Happy Friday, everyone. I'm following the latest on Egypt, thanks to the BBC real-time feed, so this is a little shorter than usual. Many thanks to everyone who sent in links!
From Julie: Is the Kindle slowly conquering the book? Maybe!
Hi there! Today we have happy perky library links, instead of the doom and gloom that's often the case when discussing the future of the profession. I didn't plan it that way, it just seems to be a quirky week.
Meanwhile, the Washington DC area is commended for its new library designs. (Hawks are not usually included.)
The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library debuted its digital archives; more material will be added.
Glenna Herald continues her series about Twitter and libraries -- check it out!
The University of Cincinnati has launched an online exhibit about the Cincinnati Stock Exchange, which operated from 1914 to 1995. Lots of photos and articles and information!
Other festive happenings this week include the Gasparilla Pirate Fest in Florida and the Egyptian Marathon in Luxor. (I don't see anything indicating the latter has been canceled due to the unrest in Egypt, so hopefully everything is copacetic there.)
There's speculation that steampunk increased in popularity due to its parallels between Victorian and modern times. Two books recently written -- one on the craze of "true crime" reporting in Victorian London and one on the perils of 19th century anarchist terrorism activity -- would seem to add some support to that theory. (I think one could draw parallels between any two eras without much difficulty, really, but this is a fun road to explore.)
Matthew David Surridge has written a wonderful essay on steampunk-themed fiction, exploring works by Tim Powers, Felix Gilman and China Miéville (among other authors) and sticking up for adventure fiction. Huzzah!
And, if you can't get to any of the conventions, you could make your own steampunk-esque compass and go geocaching out in the woods or the city where you live. (You should do that anyway, really. Geocaching is all kinds of fun.)
Behold the Levytator, an escalator that can go around corners and curves!
Also behold Looptagger, a DIY method of stencil graffiti. I'm so tempted to try this.
And finally, the Architects of Air have created Mirazozo, a mashup between an inflatable castle and a dancefloor and a kaleidoscope. I hope it travels to the rest of the world!
And finally, a look at new books in the coming year. I discovered that the second book in Mark Hodder's Burton & Swinburne series is out in March and pre-ordered it already! Huzzah!
If you're a European librarian and cyclist, consider Cycling for Libraries, an "unconference" to take place on the roads between Copenhagen and Berlin.
The New York Times is chronicling the Civil War in their Disunion project, which is all sorts of interesting.
And finally, just for fun: why not consider some obscure Christian names, in light of the Pope's recent encouragement to use saint names for children? (I know a Jezebel! And a Dorcas! It's true!)
Not an event, but just plain cool: the undercity of New York (and a few other places, too). We are all about urban exploration here at Spooky Librarians.
And finally, just for fun: Le Cyclop! In France! Eeek!
The awesome people of Tor Publishing now have a whole page on Facebook dedicated solely to steampunk, and they post multiple times each day. I'm tempted to shut the Steampunk Librarian down and just send everyone there, because the stuff they're finding is fantastic.
And finally, a group of New York City steampunks went on an excursion to the Harry Houdini exhibit at the Jewish Museum. The exhibit is there until March, so you still have time to see it if you weren't along on the adventure!
Happy 2011, everyone! We are back from the sea and sun (see the photos over on the Flickr badge) and ready to go. Many thanks to everyone who sent in links while I was gone -- today is a special bonus "links from others" day as a result!
