The Rosenbach Library & Museum of Philadelphia, and the Philadelphia Free Library have announced plans to merge. The press release notes that bridge funding for the merger (the details of which have not been announced) has been provided in part by the Pew Charitable Trust. Rosenbach Museum and Library 2008-2010 Delancey Place Philadelphia, PA 19103… Continue reading Rosenbach Library and Museum to merge with Philadelphia Free Library [updated]
DPLA Launch event canceled but DPLA to go live on Thursday April 18
The Digital Public Library of America‘s launch event, to have taken place at the Boston Public Library where a bomb exploded on Monday during the Boston Marathon, has been canceled. The DPLA will still go live on Thursday April 18. Article here. The DPLA will have a larger event in the fall which will evolve… Continue reading DPLA Launch event canceled but DPLA to go live on Thursday April 18
The Marks of a Hoax: Dickens and Dostoevsky
Copy of a Photograph of Charles Dickens (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Russian literature specialist Eric Naiman describes a fake anecdote in “When Dickens met Dostoevsky,” (TLS 10 April 2013), and the bizarre, convoluted, trail that led him to find multiple pseudonyms of someone who seems to be a disgruntled independent scholar. I think some points turned… Continue reading The Marks of a Hoax: Dickens and Dostoevsky
eBooks and doing the reading for students
PROmedia eBook Reader (Photo credit: PiAir (Old Skool)) Pierre Tristam at FlaglerLive (Flagler County, FL) writes about new EdTech software from CourseSmart that allows teachers to see how much of the reading a student has done. Setting aside pedagogy and the old tradition of fooling the prof, Tristam argues about the nature of reading: Reading… Continue reading eBooks and doing the reading for students
Uncomfortable truths: Vichy France
Robert Paxton writes an informed and interesting review (pay walled) at the New York Review of Books, on Vichy’s continuing influence. (Most interesting aside: ” I was surprised myself to learn that Mozart had been little played in France before 1940, and that his prominence since 1945 in the French operatic and symphonic repertoire is… Continue reading Uncomfortable truths: Vichy France
Dan Cohen Previews the New Digital Public Library of America at NYU
Dan Cohen, the newly named Executive Director of the Digital Public Library of America, spoke at NYU’s Humanities Initiative on Thursday, April 4, 2013 about the DPLA. Dan who was closely involved with the development of the scholarly tool Zotero and the exhibition tool for library and museum collections, Omeka. He will be leaving George… Continue reading Dan Cohen Previews the New Digital Public Library of America at NYU
Review by Catherine S. Sezgin on Jonathan Keats’ art forgery book
Catherine Schofield Sezgin at the ARCA (Association for Research into Crimes against Art) reviews Forged: Why Fakes Are The Great Art of Our Age by Jonathon Keats (Oxford UP 2013). (Keats is a conceptual artist living in San Francisco.) Sezgin’s review is a series of excerpts, one on Han van Meegeren. Other of Sezgin’s segmented… Continue reading Review by Catherine S. Sezgin on Jonathan Keats’ art forgery book
Conspiracy Theories… among Engineers
Where do conspiracy theories come from? I was fascinated by this link at the technology news site ArsTechnica. The article tries to debunk an urban rumor, “Does Apple really assign engineers to “fake” projects as a loyalty test?” It struck me as a classic conspiracy theory. What gives rise to such thinking? Engineers come to… Continue reading Conspiracy Theories… among Engineers
Digital Photographs and Concepts of Art (James Reilly)
From Getty, James Reilly, the photograph conservation expert, comments about what digital photography has done: The important point is that, as the analogue structure goes away, it further erodes the notion that photography is a major art form in and of itself. …. Digital has undermined the notion of photography as an art form in… Continue reading Digital Photographs and Concepts of Art (James Reilly)
Incestuous Amplification (Paul Krugman)
Terminologist and Economist: Paul Krugman at the 2010 Brooklyn Book Festival. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) “Incestuous Amplification.” What a wonderful phrase, which Paul Krugman describes as “a term for how highly dubious ideas become not just accepted, but viewed as certainties. “Incestuous amplification” happen when a closed group of people repeat the same things to each… Continue reading Incestuous Amplification (Paul Krugman)