Tweets about Online Information 2009 conference

#online09 - Tweets about Online Information 2009 conference online from TwapperKeeper

Newton News Index (USA)

"Newton News Index is an online database of citations for newspaper and magazine articles about Newton, Massachusetts and its citizens. The index allows for searching articles using keywords and returns the publication name, date, and page number where the full article may be located. Most of the articles indexed are from the city's local newspaper the Newton Tab. The coverage begins with publication dates in 1999"

Golden Legacy: Original Art from 65 Years of Golden Books (USA)

"This exhibition will present the most extensive public showing ever of original illustration art from American publishing's best loved and most consequential picture-book series, Little Golden Books - the history-making experiment that celebrated its 65th anniversary in 2007. This exhibition was organized by the National Center for Children's Illustrated Literature, Abilene, TX. Support for this exhibition provided by Random House Children's Books". Until February 28, 2010 - The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. Amherst, MA

Gale and Portico enter into an agreement to preserve Gale Digital Collections

"Gale, part of Cengage Learning, and Portico, part of the not-for-profit organization ITHAKA, have announced an agreement in which Portico will digitally preserve archival versions of a number of the Gale Digital Collections"

Technology Essentials 2010: WebJunction Online Conference - "The theme for this inaugural event is Technology Essentials, with a focus on practical and timely strategies for leveraging technology to help you in a wide range of library services and operations" - February 2, 2010

Directory of Open Access Journals - recently added titles

Acta Universitatis Danubius : Oeconomica

Buletinul Universitatii Petrol Gaze din Ploiesti, Seria Matematica-Informatica-Fizica

Infectious Disease Reports

CIVILIZAR Ciencias Sociales y Humanas

Ingineria Iluminatului

Inter-Ação

Ernstia

Revista de Ciências Agrárias

Revista de la Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias de la Universidad Central de Venezuela

Revista Latinoamericana de Metalurgia y Materiales

Revista Portuguesa e Brasileira de Gestão

CARL E-Lert # 354

CARL E-Lert # 354, December 4, 2009, is now available from Canadian Association of Research Libraries

C&RL News - December 2009

C&RL News Volume 70, No. 11, December 2009 is now available from ACRL

The Sixties: Primary Documents and Personal Narratives 1960–1974 updated

Update from Alexander Street Press - "Our online collection The Sixties has recently been updated with over 9,000 pages from 430 sources. The new content includes issues of several underground newspapers, including AMEX-Canada, Booklegger Magazine, Despite Everything, Fifth Estate, Free Student, The Paper, The Rag, The Partisan, Sanity, and The Vanguard. Also included are materials from the radical right, such as The Truth Seeker and newsletters written by Americans for Conservative Action and American Association for Justice. Newly added materials from the radical left include documents and papers by Students for a Democratic Society and the Black Liberation Movement...."

The Power of the VHS: a BUFVC one-day meeting (UK)

The humble VHS is, rightly, regarded as a disposable commodity and not an archive medium, but the recordings on these cassettes are sometimes unique and irreplaceable. Since 1989 UK Universities and Colleges have created sizeable collections of valuable recordings on VHS. Today however many universities need to reduce storage space and are shifting to other AV carrier media such as DVD or Blu-ray – so what is happening to all those VHS cassettes? This meeting will address these urgent issues and will explore:

• low-cost digitisation and content transfer from VHS
• the creation of a union catalogue for copies of broadcast programmes in educational establishments
• results from the recent BUFVC UK national survey of off-air collections
• proposal for extension of 'shared services' for off-air recording
• online access for programmes retained in educational establishments under licence

The meeting will commence at 10.30 am, 9 December 2009, at BFI Southbank in London and run to no later than 4.00 pm

ccNewsletter #15

ccNewsletter #15 from Creative Commons is now available

Sixth Annual ARL Leadership Symposium (USA)

The Association of Research Libraries will host its Sixth Annual Leadership Symposium for MLIS students on January 16 and 17, 2010, in Boston, MA. The Leadership Symposium curriculum will focus on topics related to the major strategic areas of ARL, as well as transitioning into, and building career networks in, research libraries. The program will include presentations from ARL program officers as well as human resource professionals in ARL member libraries. Registration for this event is open to any MLIS student free of charge

British Library's new £26 million storage facility in Yorkshire – the most advanced in the world

The world's most advanced library storage facility has been officially opened at the British Library's Boston Spa site in West Yorkshire. The Additional Storage Building (ASB) combines a range of cutting-edge technologies to offer 262 kilometres of temperature- and humidity-controlled storage space, and will eventually house approximately 7 million items from the UK national collection. The building was opened by the Minister for Yorkshire and The Humber, Rosie Winterton MP, who welcomed the development of this world-leading facility on the Boston Spa site, near Wetherby, where the British Library has operated its document supply activities for over forty years: Ms Winterton said: "I am very pleased to be opening this new £26million building. This is an exciting development for the British Library and I am delighted that the site at Boston Spa has been chosen as the location for such a nationally significant facility"

The Friday Brain-teaser from Credo Reference

The Friday Brain-teaser from Credo Reference - this week: Sweets for the Sweet. "We think this is rather a sweet idea for a brainteaser. All the clues below lead to a phrase, combination or person's name that includes the word "sweet". So, if the clue was "The point on a tennis racket believed by players to deliver the maximum power to the ball", the answer would be "Sweet spot"." Answers here.

1. A variety of maize with a higher proportion of sugars in the maturing kernels: usually boiled or roasted and eaten directly from the cob.
2. A love for sugary foods.
3. Satisfyingly brief and pertinent.
4. The title of a film melodrama (1957) set in the world of New York journalism, starring Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis.
5. The fleshy root of the plant Ipomoea batatas, of which there are two principal types: the kind erroneously called yam and the Jersey type.
6. Especially in Chinese cookery: cooked in a sauce that includes sugar, vinegar and soy sauce.
7. American fiction series created by Francine Pascal about identical twins, 16-year-olds Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield.
8. Title of a 1986 hit recording by Michael McDonald (the theme song from Running Scared).
9. The name of a British scholar who persuaded the Oxford University Press to publish what became the Oxford English Dictionary. Bernard Shaw used this man as the basis for the character of the phonetician Professor Higgins in Pygmalion.
10. Title of 1959 play by Tennessee Williams about a once-important actress

Community outrage prompts officials to reopen Colton libraries (USA)

"Less than a month after city administrators in Colton, California, abruptly shuttered both public libraries as part of an effort to close a $5-million budget gap, Colton Public Library is back in business. The December 1 reopening of the main library came just two weeks after some 100 area residents, including library board President Pete Carrasco, voiced their displeasure to the City Council about the sudden November 12 closure of the libraries and the dismissal of all 17 library staff members. The city's only branch reopened December 3" - American Libraries

John Llewellyn Rhys Prize 2009 winner - Evie Wyld

"29-year-old Evie Wyld saw off competition from an exceptional shortlist which included the Booker winner Aravind Adiga and Orange Prize winner Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie to win the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize 2009 with her book After the Fire, a Still Small Voice. The novel, which was published to rave reviews in August 2009, is set in eastern Australia and tells a story of fathers and sons, their wars and the things that they will never know about each other. Following the collapse of his marriage, Frank retreats to a small costal community in an attempt to build a new life for himself, away from the horrors of his violent past. Frank's story is set against the struggles of his own father, Leon, who forty years earlier, is forced to depart from life working in his family's suburban cake shop to face horrors of his own in the war in Vietnam. Wyld, who was named one of Granta's New Voices of 2008, received her cheque for GBP5,000 at a ceremony at the Century Club in Piccadilly" Evie Wyld's website

Seeds of Change: The Daily Reflector Image Collection (USA)

"Joyner Library Digital Collections at J.Y. Joyner Library of East Carolina University has announced an all-new digital collection, Seeds of Change: The Daily Reflector Image Collection, exploring the post-war period in eastern North Carolina as recorded by local news photographers. The collection contains more than 7,000 images digitized from the photographic negatives of The Daily Reflector, Greenville's newspaper. The online collection represents just a portion of the 85,000 negatives donated by D. Jordan Whichard III, former Reflector publisher. The majority of the photographs date from 1949 to 1967 and document sweeping changes across Eastern North Carolina - from advances in industry to upheavals in race relations and an increasing awareness of public health concerns"

FreePint Newsletter 291

FreePint Newsletter 291 - 3 December, 2009 now available

SirsiDynix Institute upcoming event

From Libraries to Lifebraries with Helene Blowers - Director of Digital Strategy, Columbus Metropolitan Library (CML) in Columbus, Ohio - December 9, 2009

SPARC Open Access Newsletter, issue #140

SPARC Open Access Newsletter, issue #140 - December 2, 2009 is now available from Peter Suber

Guardian first book award 2009 winner

Petina Gappah's An Elegy for Easterly wins the Guardian first book award 2009

Literary Review's Bad Sex in Fiction Award 2009 winner

Jonathan Littell has won the seventeenth annual Literary Review Bad Sex in Fiction Award, for The Kindly Ones (Chatto & Windus). The prize (a plaster foot) was presented by award-winning actor Charles Dance. It was accepted on Littell's behalf by his editor at Chatto & Windus, Alison Samuel. The awards were announced at a lavish ceremony on 30 November 2009, at the In & Out (Naval & Military) Club in St James's Square, where the 400 guests raised a toast to the winner. The Kindly Ones, originally published in French, won the Prix Goncourt in 2006. It has sold over a million copies in Europe

Librarians' Internet Index - New This Week

Librarians' Internet Index - New This Week - December 3, 2009

Newberry Library Fellowships in the Humanities, 2010-2011 (USA)

"The Newberry Library Fellowships support humanities research in our collections. Our collections are wide-ranging, rich, and sometimes a little eccentric. If you study the humanities, chances are good we have something for you. We promise you remarkable collections; a lively interdisciplinary community of researchers; individual consultations on your research with staff curators, librarians, and scholars; and an array of scholarly and public programs"

Digging into Data winners

Over 85 applications were received for the international Digging into Data Challenge, and the eight winners are listed below:

Structural Analysis of Large Amounts of Music Information

* University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, University of Southampton, McGill University
* SALAMI (Structural Analysis of Large Amounts of Music Information) will gather c.23,000 hours of digitised music with a breathtaking range of styles, regions and time periods: A Capella to Zydeco, Appalachia to Zambia, and Medieval to Post-Modern and develop tools to tag and analyse the underlying structures that underpin global music.

Digging Into the Enlightenment: Mapping the Republic of Letters

* University of Oklahoma, University of Oxford, Stanford University
* Digging into the Enlightenment: Mapping The Republic of Letters will focus on a corpus of 18th-century 53,000 letters, and will extract and interpret details relating to people, places, times, and subjects, and identify new ways of visualising and annotating these relationships.

Data Mining with Criminal Intent

* George Mason University, University of Alberta, University of Hertfordshire
* The Data Mining With Criminal Intent project will create an intellectual exemplar for the role of data mining in an important historical discipline–the history of crime–and illustrate how the tools of digital humanities can be used to wrest new knowledge from one of the largest humanities data sets currently available: the Old Bailey Online.

Towards Dynamic Variorum Editions

* Mount Allison University, Imperial College, London, Tufts University
* Towards Dynamic Variorum Editions will develop a range of tools that allow for dynamic comparison, generation of lexica, identification if topics and extraction quotations over 10,00 Greek and Roman text, that helping continue develop a fundamental resource for classical studies.

Digging into Image Data to Answer Authorship Related Questions

* Michigan State University, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, University of Sheffield
* This project will take three specific resources (manuscripts, maps and quilts) and develop tools to analyse and identify authorship of visual images

Harvesting Speech Datasets for Linguistic Research on the Web

* McGill University, Cornell University
* This project will harvest audio and transcribed data from podcasts, news broadcasts, public and educational lectures and other sources to create a massive corpus of speech. Tools will then be developed to analyse the different uses of prosody (rhythm, stress and intonation) within spoken communication.

Railroads and the Making of Modern America–Tools for Spatio-Temporal Correlation, Analysis, and Visualization

* University of Portsmouth, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
* Railroads and the Making of Modern America will integrate a vast collection of textual, geographical and numerical data to allow for the visual presentation of the railroads over time, concentrating initially on the Great Plains and NE USA

Mining a Year of Speech

* University of Oxford, University of Pennsylvania
* Mining a Year of Speech will create mechanisms to allow for the rapid and flexible access to over 9000 hours of spoken audio files, drawn from some of the leading British and American spoken word corpora

The projects start in 2010 and complete in March 2011

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam - British Library

"Opening on 14 December in the Folio Society Gallery at the British Library, The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam marks the 150th anniversary of Edward FitzGerald's publication of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam - an interpretation of the poetical work attributed to an 11th century Persian mathematician, astronomer and philosopher. The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is one of the best known poems in the world. It has been translated into 85 languages. It is among the most widely illustrated of all literary works, with over 130 known illustrators, and it has also inspired many composers. Since the English translation by Edward FitzGerald (1809-83) was first published 150 years ago, the poem has been continually reissued, with some 2000 new editions and reprints worldwide by 2009. It has also been widely parodiedand used in advertising. This exhibitiontells the unlikely story of a medieval Persian scientist and poet and a Victorian English writer, and the way their verses achieved international acclaim"

ALT Open Access Repository (UK)

"The Association for Learning Technology's Open Access Repository was formally launched at ALT's annual conference ALT-C in September and is now available. The repository represents a long-awaited development in ALT's work and services as it allows users to contribute assets and make them available via the repository. Since it went online the repository has had about 10,000 visitors, browsing, searching for and downloading journal articles, conference presentations, links to webinar recordings and similar content". Subscribe to the RSS Feed

JISC's new three-year strategy (2010–2012) (UK)

Professor Sir Tim O'Shea, JISC Chair, writes: "Whilst the passion and commitment of the sector to delivering high quality, world-class education and research remains unchanged since the publication of JISC's 2007 strategy, the wider financial context within which UK education now operates is markedly different. JISC's new three-year strategy (2010–2012) reflects this changed economic environment. Its focus is on the continued provision of valuable, quality assured resources and computer network capacity to UK colleges and universities. In delivering these services we will seek to develop the capacities and capabilities necessary to maintain the UK's position as a world leader in education and research...."

Search User Interfaces by Marti A. Hearst

Search User Interfaces by Marti A. Hearst is available from Amazon.com and, to make this book available to as many readers as possible, the author, with permission of Cambridge University Press, has placed the full text online free of charge

Internet Librarian International 2010 (England)

Internet Librarian International 2010 will take place 14-15 October 2010 at The Novotel, London, UK - "In recent years, technological change and development within information environments has been breathtaking, but the challenge remains the same: to understand the impact on - and benefits to - your library or information centre"

Digimap 10th birthday event (Scotland)

"EDINA is holding a celebratory event on 20 January 2010 to mark the 10th anniversary of the launch of the Digimap service. Staff associated with the running and support of Digimap are cordially invited to join us in Edinburgh for the occasion. During the day, there will be a range of speakers and demonstrations to showcase the Digimap service past, present and future and in the evening there will be a drinks reception followed by dinner and a guest speaker"

ISBD Area 0: Content Form and Media Type Area

"Area 0: Content Form and Media Type Area is an amendment to the International Standard Bibliographic Description (ISBD). This new area of the bibliographic description takes the place of the general material designation (GMD) in area 1. It is being issued with a set of examples. Area 0 will be incorporated into the consolidated ISBD for its next revision in 2010"

Title Preview from ebrary

"Title Preview from ebrary - Conduct a search to see all of the e-books and other authoritative materials that ebrary offers from leading publishers. Open titles and explore the first few pages, and try our technology such as InfoTools, highlighting, notes, and bookshelves"

Crossroads - December 2009

Crossroads: the newsletter of WebJuntion.org - December 2009 issue is now available

RefSeek introduces document search, definitions, math calculations, and an expanded reference directory

RefSeek introduces document search, definitions, natural language math calculations, and an expanded reference directory. Today's release expands upon RefSeek's core search offering, which returns relevant academic resources from around the Web while filtering out commercial content. Summary of new features:

Document Search
RefSeek's new document search engine is designed specifically for retrieval of non-HTML documents including Adobe PDFs and Microsoft Office files. Indexed documents are freely available and can be previewed without leaving RefSeek's search results page.

Definitions
RefSeek now provides searchers with definitions and synonyms for 150,000 words and phrases. Definitions are displayed alongside search results with links to complete entries at various online dictionaries.

Math Calculations
With the introduction of natural language math calculations, RefSeek users can find instant answers to complex math expressions and perform a broad range of unit conversions. For example, searching for "5 in binary" or "how many feet in a meter" will return a numeric result.

Reference Directory
RefSeek has expanded its Reference Directory, which features only the best online resources. RefSeek's directory includes hundreds of carefully selected reference sites in categories such as almanacs, bookmarking, dictionaries, and encyclopedias

Financial Times Historical Archive 1888-2006

"Financial Times Historical Archive 1888–2006 - This complete online fully-searchable facsimile edition of the FT offers the complete run of the London edition of the paper, from its first issue to the end of 2006. Every individual article, advertisement and market listing is included and shown individually and in the context of the full page and issue of the day. For this online archive every item has been subject or topic categorised to permit fast retrieval and review of relevant articles". Coming in January 2010

DailyLit is now 100% free

DailyLit has announced that any book, story or series featured on DailyLit is being made available for free

2010 ASCLA Century Scholarship funds education for library students with disabilities

"Library and information science students with access needs are encouraged to apply for the 2010 ASCLA Century Scholarship, a one-time $2,500 award funding necessary services or accommodations to enable the winner to complete a master's or doctoral program in the field. The scholarship is an initiative of the Association of Specialized and Cooperative Library Agencies (ASCLA), the Library Service to Special Populations Section (LSSPS) of ASCLA and the Library Service to People with Visual or Physical Disabilities Forum and was established in 2000 through the generosity of an anonymous donor. It fulfills ALA's mission to cultivate a field of library professionals that more accurately reflects the diversity of the communities and populations it serves. All LIS graduate students - including veterans - with disabilities are encouraged to apply"

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation commits $3.4 million to bolster Internet connections for libraries in five U.S. states

"The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has committed nearly $3.4 million in grants to bolster Internet connections for libraries in five states. It also announced partnerships with 14 additional states to help public libraries compete for federal broadband stimulus funds. Nationally, libraries report that patron demand for high-speed Internet access is growing faster than their ability to provide increased bandwidth. A recent American Library Association study reports that 60 percent of all libraries say their current Internet speed is insufficient. State libraries in Arkansas ($735,207), Kansas ($363,099), Massachusetts ($367,789), New York ($947,517), and Virginia ($977,468) received foundation funds to execute statewide plans to improve and maintain Internet connections in local libraries. Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Idaho, Kentucky, Montana, North Carolina, Nebraska, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Utah, Vermont, and Washington will participate in the foundation’s new Opportunity Online broadband grant program, which will help libraries develop proposals for federal broadband stimulus funding from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's (NTIA) Broadband Technology Opportunities Program established through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act"

ACRL partners with HighWire Press

"ACRL has announced a new partnership with HighWire Press, a division of the Stanford University Libraries, to provide online hosting of College & Research Libraries (C&RL), College & Research Libraries News (C&RL News), and RBM: A Journal of Rare Books, Manuscripts, and Cultural Heritage. Choice Reviews Online, the online product of ACRL's Middletown, CT based publishing unit, Choice, will also migrate to HighWire. The move of ACRL's publications from the association Website to the HighWire platform will provide a number of benefits including improved search capabilities both within and across publications, increased Web 2.0 functionality, and online access for individual and institutional non-member subscribers. The HighWire platform will also provide a richer user experience for Choice Reviews Online subscribers. C&RL, C&RL News and RBM will launch on HighWire by the end of 2009 and Choice Reviews Online in 2010"

Canada Reads 2010

"Canada Reads celebrates five Canadian books for three months online, at public events and on air. It all leads up to a week-long show hosted by Jian Ghomeshi. In this annual title fight, five celebrity panelists defend their favourite work of Canadian fiction. One by one, books are voted off the list, until one panelist triumphs with the book for Canada to read this year. The half-hour debates will air on CBC Radio One from March 8-12, 2010, at 11:30 am and 7:30 pm (3:30 pm and 8 pm in Newfoundland). The program will also air on CBC's digital channel bold from March 8 to 12 at 6:00 p.m. ET (7:30 p.m. NT, 3:00 p.m. PT) and on Sirius 137 on the same dates at 6:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. ET; it will also be available online and via podcast". Subscribe to the RSS feed

Irish Times digital archive free until December 14 2009

The Irish Times digital archive, which contains exact reproductions of all articles published by The Irish Times from 1859 onwards, is available free until December 14 2009.
"For much of Easter Week 1916, The Irish Times was the only newspaper on the streets, even though, because of censorship and the breakdown of communications systems, its ability to report on the fighting was extremely limited. Apart from the proclamation of martial law, it filled its pages with "special articles of literary interest and some items of local events." By Saturday May 2nd, however, it was able to carry a headline on "The Sinn Féin Rising: Scenes And Incidents In Dublin Streets" along with a great deal of vivid detail. On Saturday May 13th, the Weekly Irish Times was published as a special triple issue, with extensive details of the fighting, lists of casualties, the names of prisoners sentenced and deported and photographs of the main protagonists. It achieved a "colossal" circulation and became a standard reference work on the history of the Rising"

Internet Resources Newsletter - Issue 178 - December 2009

Internet Resources Newsletter - Issue 178 - December 2009 - edited by Roddy MacLeod, Heriot-Watt University, is now available

Podcast: Transportation to Australia

Over 162,000 British and Irish convicts were transported to Australia between 1787 and 1868. This talk explores the reasons behind the policy of transportation and looks at the experiences of the people who were shipped beyond the seas, using case studies from the archives - UK National Archives

Libres - September 2009

The September 2009 issue of LIBRES, the international refereed electronic journal devoted to new research in Library and Information Science, is now available

Current Cites - November 2009

Current Cites (edited by Roy Tennant) - November 2009 is now available

Libraries Within the Library: The Origins of the British Library's Printed Collections

Libraries Within the Library: The Origins of the British Library's Printed Collections is a new book that that helps to answer one of the most frequently asked questions at the British Library - 'How did the British Library acquire its books?'

Dispersed along the shelves of the British Library today are many volumes that once stood side by side in private libraries. The contributors to Libraries Within the Library explore some of the most important printed collections which were brought together to form the British Museum Library in 1753, casting new light on the individuals whose personal interests and taste they reflect.

Ranging from the library of Henry VIII to Sir Joseph Banks, and from Sir Hans Sloane to George III, this collection of essays also acts as a handbook to provenance within the British Library collections, providing guidance on the interpretation of marks of ownership, stamps, shelfmarks and other forms of evidence to be found in particular copies. Drawing on important new research, it will appeal to anyone interested in the history of collecting and collections

Borders bookshops in the UK go into administration

"The Borders bookshop chain in the UK has gone into administration. Administrators MCR said all 45 Borders and Books Etc stores would remain open while it sought a buyer for all or some of the outlets. Borders has suffered from increased competition from online retailers and supermarkets, and its website recently stopped taking new book orders. MCR said Borders had "severe cash flow pressures" and that several suppliers had stopped or reduced its credit" - BBC

Zakta

"Zakta - personal and social Web search engine where you can find, personalize, share, and discover information from the Internet"

Archives Hub Collections of the Month, December 2009 (UK)

Archives Hub Collections of the Month, December 2009: Christmas at the Co-op - "This month we are celebrating Christmas at the Co-op, showing images of how co-operative societies prepared for the festive season. As well as photographs, there are examples of publications the co-operative movement produced in the run up to Christmas". Archives Hub is also on Twitter

How Dickens invented Christmas (UK)

"Curator Hilary Davidson details how many of the 'traditions' associated with Christmas were first made popular by the works of Charles Dickens. Many people are familiar with 'a Christmas Carol', published in 1845, but did you know that the traditions and celebrations associated with the festival had special personal meanings for the author, which he promoted throughout his life? Discover the ways Dickens' vision of snow, puddings, cheer and goodwill influenced the invention of the Victorian Christmas, and how they still affect us today. - December 12, 2009 - Museum of London

LISTen: The LISNews.org Podcast - Episode #97

LISTen: The LISNews.org Podcast - Episode #97. "This week's episode recognizes that a holiday weekend just passed in the United States so a miscellany of notable news items is presented". Previous Podcasts can be found here

Virginia Beach Public Library Newsletter - November/December 2009 (USA)

The Virginia Beach Public Library Newsletter - November/December 2009 is now available

Phone box has new life as library (UK)

A traditional red phone box has been recycled into one of the country's smallest lending libraries - stocking 100 books. Villagers from Westbury-sub-Mendip in Somerset can use the library around the clock, selecting books, DVDs and CDs. Users simply stock it with a book they have read, swapping it for one they have not. "It's really taken off. The books are constantly changing," said parish councillor Bob Dolby. He added: "It is completely full at the moment with books. Anyone is free to come and take a book and leave one that you have already read. "This facility has turned a piece of street furniture into a community service in constant use." A resident dreamed up the idea when the village lost its phone box and mobile library in quick succession. Westbury-sub-Mendip Parish Council bought the phone box from BT in a national scheme for a token £1 - BBC

But Still They Blog: The Liblog Landscape 2007-2009

"But Still They Blog: The Liblog Landscape 2007-2009, by Walt Crawford, is now available - at a special early-bird price through the end of the ALA 2010 Midwinter Meeting (January 19, 2010 or thereabouts). This 319-page trade paperback provides a sweeping look at liblogs (blogs created by library people but, generally, not blogs that are official library publications), with trends, facts, figures, graphs, and profiles for each of 521 liblogs"

Trailblazing (Royal Society)

"Trailblazing is an interactive timeline for everybody with an interest in science. Compiled by scientists, science communicators and historians - and co-ordinated by Professor Michael Thompson FRS - it celebrates three and a half centuries of scientific endeavour and has been launched to commemorate the Royal Society's 350th anniversary in 2010. Trailblazing is a user-friendly, 'explore-at-your-own-pace', virtual journey through science. It showcases sixty fascinating and inspiring articles selected from an archive of more than 60,000 published by the Royal Society between 1665 and 2010"

British Admiralty Charts of Canadian Waters

"Library and Archives Canada has completed a major project to catalogue and scan its collection of original navigation charts published in London by the Hydrographic Office of the British Admiralty. The 3,400 documents, which cover a 150-year period ending in the mid-20th century, represent the largest historical description of Canada's three major oceans and the inland waters of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River. Many of the charts were prepared from surveys undertaken by the elite of the British navy: Admiral Henry Bayfield, Captain James Cook, Lieutenant George Vancouver, Sir John Franklin and Admiral William Parry. The charts provided mariners with a detailed description of coastal waters, plotted the contours of the ocean floor and located important navigational aids, such as lighthouses, hilltops and rocky outcrops. They played a key role in the development of maritime resources and helped to open Canadian markets to mercantile shipping"

Darwin Manuscripts Project

The Darwin Manuscripts Project is uploading Darwin's original drafts - 10,000 pages worth - into an online archive. The collection includes 34 of the original 36 draft leaves of the book, according to editor David Kohn. "I've sat in the Cambridge University Library since 1974, touching these documents, but this is the first time that anyone can do this online in this quantity and with this quality," Kohn said. The project leaders intend to digitize more manuscripts down the road, and also reconstruct Darwin's library. The Darwin Manuscripts Project is funded by two grants from the National Science Foundation, and a new grant from JISC/NEH Transatlantic Digitization Collaboration program will fund the work to digitally reconstruct Darwin's working library as it stood at the time of his death in 1882

Directory of Open Access Journals - recently added titles

Journal of Physical Mathematics

Nonpartisan Education Review

Análise Social

Ciência & Tecnologia dos Materiais

Etnográfica

Jornal Português de Gastrenterologia

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