Visible Traces: Rare Books and Special Collections from the National Library of China. Compiled and edited by Philip K. Hu. New York: Queens Borough Public Library; Beijing: National Library of China; Beijing: Morning Glory Publishers, 2000. xiii, 337 pp. $65.00.

2001 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 526-527
Author(s):  
Martin Heijdra
2014 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-80
Author(s):  
Amy Chen

Trends in Rare Books and Documents Special Collections Management, 2013 edition by James Moses surveys seven special collection institutions on their current efforts to expand, secure, promote, and digitize their holdings. The contents of each profile are generated by transcribed interviews, which are summarized and presented as a case study chapter. Seven special collections are discussed, including the Boston Public Library; AbeBooks; the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Washington University of St. Louis; the Archives and Rare Books Library, University of Cincinnati; the Rare Books and Manuscript Library at The Ohio State University; and the Manuscript, Archives, and Rare . . .


Author(s):  
Alicia Girón

The Biblioteca Nacional (BN), founded in 1712 as the Royal Library, became the national library in 1836 and has since then served as the nation's bibliographic repository and a public library for Madrid. It became an autonomous body in 1991. In a major reconstruction of the existing BN building, space occupied by other bodies is being recovered. Legal deposit, established in 1716, now includes audio and visual recordings; the BN has not however had the resources needed to ensure enforcement. The Autonomous Regions have legal deposit of all material published in them. A Reproduction and Conservation Unit has been created to conserve the valuable collections of manuscripts, incunabula and rare books. A new computer system has enabled the BN to undertake several important bibliographic tasks, but not yet to fulfil its role as apex of the Spanish library system. After many years of international isolation the library is playing a substantial role in IFLA and in cooperative activities with Latin American libraries. The challenge facing the BN today is to identify and articulate its role as it relates to public libraries in the Autonomous Regions and to university and special libraries.


2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Desmarais

Bernheimer, Kate. The Lonely Book. Illus. Chris Sheban. New York: Random House, 2012. Print.This charming story about a well-loved book will not easily be forgotten. It’s the sort of picture book I would have loved to discover during my childhood visits to the public library. The tale begins in a classic fairytale style, “Once there was a brand-new book that arrived at the library.” As the story unfolds, young readers learn all sorts of details about the inner workings of a public library, including the custom that many of the newest books are placed on a special shelf in a high traffic area.The “lonely book” of this story initially had a popular and fulfilling life on the new book shelf but eventually it is relegated to the children’s section, along with countless other well-loved titles. Years pass, the book becomes a little tattered and worn, and is now checked out all too infrequently. Then, one morning, a little girl named Alice discovers it and falls in love with the story about the girl and her life under a toadstool, and so she takes it home. “The book had never felt so beloved.” Readers will discover how lonely it becomes when Alice forgets to renew her old book, and especially so when it begins a new life in the library’s storage basement. In time, Alice longs for her favourite book and despairs that she may never see it again. The story ends on a cheerful note, however, when Alice is reunited with her once cherished book at the library’s big book sale.For those of us who understand what it is like to cherish a book from our childhood, this book will bring back fond memories. The soft watercolour illustrations complement the story beautifully and they evoke a magical time when children fall in love with books, read them late into the night, fall asleep with them under their pillows, and dream sweet dreams about favourite characters and events.Highly recommended: 4 out of 4 starsReviewer: Robert DesmaraisRobert Desmarais is Head of Special Collections at the University of Alberta and Managing Editor of The Deakin Review of Children’s Literature. A graduate of the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information Studies, with a Book History and Print Culture designation, he also has university degrees in English literature and publishing. He has been collecting and enjoying children’s books for as long as he can remember.


2016 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 243
Author(s):  
Melanie Griffin

In Archives Alive, Diantha Dow Schull expertly demonstrates the strength, vitality, and importance of rare books, special collections, and archives departments located in public libraries rather than academic or research libraries. Schull’s purpose is two-fold. First, she demonstrates the breadth and depth of special collections in public libraries; second, she demonstrates how twenty-first-century special collections departments work, frequently with technology, to increase engagement with the publics they serve. The scope is limited to special collections departments in American public libraries, but within these parameters, coverage is exhaustive and strikes an appropriate balance between activities at large, well-funded institutions and smaller departments with more modest resources.


2014 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 162-168
Author(s):  
Lv Shuping ◽  
Wen Quan

Abstract This paper describes the development of the Digital Library Promotion Project (DLPP) at the National Library of China and the ways in which it has enhanced the access to cultural heritage. In May 2011, China launched the DLPP as one of a series of digital library initiatives which have been developed in recent years. By building an interconnected and distributed digital library platform and resource clusters, and providing digital cultural services in a variety of media, the DLPP enhances public library services in China. The authors found that digital projects such as the DLPP enrich social discourse and increase access to China’s cultural heritage.


2009 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Taranto

In January 2008, riding on the coattails of a six-month intensive strategic planning process, the New York Public Library deconstructed its Digital Library Program (DLP) and established an entirely new organizational unit, NYPL Labs. Drawing talent from across the organization, the new unit was formed to take a broader, more user-focused approach to the ever-evolving digital environment and the challenges it represents for service-centric cultural organizations. NYPL Labs represents a shift in the approach to library digitization in that “digital” is understood as an integral part of core activities—an organic feature woven into the life of the library. As . . .


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document