Category: Preservation

Chris Hubbles wins 2018 Litwin Books Award for Ongoing Dissertation Research in the Philosophy of Information

by RoryLitwin

Press release 8/17/2018 Media contact: Rory Litwin, rory@staging.litwinbooks.com We are pleased to announce the winner of the 2018 Litwin Books Award for Ongoing Dissertation Research in the Philosophy of Information. We are granting this year’s award to Chris Hubbles of the University of Washington, based on his dissertation project, “No Country for Old Media.” In … Read more Chris Hubbles wins 2018 Litwin Books Award for Ongoing Dissertation Research in the Philosophy of Information

Barnard plans to remove 40,000 books from library

by RoryLitwin

More “right-sizing” bullshit. Barnard faculty frustrated by plans to remove 40,000 books from library Barnard’s faculty and staff claim they were shut out of the decision-making process for the new library, which faculty say also led to the resignation of the Dean of Barnard Library and Information Services Lisa Norberg. Administrators outlined the plan for … Read more Barnard plans to remove 40,000 books from library

Help shape the future of SustainRT, ALA’s new Sustainability round table!

by RoryLitwin

SustainRT Virtual Discussion Free; Open to the whole library community Help shape the future of SustainRT, ALA’s new Sustainability round table! Dec. 11, 2013 12:00-1:00 pm (EST) To register: http://bit.ly/HtTNrt The discussion will be recorded and available later to those who register. Objectives of this open meeting: 1) Provide a brief history and status update … Read more Help shape the future of SustainRT, ALA’s new Sustainability round table!

Interview with Beth Knazook

by RoryLitwin

I have just interviewed Beth Knazook, an image archivist who has worked for the Ryerson University Archives & Special Collections and as the Photo Archivist for the Stratford Festival of Canada. Her expertise is in photographic preservation and photographic collection management, and that is the subject of her introductory course for Library Juice Academy next … Read more Interview with Beth Knazook

The Interference Archive Documents Radical History

by RoryLitwin

(I’m usually pretty lackluster when it comes to generating blog post titles, but at least for this one I ignored my brain when it repeatedly suggested “A Radical Archive Grows in Brooklyn.”) A few weeks ago, a group of librarians was invited to an evening at the new Interference Archive in Brooklyn, NY, not far … Read more The Interference Archive Documents Radical History

Thoughts on VuStuff II

by RoryLitwin

I spent the better part of Wednesday at VuStuff II, a small regional gathering hosted by Villanova University’s Falvey Memorial Library, which focused on the intersection of technology and scholarly communication in libraries. The attendees were an interesting mix of people from academic and special libraries, and included library directors, archivists, systems librarians, special collections … Read more Thoughts on VuStuff II

MiT7 podcasts

by RoryLitwin

MiT7 was a great conference – intimate, warm, stimulating, interdisciplinary, and cutting-edge. There were some brilliant minds at work. I plan to post a few comments on the conference later. For now, here are links to podcasts from the three topical plenary sessions: Media in Transition 7: Unstable Platforms Archives and Cultural Memory Power and … Read more MiT7 podcasts

Smart commentary on Judge Chin’s decision

by RoryLitwin

I am not personally diving into the discussion of Judge Chin’s decision on the Google Settlement, because I am too war-weary of fighting it out with other librarians on issues where I feel like a lone dissenter, but I will go as far as to say that I like this post on the topic by … Read more Smart commentary on Judge Chin’s decision

Organizing personal info in an age of change: Tickets to a Pavement concert

by RoryLitwin

An item in the New Yorker’s “Talk of the Town” section in the last issue is about the difficulty of keeping track of a valuable information object over time: a concert ticket. How do people remember where they put it? This one has to do with a long awaited reunion show by Pavement, in Central … Read more Organizing personal info in an age of change: Tickets to a Pavement concert

Anti-elitism and academic libraries

by RoryLitwin

A cultural theme in America for the past few decades has been a certain conservative populist “anti-elitism.” Barack Obama’s victory despite his vulnerability to the charge of elitism – owing to his statements about small town America “clinging to guns and religion,” his educational background, and his personal choice to assume an intelligent audience when … Read more Anti-elitism and academic libraries

Media in Transition 6 – Podcasts

by RoryLitwin

MIT has posted podcasts from the five plenary sessions at Media in Transition 6, at the Comparative Media Studies program’s podcast page. The plenary sessions were on “Archives and History,” “New Media, Civic Media,” “Institutional Perspectives on Storage,” “The Future of Publishing,” and “Summary Perspectives.” I think these plenary sessions were the best part of … Read more Media in Transition 6 – Podcasts

Media in Transition 6… Reactions…

by RoryLitwin

I attended Media in Transition 6: Stone and Papyrus, Storage and Transmission in Cambridge, MA, April 24-26. (Follow that link for a summary of what the conference was about.) Here are my thoughts about the conference after returning home. Of primary interest to me, coming from Duluth, MN, where it was below freezing yesterday, was … Read more Media in Transition 6… Reactions…

The constraining effects of information privatization: Google’s purchase and shutdown of Paper of Record

by RoryLitwin

From today’s Inside Higher Ed, “Digital Archives That Disappear,” a brief article about Google’s shutdown of the historical newspaper archive Paper of Record, which it secretly purchased in 2006. This is a good example of what many people have feared about Google’s success – that turning over information resources from shared, public control in library-related … Read more The constraining effects of information privatization: Google’s purchase and shutdown of Paper of Record

The economic crisis and the preservation function of libraries

by RoryLitwin

If you’re like me, you work in a library that is facing tough decisions (no irony intended by that cliché phrase) as a result of budget cuts during the economic crisis. The choice between cutting staff and cutting the budget for materials is the easy one – protect the people who work in the library … Read more The economic crisis and the preservation function of libraries

SRRT Newsletter 166

by RoryLitwin

Issue 166, March 2009, of the SRRT Newsletter is just published. This issue contains the minutes from Midwinter’s meetings in Denver, where Action Council decided to publish the newsletter on the web only, and to move to a quarterly publication schedule. For some time, the newsletter was SRRT’s largest single expense, even at a twice-yearly … Read more SRRT Newsletter 166

The Green Library Movement

by RoryLitwin

Monika Antonelli has an important article in the new Electronic Green Journal called The Green Library Movement: An Overview and Beyond. Here is the abstract: The creation of green libraries is approaching a tipping point, generating a Green Library Movement, which is comprised of librarians, libraries, cities, towns, college and university campuses committed to greening … Read more The Green Library Movement

Barbara Fister on Google and OA

by RoryLitwin

ALA’s Office for Information Technology Policy had its annual retreat this month. Barbara Fister, frequent poster to the ACRL blog and a librarian at Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota, presented a talk there called “Open Access and Books in a Digital World – What Role Should Libraries Play?” Her talk is an interesting exploration of … Read more Barbara Fister on Google and OA

Call for papers: Media in Transition 6: stone and papyrus, storage and transmission

by RoryLitwin

Media in Transition 6: stone and papyrus, storage and transmission International Conference April 24-26, 2009 Massachusetts Institute of Technology CALL FOR PAPERS (MIT site) In his seminal essay “The Bias of Communication” Harold Innis distinguishes between time-based and space-based media. Time-based media such as stone or clay, Innis agues, can be seen as durable, while … Read more Call for papers: Media in Transition 6: stone and papyrus, storage and transmission