"The Prime Minister of Canada has announced changes in the senior ranks of the Public Service including the appointment of Dr. Daniel J. Caron as the new Librarian and Archivist of Canada. Dr. Caron has served at Library and Archives Canada since its creation, most recently as Senior Assistant Deputy Minister. In addition to his years at Library and Archives Canada and before that at the National Archives of Canada, he has held numerous positions in his 27-year career within the federal public service. Dr. Caron's appointment is effective Monday, April 27, 2009 "
Link:
http://xrefer.blogspot.com/2009/04/appointment-of-new-librarian-and.html
s. http://canadagenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/04/dr-daniel-j-caron-canadas-new-librarian.html

published on Salon Jewish Studies Blog ( http://board-js.blogspot.com/2009/04/summary-cologne-archives-collapse-xiv.html)

Invitation for all donors of private collections (KStA via Archivalia)
The City of Cologne will invite all donors of private collections and depositaries to the Piazetta in the City Hall on May 11th. The head of the department, Gisela Fleckenstein explains the late date with the task to organize 10 (shelf) m of contracts to find out what the archive holds (held) and who are the depositaries. Fleckenstein says: „In case we forgot somebody, please feel invited.“

Recovery process already finished at the end of May? (KstA via Archivalia)
After a short Easter break, the fire department Cologne and the Federal Agency for Technical Relief continue their work at the collapsed building in Severinstraße. This week the volunteer fire department Aachen is helping. The mountain of rubble decreases every day. “It could be possible that we will be finished at the end of May” notes the speaker of the fire department, Günter Weber, but he also limits: “We do not know exactly how further it goes into the depth.”
A special driller, that transports rock specimens from up to 50 m depth, was used to examine the condition of the ground. “This way you can find out if there is more rubble in the depth“, reports Weber. In the meantime, exvacators pull down the backside of the former CHA building, remains of the reading room and the offices.
Nearly half of the former 30 (shelf) km have been recovered in different conditions. “It will take years to restore and sort the documents“, said Gisela Fleckenstein. “Die several papers and collections are one big mess.“

What do we learn from Cologne Historical Archive's collapse? (Die Welt via Archivalia)
" ..... that we must deal with our history more careful. This is not about a building in Cologne that collapsed but about our historical memory. Therefore this collapse is a societal problem, in which the politics has got more involved. Knowledge and concepts exist, only financing is missing. In general, we need a wider awareness of our archives, for they store our history and make it researchable…” , said Jochen Hermel (Institute for History, University of Bonn; Hermel works on his PhD thesis about integration of migrants to the City of Cologne in the 16th and the beginning 17th century)

http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/2009/04/open-access-tracking-project-oatp.html
http://www.connotea.org/tag/oa.new

I do not have a Connotea account - I tagged Open Access developments in Delicious and was content with this choice. I think my collection of 40+ links on the advantages of Open Access for monographs (supporting sales) is unique:

http://delicious.com/Klausgraf/monograph_open_access

Like the OAD Wiki http://oad.simmons.edu/oadwiki/Main_Page for OA related lists the colloborative bookmarking project Suber has started now is a step in the right (Web 2.0) direction.

Delicious has much more "impact" outside the scholarly world. It would be nice if a service could be established that weblinks with a certain tag (e.g. oa.news) in Delicious would also saved at Connotea (and vice versa).

Unfortunately, Suber's "Open Access News" has only ONE tag, i.e.. "hot". Finding earlyer blog entries with Google's full text search seems easy only for the Suber/Baker team. Tagging the single blog entries would bring more precision. Thus it would be helpful all OAN entries would also be tagged at Connotea.

The new project has a clear advantage for the non-English OA community. Suber does a great and excellent work but there is a bulk of new developments or other news (like the German Reuß/OA debate with a lot of statements) outside the English speaking world he isn't able to blog (due information overflow or language reasons). I would think there are some German people who are willing to tag German OA news. This could be no substitution for Suber's amazing summaries/excerpts and his lucid commentaries I admire every day but may be it could become a German OA "news chronicle" which lacks until now. Neither Open Access.net nor Archivalia can do this job.

I do not use Zotero until now but I think it would be a good idea to connect the tracking project with Zotero. (it could he helpful to establish a tag for formal categories like blog entry or peer reviewed publikation on OA).

In short: This is not only "hot" (Suber's tag) but also a "big" opportunity. Good luck!

nternational Blue Shield mission: 27 APRIL TO 1 MAY
Wednesday, 15 April 2009 09:09

[ http://tinyurl.com/cbwq8s ]

EVERY ARCHIVIST, RESTORER OR HERITAGE PROFESSIONAL WHO IS WILLING TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS MISSION IS KINDLY BUT URGENTLY REQUESTED TO RESPOND AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE BY SENDING A REPLY EMAIL TO CONTACT@ANCBS.ORGThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it WITH THE CONTACT DETAILS REQUESTED BELOW.

International Blue Shield mission: 27 APRIL TO 1 MAY

Dear Colleagues,

The new Blue Shield international coordination center in The Hague received a request for support from Cologne, which we distributed among our relations and Dutch Archive institutes and professionals. We have received many responses from those who want to help.

Together with the National Archive and the Dutch Branch organization of Archive institutes (BRAIN) we made an inventory of people and institutes willing to help. Their offers keep coming in. We have received many responses from The Netherlands, but also from Belgium, France, the United States and the Czech Republic. In the first week of April a delegation went to Cologne to see how best to coordinate offers of assistance. The staff in Cologne gave us a warm welcome and we obtained detailed information and a thorough impression of the work that is in progress.

The delegation was very much impressed by the work that has been done so far. The process of searching and finding the material is taking place under extremely dangerous and difficult circumstances. It is therefore a tremendous achievement to have made such progress. It has not only surprised us it has also surprised the staff and volunteers of the Archive. The planning has been revised several times and has greatly progressed. The prognoses are that the first phase of the recovery process (separating material, storage, registration, first aid to the objects like cleaning and drying or preparing for further treatment) needs one more month, so this will end even before the summer holidays.

The delegation was also very impressed by the determination and the motivation of everyone at work. After a month of stress and extremely long working hours spirits seem unbroken, though the fatigue is showing. Firemen are still the only ones working on the slope, because of the dangerous conditions. They have a whole team working day in day out and they will stay until the slope is gone.

A coordinated mission is needed as soon as possible. It will be most helpful in this first phase of the recovery process if several teams work at the same time and on the same location. In accordance with the staff in Cologne we therefore decided to reschule schedule our mission for 27 APRIL TO 1 MAY. A coordinated mission will save time and energy for the Archive staff,who must make the necessary arrangements for each individual volunteer, including booking the accommodation, introduction, transport, etc.)

To prepare the mission we needed some time. We are fully aware that all professionals who indicated their willingness to help will need some time too and may have difficulty matching a busy agenda with this unforeseen early departure. Because of this we hereby call on every professional, whether they have already indicated their interest to join us or are deciding to do so, to support our hardworking colleagues of Cologne and make this first international Blue Shield mission a success.

International Blue Shield mission: 27 APRIL TO 1 MAYApplication:

send a completed (see below) reply email to the Blue Shield coordination Center in The Hague: contact@ancbs.orgThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Date: Monday, 27 April to 1 May (Note: 1 May is a holiday).

Tasks: Sorting material (rubble/collection), select dry and wet materials, clean, register, dry partly wet material and prepare other material for freeze-drying at other locations.

Transport to Cologne: A touring car will depart from The Hague on Monday morning, the 27th of April and will return on the 1st of May. All participants are welcome to join us, since there will be no charge for this. This service will not be beneficial to all participants (f.e. from other countries), whom we regret must arrange and pay for their own transport.

Transport within Cologne: Transport by shuttle bus from accomodation to the work locations will be arranged free of charge by the city of Cologne.

Accommodation: The city of Cologne offers all volunteers free accomodation, food, and beverages. May 1st is a holiday for the Archive. The touring car will return to The Hague in the afternoon to enable participants to visit Cologne.

Insurance: The city of Cologne has provided the Archive with insurance for all volunteers.More information: Please visit our website http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http://www.ancbs.org or attend our presentations (see below), in which we will provide you with more info about the actual situation in Cologne, the working conditions, tasks and facilities for the volunteers.

Monday April 20: The Hague, Nationaal Archief, Auditorium, 16.00 - 17.30 hrs.

Tuesday April 21: Nijmegen, Regionaal Archief Nijmegen,16.00 -17.30 hrs.

Saturday April 25 :s Hertogenbosch, Restauratiebeurs, 12.00 -13.00 hrs. the big theater----------------------------------------------------------------
Please fill in and send by return email to contact@ancbs.orgThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
YES / NO / NOT SURE Participate in the Blue Shield mission of Monday 27 April to Friday 1 May.
YES / NO Participate in the Blue Shield meeting at the Nationaal Archief
YES / NO Participate in the Blue Shield meeting at the Regionaal Archief Nijmegen
YES / NO Participate in the Blue Shield meeting at the Restauration fair in 's HertogenboschInstitution
Institution (Please send only one application form with all the names, if several members of your institute will join the mission):

.....................................................................
(Name(s): 1. .............................
2.................................
Etc. ...........................
Contact details: .........................................................................................................

Phonenumber (06 / direct).........................................
EACH PERSON OR INSTITUTE WHICH HAS ALREADY INDICATED THEIR WILLINGNESS TO HELP BUT IS UNABLE TO JOIN OUR MISSION DURING THIS PARTICULAR PERIOD IS ALSO KINDLY REQUESTED TO FILL IN THE NEW INFORMATION AND RETURN THIS EMAIL.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


On behalf of BRAIN, Nationaal Archief en Blue Shield,
Marjan Otter
Secretary ANCBS
00 31 (0)20 4632342

Association of National Committees of the Blue Shield (ANCBS)
Postal address:
ANCBS Office,
Laan van Meerdervoort 70
2517 AN The Hague,
The Netherlands
E mail address: contact@ancbs.orgThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Web address: http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http://www.ancbs.org
Telephone: 00 31 (0)70-3466161
Fax: 00 31 (0)70-3467232

http://illicit-cultural-property.blogspot.com/search/label/Deaccessioning

Important stuff!

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1287365

How Adopting the Lex Originis Rule Can Impede the Flow of Illicit Cultural Property

Derek Fincham
Loyola University New Orleans College of Law

Columbia Journal of Law and the Arts, Vol. 32, p. 111, 2008

Abstract:
The International trade and transfer of art and antiquities faces problems because nations have erected very different rules with respect to movable property. All nations forbid theft, however most cultural property disputes involve an original owner and a subsequent good faith possessor. Different jurisdictions have chosen to allocate rights and responsibilities between these two relative innocents in very different ways. Disharmony in the law is seldom a good thing, but in the realm of cultural property it can be particularly damaging to the interests of nations, museums, individuals, and our collective cultural heritage. The lack of harmony ensures no overarching policy choices will be furthered, which prevents parties from anticipating legal outcomes and giving substance to policies.

This article explores the default conflict of law rules which are applied to cultural property, and shows how the lex situs rule exploits the various legal rules which apply to art and antiquities. It challenges the lofty position enjoyed by the lex situs rule and proposes a radical reform of the default choice of law analysis. By employing the law of the Nation of Origin or lex originis courts can ensure the jurisdiction with the most tangible connection to an object enjoys the benefit of applying its legal rules to a given dispute. This will not only ensure the security of art and antiquities transactions, but impart much-needed transparency into the cultural property trade, and finally will decrease the theft and illegal excavation of art and antiquities.

The article begins by presenting some examples of recent disputes, and the problems they present for the law and cultural heritage policy. Section II describes the fundamental difficulty of adjudicating claims between two relative innocents, and the disharmony which has resulted as different jurisdictions have resolved this conundrum in very different ways. Section III lays out the ways in which private international law impacts art and antiquities disputes. Section IV analyzes the 1995 UNIDROIT Convention, the most recent attempt to harmonize the law affecting cultural property. Section V proposes a radical reform of the choice of law enquiry taken by courts.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dcplcommons/

It asks for identifications of the books.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/37244113@N08/sets/72157616462881853/