Librarian Bryn Geffert.

The Chronicle of Higher Education ran an article this week that highlighted new initiatives at academic libraries in terms of scholarly publishing. Over the last five years, library-based publishing has changed rapidly, shifting from a focus on digitization initiatives to something less well defined and more contingent on individual universities.

At Amherst College, librarian Bryn Geffert has been instrumental in launching Amherst College Press, a new publishing venue committed to open access, which will produce a small number edited, peer-reviewed books in digital formats in order to support research and scholarship, especially in overlooked subject areas.

Other university libraries are also mapping the scholarly publishing landscape; 54 libraries, including Penn State, University of Michigan, and Purdue are part of the Library Publishing Coalition, an organization that brings such library publishing operations together in an effort to define the endeavor and find ways to support it.

An interesting point of conflict lies between this new library-centric publishing initiative and the Association of American University Presses.  In recent months, the AAUP objected to the Federal Research Public Access Act and supported the publishers who sued Georgia State University over e-reserves copyright infringement, stances which many librarians did not agree with.

Check out the full article here: For New Ideas in Scholarly Publishing, Look to the Library.

This triptych of prints by Tracy Honn shows the pure geometric fun that can be had with chromatic wood type. Photo by Tracy Honn.

Tracy Honn is a master printer and Director of Silver Buckle Press, a working museum of letterpress printing housed on the second floor of Memorial Library.  Silver Buckle serves as living archive of materials and process for the craft, not only collecting vintage printing equipment, but putting  them to use; the Press is a demonstration and education lab as much as it is a museum.

In that spirit, Honn recently created a series of experimental prints using the Van Lanen font designed by Matthew Carter and cut by Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum.  Design Envy Curator Bill Moran was so inspired by the series, he claimed  “Her color schemes and clever use of two-part letterforms makes me want to run straight to my press and start working.”

Want more?

Read the full Design Envy article.

Celebrating Silver Buckle Press.

Search the Silver Buckle Press Collection on the UWDC site.

Learn more about Silver Buckle Press and it’s history.

The space is conceived as a learning center where people can learn to use a variety of technologies, and, according to Wolff, is not meant to replace the city’s existing libraries and print collections but to supplement them.  He describes the layout of the new branch as “like an Apple store.”

Though BiblioTech is being touted as the United States’ first bookless library, this idea isn’t revolutionary.  In fact, other public libraries have tried–and failed– to make a bookless model work.  According to this excellent NPR article, “In 2002, at the Santa Rosa Branch Library in Tucson, Ariz., officials attempted to bridge the digital gap in the community by offering a digital-only library. Years later, however, residents — fatigued by the electronics — requested that actual books be added to the collection, and today, enjoy a full-access library with computers.”

Image from Bookshelf Porn blog (posted in 2011).

A diversion highly recommended by your campus librarians bookshelf connoisseurs.

Books on display in College Library’s Open Book Cafe.

An interesting study from the PEW Internet & American Life Project (a subset of the Pew Research Center) finds that reading is alive and well among young Americans. Their reading format preferences range from e-books on cell phones, audiobooks, and old fashioned print.

Read the full story.

The website is full of resources for librarians and other professionals dealing with issues related to e-books and digital content in libraries – including best practices for working with publishers, which has been a major concern for ALA in recent months.

via American Libraries Magazine.

Interested in learning about what the Libraries here at UW-Madison have to offer in the way of e-books? Check out the E-Books page for details on what we have, how to access e-books, and where to go for more.

The contested digitization project makes thousands of library materials available online.

This week a federal judge threw out the copyright infringement case against several university libraries, including the UW-Madison Libraries. The lawsuit, brought against the universities by the Authors Guild and other writers’ guilds, accused the libraries (all of whom participate in the HathiTrust Digital Library) of mass copyright infringement since they were digitizing in-copyright works without permission from the original authors.

The judge ruled that fair use protects the libraries in this digitization project.

Read the full story on Wired.

Read the official HathiTrust response on the judge’s ruling.

Update: Read an article by Jennifer Howard for the Chronicle of Higher Education on the case, and the wider implications of the judge’s ruling.

“Fictitious Dishes: Alice in Wonderland” by Dinah Fried.

A Tumblr by photographer Dinah Fried depicts famous literary food scenes – from On the Road to Alice in Wonderland.

Do Fried’s photos have you hankering for some literary feasts? The UW-Madison Libraries have a lot of cookbooks with recipes inspired by literature!

Here’s a sample from the shelves:

• Pease Porridge Hot: a Mother Goose Cookbook by Lorinda Bryan Cauley
• The Pooh Get-Well Book: Recipes and Activities to Help You Recover from Wheezles and Sneezles by Virginia H. Ellison
• The Literary Gourmet: Menus from Masterpieces by Linda Wolfe
• Mary Poppins in the Kitchen: a Cookery Book with a Story by P.L. Travers (Pamela Lyndon)
• African American Foodways: Explorations of History and Culture by Anne L. Bower

Read the full story about Dinah Fried’s fabulous food photo project on National Public Radio.

Janice Rice was awarded the Distinguished Service Award at the Joint Conference of Librarians of Color this week.

Libraries are a mirror of the communities that they serve. For many libraries, the looking glass reflects America’s tendency to attract new citizens – and those aspiring to citizenship – seeking to turn long-frustrated dreams into reality.

Libraries are necessary to support these dreams, since they are the public institutions that new Americans and diverse groups rely on the most to support continued education, and English language and technology skills needed to thrive and compete in today’s competitive global market.

Li and Rice provide an overview of the work that libraries – particularly public libraries – in America do to serve an increasingly diverse population, and the work that remains to be done as immigrant, minority, and non-English-speaking groups grow in the coming years.

Though there is much work to be done, librarians are by and large rising to the challenge:

Later this month the five ethnic caucuses of the ALA and other library leaders from all types of libraries and backgrounds will meet for the Joint Librarians of Color Conference (JCLC), Sept. 19 – 23, in Kansas City, Missouri, to discuss how libraries can prepare for the country’s demographic shift. Our nation’s library leaders will participate in discussions on meeting the increasing demand for multicultural and multilingual collections; recruiting a racially diverse bilingual workforce; and developing multilingual literacy programs that empower English-language learners.

Read the full article.

Janice is a librarian at College Library at UW-Madison, focusing on instruction, outreach, and partnerships with the School of Library and Information Studies. We’re also very pleased to report that this week Janice is the recipient of a Distinguished Service Award  at the Joint Conference of Librarians of Color. The award is sponsored by the American Indian Library Association. Congratulations, Janice!

You can check out laptops, video cameras, iPads and more at locations all over campus.

We came across this post about interesting or unexpected things you can check out from a library – somewhere. The list includes everything from therapy dogs to toys!

Do libraries at UW-Madison check out any of this stuff? Unfortunately therapy dogs aren’t in our collection (although they hang out on campus during finals and #studystrong…).

BUT – as a UW-Madison student, you do have access to a fantastic collection of equipment, from video cameras to iPads, that can be checked out from the Libraries and other locations on campus. Visit DoIT’s Equipment Checkout page for details and locations.

For the iPhones users out there, there’s also a handy app available for download – so you can check in all there is check out from wherever you are.