On
September 29, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the National Foundation on the Arts and the
Humanities Act of 1965 at a White House Rose Garden ceremony, attended by
scholars, artists, educators, political leaders, and other luminaries. (Read
a history of how NEH got its start ). The law
created the National Endowment for the Humanities as an independent federal
agency, the first grand public investment in American culture. It identified the need for a national
cultural agency that would preserve America’s rich history and cultural
heritage, and encourage and support scholarship and innovation in history,
archeology, philosophy, literature, and other humanities disciplines. In the five decades since, NEH has made more
than 63,000 grants totaling $5.3 billion, including leveraging an additional
$2.5 billion in matching grants to bring the best humanities research, public
programs, education, and preservation projects to the American people. Examples of NEH impact include funding that
has led to the discovery of a lost Jamestown settlement fort, brought the
scholarship of famed linguist Deborah Tannen to a broader audience, created the
first museum exhibit of the King Tut, preserved the papers of ten presidents
including George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, invested in the career of then
relatively unknown documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, and thousands of other
examples. “For the past 50 years the
National Endowment for the Humanities has helped create and sustain the
nation’s cultural capital,” said NEH Chairman William Adams. “NEH grants have enabled libraries and museums
to preserve and develop their collections. NEH grants have allowed historic
sites to broaden their public programs.
Our grants have funded exhibitions across the country that give
Americans access to history and culture in their towns and cities. Our grants have sparked additional investment
that has expanded the ability of cultural organizations to serve the
public. The immense growth in this
cultural infrastructure would not have been possible without NEH leadership and
public investment in the humanities to support America’s cultural legacy.” (Read reflections from Chairman William Adams on NEH’s 50th anniversary.) http://www.neh.gov/news/press-release/2015-09-28 See a long list of celebratory events
including Pennsylvania German Music, Dance and Instruments
and Walt Disney on
American Experience at http://www.neh.gov/events
Students Recreate Historic Buildings With 3D Printers by Steve Zind
Since October 2014, about 20 Vermont schools have been competing in a
first-of-its-kind project that combines high tech 3D printing and old fashioned
local history. The teams of students
gathered at Vermont Technical College in Randolph Center to show their
work. A big white rectangle that covered
the floor represented the state of Vermont.
Marked on it were various towns, and on each town stood small buildings
ranging from the size of a matchbox to a breadbox. Each was a replica of a historic structure in
the town and each was created using a 3D printer. The buildings are the culmination of months
of work that started with learning the history of the buildings. “It’s authentic historical research. It’s more of what a historian would do rather
than a history student,” says Hartford High School teacher Mike Hathorn. He got the idea for the competition among the
state’s middle and high schools after learning of a similar college event. Hathorn trained teachers from around the
state to work with teams of students at their schools. The first step was choosing which buildings
to study. Then came researching their histories and studying their
architecture. They then used 3D
modeling software to create a virtual replica of the buildings and after that,
came the process of turning the virtual model into a real one using a 3D
printer to create a three dimensional scale replica. Read more and see pictures at http://digital.vpr.net/post/students-recreate-historic-buildings-3d-printers#stream/0
5 Lessons Library Websites Can Learn from Buzzfeed by Christina
Manzo Since its 2006 launch, Buzzfeed has
become an Internet institution by recognizing and capitalizing on the
insatiable life-cycle of viral media.
The idea behind the website is relatively simple: bring together trending content from around the
web and organize it into a format that is short and eye-catching. The venture capitalist firm Andreessen
Horowitz estimates the net worth of Buzzfeed Inc. at around $850 million. And according to analytics website QuantCast,
the site saw 146 million visitsin May 2015
alone (accounting for both unique online and mobile visits). For contrast, the Library of Congress—the
oldest federal cultural institution in the United States—drew in about 1.1
million visits in the same period.
Buzzfeed’s business model relies on shareability, something it has in
common with today’s library, which is why library website designers have the
opportunity to learn from Buzzfeed’s overwhelming success.
Find the top lessons library website
designers can learn from Buzzfeed at
A malapropism is the misuse of similar sounding words,
especially with humorous results. The word malapropos is an adjective or adverb meaning
"inappropriate" or "inappropriately", derived from the French phrase mal à propos(literally
"ill-suited"). The
earliest English usage of the word cited in the Oxford English
Dictionary is from
1630. Malaprop used in the linguistic
sense was first used by Lord Byron in 1814 according to the OED. The terms malapropism and the earlier variant malaprop come from Richard
Brinsley Sheridan's 1775 play The Rivals, and in particular the
character Mrs. Malaprop. Sheridan
presumably named his character Mrs. Malaprop, who frequently misspoke (to great
comic effect), in joking reference to the word malapropos. The alternative term "Dogberryism"
comes from the 1598 Shakespearean play Much Ado About
Nothing, in which the character Dogberry produces many malapropisms with
humorous effect. Find examples of
malapropism at http://dictionary.sensagent.com/Malapropism/en-en/
On 10 December 2014, the Capital Times published an article
titled "The Political Pitfalls of Cultural Crossover: Scott Walker Edition" regarding the
contents of a letter purportedly sent by Wisconsin governor Scott Walker to a
Jewish constituent on the matter of including a menorah in holiday decor. The article claimed Walker awkwardly signed off by saying
"molotov" when he presumably meant "mazel tov," a Hebrew
expression of good wishes: In an
undated letter unearthed by the liberal group One Wisconsin Now during the
August release of documents from the first of two John Doe investigations
related to the governor, Walker responded to a letter from Milwaukee attorney
and chairman of the Wisconsin Center District Franklyn Gimbel. Walker told Gimbel his office would be happy to display a menorah celebrating
"The Eight Days of Chanukah" at the Milwaukee County Courthouse, and
asked Gimbel to have a representative from Lubavitch of Wisconsin contact
Walker's secretary, Dorothy Moore, to set it up. The letter is signed, "Thank you
again and Molotov." Although somewhat phonetically similar, the two terms
have vastly different meanings: "Mazel tov" is a common phrase
denoting benevolent intent, whereas "molotov" is most often paired
with "cocktail" to describe an improvised explosive device (so named
as an insulting reference to Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov). The
latter was undated, and Walker's best guess was
it was sent in 2003 or thereabouts.
Neither Walker nor the letter's recipient (Gimbel) recognized the
missive when asked about the claim, and the governor surmised if the mistake
had occurred, it was due to a typo rather than a lack of understanding about
the difference between the two terms.
Additionally, a Milwaukee paper reported its attempt to duplicate a correction of a
misspelled "mazel tov" in Microsoft Word led to replacement with the
word "molotov": Microsoft Word doesn't have an automatic correction
function. But if you type mozoltov — a phonetic spelling of mazel tov—Microsoft will suggest "molotov" as an
alternative spelling. Gimbel said he doesn't remember
reading Walker's entire letter. He said
he probably saw that Walker had accepted his menorah suggestion and stopped
there. Had he seen the use of the phrase
"molotov," Gimbel said he almost certainly would have called to point
out the mistake. "That's
pretty basic," Gimbel said. Even if the letter as published is entirely accurate,
it's possible the error was made by a staffer and was not a misstep by Walker
himself. In any event, it's likely
Walker is aware of the difference between "mazel tov" and
"molotov," and (if true) the error was one born of a finger slip and
not ignorance. http://www.snopes.com/politics/politicians/molotov.asp
http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com Issue 1363
October 15, 2015 On this date in
1066, Edgar the Ætheling was
proclaimed King of England, but never crowned. He reigned until 10 December 1066. On this date in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII implemented the Gregorian calendar.
In Italy, Poland, Portugal, and Spain, October 4 of
this year was followed directly by October 15.
Word of
the Day: belly-timber noun (archaic, now only humorous or regional) Food, provender.
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