Art Resources Transfer, Inc. (A.R.T.) began as a nonprofit publisher of books based on conversations between artists, under the aegis of A.R.T. Press.  Looking to find ways to expand distribution to public libraries in Los Angeles, A.R.T. Press offered its books for free to local libraries.  It found out that libraries couldn't accept the offer of free books because they couldn't afford the shipping costs.  After years of budget cuts, the majority of our nation's public libraries and schools have no contemporary art resources to offer their patrons.  Exhibition catalogues, monographs, and artists' books with color reproductions are too expensive for declining acquisitions budgets.  In response to this critical lack of art books in our nation's public schools and libraries, A.R.T. created the Distribution to Underserved Communities (DUC) Library Program in 1990, which provides free books on the visual arts and covers the cost of shipping.  With a grant from The George Gund Foundation, the DUC was launched as a pilot program in nine libraries in Ohio.  Yes.  Every book, including its shipping, is absolutely free to public libraries and schools.  All materials offered by the DUC are donated to the program by their publishers, and sent to your library at no charge.  http://www.ducprogram.org/faqs.php

You can be Aagot, Arney or Ásfríður; Baldey, Bebba or Brá.  Dögg, Dimmblá, Etna and Eybjört are fine; likewise Frigg, Glódís, Hörn and Ingunn.  Jórlaug works OK, as do Obba, Sigurfljóð, Úranía and – should you choose – Vagna.  But you cannot, as a girl in Iceland, be called Harriet.  "The whole situation," said Tristan Cardew, with very British understatement, "is really rather silly."  With his Icelandic wife Kristin, Cardew is appealing against a decision by the National Registry in Reykjavik not to renew their 10-year-old daughter Harriet's passport on the grounds that it does not recognise her first name.  Since the registry does not recognise the name of Harriet's 12-year-old brother Duncan either, the two children have until this year travelled on passports identifying them as Stúlka and Drengur Cardew:  Girl and Boy Cardew.  "But this time, the authorities have decided to apply the letter of the law," Cardew, a British-born cook who moved to Iceland 14 years ago, told the Guardian.  "And that says no official document will be issued to people who do not bear an approved Icelandic name."  Jon Henley  http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/26/iceland-strict-naming-convention-cardew-family

An inglenook (Modern Scots ingleneuk), or chimney corner, is a small recess that adjoins a fireplace.  The word is formed with ingle, meaning "fireplace" in Old English (from Old Scots or Irish Gaelic aingeal, "angel" or euphemistically "fire"), and nook.  Inglenooks originated as a partially enclosed hearth area, appended to a larger room.  The hearth was used for cooking and its enclosing alcove became a natural place for people seeking warmth to gather.  With changes in building design, kitchens became separate rooms, while inglenooks were retained in the living space as intimate warming places, subsidiary spaces within larger rooms.  Inglenooks were prominent features of shingle style architecture, but began to disappear with the advent of central heating.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inglenook#cite_note-toh1-1

A nook is a corner and a cranny is a crack.  Eric Partridge's "Origins" (4th ed) suggests the origin of nook is Middle English nok which is also akin to the semantic group that gives us neck.  The same source suggests cranny is the diminutive of the Old French cran, meaning notch.  A variation is cren, which by some other route gives crenellation.  All this suggests a cranny is more of a small notch than a crack.  http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_difference_between_a_nook_and_a_cranny

Astoria, Queens has been the home of the Steinway & Sons piano factory for decades.  The factory is located in the far northern section of Astoria, in an industrial zone, at 1 Steinway Place, located north of 19th Avenue.  Steinway & Sons was founded in 1853 by German immigrant and master cabinet maker Henry Engelhard Steinway, in a loft on Varick Street in Manhattan.  He eventually established a factory on 59th Street (where the current piano bank is).  In the latter half of the 19th century, the Steinways moved the factory to its present location in Queens, and established a community for its workers called the Steinway Village, which is now part of Astoria.  The Steinways also opened a library, which later became part of the Queens Public Library system.  Meg Cotner  Find information on free tours (about 2.5 hours) of the factory at http://queens.about.com/od/thingtodo/a/Steinway-Factory-Tour.htm

What's the difference between a valley, a dale, and a glen?  All have virtually identical modern day meaning.  Dale - Old English and Teutonic:  dæl, dal, del, deil.  Originally a deep or low place.  Modern day definition:  A valley. In the northern counties, the usual name of a river-valley between its enclosing ranges of hills or high land.  Also found in geographical names such as Clydesdale, Annandale. "Dale" is used mainly in literature.  Valley - Old French: valee, vallee, vallée, vallede.  Provincial French :  vallada. Italian:  vallata.  Latin:  vallis. Modern day definition:  A long depression or hollow lying between hills or stretches of high ground and usually having a river or stream flowing along its bottom.  Glen - Gaelic: gleann, glenn.  Welsh:  glyn.  Modern day definition:  A mountain-valley, usually narrow and forming the course of a stream.  Oxford English Dictionary    https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100915181719AA0NFKz

dell  from Middle English delle, from Old English *dell (“small dale”), from Proto-Germanic *daljō (“a hollow, abyss”), diminutive of Proto-Germanic *dalą (“valley, dale”),  from Proto-Indo-European *dʰol-, *dʰel- (“an arch, vaulting, curve, curvature, cavity”).  http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dell  Find Scandinavian terms for landscape features including fell, barf, beck, cam, kell and ness at http://www.viking.no/e/england/danelaw/e-landscape.htm

T-shirts featuring the image of Ohio State fans forming the letters O-H-I-O are spelling trouble for a Rhode Island company that has been slapped with a trademark-infringement lawsuit by Ohio State University.  OSU had the image trademarked in 2012, but the school is far from alone when it comes to owning trademarks that extend far beyond normal logos.  Procter & Gamble owns the rights to the Old Spice whistle, while the University of Arkansas possesses the rights to its “sooie” cheer.  Nontraditional trademarks cover a wide range, including things such as motion, sound, color, scent, texture and shape.  Trademark law “basically says you can trademark anything that identifies you,” said Michael Spink, an intellectual-property attorney with Michigan-based law firm Brinks Gilson & Lione.  He blogs about the issue at http://funkymarks.wordpress.com/.  “Typically, when we think of source identifiers, we think of names,” Spink said.  “But there is an increasing trend for things that are not words.  Colors, for instance.  Boise State has registered the color blue as it applies to its field turf.”  Ohio State’s suit says that Teespring Inc., a T-shirt company that uses designs submitted by customers, has made shirts with various OSU logos, buckeye leaves and images of football coach Urban Meyer — as well as the O-H-I-O image — without permission and without paying licensing fees to the university.  Ohio State complained to Teespring in December and again in January, but the company hasn’t stopped.  “Teespring continues to solicit orders for, manufacture, sell and ship infringing and counterfeit products using the Ohio State trademarks,” Ohio State said in the suit, which was filed in April in U.S. District Court in Columbus.  The university wants Teespring to stop its unauthorized use of OSU trademarks and seeks more than $1 million in damages.  Tim Feran    http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/business/2014/07/17/ohio-states-lawsuit-against-t-shirt-maker-shows-breadth-of-trademarks.html

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1173  July 21, 2014  On this date in 1902, Willis Carrier createed the first air conditioner in Buffalo, New York.  On this date in 1925, in Dayton, Tennessee, high school biology teacher John T. Scopes was found guilty of teaching evolution in class and fined $100.