English Corner
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6468410.html
Last week, Iraq's National Library and Archive (INLA), who had been burned and looted four years ago, was stormed by armed Iraqi security forces, Director Saad Eskander said windows and doors were smashed, and staffers threatened during the two-day siege. He had to plead with them to not damage the library’s collections, which include rare books, manuscripts, and newspapers from the Arab world. While an Iraqi Defense Ministry spokesman said American and Iraqi forces routinely commandeer houses and buildings as part of military operations, ABC News reported, Eskander said the National Library and Archives should be out of bounds.
The soldiers said they were using the library to protect Shiite worshippers on their way to a shrine—which is more than 15 miles away, Eskander pointed out with skepticism. "In July, U.S. soldiers entered the INLA three times. It seems clear to me that the actions of U.S. soldiers have encouraged Iraqi national guards to do the same," he wrote, in an e-mail sent to Andy Stephens of the British Library, and circulated further by Stephens.
In a statement, the International Organizations Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) and International Council on Archives (ICA) noted "with grave concern" Eskander’s reports, also citing an earlier incident in which an American "military patrol entered INLA's main building without the director's permission." The organizations stated, "IFLA and ICA express professional solidarity with Dr Eskander and his staff and call upon the Government of Iraq and the appropriate military authorities to respect the integrity of this important cultural institution."
See also:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2145707,00.html
Excerpt:
Like Iraq's national museum, the library and archive was badly damaged in the chaos that gripped Baghdad following the collapse of Saddam's regime. Large parts were gutted by arsonists, and pillaged by looters. More seriously, the library estimated it lost 25% of its collections, including many rare books, while the archive lost 60% of its collections, including irreplaceable records from the Ottoman era.
See also:
http://www.bl.uk/iraqdiary07.html
http://www.iraqnla.org/wpeng/
Last week, Iraq's National Library and Archive (INLA), who had been burned and looted four years ago, was stormed by armed Iraqi security forces, Director Saad Eskander said windows and doors were smashed, and staffers threatened during the two-day siege. He had to plead with them to not damage the library’s collections, which include rare books, manuscripts, and newspapers from the Arab world. While an Iraqi Defense Ministry spokesman said American and Iraqi forces routinely commandeer houses and buildings as part of military operations, ABC News reported, Eskander said the National Library and Archives should be out of bounds.
The soldiers said they were using the library to protect Shiite worshippers on their way to a shrine—which is more than 15 miles away, Eskander pointed out with skepticism. "In July, U.S. soldiers entered the INLA three times. It seems clear to me that the actions of U.S. soldiers have encouraged Iraqi national guards to do the same," he wrote, in an e-mail sent to Andy Stephens of the British Library, and circulated further by Stephens.
In a statement, the International Organizations Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) and International Council on Archives (ICA) noted "with grave concern" Eskander’s reports, also citing an earlier incident in which an American "military patrol entered INLA's main building without the director's permission." The organizations stated, "IFLA and ICA express professional solidarity with Dr Eskander and his staff and call upon the Government of Iraq and the appropriate military authorities to respect the integrity of this important cultural institution."
See also:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2145707,00.html
Excerpt:
Like Iraq's national museum, the library and archive was badly damaged in the chaos that gripped Baghdad following the collapse of Saddam's regime. Large parts were gutted by arsonists, and pillaged by looters. More seriously, the library estimated it lost 25% of its collections, including many rare books, while the archive lost 60% of its collections, including irreplaceable records from the Ottoman era.
See also:
http://www.bl.uk/iraqdiary07.html
http://www.iraqnla.org/wpeng/
KlausGraf - am Dienstag, 14. August 2007, 19:11 - Rubrik: English Corner
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Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson; Compiled with Annotations by E. Millicent Sowerby. Washington, D. C., The Library of Congress, 1952-59. (5 volumes).
Digitized at:
http://www.loc.gov/rr/rarebook/coll/130.html
Digitized at:
http://www.loc.gov/rr/rarebook/coll/130.html
KlausGraf - am Dienstag, 14. August 2007, 01:12 - Rubrik: English Corner
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http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2007/08/08/mclemee
We’re taking it step by step. Our first goal is to get catalog information for every book — a big project in itself. We’ve been calling all the publishers and national libraries and research libraries to get copies of their catalogs (we’d love readers’ help with this, by the way!) and then we’re working on algorithms
to integrate all that data into one coherent site.
After that, we want to work on improving the book-reading interface for books that we have scans of. We’re hoping to make the scanned text into a wiki as well, so that people can fix typos and correct errors in our processing (OCR) of the scan. We’d also like to think about new ways that people can work with a book’s full text online and what the proper interface for that should be. And, of course, we want to think about ways we can get more books scanned. One idea is a “Scan this book” button on every out-of-copyright book, where for $50 to $100, we’ll page the book from a library, deliver it to the scanners, and then email you a PDF of the book and put the full text online, with a little nameplate thanking you for funding it.
And then, of course, we want to expand beyond just books. We’re eager to do the same thing with journal articles: one open site where we list every journal article, all the journal articles by a particular author, sorts by subject and topic, the abstracts and references, and links to places where you can find a full text copy. I just got back from a science conference and the folks I talked to there loved the idea. And after that there’s music and movies, naturally.
We’re taking it step by step. Our first goal is to get catalog information for every book — a big project in itself. We’ve been calling all the publishers and national libraries and research libraries to get copies of their catalogs (we’d love readers’ help with this, by the way!) and then we’re working on algorithms
to integrate all that data into one coherent site.
After that, we want to work on improving the book-reading interface for books that we have scans of. We’re hoping to make the scanned text into a wiki as well, so that people can fix typos and correct errors in our processing (OCR) of the scan. We’d also like to think about new ways that people can work with a book’s full text online and what the proper interface for that should be. And, of course, we want to think about ways we can get more books scanned. One idea is a “Scan this book” button on every out-of-copyright book, where for $50 to $100, we’ll page the book from a library, deliver it to the scanners, and then email you a PDF of the book and put the full text online, with a little nameplate thanking you for funding it.
And then, of course, we want to expand beyond just books. We’re eager to do the same thing with journal articles: one open site where we list every journal article, all the journal articles by a particular author, sorts by subject and topic, the abstracts and references, and links to places where you can find a full text copy. I just got back from a science conference and the folks I talked to there loved the idea. And after that there’s music and movies, naturally.
KlausGraf - am Donnerstag, 9. August 2007, 16:57 - Rubrik: English Corner
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KlausGraf - am Donnerstag, 9. August 2007, 16:39 - Rubrik: English Corner
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KlausGraf - am Donnerstag, 9. August 2007, 02:38 - Rubrik: English Corner
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KlausGraf - am Donnerstag, 9. August 2007, 02:29 - Rubrik: English Corner
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In short, choosing to use PDF rather than HTML tends to make the content less open than it otherwise could be. That feels wrong to me, especially for an open access journal!
http://efoundations.typepad.com/efoundations/2007/08/open-online-jou.html
I agree!
http://efoundations.typepad.com/efoundations/2007/08/open-online-jou.html
I agree!
KlausGraf - am Mittwoch, 8. August 2007, 22:58 - Rubrik: English Corner
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http://museum.unc.edu/
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is the nation's oldest state university, with a rich history of more than two centuries. This virtual museum retells that history much as a physical museum might do, with texts and images arranged in a series of roughly chronological exhibits.
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is the nation's oldest state university, with a rich history of more than two centuries. This virtual museum retells that history much as a physical museum might do, with texts and images arranged in a series of roughly chronological exhibits.
KlausGraf - am Dienstag, 7. August 2007, 22:47 - Rubrik: English Corner
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The Washington Post reports on a decision of the D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty that the majority of the city's electronic messages should be destroyed after six months.
KlausGraf - am Freitag, 3. August 2007, 21:25 - Rubrik: English Corner
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KlausGraf - am Freitag, 3. August 2007, 01:22 - Rubrik: English Corner
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