Library Blogs

When a research library creates a position with responsibility for the preservation of digital stuff, where on the organizational hierarchy should that position hang? Is digital preservation an IT job, collections management, or preservation?

The Prophet is a mystery set in a small Ohio town about two estranged brothers, one a bail bondsman and the other a high school football coach, whose sister was murdered as a teenager. When another teenage girl is murdered, the wounds of the past resurface and the two brothers must work together to catch a killer.

The Rival Queens is an entertainingly-written biography of two powerful women in 16th century France: the ruthless Catherine de' Medici, Queen of France, who ruled the country for decades during the reigns of three of her sons, and her youngest daughter, the intelligent, courageous Marguerite de Valois, Queen of Navarre.

We are pleased to announce the opening of a new exhibit from the Special Collections Library: Shakespeare on Page and Stage: A Celebration (Audubon Room, January 11-April 27, 2016). The exhibit is a historical journey through different versions of Shakespeare’s plays as they were edited for publication or interpreted for the stage. Starting with the Second Folio (1632), our display includes a selection of landmark editions by authors and scholars like John Dryden, Nicholas Rowe, Alexander Pope, Samuel Johnson, and Edmond Malone. It explores the staging and costuming of productions such as Charles Kean’s archaeologically-informed, elaborately-costumed 1856 production of The Winter’s Tale, and Maurice Browne-Ellen Van Volkenburg 1930 production of Othello, casting Paul Robeson as the first black actor to play Othello on the London stage in a century. It also includes an extraordinary multi-media feature in the form of a selection of video clips of famous film adaptation of Shakespeare's plays.

Welcome to the new year, everyone. We've tallied up the list of most popular games in the archive during 2015, and posted them below. We have the usual list of sports games and first-person shooters, but were also happy to see the new Smash on the list, as well as Mario Kart. Which games do you think will be the most popular for 2016?

As part of the upcoming exhibit "Shakespeare on Page and Stage: A Celebration" (Audubon Room, January 11- April 27) we decided to include a facsimile version of a quarto gathering based on a real seventeenth-century quarto edition of a play held at the Special Collections Library: The tempest, or, The enchanted island. A comedy. As it is now acted at Their Majesties theatre in Dorset-Garden (London: H. Herringman, 1690), edited by John Dryden & William Davenant. Read the rest of this blog post if you wish to learn more about what a quarto is and how the folks from the Wolverine Press printed this replica.

We have recently purchased an extremely rare illustrated history of Spain. It consists of just twenty-four oblong leaves (152 x 262 mm), each of them containing six illustrations with their respective descriptive narratives below. Each of these pairs highlights important events in Spanish history from Antiquity until the reign of Philip V (1700-1746). There is no letterpress involved in the making of this book. The rectos of the pages have been entirely designed and printed by using the process of copperplate engraving.

The open source software Hydra is, by its name and nature, modular and complex. Using this technology gives the University of Michigan the opportunity to participate in the development of an increasingly-adopted suite of tools with the flexibility to accommodate a host of needs and engage in the spirit and philosophy of open source software development. With open source, we must concern ourselves not just with our own institution’s needs and priorities, but those of a broader community.

Signora da Vinci is an imaginative retelling, more fantasy than historical fiction, of the life of Leonardo da Vinci's mother, Caterina. In Robin Maxwell's novel, Caterina is the daughter of an alchemist/apothecary in a small town near Florence. After a brief romance with Piero da Vinci, a young man from a much wealthier family, she gives birth to Leonardo, who is taken away by his father's family the day after his birth. In order to be near her son, Caterina disguises herself as a man and goes to Florence, where she has many adventures and takes delight in her brilliant son's art and inventions.

"Estévez’s handmade book arts are not only storied in out Special Collections and displayed in his newest exhibit, but have been passed down to eager students. Continuing in that tradition, which he helped begin, Estévez led a workshop for Michigan students on the art of bookmaking."
Read more of this guest blog post by students in Prof. Ruth Behar's course, "Cuba and Its Diaspora." Professor Behar is Victor Haim Parera Collegiate Professor of Anthropology.