If you’re in or near Washington D.C. now or will be in June, this is for you!
The DC Public Library is holding a photo contest based on its Flickr Commons collection. Find places in the collection where you can be, shoot those “Now” photos, and submit them by July 3. You’ll find the details on how to submit — and on the fabulous prizes! — on the DCPL’s blog.
The Source: news about digital libraries and library innovations from around the web — This Friday’s collection of links from the National Library of New Zealand includes articles on copyright.
What Katie Does — A design and craft blog that discusses the coolness of the Flickr Commons.
30 & 31 May — Treeless Mountain is showing at the George Eastman House DrydenTheatre. “Director So Yong Kim’s second feature is a gentle and restrained semi-autobiographical account of two little girls, told from a child’s perspective.”
31 May – Last chance to apply for Rock Camp 2009 at the D.C. Public Library.
Memorial Day is a United States federal holiday honoring the sacrifices of America’s fallen from the Revolutionary War to the present. The National Moment of Remembrance occurs at 3 PM local time.
Fenno Jacobs An American town and its way of life, Southington, Conn. The Memorial Day parade moving down the main street. The small number of spectators is accounted for by the fact that the town’s war factories did not close. The town hall is in the left foreground., May 1942 Library of Congress: LC-USW36-800
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
— Lt.-Col. John McCrae (1872-1918)
E.B. Thompson View of the old amphitheater near Arlington House in Arlington National Cemetery, ca. 1920 D.C. Public Library
Of this photograph, ‘View of the old amphitheater near Arlington House in Arlington National Cemetery,’ the D.C. Public Library says,
Built in 1868 to host the annual Decoration (now Memorial) Day festivities at the cemetery. It was used until 1920 when the new amphitheater opened.
The Multi-Platform Museum: A talk given by Nina Simon at the Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History on 18 May. Take in the rest of her blog while you’re there, too.
Spotlight on Click! You can use the Smithsonian’s Flickr Commons images (or your own) with your stories to add to a growing collection … and Smithsonian curators will be looking at your entries!
Did you know the Smithsonian is on UStream? They’re working on their social skillz.
23 May –RIT Student Honors Show at the George Eastman House’s Drysdale Theatre. The annual Honors Show highlights some of the year’s best student work from RIT’s School of Film & Animation.
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.
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.
The Smithsonian’s Chandra blog resolves a galactic mystery and interviews Eli Bressert, the guy responsible for making the Chandra images. Wow. That’s a cool job.
SQUEE! Cute overload with baby leopards at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo.
Podcasts: ‘Face-to-Face’, from the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian.
Petrina Foti, Computers Collection at the NMAH, Smithsonian, processes objects from Ralph Baer, the Father of the Video Game.
The Source: news about digital libraries and library innovations from around the web, every Friday, from the National Library of New Zealand.
‘Visualizing search data: What’s the right amount of visibility?’ from the New York Public Library.
The State Library of Queensland, Australia, reports on the success of ‘Discovering Queensland’, their community history course. They’ll hold another in October.
Podcast of the DC Public Library Board of Trustees Meeting, held on March 25, 2009
Notes from Anzac Day, by the Australian War Memorial.
Sowing Culture: an interesting blog on history that we ran across this week when they linked to our Morse post.
A Call to Action:
Enter The Smithsonian Institution’s YouTube Video Contest. Tell them how to position the Smithsonian for the New Media Generation.
Go Visit!
Just opened – I Do Solemnly Swear: Photographs of the 2009 Inauguration, at the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution. See some of them online at CNN.
April 30 through May 4 - drop by the Smithsonian Institution’s Traveling Exhibition Services booth at the American Association of Museums annual meeting in Philadelphia.
May 2 -Target First Saturday at the Brooklyn Museum; enjoy free programs of art and entertainment from 5–11 p.m.
May 7 -Star Trek IMAX, the new film by J.J. Abrams (Lost), screens at midnight at the National Media Museum! Beam me up, Scotty, with a racy, young James T. Kirk, too.
May 7 - Poet Laureate Kay Ryan reads at the Library of Congress in the Coolidge Auditorium.
Anzac Day across the Commons. The Australia War Memorial has an excellent tribute and a report on the Simpson Prize awarded for Anzac Day.
The John Oxley Library (State Library of Queensland, Australia) records responses on the Apology to Australia’s Indigenous peoples and also reports on the Anzac Day presentations.
The Library of Congress reports that the World Digital Library received 14 million page views between Tuesday and Wednesday its first week.
For Earth Day, the Oregon State University Archive recommends “The dawn of the color photograph: Albert Kahn’s archives of the planet” by David Okuefuna. Check out more of the OSU’s Earth Day resources here.
The WaPo reports on the 77 American self-portraits now on display at the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution: ‘Reflections/Refractions: Self-Portraiture in the 20th Century‘
The Spider and the Web: an online experiment by Dan Cohen. He posts an item from the Smithsonian Institution to Twitter, asking for it to be identified. I’m anxious to see the results.
Smithsonian Institution Facebook Page Fans: How to add their updates to your newsfeed.
Let Freedom Ring: an article by the Smithsonian Photography Initiative on what’s legal to photograph.
How stuff happens: H.R.586 – Civil Rights History Project Act of 2009: to direct the Librarian of Congress and the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution to carry out a joint project at the Library of Congress and the National Museum of African American History and Culture to collect video and audio recordings of personal histories and testimonials of individuals who participated in the Civil Rights movement, and for other purposes.
Meet the conservator at the Brooklyn Museum: Carolyn Tomkiewicz explains the process of arranging the debris.
The Brooklyn Museum approves an API key for an iPhone app.
A study by Simon Tanner at the Mellon Foundation on the cost and policy models adapted by US arts museums in arriving at pricing structures for delivering imaging and rights services.
Don’t miss the Friday wrap-up of digital news and notes that the National Library of New Zealand puts out weekly.
The Telegraph and Argus discovers hidden treasures at the National Media Museum.
More Info from the Museums and the Web 2009 Conference:
Shelley at the Brooklyn Museum says,
Paula Bray and Seb Chan from Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum came to visit us on Monday. They just produced a Blurb book from their materials on the Flickr Commons and Brooklyn had done a Blurb book for Click! so we made a trade!
23-25 April 2009 – The Rochester International Film Festival at the Dryden Theater, George Eastman House– Celebrating the festival’s 50th year, this event hosts films from around the world.
27 April – An EPA official discusses global approach to environmental challenges at the Whittall Pavilion, located on the ground floor of the Library of Congress’s Thomas Jefferson Building – this event is free.
28 April – The Federal Writers’ Project will be the focus of an excerpted film screening and panel discussion, “Soul of a People: The WPA Writers’ Project,” in the Mumford Room on the sixth floor of the Library of Congress.
Starting 30 April –Directions by Walead Beshty, at the Hirshhorn Museum (Smithsonian Institution). “Beshty’s mesmerizing photographs blend an enduring fascination with modernist visual culture and an astute inquiry into the nature of photography.”
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.
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.
We salute the D.C. Public Library as they enter the Commons today with a wealth of beautiful photographs.
Featuring a wonderful set of photos from the E.B. Thompson collection, whose strengths are in its images of federal buildings, the Arlington National Cemetery, federal memorials, national parades, historic houses, and street scenes. Welcome!
