Valentine’s Day is a mere 24 hours away. Still in need of a gift for your sweetheart? Consider celebrating that someone special by adopting a book in their honor or memory. Every adoption includes a physical and online bookplate. Gifts go toward acquiring and conserving our rare books, so you leave a legacy of love for generations to come.
Author: Erin Rushing
Erin Clements Rushing is the Outreach Librarian for Smithsonian Libraries and Archives. She enjoys sharing the Libraries and Archives' treasures with new audiences and telling the stories from the stacks through various outreach efforts. She coordinates social media and the blog (Unbound), plans tours and manages the internship program. She also handles rights and reproductions for library collection images and acts as point person for copyright concerns. Erin holds an M.L.S from the University of Maryland, as well as a B.A. in History and Art History.
On February 26th, the Smithsonian Libraries will host a free lecture with Dr. David Carr, “Questions for an Open Cultural Institution: Thinking Together in Provocative Places”. To get to know Dr. Carr a bit better, we asked him a few questions and his insightful answers are below. We hope that you enjoy learning more about Dr. Carr and that you have the opportunity to join us (either in person or online) for his talk on the 26th!
The Smithsonian Field Book Project is showcasing Frederick William True in February. This post is part of a series of blogs and social media content from the Biodiversity Heritage Library, Pyenson Lab, Smithsonian Transcription Center,and Smithsonian Institution Archives, celebrating #FWTrueLove.The campaign will include a fascinating new transcription project and exciting behind-the-scenes opportunities! Learn more on the Field Books Project blog.
This post was written by Lilla Vekerdy, Head of Special Collections.
Recently, a class of book art- and art history students visited the Dibner Library of Science and Technology. Their professor, Kenneth Smith organized this “field trip” for his graduate course “The History of the Western Book” at the Corcoran Museum/George Washington University. The staff of the Dibner prepared a rare book display based on Professor Smith’s selection list, adding items in relation to the general description of the class.
Join us for a discussion with Dr. David Carr about the potential of, and challenges facing, a cultural institution in the modern age. Carr speaks, writes, and teaches about the value of cultural institutions as essential instruments for nourishing public imaginations in democratic societies. For thirty years, he has consulted in diverse American museums as an advocate for collaborative adult experiences with collections and ideas. Carr invites us to think with him about how an organization such as the Smithsonian can help ignite new ideas in its users and visitors and how those conversations can be continued long after the initial experience – regardless of whether that experience takes place in a physical or virtual space.
From June 24, 2014 – Jan 3, 2016, the Smithsonian Libraries presents “Once There Were Billions: Vanished Birds of North America”. The exhibition, on display in the National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC, focuses on the story of the last Passenger Pigeon, the disappearance of the Great Auk, Carolina Parakeet, and Heath Hen and how they reveal the fragile connections between species and their environment.
Now you can remember these four great birds while supporting the Smithsonian Libraries. Purchases of this shirt, which features iconic images of the extinct species, directly benefits programing for the Libraries’ exhibitions.
“We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.”
-Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution”. Speech given at the National Cathedral, March 31st, 1968.