Wednesday, May 11, 2011

NYPL at 100 Exhibition




















"Our Centennial exhibition, which opens May 14, celebrates the depth and breadth of The New York Public Library’s collections, which now contain more than 50 million items. Library curators have always been guided by the philosophy that all knowledge is worth preserving, and over the past century, NYPL has radically expanded its holdings.

The exhibition includes highlights from the Library’s diverse collections, including a Gutenberg Bible, a Tale of Genji scroll, a handwritten manuscript by Jorge Luis Borges, one of Malcolm X’s journals, costume designs for the Ballets Russes — even Virginia Woolf’s walking stick. Many of the items on display are of obvious historical value, while others — dance cards, a board game, and a dime novel — may confound. Still others, such as a copy of Mein Kampf, may disturb. As Edwin Hatfield Anderson, director of the Library from 1913 to 1934, boldly stated, “If the devil himself wrote a book, we’d want it in the Library.”"





http://exhibitions.nypl.org/100/exhibition

ALSO

National Jukebox - The Library of Congress






"

The Library of Congress presents the National Jukebox, which makes historical sound recordings available to the public free of charge. The Jukebox includes recordings from the extraordinary collections of the Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation and other contributing libraries and archives. Recordings in the Jukebox were issued on record labels now owned by Sony Music Entertainment, which has granted the Library of Congress a gratis license to stream acoustical recordings.

At launch, the Jukebox includes more than 10,000 recordings made by the Victor Talking Machine Company between 1901 and 1925. Jukebox content will be increased regularly, with additional Victor recordings and acoustically recorded titles made by other Sony-owned U.S. labels, including Columbia, OKeh, and others."

http://www.loc.gov/jukebox/about