Manuscript sharing: NYPL and Pennsylvania to share a Bill of Rights

The Wall Street Journal reports on an interesting 100-year sharing agreement between the New York Public Library and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for a manuscript Bill of Rights.The NYPL received the manuscript on donation in 1896 and its provenance before then appears to be uncertain. The WSJ article notes that only fourteen copies of the… Continue reading Manuscript sharing: NYPL and Pennsylvania to share a Bill of Rights

Our stories: morality vs stuff happens (Paul Krugman quotation)

“Everyone loves a morality play. ‘For the wages of sin is death’ is a much more satisfying message than ‘Shit happens.’ We all want events to have meaning.” — Paul Krugman, “How the Case for Austerity had Crumbled,” New York Review of Books, June 5, 2013 Krugman is often my source for interesting one-liners or… Continue reading Our stories: morality vs stuff happens (Paul Krugman quotation)

PBS’s Lucy Bernholz on the Digital Public Library of America

PBS commentator and philanthropy blogger Lucy Bernholz writes a largely positive column at PBS, although she also notes the current limitations of the DPLA. Some of her main points bear noting here:  Ownership and Intellectual property: “Instead of a stand-alone collection, it is the set of common software codes and processes that connect existing collections… Continue reading PBS’s Lucy Bernholz on the Digital Public Library of America

On Reviewing Books (quotations)

Gratuitous quotes, that is. These are just some quotations that I wanted to share on book reviewing: I was going to suggest some hard-won guidelines for responsible reviewing. For instance: First, as in Hippocrates, do no harm. Second, never stoop to score a point or bite an ankle. Third, always understand that in this symbiosis,… Continue reading On Reviewing Books (quotations)