Tex Libris

In a harried world where you can hardly escape the din of constant communication and the proliferation of electronic gadgets, there’s a nascent desire to slow down and take in the mad rush of life. You can find this peaceful revolt against modernity in the community of vinyl music enthusiasts or the slow food movement or in DIY communities that encourage personal creativity and self-sufficiency. And now there’s a community of like-minded folks who have found a similar passion in a device that is an almost perfect antithesis to modern concepts of technology.

The rediscovery of the typewriter by retro fetishists prompted filmmakers Christopher Lockett and Gary Nicholson to embark on making a documentary about the machine’s importance to both our past and our future.

The result of their work — “The Typewriter in the 21^st Century” — will receive its Texas premiere in a screening at 6 p.m. on Friday, April 19, in the Fine Arts Library at the Doty Fine Arts building.

The documentary features 30+ interviews with authors, collectors, journalists, professors, bloggers, students, artists, inventors and repairmen (and women) who meet for “Type-In” gatherings to both celebrate and use their decidedly low-tech typewriters in a plugged-in world. Authors Robert Caro and David McCullough, combined winners of 4 Pulitzer Prizes, 3 National Book Awards and a Presidential Medal of Freedom, and both avid typewriter users, provide fundamental commentary about process and the value of slowing down, writing actual drafts and revising in a world of instant, draft-less editing.

The film was inspired by a May 2010 article in Wired magazine called “Meet The Last Generation of Typewriter Repairman.” Director Lockett and producer Nicholson discussed the importance of the typewriter in 20th century literature, their conclusion being that every great novel of the 20th century was written on one, and if typewriters are in their final days, they deserved to be celebrated one last time.

Funded largely through a Kickstarter campaign, the film eventually featured not only typewriter people — the aforementioned technicians, collectors, bloggers, users and fans — but famous typewriters as well. The film features machines once owned by Ernest Hemingway, Jack Kerouac, Tennessee Williams, John Steinbeck, Jack London, Sylvia Plath, George Bernard Shaw, John Lennon, Joe DiMaggio, Helen Keller, the Unabomber, John Updike, Ray Bradbury and Ernie Pyle.

The screening of “The Typewriter in the 21^st Century” will be followed by a Q&A featuring producer Gary Nicholson and John Payton, owner of a typewriter “museum” in Taylor, Texas.

The event will be preceded by a small public reception at 5 p.m.

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Five years after it first launched an all-branches presence during Research Week at UT, the Libraries is again returning its Libraries Fair to the PCL plaza.

Ten campus branches of the Libraries will converge at the PCL from 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. to provide a one-stop shop for students to drop by and learn about resources and services available to them across the campus. Staff from the branch libraries, and from Libraries service divisions (InterLibrary Services, UT Digital Repository and Ask A Librarian, to name a few) will be on hand to answer questions and raise awareness of various library resources, and booths will feature contests for prizes, along with treats provided by Cloud 9 Cotton Candy and Cornucopia Popcorn.

Also, for the first year, the Libraries will be joined by campus partners, including the Harry Ransom Center, the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History and the H.J. Lutcher Stark Center for Physical Culture and Sports, as well as by typewriter poet Jena Kirkpatrick, who will be on hand to help promote the April 19 screening of “The Typewriter (in the 21^st Century)” at the Fine Arts Library.

Again this year, the Fair has been scheduled to coincide with the Longhorn Research Bazaar across the street at Gregory Gym, providing students the chance to get information about undergraduate research opportunities at the university, as well as the resources behind the research, all within the distance of a stone’s throw.

Research Week is a campus-wide celebration of undergraduate research and creative activity. It unites existing programs, events and activities that showcase undergraduate research and highlights the many research opportunities available to students.

In a profession that requires one to straddle eras respectively dominated by vastly different types of media, habituation was bound to produce some interesting subconscious tendencies.

David Bauer over at Gizmodo tells the story of the day he forgot how to use a book.

So, has this — or something similar — happened to you?

Rethinking the past.

It’s a question growing by bounds as the institution goes through an intensely evolutionary phase of its long history.

And more frequently, the questions of why, where, and how become increasingly important.

Visit a corner of the conversation in an interesting post at the web iteration of the quarterly journal GOOD.

Ask Dr. Loving

Love is in the air for the spring’s entrée edition of Science Study Break.

Dr. Timothy Loving of the School of Ecology’s Department of Human Development and Family Sciences observes the ups and downs of relationships in a special Valentine’s presentation of our ongoing series at the intersection of science and pop culture.

Loving will use scenes from (500) Days of Summer, Moonrise Kingdom, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Crazy, Stupid, Love, among others, to explore the dynamics of romance.

Loving’s research focuses on the relationship support process, with an emphasis on investigating the reasons for — and consequences of — romantically-involved individuals’ conversations with friends and family about the romantic relationship.

The free event takes place in the Student Activity Center Auditorium (SAC 1.402) at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, February 12, 2013. Free pizza (while it lasts) for attendees.

Science Study Break is hosted by the University of Texas Libraries and supported by the University Federal Credit Union.

An offbeat bookstore has conceived an equally offbeat way to sell underappreciated titles.

Meet Biblio-Mat, a peculiar book vending machine created by designer Craig Small (of The Juggernaut) for The Monkey’s Paw in Toronto as an alternative to discount bins at the bookstore.

For $2, the rudimentary mechanics creak to life to provide both a random bit of reading material and unique shopping experience.

(via bOING bOING)

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If you’ve recently been in or around PCL (and you’re a college-age student at UT), you’ve probably noticed the increased activity, especially in the hours between midnight and 4 a.m. Those late-night denizens of the central branch library at the university are a result of the expanded 24/5 service — 24-hour, 5 day-a-week — that went into effect in mid-October as the result of work by Student Government to raise the necessary funding.

While those late hours are a good thing for the students who need a place to put in dedicated study time (or for those who waited until the eleventh hour to get started), it also means that individuals will need to traverse the campus to get to and from the library in the middle of the night, a less than optimal prospect.

Student Government, however, was also able to improve this situation.

The organization developed SURE Walk, a student-run volunteer group that provides walks to and from campus to students, faculty and staff of the university, with the help of both male and female student volunteers selected from university sanctioned organizations across the campus. You can read more about it here.

The program has existed for a few years now, but SG recognized that the bulk of increases in requests would likely come from the space they fought to keep open, so they’ve decided to move the operation to the place that makes the most sense, and will be working out of the PCL, providing an extra measure of safety (and relief) to students (and parents).

SG representatives will have a small kick-off party tonight (11/14/12) at 8 p.m. in the UFCU room at the PCL, so come out and support them for making life a little safer on campus.

Book Mountain in the Netherlands.

Though we often focus our thoughts and attention on the changing nature of libraries, it’s good to occasionally be reminded that our “storied” past is also part of the present.

Nearly ten years in the making, a new library recently opened outside of Rotterdam that is a monument to the book.

A pyramidal structure of wood, glass, stone and steel contains what may be the world’s largest bookcase, “Book Mountain” – a structure of staircases, pathways and terraces surrounded by some 50,000 books that spirals upward to a reading room and café at its peak.

And despite its remarkable design by Dutch architectural firm MVRDV, the building is more function than form, as it is set amongst a community of government housing complexes where the population has a 10% illiteracy rate.

See more photos here, and a report by the BBC, here.

Of course Bevo reads.

UPDATE: A set of four full-size READ posters (18″x24″) can now be purchased through the Libraries TxShop. All proceeds go toward expanding the campaign to the classrooms of even more future Longhorns.

EARLIER: The Libraries have unveiled a quartet of posters featuring icons from The University of Texas at Austin in the hopes of getting kids of all ages to pick up a book (or e-reader).

Taking part in the American Library Association’s READ promotion, the Libraries have produced a series of four posters featuring the “Hook ‘em” mascot and Bevo reading in unexpected places.

We’ve distributed a set of the posters to all 655 schools in the Texas Education Agency’s Region XIII area, including Austin and Independent School Districts in the surrounding counties, and hope that this works well enough to justify expanding the program (possibly to all Texas publics – fingers crossed) in the future. Already, teachers and librarians from area schools who’ve received the package have written to thank us for the gesture (even an Aggie mom), and to let us know that the kids love them.

The campaign is meant to encourage reading at an early age in order to improve core competencies in literacy, which would have a likely outcome of increasing incoming student preparedness for potential future University of Texas undergraduates. In other words, we’re working on ways outside the campus to influence those 4-year graduation rates.

The first READ poster by ALA featuring comedian Bill Cosby came out in 1985.  Since then, over 150 notable personalities have provided their portrait as endorsement of the program to inspire readers.

PCL will open for 24-hour service in October.

No one can claim that our student leaders are filling token positions.

Student Government President Thor Lund and VP Wills Brown campaigned last year on two primary platform positions, one of which had direct bearing on the Libraries: 24-hour service at the Perry-Castañeda Library.

As of today, the incredibly industrious team can check that particular item off of their to-do list, at least for this year.

In mid-October, a week before midterms, the PCL will be open for 24 hours, 5 days-a-week until the end of the semester — during the time that students see access to a safe, secure study space a priority for their academic work. “24/5” picks back up before spring midterms and follows the same pattern to round out the school year.

Lund and Brown — along with support from SG staff — didn’t play around while most of their fellow students were on break. The pair worked with Libraries administration to target and solicit enough resources across campus for the funding of a one-year pilot of 24/5.

Not content to let temporary funding rest, Lund, Brown and staffers will be working over the course of the year to find permanent funding for the program.

Their hard work makes us proud to be Longhorns.

Beginning in mid-October, PCL will open at noon on Sundays and remain open through 11 p.m. on Fridays. PCL will be open from 9 a.m. – 11 p.m. on Saturdays.