Archive for April, 2007
Please see below for a call for papers for the Model T Conference to be held at the Henry Ford in Dearborn next year. Sounds like it might be a good opportunity for some Michigan libraries to publicize their automotive collections and digitization projects!
The World of the Model T Conference
July 17-19, 2008
Dearborn and Detroit, Michigan
CALL FOR PAPERS
The Model T Automotive Heritage Complex (T-Plex), The Henry Ford, the Society of Automotive Historians, and Technology & Culture are seeking proposals for papers to be presented at a conference celebrating the centennial of the Model T Ford in July, 2008. Entitled “The World of the Model T,” the conference will explore the meaning, impact and influence of the Model T Ford in the United States and the world. Of interest to a wide range of people, from academics to lay historians to Model T collectors, the conference will be held July 17-19, 2008 at The Henry Ford, Dearborn, and the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant, Detroit, Michigan.
Proposals are invited on topics pertaining to the Model T’s design, manufacture, sales, and use. Also encouraged are papers exploring the Model T’s relationship to labor history, roads and highways, auto travel, suburbanization, energy, safety, public transportation, industrialization, and industrial archeology. Papers dealing with the Model T’s role in countries outside the United States are especially welcome.
Proposals should include the title of the submission, names and affiliation of the presenter, together with address, phone/fax numbers, e-mail address, proposed format (paper, panel, etc.), and a one-page abstract describing the content of the presentation. The deadline for proposals is September 1, 2007; notification of preliminary acceptance will be made by November 1, 2007. Proposals should be submitted to: Jerald Mitchell, Model T Automotive Heritage Complex, Inc., 140 Edison Avenue, Detroit, Michigan, 48202-1559; fax number 313-865-8504 or by
e-mail to jerald.mitchell@tplex.org. E-mail submissions are encouraged.
April 26th, 2007
In honor of National Library Week 2007, Thomson Gale is launching librareo, an online community for libraries and the people who love them. To start off the project with a big splash, librareo is hosting an “I Love My Library” video contest. The top prize is $10,000 to be split equally between the videomakers and a library of their choosing.
The press release invites library patrons to “make a video no shorter than 30 seconds but no longer than two-minutes professing a deep, abiding love of libraries, librarians and those who depend on them. Load the video to the librareo group on YouTube before midnight EST on Friday, May 25, 2007.”
Send in those videos!
April 19th, 2007
The Library of Congress (LC) has awarded the Washtenaw County Library for the Blind and Physically Disabled (LBPD) the first annual Network Subregional Library of the Year Award. Congratulations to librarians Margaret Wolfe and Mary Udoji!
LC’s National Library Service Director Frank Kurt Cylke said that the library has “demonstrated excellence as regional and subregional libraries respectively. They have raised the bar for providing community outreach and dependable service, and we celebrate their accomplishment.”
LC’s press release notes, “The LBPD in Ann Arbor was recognized for providing excellent service. The facility also seeks to sustain the social, emotional and intellectual health of people who are blind or live with low vision. For example, the library’s 10-year-old Book Lovers Club is a bimonthly forum allowing patrons to develop commonality and strengthen friendships. The library presents an open workshop, Braille Instruction and Blind Awareness, for people interested in learning Braille and about the lives of visually impaired people. In cooperation with University of Michigan students, the library developed the Many Ways of Seeing Workshop to help blind and visually impaired individuals create works of art. In addition the LBPD exhibition “Visions: What’s New in Technology for the Blind and Visually Impaired” has been a focal point for vendors, consumers and volunteers.”
This award is not the first for Washtenaw LPBD. In October 2006, the LPBD won the Michigan State Librarian’s Award of Excellence and in 2004, Margaret Wolfe won a librarian of the year award from the New York Times.
It is great to see a Michigan library honored with these well-deserved awards!
April 19th, 2007
Kevin Driedger taught a book repair workshop at MLC last week. Additional photos of the workshop are available on MLC’s Flickr page. Check out Kevin’s Library Preservation blog too!
Thanks for another great workshop, Kevin!
April 17th, 2007
You will need a Flickr account to participate in the 365 Library Days Project. For those of you who do not yet have Flickr accounts, MLC has posted a PowerPoint presentation on our Web 2.0 Tools web page with step-by-step information on how to set up a Flickr account. Go to:
http://mlcnet.org/cms/sitem.cfm/library_tools/web_2.0/
Update on the 365 Project. So far Michigan participants include Albion College Library, Superpatron (Ed Vielmetti), and MLC.
April 9th, 2007
Libraryman, Michael Porter, launched the 365 Library Days Project on April 8. See his blog for details.
Michael encourages libraries to sign up for the 365 Library Days Project. Participating libraries agree to upload 365 pictures from in, around or about their libraries and to tag: 365libs.
He writes, “Just imagine what a valuable historic document you could create for your library with this project! And while you’re at it, at the end of your year commitment, you could contact your local newspaper and tell them about the project, where they could do a story and print selected pictures that you took over the year. Such a substantive advocacy project! It would demonstrate in very real ways, ways that get lost to many people in your community, that you and your library are doing important work every day of the year!”
I hope that Michigan libraries will take Libraryman up on this challenge! If you’re in a Michigan library that has joined the 365 Library Days Project, please post a comment below.
April 9th, 2007
The Michigan Supreme Court will hear arguments tomorrow in the case, Goldstone v. Bloomfield Township Public Library. See articles in Battle Creek Enquirer and Detroit Free Press.
The case involves the question of borrowing public library materials by non-residents. For further information, see MLA’s PPC web page.
April 9th, 2007
Stanford’s Copyright Renewal Database is now searchable online at: http://collections.stanford.edu/copyrightrenewals/bin/search/simple
The database covers the copyright renewal records received by the US Copyright Office between 1950 and 1993 for books published in the US between 1923 and 1963. Note that the database includes ONLY US Class A (book) renewals.
The welcome page notes: “The period from 1923-1963 is of special interest for US copyrights, as works published after January 1, 1964 had their copyrights automatically renewed by the 1976 Copyright Act, and works published before 1923 have generally fallen into the public domain. Between those dates, a renewal registration was required to prevent the expiration of copyright, however determining whether a work’s registration has been renewed is a challenge. Renewals received by the Copyright Office after 1977 are searchable in an online database, but renewals received between 1950 and 1977 were announced and distributed only in a semi-annual print publication. The Copyright Office does not have a machine-searchable source for this renewal information, and the only public access is through the card catalog in their DC offices.”
To search registrations for recent materials, see the Library of Congress’s searchable database at: http://www.copyright.gov/records/
April 5th, 2007
