Recently I stumbled across this article in Library Journal (3/1/08)
The Library of Congress (LC) has joined photo-sharing site Flickr to make available 3000 photos for which no copyright restrictions are known to exist, even though the library doesn’t own copyright. The goal: community tagging for segments of the George Grantham Bain Collection, one of America’s earliest news picture agencies (1910–20), and color photos from the Great Depression and World War II (1939–44) from the U.S. Farm Security Administration and the Office of War Information (example at right).
As LC’s Matt Raymond explained on the LC Blog, “many photos are missing key caption information such as where the photo was taken and who is pictured. If such information is collected via Flickr members, it can potentially enhance the quality of the bibliographic records for the images.”
As part of this pilot, Flickr has created The Commons, a new model for publicly held photographic collections. “For the time being on Flickr, this new usage is being contained to the Library of Congress account,” Flickr explained. If the pilot works, other interested cultural institutions may join in.
I love it that the Library of Congress is availing its august institutional self of web 2.0 opportunity. If the Library of Congress approves of and utilizes community tagging, and is spearheading a new model for publicly held photographic collections, then 2.0 is truly on the map for libraries and other large institutions. The doors are swinging open to collaboration.
By Jay
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April 23, 2008 – 11:51 am
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| April 30, 2008 |
| 7:00 pm | to | 8:00 pm |
No time to read? Come watch, listen and learn how to access thousands of audio titles using your computer and your library card for FREE! Local public libraries in Bartlett, Conway, Effingham, Freedom, Jackson, Madison, North Conway, and Tamworth all belong to the New Hampshire Downloadable Audio Books consortium, a partnership with the New Hampshire State Library.
On Wednesday, April 30th at 7:00 PM Jenn Mashiak will offer a hands-on New Hampshire Downloadable Audio Book training at the library.
New Hampshire Downloadable Audio Books’ digital library has nearly 2000 titles to choose from. The collection spans nearly every genre and has something for all age groups, children through adults. This wonderful audio library lets you download any audio book to listen on your personal PC, transfer to a MP3 player, and some selections can be burned on a CD. Don’t have a MP3 player? No problem, Cook Memorial Library has two available for patrons to borrow.
At the present time, due to publishers’ requirements for copyright protection and digital rights management, the downloadable audio books will not work on macs or iPods. Visit your library or the New Hampshire Downloadable Audio Books Web site nh.lib.overdrive.com for more instructions and to find a list of compatible MP3 players.
For more information about the training program on April 30, contact the Cook Memorial Library at 323-8510 or jenn@tamworthlibrary.org.
By Jay
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April 21, 2008 – 12:24 pm
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Hello Everyone,
Yesterday, April 16th, we upgraded the website with a new look and some new bells and whistles. Can’t you tell that we were picking out the colors in snowy February? Easter egg colors looked beautiful to us after the winter we’ve had.
Unfortunately some elements went awry in the conversion to the WordPress upgrade so bear with us. We’re working to fix the snafus as soon as we discover the problems. Please let us know if you find something wrong or missing by sending us a comment. Also tell us what’s right! We like to hear that too.
By Jay
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April 17, 2008 – 10:54 am
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| June 7, 2008 |
| 9:00 am | to | 1:00 pm |
On Saturday, June 7th, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Friends will hold a Plant Sale at the library. Come browse beautiful annuals from De Filippi’s Greenhouse in North Sandwich.
By Jay
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April 17, 2008 – 10:34 am
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| May 3, 2008 |
| 10:00 am | to | 1:00 pm |
On Saturday, May 3rd, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m, Friends will hold their monthly book sale at the library. Come on down and see what we have!
By Jay
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April 17, 2008 – 10:29 am
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On the first three Tuesdays of each month; at 10:30 am, Stories and Songs for toddlers, and at 1 p.m., Stories and Songs for 3-5 year olds.
By Jay
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April 9, 2008 – 4:09 pm
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There are some great photo-sharing and photo-manipulating opportunities out there on Web 2.0
Here’s a link to a colleague’s blog (Brian Herzog @ Chelmsford Library) which lists some good ones.
By Jay
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April 9, 2008 – 11:58 am
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The Material Girls are a group of quilters who came together in 1999 in Mount Washington Valley under the direction of Gail McClure (Gail’s quilt is to the left.) They get together once a month to create quilts for various charities. Their second meeting of the month is their social “show and tell” afternoon. The group falls under the RSVP (Retired Senior and Volunteer Program) umbrella, and is dedicated to quilting for not only this community, but for anywhere in the world there is a need for the comfort and nurturing quilts can bring.
By Jay
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April 9, 2008 – 11:54 am
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While answering a reference question from a patron about our art book collection, I wanted to share what we discovered. If you type “artists” as a search term, and then click on “artists” as a subject when prompted, you get 209 results. But notice that if you scroll down looking at the margin on the right side of the page, you can break down your search further by choosing a more specific subject like history which then searches for all titles with art AND history in the subjects. Likewise art appreciation or drawing or juvenile literature or biography.
By Jay
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April 9, 2008 – 11:51 am
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Looking through a file of clippings I throw things into, I found an interview with David McCullough the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer and historian. When asked by Jonathan Soroff, “What is a library’s role in a democracy?,” he said the following,
Without a doubt, public libraries are one of the greatest of American institutions, and if you’ve ever lived or worked abroad you’ll know this. Free access to literature, history, philosophy, mathematics, the works - civilization’s entire treasure house of ideas - is open to everyone. It’s pure democracy at work. The portals of a great library are the portals to freedom. Thomas Jefferson said, “Any nation that expects to be ignorant and free expects what never was and never will be.” There’s no excuse to be ignorant in a community where there’s a public library, and there’s one in virtually every community in the land. I like to tell people that if you get down about the state of education, learning, the arts, etc. in our country today, remember that there are still more public libraries than there are McDonalds….We must never, ever take our public libraries for granted. People just assume that these things are looked after properly, but they’re not. I’m not blaming anyone. We’re all to blame, and we must change it.
There are 16,220 public libraries in the U.S., including branches. 95% provide public access to the Internet. Americans check out an average of more than six books annually. They spend approximately $25.25 a year to support their public libraries, less than the cost of one hardcover book.
By Jay
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April 3, 2008 – 11:26 am
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