Tag Archives: Libraries

Increased Access for History, Art, and Culture Digitizations — New URLS!

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Online If you’ve seen any of the 1,000+ physical copies of the books scanned through the History, Art, and Culture (HAC) Digitization Project, maybe you noticed a sticker just below the barcode that reads ”ONLINE.”

We do that for the same reasons the Biodiversity Heritage Library puts stickers that read “BHL” on the thousands of items the Libraries has digitized for that collection: to alert staff that the book is available online, thereby increasing access while decreasing the wear and tear on the physical item.

We are now pleased to announce the presence of URLS in SIRIS with direct links to Digitized HAC volumes. The methodology varies slightly between monographs and multi-volume titles, but the end result is the same, links that take you directly to the digitized version of the item without a trip to the stacks.

—Erin Thomas

 

New and Notable—Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum Library

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The Libraries would like to highlight some new titles that have been added recently to the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum Library.

21st century design: new design icons from mass market to avant-garde, by Marcus Fairs. London : Carlton, 2006. Gift of Roma and David Korris. NK1397 .F35 2006 CHM

21stc

A fully up-to-date comprehensive survey of the cutting-edge design landscape, guiding the reader through the often bewildering array of contemporary movements, styles and trends and identifying the most important designers working in the world today. Architecture — Interiors — Furniture — Lighting — Homeware — Products — Clothing and accessories — Visual communication — Urban and landscape

The architecture of knowledge: the library of the future = De architektuur van kennis: de bibliotheek van de toekomst. Rients Dijkstra …[et al.]  Rotterdam : NAi Publishers, 2010.

Gift of Roma and David Korris. Z679 .A69 2010 CHM

Knowledge

What will the library of the future look like? In an age in which information and communication are everywhere and the boundaries between producers and consumers of information are increasingly blurred, the question of what a public library might represent is urgent. The notion of a classical library in an academic environment with a formal collection and a permanent staff is already wavering. The Architecture of Knowledge offers new insights into this bastion of public knowledge and collective memory as well as fascinating prospects for its future. This publication and its content is largely the product of the lecture series and workshop 'The Architecture of Knowledge (TAOK)' held at the NAI in Rotterdam in the summer of 2009, in close collaboration with the Netherlands Association of Public Libraries.

Wallpaper, by Michael Lech.  Sydney : Historic Houses Trust (HHT), c2010. NK3490.A1 L43 2010 CHM

Wallpaper

Since the 1840s, fashions in wallpaper have come and gone in Australia. This book celebrates our long, on-off love affair with wallpaper, showcasing over 60 historic examples from the Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales.

Sustainable fashion and textiles: design journeys, by Kate Fletcher.  London; Sterling, VA: Earthscan, 2008. Gift of Roma and David Korris. TT507 .F583 2008 CHM

Journeys

This design handbook presents a new vision of sustainability in the fashion and textile sector based on design thinking and practice. It brings together information about lifecycle environmental impacts, practical alternatives, design concepts and social innovation, and frames them in a sustainability context. It challenges existing ideas about the scope and potential of sustainable fashion and textiles, and sets out a broader, more inter-connected and forward-looking picture drawing on ideas of human needs, industrial ecology, speed and rhythms, and participatory actions, as well as knowledge of materials.

Bauhaus conflicts, 1919-2009: controversies and counterparts, [editor, Philipp Oswalt (Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau)  Ostfildern, Germany : Hatje Cantz, c2009. Gift of Roma and David Korris. N332.G33 .B4253 2009 CHM

Conflicts

This catalogue is published in conjunction with exhibitions commemorating the ninetieth anniversary of the founding of the Bauhaus: modell bauhaus, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, July 22 – October 4, 2009, and Bauhaus 1919-1933: Workshops for Modernity, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, November 8, 2009 – January 18, 2010.

Exploring materials: creative design for everyday objects, by Inna Alesina and Ellen Lupton.  New York: Princeton Architectural Press, c2009. TA403.6 .A447 2009 CHM

Exploring

An action-oriented, accessible guide to design thinking that addresses both the how and why of product design. It encourages designers to look beyond the abstraction of pure forms or the whimsy of virtual objects, and instead to make and test real objects in a studio environment.

—Elizabeth Broman and Stephen Van Dyk

Around the Libraries in 180 Days (Give or Take): An Intern Recaps Her Libraries Experience

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It’s hard to believe that my time at the Libraries has come to an end! Since there was a post about me here when I began my internship back in January, I thought I’d give a summary of what I’ve done since then.

I worked with Doug Dunlop through January, all of February, and the first week or so of March. For this assignment, Doug and I traveled to almost every branch in the Libraries, searching for images and information that may prove useful in the development of the Smithsonian Books proposal he’s working on, tentatively titled The Time-Traveler's Guide to the 19th Century. We spent hours looking for late 18th through early 20th century images with a “steampunk” feel that could illustrate the fictitious text about a time traveler’s encounters with James Smithson. This proved more challenging than it sounds, considering that steampunk is a very recent invention that relies on anachronistic technologies. Although we came across many images that we found hard to believe existed, Jules Verne and the World's Fairs tended to appear the most in our selections.

 Cover of Jules Verne, the World's Greatest Prophet
 
View of the Exhibition of Ancient and Modern Mexico
 
 In March I transferred to the Libraries’ Research Annex in Maryland to organize boxes of paperwork related to special exhibits. I created a filing system that will help employees working on exhibitions to sort out what paperwork should be kept and what should be disposed of. These files ranged from the 1970s through the present. Papers could usually be sorted into one of about 10 categories, although there were thousands of sheets to sort relating to nearly every exhibit over the past 30 years.

In April, I moved out to the Dibner Library, the Libraries' rare book collection for the history of science and technology, and began enhancing catalog entries for the Heralds of Science collection. It’s been a treat to go through that collection, searching for details that might distinguish one copy of an edition from another. While there I’ve learned about gilt-tooled spines with brown leather labels, headpieces, tailpieces, initials, and marbled endpapers and edges, though I still haven’t learned enough Latin to read some of the titles. I wrote a blog entry during my time there in which I examined Johann Prüss’s Ortus Sanitatis.

  Prüss' Ortus Santatis

I only got about halfway through the collection before moving to the Book Conservation Lab at the beginning of May. There I worked on the general collections with Phu Pham, doing paper repair, mixing wheat paste, sizing and folding boxes, creating enclosures, and shipping books out after work was completed.

I worked in the Book Conservation Lab until mid-June, when I returned to Dibner to finish work on the Heralds catalog entries. Once I completed that project, I worked on various other projects such as editing desiderata lists and cleaning recent acquisitions for my last couple of weeks at the Smithsonian. My final assignment was to go through dealer catalogues with collection growth and management in mind.

It’s been a busy few months, but I’ve learned many skills here that will help me as I enter library school at the University of North Carolina next month and continue on my career path.

—Betsy Hagerty, Smithsonian Libraries intern

CUA SLIS 2011 Students Tour

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19 students and their two instructors from the Catholic University’s Art and Museum Libraries Institute were treated to a tour of the Museum Support Center (MSC) and the National Museum of American Indian’s Cultural Resources Center (NMAI/CRC) on Tuesday, July 27. Of course the libraries from both Centers were highlighted in the tours. This is the third consecutive year that the Libraries' two Suitland-based librarians have hosted this group.

IMG_0876

The MSC tour started at the MSC Library for a quick intro by MSC/NMNH librarian Gil Taylor on how the Libraries is meeting the challenges of 21st century library services. The group then was treated to a visit to the Museum Conservation Institute, expertly guided by MCI Tech Info Specialist Ann N’Gadi. At MCI, E. Keats Webb gave a tour of the MCI Imaging Studio, Mehdi Moini showed off some of his sophisticated and expensive analytical equipment. HaeMin Park and Jia-sun Tsang explained about the Paintings Studio with some real-life examples and then Don Williams regaled with the history of various furniture pieces under restoration. The group headed to wet-storage unit Pod 5 and were told many scientific fish tales by Dr. Jeff Williams, and included a look-see with a celebrity fish, the coelacanth. Afterwards, NMNH Collections Support staffer Joel Allen hosted a visit to the huge Pod 4 holdings, and detailed the careful care needed to store a myriad of fascinating objects of all sizes.

Following lunch at the MSC cafe, the group moved on to the NMAI/CRC where they had a general tour of the building led by NMAI Librarian, Lynne Altstatt. This tour included the indoor ceremonial area (which is the only room at the Smithsonian where you can light a fire), the NMAI Conservation Lab (where several Mellon fellows talked about their current projects), and the NMAI Library. At the library, the students were given information packets with materials for both the NMAI Library and the Smithsonian Institution Libraries. Lynne discussed the histories of the NMAI and the NMAI Library and also talked about the role of the Libraries at the Smithsonian. Several of the CUA students are hoping for library careers in a museum environment so there were several lively question and answer periods during the tour.  It is always a pleasure to work with such enthusiastic guests.

Check the Libraries' Flickr site for some more MSC tour photos.

—Lynne Altstatt and Gil Taylor

Congratulations Doug!

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Douglas Litts has been appointed Supervisory Librarian of the Smithsonian American Art/National Portrait Gallery (AAPG) Library. Doug has been serving as the acting Supervisory Librarian at AAPG for more than a year, and before that time was a Reference Librarian at the AAPG Library.

NPG020

Prior to coming to the Smithsonian, Doug was Director of the Corcoran Museum Library for several years. Doug currently serves on many Libraries committees, chairs the AAPG Library Advisory Committee, and is co-editor of ARLIS/NA Reviews. His knowledge of art resources and new technologies in accessing information, as well as his ability to effectively provide a high level of service to researchers, are great assets to the AAPG Library.

Please give him a warm welcome!

—Stephen Van Dyk, photo by Sam Schubert