“In order to be really good as a librarian, everything counts towards your work, every play you go see, every concert you hear, every trip you take, everything you read, everything you know.” – Allen Smith, PhD
Open Library is a new project starting out in San Francisco, CA, but global in scope. It aims at creating a single database for all book ever published! This massive project expects to function in wiki format and hopes to gather help from enthusiast all around the globe, much like Wikipedia has done in recent years. They are part of the Open Content Alliance.
The projects wishes to be complete open and free, allowing contributors to create and alter book records as the database grows. The final project will provide a form of authority page for each book, and will allow user to link back to this database as a reference, instead of having to link back to a corporate site.
The project is also working on getting libraries around the world to share their catalogs with them, although some, like the British Library are a little skeptical of the project, and therefore hesitant to release their catalog. The British Library in particular is nervous that the project might eventually become commercial; Right now the project receives most of their funding from the Internet Archive, but in the future they will be more reliant on donations, and a percentage of sales they help direct to book sellers. Google is also weary of this project, since basically both aim at gathering the same information, except Google doesn’t want to make it freely available.
As the project develops, the aim is to provide, searchable, digital copies of complete books, and in as much as copyright allows you might be able to download a complete copy or send it to a third party for printing. There is also the ability link to other project that can provide more information, such as Project Gutenberg to digitize cultural works. These digital copies will also help preserve intellectual content, if not physical books for the future.
You can read more about this project in an article from the BBC. Find out more about The Open Library project through the table of content of their website. You can also see a little presentation of what happens behind the scenes when digitizing book, along with a detailed explanation of the project.
Just a couple of days ago the 2008 USA presidential race took a bit of an different route. Candidates are trying to adjust and make the most of new technologies and Youtube has become the latest battle field. Potentially people from all around the globe could participate in the debate, all they had to do was submit a video with a question. And while this sounds a little more democratic, it wasn’t perfect; CNN made a final selection of questions, and the common “follow up question” wasn’t possible. None the less, I guess this means that politicians are ever more concerned with the voting power of younger people, who aren’t always active political participants. Besides, this format allows candidate with limited resources to reach a very large amount of people.
Candidates have also moved to creating accounts and uploading videos that paint them in a positive light. As of today Hillary Clinton has uploaded 51 videos, while Barack Obama has posted 141 videos. Although as should be expected, satire has followed them here as well. Such is the case the the Obama Girl video, the Obama Girl vs. Giuliani Girl video, and John Edwards’ Feeling Pretty video.
We’ll have to wait and see how the Republicans do with this medium in a couple of weeks when they participate in in their own Youtube debate, on September 17. You can participate as well by submitting a question here.
It seems like a lot of the rich and famous spend a good amount of time and money collecting books, manuscripts and other library material, which they treasure during their life time and which later become great assets to libraries once they are bequeathed. A number of very prestigious libraries have started out by such generous donations.
Harvard’s libraries started when John Harvard donated his collection to the institution back in 1638. Later Eleanor Elkins Widener, gave another significant push when she carried out her sons wish to donate his collection to the university. Her son, Harry Elkin Widener, class of 1907, perished with the Titanic.
The John Carter Brown Library, affiliated with Brown University has also greatly benefited from the donation of personal libraries. John Carter Brown was an avid collector of Americana; his collection was further developed by his son John Nicholas Brown, who subsequently assigned the funds to house this collection. During more recent times whey had also received the Paul R. Dupee Jr. collection which focused on Mexican History. And in two different installment, rare book collector Maury Bromsen donated the vast majority of his collection to the John Carter Brown Library as well.
Significant library collections are also established by those who don’t specialize in books. Collections of letters, diaries, and pretty much anything else can eventually also make it into libraries, and are usually considered part of Special Collections. Morehouse College holds the larger portion of the Martin Luther King Jr. Collection. While the University of Texas at Austin, Benson Latin American Collection acquired the Gloria E. Anzaldua collection just a few years ago.
This week the NYT had an article on CEOs personal libraries, describing both some of the treasures that are to be found in them, as well as commenting on just how protective some of these people are about their books. It’s also interesting to learn that some of these collections have hardly anything in common with these people’s professions. For instance, Steven P. Jobs from Apple had a large collection on William Blake.
While as a librarian I’m initially a little uneasy with having such treasures in personal hands, I’m comforted to know that in the end many of these personal treasures do end up in libraries where they can be used and enjoyed by all.
Best known for being J.P. Morgan’s personal librarian, Belle da Costa Greene, lived, and made her mark in the library world between 1883 and 1950. Having great knowledge and passion for illuminated manuscripts and incunabula, Greene became a woman to be recon with in the world of rare manuscripts, books and art, while working at the Morgan Library.
While working for J.P. Morgan she added a number of great treasures to the collection, and in 1924 when the library became public, she became its first director. Having always wanted to make these rare books available to the public, when she became the Morgan library’s director she celebrated by installing a series of exhibits, one of which attracted the record number of 170,000 visitors.
On the personal side, Belle da Costa Greene was the child of Genevieve Ida Fleet and Richard Theodore Greener, an attorney who serves as the Howard Law School, and who was the first African American students and graduate at Harvard. Growing up at a time when race greatly limited her opportunities, Greene eventually changed her last name and adopted “da Costa” as her middle name, using it to create a fictional Portuguese ancestry that would explain her complexion.
“Just because I’m a librarian, doesn’t mean I have to dress like one.” - Belle da Costa Greene
A few weeks ago dozens upon dozens of giant red books started arriving where I work and no one knew why or if anyone had ordered them. Turns out this isn’t the only place where Adnan Oktar, also know as Harun Yahya , has been sending unsolicited copies of his latest publication, “Atlas of Creation;” they have been showing up at libraries, museums and even the USA congress.
Today the NYT had an article about just this phenomenon and it seems that where ever the book arrives it is producing the same reaction, something along the lines of “The book is gorgeously produced, but we aren’t adding it to the collection because it is full of information that just isn’t accurate.” Basically the book is a beautiful book, covered in full color photographs on heavy glossy paper, but it’s point is to argue that evolution has not occurred since there are plenty of creatures today which look just like their ancient relatives.
Apparently the book hasn’t only gotten around the USA; Earlier this year a French translation actually showed up in schools, universities and museums around France, where scientist quickly spoke out against the book, and the centralized school system facilitated the books removal.
It seems that the author’s intent to debunk Darwin has come to little effect, and mainly what he has achieved is to have everyone wondering where the money has come from to produce such a magnificent book, and then mail them all over the country, when each copy weighs about 12 pounds!
08.30.07 - Here is some else’s comments on Yahya’s reaction to blog posts on his work. He’s apparently gotten local officials in Turkey to blog WordPress comments on his work.
IRENE (Image, Reconstruct, Erase Noise, etc.) is a new technological development that will help in the preservation of millions of sound recordings that are currently being lost because of lack of usable equipment to play them on, and because the audio recordings are becoming increasingly frail.
IRENE was developed by scientist Carl Haber, and other scientists from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Basically it works by creating a digital audio file from an analog information in a disk’s groves without ever touching the record. This is done by using a tool called the Smart Scope, which is basically a high-resolution digital camera attached to a microscope. IRENE therefore can extract sounds from material that was previously too fragile to play. It can also “remove” scratches and “mend” broken phonograph records. The final product will play in near-real time. There is also discussion on developing a new device called the “Confocal Scanning Probe” which would be able to create sound file from three-dimensional items such as wax cylinders.
IRENE has been in use at the Library of Congress since last year, where many are hopefully that this new technology will help save millions of old sound recordings that the library holds, but which are too frail to handle.
You can read more about IRENE form the Library of Congress’ blog, from a story that aired on NPR this morning, and from another story on ACFNewsource.
Several nation leaders in Latin America seem to be waking up to the fact that International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB) loans aren’t truly benefiting the majority of people there, so they are joining forces to create Banco del Sur. Venezuela, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, and Paraguay have become the founding members to Banco del Sur , which is promoted as an alternative to the IMF and WB. The bank which is to begin functions in 2008, is being promoted as coming from Latin America, for Latin America. The idea originated with Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez and is being largely funded with Venezuela’s oil money.
Lack of faith in organizations like the IMF and WB started to gather momentum in Latin American during the 1990s, and this perspective was further solidified after Argentina disregarded IMF advice and defaulted on their loans, which lead to economic recovery. Those opposing this regional bank proposal argue that it is only one more ploy by the emerging left in Latin America, still IMF loans have steadily been declining in the region during the last decade; they currently stand at around $3 billion after being at $50 billion just five years ago. Latin American countries have also been turning to other regional initiatives such as the Andean Development Corporation (CAF) for loans.
Some former and current employees of the IMF and WB explain that maybe this is a wakeup call to these institutions to make more of an effort to customize the services they provide throughout the world. Apparently the IMF has been impacted enough about this to have had to sold some of their gold reserves. This also means that the USA treasury is affected as well, since they are the largest IMF shareholders.
I would like see the Banco del Sur actually succeed and create some wealthy competition.
“… there is life after the IMF, and it’s a very good life.” -Nestor Kirchner, Argentine President
You can read more about this from an article in the Christian Science Monitor, and an article in Upside Down World.
Posted in Americas, USA at 9:26 pm by colombianflowers
About a year ago a legal dispute was started against the Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum, in Key West, FL, arguing that the 60 or so cats that live on the premise were actually being “exhibited” and therefore needed to be licensed. The museum opened to the public just three years after the author committed suicide and since day one the cats have been an integral part of it. The cats are direct descendants of “Snowball” a cat Hemingway received as a gift back in the 1930s, and who was polydactyl, meaning it had extra toes. Half of the museum cats today still express this train, and all are assumed to carry the genetic mutation that causes this.
The strange thing about this lawsuit is that the museum has been functioning for decades with no complaints, and the cats seems to be more of an attraction that the author’s belonging, so why sue now? Besides one of the museum guides explains that the cats are regularly visited by a vet, are up to date on their shots and the group’s size is regularly controlled through neuterings. The cats also seem to be real characters with names like Simone De Beauvoir, Emily Dickinson, Aubrey Hepburn, Pablo Picasso, and Sofia Loren, among many other notable. I got to see these cats back in 1996 and I’m happy to say that the lawsuit has been settle and at least for now the six-toed cats are free to continue roaming their house at leisure!
Here’s an article at the beginning of the dispute, and here is another one of the resolution.
Image info; Hemingway with cat here, and polydactyl cat here.
I just finished reading an article in the BBC about a retired teacher who goes to great lengths to avoid producing waste. It was amazing to read about how she can find life in seemingly old, and useless items, time and time again. For instance a pair of pants that no longer fit, first became part of a bed for the dog and later became elbow patches on a jacket.
Producing such little waste was commons a couple of generations ago, and is probably still common in rural settings, but in the city this is basically unheard of. At my grandmother’s home in Colombia I remember that she was able to produce practically no waste. Paper and other materials that burned were used in the wood oven, vegetarian food scraps went to the cows, and meat scraps were used to feed the dogs. Glass was the only thing she had trouble reusing, but there was an old man who went by a couple of times a month collecting glass for recycling. Me, I have always lived in cities and as much as I try, I still produce much more garbage.
Still there is a push to be more aware of our wastefulness and certain communities in the UK are taking matters seriously. The UK local councils of Bath and North East Somerset promoted “Zero Waste Week“, where people were encouraged to produce as little waste as possible. Some participants were able to reduce their waste by as much as 75%!
If you are still having trouble producing less waste you can use Freecycle, a great website that allows you to connect with other people who may want old things that you are giving away. Freecycle also has local websites where you can connect with people in your community.
Over the weekend I finished reading “Flower Confidential” by Amy Stewart, and what a fascinating read it was! With this book Stewart gives us both the macro and the micro of the industry; in the process she covers botany, genetics, business, marketing, sales, and even addresses the ever present questions of what is our collective fascination with flowers.
Stewart’s own fascination with flowers comes through in every page. She begins the books with the story of how the “Star Gazer” Lily came to be, explaining not only the breeding aspects, but also providing stories of the lives involved in this development. While explaining how different flower species are cultivated, she discusses the different types of flower farms that can be found in places like California, Colombia, Ecuador, and Holland; in each occasion providing plenty of details not only about the farms’ makeup and management, but also issues relating to pesticide use, labor rights, and land stewardship. In some instances she also traces the development of particular farms, or the growth in popularity of particular flowers.
On the more technical and detailed side, the author provides an amazing amount of detail about production, and growth; always in an accessible style. For instance, you might have guessed that flower production in a plant ought to be closely linked to light exposure, but did you know that it is actually the night length that regulates flowering? Or for instance that at an upscale florist a rose can fetch around $5 per stem, while the florist paid between $1.50 and $2 per stem, and if you trace this flower back to the grower, most likely in Colombia or Ecuador, this same rose earned the grower $.30. As for the worker who actually cared for this rose all along, each stem sold represents less than $.04 of their wages.
When discussing sales and marketing Stewart discusses how flower production began to take place further and further away from the point of consumption. Modern developments have allowed this to be the case, but decades ago, before we had all this infrastructure certain entrepreneurs began to think it was possible to grow flowers in a variety of countries around the Equator, for consumption in places like the USA, Europe and Russia. As early as 1969 Thomas Keller and David Cheever began to explore countries with ideal flower growing conditions, such as high altitudes, proximity to the equator, predictable weather patterns, and good airports, Colombia, violence and all, was perfect.
On the business side of things, Stewart discusses both the Latin American flower trade shows as well as the major one in Amsterdam. With sales she also explored the possibilities and complications of producing more environmentally friendly flowers with a product that still has hardly any brand name recognition. She questions how we can start asking for better flowers when once flowers are at the shop, ready for sale, it is nearly impossible to determine where they started out to begin with.
One of the things that I do think it a big gap in the book is the absence of a discussion of women in the flower industry. Stewart briefly mentioned that both in the USA and in countries around the world, women workers have complained about sexual harassment and exploitation while working at flower farms. Still, the author missed a great opportunity to further explore the situation, and the interesting relationship between an industry that in many ways caters to women, but which also has traditionally employed women in exploitative situations (I’m not arguing that this happens on every farms, but it happens much too often anyway). Still, Stewart does address the complicated issues around flower and labor. She discusses how for countries like Colombia and Ecuador, flower production has a bright and dark side. For years now the USA has promoted flower production in a number of Latin American countries as a replacement crop for illegal ones, the incentive being low or no tariffs as they come into the USA market. Flower production is taking over vast amounts of land and in many occasions pushing peasants off the land and into the city where conditions are often worst. Still, when Stewart asked a grower about this situation he pointed out that things are just as complicated when buying USA grown flowers, since in this case you are likely supporting not an “American” worker, but are instead supporting a Mexican, or other Latin American workers who has likely been separated from their family.
Overall it is a fantastic read if you already know something about the flower industry and what to learn more about the details, or if you occasionally buy flowers and had never thought about what flowers go through before they reach you. Stewart will fill you in with all the details in an intelligent, and straight forward manner.
Amy Stewart also has a great website, including an interesting blog.
