Tag: books

20 of abandoned books leading to open a free library in Bogota!

Posted on by Team Blookup

Twenty years ago in Bogota, a man decided to save as many abandoned books as he could. José Alberto Guitierrez, to call him by his full name, drives a Garbage truck around the columbian city and found out that people threw away their books so he decided to save them by taking them to his house, this initiative got him the title of “Lord of the books”.

José Alberto driving his truck in the streets of Bogota. Credits : Guillermo Legaria/AFP

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With the house slowly being filled with abandoned books, José Alberto, along with his wife Luz Mery and their three children turned the ground floor of their house into a free library they called “La Fuerza de las palabras” (The Power of words in English). The library became famous very quickly, to the point that volunteers from all around the country (and even from abroad) came to Bogota in order to help José Alberto and his family. In addition to this library, Luz Mery came up with the idea of opening a “Hospital” for old and damaged books that she would fix with her sewing skills.

José Alberto became so popular in South America that he was invited to the International Book Fairs in Bogota, Monterrey (Mexico) and Santiago (Chile). Shortly after, book donations came from all over the continent to the point that their library now contains more than 25 000 books. With space becoming an issue for the family (The surface of the library being 90m² or almost 108 square yards), the reading sessions they held for the kids of the neighborhood stopped and the library only opened when someone knocked at the door to get a book.

José Alberto reading to the children of the neighborhood. Credits : La Fuerza des las Palabras fundacion

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The news of the Guitierrez’ free library reached one of the disarmament zones of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia (FARC), who recently signed a peace treaty with the government thus ending 50 years of conflicts. One of the rebels reached out to José Alberto and his family to ask them for books so that they could prepare for their reintegration into the society.

Through “The Power of words” José Alberto wanted to show the world that not only people waste food but also books, and that this loss of intellectual nourishment was almost as deplorable as Food wastage. He also stated: “Books transformed me. So I thought that in places like these, it would be a symbol of hope, a symbol of peace”

If you want to know more about José Alberto and his family’s work, we invite you to visit their website!

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Source

 

The Parthenon of Books, Art vs Censorship

Posted on by Team Blookup

It has been over two weeks since Documenta 14 officially started in Kassel, Germany. The people visiting the city for this 14th edition will have a chance to see a temple, similar to the Parthenon of Athens except that this one is made out of books!

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Volunteers helping for the construction of the Parthenon of books. Credits John Macdougall – AFP

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The artist behind the Parthenon of books Marta Minujin, famous in the south-american pop-art scene, wanted her creation to be a symbol of resistance against all forms of censorship; which is why only books that have been censored or banned at anytime throughout History have been used for its construction. Students from the University of Kassel helped the artist by picking 170 different books out of 70 000 (You can find the lists here)and asked for people to donate copies of the said books. Moreover, the location of the temple has not been chosen randomly since it is being built at the exact same spot where the nazis burned books of Marxists and Jewish authors in 1933.

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The artist refused to use any book encouraging racial or religious hatred such as Mein Kampft or others. Credits John Macdougall – AFP

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The Parthenon of books required the crazy amount of 100 000 books for its construction and is identical in size to the original one in Athens. Each book is put into a plastic bag in order to protect it from the weather. At the end of the event, the staff will be giving away all the books to whomever wants one. 

– Update – If you want to know more about the books that were used for the Parthenon of books we invite you to visit Documenta 14’s website where you will find the list of banned books.

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Credits – DPA

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Source

The automated library of the University of Chicago!

Posted on by Team Blookup

Let us continue our little tour of the libraries around the world with something a little bit different from what we have been showing you so far.

We are crossing the Atlantic ocean, off to University of Chicago, Illinois!

The Joa and Rika Mansueto Library, to call it by it’s official name, is unlike any other library you have seen before! Why ? Because it is totally automated! The students of the University of Chicago do not have to walk around some aisles to look for a particular book or to ask the librarian whether the said book is available or not.

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Mansueto Library’s glass dome containing the Grand Reading Room

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How the automated librery works ?

Instead, the students can browse through the online catalogue of the Mansueto library to see if the book they are looking for is available, order it right away, and by the time they walk to the library the book will be waiting for them.

How is this possible you might ask? Well it all comes down to the library’s ingenious design.

The Mansueto library is like an Iceberg, you can merely see a third of it.

On the surface there are no aisles nor shelves. The whole space is dedicated to reading. Everything is happening beneath the surface.

The inside of the Grand Reading Room

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The library has a storage vault buried 20 meters deep into the ground, consisting in 24 000 bins!  Each of them containing up to 100 books. While most (if not all) libraries sort their books by subject or author. The Mansueto library sorts its books by size to optimize the space of their bins.

Every book is marked on the spine with a barcode that is scanned each time the book leaves or comes back to the library.

Meanwhile,  five mechanical cranes move alongside the racks to find and lift the bin containing the book that has been ordered by a student to the surface. The student is notified by email when the book has been scanned. Finally when it is ready to be picked up.

While many will salute the technical prouesse of building an automated library, others will mourn the loss of their good old wooden shelves as well as the feeling of walking and browsing through the aisles. What do you think about the Mansueto automated library? Is it the result of a genius mind’s work ?  Or is it too much of a change?

Source – Photos by Tom Rossiter

Bookroo: children books in a box !

Posted on by Team Blookup

kids-readingDo you have children, nephews, nieces or godchildren?  Do you still have trouble finding what kind of books to offer them?

Our kind always used reading as a communication tool between generations. And as such, we want to transmit values, memories. But we can sometimes be afraid to impose them or to invest too early, to shock, to not be understood.In short, it’s not so easy to choose!

Well, take a deep breath because BlookUp found the perfect solution to offer books all year round without fearing the lack of idea!

Discover Bookroo!

The Bookroo logo Bookroo consists in a 1, 3, 6 or 12-month subscription. During which you will receive at home (within all US territory and also Canada, for an additional $11 per month). 

Each month, a box filled with books chosen for you in accordance with the way you filled out the subscription form!

Customization options are limited to the kids’ age (from 0 to 2 and 2 to 6). The idea is really to send you (or to the kids you are offering the gift to) books “that you don’t already know and are not easy to be found online or in stores”. 

Examples of books available in the Bookroo box
Those books, for example, were the ones sent during the last few months!

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So it’s a whole surprise that is coming in a beautiful cardboard box, and within it, books separately and elegantly wrapped like presents!

Do you like the idea? Well, go to Bookroo now, choose your subscription time and spread culture, values and imagination all around you!

Book lovers, discover Dublin’s ancient Library!

Posted on by Team Blookup

Next on our Libraries world tour. Dublin!

If you are fond of old, beautiful books and picturesque places, the city has something you should absolutely see.  The Old Library of Trinity College!

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“Yeah, hi, I’d like to borrow them all, please.” 

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An ancient library

This outstanding and ancient library, the largest in Ireland, contains nearly 4.5 million books, with nearly 250,000 of them hosted only in its famous 65 metres-wide well-named Long Room.

This architectural Georgian work of art took the place, in the 18th century, of the original Elizabethan building that was founded with the rest of the College in 1592 on a former monastery’s site. Some extensions were built circa 1850 in order to accommodate more books!

trinity-college-long-room-dublin-ladderAnd the result was worth it!

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If the place can afford to contain so many books in its core, it is because it obtained in 1801 the right to acquire a free copy of each book published in Ireland and England.

The Long Room is decorated with 14 marble busts created by the sculptor Peter Scheemakers. It  represents  western thinkers like Isaac Newton and famous ancient philosophers such as Cicero, Aristotle and Plato. One can also find the busts of people related to the very history of Trinity College.

trinity-college-long-room-dublinView of the Long Room and its marble busts.

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AIn fact, among the many valuable works hosted in the Old Library, the most famous is the Book of Kells !  A magnificently ornamented manuscript containing the 4 Gospels of the New Testament, written by monks of Celtic culture nearly 1200 years ago.

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The Book of Kells, view of the opening text of the Gospel of Luke

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If you want to see more of it, the whole scanned document is available online for free on the College’s website ! So take a look at it  here!

This place filled with stories and history also contains one of the rare copies of the 1916’s official Declaration of the Republic of Ireland, as well as the impressive Brian Boru’s Harp, the model for Ireland’s official symbol, dated around the 15th century and made of oak, willow and brass ropes.

So don’t forget! Next time you go to Dublin, seek the library first and keep the bars for later!

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Source Article | Images credits: David Iliff & Nic McPhee on Wikimedia Commons (CC-BY-SA 3.0)

Tip : A secret door inside a bookshelf!

Posted on by Team Blookup

Good day to you fellow blookers!

I don’t know about you but when I was a kid, I always wanted to be like Batman and have a secret door with a secret room room behind a bookcase, just for the sake of it. So when I heard that there actually was a company that was making it a reality I knew I had to share it with you guys.

At first look, you wouldn’t think that there actually is a hidden room behind that bookcase; secret passages are only a thing in movies, video games and novels after all, right?  Ha, joke’s on you! Because this bookcase actually folds in the middle thus revealing the hidden room,  safe, wine cellar, or anything you’d rather not have everyone see.

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If you don’t like the vanilla look of the door, you can choose among different sizes, color and woods then pick the one that fits best. You can also choose to add a lock so the door won’t open! Turning it into a regular bookshelf and blocking the access to the room behind it…

If you are brave enough however, you can try to build your own secret door like this man. It will certainly take time and A LOT of efforts but at last you can be proud of yourself and ultimately spend the rest of your time hidden inside your secret lair pretending you’re Bruce Wayne in the Batcave (Which is totally not what I would to if I had one at home…).

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Sources here and here – Photos credits: Woodfold

Event :”Literature Vs Traffic” in Toronto

Posted on by Team Blookup

Today we’re going back in time !  For those who, like us, have missed an impressive and ephemeral artistic installation. The one that illuminated and animated downtown Toronto during the night of October 1st, 2016.
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The anonymous group of artists Luzinterruptus took 12 days and gathered 50 volunteers to cover Hagerman Street in downtown Toronto.All done with nearly 10,000 books, all donated by the Salvation Army. Among those, some were surprisingly old and were part of private donations.

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The main event in the streets of toronto

The installation, named “Literature vs. Traffic”, had already been illegally carried out in Madrid and New York. This time it obtained the authorization of Melbourne to perform there. The artists were invited to the event “Nuit Blanche Toronto 2016” in order to reproduce the experience.

Luzinterruptus confirms that in 5 years “The meaning of this piece has not changed as the battle between pedestrians and vehicles still goes on in most of the world’s large cities and it is hard to find real, workable solutions. Despite the efforts on the part of some cites to reduce downtown traffic, they can only go as far as to create a Car-free day ! All to have an idea as to how we would live without them”. The collective adds on its website: “We want literature to take over the streets and conquer public spaces, freely offering those passersby a traffic-free place which, for some hours, will succumb to the humble power of the written word”.

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Hagerman Street was closed for one night and replaced the come-and-go of cars by hundreds of pedestrians ! All moving between illuminated books, resulting in a magic and impressive ballet. Passers-by were free to consult the books at their own pace. They were also allowed to choose the ones they would take home in order to preserve a small piece of this lively and interactive work. It took them only 10 hours to empty the street almost completely. They finally, in the early morning, gave back the road traffic.

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Who knows, if this event comes back in a (very) distant future ?! Perhaps one day there will be blooks among a myriad of other lighted books!

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Source article – Photo credits: Lola Martínez

The Cincinnati’s Book Fountain in Ohio

Posted on by Team Blookup

It’s getting cold and it’s not really the time to talk about fresh water anymore.

But some of you may be waiting for one thing !  Summer, and its 36 ° C in the shade! So before talking about snow, christmas trees and winter wind, we’ll do one last little favor to summer fans by making you do a small tour of the Municipal Library of Cincinnati!

Contrary to what its name indicates, Cincinnati is not located in Italy (However, the name is Italian, in hommage to the Roman political figure Cincinnatus). But in the United States, in the state of Ohio.

There are many beautiful things to see in Cincinnati but today we will stop at this beautiful fountain, just in front of the Municipal Library !

Book Fountain Cincinnati Public Library
Photo credit: Jean-François Schmitz

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Soberly named “Book Fountain”, this monument is actually a sculpture of books made of concrete covered with fired clay ! All stacked on each other, through which water flows as would a waterfall do. According to the artist-sculptor Michael Frasca, the flow of water through the books represents the free flow of ideas and information through writing and literature.

Very popular with tourists and students from frequently pose or sit near it. The fountain is also a memorial dedicated to Amelia Valerio Weinberg. She  died in 1982 and who bequeathed money in order to build a fountain for the Municipal Library !  Her wish finally came true 8 years later, and in the best way possible!

Source

Hemmeling Rom, the library in the woods…

Posted on by Team Blookup

Last year we had you discover Newmarket’s mobile library. But reading in town, even in a park, was still a little bit too… Déjà vu, right?

So, you like to read but you can’t stand the metro alarms, the screeching of the tramway rails or being shaked onthe bus?

Despite all the magic contained in your book, despite all the nice turns of phrase, you can’t get into it as you are forced to check for your next stop or detach your hand off the bar to which you were hanging in order to turn your page while you are suffocating, standing between two very close neighboors?

Forget the stress and constant distractions with this library of dreams! Secret Library Hemmelig Rom exterior view

Designed by the americans of Studio Padron ! The “Hemmeling Rom” (or “Secret Chamber” in Norwegian) is a cabin of 200 squared meters entirely made of oak, furnished with a bed, a chair, a desk and a wood-burning stove.  Everything you need to curl, warm, comfortable, with a good book in hand and plenty of others lining on the walls all around!

Secret Library Hemmelig Rom stove and bed

For those who love solitude and calm, the joy is complete as the library is completely isolated !  Lost somewhere in the woods of the state of New York, United States. It’s an essential travel stop for true books and new experiences lovers!

Secret Llibrary Hemmelig Rom windows and shelves

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Article source – photos credits : Jason Koxvold

Books and Progress: Discover the National Library of France!

Posted on by Team Blookup

Okay, we saw great books, that’s good. But when large books are not buildings themselves, we must put them in large libraries, right?

The National Library of France (“Bibliothèque Pierre Mendes France” or “BNF”), in Paris, seems to be the right place to house collections gathering nearly 14 million books and prints, and increasing  approximately of 670,000 documents per year!

This staggering number is divided over two locations: The historic Richelieu library, on Vivienne Street, and the François Mitterrand library, near the Seine docks.

National Library of Paris

 4 buildings like this, designed by architect Dominique Perrault, store millions of valuable documents on the east side of Paris.

photo credit: Inathèque

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These collections include several million periodicals, about 250,000 manuscripts, 2,500 vellum and 10,000 medieval manuscripts (making it the largest library in the world for this kind of documents), maps, prints, photographs, scores, coins, medals, audio, video, multimedia or digital (16.5 billion URLs), objects and artefacts, costumes, scenery …
The BNF is also increasingly known for its digital library, Gallica, which provides access to the reproduction of more than 3.4 million documents in texts, images or sounds in order to save documents that were too damaged to be consulted or which have to be saved in emergency because their data were about to be lost forever.

At the Tolbiac library, the reading rooms are located on the ground floor. When a reader wants a book, he must introduce his library card into an electronic reader, choose the book he wants and order it. The book is delivered about half an hour later, after the library staff working on the upper floors put the ordered books in automated guided vehicles and sent them to their future readers.

National Library of Paris Oval Room Richelieu National Library of Paris Tolbiac lecture room

The reading rooms of the BNF: Left, the Oval Room of the Richelieu site; On the right, the Ground Garden Site Tolbiac.

photos credits: Vincent Desjardins

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We are sur all this makes you want to read! But to avoid dizziness, it’s best to start with your holiday memories turned into a blook!