A few thoughts on Anarchist's Guide to Historic House Museums

Anarchist's Guide to Historic House Museums by Franklin D. Vagnone
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is an impressive book which challenges people who manage house museums to really connect with the communities which surround the houses. It asks people to think about relevance and provides creative ways for exploring history. A big element is listening to the community, and reaching out to non-traditional audiences. While this book is about house museums it is relevant for thinking about local studies collections, and even about libraries as a whole. It is not about providing the answers, but about exploring lots of questions.

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Changing lives and enriching communities in #yxe - great work by @stoonlibrary

I came across the following headline in Infodocket (go and have a look at the link)

Saskatchewan: Saskatoon Public Library Dedicates Space for Truth and Reconciliation

You can read more about what the Saskatoon Library is doing in reconciliation.

The #Reconciliation Reading Room is now open at Frances Morrison Library! Come have a seat and browse our Indigenous collection. #reconciliationsk #yxe

A photo posted by Saskatoon Public Library (@saskatoonpubliclibrary) on Nov 21, 2016 at 8:52am PST

The description of the library, on their twitter account is "Changing lives and enriching communities in #yxe - Treaty 6 Territory and the homeland of the Métis."   This looks great.  Does your organisation acknowledge the local Indigenous community on your site? 

Collecting local industry for local studies

This article shows how a library is collecting information about their local craft brewing industry.  Oregan State University Library has key archives.  While is this currently a small collection, they are collecting it. Cornell University has a research wine library, and he Louis B Nunn Centre has an oral history collection about bourbon.

With the expansion of craft brewing in Australia there is a lot of potential for collecting oral history, ephemera and other material.

This is not the only area to explore.  There has been some very interesting work done by industries as this recent digital story about wool in Shetland shows.

How are you collecting local industry as part of local studies?

A few thoughts about The art of relevance

The Art of Relevance by Nina Simon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book asks a lot of questions about how museums interpret their relevance. It contains examples from museums, libraries, and other relevant places. It suggests ways to connect with new audiences, and encourages the exploration of partnerships. While written about museums there is much for libraries to ponder. The book challenges complacency.

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local studies needlepoint via @sallysetsforth

The following photograph came through my Flickr stream.  It is lovely and is local studies meets needlepoint.  The works are done in collaboration.  Have people partnered with local embroiderers as a way of recording the local environment.  There are lots of other groups who would be great partners too.

A few more of the pieces from "Threads of Footscray", showing at VU MetroWest until 23 Dec
photographed by Sally Cummings

The following image of   If you look at the version on Instagram you can see some more information about them - make sure you click through to see the photograph on Instagram so you can read Sally's comments.

A few more of the pieces from "Threads of Footscray", showing at VU MetroWest until 23 Dec. Beautiful needlepoint pieces stitched by community members, depicting scenes around Footscray. #needlepoint #embroidery #art #footscray #melbourne

A photo posted by Sally Cummings (@sallysetsforth) on Dec 14, 2016 at 3:16am PST

tracking the building of the Christchurch Central Library thanks to @ChristchurchLib

Christchurch City Library is providing lots of photographs of the construction of their new central library. They are tracking the building (see above) and some of the people involved (see below)


There are lots more photographs to look at, have a look at this album on Flickr.  This is a brilliant way to record this building for local studies, and it is a great way to tell the story of how things are changing for the community.  I wish more libraries would do this kind of public recording and storytelling for their communities. It is exciting to engage with the community in this way.

twitter archive on github thanks to @mhawksey

I am excited about this.  It is my first use of github, and yes, I did not have to do anything fancy but follow the directions, and it worked.  I now have an updating twitter archive on githib.

You can watch the video of instructions here.

I have been a fan of Tagsexplorer beta for a while (here is an example).

A few thoughts about How the world changed social media by by Daniel Miller, Elisabetta Costa, Nell Haynes, Tom McDonald, Razvan Nicolescu, Jolynna Sinanan, Juliano Spyer, Shriram Venkatraman , and Xinyuan Wang

How the World Changed Social Media by Daniel Miller, Elisabetta Costa, Nell Haynes, Tom McDonald, Razvan Nicolescu, Jolynna Sinanan, Juliano Spyer, Shriram Venkatraman , Xinyuan Wang

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a very interesting read. It is part of an eleven book series which describe comparative, qualitative, anthropological field work in nine sites around the world. It was done by different anthropologists, who worked together, and did their research at the same time (except for one researcher) so information was comparative. The researchers spent time together for planning and part way through their field work, but researched in different areas around the world.

This volume brings together a summary of the different sites which are described in their separate volumes. This is really interesting because it looks at poly media (people using multiple social medias) and brings in the idea of scalable sociability. It is really interesting for the big picture trends, and differences between the sites. While I may not read all the titles in the series, I am going to read some of other books. The titles are available as free PDFs so that those who participated in the research would be able to read the findings. This is important in reporting back to those who were part of the research. The books are also available as ebooks and in print.

I think this would be interesting reading for people interested in social media or ethnography as a research methodology.



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Shetland wool week and local studies

On Instagram there was a lot of recent activity for #shetlandwoolweek. I found out about it last year and it looked amazing, and something to add to the "to visit" list. I am interested in it because of the knitting, but also because of the local studies.

The image below brings in a library partnership as a participant reports back on the Shetland wool week

Come hear about my Shetland Wool Week adventures and my sheepy mayhem tour of North Yorkshire England. I will be presenting at the Newfields NH library this Wednesday night 7 PM. Free event. #shetlandwoolweek #shetland #newfieldsnh #newfieldslibrary #knittersofinstagram

A photo posted by Wendy Booth (@hivetender) on Oct 10, 2016 at 7:05pm PDT

I hope the local public library in Shetland is collecting some of these images as there are twists on the traditional, for example (inclusion of runes)

Knit from handspun by Sue Arthur. Displayed at the Guild Tea in Tingwall. #inspiredbyshetland #shetlandwoolweek #knitting #fairisle

A photo posted by Cathy Scott - Stitchmastery (@stitchmastery) on Oct 2, 2016 at 7:43am PDT

It is interesting because there is a focus on the sheep

Oliver, judging fleece on the hoof. #Shetland #grandshetlandadventure #shetlandwoolweek #shetlandwoolweek2016 #sheep

A photo posted by Carrie Sundra (@alpenglowyarn) on Oct 1, 2016 at 4:42am PDT

as well as the finished product. Heritage items were on display

Visited the Isleburgh Community Centre last night and met Elizabeth. The sweater that Elizabeth is wearing plus all the others displayed behind her were knit by her mother and aunt in the 1920s and 1930s. Aren't they amazing? #shetlandwoolweek #knitting #knittersofinstagram #artificialsilk #fairisle

A photo posted by Cathy Scott - Stitchmastery (@stitchmastery) on Sep 28, 2016 at 1:22am PDT

as new pieces were being made...

Sheila Fowlie teaching us about lace knitting with organic wool 👌 {on a side note, we found the other two Icelanders attending wool week!} #shetlandwoolweek #hjalti2016 #allthelace

A photo posted by Lára Þórarinsdóttir (@larathor) on Sep 26, 2016 at 2:28pm PDT

Bright swatches from our class with @mjmucklestone . We tested out different fair isle color combos, and were supposed to all use the same colors of yarn. It turns out we were all a bunch of terrible cheaters - some of us added colors and some of us used entirely different colors because we decided to immediately swatch for a sweater. 😁 playing with colors is pretty addictive - I just wanted to keep rearranging and swatching! #swatches #fairisle #colorwork #knitting #shetland #shetlandwoolweek #grandshetlandadventure

A photo posted by Carrie Sundra (@alpenglowyarn) on Oct 7, 2016 at 10:42am PDT

I think this is very interesting from a local studies perspective, and would have great potential for oral history and other recording of current experience. There was even a readers' advisory element as well

Luckily snagged tickets to Ann Cleeves new book launch. #shetlandwoolweek #anncleeves

A photo posted by kschneibolk (@kschneibolk) on Oct 2, 2016 at 8:16am PDT

Sheep and local studies

There has been an interesting discussion on Instagram encouraging people in the UK to share photographs of rare sheep breeds...

Thanks to Emma @girlinknits for suggesting we use the #woolworks hashtag again during UK Wool Week; we thought it would be amazing to take this opportunity to highlight and celebrate the different British Sheep Breeds. Here's a lovely Southdown sheep to kick things off #showusyoursheepbreeds #woolworks #ukwoolweek #britishwool #notjustmerino

A photo posted by Team Wovember (@wovemberwool) on Oct 9, 2016 at 8:33pm PDT

This is from the UK, and many of these sheep are connected to local areas. This has led to some lovely photographs of sheep...

Hurrah for the diversity of #uksheepbreeds and #WoolWorks #ukwoolweek a glimpse of the hashtag action so far today!

A photo posted by Team Wovember (@wovemberwool) on Oct 10, 2016 at 10:32am PDT

#daughterofashepherd #Hebridean #sheep - what else would I choose as my #WoolWorks breed! We are on our way to visit @johnarbontextiles to go over future woolly plans, which seems a fitting end to #WoolWeek

A photo posted by Rachel Atkinson (@knittingtastic) on Oct 14, 2016 at 2:32am PDT

As well as photographs of items made with the wool of rare sheep breeds

Celebrating the beauty of different breed wool is something very close to my heart. I am still absolutely in love with this project from last year by @handmadebysigi - she took a range of wools and used each one to make a tiny sock from Sock Anatomy. Single breed yarns + socks = the perfect combo. What a fantastic way to experiment with different types of wool. (Don't forget you can buy Sock Anatomy, or any of the single patterns in the book, with 25% off until the end of the weekend - link in profile) #knitsharelove #notjustmerino #woolworks #knitbritish #lovelocalyarn #woolweek

A photo posted by Clare Devine (@knitsharelove) on Oct 12, 2016 at 8:21pm PDT

These cheeky little guys are starting to get too fresh with the ladies. So they have been banished to another pasture until some decisions can be made about them. @wovemberwool #Romney #Lincolnlongwool #rarebreed #naturalcolored #purebreedwool #britishbreeds #wovemberwool #woolworks #showusyoursheepbreeds #notjustmerino #sheepinPA #chestercountypa #ramlambs #ramlife #BrynMawr #LittleBit #Basil #Bruce

A photo posted by Amanda Barcenas (@pradodelana) on Oct 12, 2016 at 9:12am PDT

It made me hope that some UK public libraries are collecting this for their local studies collections.

A knitting pattern copyright discussion on Instagram

I found out about this discussion because I saw this (you need to read the information under the photograph)

SPOT THE DIFFERENCE; top photo is the amazing Baa-ble Hat designed by @donnasmithdesigns for #ShetlandWoolWeek 2015, the bottom is a "new design" from @chelseayarns bearing an *uncanny* resemblance to Donna's design. This makes me sad because surely there are enough amazing ideas to be had in this world that you can do a sheepy design without ripping off another designer, and because I strongly believe that we must respect each other's creativity and not exploit it. There are ways and means of approaching someone about using their original ideas but publishing a free pattern on Ravelry that directly quotes someone else's design is not one of them. #notok #originalintellectualcopyright #ripoff #baablehat #istandwithmyfrienddonna

A photo posted by Felicity Ford (@knitsonik) on Oct 14, 2016 at 12:56pm PDT

which was reposted by others, and led to one person sharing their photograph of the hat they had knitted with the original pattern, calling others to do the same...

This is a picture of my #baablehat I wore last year when I was in Shetland during the #shetlandwoolweek. I just read the post of @knitsonik about a copycat (#shewhocannotbenamed) used this fantastic design made by @donnasmithdesigns. This morning Donna posted a picture of her baable hats and new cowl and I'm asking you not to use the copycat cowl, but buy the one Donna is designing! #istandwithmyfrienddonna #baablehatisthebomb #godesignyourowncowl #knittersofinstagram #knitting #rhinebeck #knitstagram #knittingaddict #breien #stricken #shetland #shetlandrules

A photo posted by Madeleine (@madeliciousm) on Oct 14, 2016 at 1:22pm PDT

...which led to more people sharing their photographs...

#getyourbaablesoot me and @knitsonik at #shetlandwoolweek2015 opening ceremony in the #baablehat. I didn't make one in time (@helenemagnusson let me borrow hers) Tomorrow I am going to cast one on! 📸 - THE @jenireid

A photo posted by Louise Scollay (@knit_british) on Oct 14, 2016 at 3:03pm PDT

There are more examples at #getyourbabblesoot.

 Only a few days ago the pattern creator had shared

It's the October holidays here at the moment, so that together with working a couple of days this week and catching up with pals has meant that there isn't much time for knitting. I am however working on a Baa-ble cowl and mittens set now the cold weather is setting in. The patterns will be released very soon! #baablehat #baablecowl #baablemittens #knittersofinstagram #knitting #shetlandwoolweek #inspiredbyshetland

A photo posted by Donna Smith (@donnasmithdesigns) on Oct 13, 2016 at 11:21am PDT

I thought this was an interesting way of dealing with copyright misuse. They are working through Ravelry as well.

An update has been posted by the original designer. It is worth checking the number of likes and comments as there is a lot of solidarity being shown.

I want just to say a massive thank you to everyone lately for their support, the woolly community really is an amazing place! On another note the Baa-ble mittens and cowl is now on Ravelry (user name is Peeriedonna). More pictures to follow - I had forgotten how little light we get sometimes when the winter gets near! #baablehat #baablemittens #baablecowl #knittersofinstagram #knitting #shetlandwoolweek #sheep #inspiredbyshetland

A photo posted by Donna Smith (@donnasmithdesigns) on Oct 15, 2016 at 6:26pm PDT

The Hunt Library visualization experience

I really like the way I can find out about some of the amazing things happening at this library.  They are doing amazing things, and are sharing them - which is just as important.

A few thoughts in Mining the home movie: Excavations in histories and memories

Mining the Home Movie: Excavations in Histories and Memories by Karen L. Ishizuka
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read this book as I am thinking about the importance of home movies in local studies collections. This book is not about public libraries, but about national and regional collections of film, some of which include home movies. The chapters describe the research potential of ordinary film. Some has value because of who is in it, someone famous, people interned, and in many cases, people now dead. Often the value is in the ordinariness of what is filmed, such as scone making at a fair. As an aside I hope there is film over time of scone making in Australia, I will have to track that down.

This is a book looking at film, and some times video. There is no coverage of collecting digital material. This seems a gap, although is may be because little is collected, but that is speculation. There is also little discussion about digitisation.

There are some very impressive collections, and some which often seem to record oral histories to better describe the film being collected. The Imperial War Museum, is one of those organisations.

The Florida Moving Image Archive highlights the research value from film with changes in communities, national parks and skylines all being clear. The chapter on this archive highlights the tourism and migration potential of film, as people would travel to Florida for holidays, or to live there, after having seems someone's home movie. They have an active public access program combing bus tours and viewing of local home movies.

Other experiences such as internment were illegally filmed record is key for documenting this time in the USA, as are the films of labour disputes in New Zealand.

There is considerable discussion in some chapters about the need for more representation in minority voices, which seems to include women, as not many women are credited with filming, although there are exceptions such as Mussarath Khan and Leela Anjanappa, both from India.

The North West Film Archive in England, was set up to collect film about daily life. It highlights the importance to regional and local history. They are working at developing audiences of their films showing them in places such as shopping centres, hospitals and remand centres.

I am only providing a few examples from this very interesting book. I still need to track down how digital material is being collected by these and other organisations, so that recent content will be collected and preserved. Otherwise it will be like early film which has been poorly stored and will. It will not be viewable for the future.

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Some thoughts on Archives alive: expanding engagement with public library archives and special collections by Diantha Dow Schull

Archives Alive: Expanding Engagement with Public Library Archives and Special Collections by Diantha Dow Schull
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is an impressive look at special collections in public libraries in the USA, and much of it relates to local studies collections. This books looks at how different public libraries connect their special collections with their community, highlighting that one of the key reasons for public libraries collecting material is to make it available for their community.

The chapters explore different topics such as art and archives, community archives, exhibitions and related programs, and interactive archives. Within each chapter are several good practice examples showing how it is possible to connect communities with special collections. Each example is given with a overview, challenges and future plans, so while this is an optimistic book, the tough information is also made available.

As well as showing impressive heritage collections there are some exciting examples of libraries collecting recent content about local events including disasters such as hurricanes, floods and fires.

There are several very good examples showing how libraries have collected recent content to fill historical collections gaps, for example interviews with Spanish speaking residents in areas where there has been a long history of them living, but they were not visible in the local studies collection. Another library traced the families of Japanese residents who had been interred in World War II, as a way to better reflect the whole community. There are some lovely oral history projects recording diverse experiences of neighbourhoods.

Different kinds of programs to expose the collections were described, such as talks (often filmed), demonstrating and filming dance with the performances then becoming part of the collection, and connecting artists of all sorts to special collections for different ways of interpreting and being inspired by their content.

This is a very exciting book with many impressive examples to explore online.

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A few thoughts about Greek cafes and milk bars of Australia by Effy Alexakis and Leonard Janiszewski

Greek cafes and milk bars of Australia by Effy Alexakis
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a lovely book (and I can't believe it was not already on Goodreads).

This detailed study of Greek cafes and milk bars, in Australia, looks at both the big picture of their history, but also in the detail, the individual stories of the cafes and milk bars. Through a mix of oral history, old and new photographs, a wonderful, complex story is told. It is joyful, sad, nostalgic and modern. This is a book to keep dipping into as each person and each cafe is explored.

This would be an excellent addition to many local studies collections across Australia as the cafes and milk bars and the people who ran them or who run them are featured. I was able to read about several Greek cafes I know, from where I grew up, but also places I have visited.

This is an excellent local studies book. One minor comment, it would have been helpful to have an index entry for all the towns mentioned, the cafes and people are searchable in the index, but not the towns. Perhaps this addition could be considered for a second edition.

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Catch up with some John le Carre reading...

Women's Institute centenary and award winning embroidered tweets

This came via my Storify alerts.  It is a lovely celebration of the Women's Institute in the UK, and there are tweets being stitched.

The centenary happened last year, but they won a social media campaign award for this work.

Very pleased to announce we won Social Media Campaign of the Year with @umpf for the #theWI_100years tWItterstitch https://t.co/amh45ShFeG

— Women's Institute (@WomensInstitute) March 10, 2016

Have a look at their twitter stream and you will see much potential for local studies and contemporary collecting.

Every building tells a story: A guide to architecture through anime - by Matthew Li

Every Building Tells a Story: A Guide to Architecture Through Anime: Matthew Li is one of the internet’s leading experts on anime and creates popular guides on the art and design of animation on his Youtube channel RCAnime. He...

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Go and read/watch this article.  It is great.  It implicitly highlights the importance of collecting anime for local studies as some use settings around the world, or modify exisiting buildings for anime.

some thoughts about Digital vs Human: how we'll live, love, and think in the future by Richard Watson

Digital vs Human: how we'll live, love, and think in the future by Richard Watson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a book to read slowly, and then to start reading again. It is a bringing together of many ideas about how people live, and challenging us about how we think about technology. It is speculative based on evidence, and is an enjoyable, and thought provoking read.

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a few thoughts on The book of haps

The Book of Haps by Kate Davies
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I had not heard about haps until I found out about this book. I am glad that I came across this as it is a lovely exploration of a very specific part of the history of knitting, and of knitting in a specific local area. This would be a great book for a Shetland public library local studies collection, and for other libraries to consider for their knitting collections.

It is exciting the way this book combines the history with new designs, based on the history. The focus on the purpose of haps, and their heritage has led to some very exciting designs from around the world, using different knitting techniques. The designs are so interesting that I foraged around at home and have already put together the makings of two haps. The challenge will be sorting out the time to make them. I look forward to learning some new techniques to be able to knit them.

A nice note to add, when this book is bought in paper, the ebook is also included. This is a very good publishing feature. I would be interested to know if they have thought of making both formats available to libraries.

This is an enjoyable read for people interested in social history.



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via Smithsonian Libraries : Inspiring discovery at the 2016 BioBlitz and Biodiversity Festival in Washington, D.C.

Inspiring Discovery at the 2016 BioBlitz and Biodiversity Festival in Washington, D.C.: The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) and Smithsonian Libraries staff participated in BioBlitz 2016 in Washington, D.C. on 20-21 May. A BioBlitz focuses on finding and identifying as many species as possible in a specific area over a short period of time. In this special edition of the BioBlitz, held in conjunction with the National Park more »

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Please click on the link above, and go and have a look at this great example of a pop up reference and information service.

lovely use of Storify by @AshmoleanMuseum

I have been following the Ashmolean Museum on Storify for a while, as they tell wonderful stories on it. This one is sharing how visitors have been talking about an exhibition. I like the mix of corporate accounts and personal accounts.

I know Storify is not a preservation tool, but it is a way of bringing together how people are talking about events, and locations, so a possible use for local studies collecting.

A few thoughts on Cornersmith...

Cornersmith: Recipes from the cafe and picklery by Alex Elliott-Howery
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a recipe book from a local cafe and picklery. It is about using local food, and preserving bounty. There are stories of how the cafe and picklery came into being, with lots of local references as well as many recipes. This is another in the series of local studies recipe books which I have been reading. I have been to a couple of classes by Cornersmith and it has encouraged my sauerkraut making. I grew up making things to preserve the bounty of gardens or gifts of neighbours as it was, and is a family thing to do. One thing which comes through the book, as well, is that often taking a social approach to preserving bounty shares the work, as well as making it a collaboration.

This is an enjoyable book to read and I will be exploring making some of the recipes (when I can borrow it again from the library).



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local studies recording of the recent rain and floods in Tasmania

The recent rain in Tasmania was Storified by ABC news. This is a way of collecting some local images of rain and floods. It is the first step to adding these images to a local studies collection, and possibly tracking people down to interview for an oral history collection as well.

A few thoughts on Eat your history: stories and recipes from Australian kitchens by Jacqui Newling

Eat Your History: Stories and Recipes from Australian Kitchens by Jacqui Newling
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is an entertaining book looking at a history of eating in Australia. The focus is on foods eaten earlier with reference to more recent times, and starts with food eaten by Indigenous people. The author used a wide range of resources to explore this. There are some interesting recipes included too. Many specific examples were drawn from the resources of Sydney Living Museums sites as their archives contain recipes books and other relevant records from the families. The specific location information makes this book of interest for local studies collections where the named Sydney Living Museums properties are located. It is a highly illustrated publication with examples of the food as well as of some of the material used in the research. It is very much a book of NSW locations, but there are reference to other parts of Australia as well.

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drone carpets

This storify includes an image of a drone carpet from Afganistan.  This is reflecting the history there. What are the local artists showing about the history of your area?  How is this local making reflected in the local studies collection at public libraries?

catchup for #23RDthings

I am calling it catchup, but really it is a very late start for #23RDthings. Things have been happening, hence the delay. This video is chilling to watch, and being made in this format actually makes it harder to listen to which is a brilliant creative element. Watch and be disturbed.

An impressive description of reading on @BBCInOurTime

This recent broadcast about Tess of the d'Urbervilles on In our time has a powerful description, from Melvyn Bragg of the impact of reading and connections with characters
novels aren't just fictional constructs they are the life of people we believe in...and out imagination goes out to them...

You can listen to the whole broadcast here (the quote is at the 35 minute mark). I would suggest listening to the whole talk for the full context of the quote.

I really enjoy In our time because of the diversity of ideas explored.  Have a look their archive for different ways of exploring the content.

A few thoughts about Recipes for a Good Time (and yes there is a local studies connection)

Recipes for a Good Time by Ben Milgate
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I borrowed this book from my local public library because I have been to Portenos and the food is amazing. I wanted to see how it was described in this book. Some of the recipes, like some of the cooking with fire ones, would need not only my back yard, but those of my neighbours as well. Some are scalable, but other recipes are for parties for the entire block.

I want to try a banana cake recipe (with whisky) as it sounds amazing, as do the pickle and sauce recipes. There are some lovely salads, breads and of course many different ways with meat. It is a lovely book, and I look forward to trying some of the recipes.

This is another local studies recipe book. Parts of the book describe the search for restaurant locations, and include information and photographs or drawings of the actual locations, including interiors.

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Art Gallery of NSW and the Tang exhibition

Currently the Art Gallery of NSW has a lovely exhibition called 

Tang 唐 treasures from the Silk Road capital with some amazing items on display (including a very acrobatic dragon - maybe all dragons could be acrobatic). 


It also had a lovely timeout/create your own art section...

with a shadow wall (the photograph shows a behind the scenes view).  




The exhibition also had an augmented-reality installation. This shows part of it without the ipad with extra sensors

...and this one with the augmented view   This shows how the reality was immersive - with just a sneak peak to the rest of the gallery

I enjoyed this as part of the exhibition, as it means that art works could be shown in an original context, even if it was not real, but a lot of photographs and sensors. It was lovely to be able to look all around the spaces, staring at the floor, and ceiling as well as the walls. It was also a very interesting way to look at the information in this space.

It would be interesting to think about local studies applications, and being able to show reconstructions/imaginings from different times in history and prehistory.  Imagine being able to look at a main street area, and see it change over time.

Some thoughts about Local: recipes and stories from Sydney’s Inner West

Local: recipes and stories from Sydney’s Inner West by Stanmore Public School P&C
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a lovely book from Stanmore Public School.

It has information about the kitchen garden, and the kitchen at the school as well as short suburb histories and statistics for the Marrickville area, and includes photographs of the school.

It also has recipes, and these have photographs accompanying them. The recipes are provided by parents, locals and teachers, and there is a rather lovely 'parents to...' listed for each recipe(other relationships such as mum, grandparent, local are also included). There are recipes from local business owners, and The Henson and Cornersmith are amongst those providing recipes.

This is a genre of books I really enjoy which are local studies meets recipes.

The recipes I have tried have all worked well, and there are many more recipes to explore.

It is published by Stanmore Public School P & C.

This is the first time I have added a record to Goodreads. It would not accept a book which did not have an author. Now I have added one book, there are a couple more I will have to add.

I was also really interested to find that this book was not listed on Trove.

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my thoughts on Playing for time: making art as if the world mattered

Playing for Time: Making Art as if the World Mattered by Lucy Neal
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I really liked this book. It is very much about collaborative, community based art work encouraging people to think about their communities, resilience and sustainability. Local sustainable food was a continuing theme. One of the projects looks at transitioning local practice, with the aim of more people in a particular area growing hops for local beer or growing food in areas around bus stops, with the idea of encouraging foraging. Librarians and libraries were key to many projects as there were strong information elements in some of the art works and projects - "the librarian is in". Reading through it sounded like there were collaborations with makers and craftivists as well. Another theme in the book was moving from bystanders to activists, with art, action and inclusion.

There are many ideas for how libraries could work with their communities, without the book being explicit about their inclusion. There was an excellent council project, called the Remakery, where (obviously) things were remade, including wood, textiles, bikes... This is a an excellent fit with maker spaces, as this is another slant on that, and brings together skills in the community, and through reuse, is good for the environment. Creativity was a key part of the Remakery as well, and it helped skills up people with classes in sewing, carpentry, computer repair.

Many projects would lend themselves to collecting material for local studies, like the wonderfully named 'Happiness bottles', recording happiness, and the diarykeepers project where locals recorded what was happening in their gardens. The Happy museum project manifesto is "exploring how contact with cultural experience can kickstart healthier and happier communities".

There is a lot that is whimsical within the book and a lot which is practical. For many of the projects sufficient information is provided so that others can implement in their community, including hints about partners, costs and so on. It is very much about connecting people to other people and to place. They are projects which connect diverse communities and are inclusive. It is highly illustrated to show the projects with lots of description (so you could make the project happen).

It is not a book to be read quickly. It took me a long time to read, mainly because it is large and heavy, and so was not a commute read for me. It also had lots of ideas to think about, and I will read it again.

I did a search on Trove and this book is held in four libraries in Australia.


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a few comments about Cosplay in Libraries: how to embrace costume play in your library by Ellyssa Kroski

Cosplay in Libraries: How to Embrace Costume Play in Your Library by Ellyssa Kroski
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The title describes the contents of this book really well. It is all about how libraries can have events which include cosplay. There are very detailed annotated resources lists, and almost step by step guides for different kinds of event planning (for example 'host a comic or anime con in your library', 'how to host a cosplay contest'). These lists would give a new event planner, or an event planner new to cosplay events, a lot of confidence. The helpful event planning information would be relevant for other events as well.

There are some excellent examples of how some public libraries in the USA have been working with cosplay as events or part of events with detailed information about costs, number of participants, information about the events, and links to sites like the Facebook page for the event. I really like the way information about evaluation is included, and the costs provided by libraries allow other libraries an estimate of what to expect (generally staffing costs are not listed in the budgets provided).

This is also a book which can serve as an excellent introduction to cosplay, and the etiquette, protocols and other considerations. It is also a very interesting read. You might like to think about cosplay for your library.

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Natural History Museum London, and the science being done

The Natural History Museum in London has a visualisation showing the global distribution of the Museum's zoological specimens with digital records.  This is an impressive way of helping people understand what the collection covers. When you go to the data page to search, they tell you that 

2,927,322 of the Museum's 80 million specimens are now available online.  I really like this because it lets me know there is a lot of information I can find online, but I won't find it all, and that it is being added to all the time.  Specific data set numbers for zoology, botany, mineralogy, palaeontology and entomology are also listed. The data sets can be downloaded and are also available by an API.

If you click on the our science link, the museum website informs you of the number of scientists and of their collaborative publications, so that we understand that the museum is about current science work, as well as so many other areas.

They have developed some very interesting lists on Twitter, bringing together the work of their scientists.  There are many other amazing areas of this website to explore.

I find the different ways they describe and share information very interesting, and with some ideas libraries may think about too.

How to explore Guatemala’s Mayan ruins from 4500 kilometres away via @newscientist

How to explore Guatemala’s Mayan ruins from 4500 kilometres away: Virtual tourism is about to take off, giving people the chance to visit the world's most beautiful – and inaccessible – places without leaving home

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Go and read the above article.  Then think about the local studies potential.  Imagine being able to visit local places of interest this way.  It would be brilliant for exploring cemeteries, but also for seeing how a suburb or town was decked out for Harmony Day earlier this year, or what was done for a local festival. Consider how this kind of experience would allow people to explore your area in a different way to find out about the recent, and further away past.

Spare time?

I follow the work of Ian Anstice by having an rss feed from Public Library News.  In the article  Libraries lose a quarter of staff as hundreds close it states "Librarian Ian Anstice, who runs the Public Libraries News website in his spare time, said..." I have not thought of him doing all this work in his spare time. Go back and read the article if you missed this aside. I have though of all the work which produces Public Library News occurring because Ian has prioritised his time, not because he has spare time and was wondering what to do with it.  It shows how careful we have to be about how we describe people's use of their time.   Do make time to read The most publicity that UK public libraries have had this century? from Public Library News, and consider adding the website or twitter account to your library related news feeds as they are great, and depressing reading.

"Reflecting the Rising"

There are some very impressive photographs from Dublin City Library about the recent Easter Rising commemoration, including an interesting, and relevant inclusion of a mobile library. You will need to click on the link because for the photographs all rights are reserved.

Make sure you have a look at the Reflecting the Rising set and Dublin remembers 1916.  This is a very interesting combination of local studies, national and international history.  You can see their list of programs to commemorate this event, and there are are some library specific ones too.

Have a look at their blog to see how they are recording these events for the future.

How does your library collect current event?

Inspired by the posts I saw through my Instagram account for #eyf2016 (Edinburgh yarn festival) I had a look at how it was being reported, and did a brief Storify.

This looks an amazing event, because of the large number of images being shared on Instagram, and the high volume of tweets.  I was wondering if Edinbugh Public Library ever captured this kind of material for local studies. This is not to single out one library, but rather, continuing to look for libraries who are collecting social media.  I am interested both in those collecting for access (like on Storify) and collecting for preservation (like the work being done in North Carolina).

collecting current content for local studies - inspired by iview

I am watching Afghanistan : inside Australia's war and it makes me think about collecting current material for local studies.

I have been talking about collecting current content a lot, but have not written much about it, and will need to write more than this short piece, but this is a start.

Watching this series has highlighted some styles which could be considered for local studies. I really like the extreme close up filming for the SAS soldiers, as it captures their emotion as their eyes are the focus.  It is amazing how impressive this filming style is.  This gives an option for access when whole face shots may not be possible. There is a rawness to this recent recording, which is very powerful.  This is impressive and very moving television which I continue to watch because of the stories which are told.

For other material on this subject to consider see...

Uncommon Soldier: Brave, Compassionate and Tough, the Making of Australia's Modern Diggers by Chris Masters
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a powerful read. I am a fan of the investigative work of Chris Masters, and this book, looking at Australian soldiers in Afghanistan shows the importance of long term research. This builds on several documentaries by Masters, and brings together a very interesting account. It is balanced as the the bad and the good are discussed. There are also interesting comments about the roles of journalists in war.

While I enjoy the work of Christ Masters, I do not read many books about military history, this was an important one to read.

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#ourcouncilday and #ÁrLáSaChomhairle : some interesting use of social media from Ireland

I came across the hashtags #ourcouncilday and #ÁrLáSaChomhairle because I follow Dublin City Public Library on Flickr and saw the following image come through my Flickr stream with this description
On 2 March 2016 we joined a nationwide campaign to highlight services provided by City and County Councils using the hashtags#ourcouncilday and #ÁrLáSaChomhairle on Twitter.

I investigated further, and liked the idea so much I did a quick Storify (see below). It is impressive to see the use of both hashtags. There are some interesting ideas for local studies in all of this.