The Hive Mind: Folksonomies and User-Based Tagging. A pretty impressive first post by a reference librarian. Make sure you read down to the “libraries that tag” part of this essay. Bruce Sterling says “pretty bold word s coming from a librarian.” Huh?
Tag: libraries
camel bookmobile
They Kenyan National Library Service provides a Camel Mobile Library Service to rural and nomadic Kenyans. The Guardian has a longer story. [thanks jenny]
books building bridges
Books Building Bridges is a group of librarians, booksellers, activists and others who use literature and community events as a way of helping bridge the gaps between people in Iraq and the U.S. They create curricula, produce teaching guides and sponsor events among other things. Inspired by the book The Librarian of Basra the self-described “small but intrepid” group is always looking for people to lend a hand, or just to get on board.
Books Building Bridges is a community-building project developed in order to acknowledge and foster a common human desire for learning, authentic connection and a healthy society while transcending political divisions in the United States and the geographic and social distance between the United States and Iraq. Books Building Bridges was inspired by Jeanette Winter’s book, The Librarian of Basra, which chronicles the work of Basra librarian Alia Muhammed Baker who, with her community, saved 30,000 volumes from being destroyed during the current war with Iraq.
jail library group at UW
Speaking of library activism and useful results, I was recently made aware of the Jail Library Group of the University of Wisconsin’s School of Library and Information Science. You can view their slideshow [with its familiar presentation format] to learn more about what they do, from a talk they gave at the WI Library Association conference last month.
skin books in libraries
A book term I somehow missed in library school “anthropodermic bibliopegy” another word for books bound in human skin. Apparently they’re not as rare as you might think.