Blue Oak Bindery
Kristin Baum, Assistant Conservator, UI Libraries has posted her
resource page.
***“a fire broke out .”
Within two days of the completion of the restoration of the Old Capitol dome (first state capitol building of Iowa, 1840) a workman’s torch set off a 10 minute blaze that consumed the entire dome tower. The good news is that installation of structural steel in 1924 included a poured fire slab under the dome which stopped the fire and shed almost all of the water. Obviously, the structural engineers of that era understood the fire risks of the natural ventilation designs of the 19th century as well as the fire hazard of a wooden dome.
Happily too, much of the best of the original column capital carving survives off site. Ultimately the damage is much more symbolic than material since the Old Capitol dome is a symbol of both the University and the State of Iowa.
Was it a FotB premonition that invoked the posting on the Cottonian Library fire (see “endless recovery saga”, below)? The Preservation department of the UI Libraries will be playing a significant role in the recovery.
Endnote; it was false economy to work with the lowest bidder in the restoration project. The contractor had no experience with historical buildings and disregarded instruction on appropriate methods. An estimate of damage is now set at five million. (picture)
publish on demand
While ebook investment contracts, IUniverse
get’s 18 million venture funding for its publish and print on demand service.
the paper book is a reading device too
Walt Crawford brings more good sense to the discussion of reading efficiency in the December
“Cites & Insights”. Turns out that the technologies of reading devices diverge toward efficiencies of automated search and discovery – or – toward efficiencies of comprehension.
Specifically see his summary of list threads on ebooks and his report of linear or multiplexed reader perception (Miall & Dobson on hypertext reading). All that’s lacking in the Crawford grip on the obvious is a suggestion of the precept of distinct reading modes and the dynamic of thresholding between them.