I guess calling it a library turns people off so they have to call it a store to drive people to visit. Sad testimony to our consumer culture.
http://www.ideastore.co.uk/en/home
Showing posts with label libraries. Show all posts
Showing posts with label libraries. Show all posts
Thursday, 29 October 2009
My beautiful beautiful library!
at Vassar College in the Hudson Valley, 90 miles north o NYC.
Feast your eyes
http://library.vassar.edu/
"Vassar is home to one of the largest undergraduate library collections in the US. The library collection today - which actually encompasses eight libraries at Vassar - contains over 1.6 million volumes and 7,500 serial, periodical and newspaper titles, as well as an extensive collection of microfilm and microfiche."
"In the West Wing is the Cornaro Stained-Glass Window commissioned for the library and installed in 1906. The image shows Elena Cornaro Piscopia, a young Venetian who had previously been denied the Doctor of Theology degree as a woman, receiving her doctorate in philosophy from the University of Padua. She is thought to be the first woman to earn this degree in European history.
The window comes from the studios of Messrs. John Hardman & Company of Birmingham, England, and of the Church Glass and Decorating Company of New York, their U.S. representatives.
The window was designed by Dunstan Powell, grandson of Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, the Victorian era church architect. The much debated question of whose idea is was to choose the subject has not been resolved.[5]
The lights in the tracery represent Grammar, Dialectics, Music, Philosophy, Astronomy, Medicine, Geometry and Theology.
At the bottom are cherubim holding scrolls upon which are written in Latin: "In Laud Helenae Lucretia Cornelia Piscopiae Lauria Philo In Patav Gymn Unico Ex-Emplo Donatae"
Lady Elena's dress is Rose and Grey, the original colors of Vassar College."
Feast your eyes
http://library.vassar.edu/
"Vassar is home to one of the largest undergraduate library collections in the US. The library collection today - which actually encompasses eight libraries at Vassar - contains over 1.6 million volumes and 7,500 serial, periodical and newspaper titles, as well as an extensive collection of microfilm and microfiche."
The window comes from the studios of Messrs. John Hardman & Company of Birmingham, England, and of the Church Glass and Decorating Company of New York, their U.S. representatives.
The window was designed by Dunstan Powell, grandson of Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, the Victorian era church architect. The much debated question of whose idea is was to choose the subject has not been resolved.[5]
The lights in the tracery represent Grammar, Dialectics, Music, Philosophy, Astronomy, Medicine, Geometry and Theology.
At the bottom are cherubim holding scrolls upon which are written in Latin: "In Laud Helenae Lucretia Cornelia Piscopiae Lauria Philo In Patav Gymn Unico Ex-Emplo Donatae"
Lady Elena's dress is Rose and Grey, the original colors of Vassar College."
Thoughts on libraries best put in context by my professor David Bawden
"Library and Information Sciences are defined by:
-the services which they provide
-the collection which they maintain
-the places and spaces in which they operate
-a managed and organised collection of information resources, of all kinds, with services provided so that the collections can be used effectively within physical and virtual spaces."
"A digital library is deliberately similar:
A managed and organised collection of information resources preserved for a long time with associated user service, where the information is stored in digital format and accessed over a computer network.
The digital world invites transience, but it also persists by nature. It also implies connectivity.
A digital library also decays."
Example: Pharmaceutical industry needs to keep ORIGINAL data FOREVER when they get FDA approval. This means they also have to keep all machines and archiving systems that tha tinformation requires for viewing as the regulators INSIST ON IT, as they need access to the ORIGINAL data. If you switch over systems in the library it is no longer original data. So a librarians job becomes saving and archiving equipment, hardware and software as well as the data in its original format.
The current laws say that if a document doesn't come directly from your comuter it is not the original. But some things live across 'borders' or on several computers. So this all sounds wholly unreasonable to me, particularly in light of the fact that so many documents today are being created on shared platforms across the world.
-the services which they provide
-the collection which they maintain
-the places and spaces in which they operate
-a managed and organised collection of information resources, of all kinds, with services provided so that the collections can be used effectively within physical and virtual spaces."
"A digital library is deliberately similar:
A managed and organised collection of information resources preserved for a long time with associated user service, where the information is stored in digital format and accessed over a computer network.
The digital world invites transience, but it also persists by nature. It also implies connectivity.
A digital library also decays."
Example: Pharmaceutical industry needs to keep ORIGINAL data FOREVER when they get FDA approval. This means they also have to keep all machines and archiving systems that tha tinformation requires for viewing as the regulators INSIST ON IT, as they need access to the ORIGINAL data. If you switch over systems in the library it is no longer original data. So a librarians job becomes saving and archiving equipment, hardware and software as well as the data in its original format.
The current laws say that if a document doesn't come directly from your comuter it is not the original. But some things live across 'borders' or on several computers. So this all sounds wholly unreasonable to me, particularly in light of the fact that so many documents today are being created on shared platforms across the world.
Reflections on Libraries in practice #1
Mondays lectures really got me thinking.
A library is a library, just as I knew it as a child. I have been getting too fancy in my thinking - I guess that is natural for a new student (??)
Chambers Dictionary defines a library as "a collection of boos, a building or room containing it"
Harrods definition includes: "kept for a purpose"
This is a concept recognised since antiquity.
Now when we start talking about Information Sciences is where things get tricky:
-it's ill defined
-it's only been used since the mid 20th century
-typically centered around a specialised subject and user group
-strong emphasis on access and user services, rather than the collection.
This way we can even view James Bond as an information officer.
What distinguishes Library Sciences from Information Sciences? In short, Information Science implies a more active relationship with documents.
A library is a library, just as I knew it as a child. I have been getting too fancy in my thinking - I guess that is natural for a new student (??)
Chambers Dictionary defines a library as "a collection of boos, a building or room containing it"
Harrods definition includes: "kept for a purpose"
This is a concept recognised since antiquity.
Now when we start talking about Information Sciences is where things get tricky:
-it's ill defined
-it's only been used since the mid 20th century
-typically centered around a specialised subject and user group
-strong emphasis on access and user services, rather than the collection.
This way we can even view James Bond as an information officer.
What distinguishes Library Sciences from Information Sciences? In short, Information Science implies a more active relationship with documents.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
