Rhode Island Historical Society’s Research Library Reading Room Closure

On December 17, 2013, the Rhode Island Historical Society’s Research Library Reading Room sustained water damage from a mechanical failure. The Library will be closed until further notice. During the pending Reading Room reconstruction, reference staff will not have access to Rhode Island Vital Records, the newspaper microfilm collection, or the genealogical reference resources that are housed in the Reading Room. These collections are undamaged, but inaccessible. Unfortunately, without these collections, we are temporarily unable to answer reference questions about genealogy, family history, or newspaper articles. We will continue to provide copy and ILL copy requests from accessible collections for researchers, but please note that response time may be slower than usual. We have added a webpage of resources that you and your patrons may find helpful in your research endeavors during the time when we are closed.

The Government Shutdown and Libraries

From ALA Direct: http://www.americanlibrariesmagazine.org/article/government-shutdown-and-libraries

RISD Library Book Sale

Books + Prints Sale 10 am – 4 pm October 12, 2013 Browse through a fascinating selection of used books and prints on display in front of 15 West (or inside the RISD library, if the weather doesn’t cooperate). Proceeds from the sale support the acquisition of new items for the library’s collection.

JSTOR JPASS

"JPASS provides individuals with personal access to a select portion of journal content on JSTOR. As a time-based, individual “library card,” it grants archival access to roughly 1,500 journals through a one-month or a one-year plan." For more information see:http://about.jstor.org/service/jpass.

Harvard Art Museums Launch Index Magazine Online

(ArtfixDaily.com) 

"The Harvard Art Museums announce the launch of the digital magazine Index, which provides a dynamic and interactive space for readers to discover a broad range of content and media produced by staff at the Harvard Art Museums and from arts-related venues around the world. Found at www.harvardartmuseums.org/index..."

Rauschenberg Research Project

The Rauschenberg Research Project provides free worldwide access to a wealth of scholarly research and documentation relating to artworks by Robert Rauschenberg in San Francisco's Museum of Modern Art's permanent collection.

Art Resources in the Internet Archive

Art Resources from the Mid-20th Century: Digitized Highlights from the Collections of Hilla Rebay and Juliana Force - A Collaborative Project Between the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Announcing MetPublications

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has launched MetPublications, a new online resource that offers in-depth access to the Museum's publications. Beginning with nearly 650 titles published from 1964 to the present, each offering a variety of features and functions, this unique portal is established to provide scholarly information and enjoyment to a broad audience.

Wormholes

Wormholes in art prints tell a story.

Zotero bookmarklet for ipad/iphone

Zotero now has a bookmarklet for the ipad and iphone. You can now save a source (databases, websites, etc) to your Zotero library.

Blue Mountain Project

The Princeton University Library has announced the launch of the Blue Mountain Project, an open-access digital thematic research collection of avant-garde art, music and literary periodicals (1848-1923). Drawing together rare material from Princeton’s Art, Music and Rare Books libraries, the Blue Mountain Project will provide high-quality digital images as well as full-text searching, deep indexing of content, detailed metadata and descriptive essays to a broad audience. With generous support from the NEH, the Blue Mountain Project will make 34 titles available over the next two years. A full list of these periodicals – which are in English, German, French, Danish, Dutch, Hungarian, Czech and Russian – can be found on the Blue Mountain project page.

EBSCOhost downtime for My EBSCOhost on Oct 26 from 7-8am

News from EBSCOhost: Please note that for about one hour beginning at 7:00 a.m. EDT (UTC-5) on Friday, October 26, 2012 certain EBSCOhost functionality will be unavailable due to planned maintenance. Please note that EBSCOhost will continue to be available during this brief interval, however EBSCOhost with Navigator may experience intermittent interrupted access. Affected functionality will include: Personal User Authentication Checkout and Download of eBooks Alerts Access to My EBSCOhost folder items or the ability to save items to personalized folders from session We apologize for any inconvenience caused by this short maintenance interval.

Brown University’s Patrick Ma Digital Scholarship Lab

In October, Brown University is opening up the Patrick Ma Digital Scholarship Lab in the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library. The lab features a large-scale visualization video wall consisting of 12 high-resolution, 55-inch LED screens that form a 7-by-16-foot display with a combined resolution of over 24 megapixels, creating a high-quality viewing and analytical space. It also features a surround-sound audio system, videoconferencing capabilities, specialized lighting, and several individual touch-screen monitors.... Brown University Library News, Oct. 3

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

David Rees and Blackwing Pencils: Artisanal Pencil Sharpening

How to sharpen a pencil video.

The Art of Library Date Stamps

An artist uses due date stamps to create art.

Book Installation

Massive River of 10,000 Discarded Books Rages Through Melbourne.

Fold This! Pop-up Books & Paper Engineering

"Movable books have been around for more than 700 years." Read More. See RISD's pop-up books.

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.