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Interesting project in Austria. They placed 70 QR codes around the city each leading to a particular ebook or mp3 that can be downloaded for free.  The blog states, "This project is in effect giving digital content a finite location, thus removing one of the key aspects that separates paper books from ebooks". 

I wonder if the posts are in places with literary or historical significance-- e.g., a QR code near the former home of a famous author, leading to excerpts or readings from his or her books. I can see a huge potential for museums here, actually. For example, at the Old Courthouse in St. Louis, a QR code can be posted to information or collections on the Dred Scott Decision. Or here in Columbia, QR codes posted in the Red Campus can pull up copies of historical documents on the 1892 fire.

This is just a warm and fuzzy piece for a Friday. But this is really cool what people are doing here. It reminds me of a story a I read a couple years ago about a girl lending books out of her locker (seen here: http://www.care2.com/causes/student-runs-secret-banned-books-library-from-locker.html) Hopefully the city in this case will see that the people want/need a library and turn it into one!

This project is moving along...

Ancient books in a historic library in the Lebanese city of Tripoli have been torched by Islamist, after a pamphlet purportedly insulting religion was found inside one of the books. Security sources say that up to 78,000 books, many irreplaceable ancient Muslim and Christian texts and manuscripts, are now unsalvageable, according to Agence France Press.

Ancient books in a historic library in the Lebanese city of Tripoli have been torched by Islamist, after a pamphlet purportedly insulting religion was found inside one of the books. Security sources say that up to 78,000 books, many irreplaceable ancient Muslim and Christian texts and manuscripts, are now unsalvageable, according to Agence France Press.

An update on the state of libraries in the Northeast after hurricane Sandy. 85 out of 90 branches of the New York Public Library have reopened. New York has three systems; the NYPL, Queens, and Brooklyn. The Brooklyn system closed 9 out of 60 branches--but some may be long term closings, and Queens closed 7 out of 62. The New Jersey libraries, however, are facing a more chaotic situation and are still assessing their damage.

A video about the EDUCE project to scan and read the scrolls from the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum. Herculaneum was the second and lesser known city that was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79. The scrolls were in what is probably the only library from antiquity to survive "intact," but the volcanic ash carbonized the scrolls so they are essentially charcoal. Some have been "read" by unwrapping the scroll in segments and scanning in ultraviolet light detect the ink, this is the first time the scanning has been done non-invasively to read the scroll without destroying it.

The city of McAllen, Texas converted a Wal-Mart into a spacious public library and won the 2012 Library Interior Design Competition in the process.

This article is notable for how the New York Public Library is dealing with changes in technology and readership with the Central Library Plan, which is generating controversy. In steps similar to what other libraries have done a good portion of the books will be stored at an off-site facility, while older buildings will be sold and services centered on the main library. Interestingly, the off-site storage will also be used to allow New York City schools to order books directly from it.

Paul Otlet was a Belgian inventor who had several visionary ideas, such as a "World City" which would be a gathering of all the leading institutions of the world that would radiate knowledge and the Universal Decimal Classification scheme which is still used in some libraries. He also had a concept in 1934 for a radiated library that was in some ways a precursor to the Internet. It was limited by the technology he knew at the time, and consisted of a center where users would call in to ask for research and information to be displayed, which would then be displayed on a television screen. Aside from the need to call in some of his concepts are similar to early community access cable television.

Penguin Group and electronic-book distributor 3M have made a deal with two New York City public library systems that will return Penguin e-books to library shelves for a one-year pilot. Penguin is one of four major publishers that don't make e-books available to libraries. The pilot, crafted to protect e-book sales, will delay the release of e-books to the libraries for six months after the titles go on sale in stores and online. Each library e-book will expire after a year.

The city of New York has been investigating ways to reuse obsolete or underused phone booths. The number of phone booths nationwide has dropped by more than half from 1999 to 2007, and 13,000 booths will likely be unused when contracts expire in 2014. Ideas that have been tested include wireless hotspots, touch screen maps, and bolt in bookcases to make a small library. However, unlike other lending libraries that are community supported by an honor system where a book is donated for one removed, the New York libraries tend to disappear within days to weeks. Despite this some publishers and some neighborhoods have been interested in contributing books.

This was another session which showed that with community spaces if you build it they will come. I interviewed at this library in 1996 right after graduate school and it was and still is a large warehouse type building in 70's style. One of the substantial changes to Chattanooga since then is it is known as the "Gig City" for large deployment of gigabit Internet which has brought may Internet developers to the area. The development of the attic into a community space stressed the importance of community outreach and feedback as a sort of ecosystem to keep a project viable.

Just FYI, another name change MAY be coming down the pipe. Sounds like it could be a while, but it will be interesting to see if they actually do it.

Well, that's interesting. I was not aware that UMKC was originally the University of Kansas City.

A blog, appears largely inactive, about the Digital Public Library of America and other topics. Notable as it was co-found by Tom Peters, the new Dean of University Libraries at MSU.

On vacation and forgot your book? Go to the library on the beach.

The San Diego library is opening a new library; the article laments how half the books have not been used in the last year, and taxpayers still had to pay to move them, but considering some recent research numbers these statistics are actually fairly high.

What sounds like a cautionary tale about keeping libraries open in a time of slashed budgets and electronic resources becomes a concerning episode of institutional decline of libraries in the Philadelphia school system as some "libraries" have operated for years without staff and functioning as essentially a store room.