Laurie N. Taylor, Librarian

Thanks, as always, to Philip Guo, for sharing great thoughts on his site! From November 2019, his piece “Computer Literacy Starts with Developing a Mental Model of Filesystems” covers the critical need for folks to have building blocks for computer literacy, noting: computer literacy starts with developing a working mental model of computer filesystems. This includes concepts such as: files file extensions and types folders (a.k.a. directories) hierarchical tree structure of folders and files what pops up when you plug in a USB stick or hard drive home folder (e.g., ~ on macOS) app folders (e.g., /Applications on macOS) apps can read, write, create, and delete files the differenceRead More →

The official announcement is here: http://northwestarchivists.org/news/8128319. and the news is below. It is always fantastic to see more programs and supports for people being paid for their work! Northwest Archivists, Inc. is pleased to announce the opening of the Archivist-in-Residence application! Please read on for more information about this important pilot program and for links to residency criteria and application. Problem: Unpaid internships have become a problem in our profession. They serve as a barrier to entry into our field, especially along the lines of race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, and class, contributing to an imbalance in our profession. Unless an individual is willing and able to work withoutRead More →

I’m supporting an internal training by awesom Bess de Farber, sharing on grant partnerships. She’s talking about asset-based community development, and stated: “if you don’t know what you have, you don’t know what you can do.” This is exactly what we do in digital libraries, and we describe this in many ways. For ways of describing our work, I remember when I first started in digital libraries, and two senior librarians gave their examples of how we should do our work (it was 2007, so still in an earlier golden age of digital libraries). Both gave examples from movies. One gave an example of aRead More →

We’ve passed through so many major changes in the digital age. Librarians led the way in the internet revolution, teaching people how to use a mouse, what a web browser was and how to use it, and so much more for internet and information literacy. With the National Digital Library granting program in the US in the 1990s, we saw early digitization work move from experimental to codifying standards, and expressing ways to dream and think of how libraries could be—radically open spaces of possibility where access to materials heralded access and connection to services and experts. This was the golden age of digitization—from experimentRead More →

I learned that a friend of mine is from the “Pole of Inaccessibility” for the US, and thus also learned what a pole of inaccessibility is: with respect to a geographical criterion of inaccessibility marks a location that is the most challenging to reach according to that criterion. Often it refers to the most distant point from the coastline, implying a maximum degree of continentality or oceanity. In these cases, pole of inaccessibility can be defined as the center of the largest circle that can be drawn within an area of interest without encountering a coast. Where a coast is imprecisely defined, the pole will be similarlyRead More →

Part of my work includes checking on new materials contributed by partners to the Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC) to be able to share them with different groups, like the dLOC Scholarly Advisory Board. This is a fabulous part of my work, where I get to see so many amazing materials shared openly online with the world by so many different partners. In looking at new items today, some of the many highlights include historical newspapers from Cuba, including: Carteles: https://dloc.com/l/AA00065193/00001/allvolumes El Crisol: https://dloc.com/l/AA00067403/00001/allvolumes See all newspapers and periodicals in dLOC: https://dloc.com/cndlRead More →

Thanks to Allyson Beutke DeVito for granting permissions to share this important documentary online, the full documentary of Behind Closed Doors: The Dark Legacy of the Johns Committee is now online: https://ufdc.ufl.edu/AA00067837/00001/ From the catalog information for the documentary: The Legislative Investigation Committee probed unpopular groups in Florida during the 1950’s and 60’s. Also known as the Johns Committee, investigators questioned civil rights activists, suspected Communists and homosexuals. Includes live interviews with Art Copleston, Merril Mushroom, and Julia Penelope; and a narrative about the first Johns Committee target, Sigmund Diettrich (who is now deceased), by former colleagues. From the website for the documentary: Many peopleRead More →

Media Contact: Erica Williams Connell Tel: 305-905-9999 Email: ewmc@ewmc-tt.org The Eric Williams Memorial Collection P.O. Box 561631 * Miami, Fl 33256-1631 * USA * Tel: 305-271-7246 * Cell: 305-905-9999 * Fax: 305-271-4160 Eric Williams Memorial Collection Sponsors 2019 Regional ‘School Bags’ Essay Competition Port of Spain, TRINIDAD and TOBAGO (October 21, 2019). The Eric Williams Memorial Collection Research Library, Archives & Museum (EWMC) at The University of the West Indies (UWI), Trinidad and Tobago, announces the adjudication of this year’s “Eric Williams ‘School Bags’ Essay Competition.” Judges are: Dr. Rita Pemberton, retired Chair, UWI Department of History; Dr. Andrew O’Shaughnessy, Director, Center for Jefferson Studies,Read More →

See the full announcement here: http://caribbeandigitalnyc.net/2019/ Super awesome, rigorous, generous discussions with fantastic people! RSVP on the website, which includes basic information thus far: —————– the caribbean digital VI 6 December 2019 | 1PM-8PM BARNARD COLLEGE DIGITAL HUMANITIES CENTER Symposium participants: Yarimar Bonilla, Vincent Brown, Holly Bynoe, Laurent Dubois, Schuyler Esprit, Annette Joseph-Gabriel, Jessica M. Johnson, Frances Négron-Muntaner, Ruddy Roye, Roopika Risam Symposium organizers: Alex Gil, Kaiama L. Glover, Kelly Baker Josephs Our space is limited. We invite you to RSVP. Full program and more information coming soon.Read More →

Working in libraries at UF, as a public institution, means that I get to be part of so much great work in terms of preservation, access, education, research, learning, and so much more. One of my many happy programs is the LibraryPress@UF which publishes works that build from the Libraries’ unique collections and creates new works that extend the library collections, creating new works in the spirit and manner of transformative collaboration and engaging in the public sphere to expand the form and meaning of publication to further public scholarship. All of the work is awesome! It is particularly awesome that the LibraryPress@UF produces twoRead More →