Lynne M. Thomas's Blog, page 16
January 31, 2017
Special Collections in Non-ARL libraries: Our List So Far
Reminder! I am still seeking rare books and special collections from organizations that aren’t members of the Association for Research Libraries!
Confessions of a Curator, Editor, Geek
Earlier this year, I launched a crowd-sourced listing of libraries that work with rare books and special collections, but are not members of the Association for Research Libraries. A lot of our literature surveys ARL libraries because a list exists. My thought was that we should have a list of NON-ARL libraries that could be surveyed about their experiences, too.
Here is the list of institutions so far.
American Bookbinders Museum
Amherst College
Archdiocese of Philadelphia
Autry Museum of the American West
Barnard College
Beloit College
Benedictine University
Berea College
Bowdoin College
California State University, Chico
Carleton College
Carson-Newman University
Chemical Heritage Foundation
Claremont Colleges Library
Clark University
Colby College
Colgate University
College of Physicians of Philadelphia
Congregational Library and Archives
Connecticut College
Davidson College
DePaul University
Drexel University College of Medicine
Earlham College
Fairfield Museum and History Center
Folger Shakespeare Library
Free Library of Philadelphia
George Mason University
German…
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January 27, 2017
Our First Repeat! – Episode 46 – Communication Breakdown
ICYMI
Because of the emotional ups and (mostly downs) of the last week in the world, the Verities did not have it in them to do a podcast–about love or anything else. Instead, we’re releasing our first re-run. Join Deb and Erika as we give a short intro explaining why we’ve chosen to re-release this particular episode. At this time in history, we feel it’s really important.
The conversation Deb talks about in the intro starts at 49:12, so feel free to skip to that if you only want to hear the truly relevant bit. We hope you enjoy!
As always, comments are welcome–especially messages of hope, perseverance, and love.
^E
As published July 16, 2014
This week we do lots of talking about villains who don’t. Join Deb, Erika, Lynne, and Tansy as we discuss what makes silent villains so creepy and effective. We also discover just how many Moffat-baddies are…
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January 18, 2017
Extra! – In Defence Of … The Gavel Edition
New Verity! Extra! IN DEFENSE OF!
As promised, we’re starting off the year’s Extras with some fun! Join Deb, Erika, Katrina, and Tansy for another edition of Verity!’s most popular gameshow–“In Defense Of”! We do our best at defending the indefensible within Doctor Who…with varying results. It’s certainly a hoot though!
^E
Download or listen now (runtime 42:30)
January 11, 2017
Verity! 127 – Goodbye Martha Jones
New Verity!
We start our year of love and lasts with the last (regular) appearance with one of the most underrated new Who companions, Martha! Join Deb, Erika, Katrina, and Lynne as we talk about Martha as a companion and how much we all love (or learn to love) how she said goodbye to the Doctor. We also spend a good deal of time talking about why.
How do you feel about Martha and her send-off? Let us know in the comments!
Also covered:
Lynne managed to surprise Michael with a great gift: the 7th Doctor’s umbrella!
Erika
finally returned to doing Lazy Doctor Who !
watched several Doctor Who Christmas specials with friends!
Kat
watched all the Harry Potter films!
loled at this depiction of Sherlock fandom!
Deb adores the new calendar that collects fab Stuart Manning art!
Down load or listen now (runtime 1:25:35)
January 10, 2017
Book Review: Too Dangerous for a Lady by Jo Beverley
Too Dangerous For a Lady by Jo Beverley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Enjoyed this as a Regency Undercover Cop tale. Sort of.
Trying to prevent a revolution, Mark Thayne accidentally endangers Hermione Merriweather.
Shenanigans ensue. This was enjoyable, and I liked the characters’ constant concern for each others’ safety, and that they built a community as they went.
January 9, 2017
On Stepping Down as a Social Media Liaison
[Library neepery ahoy!]
As of the ALA Midwinter meeting, I have officially stepped down as a Social Media Liaison for the RBMS web team. I will no longer be responsible for helping to run the RBMS twitter feed or Facebook page.
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I have been doing this for just about 8 years. Holy crap! That is a LONG time in internet time. I’m glad to step back and let other folks have a go. I will still be around on Twitter & FB, just not in an official capacity for RBMS.
I am grateful to RBMS (and ALA/ACRL by extension) to have had this opportunity. Most involvement in RBMS requires showing up twice annually. My life and financial situation didn’t really allow for that. The social media liaison role meant that I could remain active in RBMS at a time when I had zero travel funding from my institution. This fed into my tenure portfolio as well–thank you, NIU for recognizing that this role indeed constituted a big service commitment, and giving me credit for same!
I hope that RBMS, ACRL, and ALA will continue to look at ways to make the organization accessible to folks through remote participation like this. Library budgets continue to be slashed across the country, often hitting the institutions that were chronically underfunded to begin with the hardest. Remote participation means that our colleagues in this situation can continue drawing upon support from their professional community of practice. It also means that our professional organizations are made stronger by not leaving our underfunded colleagues behind.
January 6, 2017
Book review: It Happened Under the Mistletoe by Valerie Bowman
It Happened Under the Mistletoe by Valerie Bowman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
THIS WAS HOLIDAY CATNIP.
House party. Bored Viscount. New to the ton country relative. Trapped in a silver closet because they are both fleeing over-eager suitors.
And. They. Fall. In. Love. With. Each. Other’s. BRAINS.
Good banter, quick action that doesn’t feel too quick for a novella. LOVED IT.
:ded:
January 4, 2017
NIU receives CLIR Hidden Collections Grant!
I am so pleased to announce that Northern Illinois University, in collaboration with Villanova University, has received a CLIR Hidden Collections grant to further digitize our dime novel collections.
My first grant application to digitize dime novels was submitted back in 2004. And I tried again in 2008. Which led to the Digital POWRR project, eventually. I’m proud that we finally achieved funding for making these materials more fully available to scholars and the public, with a lot of metadata for people to play with, too!
ETA: Here is the link to our pilot project for these materials.
Our Metadata Librarian, Matthew Short, and Demian Katz from Villanova University are involved along with myself and some of our support staff.
From the project summary:
The Albert Johannsen Project: Digitizing the House of Beadle and Adams and their Nickel and Dime Novels ($448,893)
Institutions:
Northern Illinois University; Villanova University
Project Summary:
Northern Illinois University (NIU) and Villanova University (VU) propose to digitize the dime novels of Beadle & Adams, the first and most important publisher of the format. The project will involve digitizing Albert Johannsen’s personal collection, acquired by NIU in 1967, and will include related publications from VU’s special collections. A total of 5,400 dime novels will be digitized and made freely available to read and download via the website Nickels and Dimes. In addition, the project will incorporate metadata from Johannsen’s The House of Beadle and Adams and their Nickel and Dime Novels (1950), one of the most significant works of dime novel scholarship and bibliography of the 20th century, including relationships between stories, editions, and authors. This will be published as open linked data on dimenovels.org and include digital holdings information, which will be used to coordinate dime novel digitization across multiple institutions.
Verity Extra! – 2017: Love and Lasts
HEY LOOK OUR NEW THEME FOR 2017!
It’s a short, intimate Extra! today. Join Deb and Erika as we introduce our topic for 2017. We’ll be mirroring 2016’s theme of “firsts” by talking about “lasts” and endings. We’ll talk about the final appearances of companions, Doctors, behind-the-scenes folks, and possibly other items! But we don’t want a year of downers (let’s face it, many goodbyes are sad sad sad), so we’re balancing that with the theme of “love”. We’ll also talk about love in Doctor Who as well as things we love about it!
And of course, we’ll be talking about series 10 when that airs. Hooray for new episodes of our show!
What firsts and loves would you like to hear us yammer on about? Let us know in the comments!
Here’s to a happy 2017 for all of us!
^E
Download or listen now (runtime 22:09)
December 29, 2016
126 – The Return of Doctor Mysterio (Yeah!)
ICYMI
Our last first of the year is the first episode of 2016 (finally!), “The Return of Doctor Mysterio”. Join Deb, Erika, Katrina, Liz, and Lynne for an almost-full set of Verities discussing this comic book pastiche and whether it succeeded wildly or failed mildly.
Did you love this Christmas special? Did you think it was just okay? Did you see it in the theatre? Let us know all these things (and anything else you have on your mind about this year of firsts) in the comments!
^E
Also covered:
Lynne listened to the Tennant-Tate Big Finish adventure, Technophobia !
Kat starred in a recent Doctor Who’s Line, Is It? … Anyway? episode!
Liz enjoyed Matt Smith in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies!
Erika
showed “Black Orchid” to appreciative classic Who n00bs!
finally framed a couple Tom Baker pictures!
Deb can’t believe Verity! is featured in an article…
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