy snacky kid cravings, brews hot coffee for people on the run to storytime, and provides whole meals for when you’re late for a meeting and forgot to get lunch.

We subscribe to online learning resources so you don’t have to.  Explore professional development (Lynda.com), learn a new language (Mango), take practice tests and exercises for GED, TOEFL, and U.S. Citizenship Test (Learning Express Library), buy the best new fridge out there (Consumer Reports), and learn more about your family history (Ancestry.com)—Free—and this just scratches the surface.

You can trust us.  A recent survey by the Maine State Library shows that librarians are the second most trusted professionals out of the 22 professions studied—nurses scored #1. Several ways in which we hope to transform our community is by providing information literacy opportunities in person, at programs, and with our collection.

We’re invested in Lawrence’s future.  Our Youth Services team (voted Best of Lawrence for Family Fun in 2015, 2016, and nominated again for 2017!) works in tandem with local educators, clubs, schools, and businesses to instill a love of learning and reading for a lifetime. Because learning to read happens before reading to learn.

How are you celebrating National Library Week?  We’d love to hear your stories. Sending you lots of love from Lawrence Public Library!

[gifitup2016]

GIF IT UP 2016 entry by María Rocío Moreiras Plaza from Ourense, Spain. Source material from Rijksmuseum via Europeana / @europeanacollections.

María writes: “The potato eaters has always been my favorite artwork. It was one of the best Galician writers who made me love it even more: the author of “ Os comedores de patacas” (The Potato Eaters), Manuel Rivas. In his own words, he describes the painting as it follows: “In 1992, I went to Amsterdam for the first time. This journey I had so longed to make was a kind of pilgrimage to me. I was dying to see the Potato Eaters. In front of this painting of mysterious fervour, the most deeply religious of all those I have seen, the true representation of the Holy Family, I suppressed the impulse to get down on my knees. I was afraid of drawing attention, like one of those eccentric tourist that wander about a cathedral in sunglasses and Bermuda shorts. There are two words in Spanish: hervor, boiling, and fervor, fervour. In Galician there is only one: fervor. The glow from the boiling dish of potatoes ascends towards the faint lamp and lights up the faces of the peasant family, who contemplate the sacred food, the humble fruit of the earth, with fervour.” (Manuel Rivas. Vermeer´s Milkmaid & other stories, translated by Jonathan Dunne) It was my pleasure to create my first GIF with this artwork… ( A hot potato has been included to add some fun) This GIF was made using WIMP and Ezgif.com.

This gif is made available under a CC-BY-SA license.

[uispeccoll]

Our John Springer Printing Ephemera Collection has some of the coolest things! Springer (1850-1937), and Iowa City printer, presented some 2,000 books documenting or illustrating the history of printing, and his collection contains more than 1,600 items and more than 400 calling cards – in excess of 2,000 items in all. 

There are a ton of printing samples and examples of things a customer could buy. One interesting item is this fabric samples booklet from 1894. It is still in great shape!

MsC0202

-Lindsay M.

[bklynlibrary]

Tumblr: we want your help! Today our librarians will be hosting a Bookmatch Marathon, answering the avalanche of requests they received over the holidays. We’ll be posting reader queries throughout the day, and we’d love your suggestions! You can check out past examples of Bookmatch Requests here. Watch this space because the marathon starts NOW!

[michaelmoonsbookshop]

Three Hundred and one things a bright girl can do

1914

[ladyragnell]

Los viajes de Santiago

[b00kstorebabe-deactivated201709]

I AM THE RULER OF THIS LAND

[thegetty]

Welcome back to #ThyCaptionBe, a celebration of modern interpretations of medieval aesthetics. Every Monday, this will go down on Tumblr and Twitter:

We’ll post a detail.

You guess what in the world is going on and write a caption (questionable accuracy welcome).

Then we’ll share the full illumination and myth-bust if we must.

Caption away! Can’t wait to see what #ThyCaptionBe.

[derkreisel-deactivated20190918]

[cornelluniversity]

World’s largest natural sound archive now fully digital and fully online.

“In terms of speed and the breadth of material now accessible to anyone in the world, this is really revolutionary,” says audio curator Greg Budney, describing a major milestone just achieved by the Macaulay Library archive at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. All archived analog recordings in the collection, going back to 1929, have now been digitized and can be heard at www.MacaulayLibrary.org

“This is one of the greatest research and conservation resources at the Cornell Lab,” said Budney. “And through its digitization we’ve swung the doors open on it in a way that wasn’t possible 10 or 20 years ago.”

It took archivists a dozen years to complete the monumental task. The collection contains nearly 150,000 digital audio recordings equaling more than 10 terabytes of data with a total run time of 7,513 hours. About 9,000 species are represented. There’s an emphasis on birds, but the collection also includes sounds of whales, elephants, frogs, primates and more.

“Our audio collection is the largest and the oldest in the world,” explained Macaulay Library director Mike Webster. “Now, it’s also the most accessible. We’re working to improve search functions and create tools people can use to collect recordings and upload them directly to the archive. Our goal is to make the Macaulay Library as useful as possible for the broadest audience possible.”

The recordings are used by researchers studying many questions, as well as by birders trying to fine-tune their sound ID skills. The recordings are also used in museum exhibits, movies and commercial products such as smartphone apps.

“Now that we’ve digitized the previously archived analog recordings, the archival team is focusing on new material from amateur and professional recordists from around the world to really, truly build the collection,” Budney said. “Plus, it’s just plain fun to listen to these sounds. Have you heard the sound of a walrus underwater?  It’s an amazing sound.“ 

Sample some fascinating Macaulay Library sounds:

Earliest recording: Cornell Lab founder Arthur Allen was a pioneer in sound recording. On a spring day in 1929 he recorded this Song Sparrow sounding much as they do today Youngest bird: This clip from 1966 records the sounds of an Ostrich chick while it is still inside the egg – and the researchers as they watch Liveliest wake-up call: A dawn chorus in tropical Queensland, Australia is bursting at the seams with warbles, squeals, whistles, booms and hoots Best candidate to appear on a John Coltrane record: The indri, a lemur with a voice that is part moan, part jazz clarinet Most spines tingled: The incomparable voice of a Common Loon on an Adirondacks lake in 1992 Most erratic construction project: the staccato hammering sounds of a walrus under water Most likely to be mistaken for aliens arriving: Birds-of-paradise make some amazing sounds – here’s the UFO-sound of a Curl-crested Manucode in New Guinea

[librerasresoplantes]

Otra vez ese olor a whisky y esa nota en la pared. “Estaba aquí hace un mes y era AZUL”.

[politicsprose]

15 Words You Never Knew Came From Literature (via Electric Lit)

[the-librarian]

To celebrate World Book Day and our own love of reading, we’ve prepared a special infographic all about books and the meanings behind different book-related idioms!

[librarianonthestairs]

Germans and their books | All media content | DW.COM | 17.12.2014

Why are Germans so conservative when it comes to books? DW's Nancy Isenson, an American who's spent a quarter-century in Germany, shares her first German book and explains why tomes are national treasures here.

[upcyclingtextbooks]

Are textbooks Home Detention? This artist thinks so. 

Home Detention an installation created by Eva Kotátková using many, many textbooks.

What sort of hole did that put in her wallet?

Photo Credit: Jiri Thyn

[steroge]

Two London women reading back to back as they sunbathe by the banks of the Serpentine in Hyde Park, London, 1937; Photo by E. Dean (via)

[emmortalsresources]

One of the biggest advantages of the Internet is the facility we have today to gain knowledge of different places. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy to find. When I started trying to mess around with HTML/CSS just ‘cause I wanted to make my own tumblr themes, I had no idea where to start and just take me more than it should to learn. As a way to organize all the information I have stored for a long time and also to help those who want to start programming, I organized this masterpost with several sites far beyond codeacademy, software and some books in PDF to help you start programming, or increase your skills in programming if you already know. Information presented here help both those who don’t know how to program in any language and seeks knowledge only as a hobby or students of computer. English is not my native language and I’m not that good with, so just ignore any grammar errors. All the materials in this post are free. And don’t forget to Ctrl + click in the link to open in a new tab. Attention: If you live in Brazil, go here for the portuguese version of this post with some sites that work exclusively in Brazil.

[emmortalsresources]

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