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 Dutch Cultural Coalition for Digital Durability (CCDD) presents her strategic program

The Dutch Cultural Coalition for Digital Durability points the problem of preserving digital cultural data for the future. The CCDD instigates the Dutch heritage institutions to reflect about the organization of digital durability in the cultural sector.

The key element is awareness. This awareness is not only necessary outside the Dutch heritage institutions, but also inside them. Therefore the CCDD’s Strategic Program accents the responsibilities of the heritage institutions. For many institutions in the Netherlands it is not self-evident to pay attention in their policies to the strategic value of ICT, digitizing, digital support and digital accessibility. The CCDD wants to change that. To finance the digital durability co-operation between the institutions is necessary.

The co-operation should result in an e-depot and related services.

The CCDD’s Strategic Program has been published in a magazine and is also digitally available in pdf.

Source: Faro

Source photo: Vlaamse Erfgoedbibliotheek

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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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Exhibition Library of Indwelled Regions and Environments

Until September 9th 2012 the beautiful Nottebohmzaal of the Erfgoedbibliotheek Hendrik Conscience in Antwerp hosts the ‘L.I.R.E.’ art project (Library of Indwelled Regions and Environments). With this installation artists Lore Rabaut and Frank Depoorter create pure, white spaces, which can be colored by the spectator itself. Books play a central role in the exhibition. Additionally, the placing of nine separate installations in the historical Nottebohmzaal gives rise to an interesting area of tension.

Source: Erfgoedbibliotheek Hendrik Conscience (only Dutch)

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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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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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Rare stolen atlas returned

A rare copy of an Atlas of the New World, stolen from Sweden’s Royal Library a decade ago has been officially returned. Published in 1597, the Descriptionis Ptolemaicae Augmentum was the first atlas documenting the geography and natural history of the Americas. Belgian cartographer Wytfliet used the writings of geographers José de Acosta and Giovanni Battista Ramusio, among others, to create 19 exceptionally accurate maps of South America, Central America, North America and the Caribbean, among them the first regional map of California ever printed. The book is one of only nine complete copies known to survive. It was stolen by the former head of the library’s manuscript department, Anders Burius, who from the day he was hired in 1995 began to help himself to rare volumes which he would then sell. Wytfliet’s Atlas had been on the market for years and passed through several hands before a Royal Library librarian spotted it in 2011 for sale by New York map dealer W. Graham Arader II. The Royal Library and Arader determined that it was the stolen copy, so he returned it to Sotheby’s and got his money back. Sotheby’s in turn decided to give the book back to the library.

Source: http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/17824

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Webexpo Boek, Band en Beslag

A new web exhibition of the library of the Amsterdam University takes you in twenty steps through three ages of prayer books with golden and silver mount. These missals form a part of the collection Van Noordwijk, a collector of book silver.

Typical about these books is the way in which they are richly decorated. They show how precious these books were for the owners.

The webexpo (Dutch)  can be found here .

Source: Boekgeschiedenis.nl

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