Explore libraries, pubs and historic sites of Ireland with ASCLA in 2012

The trip will run October 4-12, 2012 and will include hotels and transportation to Dublin, Kilkenny, Cork, Cobh and Killarney; four dinners; tours of the National Library and the Killarney Library, Trinity College and the Book of Kells, Powerscourt Gardens, Kilkenny and Blarney Castles and the Ring of Kerry. Participants will also tour Waterford Crystal, visit the heritage center in Cobh to learn more about important Irish historical events such as the mass migration of Irish to America and throw back a pint at a pub established in 1703. Participants are responsible for their own airfare

National Library Workers Day 2012 (USA)

Since 2003, National Library Workers Day has been celebrated on the Tuesday of National Library Week. The day recognizes the contributions of all library workers, including librarians, support staff and others who make library services possible. This year National Library Workers Day is April 10

Vaizey resign, say library campaigners (UK)

Library campaigners and Unison have called for Ed Vaizey to step down from his position as minister for culture, communications and creative industries after failing to take a strong stance over the issue of library closures

Classical Music in Video from Alexander Street Press

Classical Music in Video will contain 1,000 hours of classical music performances and masterclasses captured on video - approximately 1,500 performances in all. The collection will contain performances of all forms of classical music, including major orchestral performances by leading orchestras, plus chamber music, oratorio, and solo performances, along with masterclasses and interviews with master teachers from around the world. This release contains 435 video titles totaling 219 hours

UK mag the Spectator announces a 190-year online archive, and refreshes its iOS app

UK magazine The Spectator has made a number of new announcements relating to its digital offering, including a new iOS app and a pretty extensive online archive which is due to launch in the spring

Banipal available via Exact Editions

Banipal is an ever-open window on contemporary Arab literature. Since 1998, its three issues a year have presented fiction, poetry and interviews by established and emerging Arab authors and poets in English translation, most for the first time. Each issue also contains book reviews and features Guest Literature from a non-Arab country. Banipal is renowned for its dedication to bringing the works of Arab authors onto the global arena through English translation and is still the only publication of its kind. With the digital edition we're offering readers all over the world the chance to read the magazine on their computers, ipads or iphones, wherever they are

1,596 new maps and images added to the David Rumsey Map Collection

1,596 new maps and images have been added to the David Rumsey Map Collection, bringing the online collection to 30,599 maps and images. Included in this addition is Bowles' 1733 Geography Epitomiz'd, an early example of information visualization; Abraham Bradley's 1805 Post Road Map of the United States; Aaron Arrowsmith's General Atlas of 1817; a group of U.S. Mexican War broadsides and maps; Mitchell's 1855 Universal Atlas; a group of 214 individual maps, charts, broadsides, ephemera, and manuscript maps, several of which are listed separately below; Sonnenschein and Allen's 1880 3D Royal Relief Atlas; Erwin Raisz' 1944 Atlas of Global Geography and 1964 Atlas of Florida; and Richard Harrison's important 1944 Fortune Atlas for World Strategy

JISC Historic Books

JISC Collections has purchased a range of historic book archives for perpetual access by member institutions. Currently, these archives must be separately accessed, searched and browsed on a range of platforms, and are subject to an annual access fee. JISC Historic Books contains the full text or page images of over 350,000 books published in Britain from 1475 to 1900. The service draws together content from two of the best-known and long established early book collections

CRL posts ILL video tutorial

CRL recently released a short video on how to borrow from CRL for interlibrary loan librarians. During this six-minute tutorial, Kevin Wilks, Head of Access Services, also discusses digital collections, terms of access, searching CRL's online catalog, and member programs such as Demand Purchase

Talks continue to avert Toronto Public Library shutdown (Canada)

The Toronto Public Library and its workers' union are allowing themselves until at least noon on Sunday to reach a settlement. A 12:01 a.m. Sunday strike or lockout deadline has come and gone and the parties are still at the table. The deadline was initially extended until 6 a.m., and then noon

The War of 1812 at Library and Archives Canada

The 200th anniversary of the War of 1812 is a unique opportunity for all Canadians to take pride in our traditions, and our shared history. The Government of Canada recognizes the War of 1812 as a defining moment in the history of our nation and has big plans to commemorate this event of national and international significance. This commemoration is just one of the many events that are bringing Canadians together and will continue to link us in the years to come. Library and Archives Canada holds a unique and vast collection of records about the Canadian men and women who were involved in the War of 1812. Muster rolls, paylists, claims, certificates of service, medal registers, maps, paintings, and published sources are featured in LAC holdings that document this key event. To commemorate the bicentennial of the War of 1812, LAC is unveiling a series of projects about this important chapter in Canadian history

Podcast: Our ancestors and the fear of the Victorian workhouse (UK)

In 1834 the British government introduced the Poor Law Amendment Act (the introduction of the 'Workhouse System'). This was one of the most important pieces of 19th century social legislation and it touched the lives of millions of ordinary men, women and children. It was designed as both a national system of welfare for the poor, while at the same time providing a mechanism to deter all but the most impoverished. This talk concentrates on key aspects of the poor law as well as the sources which:
a) track individual paupers within the system, and
b) illustrate the conditions in which paupers lived.

Dr Paul Carter is the Principal Records Specialist for Domestic Records within the Advice and Records Knowledge Department here at The National Archives. He is also currently a research fellow at the University of Nottingham looking at 19th century poverty. He has provided numerous talks and written extensively for local, family and academic history audiences interested in poverty during the Victorian period. This talk was sponsored by the Friends of The National Archives

Journal of Nutritional Science launched

Journal of Nutritional Science is an international, peer-reviewed, online only, open access journal that welcomes high-quality research articles in all aspects of nutrition. The underlying aim of all work should be, as far as possible, to develop nutritional concepts. JNS encompasses the full spectrum of nutritional science including public health nutrition, epidemiology, dietary surveys, nutritional requirements, metabolic studies, body composition, energetics, appetite, obesity, ageing, endocrinology, immunology, neuroscience, microbiology, genetics and molecular and cell biology

National Library of ireland seeks WWI memorabilia

The National Library of Ireland is holding an 'Antiques Roadshow'-type event looking for World War One memorabilia to form part of a European living history project. Around 200,000 Irish men fought in the first World War and many of their stories are long forgotten, however the National Library of Ireland hopes to find and record as many of them as it can. It is part of attempts by the European Digital Library to build the first-ever online archive of World War One personal memorabilia. As part of its contribution the National Library is looking for all sorts of memorabilia that people may have stored in their homes dating back to World War One. It wants anything of a personal nature and is especially interested in letters, photographs, pocket books, diaries, bibles, medals and uniforms. The National Library will be accepting relevant memorabilia on Wednesday 21 March from 10am to 7pm

Issue 3 of OCLC Research Quarterly Highlights now available

This periodic bulletin gathers items from the previous quarter of work in OCLC Research, the OCLC Innovation Lab, and the OCLC Research Library Partnership. Issue 3 covers the period October–December 2011. Highlights include:

* Lorcan Dempsey on the three roles of OCLC Research
* Senior Research Scientist Ed O'Neill on the FAST schema, authority file, and related services
* 3 other featured prototypes
* 7 publications released during the quarter
* A recap of OCLC Research News, Events, Webcasts, and Presentations
* The six themes of our Shared Work Agenda, with a featured activity from each

San Juan Island Library, Union County Public Library among latest to join OCLC WorldShare Management Services community

Public libraries in the U.S. are working with the OCLC cooperative to help make OCLC WorldShare Management Services the 21st-century solution for library management. San Juan Island Library, Friday Harbor, Washington, and Union County Public Library, North Carolina, have recently selected OCLC WorldShare Management Services as their Web-based cooperative library management solution

SCOLMA 50th Anniversary Conference 2012 (UK)

SCOLMA, the UK Library and Archives Group on Africa, is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a two-day conference - Dis/connects: African Studies in the Digital Age - 25–26 June, Rothermere American Institute, Oxford, UK

LIANZA Conference 2012

LIANZA Conference 2012 - 23-26 September 2012 - Palmerston North, New Zealand. Ipukarea - Celebrate, Sustain, Transform is the theme of the 2012 LIANZA conference. Ipukarea refers to the ancestral homeland, a significant land or water feature which relates to identity and source of livelihood. It is a place that represents our history, a place to which we have an emotional attachment, and a place where we go to be rejuvenated

Information Research - March 2012

Information Research - Volume 17 No 1 - March 2012 is now available from Publisher/Editor in Chief, Professor Tom Wilson

EBSCO Publishing and NoveList introduce LibraryAware and the LibraryAware Community Award

EBSCO Publishing and the creators of the readers' advisory service, NoveList® introduce LibraryAware™, a product that will revolutionize the way libraries promote their programs and services. LibraryAware will be available during 2012. In addition, NoveList is also celebrating communities that are "LibraryAware" with the LibraryAware Community Award, co-sponsored by industry trade magazine, Library Journal

Charles Dickens' Gad's Hill Place in Kent will open to the general public for the first time this summer

The last home of Charles Dickens, Gad's Hill Place in Kent, a private property that his passionate fans besieged in his lifetime and ever since, will open to the general public for the first time this summer. Gad's Hill was the house near Rochester that Dickens first saw and coveted when he was a child, bought for £1,700 in 1856 when he was the world's most famous novelist, and where he died on a sofa in the dining room on 9 June 1870. The month-long public opening is a trial run for an ambitious plan to transform the house into a permanent museum. The house has been a school since the 1920s, and news of the opening, with original contents returning for the first time since they were scattered at auction after Dickens's death, is expected to attract fans from all over the world. Since 1870 it has only been open for occasional groups and special events

Scale of library cut-backs revealed (UK)

More than 2,000 library staff have lost their jobs in the last year as local authorities have cut services, while shorter opening hours have reduced public access to libraries by 3,000 hours a week, a report has found

Call for proposals: London Seminar in Digital Text and Scholarship 2012-13

The London Seminar in Digital Text and Scholarship, held monthly at Senate House, Bloomsbury, focuses on the ways in which the digital medium remakes the relationship of readers, writers, scholars, technical practitioners and designers to the manuscript and printed book. Its discussions are intended to inform public debate and policy as well as to stimulate research and provide a broad forum in which to present its results. Although the forum is primarily for those working in textual and literary studies, history of the book, digital humanities and related fields, its mandate is to address and involve an audience of non-specialists. Wherever possible the issues it raises are meant to engage all those who are interested in a digital future for the book and the book in a digital future. Proposals for seminars are invited for the 2012-13 academic year, from October through April