At last! Videos of this year’s ALA Book Cart Drill Team Championships are online! This was one of the not-to-be-missed events of ALA…lucky me, I snagged a seat in the 2nd row and what a ride it was!
In first place were the “Well Stacked Sci-brarians” from the Santa Monica Public Library.
More videos after the jump…
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During my recent trip to California for the ALA 2008 conference, I visited several of the museums in San Diego’s Balboa Park. One of my favorite paintings I saw that day was at the Timken Museum of Art - it was a work by John Frederick Peto, an American tromp l’oeil painter. Titled “In the Library”, the painting depicts a sad and sorry collection of ragged books. In fact, many of Peto’s paintings depict groups of abused tomes sorely in need of a conservator’s loving touch. He is also fond of depicting paper ephemera and photographs mercilessly given the “bulletin board” treatment.
John Frederick Peto, "Take Your Choice"
[Photo by Flickr user wallyg used in accordance with a Creative Commons license]
I had the opportunity to sit in on a couple of preservation discussion groups at this year’s annual ALA conference. One of them was the “Preservation Instruction, Education and Outreach Discussion Group (PIEDOG)”, which was moderated by PIEDOG chair, Adrienne Bell. During the discussion, Lori Foley (Director of Field Service for the NEDCC) announced the launch of a new website devoted to providing a free resource for preservation education. The project was funded by the IMLS and will be composed of 13 three-hour courses, available for free from the Northeast Document Conservation Center’s website.
“For the first time, instructors at graduate schools of librarianship and archives can find lesson outlines, resources, activities, assignments, and images - all in one place.
Lesson plans cover the following topics:
- Introduction to Preservation
- Context for the Cultural Record
- Strucutre and Deterioration of Paper-based Materials
- Structure and Deterioration of Multimedia Materials
- Building-wide concerns
- Collections Care
- Survey and Assessments
- Treatment Options
- Preservation Reformatting
- Creating Sustainable Digital Collections
- Building a Preservation Program
- Disaster Planning”
You can access the Preservation Education Curriculum from the NEDCC’s website. They also have a comprehensive “Preservation 101″ online course available.
Thought Thomas Edison was the first to record sound? Think again! Scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have converted an 1860 French phonautogram (a visual representation of sound waves) into a digital sound file. Check out the NY Times article here , where you can listen to an mp3 of “Au Clair de la Lune.”
A library-themed gem from Passive Aggressive Notes.
Can finals be over yet?
Check out Jeff Peachey’s fledgling blog (at the urging of Brenna Campbell).
Check out this video of a really awesome pop-up alphabet book by Marion Bataille.
Don’t forget to join us for a Kilgarlin Center Forum this Friday at 4:30pm in the conference room (556) of the Sanchez Building. Alums Tish Brewer and Shannon Phillips will be presenting a talk entitled, “Starting a Private Practice in Paper Conservation”.
Also, if you haven’t already, it’s time to hit up the grocery store and create your entry for Saturday’s Edible Book Festival! The festivities will take place on the front porch of the Collections Deposit Library.
Please come to the Kilgarlin Forum on Friday, March 28th to hear alums Tish Brewer and Shannon Phillips speak about their experience as conservators in private practice in Dallas. In the meantime, check out their blog and their website!
