Tiny Subversions: How to be a library archive tourist. “When I’m traveling and am at a loss for how to spend my time, I look up as many libraries I can in the area I’ll be traveling to, and I check to see if they have special collections. Then I make an appointment with the library to visit those special collections, and usually it means I get to spend a day in a quiet, climate-controlled room with cool old documents. It’s like a museum but with no people, and where you have to do all the work, which is honestly my idea of a perfect vacation.”
libraries
Friday essay: the library – humanist ideal, social glue and now, tourism hotspot (The Conversation)
New-to-me, from The Conversation: Friday essay: the library – humanist ideal, social glue and now, tourism hotspot. “Last year two Danish librarians – Christian Lauersen and Marie Eiriksson – founded Library Planet: a worldwide, crowdsourced, online library travel guide. According to them, Library Planet is meant to inspire travellers ‘to open the awesome book that is our world of libraries, cities and countries’.”
Europol: 3 arrested in France for looting the archives of libraries throughout Europe
Europol: 3 arrested in France for looting the archives of libraries throughout Europe. “With the support of Europol, the French National Police (OCBC – National Unit in charge of Cultural goods trafficking) and the Spanish Guardia Civil (UCO) have dismantled an organised crime group suspected of stealing maps in the archival collections of libraries throughout Europe.”
The Atlantic: The Books of College Libraries Are Turning Into Wallpaper
The Atlantic: The Books of College Libraries Are Turning Into Wallpaper. “University libraries across the country, and around the world, are seeing steady, and in many cases precipitous, declines in the use of the books on their shelves. The University of Virginia, one of our great public universities and an institution that openly shares detailed library circulation stats from the prior 20 years, is a good case study. College students at UVA checked out 238,000 books during the school year a decade ago; last year, that number had shrunk to just 60,000.”
Business News Wales: £1 Million for Museums, Archives and Libraries in Wales
Business News Wales: £1 Million for Museums, Archives and Libraries in Wales. “In addressing the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) Wales Annual Conference last week, the Deputy Minister for Culture, Sport and Tourism, Lord-Elis-Thomas, announced that museums, archives and libraries in Wales will benefit from nearly £1 million Welsh Government capital funding to develop and enhance their facilities and services.”
American Library Association: ALA releases new Libraries’ Guide to the 2020 Census
American Library Association: ALA releases new Libraries’ Guide to the 2020 Census. “Today the American Library Association released the Libraries’ Guide to the 2020 Census, a new resource to prepare libraries for the decennial count of every person living in the United States.” The guide is free.
Inside Higher Ed: How Cold Is That Library? There’s a Google Doc for That
Inside Higher Ed: How Cold Is That Library? There’s a Google Doc for That. “What a difference preparation makes when it comes to doing research in Arctic-level air-conditioned academic libraries (or ones that are otherwise freezing — or not air-conditioned at all). Luckily, Megan L. Cook, assistant professor of English at Colby College, published a crowdsourced document called ‘How Cold Is that Library?'”
