Impressive work from Smithsonian Libraries

I came across this tweet

It is #NationalCraftMonth and about time you learned how to net. http://t.co/uIj5ibhZG2 pic.twitter.com/HqcllsJ4Ol
— SmithsonianLibraries (@SILibraries) March 11, 2015

and the first link takes you to a fully digitised book from their collection which can be easily looked at page by page.  I like the way this digitisation is promoted, and the digitisation is lovely.

The homepage is lovely with some of the navigation by coloured dots.  You can also read more of their books online in many different subjects.

Hathi Trust

I really like the work of the Hathi Trust.  I used a lot of resources on it last year.

I like the way you can look at a book, link to a page, to help explore some history.

There is also the lovely embed the book option too.

Creating and designing with digital collections

Yesterday I went to a session of this name as part of Vivid. It featured the work of  Sarah Kenderdine (some examples of her work), 

Lucy Simpson and Kate Sweetapple. It was great to hear from all of them, and the diversity of their work was impressive.

With the fabric work of Lucy Simpson  the art/design starts with the stories, and is meant to be used, it seems that though use, stories are added, as people connect the stories of their lives to the stories of the art works.

Kate Sweetapple had wonderful elements of whimsy in her work exploring names and colours.

Sarah Kenderdine's work connects people to places they can't visit, like a cave system in China which has been closed because the visits are causing destruction of the art works which the caves are famous for. There is also lovely work in India, with Europeana, and the Museum ofVictoria.

It also, for me, connected to the work of Jessica Pigza, bringing stories and art together. 

People were being encouraged to use the State Library data - information about this here.

Much to think about.