Library Blogs

Here is our list of most popular games during the month of September. Xbox 360 in clearly still more popular than Xbox One, although one of the Xbox One's games did top out the list. FIFA games of every flavor dominate the list with four entries, and I'm sure the newly acquired FIFA 15 will make an appearance next month. That's right: as of yesterday we have FIFA 15.

Nestled in the nearly 800 boxes that comprise the Robert Altman Archive here at the University of Michigan’s Special Collections Library is a treasure trove of materials from his 1980 film Popeye, which featured Robin Williams as the mumbling, spinach eating sailor. Over the last two months since the unexpected passing of Williams, numerous magazines, websites and blogs have paid tribute to the departed comic genius. Chief among them is Eric Spitnagel’s piece for Vanity Fair’s Hollywood entitled Popeye is the Best Movie Robin Williams Ever Made. While many may gasp at Spitnagel’s judgment, his witty and humorous remarks demonstrate the loyalty certain Williams fans feel towards a film that is often maligned rather than rejoiced.

Don't miss the Hispanic Heritage Month digital exhibit on display, October 5 through October 12, in Bert's Study Lounge in the Shapiro Undergraduate Library showcasing images from materials found in the Special Collections Library.

(by Kat Hagedorn, Christina Powell, Lance Stuchell and John Weise) The one constant in digital preservation over the past couple of decades has been change. Digitization standards have changed as equipment has improved and become more affordable, formats have come and gone, and tools have been developed to help with automated format creation and validation. The progress made on this front has been great, but how do we reconcile older content with current digitization and preservation standards?

For anyone interested in marginalized communities and the progress of social movements, the Special Collections Library has a wealth of primary and secondary resources. Examples of institutionalized racism, in particular, can be found throughout the Special Collections Library, and are a reminder that even objects we tend to revere such as rare books cannot escape their historical context.

A new exhibit, "The Life and Death of Gourmet — The Magazine of Good Living," is on display through December first in Special Collections' 7th floor exhibit space

This Wednesday's watermarks feature: hand / glove motifs in papers of manuscripts from the Islamic Manuscripts Collection.

Since we are now “celebrating” Banned Books Week, I thought that readers of our blog would be delighted to know that the Special Collections Library holds an important selection of early-printed editions of the justly infamous Index librorum prohibitorum (List of Forbidden Books).

So for awhile there, we thought we had a ghost in the archive. Or since it was a rogue television that kept turning off on its own, maybe we should refer to it as a ghost in the machine.

The last visual refresh to the DLPS Image Class environment updated the layout and styles, but mostly worked the same way. Starting this year, we've been making more drastic changes. These updates were based on what our analytics showed about browser use (larger, wider screens and of course, mobile use) and conversations with collection managers.