As a reader of our blog, you’ve seen many of the wonderful images we provide. The Smithsonian Libraries’ Galaxy of Images contains image reproductions from our deep collections of books and manuscripts.
Smithsonian Libraries and Archives / Unbound
I want you to think in terms of the functioning and changing ecology in which you will be operating, the set of relationships between individuals, institutions, money flows, information flows, projects, programs and effectors. I will start with some considerations of this way of considering your world and then briefly illustrate it with some specifics derived from my experience with the Biodiversity Heritage Library.
You are or will be hustling for jobs. Libraries are under tight budgets for the foreseeable future. How are you going to ride the rapids? It is likely your current jobs will not exist in 20 years and that the institutions that house your current jobs will be radically different.
William Dampier was an explorer and amateur scientist and a bit of a pirate. According to Wikipedia, his expededitions’ findings may have influenced men as diverse as Charles Darwin, James Cook Daniel Defoe, and Horatio Nelson.
Popular wisdom says that girls feet stop growing around the age of 14 or so and boys a year or so later. But we all know that the shoes we wore in high school probably wouldn’t fit us today, as other factors such as weight gain, preganancy and a later growth spurt can affect the size and growth of feet. When’s the last time you actually had someone measure your feet before trying on a new pair of shoes? Maybe today’s the day.
The Libraries is uniquely positioned to help scholars understand the continuing vitality of this relationship, via exceptional research resources ranging from 15th-century manuscripts to electronic journals.