“Literature doesn’t just live on the written page: Stories emerge and evolve all of the time, in everyday life through spoken words, gestures and games between families and friends, and so in bringing these elements and art forms together we are inviting this to happen in an open and celebratory arena within the public library space.”
Interactive art and performance in libraries, via the Library as Incubator Project.
“Depression, by its very nature, feels like the crime and the punishment at the same time: your primary relation to life is distorted, you are a stranger to gratitude and fidelity, your spirit sickens, and somehow—and this is the real pisser—you know it’s your own fault.”
Relive Groundhog Day in all its philosophical profundity with James Parker at The Atlantic: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/03/reliving-groundhog-day/309223/
“A library in the middle of a community is a cross between an emergency exit, a life-raft and a festival. They are cathedrals of the mind; hospitals of the soul; theme parks of the imagination. On a cold rainy island, they are the only sheltered public spaces where you are not a consumer, but a citizen instead.”
The Future Foyles workshop held on Monday brought together publishing, retail, and literacy professionals seeking a vision for London’s next great flagship bookstore – you’ll see me quoted in The Bookseller’s report of the event - and finding much food for thought from a wider community outreach perspective.
Proposals included integration of digital and print media, premium membership services like bibliotherapy, and a vision of the bookstore as a curated cultural destination – a temple to literature in the heart of a reinvigorated Bookseller’s District. All of these ideas resonate with the challenges facing 21st century libraries, and indeed all spaces that serve the arts and humanities.
For a bookstore, the future might involve turning a retail space into a cultural venue for everyone with a passion for reading and writing; a library may become a hub for facilitating knowledge creation and access to culture, as R. David Lankes has suggested in the US; in universities, with an increasing vogue for online delivery of courses and even lectures, the physical campus will need to demonstrate its relevance as a home for compelling, engaging activities that can’t be replicated electronically.
Read more from ‘Respect, innovation, and cheeky pancakes’ at http://matthewfinch.me/2013/02/13/respect-innovation-and-cheeky-pancakes-thoughts-on-the-future-of-bookstores-and-libraries/
Batman discovers the joy of reading.
Tianjin, China: A woman read books at Tianjin library. Many residents spent the mid-autumn festival, which falls on Sunday, visiting free public cultural centres.
Image from Yue Yuewei/Xinhua Press/Corbis via the Guardian.
Kids from Central West New South Wales venture from their library into a monster’s cave…
Find out more about my storytelling workshops for all ages, running in libraries across Australia, at http://matthewfinch.me/
(Source: matthewfinch.me)
Reading and writing are not natural.
Literacy is not a birthright.
Not the most commonly heard words at a children’s literacy conference!
—
No. (via novazembla)
(via neveralovelysoreal)
Where’s the original quote from?
(via thelifeguardlibrarian)(Source: hypocritelecteuse, via thelifeguardlibrarian)
nypl:
Tomorrow night is the NYPL’s Anti-Prom, Monster Ball!!! Teens who don’t feel comfortable attending their school proms can party with their friends at the library instead.
This year’s theme is inspired by Frankenstein - monsters, remixing, Romantic meets gothic meets pulp fiction. The Design NYPL group designed clothes inspired by the theme and will present a fashion show at Anti-Prom. Check out the video to learn more about how they used the library’s collections as inspiration for their designs.
Teens can still register to attend: http://www.nypl.org/events/programs/2012/06/08/anti-prom-monster-prom-0
