INNOLIB

Aby Warburg : Interconnected Library

Warburg always moved the books and re-classified them according to his personal assumptions and spontaenous ideas, for the significance of every book depended on its context within the library, its neighborhood on the shelf. Via

As Warburg imagined it, a library was above all an accumulation of associations, each association reeding a new image or text to be assoicated, until the associations returned the reader to the first page. For Warburg, every library was circular. pg. 202 The Library at Night by Alberto Manguel

Warburg was constantly rearranging and reorganizing interrelated information, in his library and on his Mnemosyne Atlas. Now that we have reached an age of quick information gathering and rearranging the library and more importantly digital library should provide advanced research options such as searching by image clusters.

Today, Warburg’s working style would be categorized as researching ‹visual clusters›. Only these are not ordered according to visual similarity, evident in the sense of an iconographic history of style; but rather through relationships caused by an ‹affinity for one another› and the principle of ‹good company,› which let themselves be reconstructed through the study of texts (as for example, contract conditions or biological associations). Via

Eagerly awaiting, and hoping to get, a password to the Warburg Digital Library here http://www.welib.de/

826CHI and Chicago Public Library

I recently picked up the most recent publishing from 826Chicago. What is 826?

826 National is a nonprofit tutoring, writing, and publishing organization with locations in seven cities across the country. Our goal is to assist students ages six to eighteen with their writing skills, and to help teachers get their classes excited about writing. Our work is based on the understanding that great leaps in learning can happen with one-on-one attention, and that strong writing skills are fundamental to future success.

via 826National

I’m a huge supporter of the 826, and all literary movements, that try to instill the joys of writing in young children. I was wondering how much the Chicago Public Library invests in their community (and potential users) by carrying these books. I was extremely happy to see that the Chicago Public Library carries many, many copies of each of the 826 books.

I did a quick search and found that most places with an 826 program such as Seattle, Boston, and Valencia have a public library that carries many of their young authors publications.

This was just an interesting example of how libraries support the communities where they exist and encourage those within the community.

Amazon’s Kindle DX

Amazon released information today regarding their new line of the popular Kindle product. While skimming reviews of the product I skipped to the concluding paragraph of PC Magazines review by Lance Ulanoff:

A lot of people have asked me if I spent time with the new DX. I did, but not too much. There just isn’t that much that’s new. There’s the huge screen (2.5 times the size of the current Kindle 2), an accelerometer that lets the Kindle DX automatically reorient the page when you turn it to the side, a slightly redesigned keyboard, a PDF reader, and the ability to set line length. I did press one Amazon rep on whether or not anything had been left out of the presentation, but he assured me that I had all of the information.

So, no browser, no color, no surprises. I can live with that.

I was actually unaware that the previous version of the Kindle did not have a native PDF reader.  Amazon, apparently, added this option to increase sales with business users. This addition coupled with the large screen has tremendously increased the price, bringing the product to ~$500 when it is released this Sumer.

The need of particular communities to rent the Kindle, or other eBook readers, is apparent.

(via)

I am interested in seeing what competing companies will produce to compete with the Kindle. The price of the product at this point is quite high considering there is no color, no browser, and limited rental capabilities. Here are some companies to look out for from Amit Agarwal

If you are interested in document readers, some devices that are worth tracking include Plastic Logic, FoxIt eSlick Reader, Sony Reader, iRex Digital Reader and BeBook eReader. The launch of Kindle DX will definitely prompt these vendors to add larger screens to their own reading tablets. (via)