Jeff Tinsley
July 4th fireworks highlight the Washington Monument and the Smithsonian Folklife Festival’s Philippines Chapel in 1998, 1998
Smithsonian Institution: 98-8774

Happy 4th of July to the United States of America!

This is a national holiday for the US, celebrating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence — a great day for BBQs, picnics, baseball, and, of course, fireworks. Of this occasion, President John Adams stated,

The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.

We celebrate across the Commons …

with pomp and parade …

Library of Congress

& we’ll gather for speeches …

Brooklyn Museum

and shows …

Library of Virginia

and songs.

State Archives and Library of Florida

We’ll fly the flag from trains …

Nantucket Historical Association

with plenty of food under Old Glory!

Library of Congress

Tomorrow, we’ll debate a saner way to celebrate our liberty!

Library of Congress

Our weekly look around the Commons’ institutions to see what’s happening both digitally and brick-&-mortar.

Fill the Gap: Case 55B (Jul 09) by the Smithsonian American Art Museum

Help the Smithsonian American Art Museum find an object for this space by searching their online collections.

• RIP Michael Jackson. Some notes about his passing from the Brooklyn Museum and the Smithsonian.
• Gone, But Not Forgotten: Marvin Heiferman, Smithsonian Photography Initiative, laments the passing of Kodachrome.
• m-Libraries 2009 coverage by the New York and D.C. Public Libraries.
• PandaCam at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo!
• Wayne Clough, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution discusses how the Smithsonian is using new technology tools in support of the Institution’s 163-year-old mission: the “increase and diffusion of knowledge,” in this CSPAN video.
• Did you know that the Smithsonian streams live events on ustream?
• Vote for the best dressed in red, white, and blue in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History 4th of July contest!
• Intern opportunities are available at that museum, too. Check out this write-up of what it’s like to intern for them.
• Guinea pigs wanted for the D.C. Public Library’s Google Voice platform! Check out the DCPL’s other projects, too, including an iPhone app.
• You can learn a language at the D.C. Public Library, too.
• 8 finding aids for the Oregon State University Archives collections were completed or updated in June 2009.
• Judith H. Dobrzynski had lunch with Arnold Lehman, director of the Brooklyn Museum; they discussed the problem of permanent collections.
• Hey U, Tune In: The Library of Congress is now on iTunes!
• Learn about the people that make the stacks come alive in this Library of Congress post.
• Is a Bad Economy Ever ‘Good’? Read this LOC post about public service announcements, the Ad Council, and the donation of ad inventory by papers struggling to stay afloat in the new economy.
• Learn more about the global recession and the arts in this round-up from The Source, National Library of New Zealand.
• Find, Out. NLNZ’s discovery service is now in beta!
• See Old McDonald … and Dick and Jane, a favorite of Jay Vissers, New York Public Library.
• The delphiniums are in bloom at the George Eastman House! Check out their trials with email in Picturing Rochester: Behind the Scenes.
• Keep up to date on all the happenings of the Swedish National Heritage Board during Almedal Week. Lots of information and presentation info, and links to translate it all into English.
• Museums as soup kitchens for the soul, from the Powerhouse Museum.
• These podcasts from the State Archives and Library of Florida will brighten any day. I’ve been listening as I compile this. :)
• Download the National Media Museum’s film schedule.
• First World War diary record series passes 400,000 images at the Australian War Memorial.
• The History of the John Oxley Library - Part Five, by the State Library of Queensland, Australia.

Friday Fun!

Astoria, Oregon, Oregon State University Archives

Take a trip with the Oregon State University Archives! People and Places: Early “Oregon” - a great overview of OSU Archive’s latest release to the Commons.

Go Visit!

Ending July 5 - Caillebotte: The works of impressionist painter, Gustave Caillebotte, exclusively at the Brooklyn Museum. Brooklyn is the final stop on this tour and the only American venue for this exhibition.

Ending July 5 - Masterpieces of Ancient Jewelry: Exquisite Objects from the Cradle of Civilization at Chicago’s Field Museum.

Now through July 11 - Foundry to Finish: Making of a Bronze Sculpture at the Getty; This exhibition and accompanying photographs and videos demonstrate the process of bronze casting as Adriean de Vries practiced it for Juggling Man.

July 20-24 - Summer School - How Do You Make Powerful Art? at the National Galleries of Scotland. Investigate art from Raphael to Damien Hirst, looking at why artists make art.

From sea to sea to sea …

From Newfoundland, where cod once dried on the shore …

Musée McCord Museum

to the Cape Breton Highlands in Nova Scotia.

Musée McCord Museum

From the beaches of Prince Edward Island …

Musée McCord Museum

… to the busy harbour of Saint John, New Brunswick.

Musée McCord Museum

From the old streets of Quebec City …

Library of Congress

… to Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario.

Library of Congress

From the beginning of the Prairies in Manitoba …

Musée McCord Museum

… to life on the land in northern Saskatchewan.

Musée McCord Museum

From the mountains of Alberta …

Library of Congress

… to what lies in them, in British Columbia …

Smithsonian Institution

… to the farthest Arctic seas.

National Maritime Museum

Detroit Publishing Co.
[Bandak Lake from Dalen, Telemarken (i.e, Telemark), Norway] (LOC), between ca. 1890 and ca. 1900
Library of Congress: LOT 13432, no. 138

view + comment on Flickr

Friday Fun!

The Brooklyn Museum engaged in live tweeting on 23 June when they took four mummies from their collection to be CT scanned at the North Shore University Hospital in Long Island. They used hashtag #mummyCT: their Tweets and with everyone!
See more photos and videos here.

Heard around the Commons:

• The Brooklyn Museum’s 1stfans Twitter Art Feed Artist for July 2009: Ranjit Bhatnagar’s “Exquisite Sonnet.” 1stfans members, get yer tweet on for this one!
• The 2nd International m-Libraries Conference in Vancouver is all a-twitter with updates: #mlib09.
• Make it Digital - DigitalNZ’s one-stop shop for questions about creating digital content in New Zealand! This site features questions, ideas, and guides; do drop by and check it out.
• Top museums on Twitter - Jim Richardson reports on how museums are using the popular micro-blogging website Twitter. The Brooklyn Museum is listed as #2.
• Be sure to make a visit to The Source: news about digital libraries and library innovations from around the web, brought to you every Friday by the National Library of New Zealand. Copyfights!
• What’s in the workshop #2 - Investigate the Powerhouse Museum’s fetish for strange things on wheels.
• The New York Public Library is gearing up for its new website launch. Yay! The NYPL also has some new things in the works and is looking for lab rats.
• Name that film! The George Eastman House shares sleuthing tips.
• NARA and MoMA - See what’s happening with the students of The L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation, from the George Eastman House.
• Aquamarine crystals are the Gemstone of the Month at the Field Museum’s Grainger Hall of Gems.
• The National Librarian, Andrew Green, of the National Library of Wales, will be among those honored by the Gorsedd of Bards at this year’s National Eisteddfod.
• Diwrnod agoriadol y Smithsonian - ahhhhh, no idea what this says, but I liked seeing the Smithsonian being discussed in Welsh. ;-)
• Watch the 2009 Smithsonian Folklife Festival webcasts this weekend! Welsh music, mariachis, storytelling and poetry.
• Suited for Space: Last Words from the Curator - An engaging blog post reporting on the tribulations of a traveling space exhibit by the Smithsonian Institution.
• SI also reports on how Google Street View was used to solve a crime.
• A Short History of Photography from Cigar Box to Cell Phone, by Merry A. Foresta of the Smithsonian Photography Initiative
• The Swedish National Heritage Board live blogs from its activities during Almedal week. The Board will organize a seminar on e-government and new social media July 2.
• Portraits — and Pot-Shots — in Song: A witty exhibit from the Library of Congress chronicling US Presidential campaign songs.
• Newstead - The State Library of Queensland, Australia, tells you all about this Brisbane suburb.
• Also, Picture Queensland images now available through One Search.
• The Oregon State University Archives reports that William Jasper Kerr, a biography, has been scanned and is now available on ScholarsArchive.
• Win one of the biggest Harry Potter posters in the world in the National Media Museum’s competition.

Go Visit!

12th June to 31st August: The Art Competition for Schools 2009 exhibition at the National Galleries of Scotland. See the 53 winning works of budding young talents.

24 June through 22 August: With Malice Toward None: Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Exhibit, a traveling exhibit from the Library of Congress at the California Museum in Sacramento, CA.

Throughout July: The July Film Series is announced at the Library of Congress’s Packard Campus Theater, including Key Largo, An American in Paris, and Chinatown.

2 July: Exclusive preview of Soul Power, a film by Jeffrey Levy-Hinte documenting a music festival that unites black American stars with African musicians in Kinshasa, at the National Media Museum.

Eugène Trutat
Famille Crouzats, au Port de Venasque, Luchon, 6 septembre 1898, 1890
Bibliothèque de Toulouse: TRU C 343

A very happy Commonsversary to the Bibliothèque de Toulouse! They joined the Flickr Commons on June 28, 2008 with images of the Pyrénées from 100 years ago. They upload to the Commons on a very regular basis, so there is a variety of scenes to explore in their Flickr stream.

La côte basque chronicles life 100 years ago on the Basque Coast. Most of these images are by Eugène Trutat, the Director of the Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle de Toulouse and a pioneer of photography.

La Côte Basque, Biarritz, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

The set Architecture, monuments et archéologie contains valuable images of dolmens in France — prehistoric human-made rock structures.

Dolmen, Mas d’Azil, Ariège

Some favorites in the Toulouse’s stream are of the French countryside and culture, and the set A bicyclette … illustrates well the jovial air of their collection.

Mlle X en vélo, Luchon

Trutat also took some of the earliest photochromes. The archives of these autochromes also contains many geotagged images.

Vue sur le château de la rue du Lycée, Foix

My personal favorites in their Flickr photostream are those of the bridges and aqueducts, some of which date back to the Roman era.

Bibliothèque de Toulouse’s buddy icon Ponts et aqueducs

No trip to France is complete without a visit to the miraculous Lourdes. Included in this set are a few marvelous stereograms.

A la grotte, Lourdes, 23 août 1898

Do take a stroll through the Toulouse’s stream and post up your favorites. Joyeux anniversaire!

Proving that we all enjoy a good party, The Commons has its own representative selection of great images of birthday celebrations.

Celebrate with Robert Louis Stevenson in Western Samoa …

National Library of New Zealand

What better way to mark 70 years than having your portrait painted? And should you risk forgetting, why not have a photo taken of the occasion too?

Nationaal Archief

You’ll want a party fit for a princess!

Library of Congress

Or just get together with some film-star friends. But don’t forget the decorations!

State Library of New South Wales

Finally, always remember others …

State Library and Archives of Florida

… and make sure you get their presents off to them in good time.

Smithsonian Institution

Imagine being a new reader at your current age — maybe you’re learning a new language, maybe you’re coming to literacy later in life for other reasons. You want to practice, but what kind of beginning-level readers are in your local library? One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish is funny, sure, but you’d prefer to learn about useful and interesting topics relevant to an adult life, wouldn’t you? Or maybe you’re a teenager, a high school student who is working hard to learn about the same topics as your peers who can read fluently. It’s easy to get discouraged when you can’t find any books that meet your needs.

These are the gaps addressed by Tar Heel Reader, a collaboration between the Center for Literacy and Disability Studies and the Department of Computer Science at the University of North Carolina (thus the name). Tar Heel Reader, launched a little over a year ago, offers

“a collection of free, easy-to-read, and accessible books on a wide range of topics. Each book can be speech enabled and accessed using multiple interfaces (i.e., switches, alternative keyboards, touch screens, and dedicated AAC devices). The books may be downloaded as slide shows in PowerPoint, Impress, or Flash format.”

Gary Bishop has a more technical explanation of the way it all works here.

Tar Heel Reader books are created by users all over the world, in various languages, using a book-writing “wizard” that accesses Flickr images (only those with amenable licenses, and always credited to the owner) to illustrate the books. As I write this, there are over 4,600 books available — and I’ve made 67 of those.

This week, Flickr Commons images were added to the already rich supply of images available to Tar Heel Reader authors. To try out the new options, I made two books using only Commons images. WWII: Women Working spotlights the gorgeous color photos of wartime factory workers in the Library of Congress uploads; and Ellis Island tells a first-person story of early-20th-century immigration, using the New York Public Library’s uploads on the subject, mostly the portraits by Augustus Sherman, Chief Registry Clerk. Thematic sets like these are easy to convert into picture books — the images (from a given era, or even by one photographer) share a look that gives a book a stronger visual identity, and they’re already focused on a specific topic.

Library of Congress

New York Public Library

I’ve used current images to make books about voting, First Amendment rights, air travel, thriftshopping, hats, popcorn, gingerbread houses, Groucho glasses, you name it; but for making books about history, historical images are invaluable. Which is why I’m excited and grateful to have Flickr Commons images to play with at Tar Heel Reader. And I think the readers and teachers will be happy to see them too.