Europeana Plenary 2012 in Leuven

Europeana, in collaboration with the KU Leuven, is organising the Europeana Plenary 2012 on 13, 14 en 15 June. An invite-only pre-conference session will be held on 13 June. The 2012 plenary sessions will be supported by a number of break-out sessions on themes including Collaboration, Open Culture and Innovative Technologies from 14 -15 June. The overall theme is ”Connecting Society through Culture”.

More information on the Europeana Plenary can be found here; a detailed programme is available here. Registering is possible via this link.

Source: http://pro.europeana.eu/web/leuven-2012

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10.000 titles from Royal library available via Google

More than 10.000 titles from the catalogue of the Royal library of the Netherlands have been made available via Google Books. It takes only one click to access the full digital text for free. These 10.000 books are the first visible results of the agreement between the Royal library and Google to digitize more than 160.000 public domain books from the Royal library collection. Mainly Dutch 18^th and 19^th century publications on historical, juridical and social topics have been made online available for international research.

Source: Royal library of the Netherlands

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Blokkeninleuven in CB summer 2012

Following timetable applies here from Saturday 26^th of May until Friday 29^th of June

• from Monday to Friday: the Central Library remains open from 9 a.m. until 10 p.m., along with almost all KU Leuven libraries
• every Saturday and Sunday and Whit Monday (28.05) open from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m., along with RBIB (Law) and CBA (Science)

Outside the ordinary opening hours (Mon-Thurs 9 a.m.-8 p.m.; Fri 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sat 10 p.m.-1 p.m.) there is no service (e.g. information work, registrations, stack requests, borrowings).

During the regular opening hours, the Ladeuzezaal will be kept free for non-studying customers.

Outside those ordinary opening hours the CB-building only acts as a study space.

The occupation of the libraries, can always be checked via www.blokkeninleuven.be

We have asked library staff for extra attention during this period to lower their voice while talking in our reading rooms.

We keep tourists out as much as possible.

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Historypin: a new tool

Historypin is now available on the internet. On this site, you can post pictures, videos or stories from the past and link them to places on the globe, or at certain events.  It is like travelling through history. You can build collections, or follow a complete tour. E.G. in the collections, there is a serial on  monuments under construction (like the Eiffel Tower). You can also opt just to browse a map of the world, filled with ‘pins’ of information – sort of a virtual globe. A short introduction to Historypin can always be found here.

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Copyright versus copywrong

The Belgian Association for Documentation organizes on Thursday 31 May 2012 a seminar on the different aspects of copyright; the strategy of the European Commission to promote the creativity and to answer the digital challenge, an overview of recent developments in copyright law to a number of specific topics such as new applications through the Internet, some issues around heritage collections, a solution for orphan works, what special requirements are there for databases and finally the position of European publishers.

More info on http://www.abd-bvd.be/inforum/inforum_2012_nl.html (Dutch) or http://www.abd-bvd.be/inforum/inforum_2012_fr.html (French)

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Central Library closed on Thursday May 17

The Central Library will be closed due to the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord (Ascencion Day). On Friday, we will be open again as usual.

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Bodleian and Vatican libraries to digitise ancient texts

The Bodleian Libraries of Oxford University are engaging in a four years’ collaboration with the Vatican to digitalize 1,5 million manuscripts and rare books.  Two thirds of the material is coming from Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana (BAV), the remainder from Oxford.  The works that shall be digitalized fall into three catagories: Greek manuscripts, incunabula and Hebrew manuscripts and early printed books.  These works include some early, illustrated copies of the New Testament and works of Homerus, Sophocles, Plato and the Church Fathers. 

Source: The Bodleian Libraries and Vlaamse Erfgoedbibliotheek  (Dutch)

 

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British Library acquires St Cuthbert Gospel

The oldest intact European book – the St Cuthbert Gospel – is to remain in the UK after the British Library raised £9m to buy it.The acquisition of the 7th Century copy of the Gospel of St John follows the library’s largest fundraising campaign. The National Heritage Memorial Fund gave £4.5m but charitable foundations, trusts and the public also contributed. The book was sold by the Society of Jesus (British Province) to raise money for education and restoration work. The manuscript, produced in the north-east of England, was buried with the early English Christian leader on Lindisfarne in about 698. It was rediscovered at Durham Cathedral in 1104 after the coffin had been moved to escape Viking raids. The manuscript has also been digitised in full and will be available to view online.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17732310

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Tues 8/5 PhD-lectures Main Reading Room

On Tuesday afternoon 8th of May (between 1 and 6 p.m.) the Main Reading Room will not be suitable as a study area.

Master students are very welcome to attend the lectures by which one tries to express your possibilities as a doctoral student at German universities. More info on http://www.kuleuven.be/duitslandjaar/en/postdoc.html

All our other reading rooms remain accessable.

We apologize for the discomforts this may cause.

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