Smithsonian Libraries and Archives / Unbound

Code4Lib Conference in Raleigh

May 5, 2014

"Inside the Personal Computer" — “Inside the Personal Computer”

Code4Lib is many things. It is an IRC Channel, a hashtag on twitter, and of course an annual conference. The group is comprised of programmers, libraries and librarians, designers, curators, and many other types of people who work to support their libraries, archives, and museums (more info on what Code4Lib is all about). The annual conference of the meeting of the minds (as I like to call it) has been happening once a year since 2006. The conference was held in Raleigh, NC this year and was from March 24-27. As one of the resident computer nerds here at the Smithsonian Libraries, I was fortunate enough to be chosen by the powers that be to attend the conference this year and represent the Libraries.

MayDay – What’s in our disaster kit?

Erin Rushing

May 1, 2014

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Each year archives, libraries, museums, and arts and historic preservation organizations set aside May 1 to participate in MayDay, an initiative created by Heritage Preservation to protect cultural heritage from disasters. Organizations are encouraged to do one thing for emergency preparedness. This year, the Libraries would like to share with you the content of our Emergency Response Kits.

The Fix – The Do’s and Don’ts in Caring for Paper Based Collections

Katie Wagner

April 28, 2014

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We field a lot of questions in the Book Conservation Lab about caring for personal collections. In the spirit of Preservation Week here are some answers to some of our Frequently Asked Questions. If you have additional questions we have a live “Ask Our Book Conservator Anything” April 30^th from 12-2 PM!

Three cheers for our volunteers!

Erin Rushing

April 25, 2014

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April is Volunteer Appreciation Month and boy, do we ever appreciate our wonderful volunteers! The dozens of volunteers placed with us at the Smithsonian Libraries truly help us run. They include students, professionals, retirees and even former Libraries staff members. Here are a few special volunteers who help make our organization great. A heart-felt “thank you” to each and every one, as well as all of the other amazing folks behind the scenes!

Alternative Journal Purchasing Model

Alvin Hutchinson

April 23, 2014

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ramelli book wheel — Augustino Ramelli’s book wheel was designed to allow one reader to easily access content from multiple sources. A 16th century notion of dicing up and delivering information.

At a recent Open Access Futures presentation, speaker Rick Anderson noted that the music industry has moved from selling CDs to selling individual songs and he wondered whether academic journals might do the same. In other words, what if libraries one day stopped subscribing to scholarly journals but instead bought individual articles one at a time, in response to immediate needs by researchers?

1964: Fountains, Fireworks, Fifty Years Ago – a World’s Fair

Elizabeth Broman

April 21, 2014

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World's Fair steel replica of the planet earth — Unisphere, by day and by night, at the 1964-65 New York World’s fair. New York World’s Fair 1964-1965 Corporation. Official souvenir book of the New York World’s Fair, 1965. West Nyack, N.Y.: Dexter Press, c1965. Smithsonian Libraries. T786 1964 .C1

The Cooper-Hewitt Library has a large collection of over 2,000 World’s fair catalogues and books. Many are the official guidebooks that visitors could purchase with descriptions of pavilions and that helped locate sights and other points of interest. As a teenager, my mother had loved the 1939 World’s fair, so that when it came to New York City again in 1964-65, she wanted to see another World’s fair and have us children experience the same excitement and wonder.

Library Hacks: Automate the Web

Richard Naples

April 18, 2014

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Library Hacks: Automate the Web

If you find yourself repeating the same task over and over again while online, then you might benefit from some of these helpful tools! Whether you’d like to automate something between different web services or speed up your routine web duties, there is bound to be something here that could help! Below are three different kinds of services out there to help speed up and automate tasks performed routinely on the web.