Dear Exlibrians,

Yesterday an initiative has been launched for saving the collection of the Archivbibliothek at Stralsund. To the holdings of the municipal archive of this town belongs the socalled Gymnasialbibliothek and other collections. The city council of Stralsund decided secretly to sell at auction many thousand books from this particular collection. Stralsund and Wismar are former Hanseatic cities which have been placed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2002. Only a few days ago the decision of the city council and the actual sale of books became known.

Dr. Klaus Graf (RWTH, Aachen) is active in promoting a petition to save the books at Stralsund. You can follow the petition "Rettet die Stralsunder Archivbibliothek" started by Philipp Maas, https://www.openpetition.de/petition/online/rettet-die-stralsunder-archivbibliothek, at Graf's blog http://archiv.twoday.net/ or in his tweets (@Archivalia_kg). The public opinion in Germany awakes to discuss the actions of the city council of Stralsund. Join the petition, send your comments to Stralsund, and create a momentum to turn the Causa Stralsund into directions which serve cultural heritage and the existence of priceless collections.

Your sincerely,

Otto Vervaart [...]
NL - 3561 JM Utrecht
Netherlands

Update: Translation of the whole petition
http://pommern.tumblr.com/post/35350417178/petition

Via
http://boingboing.net/2012/09/22/save-the-canadian-national-arc.html

November 2012, The Royal Library opens an experimental service, which will be available until the end of 2014. The offer is primarily directed at scholars, but is open to everybody. Books from the National Collection of Danish books, is normally only available for use in The Royal Library's reading room. But now, a digital copy can be ordered with just a few clicks, and at no charge. The project has to purposes:

- to make older Danish prints available for everybody;
- to minimize wear and tear on the original.

Books, that have been digitized, is available online for everybody, so that everyone can have access to their own digital copy of Danish classics, such as the printed works H. C. Andersen or Søren Kierkegaard.

And it is easy: you find the title in REX (the OPAC of The Royal Library), ask for it to be digitized, and when it is ready for use, you will receive an e-mail with a link. Note that only monographs are included in the offer, not periodicals or newspapers.

http://www.kb.dk/en/nb/samling/dod/index.html

Jackie Dooley blogged: " .... Shades of Katrina, Rita, Irene, and the other [un]natural disasters that have struck the U.S. over the past decade. We all undoubtedly have friends and colleagues in New Jersey and New York who are struggling to dig their archives out from under water, mud, and garbage, after which they’ll begin recovery procedures for materials that aren’t beyond hope. No doubt some of you will be on the front lines with them as the archival community pulls together once again to help each other out.

I’m here with a plea: please find it in your hearts to help build SAA’s Disaster Recovery Fund for Archives. Even the smallest amounts will be gratefully welcomed. We do have some funds, but they’ll be depleted quickly once grant requests begin to flow in. Donate here.

We stand ready to award initial grants of $2,000 to those who complete the simple application process. It’s not much, but every bit helps. One option is to have the funds sent directly to a vendor once the institution has an invoice in hand. Go here to learn more about the grants.

I’ve been communicating with lots of colleagues in the affected areas and learned today that the New York State Archives Disaster Response Team already has mobilized in a big way. They’re reaching out to a wide range of institutions, many of which haven’t yet been able to assess conditions because they can’t gain access to their collections–nor do some have electrical power, which means they can’t even make telephone or email contact. The waiting must be excruciating. ....."

"The Internet Archive, working with the Leo Baeck Institute, is pleased to be a part of the Oct 16, 2012 launch of their DigiBaeck project, a massive (formerly print) archival collection of history pertaining to German speaking Jewry."

via Blog of Internet Archive:
http://blog.archive.org/2012/10/15/launch-of-the-digibaeck-project

Archival materials from the Leo Baeck Institute:
http://archive.org/details/LeoBaeckInstitute

Robin Pogrebin: Archive of Jewish Life in Central Europe Going Online
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/09/archive-of-jewish-life-in-central-europe-going-online/

From the Exlibris-List:

The GW database was updated on Oct 5, and here’s (some of) the news:

-- New entries since last “news” message to Exlibris (June 26)

GW 0130650N Almanach auf das Jahr 1475(?), lat. [Augsburg: Anton Sorg]. Broadside
ISTC ia00491770.
Wolfenbüttel HerzogAugustB (Fragment).
http://gesamtkatalogderwiegendrucke.de/docs/GW0130650N.htm (source: Wolfenbüttel)

GW 0633850N Cato, deutsch. [Speyer]: K[onrad] Hist, [um 1497]. 4°
http://gesamtkatalogderwiegendrucke.de/docs/GW0633850N.htm
The copy, formerly in Czech private ownership, is now in the library of the National Museum, Prague (source: Richard Sipek, NM Prague)

GW 0267250N L’Art et science d’arithmétique. Paris: Michel Toulouse, [nicht nach 1496]. 8°
CRF XVIII 45. ISTC ia01140600.
Paris EcBeauxArts.
http://gesamtkatalogderwiegendrucke.de/docs/GW0267250N.htm (source: CRF)

GW M1665050 Laet, Jaspar: Prognostikon auf das Jahr 1499 [Dutch]. Antwerpen: [Govert Bac, nicht vor 8.IV.1498]. 4°
ISTC il00022040.
Brussel BR (Bl. 1 def.).
http://gesamtkatalogderwiegendrucke.de/docs/M1665050.htm (source: Renaud Adam’s paper in Gutenberg-Jahrbuch 2012, pp. 157-64, and personal communication)

GW M2037833 Mancinus, Dominicus: De passione Christi. Daran: Oratio ad virginem. [Paris: Ulrich Gering, um 1484]. 4°
Glasgow UL.
http://gesamtkatalogderwiegendrucke.de/docs/M2037833.htm (source: Glasgow Incunabula Project: http://www.gla.ac.uk/services/specialcollections/incunabulaproject/a-zofauthorsa-j/mancinusdominicuscarmendepassionechristiparisca1484/#d.en.193491

M3404750 Plenarium, lat. Epistolare et evangeliare per totum annum de tempore et de sanctis. [Köln: Hermann Bungart, um 1498]. 4°
Trier StB (Bl. 1 u. 52 fehlen)
http://gesamtkatalogderwiegendrucke.de/docs/M3404750.htm, provisional description (source: Anne-Beate Riecke, Berlin SB, personal communication)


Furthermore:
-- Entries containing links to one or more digitised copies: 11,697
-- A recent online article about the re-dating of what was hitherto considered a 16th-century edition (GW M2046350): Shaw, David J.: “An Unidentified French Incunable: Sir John Mandeville, Le lapidaire en francoys [Lyon, c. 1495–1496]”, Electronic British Library Journal 2012, Article 6 = http://www.bl.uk/eblj/2012articles/article6.html
-- Finally, one of the outstanding incunabula from our own collection has been digitized: the Hebrew Bible GW 4200, Brescia 1494 (shelfmark 4° Inc 2840), with plenty of notes by Martin Luther who owned this copy and used it for his translation of the Bible. The digi is brand new and not yet cross-referenced in GW. URL: http://resolver.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/SBB000099B400000000

Best, Falk

Dr. Falk Eisermann
Referatsleiter
Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz
Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke / Inkunabelsammlung

http://googleblog.blogspot.fr/2012/10/bringing-history-to-life.html

"Today you can discover 42 new online historical exhibitions telling the stories behind major events of the last century, including Apartheid, D-Day and the Holocaust. The stories have been put together by 17 partners including museums and cultural foundations who have drawn on their archives of letters, manuscripts, first-hand video testimonials and much more. Much of the material is very moving—and some is on the Internet for the first time. "

Quoting the mailing list EXLIBRIS:

The latest news concerning the Gerolamini library affaire which has been reported in the media, has resulted in ALAI, according to its statutes, suspending Luca Cableri (Studio Bibliografico Wunderkammer) from membership.

Furthermore we have been informed that others may be involved in the case, including non-ILAB booksellers Stephane Del Salle and Maurizio Bifolco. The Italian association invites all ILAB members who purchased material from these persons (or from Massimo De Caro) from Spring 2011 onwards to contact:

Colonello Raffaele Mancino (Mail from ALAI council)

Mail from Jennifer Lowe:

On October 3rd, four more individuals were arrested for alleged involvement in the De Caro scandal, and the investigation has made progress in determining their specific roles in the operation. According to the investigation, Father Sandro Marsano, 38, former curator of the Girolamini Library, would allow people identified by De Caro to select and take away the volumes; he has been placed under house arrest. In custody are three others: Stephane Delsalle, 38, a French citizen and an expert in antiquarian books, who would allegedly work with De Caro to select the most important titles to put on the market in Italy and abroad. Maurizio Bifolco, 65, of Rome, would allegedly sell the volumes to buyers and collect and distribute the proceeds among the suspects. Finally, Luca Cableri, 39, of Udine, proprietor of Studio Bibliografico Wunderkammer, is alleged to have targeted the auction house Zisska and Schauer as a seller through which to funnel hundreds of books purloined from the Girolamini. (You will recall that Zisska recalled these books before their sale.)

The Corriere del Mezzogiorno reported this here: http://corrieredelmezzogiorno.corriere.it/napoli/notizie/cronaca/2012/3-ottobre-2012/furto-all-biblioteca-girolamini-4-arresti-c-anche-sacerdote-2112082635692.shtml

Yesterday, La Repubblica Napoli reported that the investigation found that two volumes from the Girolamini Library (by Leon Battista Alberti and Giambattista Vico) had been transferred by De Caro to Senator Marcello Dell’Utri, known bibliophile and organizer of the Milan Antiquarian Book Fair.

http://napoli.repubblica.it/cronaca/2012/10/04/news/finirono_a_marcello_dell_utri_2_libri_sottratti_ai_girolamini-43840078/

Finally, today it was reported by TG1 Online that De Caro, during a visit to the National Library of Naples in his role as advisor to the Minister of Cultural Heritage, allegedly stole a copy of the Sidereus nuncius of Galileo, printed in 1610, and substituted a forgery in its place. This article also expands on the possible role of former curator Fr. Sandro Marsano in the plundering of the Girolamini. Marsano’s interrogation is scheduled for Monday.

http://www.tg1.rai.it/dl/tg1/2010/articoli/ContentItem-7a13b33f-06a9-4d49-b082-8b9075032fb5.html?refresh_ce

Addendum by Lowe:

Il Mattino reports that De Caro has confessed to working with Stephane Delsalle to ransack other Italian libraries, including the library of Don Provolo of Verona from 1999-2000, the biblioteca capitolare di Padova between 2003 and 2005, the seminario di Verona in 2009 or 2010 and the Abbey of Montecassino on several occasions.

http://www.ilmattino.it/napoli/citta/inchiesta_girolamini_laquocentinaia_di_libri_rubati_dal_direttore_in_altre_biblioteche_sostitui_un_volume_con_un_fac_simileraquo/notizie/223716.shtml

See here
http://archiv.twoday.net/search?q=girolamini

Update:
http://www.corriere.it/cronache/12_ottobre_08/quel-saccheggio-continuo-predatore-libri-gian-antonio-stella_081d7b72-110c-11e2-b61f-b7b290547c92.shtml

Historians Ask the Public to Help Organize the Past

http://chronicle.com/article/Historians-Ask-the-Public-to/134054/

"The challenge now for scholars is navigating the new world of crowdsourcing"

See also here in Archivalia
http://archiv.twoday.net/search?q=crowds

Geneva 1 October 2012. Representatives from the science funding agencies and library communities of 29 countries are meeting at CERN1 today to launch the SCOAP32 Open Access initiative. Open Access revolutionizes the traditional scientific publishing model with scientific papers being made freely available to all, and publishers paid directly for their indispensable peer-review services to the community.

“It is gratifying to see how the model of international collaboration in particle physics has been applied to addressing the important societal issue of open access to scientific information,” said CERN Director General Rolf Heuer. “I am proud that CERN has contributed to exploring win-win solutions to this issue, which is important to both scientists and science policy makers the world over.”

“It has been very much like working on a CERN experiment,” added Salvatore Mele, head of Open Access at CERN, who has coordinated the initiative so far, “amazing collaboration from experts from all over the world, both volunteers from libraries and partners in the publishing industry, bringing together their different expertise and working together to build something never tried before.”

The objective of SCOAP3 is to grant unrestricted access to scientific articles appearing in scientific journals in the field of particle physics, which so far have only been available to scientists through certain university libraries, and generally unavailable to a wider public. Open dissemination of preliminary information, in the form of pre-peer review articles known as preprints, has been the norm in particle physics for two decades. SCOAP3 now brings the vital peer review service provided by journals into the Open Access world.

In the SCOAP3 model, libraries and funding agencies pool resources currently used to subscribe to journal content and use them to support the peer-review system directly instead. Journal publishers then make their articles Open Access, which means that anyone can read them. Authors retain the copyright, and generous licenses for re-use are used.

Publishers of 12 journals, accounting for the vast majority of articles in the field, have been identified for participation in SCOAP3 through an open and competitive process, and the SCOAP3 initiative looks forward to establishing more partnerships with key institutions in Europe, America and Asia as it moves through the technical steps of organizing the re-direction of funds from the current subscription model to a common internationally coordinated fund.

SCOAP3 expects to be operational for articles published as of 2014. (http://press.web.cern.ch/)