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The University of Michigan’s card catalogs are scheduled to be removed from the library stacks tomorrow. We desperately need the space but I’m still a little sad to see them go. Even though I’m firmly stationed in the digital realm, I still love the analog world – especially artifacts that have such a lovely tactile quality that can even produce a visceral response. So, here’s my attempt to capture a little of that feeling.

See also:my full set of photos | dfulmers card catalog flickr set (includes some interesting history) | Ann Arbor News article

LOLcats is so 2007… Now it’s all about the LOL manuscripts!

[LOL Manuscripts | via NotCot]

The Powerhouse Museum in Australia has just joined the Library of Congress to be the second member of the Commons on Flickr.

And BTW – Seb Chan’s Powerhouse blog Fresh + New(er) is one of my favorites and a fantastic source for interesting discussions about digital media, access systems, interface design, tagging and web2.0. I also love their opac/online collections site (really, it’s super cool, go play with it).

More info here:

• Flickr Commons
• Flickr blog post
• Fresh + New(er) blog post

The UM Hatcher Graduate Library recently converted a staff space into an exhibit & class room space to take advantage of the room’s prime real estate. This is now one of the few public spaces in the building that has super comfortable chairs, lots of windows and light, and quite!

The first exhibit is about former U Michigan Coach Bo Schemblecher. Congrats to the planning committee because it looks great. I was asked to take some photos of the exhibit and they’re now available on flickr:

Congrats to the folks at the University of Michigan Hatcher Graduate Library for putting together an awesome photo set of librarians reading their favorite banned books. I helped a little with this project and not only was it fun to do, it’s great seeing photos of all these people I don’t really get to see much (even though I work in the same building).

Check it out: Celebrate Banned Books Week Flickr set

Even our University Librarian Paul Courant participated!

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

From the news item:

Subversive. Objectionable. Offensive. Inappropriate. These are just a few of the terms used to describe many of the books that are challenged by society every year.

To participate in national Banned Books Week (Sept 29 – Oct 6, 2007), we invited our staff to highlight some of their favorite banned books in our library collections. Now these highlighted books and the wonderful people who select, acquire, organize, preserve and manage our collections are featured in Flickr, a photo-sharing web site!

The freedom to make your own decisions about what you want to read, and to have access to these items, are rights that libraries fully support. The University of Michigan’s library collection reflects these principles in its diversity. We invite you to get acquainted with our staff and our collections through our Celebrate Banned Books Week Flickr photo set.

For more information on intellectual freedom, censorship, and to view some banned book lists, see:

• Banned Books Week
• 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books
• OCLC Banned Book List
• ACLU FreedomWire

Library student extraordinaire Alexis Zirpoli made a great flickr set to show what books have to go through before they make it to the shelves.

I’d love to see this in other departments and other libraries.

Flickr set: Pre-Shelf Life of Library Materials

“Library materials waiting their turn to be sorted, unpacked, and processed.”