Library History Research Articles

ABOUT THE ACTIVITIES OF SIMBIRSK PROVINCIAL BOOK DEPOSITORY TO PRESERVE THE CULTURAL HERITAGE OF SIMBIRSK-ULYANOVSK VOLGA REGION IN THE 1920s (based on the materials of Simbirsk newspapers)

The year 2022 was declared as the year of cultural heritage of the peoples of Russia by the President of the Russian Federation. Objectively, this idea is relevant for the Middle Volga region, which has always been a multinational and, as a result, multicultural region. We consider the library to be one of the most important institutions preserving cultural traditions and historical and cultural monuments both on a national scale and in Russian regions. A rich history of Russian libraries has long attracted the attention of researchers of Russian culture. The focus of the author’s scientific interest in this article is the libraries of Simbirsk–Ulyanovsk Volga region, as a significant part of the Middle Volga region, in the territory of which a variety of peoples have lived from time immemorial (the Russians, the Chuvash, the Tatars, the Mari, the Mordvins, etc.). The first public libraries in the region appeared in the early XIX century. By 1917, many large book collections belonging to the Simbirsk nobility had been preserved in the region. Groundbreaking changes in socio-economic and political life in the country, which took place after the nationwide military victory of the Bolsheviks, led to serious changes in the cultural life of the Middle Volga region. So, in 1921, the Provincial Book Depository was established in Simbirsk, which later became one of the largest centers in the Volga region to preserve the richest cultural heritage of the peoples of the region. What kind of institution was it? How did it appear? The author explores the peculiarities of the process of the emergence and formation of Simbirsk provincial book depository. In the presented publication, the author actively uses Soviet newspapers published in Simbirsk after the end of the Civil War in Russia. Referring to the sources of the 1920s covering the events of those years, he tells about the little-known aspects in the activities of the Soviet culture new organization, in particular incoming new books and other valuable cultural materials. At the same time, the contacts of the book depository with Pushkin House (in the present – the Institute of Russian Literature under the Russian Academy of Sciences) in Petrograd are particularly noted. The article places emphasis on the role of such prominent bibliographers of the 1920s as N.N. Stolov, M.G. Medvedeva, M.D. Belyaev and A.S. Polyakov in the formation of the book depository in Simbirsk. Conclusions are drawn that the educated cultural institution primarily considered itself the heir of Karamzin and Goncharovskaya public libraries, which had a rich long-term history. Creation of the book depository undoubtedly gave a powerful impetus to the cultural, spiritual and scientific development of Simbirsk-Ulyanovsk Volga region in the 1920s, preservation of the cultural heritage of its peoples.

The journey of a book from the sixteenth to the twentieth century

Two handwritten notes found in a small volume published in 1564 – an older one relating to the first owner bearing the name of Ulisse Aldrovandi placed at the top of the title page, and the second one bearing the location on the tail of the book – have aroused great interest in the possibility that it could belong to the famous naturalist’s library in Bologna. A third note, placed on the doublure of front cover, refers to an unknown later owner whose identity will be sought out, based on the little information reported. Starting from these handwritten notes, the journey of the book is reconstructed in space – from Aldrovandi’s library in Bologna to the Historical Library of the Orazio Comes Botanical Museum kept at the MUSA Museum Centre in Portici – and in time – from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century.

Thermohygrometric Climate, Insects and Fungi in the Klosterneuburg Monastic Library

The abundance of insect and fungal pests under a changing climate may threaten historic interiors, libraries and museums, with warmer, potentially more humid winters. This work examines local and indoor climate, insects and fungi in a historic library near Vienna. It reveals a mostly dry and cool environment for the storage of books, but few visitors to induce changes. Temperature and relative humidity have been monitored for 12 months (2021-07/2022-07), with 14 monitors positioned insect traps (blunder traps and some pheromone traps). Fungi in air, on surfaces and in settled dust were also sampled. Winter temperatures in library cupboards and behind shelves were slightly warmer (~1 °C) and more humid than in the library environment. Over the last decade there have been infestations of the biscuit beetles (Stegobium paniceum) but since treatment with sulfuryl difluoride, Anthrenus sp. have dominated. Silverfish are also present, but only in one corner. Fungal outbreaks have also been found, but over five years fungi in air samples have shifted from Penicillium commune and P. chrysogenum to Aspergillus sp. The stable environment at Klosterneuburg is suitable for books, yet insects and mould present suggests vigilance remains necessary, as some microenvironments (e.g., cupboards) can be at risk and there may be materials with high water content, hygroscopic or of nutritional value.

Berita Pustaka as historical source of Bandung Institute of Technology Library in 1970’s

Background of the Study: History of Indonesian library is less explored field in library studies. Debates on history of Indonesian library seems to be unexplored due to pressure on librarian to adapt with technological changes. It causes development of history of Indonesian library seems stagnant among scholars of library science and librarians. Meanwhile, in the field of history itself, library history is less attractive for historians. The development of historiography since 1980’s is more concerned with social movement history, though library played significant role in the field of education and research in Indonesia. Almost all research centers and universities certainly need library for obtaining references. Purpose: This article observes one of National Library of Indonesia’s rare collection named Berita Pustaka. The collection is a tabloid published by Center Library of Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) in 1970’s. Today the collection is still deposited in Rare Newspaper Division, National Library of Indonesia with call number QQ-131. Method: In this article author uses qualitative method along with deep analysis of Berita Pustaka. Therefore, author also uses historical approach as a methodology in this article. Finding: In addition, the collection also contains information regarding library service for faculty members and students in 1970’s. Conclusion: Author argues that Berita Pustaka is an information source for researching history of Indonesian library, particularly higher education library.

The Prince Nikolay Konstantinovich Romanov’s personal library: The provenance and existence in Turkestan in the late 19th – early 20th century

The authors revive the history of the Prince Nikolay Romanov’s personal library, its presence in Turkestan, and characterize its features. They define the role of the owner as an educator, researcher, and bibliophile. The article is based on the periodicals, academic papers, memoirs, letters and archival materials of that period. The main methods applied were historical bibliological analysis, and visual observation of library and archival collections. The archival documents being introduced into scientific discourse enable to investigate into the matters related to selection principle, ex libris and inscripts. The Grand Duke Romanov’s book collection can be partially reconstructed with the collections of A. Navoi National Library of the Republic of Uzbekistan and Uzbekistan Academy of Sciences Fundamental Library. The study expands the knowledge of the Prince’s personal library, of his scientific interest and reading preferences. The findings will be interesting to the researchers of the Russian emigration, book and library historians. The authors conclude that Grand Duke Nikolay Romanov was a philanthropist, researcher, and bibliophile. His personal book collection is of great value for study and preservation of Russian cultural heritage in the Republic of Uzbekistan.

Український математик Віталій Скоробогатько та його бібліотека

History and composition of the personal library of the famous Ukrainian scientist-mаthematician, Honoured man of science of Ukraine, doctor of Physico-Mathematical Sciences, professor Vitaliy Skorobohat’ko (1927–1996) were considered. To grant attention to peculiarity of the books collection, concerning to the owner profession and the some memorial things of the Lviv scientist. Keywords: private library of a scientist, Ukrainian mathematician Vitalii Skorobohatko, private archives, gift inscription, аutograph, memory, diary.

The Bridge: On the Role of Historical Societies, Archives, and Research Libraries

The Bridge: On the Role of Historical Societies, Archives, and Research Libraries

The Reuse method of the Part CNC process based on 3D feature matching

Aiming at the problem of efficient reuse of existing parts CNC process, this paper presents a reuse method of the part CNC process based on 3D feature matching. It’s assumed the part which is the most similar to the 3D features of the new part has been found in the CNC history library. To reuse the CNC process of the existing part, the CNC programs and machining parameters of the existing part are imported into the new part as the machining template firstly, then the improved 3D polar radius surface moments are used to extract the 3D shape and position vectors of the machining area of each CNC program of the existed part and each face of the new part, finally the weighted Euclidean distance is used as a metric to find the most similar matching of each machining area in the new part, and the matching result is optimized by the greedy algorithm based fragmented surface matching algorithm and the overall optimization algorithm. Hundreds of sets of 3D feature similar parts were verified in the prototype system based on this method. The results show that this method can effectively reuse the existing CNC parts, and significantly improve the efficiency of CNC programming.

Geauga Amish Historical Library, Our Amish Heritage

No abstract available.

Open-Space Vehicle Positioning Algorithm Based on Detection and Tracking in Video Sequences.

In on-street parking lots, it is very important to obtain the positions and license plate numbers of the vehicles for charging and management. Existing algorithms usually detect vehicles from an input image first, then localize their license plates, and finally recognize the license plate numbers. However, they are of high time and space complexity and cannot work if the vehicles or license plates are obscured. Therefore, this paper proposes an open-space vehicle positioning algorithm based on detection and tracking in video sequences. The work is as follows: (1) To reduce the time and space complexity, parallel detection of vehicles and license plates is carried out. Then, geometric matching is performed to accomplish the correspondences between them. (2) To track vehicles and license plates, this paper improves DeepSORT by combining with integrated voting based on the historical license plate library. (3) To accurately judge the vehicle behavior of entry or exit, a cumulative state detector is designed to increase the fault-tolerance of the proposed algorithm. The experimental results reveal that the proposed algorithm makes improvements in model parameters, inference speed, and tracking accuracy, demonstrating that it can be well applied to open-space vehicle positioning.

Books, History, and Black Lives

Khalil Gibran Muhammad is the Ford Foundation Professor of History, Race and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School. He directs the Institutional Antiracism and Account- ability Project and is the former Director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, a division of the New York Public Library and the world’s leading library and archive of global black history. Before leading the Schomburg Center, Khalil was an associate professor at Indiana University. He recently sat down with Contexts Co-Editor Fabio Rojas and Production Manager Alisha Kirchoff to discuss his career and research.

The Use of Daylighting Rules of Thumb in Libraries Across Different Eras

This study investigates the use of daylighting rules of thumb in four libraries across different eras and aims to outline different guides, methods and strategies used by architects in applying daylighting design in this building typology. Two historical libraries prior to the 20th century were selected to identify the use of daylighting strategies during the times when electrical lighting was not yet available in buildings. In the other hand, two post 20th centruy libraries were also selected for a similar daylighting rules of thumb appraisal. The study reveals that three daylighting rules of thumb were commonly used in all of the library buildings appraised which include the limiting floor depth rule, window area to wall area ratio and window area to floor area ratio. It was found that the most consistent daylighting rule of thumb is the limiting floor depth whereby the depth of typical floor plan is within the range of approximately 6 meters for unilateral and 12 meters for bilateral daylighting. Each sampled library building was found to utilise a combination of daylighting rules of thumb in it’s design. This demonstrates that simple daylighting guides have been used to design library buildings in different climates, sites and eras. It also indicates that daylighting rules of thumb or simple guides have been timelessly used by architects to design well daylit library buildings.

Scent of knowledge: The molecular fingerprint of volatiles in an emblematic historical library in Italy.

Heritage guidelines recognize odors as a value associated with a place. This study aims to clarify the connection between heritage and volatile organic compounds at the molecular level. At variance with previous studies, usually focused only on book-related compounds from accelerated degradation tests, the whole air of one of the most significant historical libraries in Italy was studied. A sampling of the volatiles off-gassing from the two most iconic rooms, respectively open and forbidden to visitors, was performed via a non-invasive, nondestructive green method, solid-phase-micro-extraction. The gas-chromatographic analyses resulted in the appraisal of olfactory contributions from books, storage environment, and, for the first time, anthropic activities and pollution.Concerning the paper decay process, for the very first time, the presence of 2-ethyl-1-hexanol in the chromatographic signature of the library air is rationalized according to the Guerbet reaction. The presence of all other compounds is explained by the paper decay process, anthropic sources, and pollution. Indoor air comprises analytes related to paper decay, identified by previous studies, and additional compounds never found before.Most volatile compounds are aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons, aldehydes, alcohols, terpenes, and terpenoids. Odor contributions from a selected number of analytes were pinpointed. Alkanes dominate the volatiles chromatographic signature, and impart a slight hydrocarbon smell. Aromatics supplement their characteristic aromatic odor. Aldehydes' very low odor threshold makes them strongly contribute to both fruity and fatty descriptors. Benzaldehyde, furfural, vanillin, and camphor add, respectively, an hint of almond, bread, vanilla, and camphor. Alcohols such as 2-ethyl hexanol have a floral scent. Wood-related terpenes and terpenoids contribute to the woody smell of the library.The digital molecular fingerprint of the "scent of knowledge" enables documentation, conservation, and future chemical reproduction of the historical library odor.

From Private Dreams to Public Damnings

From Private Dreams to Public Damnings

Augmentation-based Pseudo-Ground truth Generation for Deep Learning in Historical Document Segmentation for Greater Levels of Archival Description and Access

The successful use of deep learning solutions for document image segmentation typically relies on a large number of manually labeled ground truth examples, which is expensive to obtain for historical document images that have significant noise effects and variation. At the same time, successful applications of deep learning solutions for document image segmentation have rich potential to facilitate greater levels of description in archival collections (e.g., at and below the item-level). These greater levels of description are critical to increasing access and use of archival collections across an array of research domains. In response, this article investigates whether an augmentation-based approach to generating pseudo-ground truth can be effective with a limited number of labeled images in a document segmentation application. The rationale is that if we can decrease the cost of generating ground truth through augmentation-based approaches, we can use these approaches as part of the description and access pipelines for historical library and archival collections. In this initial exploration, we first generate synthetic images and corresponding pseudo-ground truth using a set of existing degradation-based augmentation models from a small number of labeled actual images. When generating synthetic images, we control the visual quality distortion based on OCR word-level confidence to avoid generating images unlikely to be present in the dataset. Then, we perform several investigations to examine the impact of incorporating pseudo-ground truth data in the training of the deep learning network dhSegment and further evaluate the use of multiple combinations of degradation models. We also assess the generalizability of the approach by applying the trained network on a larger dataset. Our investigations primarily use real-world datasets known to have significant noise effects. Results show that augmentation-based pseudo-ground truth generation is capable of improving segmentation performance with the use of the full original dataset and requires only 30% of the original dataset. Results also show that using more than three degradation models is likely to cause overfitting during training. Furthermore, we show that a segmentation network trained on pseudo-ground truth data has generalization capability.

Historical Collections and Library Catalogs: Provenance Metadata, Bibliographic Standards and Frameworks, and Catalog Functionalities

ABSTRACT The article discusses the importance of custodial history metadata in bibliographic standards, formats and frameworks, and in library catalogs. It analyzes the present situation and proposes some basic solutions that would make it possible for the custodial history metadata to be entered in a standardized way and to be functionally linked to the holdings metadata so that catalog users would be able to search and retrieve information on the most relevant copies in terms of their provenance. Visual simulations of various functionalities based on the search and results display interface of the Slovenian National Library’s catalog are also included.

Burning the Books: A History of the Deliberate Destruction of Knowledge

In Burning the Books, Richard Ovenden, director of the Bodleian Libraries and Fellow of Balliol College at Oxford, offers an engaging and sweeping history of libraries, archives, censorship, erasure, preservation, and knowledge destruction from around the world. His aim is “to explore a number of key episodes from history to highlight motivations for the destruction of the storehouses of knowledge, and the responses developed by the profession to resist it” (8). Drawing on examples from ancient times to the realities and challenges of our digital present, Ovenden powerfully, persuasively, and clearly surveys the variety of political, legal, social, economic, bureaucratic, and religious reasons at play in global biblioclasm, some of which will likely be familiar terrain to historians of libraries and archives (not to mention librarians and archivists themselves).Still, there is no shortage of new ground and shocking incidents—all meticulously researched and based on a wealth of primary and secondary sources, many of them coming (no surprise) from the depths of the Bodleian itself. The volume includes episodes that are arguably not well enough known and deserve even more scholarly and public attention. These include “the twice-burned” Louvain University Library in Belgium (107–17), the National and University Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina and other institutions in Sarajevo (154–63), the Jaffna Public Library in Sri Lanka (163–64), libraries of the Zaydi community in Yemen (164–66), and libraries, archives, and museums in Iraq (183–95). However, there are relatively few non-Western examples and a future edition (or perhaps another work) might turn more of its attention to historical examples—past and present—that highlight challenges in Africa, South America, Asia, and the Middle East.The international approach of this volume and its focus on the destruction of knowledge make it comparable to another excellent work, Matthew Battles’s Library: An Unquiet History. As with Battles’s book, this one will certainly appeal to library history researchers as well as general readers, including those who may be unsure about the role of the library in contemporary society. In response, Ovenden’s final chapter, “Coda: Why We Will Always Need Libraries and Archives,” offers “five functions of libraries and archives that we lose when they are lost or destroyed”: education, the preservation of diverse forms of knowledge, the well-being of citizens in an open society, a “fixed reference point” for truth and transparency, and a way to anchor “cultural and historical identities” (225). These certainly apply to physical as well as digital library and archiving spaces, such as the Internet Archive, Wikipedia, and other online projects that are discussed as agents of preservation in the face of censorship and misinformation.In the end, despite its provocative title, Burning the Books is not only concerned with the destruction of libraries, archives, and historical objects, but in the unique role of information professionals and organizations across the globe to save, conserve, and preserve them as well. This becomes particularly evident in the last three chapters (“The Digital Deluge,” “Paradise Lost?” and the aforementioned “Coda”), which take on a more polemical tone. For instance, we read about Ovenden’s concern for the “long-term sustainability” of the Internet Archive based in San Francisco (203) and the need for preservation work (of both physical and digital objects) to “be seen as a service to society” (219), especially in the face of funding cuts and insufficient revenue from taxation revenue—a reality that confronts libraries, archives, and museums in and outside the United States. Burning the Books certainly does a great service to the scholarly record, helps fill a lacuna in the history of libraries and archives, and is highly recommended for scholars and students alike. It is also an excellent resource for those of us who teach on the history and mission of libraries and archives in our globalized world.

Welcome from the Editors

Welcome from the Editors

Umerziehung durch rote Bibliotheken: SED-Bibliothekspolitik 1945/46 bis zum Ende der 1960er Jahre

Umerziehung durch rote Bibliotheken: SED-Bibliothekspolitik 1945/46 bis zum Ende der 1960er Jahre

The New Public Library: Design Innovation for the Twenty-First Century

The New Public Library: Design Innovation for the Twenty-First Century