Tuesday, November 11, 2008

It's Been a Long, Long While . . . .

Since the Hurricane and the hectic months of September and October, I have not had much time to keep up with this blog. I'm checking in tonight to add pictures of things like our SuDoc Lounge event in September and the tour I took of the Readex Digital Operation in Chester, Vermont.


The SuDoc Lounge event was held in conjunction with LSU's Summer Reading Program. Incoming Freshmen were assigned to read the graphic novel Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. As a way of connecting our Documents' collection to this reading, we had a professor who is an expert on Iranian politics and culture come and speak about the Iranian Revolution of the late 1970's and its impact on U.S. politics. See the photo to the right of this post.


In October, I was invited to attend the annual Readex Digital Institute in Chester, Vermont. For three days, I was treated to intellectually stimulating discussions on digital technology and the future of communications. As a part of this experience, I was able to tour the Readex facility where they digitize or photograph print materials, turning them into electronic or microformat products.

The above photo shows the equipment and method used to scan a copy of the United States Serial Set. The most interesting aspect of this process is the use of a tiny vacuum arm that gently lifts each page onto the scanning screen--keeping the fragile book from being harmed.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Very cool! Thanks for sharing. :-)