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Smithsonian Libraries and Archives / Unbound

Research value? Taking the long view with weeding and digitizing at the AA/PG Library

Anne Evenhaugen
October 5, 2012
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The Real Latin Quarter

–This post was contributed by Kimberly Lesley, American Art and Portrait Gallery Library intern, summer 2012.

This summer I had the opportunity to work on two projects at the Smithsonian American Art Museum/National Portrait Gallery Library: evaluating titles from the print reference section and selecting public domain titles for digitization. The majority of time was spent on the former, evaluating once heavily relied upon indexes and reference titles against databases and open access online resources. As I paged through volumes of reference titles I was grateful for the vast amounts of information available online with a few keywords and a couple clicks.

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Interview with book artist Robin Price

Amanda Meeks
October 2, 2012
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Slurring at Bottom, four versions of Jim Lee’s page. Photo provided by Robin Price

Anything that comes into being by way of human creativity and artistic expression often includes imperfections. Sometimes the flaws are so subtle that they go unnoticed by everyone but the perfectionistic artist laboring over their creation. The process of making art, especially artists’ books, requires a great deal of emphasis on attention to detail (if you ask almost any book artist); there are many opportunities for mistakes along the way. Slurring at Bottom: A Printer’s Book of Errors (2001), was conceived by book artist and publisher Robin Price.

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Adopt-a-Book Event a Success!

Liz O'Brien
October 1, 2012
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A table full of adopted books.

The Smithsonian Libraries would like to thank all who attended and supported our first Adopt-a-Book event held at the Smithsonian Castle on Thursday, September 13. Over 25 books were adopted from our Cooper-Hewitt National Design Library, Joseph F. Cullman 3rd Library for Natural History, and the Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology.

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“Hidden Treasures” at the Heinz Center

Erin Rushing
September 28, 2012
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The post was written by Vanessa Haight Smith, book conservator and head of Preservation Services.

On August 19th, I participated in the fifth annual “Hidden Treasures” event at the SI affiliate, the Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh.  Visitors to the popular event are encouraged to bring their prized possessions  to the History Center and meet with professional appraisers as the local CBS affiliate, KDKA-TV, cameras roam the museum.

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Wikipedia Loves Libraries: Backstage at Smithsonian Libraries

Richard Naples
September 28, 2012
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Wikipedia LogoWikipedia is coming for a visit! On Friday, October 12, the Libraries, in cooperation with other Smithsonian units, will welcome local Wikipedia editors for a day full of creating and editing articles using Smithsonian Libraries resources. With American Archives Month, National Book Month, and Open Access Week, October lends itself to an event for Wikipedia Loves Libraries. In its second year, Wikipedia Loves Libraries is a campaign to bring Wikipedia and libraries together with on-site events, and help build lasting relationships between libraries and their local Wikipedian community. If you edit Wikipedia or want to learn how, we would love for you to come! Check out the Wikipedia Meetup page for more info.

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Facilitating SIL Digital Asset Preservation and Access

Erin Rushing
September 26, 2012
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This post was written by Jacqueline Chapman, a summer intern working on the Digital Asset Management System.

Being able to say that I work by “The Giant Snake” on the same floor as the Hope Diamond is pretty exciting – but what’s in the office is just as engaging as what surrounds it!

For my internship, I was tasked with developing a workflow for the ingest of image files into the Smithsonian’s relatively new Digital Asset Management System (DAMS).  My guide is meant to serve as a model for future SIL old media and legacy data ingest projects.  It describes the steps needed to bring previously scanned and photographed items together for retrieval, storage, and preservation. Long-term, the plan is for each Smithsonian digital image to be ‘backed up’ within the DAMS rather than on separate computers, hard drives, CDs, etc.  Additionally, the DAMS will serve as a central repository for digital images, searchable across the institution – facilitating inter-departmental image discovery and use in research, exhibitions, projects, and enterprise.

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