Farnam Guest House

Prospect Street bed-and-breakfast Farnam Guest House, built in 1934 in Georgian Colonial style, currently operated by Anthony and Elizabeth Lopez. According to history page, original occupant New Haven railroad magnate Henry Farnam (1803-1883). Son Henry Walcott Farnham professor of political economics at Yale, instrumental in preserving 1750 Connecticut Hall. Other family members donated "Farnham Gardens" to city. Listed in bedandbreakfast.com. Rates from $90 to $125 per night.

Global Record (Conference)

Conference on Preserving the Global Record, Luce Hall, March 24-26, 2005. Highlights: Jonathan Spence's keynote address (see below). David Germano on the Tibetan and Himalayan Digital Library (see below); and Don Waters' remarks on key challenges facing higher education: (1) critical materials from overseas are not being collected comprehensively enough to sustain research in the U.S. ; (2) source materials in new formats are emerging rapidly, and strategies to conserve these are inadequate. Recommends forthcoming book: Equity and excellence (?), on U.S. education trends, state of humanities, etc. Also worried about science and engineering education. U.S. seemingly in decline. While South Korea now has 11 science and engineering degrees for every 100 persons, U.S. has only 5.5/100. Much of Asia, Britain and Europe have surpassed us. This not necessarily a problem, but he mentioned that 30% of science and engineering degrees in US given to foreign students.

Jonathan Spence, Sterling Professor of History and current President of the American Historical Association, gave keynote address, describing pleasures of his own archival research, and speculating about new challenges. He was researching 1911 Chinese revolution via London's Office of Public Records. Mentored as student by Mary Wright. Recalls pleasure of physically handling artifacts, and seeing for himself how only the emperor was allowed to comment in vermillion ink, while the ordinary scribes wrote in black ink exclusively. Spence posed over-arching questions: "What constitutes an archive?" Not just text, also realia, maps, paintings, etc., and we can't save everything. Who will pay for storage space? Danger of turning into a Borges short story. Also concerned about "technology of circulation" and providing "finding aids to finding aids". Should archives ever be "culled" or trimmed"? Should one ever be sold, and if so, to whom? What about archival dispersal? Again, concern with preserving original artifacts, last Chinese dynasty (Ching) 1644-1912, records in Manchu language, now a dead langauge, and all imperial records translated into Han, but historians still need to check accuracy of traslations, etc.

David Germano, Director of the Tibetan and Himalayan Digital Library at University of Virginia. His project seems like excellent model for Yale to follow, where Library operates at nexus of international multimedia information commons. Tibetan and Himalayan Digital Library includes font support and development and Unicode components, uses FEDORA (Flexible Extensible Digital Object Repository Architecture) protocol. Laments compartmentalism of university work: disconnectedness from local and international communities.

Graham Shaw head of Asia Pacific and Africa collections at British Library. Conducting research on history of book in Southeast Asia. Concerned that library-scholar tradition is vanishing and ought to be revived. Wants us to think more about libraries collaborating with museums and galleries, viewing 3d objects along side more traditional 2-dimensional ones.

IFLA: UBC and UAP as two fundamental long-term goals, perhaps never fully realizable: universal bibliographic control, universal access to publications. Need to work in coalitions. Global Resources Network example of one that works.

Endangered Archives Program started at British Library, trying to foment closer international ties. Sponsored by Lisbet Rausing Charitable Fund (do not invite applications, they come to you, don't want you to come to them). Run in liaison with Prof Barry Supple, LRCF Principal Academic Consultant; and former head of Leerhulme Trust (major research grant-giving body in the UK). 10 million pound program to extend of 8-10 years; two principle objectives: "To contribute to the preservation of mankind's documentary heritage ...

Why endangered archives, see UNESCO Memory of the World Programme: "Documentary heritage reflects the diversity of languages, peoples and cultures, it is the mirror of the world and its memory. But this memory is fragile. Every day irreplaceable parts of this memory disappear for ever." This describes Shaw's mission as well. ICA: Archives are fundamental to ensuring the survival of truth, memory and justice." (ICA). Perhaps most insidious threat "McDonaldisation" of world culture".

Objectives to be achieved through annual awards of research grants (up to 50,000 pounds max. usually) to individual researchers or librarians/archivists to locate significant collections, arrange their transfer to a suitable local archival home, make copies (microfilm or digital), and deliver those copies to the British Library). Preservation is done thought surrogate creation, not through conservation of originals. "It is an operating principle of EAP that no original archival material should leave its home country" How Can You Help? Principal problem for program now is getting itself known, so spreading the word is very helpful. Also interested in hearing about hitherto unknown endangered archives.

Also chatted with Barbara McFadden Allen, director of Committee on Institutional Cooperation; Dinner speaker was David Stam, former director of NYPL research libraries, speaking on scholar-librarian collaboration.

"Libraries of the Future"

[2005-04-01]
Verner Clapp, 2nd in command at LC, hired JCR ("Lick") Licklider to study man-machine symbiosis in 1961 just before going on to create the ARPANET. His book, published under Clapp's guidance was Librarians of the Future. (per Nicholson Baker's Double Fold, p. 20). Clapp founded the Council on Library Resources (CLIR) 1957, and is criticized by Baker for promoting the "double fold" test for acidic paper (See Darnton in NYRB, 4/26/04)

"Librarians under threat" article by Tony Tysome p. 8 of Times Higher Education Supplement, Feb. 11, 2005, on plan at University of Wales, Bangor, to eliminate 8 out of 12 librarians

[2005-02-11]
Johns Hopkins University president William R. Brody has pro-librarian piece in Dec. 6, 2004 issue of Johns Hopkins Gazette


And here's the story from the Library Journal Academic Newswire Publishing Report, February 17, 2005:


SUBSTANTIALLY DESKILLED? IN WALES, A UNIVERSITY MAY CUT MOST OF ITS
LIBRARIANS In a move that has rankled librarians and teachers throughout the
United Kingdom, the University of Wales, Bangor, is proposing to eliminate
eight of its 12 librarians, on the premise that students can find most
information they need online. According to the GUARDIAN, a "consultation
document" issued by the university last month said that a £300,000 (about
$566,000 USD) savings could be realized by reducing the library staff to one
cataloguer, an acquisitions expert, a chief librarian, and a law librarian.
"The support to the academic and student communities from the qualified
subject librarians, whatever its contribution to the teaching and research
roles of the institution," reads the document, "is hard to justify in
value-for-money terms at a time when the process of literature searches is
substantially deskilled by online bibliographical resources."

Librarian Eileen Tilley told the newspaper, "The university thinks that
because we have the Internet it no longer needs skills teaching. I would say
[the Internet] has, in fact, complicated the resources...users are confused
and need guiding through this." Meanwhile, the university's registrar said
the document was to stimulate discussion and that no decisions have been
made.

[2005-04-19]
Carnegie Report article: Do Libraries Still Matter?. "The answer seems to be a resounding yes," he writes in the lead-in sentence, "because libraries are more than just a place to keep volumes on dusty shelves."



[2005-04-15]
In Praise of Library Personnel, cited by Daniel Stuhlman on Hasafran. Actually pretty lame stuff, e.g., "they are no longer 'just the librarians' that we grew up with ; they are now information specialists ...", as though they weren't all along?

"Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf"

[2005-04-26]
Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf" at the Longacre Threater on 46th Street. Magnificant Bill Irwin as George, professor of History at small liberal arts college in town of "New Carthage".Kathleen Turner plays his wife Martha, daughter of the college president. Beautifully written script, though modified from the original to some degree ("updated"). Things kind of peter out after Scene One, but the psychological tension persists fairly well through much of the story.

David Harbour plays Nick, newly hired professor of biology; Mireille Enos plays his wife Honey (we saw her at Longwharf as Ophelia in Hamlet and Lavinia in Mourning Becomes Electra), who once suffered from "hysterical pregnancy", for which he regretfully married her.

Film version with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton released in 1966.

Service Robots

[2005-05-14]
Various models of robotic vacuums. Purchase through amazon.com. (We picked the original red edition.)

"Front Door" Templates

[2005-04-13]
Excellent presentation by Julie Linden. My choppy set of notes follows.Check PIC documentation page.

Type "/fdc" after yale library url to get to PIC home. Front Door Redesign Taskforce received headers and navigatrion bars and footers, i.e., templates, into which we need to put our content.

Some templates hgave subheads,s others don't. Need to pic the right kind. All templates have Yale U Library banner with one of 4 category imagies. Images for page names, e.g., "Research Tools"( in pea green) Template with subheads has second horizaontal line.

Every template has side graphics stacked on left. At bottom there is block of required elements. Copy right statement. COpyright year is also rolled forward dynamically through template. Also required is contact person, with possible backup person when you're on vacation. Generic libweb address goes to Sterling Reference. Doesn't courrently have javascript feature "high real email address from robots.

Templates can be used if forn non-public websites, or at least not for universal library use. E.g., Sterling Memorial Library" even though its specific. Also consider "Special COllections at Yale". These are standard templates rather than the customizable ones. No need to worry about coming up with one's own graphics, so much easier to use. What one needs to change would be content, of course, titles, etc. Check documentation on PIC site.

Need to use SSH, and get file from server. Not good enough to copy code, since then one loses server-side-includes. Operation go to foloder, type: "/usr/web/fdfiles". What appears is not just templates, but other legacy files that may be ignored. See on documentation file names, e.g., research tools template would be "rt_template_subheat.html" would be research tools template with subheadings. Opened in DreamWeaver, hard to read, since SS includes and images missing. So check "Code and Design" view. Note in code view "Do NOt Remove This Server Side Include". Note prompts for fields that need to be changed, e..g, what follows Yale University Library in "Page Title". Also "Change Title Image and ALT Text Below". Best thing is to get in touch with JHule Linden or Bonnie Turner. Bonnie is PIC's main resource person. Also she creates images for PIC members. Wed need to tell Bonnie whyat text of image would say. Also needs to know which of four templates it would go in. SHe'll make it the right size and the right color. Then code just needs to point to this new file. AI would also need to change alt tag. Alt allows blind person to hear text reader for image. Allows allows caption to appear when cursor hovers over image.

If using template with submenu link, need to put text in. Additioinal links would need to be separated by additional pairs of non-breaking spaces.

Continue to scroll down code page: "Insert Page Content Below": This is where we "go to down".

Last thing to do is change contact information, , ie.., email address. COuld use text rather than email address.

Then "save as" with a different name. Make sure to use "html" extension". Then re-upload to server.

Style Guidelines on Documentation page. Note "Standards for Images" , bhough non-PIC persons don't need to worry so much about this. Need Minion and photoshop., available in Arts Library Classroom,.

Standards for Pages "Genereal" things like not changing background color (which is white). Avoid using boxes, unless using form within page, since it can start to look cluttered. Horizontal rule, use line.gif (in /fdimages) instead of

---

, since the former looks cleaner.

Editorial Standards (following the Chicago Manual of Style).

CUstomizable templates: Check Judiaca COllection site. Uses standard fonts and layout. Paragraph format rather than four squares format; and online exhibit link wher updating news could have been. Also note Cross Camps Library. Note completely different images. DIfferent color scheme. Went back to Design Firm, asked for template with simpler html less structure, wihtout all the server side includes, e.g., . For example, see Soical Science Libraries and Information Services, in this case Orbis search box was insderted.

Back to Documentation. Select third link. Notes instructions on where to find these. palette01home.html, for example. Note that content is already there, in this case for scoial science libraries, which would need to be stricppped out. THen also there are supage templates, just provides header futter and some sublinks. Just a shell. Note different color scheme optiions. Judaica Collection is one of these templates. To obtain from server. Inside fdfiles/newtemplates, organized by palettes.

Section on Forms ... we used to use a lot of these, but not so much at this point. Voyager handles much of this now.

These do not use server side includes, so it's possible to copy source from web browser, but subpage you'd deintiely want to get off of server, in order to avoid all the superfous content.

If doing a bunch of pages for my site, worth making my own templates. E.g., if I like Judaica COllection color scheme, talk to Bonnie about getting a header (which are images not characters) plus try to find unique image, not the same that Judaica has. Bar under hl is image So bonnie would ned to change. Anything standaradized could (should?) be put in server side include. COnsider dropping by Pedro's office for assistance, one-on-one tutorial.

Pens

[2006-04-16]
According to their press release, Pilot seems to have introduced an alternative, the Precise "Grip" Bold rollerball (PIL28902), in May of 2005. Lease expensive source seems to be officeworld.com, at $1.69 each (but per pen or per box of 12?)

From date book: Pilot Precise Deluxe Bold x 12? Uniball UM 100 Sanford uniball Gel x 12?

[2004-12-04]
Amazon has the Pentel(R) Hybrid(R) Gel Rollerball Pens, Fine Point, 0.3 mm, Blue, Pack of 12. Look for same in black.

JTS Digital Library

JTS Updates article "High Speed Internet and Digital Photography Revolutionize Access to Ancient Riches", forwarded by Dad, "Global access to some of Jewish history's most outstanding literary treasures is now just a mouse click away through JTS Library Treasures www.jtslibrarytrea a new online resource of The Library of The Jewish Theological Seminary.


Prepared with the generous support of George Blumenthal of New York City and the extraordinary photographic skills of Ardon Bar Hama of Raanana, Israel, the site features several manuscripts from The Library's exceptional collection, including the Rothschild Mahzor, the Prato Haggadah, and the Esslingen Mahzor, as well as Genizah fragments representing Maimonides and Judah Halevi.


Founded in 1893, the Library at JTS is recognized today as the greatest Jewish library in the Western Hemisphere. Its collection includes close to 400,000 volumes, including 25,000 rare books, 12,000 manuscripts, and much more. Among the collection's highlights are its approximately 40,000 fragments from the Cairo Genizah, its collection of kettubot (Jewish wedding contracts), and its unparalleled collection of haggadot (the story of the Jews' exodus from Egypt). The Library is also host to the world's largest collection of Hebrew incunabula, early books, printed before 1501.


"The Library recognizes that as important as it is to collect and preserve the literatures and treasures of past, these materials are worth little if they remain eternally on the shelf. Our ultimate goal is to make the cultural heritage of the Jewish people available to the world at large. Current technology, the generosity of George Blumenthal and the talent of Ardon Bar Hama is allowing this to happen," said Dr. David Kraemer, Joseph J. and Dora Abbell Librarian at JTS.

As founder and past Chairman of NTL, the largest cable television company in the United Kingdom, Blumenthal came to understand how transformative high speed Internet access could be in sharing the heritage of the Jewish people free of charge. Currently the founder and Chairman of Cellular Communications Inc (Ohio and Michigan), Cellular Communications (Puerto Rico) and Cellular Communications International (Italy), he is responsible, together with Bar Hama for developing a number of educational projects that share the treasures of rare Jewish documents and archeological objects with the world at no charge.

Case Against Bush

[2005-05-11]
Rioting in Jalalabad over Newsweek report on "desecration" of Koran at Guantanamo prison camp, and American official insisting that American policy is to respect *all* religions. But witness Lt. General William G. "Jerry" Boykin. CNN: "Discussing a U.S. Army battle against a Muslim warlord in Somalia in 1993, Boykin told one audience, "I knew my god was bigger than his. I knew that my god was a real god and his was an idol."" According to beliefnet.com, Boykin told a church gathering in Oregon last year, "Enemies like Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein "will only be defeated if we come against them in the name of Jesus." Seymour Hersh is said to have uncovered, in the latest issue of the New Yorker, the significant role played by Boykin in setting policy at U.S. military camps. (Boykin has been serving as Stephen Cambone's Undersecretary of Defence at the Defence Intelligence Agency.)

[2005-05-09]
From Ray McGovern in May 5th TomPain.com, "Proof Bush Fixed the Facts", based on minutes leaked to London's Sunday Times of briefing by Richard Dearlove, then head of Britain's MI-6. On July 23, 2002, Dearlove briefed Blair and other top security officials on Bush's plans to invade Iraq. Per McGovern, US-UK propaganda included:

• Aluminum artillery tubes misdiagnosed as nuclear related
• Forgeries alleging Iraqi attempts to obtain "yellow cake" uranium in Africa
• Tall tales from a drunken defector about mobile biological weapons labs
• Bogus warnings that Iraqi forces could fire WMD-tipped missiles launched within 45 minutes
  

There seem to be several web sites devoted to the idea of impeaching Bush, e.g. impeachbush.tv; and a draft impeachment by Francis Boyle, professor of law at University of Illinois; and a draft letter one could revise and send to one's U.S. representatives.

Chiune Sugihara

[2005-04-18]
Presentation at Slifka Center on legacy of Japanese diplomat Chiune (Sempo) Sugihara. Included talks by director of the Sugihara House in Kaunus, Simonas Dovidavicius, Prof. of Slavic Languages and Literatures Tomas Venclova, and scholar, literary translator, Barbara Harshav. Following Hitler-Stalin pact of August 1939, and Nazi invasion of Poland on Sept. 1, Sugihara issued transit visas to thousands of Jewish refugees, contrary to instructions of his own government.

Recommended Artisans and Services

Recommended Artisans and Services (Ronan-Edghill Neighborhood Association)

M&P Retirement Plans

Retirement Plans for Yale M&Ps.