Library Blogs

For three years the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) has been assembling a vast online library to document "the full range of human experience." By reaching out to libraries, archives, museums, and historical societies throughout the United States, the DPLA has gathered metadata from a vast number of digital collections online, including photographs, books, manuscripts, moving images, and audio recordings. Despite having a staff of fewer than twenty people, the DPLA now provides access to over fourteen million records.

Last Friday, I was privileged to welcome students from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit to the Special Collections Library. As part of a class on exploring the book, attendees were preparing for an assignment to create a one-of-a-kind artists’ book. The instructor had asked me to find examples of unusual artists’ books with interesting structures, offering me an opportunity to explore new dimensions of Special Collections’ artists’ book holdings.

Last month at the Party For Your Mind, students shared their favorite summer reads. We may be solidly in autumn now, but let's take a look back at what Wolverines read this summer!

The Wolverine Podcast is a series of short audio narratives comprising interviews and stories about students' experiences during their first year at the University of Michigan and beyond. This series is produced by University of Michigan students who use storytelling and audio engineering to craft compelling narratives from all around campus. Each interview is an exciting peer-to-peer process in which both parties can guide the conversation.

Episode one is a student interview about living on campus at the University of Michigan. Each Monday we will bring you a new student story. For more information about The Wolverine Podcast, contact mlibengaged@umich.edu.

This past week, the University of Michigan Library was pleased to host the second annual Midwest Data Librarian Symposium (MDLS). The goal of the symposium was to offer librarians who work with research data in the midwest a chance to network and discuss issues in their fields.

The Shapiro Design Lab is now seeking submissions from University of Michigan students for its new Process Gallery, a project dedicated to showcasing the creative process in all the form it takes.

First published in 1789, Gilbert White’s The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne describes the history and environment of the parish in eastern Hampshire where he lived for much of his life. The book offers gently reflective accounts of White's observations, structured as 110 letters to two friends - zoologist Thomas Pennant and amateur naturalist Daines Barrington. An immensely popular and influential work in the genre of nature writing, White's writings continue to inspire today.

The House of the Vestals is a collection of nine short mystery stories featuring Steven Saylor's ancient Roman detective, Gordianus the Finder. The stories are meant to fill a gap between the first two books of the series, and they introduce some of the regular characters. They illustrate many fascinating aspects of Roman society, including the theater, the belief in ghosts, and holidays.

Take a look behind the scenes at the Michigan Theater and stroll down memory lane (and way beyond for most of us) to the 1920s and the early days of this wonderful community treasure and then move up through time to the theater's current role in the Ann Arbor arts scene.

Don't miss "Of Love and Madness: The Literary History of Layla and Majnun," on display October 7th - February 22nd in the Papyrology Cases on the 7th floor of Hatcher! This exhibit features Persian and Turkish illuminated manuscripts from the Islamic Manuscripts Collection, a couple of Azerbaijani imprints from the general collections, and even a papyrus fragment!