Posts filed under 'Articles'
Having spent the past few days dealing with formatting nightmares, involving Japanese and Devanagari scripts, I really appreciated this story about the work of typographer Michael Everson’s work on Unicode 4.0. Most people do not have to worry about the encoding of various scripts, but for those of us who work with Asian languages, encoding can be a huge headache. As Everson says very eloquently when interviewed for this article:
“Imagine how you would feel if your name was Fran�ois, but there was no � available . . . You would be irritated that your phone bill came addressed spelling your name wrong. Now imagine if your language used a totally different alphabet and you couldn’t use computers at all because of it. It’s a question of human rights, really.”
Even if these issues do not affect you, read this article. Everson’s work and background alone are interesting enough reading. Plus, it is nice to see a typographer featured in a New York Times article.
September 26th, 2003
Comic book collectors, it seems, are becoming the bibliophile-philanthropists of this era. Today, I read two stories about university libraries adding comic books to their special collections. Duke University has recently established the Edwin and Terry Murray Collection of Pulp Culture, a collection of 55,000 comic books and 500 role playing games, plus other related materials. The collection was donated by the Murray brothers last year, and once the collection is processed, it will be one of the largest comic book archives in the United States. And Duke’s neighbor, UNC-Chapel Hill, also recently acquired a comic book collection of 2600 books from UNC alumnus and former Rare Book Collection staff member, Dan Breen. Duke’s collection should be open for research beginning in the fall. UNC’s collection, which was transferred to the university in July, will not be open to researchers at least for another year or two.
August 10th, 2003
I read this article and thought it was too relevant and interesting to relegate to my sideblog. It is mainly about the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas, its recent renovation, and its curators’ efforts to make its collections more accessible. It also mentions other rare book and special collections libraries, including the Boston Atheneum and the Huntington Library.I, particularly, loved the closing quote from the director of the Ransom Center, Thomas Staley, about the fine art of acquistions: “‘It’s chess,’ says Staley, ‘not checkers.”’ I really like the idea of acquistions as a game of chess.
August 6th, 2003
This article from yesterday’s New York Daily News really troubled me. I have long been a children’s museum fan/advocate (and, in fact, for many years wanted to work in a children’s museum) so I hate to hear that the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, the world’s oldest children’s museum, is facing budget troubles.
I am not surprised by this news as libraries, museums, and other cultural institutions nationwide (and worldwide) are being hard hit by the economic downturn. What bothered me was the fact that while the suggested donation for museum entrance is $4.00, few people, it seems, actually pay the full entrance fee. According to this article, the average donation per person was $1.25. Again, I am not surprised. Annoyed and frustrated but not surprised.
Suggested donations are set so that everyone has access to museums. Those who cannot afford to pay an admission fee are not kept out. Those who can pay the full entrance fee (or more) should do so, but they rarely do. This reminds me of an episode of The Simpsons, the one in which Lisa has a crush on her substitute teacher, Mr. Bergstrom. Homer and Lisa are at the museum and Homer, seeing the suggested donation sign, starts to mock the idea. “And you think that people are going to pay you $4.50 even though they don’t have to?” he says to the person at the ticket counter.
Growing up, when my family went to New York on holidays and vacations, we always visited the American Museum of Natural History, where they also have a suggested admission fee. My parents always paid the full fee. Once I asked why we had to pay if it was only suggested. My parents’ answer was because we could and we should.
Apparently, others do not think the same way. I guess outreach programs for children with special needs and internships for local high school students are not as important as getting something for nothing.
Related links (children’s museum superlatives):
June 18th, 2003
According to this article from The Art Newspaper, the Boston/Nagoya Museum of Fine Arts is having major troubles. The museum, a collaboration with Boston’s MFA, has been in existence only four years but its history has been plagued with financial woes and in-fighting. Apparently, some of the ill will between the curatorial staff and the adminstration has been over exhibition choices (which have been “too academic to interest the general audience,” according to the museum’s director-general Fumio Suzuki).
Personally, I would rather see an exhibit about tea drinking in the West (one exhibit that did poorly) than one about Impressionism. But, then again, I am not Japanese and I do not live in Nagoya. Read the full article here.
June 17th, 2003
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