... has borrowed 25,000 library books.
Telegraph – “Louise Brown, 91, has read up to a dozen books a week since 1946 without incurring a single fine for late returns.”
From: Library stuff
Codex Sinaiticus is one of the most important books in the world. Handwritten well over 1600 years ago, the manuscript contains the Christian Bible in Greek, including the oldest complete copy of the New Testament. Its heavily corrected text is of outstanding importance for the history of the Bible and the manuscript – the oldest substantial book to survive Antiquity – is of supreme importance for the history of the book. [More]
The Codex Sinaiticus WebsiteThis is the first release of the Codex Sinaiticus Project website. This website will be substantially updated in November 2008 and in July 2009, by when the website will have been fully developed. [Contents]
4th Annual World eBook Fair - "Our goal is to provide Free public access for a month to 2 Million eBooks. During the rest of the year you may continue to download your selection of about 500,000 PDF eBooks by joining the World Public Library. Annual membership is only $8.95 per year" - July 4 to August 4 2009.
http://afripopmag.com/50-books-every-african-should-read/
From Afripop
From Celia: don't forget to look at the comments.
On the edge : the hidden art of fore-edge book painting
This website highlights a special collection of over 200 images of fore-edge paintings which are housed in the Rare Books Department of the Boston Public Library in Massachussetts. Fore-edge painting refers to the process of applying an image to the fanned page block of a book, and if the pages are gilded or marbled, the image disappears when the book is relaxed. There are several useful online videos which demonstrate the process. The items within the collection can be browsed by subject, book title or painting title or searched by general keyword. Each entry contains bibliographic details about the book in question, and an enlargable image of the fore-edge painting. Other features of the website include a selection of articles on the subject of fore-edge painting, written by leading experts in the field, which provide historical and curatorial insight into the subject. From Intute.ac.uk
http://foreedge.bpl.org/
UCT Libraries Rare Books and Special Collections Dept has a collection of books with fore edge paintings. My favourite is Hogarth's Sleeping Congregation painted on the book of Willam Paley's Sermons
"Frustrating 'out-of-print' and 'out-of-stock' books will become a thing of the past with a new machine that prints books on demand. In the future, any novel, manual, journal or academic title, no matter how old or new can be printed in just under five minutes. On 24 April, Blackwell launched the Espresso Book Machine® (the "EBM") at its London flagship store in Charing Cross, which currently holds more than 400,000 publications. By summer there will be over a million titles available, the equivalent of 23.6 miles worth of shelving or over 50 bookshops rolled into one, in a machine the size of a photocopier."
In a fascinating and forward-thinking policy change, the journal RNA Biology recently began requiring authors to submit a Wikipedia-ready page after acceptance, so that new findings can be published in Wikipedia after journal publication.
http://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2009/01/13/a-journal-feeds-wikipedia/
From: The Scholarly Kitchen
From Internet Resources Newsletter March 2009
The shortlist for the Man Booker Prize 2008 has been announced:
Aravind Adiga - The White Tiger (Atlantic)
Sebastian Barry - The Secret Scripture (Faber and Faber)
Amitav Ghosh - Sea of Poppies (John Murray)
Linda Grant - The Clothes on Their Backs (Virago)
Philip Hensher - The Northern Clemency (Fourth Estate)
Steve Toltz - A Fraction of the Whole (Hamish Hamilton)
Invitation to submit essays The Zimbabwean novelist and poet, Chenjerai Hove, and the Nigerian novelist, Okey Ndibe, are co-
editing a volume that explores African creative writers' experience of war. We invite writers poets, short story writers,
novelists, journalists and professorss of literature to submit personal essays detailing how a war or connflict has shaped their
work or changed their lives. In addition, we will accept a few analytical essays looking at literary works (fiction, poetry,
memoir) inspired by wars or other forms of violent conflicts.
Since the projected book will be targeted to a general audience,we welcome essays to avoid overly technical language. We conceive
this as an accessible collection of (mostly) essays by writers reflecting on how conflicts have impinged on their professional
practice and lives. We are particularly interested in submissions that dwell on such areas as the Democratic Republic of the Congo,
Rwanda, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Somalia.
The submissions should not exceed 5,000 words. Deadline is October 31, 2008. Please send manuscripts as attached word documents to
Okey Ndibe at okey.ndibe@trincoll.edu. If you have any questions, please e-mail me at the same address. Okey Ndibe English
Department Trinity College 115 Vernon Street Hartford, CT 06106
Thanks to Fareeda Jadwat for this.
Hongkiat has compiled a list of 20 of the best Web destinations which offer free e-books which includes 15 additional briefly suggested sites, and reader-contributed recommendations in the comments. If you haven’t had enough with these, you could check out the 22 e-book websites listed in 80 Online Resources for Book Lovers, or if you’re on the fence about the value of e-books, head over to read the 30 Benefits of Ebooks.
"Own Your Own Library" is the theme of the 2008 World eBook Fair
http://worldebookfair.org/A few of the collections:Department of Energy Collection
DOE is leading the effort to address the challenge of
Global Climate Change through innovative programs and cutting edge
technologies. The DOE collection contains publications on a wide variety of
energy information, addressing topics such as energy savings tips, Researchers,
Climate Changes, Market Trends, Energy Sources, Health, Safety and Security,
Science and Technology. (145 PDF eBooks)
http://worldebookfair.org/Department_of_Energy_Collection.htm
Technical eBook Collection
Most
Internet users will, at one point, need assistance and consult with a technical
reference. The Technical Manuals and eBooks Collection of technical references
are many of the most commonly requested references on the Internet. (4,458 PDF Books)
http://worldebookfair.org/Technical_eBook_Colleciton.htm
eBook.nl Collection
eBook.nl is de beste site voor Engelse en Nederlandse
eBooks. Wij hebben ook gratis Nederlandse eBooks en ons aanbod van Nederlandse
en Engelse titels wordt regelmatig uitgebreid. Alle betalingen worden
afgehandeld door Bibit, waardoor de veiligheid van uw transactie wordt
gegarandeerd. (7 PDF eBooks, 20,000 eBooks available at eBook.nl)
http://worldebookfair.org/eBook.nl.htm
Ebooks Libres & Gratuits
Au
programme... : ebooks gratuits * livres électroniques gratuits Notre but est la
création et la publication d'ebooks - ou livres électroniques - gratuits, à
partir de textes libres de droit ; nous sommes un groupe francophone
international, de nombreux pays étant représentés par nos membres. Ce groupe
est un lieu d'échanges et de débats, et nous permet ainsi de mieux nous
organiser pour l'édition et la publication des ebooks. Tous ceux qui sont
intéressés par les ebooks sont invités à nous rejoindre. (287 PDF eBooks)
http://worldebookfair.org/Ebooks_libres_et_gratuits.htm
Islamic eBook Collection
This
collection of Islamic religious books was compiled to help spread the wisdom of
Islam to the world. Recently, world events have created a misperception
regarding the beliefs of the nation of Islam. (68 PDF and LIT eBooks)
http://worldebookfair.org/Islamic_eBook_Library.htm
Project Madurai Library Collection
The project has managed to release more than 200 important
Tamil texts so far without any funding from any agency, government or private.
Project Madurai
is a collection of ancient Tamil texts, out of print books, and contemporary
authors. Government of Tamil Nadu brought the works of around 25 20th Century
authors into the public domain including Bharathiyar, Bharathidasan, Kalki,
Pattukottai Kalyanasundaram and others. And there were writers like Jeyakanthan
and Vairamuthu who voluntarily gave permission to the project to convert some
of their works into e-texts. Today, the project covers even the works of
expatriate Tamil authors from places like Malaysia,
Singapore, Sri Lanka and
other countries. (200 HTML and 81 PDF eBooks
http://worldebookfair.org/ProjectMadura.htm
2009 Next Generation Indie Book Awards entries
"Entries are now being accepted for the 2009 Next Generation Indie Book Awards
(the 'Indie Book Awards'), the most exciting and rewarding book awards
program open to independent publishers and authors worldwide who have a
book written in English and released in 2008 or 2009 or with a 2008 or
2009 copyright date. The Indie Book Awards is presented by Independent
Book Publishing Professionals Group".
This year's Caine Prize for African Writing has been won by Henrietta Rose-Innes from South Africa, with her story 'Poison' from 'Africa Pens', published by Spearhead, an imprint of New Africa Books, Cape Town, 2007.
Peter Scott's library blog
The University of Pretoria launched an institutional repository, UPSpace.
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/2008/06/up-launches-ir.html