http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/03/07/long-extinct-heath-hen-comes-life-archival-film/X9zKEdB6dvH71Pt6rB2tFL/video.html

Via http://www.hr-lavater.ch/

Dear all:

I am glad to announce that the European Commission has given one of its annual prestigious “Europa Nostra” awards – the only one going to Germany this year (cf http://www.europanostra.org/laureates-2014/) – to the Friends’ Organisation (Förderverein) of the Church Library of St Mary’s in Barth (NE Germany), for which I am serving as a member of the Advisory Board.

The library, located in the small town of Barth near the Baltic Sea and first mentioned in 1398, is one of the oldest parish libraries in Germany, certainly the oldest still existing in the exact same place where it was founded more than 600 years ago. Among its holdings are a dozen or so medieval manuscripts, ca 130 incunabula, and thousands of rare books, most of which have yet to be properly catalogued and will also require enormous conservation efforts. The gothic room where the books are kept was restored in the past couple of years with extraordinary support from the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach-Stiftung, Essen, and was reopened in March, 2013.

The statement of the jury (in English) can be found here: http://www.europanostra.org/awards/127/, with link to the Friends website at www.barthbibliothek.de, photos and a short film. For further information (the library can be visited “on demand”), please contact the Förderverein at http://www.barthbibliothek.de/kontakt.html. General information about St Mary’s church (in German) at http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/St.-Marien-Kirche_(Barth).

Thanks, have a good weekend,
Falk

Dr. Falk Eisermann (Exlibris-L)

"A new British Library collaboration called the Virtual Mappa project is well under way, using digital images of a selection of medieval world maps - mappaemundi - and some excellent new annotation software (more on that at a later date). High-resolution images of these maps will be available online for public use, with transcribed and translated text, notes, links to outside resources and other tools for understanding these marvellous mappaemundi". - See more at: http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/magnificentmaps/2014/03/good-news-for-fans-of-medieval-maps.html#sthash.HyJ8BX1X.dpuf"

http://blog.flickr.net/en/2014/03/16/welcome-the-library-company-of-philadelphia-to-the-commons/

"All requests for information copied from films, book pages, CDs, marriage, death or birth certificates, wills and/or deeds, etc. will be copied in digital format and emailed to patrons in a zipped PDF or JPG file format. There is no charge for this service if we are able to email to information to patrons."

https://familysearch.org/blog/en/policy-change-patrons-requesting-photocopies-family-history-library-salt-lake-city-utah/

"The World War I Pamphlet Collection at the University of Pennsylvania consists of just over 400 titles drawn from the general stacks at Van Pelt library. These pamphlets, many of them brittle and no longer fit for circulation, all deal with the First World War, its origins or aftermath. Out of this collection, more than 200 have been digitized and are made available here in Print at Penn. "

http://dla.library.upenn.edu/dla/print/index.html

"A spokeswoman from the National Archives said everyone was evacuated from the building safely and no documents were damaged"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-26208830

Overholt, John H. 2013. Five theses on the future of special collections.RMB: A Journal of Rare Books, Manuscripts, and Cultural Heritage 14(1):15-20

http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:10601790

When we claim copyright over our digital collections, or impose permission fees or licensing terms on users, we are arguably misrepresenting the law, and certainly violating one of the central ethical tenets of the profession:to promote the free dissemination of information. And, when those conditions are demanded by donors, we ought to consider whether we can accept collectionsunder such circumstances.

http://svpow.com/2014/02/03/if-harry-potter-was-an-academic-work/

Brilliant!