Chorlton Book Festival line-up announced (UK)

The line-up for the Chorlton Book Festival, November 9-21, has been announced

Pittsburgh and Beyond: The Experience of the Jewish Community

The NCJW Oral History Project provides a compelling insight into the growth of an important American Jewish community and the contributions made by the people interviewed. Over a span of 32 years, the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW), Pittsburgh Section, conducted more than 500 oral history interviews focused on the Jewish community – the history, the traditions, the contributions – of its members. The hundreds of interviews and thousands of hours of audiotape accumulated by a surprisingly small group of dedicated volunteers are an invaluable resource. The interviews provide windows into the Jewish community's impact on academic, business, civic, cultural, medical, political, religious, and social evolution and development in Pittsburgh, as well as national and international events. The audiocassette tapes have now been digitized and mounted online for the broadest possible dissemination by the Archives Service Center at the University of Pittsburgh, the repository for the NCJW Oral History Collection.

Webinar: Hurricane Preparedness and Response

"Registration is climbing for the upcoming October 21 webinar showcasing a new web resource from Florida State University's Information Institute. The development and implementation of the project Hurricane Preparedness & Response for Florida Public Libraries demonstrates the exemplary outcomes possible when libraries and communities collaborate to provide comprehensive and up to date information. Many of the resources apply beyond hurricane preparedness and can inform your library's disaster preparedness plan and help position your library to play an important role in community preparedness and recovery"

The Friday Brain-teaser from Credo Reference

The Friday Brain-teaser from Credo Reference - this week: Animals in books. Answers here.

1.What kind of animal was "Black Beauty" in the book with that title by Anna Sewell?
2. What kind of animal was Tarka in a 1927 book by Henry Williamson?
3. Complete this title from Rudyard Kipling's "Just So Stories": "How the...Got His Hump".
4. What kind of animal was Babar in picturebooks created in the 1930s by Jean de Brunhoff?
5. Richard Adams's 1972 novel "Watership Down" is about a community of which animals who set out in search of a new home?
6. What kind of animal is Kipper in stories by Mick Inkpen?
7. Which animal is named in the alternative title of Ben Jonson's play "Volpone"?
8. What kind of animal was Archy in Don Marquis's stories about Archy and Mehitabel?
9. In George Orwell's "Animal Farm", what was the name of the noble carthorse who was sent to the knacker's yard?
10. Fill the gap in the title of this story by Mark Twain: "The Celebrated Jumping...of Calaveras County"

SkyRiver has arrived

"SkyRiver today publicly announces the launch of its new bibliographic utility service. Already in use in both public and academic libraries, SkyRiver provides a clear, low-cost alternative for cooperative cataloging. SkyRiver connects libraries with bibliographic metadata by dropping barriers and offering unlimited access to the SkyRiver database, unlimited record requesting, unlimited user licenses and data transfer. Best yet, SkyRiver's development partners are projecting significant savings compared to their current spending for similar cataloging services." - RSS Feed

Vincent van Gogh The Letters

In honor of the publication of a new compendium of all the artist's known correspondence, the Van Gogh Museum has put more than 100 personal letters in which he discusses his craft on display alongside the actual paintings. The book and Web site were published on October 6; the museum exhibition opens October 9, 2009 and runs through January 3, 2010

Textile Forum Magazine via Exact Editions

Textile Forum Magazine reports quarterly on art, crafts and design, preservation of cultural heritage and themes relating to education and research. TF is published in English and German in two parallel editions. In the trial issue, available at Exact Editions, Beatrijs Sterk & Dietmar Laue make A late discovery in The German Leather Museum in Offenbach; Karin Thönnissen explores three textile and fashion exhibitions in France; and Knit or Die, Freddie Robins investigates the new knitting revolution from a London perspective

Bowling Green, Kentucky Seen Through the Eyes of Leon Garrett

The Kentucky Library & Museum has launched a new web page titled Bowling Green, Kentucky Seen Through the Eyes of Leon Garrett. The page features images of downtown Bowling Green, the city's industrial and transportation sites, and Western Kentucky University's buildings and landscapes. Leon Garrett, a long-time resident of Bowling Green, made these images between 1948 and 1951. They are truly 'snapshots' of a particular era in Bowling Green's history, complete with contemporary automobiles and fashions. The web page includes 137 slides selected from Garrett's extensive collection. Garrett brought the slides to the Kentucky Library & Museum as the result of the 'Warren County Sights and Sounds' exhibit held at the museum in 2008

JISC Collections acquires licensing firm Content Complete

"JISC Collections, the organisation which manages the acquisition and provision of digital resources for universities and colleges in the UK, will complete the acquisition of six-year old, Oxfordshire-based licensing and negotiations company Content Complete in January 2010. Since its inception, Content Complete has worked as JISC Collections' negotiation agent for NESLi2, the online journal initiative for the higher education and research communities delivering significant savings as a result of this focused and centralised approach. It has also worked with the organisation on various projects and activities such as archiving, usage data, online journal business models and e-textbooks"

Kettering University Library on Facebook

Kettering University Library of Flint, Michigan, USA, has a presence on Facebook

Library 2.0 Gang 10/09: Can the Open Source ILS Business Scale?

"The current landscape for open source library systems could be characterised as a hand full of companies, often populated by open source enthusiasts and evangelists, with a handful of staff supporting a couple of handfuls of contracts with libraries to install/enhance/support either a Koha or Evergreen system. The largest and most well known player in the sector being LibLime who say that they have 'helped hundreds of libraries around the globe upgrade to open source'"

Video: The Cambridge Library Collection - books of enduring scholarly value

Benefiting from a unique collaboration between the worlds oldest publisher and the renowned Cambridge University Library, the Cambridge Library Collection makes accessible in new ways important historical works from the Librarys collections. The combination of state-of-the-art scanning technology and the Presss commitment to quality gives todays readers access to the content of books that until now would have been available only in libraries:

Government librarians tap social media to stay relevant (Canada)

"Librarians with the Ontario public service are breaking stereotypes and embracing social media to deliver information within their departments and beyond. Librarians at the Legislative Assembly and the Fire Marshall's Office are using RSS feeds and Twitter to stay relevant":

Georgia Institute of Technology Library receives IMLS grant to create statewide digital repository

The Institute of Museum and Library Services has awarded $857,005 to the Georgia Institute of Technology Library and Information Center for the project, The GALILEO Knowledge Repository (GKR): Advancing the Access and Management of Scholarly Digital Content

100 must-read blog posts on the future of learning

100 must-read blog posts on the future of learning as compiled by Online School

Oregon libraries send 1,000 boxes of books to libraries in China

"Libraries in Oregon's sister province of Fujian, China, will be receiving 1,000 boxes of surplus library books, a gift from Oregon libraries, organizations and individuals. Since the first of the year the State Library has worked with the International Relations Round Table of the Oregon Library Association to collect surplus books that have been discarded from Oregon library collections. On October 15th, beginning at noon, 15 members of the Oregon National Guard will assist with the project by taking the books from the basement of the State Library and loading them into a 40 foot ocean-going container that will be shipped to Xiamen in Fujian province in the next few weeks" - Portlander

Harrassowitz E-Stats for Libraries

"Harrassowitz E-stats service harvests your library's COUNTER usage statistics from publishers' websites and consolidates them into a single COUNTER-style report and, most significantly, adds acquisitions information, including cost, for each subscription managed by Harrassowitz"

Video: Hilary Mantel on winning the 2009 Man Booker Prize

2009 Man Booker Prize winner Hilary Mantel talks about her novel Wolf Hall and what the accolade means to her personally

Mal Peet wins 2009 Guardian children's fiction prize

A modern retelling of Othello, in which the Moor of Venice and his wife Desdemona are transformed into the South American equivalent of Posh and Becks, has won this year's Guardian children's fiction prize. Mal Peet's Exposure beat authors including Terry Pratchett to win the GBP1,500 prize. "It feels absolutely great – I've always had my eye on the Guardian prize but it's always evaded me," said Peet. "My books have never even made the shortlist before, and I'd always sit at home gnashing my teeth and tearing my hair."

Dialog program supports unemployed librarians

"Dialog is coming to the aid of those information professionals who have lost their jobs in the economic downturn. The company is waiving standard Dialog start-up and service fees, offering free Dialindex and throwing in a 10% discount on Dialog usage to librarians and information professionals who have recently been laid off. The aim of the program is to help these professionals use Dialog's powerful resources do their job search, retain and develop their search skills and even do some independent consulting while they look for full employment. Free access and discounts can be used for up to 12 months"

Open Journal Systems 2.3 released

"The PKP Development Team has announced the release of OJS 2.3.0. OJS 2.3.0 introduces a major rewrite of core aspects of PKP applications that reconciles common code (e.g. shared between OJS, OCS, and the Harvester) into a separate library called the PKP Web Application Library (WAL). Many parts of the system have been changed in a way that is transparent to users but that will vastly improve maintainability and the ease with which PKP can deploy fixes and new features across multiple applications. Wherever possible, this has been done in a way that minimizes code breakage e.g. for modified installs of OJS and custom plugins"

Update: American History in Video - free trial now ends November 15, 2009

"American History in Video, from Alexander Street Press, provides the largest and richest collection of video available online for the study of American history, with 2,000 hours and more than 5,000 titles on completion. The collection allows students and researchers to analyze historical events, and the presentation of historical events over time, through commercial and governmental newsreels, archival footage, public affairs footage, and important documentaries. This release includes over 1260 titles, equaling approximately 420 hours" - Free trial now ends November 15, 2009

Archivists' Toolkit Version 2.0 released

"The Archivists' Toolkit is the first open source archival data management system to provide broad, integrated support for the management of archives. It is intended for a wide range of archival repositories. The main goals of the AT are to support archival processing and production of access instruments, promote data standardization, promote efficiency, and lower training costs" - Version 2.0 now available

Access 2009 presentations now available

Presentations given at Access 2009 in Charlottetown, PEI, Canada, are now available

FreePint Newsletter 287

FreePint Newsletter 287 - 8 October, 2009 now available

3,000 AIDS posters catalogued (UK)

"A project to catalogue and digitise the Wellcome Library's collection of 3,000 international AIDS posters has just been completed. Forming one of the fourth largest collections in the world, almost all the posters were acquired from a single collector based in Amsterdam. They derive from 99 countries and include a staggering 75 different languages. The two largest collections come from the USA and Germany. Posters from the latter country proved also to be the most graphic"

Don Paterson wins the Forward poetry prize (UK)

Don Paterson wins the Forward poetry prize for best collection with 'Rain'

AcaWiki

AcaWiki is like "Wikipedia for academic research" designed to increase the impact of scholars, students, and bloggers by enabling them to share summaries and discuss academic papers online. AcaWiki turns research hidden in academic journals into something more dynamic and accessible. All content on the site is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution license

The 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature

Romanian-born German writer Herta Mueller has the won the 2009 Nobel Prize in literature. The Swedish Academy, which has picked the winner annually since 1901, said Thursday that Mueller "who with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed." The prize includes a 10 million kronor ($1.4 million) prize and will be handed out December 10 in the Swedish capital

National Poetry Day 2009 (UK)

"This year National Poetry Day falls on Thursday October 8th, and our theme is Heroes and Heroines. Poetry celebrates heroes of all sorts from sporting heroes to mums and dads."

Crossroads - October 2009

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

Emerald Literati Network extends Awards for Excellence to books

Emerald Group Publishing has announced that it will be extending its existing Literati Network Awards for Excellence for 2010 to cover books in addition to journals

IMLS names University of Denver and the Denver Art Museum as host of 2010/2011 WebWise Conferences

"The Institute of Museum and Library Services has selected the University of Denver and the Denver Art Museum to plan and co-host the 2010 and 2011 WebWise Conferences on Libraries and Museums in the Digital World. The next WebWise conference will take place in Denver, March 3-5, 2010, and will focus on the theme Imagining the Digital Future. Online registration for all events will be available through the IMLS Web site in early December"

Reading Detectives (UK)

"Reading Detectives is part of the Made in England project. Reading Detective Teams, working from their local library in Cumbria, Derbyshire, Hampshire, Lancashire and Kent, are on a mission to find undiscovered and forgotten writers writing about the local area and the people who live there. Each Team will be blogging and mapping their finds to celebrate and promote to others the writers they have found. There'll also be displays of each Team's finds and events in their local libraries"

The Forum Network (USA)

"The Forum Network is a PBS and NPR public media service in collaboration with public stations and community partners across the United States. Through an expanding network of local public stations producing content with their community partners, we intend to bring a diverse range of perspectives on both local and global issues to audiences around the world. The Forum Network online library features thousands of lectures by some of the world's foremost scholars, authors, artists, scientists, policy makers and community leaders, available to citizens of the world for free. The Forum Network collaborates with hundreds of community partners in cities across the US, including libraries, museums, academic institutes, public lecture forums, public policy think tanks, cultural councils, and various other community organizations"

Updike papers acquired by Houghton Library, Harvard University

"Harvard University has acquired a massive treasure trove of papers from one of its most famous literary graduates, John Updike '54, the multifaceted novelist, short-story writer, poet, and critic who died last January. Manuscripts, books, photographs, correspondence, artwork, and other papers are contained in the vast John Updike Archive, making it the definitive collection of Updike material, said Leslie Morris, curator of modern books and manuscripts at Harvard's Houghton Library, which acquired the collection. Houghton is Harvard's primary repository for rare books and manuscripts. The acquisition means the library will become the center for studies on the author's life and work. 'Many scholars would argue that John Updike is one of, if not the, novelist of the late 20th century,' Morris said. 'No one can really write about the American novel without taking Updike into consideration.' Harvard University President Drew Faust praised the library's acquisition

UK Colonial Registers & Royal Navy logbooks (CORRAL)

"UK Colonial Registers & Royal Navy logbooks (CORRAL), a project that helps address the growing need for reliable climatic data to help researchers in climate change, has been launched. This collaborative project between the MET Office, The National Archives, the British Climatological Data Centre and University of Sunderland is making historical Navy logbooks openly available online for anyone to access. Containing a wealth of rich weather observations and climatic data, these logbooks offer climate scientists an astonishingly good record of climate data that can help inform climate studies today"

Amazon launches Kindle book reader worldwide

"Amazon boss Jeff Bezos has said the Kindle will be available worldwide on October 19, selling through the company's American website and shipping to the UK for $279 (£175) - although import duties will push the price up to around £200. Although customers will have to order from the United States for the time being, Bezos said in a note to British customers on Amazon.co.uk that the gadget would eventually be sold through the company's British outlet"

Booker prize goes to Hilary Mantel for Wolf Hall

"She was the bookies' favourite, the people's favourite and tonight Hilary Mantel became the judges' favourite as Wolf Hall, her vividly told tale of Tudor intrigue, emerged triumphant at the Man Booker prize" - Guardian

October 2009 Early Reviewer Books at LibraryThing

The October 2009 batch of Early Reviewer books is now available at LibraryThing. There are 1590 copies of 55 books available this month

Nature Medicine celebrates 15th anniversary with expanded content and editorial team

"In 2010 Nature Medicine will celebrate 15 years as the leading translational research journal. To mark this anniversary, Nature Medicine will expand its content by 25% and increase its editorial team. From January 2010 Nature Medicine will publish more news, reviews, and research articles. Readers and library customers can enjoy 25% more content in the journal, with no commensurate price increases. At the same time, Nature Medicine will increase the number of professional editors that evaluate manuscripts. Nature Medicine will have expert editors devoted to evaluating manuscripts in most areas of biomedicine: cancer biology, cardiovascular research, metabolism, general physiology, autoimmunity and immunology, infectious diseases and neuroscience. Three new editors are currently being recruited"

The Johns Hopkins University Sheridan Libraries awarded $20 million grant

The Johns Hopkins University Sheridan Libraries have been awarded $20 million from the National Science Foundation to build a data research infrastructure for the management of the ever-increasing amounts of digital information created for teaching and research. The five-year award, announced this week, was one of two for what is being called 'data curation.' The project, known as the Data Conservancy, involves individuals from several institutions, with Johns Hopkins University serving as the lead and Sayeed Choudhury, Hodson Director of the Digital Research and Curation Center and associate dean of university libraries, as the principal investigator. In addition, seven Johns Hopkins faculty members are associated with the Data Conservancy, including School of Arts and Sciences professors Alexander Szalay, Bruce Marsh, and Katalin Szlavecz; School of Engineering professors Randal Burns, Charles Meneveau, and Andreas Terzis; and School of Medicine professor Jef Boeke. The Hopkins-led project is part of a larger $100 million NSF effort to ensure preservation and curation of engineering and science data.

Podcast: Civilian honours and awards

"The London Gazette is a crucial source for announcements of military and civilian honours and awards. This talk explains how to use and get the best out of the Gazette, and how further information about awards can be found among the records held by The UK National Archives, many of which are now available online"

LISTen: The LISNews.org Podcast - Episode #89

LISTen: The LISNews.org Podcast - Episode #89. "The big networks have contingency plans with alternate studios. When ABC cannot produce evening news in New York, a back up is available in London. When our eastern US operating site isn't able to act, our western US site can sometimes take action. Through a great degree of improvisation this week's podcast was presented by our western engineer, Mike Kellat...". Previous Podcasts can be found here

2009 Thurber Prize for American Humor winner

"Ian Frazier, winner of the first Thurber Prize for American Humor in 1997, repeated the accomplishment tonight in New York. He won the 2009 Thurber Prize for American Humor, presented by the Thurber House in New York's Algonquin Hotel, becoming the first dual winner. Frazier won for his book, Lamentations of the Father, a collection of essays in which he uses the language of Deuteronomy to share a harried dad's code of conduct for his young children, covering topics such as quiet time and sippy cups. Frazier is the author of nine books and a frequent contributor to The New Yorker. His Coyote vs. Acme won the Thurber Prize in 1997"

Writers Retreat Competition (UK)

West Dean and Myriad Editions have announced the launch of a new competition for writers. The winner will be entitled to a one week writing retreat, with full board, at West Dean College, situated in an area of outstanding natural beauty six miles north of Chichester, South East England. The winning entry will be an extract from a work in progress - novel, collection of short stories or script - and will be chosen purely on the strength and promise of the writing by a panel of expert judges:

* Sue Eckstein, author of The Cloths of Heaven and BBC Radio playwright
* Greg Mosse, writer and tutor of creative writing courses at West Dean
* Hannah Westland, literary agent at Rogers, Coleridge & White
* Ed Wood, editor of Waterstone’s Books Quarterly magazine
* Vicky Blunden, Fiction Editor, Myriad Editions

The prize is designed to allow the winner the chance to write undisturbed in the luxurious surroundings of West Dean. He or she will also have the chance to discuss their work with Myriad’s Fiction Editor Vicky Blunden. The shortlist will be announced in May 2010 at the Brighton Festival.

Dan Brown pirate copies rife on the internet

"More than 160 pirate copies of Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol have been traced online, across 12 different download sites. Attributor, a California-based company that offers publishers antipiracy services, did a search last week to see how many e-book copies of The Lost Symbol were available free on the web. According to the research, some of which was shared with The Bookseller and the New York Times, the largest culprit was online filesharer Rapidshare.com which had 102 pirated copies available online" - The Bookseller

Library of Congress Digital Preservation Newsletter - October 2009

The October 2009 issue of the Library of Congress Digital Preservation Newsletter is now available

Knight Commission says libraries crucial to democracy; foundation offers $3.1M in grants

The Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy, which concluded that America's communities need a free flow of useful information, has set out 15 recommendations, including universal broadband, increased support for public service media, more open public records, digital and media literacy as critical to education, and the need to fund libraries and other community institutions for computer access and teaching digital literacy. In response, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, supporter of the commission, has offered $3.1 million in grants to help library users in 13 communities. Notably, the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County, NC, will use $804,100 to supplement private and public funding to create a new 7500 square foot Job Help Center at the Main Library. - Library Journal

Nobel prize winning research free download from NPG

The first Nobel of the 2009 season has gone to Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider and Jack Szostak. They share the prize equally for "the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase"

New library catalogue at Shakespeare's Globe (UK)

Shakespeare's Globe is introducing a new catalogue for its library that will facilitate easier use of its collection. The library supports Globe Education's research activity, while also serving outside scholars and researchers and actors during the Globe's Theatre season. The catalogue, Ariel, an Access-It web-based library system, will allow the library to manage collections of books, serials, electronic documents and multimedia

First Monday - October 2009

First Monday - Volume 14, Number 10, 5 October 2009 now available

Scottish Book Trust Online Writer in Residence

Scottish Book Trust has announced Catherine Forde as its new virtual writer in residence, following Keith Gray's residency last year

UK School Librarian of the Year 2009 winner

"Lucy Bakewell of Hill West Primary School in Sutton Coldfield was announced as The School Librarian of the Year 2009, and presented with her award by Anne Cassidy, award-winning author of Looking for JJ. Ginette Doyle, Chair of the judging panel, who had visited many librarians around the UK shortlisted from those nominated by their colleagues this year, said: 'Primary schools are vital in inspiring children to read and reading is so important in the development of children, expanding their imagination, their knowledge, their vocabulary. They also are the places where children begin to learn to learn, where information skills are first taught, creating individuals competent in finding information. Few primary schools can afford to have a librarian and many rely on dedicated individuals, such as Lucy to run their libraries. Lucy inspires her pupils to love books and reading and she inspires the adults around her. Hill West School is an example of a marvellous school where reading and books are central to learning, much of which is down to Lucy. We feel that it is really important to raise the profile of good primary school library practice, to demonstrate that with the right person in place wonderful things can be achieved.'"

YouTube EDU expands

"YouTube EDU now includes universities from the UK, France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Russia, and Israel. Cambridge University, Open University, Bocconi University and Open University of Catalonia are among the 45 new additions who've opened their doors to a global audience of students, teachers, alumni, and self-learners"

C&RL News - October 2009

C&RL News Volume 70, No. 9, October 2009 is now available from ACRL

ALPSP Seminar: The Future of Academic Book Publishing

"This ALPSP one-day seminar provides a unique opportunity to consider both the present situation facing academic and scholarly publishers of all shapes and sizes, but also the likely direction for the business of academic book publishing in the immediate future - 18 March 2010 - London, UK

lichfield literature (UK)

lichfield literature is Lichfield Festival's autumnal celebration of the written and spoken word - 8-11 October 2009 - Lichfield, Staffordshire, UK

New York Public Library and Kirtas Technologies partner to make 500,000 public-domain books available to the world

"Readers and researchers looking for hard-to-find books now have the opportunity to dip into the collections of one of the world's most comprehensive libraries to purchase digitized copies of public domain titles. Through their Digitize-on-Demand program, Kirtas Technologies has partnered with The New York Public Library to make 500,000 public domain works from the Library's collections available (to anyone in the world)"

E-book Collections, SPEC Kit 313

The Association of Research Libraries has published E-book Collections, SPEC Kit 313, which examines the current use of e-books in ARL member libraries; their plans for implementing, increasing, or decreasing access to e-books; purchasing, cataloging, and collection management issues; and issues in marketing to and in usage by library clientele

ProQuest Public Health

"ProQuest Public Health is a new and unique database; designed to be the ideal starting point for public health information and research. It delivers core public health literature with centralized access to over 800 publications with over 500 in full-text. With journals, news, trade publications, reports and more, ProQuest Public Health covers a wide variety of disciplines ranging from social sciences and biological sciences to business. Journal results are indexed from core literature collected from a variety of publishers using appropriate public-health terminology"

Information Today - October 2009 issues

The October 2009 issues of Computers in Libraries, Information Today, and Searcher, are now available

Hofstra University receives $175,000 grant from the NEH for innovative electronic library dedicated to the study of Herman Melville

Dr. John Bryant, a Hofstra University professor of English since 1986, has received a grant for $175,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities ( NEH ) over the next two years. The award is the largest humanities grant in Hofstra's history and will be used to launch the Melville Electronic Library ( MEL ), a digital "critical archive" of the works of Herman Melville. MEL will become the primary online site for Melville research. Users of MEL, including scholars, critics, students, and general readers, will have unprecedented access to a searchable collection of interlinked versions of Melville's manuscripts, print texts, sources, art works, and other research and secondary materials. Dr. Bryant says by the conclusion of the two-year grant period, Moby-Dick, Billy Budd, and Battle-Pieces, Melville's collection of Civil War poems, will be the first works to populate MEL. It will take approximately 15 years to complete the digital archive. Once completed, Dr. Bryant says it will be "an intellectual playground" for Melville scholars and students

AOP Digital Publishing Summit 2009

"The AOP 3C Summit is the annual flagship event of the UK Association of Online Publishers, and is firmly established as the digital publishing event of the year. Focusing on Content, Convergence and Creativity, 3C brings together industry leaders from around the world to address the key issues and challenges faced by media owners in the digital space and focus on how publishers can prepare for 2010. 3C takes place on 7 October at the Business Design Centre in London, UK"

PubMed redesign

The National Library of Medicine has announced to redesign of PubMed - "While retaining the robust functionality, the interface was simplified to make it easier to use while promoting scientific discovery"

SPARC Open Access Newsletter, issue #138

SPARC Open Access Newsletter, issue #138 - October 2, 2009 is now available

New Transfer email announcement list and blog (UK)

"The Transfer project, an initiative of the UK Serials Group, has announced a new email list and blog for announcements about journal transfers between publishers. Interested parties can join the discussion list to receive and post information about transfers. List membership is not limited to those publishers who have publicly announced Transfer endorsement"

UK National Heritage Science Strategy report 3 available

"The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee inquiry into science and heritage, held in 2006, recommended that the sector should formulate a UK wide strategy for heritage science, covering both movable and immovable heritage. This September, the last of three reports written to underpin the development of the strategy has been produced and is now available to download from the National Heritage Science Strategy website"

2009/2010 schedule of public courses and open access events from RBA

Karen Blakeman of RBA Information Services has listed her 2009/2010 schedule of public courses and open access events

Cites & Insights 9:12 (November 2009)

Cites & Insights 9:12 (November 2009) is now available for downloading

Resource of the Month from Ovid - October 2009

Each month, Ovid provides you with the opportunity to "test drive" a sampling of its content, tools and services - free of charge - through its Resource of the Month program. October Resource of the Month is the MEDLINE®

French-Canadian Newspapers: An Essential Historical Source (1808-1919)

French-Canadian Newspapers: An Essential Historical Source (1808-1919) presents selected French-language newspapers from across Canada, in a digitized, fully-searchable format. These newspapers form the Library and Archives Canada (LAC) collection of first, final and special editions of French-Canadian newspapers

The 16th Annual British IBBY/NCRCL MA Children's Literature Conference

The 16th Annual British IBBY/NCRCL MA Children's Literature Conference - Going Graphic: Comics and Graphic Novels for Young People - 14 November 2009 - London, UK

The HeinOnline Newsletter - September 2009

The HeinOnline Newsletter - September 2009 - Issue #9 is now available online

'Doing more with less?' Forum on skills development (UK)

'Doing more with less?' Forum on skills development - The first annual forum of the British Library Preservation Advisory Centre showcases recent research and latest developments in preservation learning and provides an opportunity to hear how different methods of learning have been successfully applied to preservation training - 30 November 2009 - British Library Conference Centre, London, UK

Houston Oral History Project (USA)

"The Houston Oral History Project is an effort to record and preserve the dynamic history of Houston through the stories and experiences of its residents. It is a collaboration among the Mayor's Office, the Houston Public Library and the University of Houston"

British Medical Association 2009 book competition winners

The winners of the British Medical Association 2009 book competition have been announced

Half a century of British design launched online

"Four thousand images from the Design Council Slide Collection have been launched online, providing a unique insight into the history of British design and its promotion by the UK government from the 1940s to the early 1990s. The Design Council was established in 1944 and is the UK's national strategic body for design. The images relate closely to the changing scope and policies of the Council over a period of almost fifty years, providing valuable visual evidence of the ways in which design has been evaluated and promoted throughout this period"

National Writers Union Digital Media Conference 2009

National Writers Union Digital Media Conference 2009 - "America's labor organization for freelance journalists, book writers, and business and technology writers - the National Writers Union - has called this conference to discuss how writers can continue to survive and thrive in a climate where technological advances have changed the playing field for the creative professions" - October 16-17, 2009 - Boston, MA, USA. RSS Feed

National Information Literacy Awareness Month (USA)

In recognition of the 20th anniversary of the National Forum on Information Literacy, United States President Obama issued a proclamation declaring October 2009 as National Information Literacy Awareness Month

Northern Children's Book Festival 2009 (UK)

The Northern Children's Book Festival is planned, organised and hosted by the library services of the participating Local Authorities in the north east of England - November 9-21, 2009. RSS Feed

JK Rowling denied top US honour

"Harry Potter author JK Rowling missed out on a top honour because some US politicians believed she "encouraged witchcraft", it has been claimed. Matt Latimer, former speech writer for President George W Bush, said that some members of his administration believed her books promoted sorcery. As a result, she was never presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom" - BBC

Librarians' Internet Index - New This Week

Librarians' Internet Index - New This Week - October 1, 2009

Free online access to SAGE content from 1999-current until October 31, 2009

Register, and you will have access to more than 260,000 articles from more than 500 SAGE journals with content available from 1999-current until October 21, 2009

Wimbledon Bookfest 2009

Wimbledon Bookfest - 3 to 11 October 2009 - This year's lineup includes: Best-selling novelists Sadie Jones, William Boyd, Chris Cleave, Deborah Moggach, Kamila Shamsie, Julian Fellowes and Penny Vincenzi; actor and campaigner Virginia McKenna; historical novelist Alison Weir; Wimbledon-based 'Map of Love' author Ahdaf Soueif; Darwin's great-great granddaughters Ruth Padel and Emma Darwin; historians Sir Max Hastings and Patrick French; Gyles Brandreth bringing his new book on Oscar Wilde; artist Sir Peter Blake, actors June Whitfield and Timothy West, and a Q&A with Simon Beaufoy, award-winning scriptwriter for Slumdog Millionaire

The Friday Brain-teaser from Credo Reference

The Friday Brain-teaser from Credo Reference - this week: Emily and Emma. Answers here.

1. Which Emily wrote the 1847 novel "Wuthering Heights"?
2. Which British actress called Emma was married to Kenneth Branagh from 1989 to 1995?
3. Which Emily was an American writer who found lasting fame with "Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics and at Home" (1922) which sold more than a million copies?
4. Which Emma was the heroine of Gustave Flaubert's famous novel of provincial frustration and bourgeois ennui? She sought to realize her dreams of romantic love through extramarital affairs.
5. Which 19th-century American poet called Emily was born in Massachusetts, lived a secluded life and was known as "the nun of Amherst"?
6. Which English Lady named Emma was the mistress of Lord Nelson?
7. What was the surname of the heroine of Jane Austen's novel Emma: was it Whitehouse, Woodhouse or Woodford?
8. In American politics, what was "Emily's list", launched in 1985?
9. Which English soprano named Emma, born in 1949, has become a specialist in early music with her pure, vibrato-free voice?
10. The British suffragette Emily Davison died in 1913. What caused her death?

Directory of Open Access Journals - recently added titles

Asian Journal of Finance & Accounting

Bulletin of Applied Mechanics

Aestimatio : Critical Reviews in the History of Science

International Journal on Smart Sensing and Intelligent Systems

The Book Bike

Attending the Banned Books Read-Out on September 26, 2009, was Gabe Levinson, operator of the Book Bike. The concept is simple: Levinson travels around Chicago giving away books. He spoke to AL Focus about his efforts and motivation

National Forum of Information Literacy 20th Anniversary Celebration

National Forum of Information Literacy 20th Anniversary Celebration - "Empowering Future Generations: Information Literacy" - October 15 and 16, 2009 - Washington, D.C.

The African Film Library

"The African Film Library is an M-Net initiative showcasing the best of the African film industry - making the movies easily accessible for movie aficionados around the world. The African film industry is one of the oldest - with its roots in Ain el Ghezel (The Girl of Carthage), which was produced in Tunisia by Chemama Chikly in 1924. M-Net has spent the last three years negotiating the rights to almost 600 works in English, French, Arabic and Portuguese and digitally remastering them. The library forms an important archive of the continent's cultural cinematic heritage, and also, for the first time, makes the African artists' works easily accessible by a wide viewership around the globe - creating a new audience for existing and emerging filmmakers. The library consists of award-winning works from more than 80 producers including Senegalese Ousmane Sembene and Djibril Mambety, Yousef Chahine from Egypt and Haile Gerima from Ethiopia"

The Heart of the Great Alone: Scott, Shackleton and Antarctic Photography

"This exhibition of remarkable Antarctic photography by Herbert George Ponting and Frank Hurley marks the 100th anniversary of Captain Scott's ill-fated journey to the South Pole. Ponting's extraordinary images record Scott's Terra Nova expedition of 1910-13, which led to the tragic death of five of the team on their return from the South Pole. Hurley's dramatic icescapes were taken during Ernest Shackleton's Polar expedition on Endurance in 1914-16, which ended with the heroic sea journey from Elephant Island to South Georgia. Presented to King George V and today part of the Royal Photograph Collection, these sets of photographs are among the finest examples of the artists' works in existence"

Wildlife Finder - BBC

Wildlife Finder - "Journey with Sir David Attenborough as he shares his favourite moments from the last 30 years of wildlife film making. Dive into the BBC's archive, explore the wealth of video, sound, stories and breaking news, and let the greatest show on Earth unfold" - BBC

Google launches new search options

Google launches new search options - "past hour, specific date range, more shopping sites, fewer shopping sites, visited pages, not yet visited, books, blogs and news. These features have been rolling out gradually and will be available globally in English by the end of the day. You can try them yourself by searching Google and clicking "Show options" in the blue bar just under the logo"

UK government previews open data site to developers

"The Cabinet Office is seeking developer consultation on UK equivalent of data.gov. The UK government has completed a prototype version of a website that will open government datasets to the public. The Cabinet Office, the department behind the project, is now calling on developers to provide feedback and assistance with the site" - Information Age

Journals recently accepted by NLM for inclusion in MEDLINE

41 new journals have been accepted by NLM for inclusion in MEDLINE

Revolting London: Archives for London Conference

"London has a great history as host to people's demands for change. The annual Archives for London Conference will investigate six revolutionary movements from 15th to 20th centuries concerning calls for economic, political and cultural change" - 3 October 2009 - London, UK

East London Lives 2012 - a digital archive project

"East London Lives 2012 is a digital archive project which aims to document some aspects of change in the lives of East Londoners towards the hosting of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The archive hosts content from research projects based at the University of East London and other contextualising material about London and specifically the five East London boroughs and the bid promises that were made about the impact of the Olympics. Importantly the archive also contains a wealth of community generated content, including oral histories, image, video and interviews. Below is a short video created by the project which gives an excellent feel for what the archive has done, and why it is such an essential resource going into the future":

m4Lit Project (South Africa)

"On 30 September 2009 Kontax – the m-novel created for the Shuttleworth Foundation's m4Lit project – launched in South Africa, making world history as the first of its kind to be offered in both English and isiXhosa. Kontax, a teen novel written by award-winning mobilist Sam Wilson about the adventures of a group of teenage graffiti writers, will unfold chapter by chapter over 21 days from 30 September" RSS Feed

The Grateful Dead Archive

"The Grateful Dead Archive at the University of California, Santa Cruz represents one of the most significant popular cultural collections of the 20th Century. It documents the Dead's incredible creative activity and influence in contemporary music history from 1965 to 1995, including the phenomena of the Deadheads, the band's extensive network of devoted fans, and the band’s highly unusual and successful musical business ventures"

Archives Hub Collections of the Month, October 2009

Archives Hub Collections of the Month, October 2009: Designs on Delivery: GPO Posters from 1930 to 1960 - "University of the Arts London Archives and Special Collections Centre, in collaboration with The British Postal Museum and Archive, presents Designs on Delivery: GPO Posters from 1930 to 1960. The exhibition at the Well Gallery - and online here - focuses on a period when the General Post Office was at the cutting edge of poster design and mass communication. It explores how the GPO translated, often complex, messages to the public in order to educate them about the services offered, by using text, image, and colour". Archives Hub is also on Twitter