1984 stage play featuring John Hurt — rehearsal
Photograph by Jim Moran

See photos from the rehearsal of the Orwell play 1984, featuring an exclusive video performance by John Hurt in the role of Big Brother, at the National Media Museum’s Flickr stream. The play opens on June 3.

Heard around the Commons:

• Radnorshire on Flickr — Can you help? The first British library to join the Flickr Commons is The National Library of Wales!
• The Field Museum is a nominee for the best museum for kids in Chicago!
• Clouded leopards cubs at the National Zoo (Smithsonian) — They are now eating cooked chicken three times a day, in addition to their formula.
• Learn about the Smithsonian’s first staff photographer, Thomas Smillie, and vernacular photography.
• The applications developers at the New York Public Library provide batch reindexing for Drupal + Solr. Also, an update to Infomaki is released. That’s not all … DigitalNZ and Brooklyn Museum API modules for python are also released.
• The Bibliothèque de Toulouse announces …
  

  After lengthy deliberations under the watchful and amused condescension by Jane Austen, this is the name of the winner of the Jane Austen quiz …

  Learn who at their blog.

• The Brooklyn Museum films Valerie Hegarty discussing her work in 21 and Fallen Bierstadt.
• Go behind the scenes at the Brooklyn Museum’s staff show.
• And they relate museums to the NBA.
• The finalists in the Library of Congress’s River of Words competition speak out.
• Library signs are metadata: an article from Aaron at the D.C. Public Library.
• Collecting/Recording the 2009 Queensland State Election, by the State Library of Queensland, Australia.
• Oregon State University celebrates their National Historic District status!
• The George Eastman House honors Flickr re-mixer pennylrichardsca, for her incredible purses!
• Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. The Field Museum talks pirate with the Chicago Sun-Times. Aye, matey.
• Read all about the Smithsonian’s Chandra X-Ray Lab’s one time shuttle trip.
• Seeing the Invisible with Megan Watzke, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory

Friday Fun!

Go Visit!

May 18–24: The Bibliothèque de Toulouse announces Alors Chante …! de Montauban, a traditional music festival. The opening concert is free at the Park Montauriol.

May 22: Night at the Museum opens at the Smithsonian’s IMAX theatre … starring the Smithsonian!

June 1: Sun K. Kwak talks to teen artists at the Brooklyn Museum.

June 2: Are We Alone? Astrobiology and the Search for Extraterrestrial Life Lecture at the Library of Congress, with Daniel P. Glavin, an astrobiologist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Recent uploads from the Commons:

Celebrate the 100th anniversary of Dutch Queen Juliana’s birth on April 30! The Nationaal Archief honors this occasion with a set of photos of this beloved queen.

Koningin Juliana, 100ste geboortedag

Last week, Australians and New Zealanders celebrated Anzac Day. The Australian War Memorial posts photographs of this year’s ceremonies in Canberra.

ANZAC Day, 2009

A timely Sam Hood Photo: 12,000 Australians died of the Spanish Flu outbreak in 1918-19.

Compulsory mask

The State Library of New South Wales honors International Book Day. Get your read on!

International Day of the Book, 23 April 2009

The Bibliothèque de Toulouse adds more bridges and aqueduct photographs from France.

Ponts et aqueducs

The State Archives of Florida informs us, In 1898 national attention focused on Florida as the Spanish-American War began. The port city of Tampa served as the primary staging area for U.S. troops bound for the war in Cuba.

Spanish American War from the Florida Shore

Enjoy more interior and architecture scenes from the Biblioteca de Arte–Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian.

Instituições bancárias

They’ve also posted a wonderful set of images of the Concelho de Vila do Conde in Portugal. Lots of possibilities for a Then and Now series!

Concelho de Vila do Conde, Portugal

Delve into more charming Carl Curman photographs, courtesy of the Swedish National Heritage Board.

Carl Curman – Sweden

Here are 50 new images from the Bain News Service at the Library of Congress’ photostream, featuring big ships, the London Bridge, and the charming Lady Constance Stewart Richardson.

News in the 1910s

See Installation shots of Tavares Strachan’s The Distance Between What We Have and Want We Want (Arctic Ice Project), 2004-08, at the Brooklyn Museum.

Arctic Ice Project Installation

Ryand, of the George Eastman House, shares some stats with the Museum and Web Conference about their most popular image in the Commons. 40,463 all time views 36 tags (one is “Hombre sin cabeza”) 4 notes 86 comments 517 favorites 1 set 0 collections 2 groups The title? “Trick photo, decapitated man with bloody knife, holding his head.”

George Eastman House

Heard around the Commons:

• Congrats to State Library of Queensland’s Tania Schafer for being awarded The Australian Society of Archivists’ Loris Williams Scholarship!
• How to mash up the Commons’ photos with Google Earth.
• A multitouch, multiuser mashup allows visitors to explore Flickr photos geotagged into a Yahoo! Map. Hat tip to George for the find.
• Museums and the Web 2009 Conference: catch the dialogue on Twitter with #mw2009
• The D.C. Public Library makes headlines as it joins the Flickr Commons at LISNews, We Love DC, and Aaron’s own blog about it.
• Check out DCPL’s Then and Now photo contest, too!
• The D.C. Public Library has also launched the first free library iPhone application in the U.S.!
• Mobile Learning: Transforming the Delivery of Education and Training, edited by Mohamed Ally, looks like an informative read for anyone interested in the use of mobile technology for various distance learning applications. Hat tip to DCPL.
• Seb Chan, Powerhouse Museum, tells us how to integrate Tweets and other social network comments onto our blogs. We haven’t hooked that up yet at Indicommons, but I have used this plug-in elsewhere and highly recommend it.
• Museums and the Machine-Processable Web: A wiki led by the Science Museum, London, for museums using (or thinking of using) an API.
• Interview with Shelley Bernstein and Paul Beaudoin (Brooklyn Museum) at the electronic museum about their API.
• Here’s a Python module for the Brooklyn Museum’s API.
• The Brooklyn Museum updates the look and feel of its web calendar.
• The Brooklyn Museum’s Judy Kim explains how Sun K. Kwak came to the museum.
• An update from the Smithsonian Institution on its digitization program.
• A fun online postcard exhibit by the Smithsonian Institution.
• The SI’s Keith F. Davis on collecting photographs.
• The SI American Art Museum’s Ghosts of a Chance ARG is a Webby honoree!
• The Oregon State University Archives helps celebrate 150 years of Oregon! Ooh … films, too.
• The Bibliothèque de Toulouse reviews John Crowley’s film Boy A.
• The World Digital Library will launch on April 21st, in seven languages. The project has been developed by UNESCO and the Library of Congress, along with 32 other partners from around the world.

Go Visit!

21 April 2009: William Shakespeare’s 445th birthday will be celebrated at the Library of Congress with a reading of his works by 16 professional actors from the Shakespeare Theater Company’s Academy for Classical Acting at The George Washington University.

Recent uploads from the Commons:

The Musée McCord presents Irish immigrants and their contribution to the social, cultural, political and economic fabric of Quebec from the era of New France to today.

Being Irish O’Quebec – Irlandais O’Québec

Visit Tarn, France, with the Bibliothèque de Toulouse.

Tarn

See more terrific photographs of Sweden, Denmark and Germany from the Swedish National Heritage Board.

Carl Curman

The Library of Congress shares Bain News Service photographs of New York, Westpoint and various varsity crews.

News in the 1910s

The Brooklyn Museum finds a new location for the Williamsburg Murals inside the Hall of the Americas, on the 1st floor.

Williamsburg Murals

The Smithsonian Institution explores a young pulsar and a vast nebula.

Chandra X-ray Observatory

Recent uploads from the Commons:

The Oregon State University Archives requests help in finding a cover image out of their collection for a book on the history of the U.S. Forest Service, by Gerald Williams! See newly uploaded photos from this collection in the OSU’s John Fletcher Ford set.

Gerald W. Williams Collection - John Fletcher Ford

Videos are an exciting first for the Commons! The State Archives of Florida has posted some nostalgic must-sees. Get out the popcorn! Florida also has newly uploaded polo photos.

Filming Florida

Get out your Easter bonnet and enjoy many Sam Hood photos from the State Library of New South Wales. Yes, the one with all the frills upon it!

Easter

Sun K. Kwak meets the Brooklyn Museum’s 1stFans! I hope she didn’t wrap them all up in tape.

1stFans

The Powerhouse Museum brings us the delightful images of Thomas Lennon, a Sydney photographer. Read about the mystery bush hikes!

Thomas Lennon Photographic Collection

(more…)

Heard around the Commons:

• The Glenview Public Library suggests using the Commons for genealogy.
• Help the Medical Museion at the University of Copenhagen decide to join the Commons.
• Derivative Images, of the University of Colorado (Yay! Buffaloes!), discusses the Commons.
• Some brief summaries of the Flickr Commons session at the Computers in Libraries conference in Arlington, Virginia: Digitization 101 (Jill Hurst-Wahl and David Lee King), Librarian by Day (Bobbi L. Newman), and Library Geek Woes.
• Lots of logging information from the Oregon State University Archives’ April Fools set! Timber!
• The Powerhouse Museum’s Photo of the Day blog celebrates its 500th post … and you can win a print!
• Meet curator Erika Dicker at the Powerhouse Museum’s new blog, Object of the Week.
• Elizabeth Thomsen explores Commenting the Commons.
• Profiling Social Networks: A Social Tagging Perspective. Hat tip to the National Library of New Zealand for this find.
• The Brooklyn Museum posts a series of articles, “Wikipedia Loves Art: Lessons Learned.” Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.
• Seb Chan at the Powerhouse Museum also discusses Wikipedia and that the museum’s online documentation is now licensed under Creative Commons.
• The Smithsonian Institution (SI) tells us about Ray Strong painting the Golden Gate Bridge. See more at the SI’s Flickr group, 1934.
• Hat tip to the SI for this info on U.S. stimulus funding for research. Government money—It’s not just for Wall Street!
• The Library of Congress reports that the public-domain status of early sound recordings is delayed until 2067.
• The National Media Museum aims to open a London satellite for photography exhibits.
• The Bibliothèque de Toulouse posts a review of Jean-Paul Lilienfeld’s “The Day of the Skirt,” a broadcast about women, racism, and the integration of young people.
• The Australian War Memorial reports on the conservation of the Mark IV tank. Oooh, tanks.

Go Visit!

April – It’s Jazz Appreciation Month! Check out the Smithsonian’s offerings.

03 Apr. – Live webcast from the Smithsonian’s Chandra Observatory! Part of Around the World in 80 Telescopes.

03 Apr. – Charles Parker Day, from the National Media Museum.

Starting 03 Apr. – Film screenings in 200-seat Art Deco theater resume at Library of Congress Packard Campus. A Hard Day’s Night!

04 Apr. – Target First Saturday at the Brooklyn Museum—Swing-era tunes, French and Italian arias, dance, talks, and more.

04 Apr. – Join the National Galleries of Scotland for a selection of faces in the Portrait Gallery’s collection, including Mary Queen of Scots.

05 Apr. – Open day at the John Oxley Library (State Library of Queensland, Australia) in honor of its 75th birthday.

05 Apr. – Join the George Eastman House for a screening of Victor Fleming’s 1934 Treasure Island. Arrrrr.