Celebrating the Freedom to Read

Banned Books Week is an annual celebration of the freedom to read. It began in 1982 in response to widespread censorship of books, and since that time over 11,000 books have been challenged in communities throughout the United States.

The American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom has been documenting cases of challenged and banned books since 1990, and the ALA's Library Bill of Rights strongly supports free and unfettered access to information and ideas.

An illustration of the extent of the phenomenon is the remarkable fact that of the 88 titles featured in the Library of Congress' 2012 exhibition, Books That Shaped America, 30 have been challenged or banned at one time or another.

National Book Festival 2013

The 13th annual National Book Festival, organized and sponsored by the Library of Congress, will be held on Saturday & Sunday, September 21-22, 2013, on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The festival is free and open to the public, and will take place rain or shine.

As in prior years, President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama are honorary chairs for the event. More than 100 authors, illustrators, and poets will be making presentations throughout the day in the theme-based pavilions for Children, Teens & Children, Fiction & Mystery, History & Biography, Contemporary Life and Poetry & Prose.

Schedules are available online for the Author Pavilions and the Library of Congress Pavilion. A map of the festival grounds can be downloaded here [PDF]. The Library of Congress is also sponsoring a survey about "Books that Shaped the World," which can be completed online.

The Festival website features an archive of video webcasts and audio podcasts. The 2013 poster, shown here, was designed by Suzy Lee.

Do the Gargon

"Do the Gargon," the latest album from the inimitable Johnny Dowd and band, is now available from the Johnny Dowd website. A European tour will commence in September.

"From One Second to the Next," a Documentary by Werner Herzog on Distracted Driving

Werner Herzog's documentary on the perils of distracted driving.

Scenes from Heritage Farm at Seed Savers Exchange

The above photographs were taken at Heritage Farm in Decorah, Iowa during the 33rd Annual Conference and Campout at Seed Savers Exchange.

From the top: View from the Trial and Diversity Gardens; View of the Main Stage, with Lillian Goldman Visitors Center; Barn, with Diane's Garden; Livestock Warning Sign; Detail of a Life-sized Painting by Valerie Miller of Steel Cow Studio; and Painted Tongue flowers.

Seed Savers Exchange Conference Preview

The annual Seed Savers Exchange Conference and Campout is nearly here!

Seed Savers Exchange Conference & Campout

Registration is now open for the 33rd annual Seed Savers Exchange Conference and Campout to be held July 19-21, 2013. The event will feature numerous speakers, workshops, and other activities on the grounds of Heritage Farm in Decorah, Iowa. A full schedule can be downloaded here [pdf]; early registration ends June 30.

A Captive Audience

Members of the Philadelphia Orchestra recently performed part of Antonin Dvořák’s String Quartet No. 12, known as his American String Quartet, while stuck in coach on the runway at the Beijing airport. It was composed while Dvořák was vacationing in Spillville, Iowa in 1893:

As for my new Symphony, the F major String Quartet and the Quintet (composed here in Spillville) – I should never have written these works 'just so' if I hadn't seen America," wrote Dvořák in a letter in 1893. In his description of the New World symphony, Dvořák was more specific: "As to my opinion, I think that the influence of this country (it means the folk songs that are Negro, Indian, Irish, etc.) is to be seen, and that this [the symphony] and all other works written in America differ very much from my earlier works, as much in colour as in character . . . . [Wikipedia]

As of this posting, well over one million viewers have taken a look at this impromptu concert--an audience far in excess of a typical performance by the orchestra.

Printing and the Mind of Merker

Kim Merker [1932-2013], master printer and proprietor of Stone Wall Press and Windhover Press, died on April 28, 2013 at age 81. A native New Yorker who travelled to Iowa City to study poetry at the University of Iowa, he launched Stone Wall Press in 1957, and published the early work of a number of significant writers, including Pulitzer Prize winners Philip Levine, Mark Strand, and James Tate.

In 1967, Merker began Windhover Press, which served as the official fine press of the university as well as a teaching press for students in the book arts. In 1986, Merker also founded the Center for the Book at Iowa, which this spring awarded the first MFA degrees in its interdisciplinary Book Arts Program.

The Grolier Club, in 1997, held a major retrospective exhibition curated by Michael Peich entitled: K.K. Merker: Serving the Muse: Stone Wall Press and Windhover Press, 1956-1996. Accompanying the exhibition was the publication of a comprehensive annotated bibliography, Printing and the Mind of Merker: A Bibliographical Study, by Sidney Berger, with contributions by Harry Duncan, Dana Gioia, and Merker himself. An obituary for Merker can be read in the New York Times.

The Ponseti Method and World Clubfoot Day

June 3, 2013 has been designated by the Ponseti International Association as the first World Clubfoot Day to commemorate the birthday of Dr. Ignacio Ponseti [1914-2009], the developer of the Ponseti Method which has been used to successfully treat congenital clubfoot in thousands of infants worldwide through non-surgical means.

A native of Spain, Dr. Ponseti graduated from medical school at the University of Barcelona in 1936, a day before the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, and eventually came to the University of Iowa in 1941 to further his training in orthopedics. He joined Iowa's medical faculty in 1944, where he spent the rest of his career. Clubfoot was one of Ponseti's major research interests, and through longitudinal studies he discovered that surgical interventions were often ineffective if not even more detrimental. With gentle manipulations and a series of plaster casts, however, deformed feet could attain normal appearance and function in a majority of cases.

In 1996, Dr. Ponseti authored Congenital Clubfoot: Fundamentals of Treatment (Oxford University Press), and the 2008 second edition currently is available for download in both English and Spanish. The Ponseti Method is actively being taught to healthcare providers around the world, who are implementing it with high success rates in numerous countries. Further information is available on the Ponseti International Association website. 

Type on the Cob Wayzgoose

After two highly successful annual conferences in Asheville, North Carolina, the Ladies of Letterpress is sponsoring its first regional wayzgoose on June 27-29, 2013 in Printers' Hall on the grounds of Midwest Old Threshers in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. A full complement of workshops and presentations led by leading printers, graphic designers, and book artists is scheduled. Registration is now open and further details may be found online.

Saving Our Heritage: MayDay 2013

Since 2006, the Society of American Archivists (SAA) has designated May 1st as MayDay, or a day of action for both individuals and organizations such as archives, libraries, museums, and historical societies to improve their capacities to deal with emergencies that can threaten or destroy historical collections. The ravages of recent tornadoes in Alabama and other states is just one example of the physical risks facing cultural heritage institutions.

Although the landmark study, A Public Trust at Risk: The Heritage Health Index Report on the State of America's Collections (2005), systematically documented that most institutions lack an adequate disaster preparedness plan, the SAA has worked to mitigate these deficiencies. The SAA web site provides recommendations for MayDay activities, as well as a compilation of resources, including technical literature and tools, disaster plan templates and examples, tutorials and courses, bibliographies, and other resources.

National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest

Entries are now being accepted for the 2013 National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest. Begun in 2005 by the Fine Books & Collections magazine for bibliophiles, the competition is now jointly sponsored by the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America, the Fellowship of American Bibliophilic Societies, as well as the Center for the Book and the Rare Books and Special Collections Division of the Library of Congress.

A number of contests are currently held at colleges and universities around the U.S., with Swarthmore College's competition being the first in the 1920s. College-level students from all educational institutions, however, are encouraged to participate. Entries for the 2013 competition are due by May 31, 2013. Contest rules and further information are available at the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America website. The Library of Congress will be the site of this year's awards ceremony on October 18, 2013.

4.20 Is Record Store Day 2013

Ambassador White says "Gimme the combo platter." Find a participating shop near you at the Record Store Day website.

Books over Bloomberg

On April 9, 2013, the Occupy movement scored a victory when a settlement was reached in the case of Occupy Wall Street (OWS), "an unincorporated association," against the City of New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and other city officials and individuals. The suit was filed because of the seizure and destruction of books, library furnishings, and equipment of the People's Library at Zucotti Park in New York City on November 15, 2011. Among other things, the settlement provides for the payment of $47,000 to the OWS Library Working Group and $185,000 in attorneys' fees for the plaintiffs. The full text of the settlement can be read online. Further information about the People's Library and its history can be found at its blog.