Access to libraries for students Association

For the students of Association KU Leuven there is a significant change on access regulations from 26^th of December 2012 onwards.

Students of the Association still have free access to the libraries of the KU Leuven but those who have not yet applied for a library card on Wednesday 26^th of December 2012, pay a day card (€ 2.5 + 5 € deposit). This rule also applies to KU Leuven students.

This action runs until the end of the exam period, Friday 1^st of February 2013.

So come as soon as possible – before 23/12/2012 – to our desks for requesting a free library card. KHL-students can also apply for this card in their own KHL-libraries.

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Flandrica.be online

On November 15th, the Central Library hosted the launching of Flandrica.be, the new portal website of the Flanders Heritage Library and its six partner libraries. In this online heritage library, the visitor can browse through the most important pieces of each library collection. You can stumble across beautifully illustrated medieval manuscripts, old prints of Plantijn, but also old cookery books, lyrics and catechisms.

Inspired by international examples like Europeana, Flandrica.be is the portal for – at this moment – more than 400 books, manuscripts, newspapers and other documents from the six partner libraries: Heritage Library Hendrik Conscience, University Library Antwerp, Public Library Bruges, University Library Ghent, Provincial Library Limburg and University Library Leuven.

For KU Leuven, Flandrica.be displays documents from the Central Library, Maurits Sabbe Library, University Archive and Campusbibliotheek Arenberg: masterpieces such as the Bible of Anjou, but also documents that vividly depict the university history of Louvain and the cultural life of the city and region.

Source: News KU Leuven

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The Encyclopaedia Brittanica is gone (the paper version)

Almost two and a half centuries after the first edition, he Encyclopaedia Brittanica stops with the paper version of the famous encyclopaedia. The Brittanica is the oldest still existing English encyclopaedia. The first edition, only three volumes, was published in 1768. Digital version exist since 1994, when for the first time an edition on CD-ROM came out.

With a price of 1400 dollar, the paper edition had become a luxury product. On line encyclopaedia’s are faster, more current, portable and cheaper. An annual subscription on the online version costs $70.

The most recent paper edition in our Central Library is the one from 2005. Since a few years the University Library offers in her LIMO-catalogue the online version of the Britannica Academic edition.

Source: Vlaamse Erfgoedbibliotheek

Source photo: Britannica

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Cranevelt letters

The Cranevelt letters are one of the most important manuscript collections in the Central Library. They contain the correspondence of humanist Frans Cranevelt of Bruges with Erasmus, Juan Luis Vives and Thomas Morus, among others. In 1928 Henry de Vocht published the first part of the Cranevelt letters. The second part was published in 1992-1995 by Josef Ijsewijn et al., with the support of the Koning Boudewijnstichting (who donated the letters to the KU Leuven). During the last year all the Cranevelt letters were catalogued in Limo and digitized.  From now on you can find the entire letter collection online. In Limo you enter ‘Craneveltbrieven’ or ‘correspondence of Cranevelt’ as search terms. Then you access the letters by clicking on the tab ‘View online’ (within the Libis network) or via tab ‘Details’ and ‘Online version in Lias’ (outside the campus network).

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Old Maps Online unlocks old maps

Old Maps Online is an easy to use new website for historical maps in libraries worldwide. Users can access digitalised maps online via a geographical search interface. You can filter on place-name, by clicking on a location or by limiting the time period. For the moment, Old Maps Online contains parts of map collections from, among others, the British Library, the New York Public Library and the National Library of Scotland. The project is now looking for institutions with a digitalised map collection of their own, who would like to participate in the endeavour.

Source: http://www.vlaamse-erfgoedbibliotheek.be/nieuws/2012/07/2484-old-maps-online-ontsluit-oude-kaarten-geografisch-tijdslijn

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More than 3.2 million digitized pages newspaper available in the Royal Library of Belgium

In 2006 – in the context of the plan for digitizing the heritage of the federal scientific institutions – the Royal Library of Belgium received the instruction to digitize a representative selection 19^th and 20^th century Belgian newspapers (cost price: 4,5 million euro).

No less than 3.2 million pages from 70 Belgian newspapers from the years 1831-1950 are, starting from now,  digitally available.

The benefits of digitizing newspapers are on one hand preservation: newspapers are published on very vulnerable paper. Once digitized there is no more need to manipulate the newspapers that much. On the other hand it becomes much easier to search in the newspapers, thanks to the OCR-technology (‘optical character recognition’).

The newspapers were chosen for their creation date, language, place of publication, ideological and philosophical orientation. 3.2 million pages seems to be a lot, but it is only 5% of the total number of newspapers of the Royal Library. Because of copyright, you only can consult the newspapers in a  special room in the Library.

Source: http://www.faronet.be/nieuws/koninklijke-bibliotheek-stelt-meer-dan-32-miljoen-gedigitaliseerde-krantenpagina%E2%80%99s-online-bes

Source photo: http://www.brusselsmuseums.be/nl/musea/11-koninklijke-bibliotheek-van-belgië

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Wanted: New Head University Library

The KU Leuven is looking for a Library Director to succeed the present Chief Librarian, Professor M. W. Collier, who retires in the summer of 2012. The KU Leuven Library is a large and complex organisation including campus libraries, faculty libraries, electronic library services, archives and art collections. The job of Library Director provides the challenge of combining the management of important traditional and heritage collections with an ultra modern approach to e-resources and digitalisation of library materials. The Library’s IT division LIBIS provides a wide range of services to a network of institutions throughout Belgium and beyond. KU Leuven has also a network of University Colleges offering academic and professional programmes. The libraries of these Colleges form part of the wider network of the University Library. Moreover, the Library participates in a range of Flemish, Belgian and international co-operative activities.

 More information can be found here.

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Much criticism on fusion plans of the Vrije Universiteit

The Vrije Universiteit shall be radically reformed.  The management wants to merge several faculties and enter into an intensive collaboration with the University of Amsterdam.  The University Library (UB) is to be joined together with the IT-department (UC-IT).  400 employees shall loose their jobs due to these cutbacks. 

Many of the staff disagree with the plans.  They fear an excavation of the academic standard of the organization. Anonymous employees have written as such in a pressing letter (Dutch) to the universitypaper ‘Ad Valvas’.  The employees consider the managers at the VU too powerful and speak of ‘colonization by the management culture’. 

Apart from that, Richard Oerlemans, director of UC-IT, is keen on the idea of a fusion between his department and the UB.  He states (Dutch) in Ad Valvas that a new organization will mean an improvement in supporting the education.  Because of the increase of digitalization of the library, a merge with the IT-services of the university becomes a logical next step. 

Source (Dutch): Informatieprofessional

Source Image: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

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Old filing card catalogue used for art project

Before the digital era filing cards were used to meticulously describe the library’s books. Nowadays these filing card catalogues remind us of the past. More information about the old card catalogue of the Central Library can be found here.

The card catalogue of the Sterling Memorial Library of Yale University is used for a remarkable art project.

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A tool to visualize history

While a student at UC Berkeley, Roland Saekow had the idea for a tool that would help people visualize history - all the way from the big bang to yesterday – and zoom in on whatever parts interest them. Called ChronoZoom, it is kind of like Google Maps for the fourth dimension, and it will get richer and richer as it’s fleshed out wiki-style.  Microsoft Research has gotten involved in ChronoZoom, which will presumably accelerate the project. You can already take a peak at http://www.chronozoomproject.org/. Obviously, there is still some work to be done, but the concept is pretty intriguing. Here you can watch a video of Saekow demonstrating his nex invention.

Source: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/03/cool-new-history-tool/255008/#

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