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

D-Lib Magazine - March/April 2012 now available

D-Lib Magazine - March/April 2012 is now available. D-Lib Magazine is produced by Corporation for National Research Initiatives

New title from Bodleian Library Publishing: Titanic Calling

Drawing on the unique Titanic collection in the Marconi Archives, held in the Bodleian Library, a new book tells the compelling story of the well-known tragedy from an original angle. With complete transcripts of the distress messages, Titanic Calling vividly brings to life the voices of the individuals in this drama, retelling the legendary story as it was first heard. The narrative begins with warnings of ice, including several which reported large icebergs unusually far south and alarmingly close to the Titanic's course, just hours before the fatal collision:

In Lat 42.6 and Long 49.43 W met with extensive field ice and sighted seven bergs of considerable sizes on both sides of track – SS Pisa

The story follows Jack Phillips, the senior wireless operator on board RMS Titanic, as he begins sending the 'CQD' Marconi distress signal late on the night of April 14th:

CQD Position 41.46 N 50.14 W require assistance struck iceberg – RMS Titanic

The Friday Brain-teaser from Credo Reference - March 16, 2012

The Friday Brain-teaser from Credo Reference - this week: general Knowledge. "Here's another of our general knowledge brainteasers - to test the breadth and depth of what you know" Answers here.

1. How many days does February have in a leap year?
2. Which famous city landmark in Paris was erected in the Champs-de-Mars for the Paris Exhibition of 1889?
3. In Roman numerals, what number is represented by the letter V?
4. Which member of the girl group Destiny's Child had the surname "Knowles"?
5. Which author wrote "Adam Bede", "The Mill on the Floss" and "Silas Marner"?
6. The title "dauphin" was formerly used for what relation of the king of France?
7. Which Spanish painter was one of the most notorious surrealists and developed a repertoire of striking, dreamlike, hallucinatory images - distorted human figures, limp pocket watches, and burning giraffes?
8. Is a dory a kind of antelope, butterfly or fish?
9. In which year did the USA enter World War I?
10. Is Beethoven's 6th Symphony known as the Choral, the Pastoral, or the Unfinished?

Evidence Based Library and Information Practice - Vol 7, No 1 (2012)

Evidence Based Library and Information Practice - Vol 7, No 1 (2012) is now available. RSS Feed

Above the Fold - February 29, 2012

Above the Fold is a Web-based newsletter published by OCLC Research. It has been developed to serve a broad international readership from libraries, archives and museums - February 29, 2012 - Vol. 5, No. 9 now available

35 more Open Access and subscription Journals added to JournalTOCs

Roddy MacLeod has added 35 more Open Access journals to JournalTOCs, where you can find the latest Tables of Contents from over 18,400 scholarly journals, including over 3,700 Open Access journals

Gale announces Gale Gateways

Gale, part of Cengage Learning has announced Gale Gateways, an innovative program for public libraries. Designed to represent the unique way in which a community interacts with its public library, Gale Gateways bring together thematic products and services to provide an organized approach to help patrons find and use information. Unlike anything else on the market, Gale Gateways will help libraries demonstrate their value and worth to their community

Book Grocer: 14-20 March 2012

Book Grocer: 14-20 March, 2012 - The week ahead in literary London from the Londonist blog. #books #London

Directory of Open Access Journals - recently added titles

Fluids and Barriers of the CNS

Territórios & Fronteiras

Didasc@lia : Didáctica y Educación

Akademeia

Library Journal's Movers & Shakers 2012

For 11 years now, LJ's Movers & Shakers has been spotlighting librarians and others in the library field who are doing extraordinary work to serve their users and to move libraries of all types and library services forward. They hail from all corners of the library world. They've been nominated by their colleagues, friends, bosses, and just plain admirers. We know there are many more Movers out there, making libraries better and taking them into the future. This year's group of 53 brings the Movers cohort to over 550. We're proud to recognize their achievements - and to encourage you to be inspired by their vision and optimism and turn their ideas into fodder for your own innovative work