#libraryresearch

[harvardfineartslib]

Before there was HOLLIS, researchers used to find books in the Fine Arts Library by using the card catalog. Some of our staff remember them very well! Mary Jane Cuneo, senior serials cataloger who works on FAL materials, shared the following memory:

“I have to admit, I was there as a cataloger at the time of card catalogs. We typed subject headings on cards we had ordered from the Library of Congress, on a typewriter equipped with a card platen to hold the card steady; and used the red-ink part of the ribbon.

Students would interfile new cards “above the rod” and a supervisor would drop them after checking the filing by pulling out the rod and re-inserting it. To correct an error printed or typed on a card, we used a beast of a thing: the electric eraser. It was really heavy.

Also in our toolkit was a razor blade, to scrape and scratch away the unwanted text. When I started at the Fine Arts Library as a library assistant in 1976, this was part of my job. Truly amazing how far things have come!”

The first photograph dates from 1952 when our library was located within the Fogg Art Museum. The second photograph shows the card catalog for auction sales catalogs that we still have at the library. And the last image? An electric eraser.

Image description:

Image 1: A woman hunching over card catalogs on a pulled-out drawer of the card catalog cabinets. Card catalog cabinets stand against the wall on the right.

Image 2: Tinted photograph of a close-up view of card catalogs in the drawer.

Image 3: Photo of the electric eraser

Image 1: Fogg Art Museum. Interior, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States Fine Arts Library. Visual Collections. Card catalog, photographed ca.1980s. Sculpture at left is Marino Marini's "Horse and Rider", 1952, from the Harvard Art Museum's collection  Author/Creator Coolidge, Shepley, Bulfinch & Abbott, Boston, Massachusetts, United States [architect] HOLLIS number: olvsite34738

Image 2: Photo credit: Naoe Suzuki

[spazhouseintuitiveresearch]

So good to be back in the map room doing some local research! I so missed it. #libraryresearch @jaxlibrary (at Jacksonville Public Library - Main Library) https://www.instagram.com/p/CPq2XAvhmqI/?utm_medium=tumblr

[hannahmatthewswestminster]

edward burtynsky

here i refer back to the work of burtynsky after looking at his ‘anthropocene’ book in the library. i am not so much inspired by his composition for this particular project, as he takes his images from a ‘birds-eye’ view which captures the landscape on a wide scale. He does this in order to gain a vast view of the environment to represent how huge our impact as humans really is. I am more inspired by how he documents this information about the anthropocene and visually represents how we have completely altered and destroyed the landscape for our own benefit. in his book, he includes small chapters, he categorises the type of impact or the reason for the landscape being altered in this way. he then, on the opposite side of the page to the large image, explains in detail what is going on in that particular area, and why it looks like that. the project is so well informed that it simply cannot be ignored or disregarded. it describes why we alter the landscape in this way then confronts you with the reality of this on the opposite page, a clever and effective way of laying out the book. his layout has inspired me a lot when thinking of the creation of my own publication. at the beginning and end of the book he has included some essays, which are on completely different paper to the rest, this paper felt somewhat rougher and harder. this particular paper inspired me to think about recycled paper, and incorporating sustainability and environmentally friendly aspects into the actual creation of my own publication. this will match the content that is inside, adding to the impact and overall aesthetic, in an attempt to influence change

“our planet has borne witness to five great extinction events, and these have been prompted by a variety of causes: a colossal meteor impact, massive volcanic eruptions, and oceanic cyanobacteria activity that generated a deadly toxicity in the atmosphere. These were the naturally occurring phenomena governing life’s ebb and flow. Now it is becoming clear that humankind, with its population explosion, industry, and technology, has in a very short period of time also become an agent of immense global change. Arguably, we are on the cusp of becoming (if we are not already) the perpetrators of a sixth major extinction event. Our planetary system is affected by a magnitude of force as powerful as any naturally occurring global catastrophe, but one caused solely by the activity of a single species: us” - burtynsky

[hannahmatthewswestminster]

Vanishing Landscapes

‘to a world that is felt to have been lost to us, the landscape can provide a healing element, and the gulf between nature and civilisation that has been exacerbated by industrialisation becomes bearable’

‘there no longer seems to be a single untouched plot of land on earth. and even if man has yet to set foot on a tiny section of our planet, his very existence and his actions have already impinged on our whole biosphere’

‘as an image of nature, the landscape can no longer be conceived of as independent of humankind but is always something that we ourselves have created’

(here can relate the aspect of photography to preservation)

‘we need to rethink our entire energy system from scratch in order to bring about real change. our industrial metabolism needs to be rethought’

- joachim schellnhube, of the postdam institute for climate impact research

‘landscape becomes the window of our relationship with reality, images of landscape becoming a reflection of ourselves’

‘ultimately all we can do is hope that by viewing these images we shall finally come to our senses’

this book introduces you to the work of photographers, and the different ways they take up the challenge of photographing the changing climate and how they each individually choose to communicate this catastrophe to the viewer. some confront us by documenting the graphic brutality, whilst others aestheticise the issue, with the caption making the situation clear

‘quite clearly it enables us to experience things that otherwise appear to have long been contaminated by mechanical reproduction... perhaps why walter benjamin defined one of his key concepts - aura - by the means of the image of a landscape’

‘these images of vanishing landscapes open up spaces that the observer cannot enter but which remain accessible to our powers of reflection’

[martinafrancula]

PoW Research / So you want to publish a magazine?

I took a look at a book by Angharad Lewis: So you want to publish a magazine?

I got really inspired by a lot of things I found in there, here are some quotes that stood out for me:

[magicalmuggle3791]

Would anyone be willing to take this survey? https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/38FBHLK 

It’s for school. 

Thanks!

[azph]

Library Research

Pentax Calendar, 1980 by Guy Bourdin

In the photo you can see an elegant, clean room. It is probably night, because the place is a bit dark. There is an interesting light coming from the right side of the image. Perhaps it is a car going by and the car lights are coming through the window, which makes a picture look gloomy, and creates shadows, although the photo in general is not highly contrasted. There are grey/blue toned four chairs and a sofa, they are kind of baroque-ish, luxury furniture, made of silk fabric, so the light coming on them makes it look expensive and gives to the photo some Hollywood glamour look. When you first see the photograph, you notice two things. The first one is a woman, who’s wearing black, silky material dress, her lips are red, she has dark hair. Her face is quite intense, her hands are roughly grabbing a head of a figure, it is not really clear if it is a man or a woman. The silhouette is also wearing a black, shiny material. He/she is bending down on knees. The woman’s face and the figure’s posture makes it look erotic. The second thing you notice is the fallen chair in the right corner. It gives the image more sexuality, wildness. 

The photograph instantly reminded me of David Lynch’s movie “Blue Velvet”, maybe because the model in the picture looks a bit like Isabella Rossellini or that the character she played wanted to be dominated. Although the movie is full of strong sexual and violent content and the woman in the picture is not being gentle, the whole frame does not look vulgar. It looks really theatrical and delicate, but it is far away from fake, because woman’s face is really real, really spot-on. The fallen chair makes one wonder what happened in the room and even sharpens the erotic feeling going through the photo. The title of the photographs let us think about the context of the photo, in what kind of calendar it was published. Being made in the 80′s it just plays along even more with the “Blue Velvet” which now is considered as 80′s cult movie, because of the dark erotic vibes. The light coming through makes it look mysterious, as mentioned, maybe the car is going by and that’s the only time the room gets some light, it can be assumed that the lights in the room  are turned off, so this makes it look like a secret, and the figure looks like hiding in woman’s body. The image looks very dramatic, mysterious and high-fashion. As well as other Guy Bourdin’s photographs, this one is full of passion and sexual tension, but it’s not that shocking or eccentric as other images he has made. This one is very subtle, but also very powerful and ardent.

[amyjeancreative-blog]

I love this picture from @britishvogue Nov 1971 photographed by Barry Lategan of Moyra Swan at Topkapi Palace Istanbul!!! Beautiful,,, stunning,,, timeless!! Inspired!! #inspiration #libraryresearch #britishvogue #vintage #istanbul #fashion