The great unsold truth of libraries

Until I get round to writing up my account of the week just gone by, when I was tweeting for Voices for the Library, here’s a great definition of libraries. It comes via this week’s Voice for the Library, Hong-Anh Nguyen (Codename: Dewey Decibelle)

The great unsold truth of libraries.

A dangerous yet sweetly-scented lunch: “Death by Perfume” at the Paul Mellon Centre

My colleague Christina Bradstreet at Sotheby’s Institute of Art lives a research-y life drenched in perfume, specifically in perfume and smells as depicted in nineteenth-century paintings. She brings the perfumes with her, in the form of chocolates, teas, and exotic essential oils, like a Mary Poppins in veils rather than with a sensible-seeming bag.

The Roses of Heliogabalus, by Lawrence Alma-Tadema (oil on canvas, 1888, private collection), via Wikimedia Commons

Christina’s currently writing a book on this very topic – smell in nineteenth-century painting, not Mary Poppins in veils – and she’s been letting me have a peek at some of the chapters. It’s going to be wonderful in its finished form. On Friday, she gave a talk at the Paul Mellon Centre fortnightly Research Lunch session, her exact topic being Death by Perfume: Floral Asphxyiation in Alma Tadema’s “The Roses of Heliogabalus” and John Collier’s “The Death of Albine”.

Voices for the Library: Twitter belongs to me…

… for a week, anyway.

Voices for the Library

World domination needs must start small. Starting on Monday 13 May – just two days to go! – I will be Taking over Twitter through @voiceslibrary.

The Twitter Takeover began in the week leading up to National Libraries Day on Saturday 9 February, 2013. I was one of seven libraries to take on a day of tweeting through the Library Voices account, the purpose of the exercise being to fight against the closures of libraries and the replacement of librarians with volunteers by showing what we do and how we and our places of work are valuable, essential parts of society. The need to demonstrate this has not gone away since National Libraries Day; in fact, it is more important than ever before, as cuts continue and deepen.

so, how many public libraries shut or earmarked for closure is that now? 75% cuts in Herefordshire due. Manchester closures approved….

— Johanna Anderson (@Jo_Bo_Anderson) May 9, 2013

As a regular user of public libraries whose local library has been replaced with a volunteer-run book-lending service, I only get frustrated every time I go in there. The lack of training and experience shows in every interaction. I look at what the service ought to be, I remember the wonder of the local library and librarians who helped bring me up (that is how often I was there), and I experience what this other place is now, and I realise that we need to fight harder than ever to stop this becoming the norm.

The more people that think about what libraries mean to them, and the more people who share those feelings, and act upon the need to keep them alive, both now and in the future, are a crucial part of Voices for the Library. Just look at the several testimonies to libraries on the website. This excerpt from Carola’s story of Orkney Libraries is typical, and shows how essential libraries are to the past, present, and future:

Carola’s testimony, on Voices for the Library

I’m still working out my full plan for the week. I will spend some time introducing you all to my library world, but that’s not enough. This week is not really supposed to be about me. I need to talk about libraries and what they have done for me as a reader and researcher, how they have helped to bring me this far, and how I want to make sure that they are around to take me as far as I can go. I need to talk about how libraries and librarians must be there to help current and future generations on their path into and inside the library.

I hope to see you all on Twitter from Monday morning onwards.

Hairy Bindings and Golden Bookworms: My Research in Bruges | medievalfragments

A funny and interesting comparison of using the original manuscript and its digital facsimile, with the added bonus of insect life, courtesy of the ever-fascinating Medieval Fragments blog… Hairy Bindings and Golden Bookworms: my research in Bruges

Time for Vote for May 18 Librarians Live-Tweeting a Movie

Reblogged from Library Sherpa:

Saturday, May 18 received the most votes for our next "Librarians Live-Tweeting a Movie" session.  (See original post here.)

Now...what movie is deserving of the snark Tweeted by librarians?  VOTE!

Here are the suggestions that were offered.
Before you vote, make sure it's a movie that you can easily obtain.  (Either an actual DVD or on demand online.)

Once a clear winner has been decided, the title and hashtag will be announced. 

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Librarians, unite! Saturday 18 May is the next "Librarians Live-Tweeting a Movie" Day! Votes are being taken now for the choice of film. <Subliminalmessaging>Vote for Highlander!</Subliminalmessaging>

Reblogged from :

The text: "One child is holding something that's been banned in America to protect them. Guess which one?"

Some background: The Charles Perrault version of Little Red Riding Hood, the one that was banned by two California school districts, was controversial not because both the grandma and the little girl are eaten by the wolf by the end of the story, but  because – as the 

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Even if you don't want to stand up for the rights of children to read fairytales, and/or for guns to be banned or made more difficult to own, please think of the fictional grandmothers being callously deprived of wine. It's a small pleasure in a dangerous world where one may literally be eaten by the wolf at the door.

The strange and wonderful world of collectors

Alexander Thistlewhaite’s bookplate, Fellows’ Library, Winchester College (image via Birmingham University website)

With my school friend in town for a few days, I saw a lot of places and collections in London that were completely new to me. Yesterday began in the treasure trove and home of the eighteenth-century/nineteenth-century collector Sir John Soane, before moving forward a century or two forward to the collections of Viktor Wynd housed at the Last Tuesday Society Mare Street HQ (Bethnal Green). The website describes the shop as “as an attempt to recreate or reinterpret, within 21st century sensibilities, a 17th century Wunderkabinett; a collection of objects assembled at a whim on the basis of their aesthetic or historical appeal.”