Art.sy

Discover the world’s great art on Art.sy Richard Byrne writes: “Art.sy is a new site that has indexed thousands of works of art that you can view online. It allows you to browse for artworks according to medium, style, subject matter, movement, or region in which the art is produced. Once you’ve found an artwork that you like, Art.sy helps you find more by suggesting related works. It will serve as a nice supplement to art history and art appreciation courses.” Art.sy went live on October 8.... Free Technology for Teachers, Oct. 9; New York Times, Oct. 8

Europeana

Europeana is a single access point to millions of books, paintings, films, museum objects and archival records that have been digitised throughout Europe. It is an authoritative source of information coming from European cultural and scientific institutions. On September 12, 2012 Europeana opened "up data about all 20 million of the items it holds under the CC0 rights waiver. This means that anyone can reuse the data for any purpose - whether using it to build applications to bring cultural content to new audiences in new ways, or analysing it to improve our understanding of Europe's cultural and intellectual history." For more info see: The Guardian article.

Color Blind

An interesting post on color blindness and Van Gogh on Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish.

Google Art Project

Learn more about the Google Art Project here.

Bibliophilia - books we love & why

To celebrate National Library Week, April 8-14, 2012, we invite RISD Students, Faculty and Staff to select 1-3 of their favorite RISD Library items to be displayed on the stadium seating in the first floor Library Reading Room. Favorite items may include any combination of Media, Reference, Oversize and Main books as well as circulating Picture Collection and Material Resource Center items. Include 1-2 sentences about what sets this particular book, film or visual material apart from others. Comments are optional and will be included in the display.

Just fill out the online form for the Bibliophilia exhibition or the printed cards which are available at service desks throughout the Library.
We'll pull the items and put them on display.

Spead the word - tell your friends, colleagues, and student workers about the exhibition.
Invite them to select a favorite book, film or material from our collection.

The display will run Sunday April 8 - Sunday April 22, 2012

Providence Athenaeum in the news

NPR: Athena's Library, The Quirky Pillar Of Providence

ARTstor updates - Folders changes and Chome browser

There was an update to the ARTstor Digital Library this week. New changes include:

* Full support for Chrome browsers.
* In your image search results, you may now see icons on the lower right-hand corner of the image thumbnail: "P" denotes Personal Collection (for images uploaded by a campus instructor), and "H" Hosted images (for images visible only at your institution).
* Folders are now nested in two upper level folders: "Private Folders" and "Institutional Folders." "Private Folders" contains folders viewable only by you. "Institutional Folders" contains folders that are viewable by other users at your institution either as "Public" folders or as "Password-protected" folders.


After this update, some users may find that they cannot see their folders or image groups; clearing the browser cache should resolve the issue. Read detailed instructions on how to do this on our help wiki.

And of course, you can contact User Services for more help at userservices@artstor.org.

Library Online Catalog Down for Updates on Wednesday

Update: upgrades down last night when the library was closed. Online catalog is working.

The Library online catalog will be down for updates tomorrow, Wednesday, Feb 15 from 8:30 am to 10:30 am.

Librarian Love

Congratulations to the 10 winners
of the 2011 I Love My Librarian Award

Read Caroline Kennedy's remarks as she describes libraries as "tabernacles of personal freedom" and
watch the I Love My Librarian recipient interviews

About Free JSTOR Early Content - video

Watch this video to learn the details of JSTOR Early Content

Benezit Dictionary of Artists Trial

The Benezit Dictionary of Artists is now available online for the first time via Oxford Art Online. With over 190,000 entries on artists from antiquity to the present day and featuring regular updates, Benezit is one of the most comprehensive and definitive resources on artists in the English language. Entries are clear and concise, and Benezit contains thousands of auction records, museum holdings, and bibliographies. In addition to its outstanding scope and depth, two features in particular make Benezit unique among art reference works: its superb coverage of obscure artists and the inclusion of images of artists’ signatures, monograms, and stamps. Also check out what's new for Benezit.


Let us know what you think of this databases (risdlib@risd.edu).
Thanks!

Current Installation in the Library

Check out the newest Installation in the Library created by Interior Architecture students. Up this week until the end of November.

Occupy Wall Street Library regrows in Manhattan

As Occupy Wall Street's physical Library regrows in Manhattan an online resource for the movement, Occupy Educated is created. See the full article here.

Banned Books Week Sept 24-Oct 1, 2011

List of Banned or Challenged Books

During the last week of September every year, hundreds of libraries and bookstores around the country draw attention to the problem of censorship by mounting displays of challenged books and hosting a variety of events. The 2011 celebration of Banned Books Week will be held from September 24 through October 1. Banned Books Week is the only national celebration of the freedom to read. It was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries. More than 11,000 books have been challenged since 1982. For more information on Banned Books Week, click here

According to the American Library Association, there were 348 challenges reported to the Office of Intellectual Freedom in 2010, and many more go unreported.

The 10 most challenged titles of 2010 were:

And Tango Makes Three, by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson
Reasons: homosexuality, religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
Reasons: offensive language, racism, religious viewpoint, sex education, sexually explicit, violence, unsuited to age group

Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
Reasons: insensitivity, offensive language, racism, sexually explicit

Crank, by Ellen Hopkins
Reasons: drugs, offensive language, racism, sexually explicit

The Hunger Games (series), by Suzanne Collins
Reasons: sexually explicit, violence, unsuited to age group

Lush, by Natasha Friend
Reasons: drugs, sexually explicit, offensive language, unsuited to age group

What My Mother Doesn't Know, by Sonya Sones
Reasons: sexism, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America, by Barbara Ehrenreich
Reasons: drugs, inaccurate, offensive language, political viewpoint, religious viewpoint

Revolutionary Voices edited by Amy Sonnie
Reasons: homosexuality, sexually explicit

Twilight (series), by Stephenie Meyer
Reasons: sexually explicit, religious viewpoint, violence, unsuited to age group

Made in the UK Research Guide

To accompany the new exhibition at the RISD Museum, see the Made in the UK Research Guide for links to local copies of the exhibition catalogue and additional sources on the artists included in the exhibition.

Central Falls' Adams Memorial Library

Central Falls' Adams Memorial Library needs your help and is throwing one helluva party to prove it!

The library is a crucial institution that saw its city funding eliminated in the face of Central Falls' municipal fiscal meltdown at the beginning of summer.

Reopened by volunteers in August, the library is currently open to the public for 3 days a week. Volunteers not only provide library services, even purchasing books if they're not in stock, but also do things like vacuum the floors and scrub the sinks. It's not glamorous, but it's necessary.

Now the volunteers are looking to take things to the next level.

We're throwing a fundraiser on September 30, hoping to raise enough money to hire a library director and expand library hours.

The Adams Memorial Library Autumn Gala will feature live entertainment, open bar, heavy hors d'oeuvres and fantastic silent auctions.

Bob Drouin & Friends are providing live music that will infuse the library with Traditional flavor. Crooner Steve Lombardi will fill the outside tents with his Rat Pack showmanship. Big Nazo and TEN31 Productions will bring their special brands of magic to the night. Tom's Market will provide heavy hors d'oeuvres while Bartending by Dennis will provide an open bar. Yep: open bar.

Add to that silent auctions that will feature the best of local merchants as well as special access to area artists and we're looking at one helluva night. The fun starts at 6:30PM.

So come share in an unforgettable night and help support Central Falls' library. Tickets can be purchased online at cflibrary.org/gala.

Brown Validation Reader Cards

Earlier this year, a card-activated turnstile system was installed in Brown's Rockefeller Library. Only Brown ID card holders may enter through the turnstile without staff assistance. All RISD patrons (and other non-Brown ID holders) must register and then be buzzed in by library staff to enter the building.

To streamline this process, the Rockefeller Library is issueing validation reader cards to RISD users. These cards will enable RISD ID holders to swipe to get into the building without waiting. The cards will be issued at the Rockefeller Library only; however, they can be used at either the Rock or Sciences Library. In order to register for a card, a RISD patron would need to come to the Rock and receive a card. The cards will remain active for one year. They can't be used to check out books and do not have any identifying information.

You need to have an up-to-date RISD library record before getting this card. You can check the status of your RISD library record by logging into my record in the online catalog and checking your exp date. For directions see here. You can update your record at the Circulation desk or calling 709-5901.

Early Journal Content on JSTOR, Free to Anyone in World

On September 6, 2011, JSTOR announced that they are making journal content in JSTOR published prior to 1923 in the United States and prior to 1870 elsewhere freely available to anyone, anywhere in the world. This “Early Journal Content” includes discourse and scholarship in the arts and humanities, economics and politics, and in mathematics and other sciences. It includes nearly 500,000 articles from more than 200 journals. This represents 6% of the content on JSTOR.

More info.

Tutorial on accessing the free content.

JSTOR Service Alert

On Friday, September 9 and Saturday, September 10, JSTOR will be performing site maintenance that requires a “read-only” period for these two days. During this scheduled maintenance, users will be able to search, browse, and access and download PDF files for content in JSTOR. They will not be able to save citations, reset passwords, create or update MyJSTOR accounts, or purchase articles.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, and appreciate your patience as we work to improve JSTOR.

Please feel free to contact support@jstor.org with any questions.

City of Providence Independence Trail - follow the Green Line

The City of Providence recently unveiled its newest historical attribute.


It's a three-mile long trail marked by a green line painted on the sidewalk that includes stops at 75 different historical locations.

"It's a circle. It goes from Memorial Boulevard to Roger Williams Baptist Church, to the Old State House, the new State House, down onto Capitol Center, to Kennedy Plaza, through the Financial District to where Lincoln spoke..." said Trail Founder Robert Burke.


Call (401) 441-6401 to listen to points of interest along the trail.

See Providence Independence Trail for more details.