Brown University Library News

Technology often appears as the magic cure for many present-day problems, but what actually works? And what fails? Can maps actually dissolve the barriers of privilege between rich and poor?

In “Can Particpatory Maps Save the World,” Jo Guldi will look at new map-making technologies as well as map-making as far back as 1968, when maps were first trumpeted as a way to overturn lines of class and culture.

One short, all-encompassing description for this talk is: “Maps Before and After the Smartphone: A Global History, 1968-2013.”

Jo Guldi is an assistant professor of history at Brown University who specializes in the history of capitalism, land use, and the design of computational tools for visualizing large numbers of texts, for instance, Paper Machines, released in 2012-3 with the collaboration of Christopher Johnson-Roberson.

This event is free and open to the public.

Date: Thursday, November 7, 2013
Time: 5:30 p.m.
Location: Digital Scholarship Lab

Contact: Mark Baumer |  401-863-3642

AFTER 130 YEARS, Flatland continues to be the best seller in mathematically inspired fiction. This exhibit features translations into 18 foreign languages (so far) and several recent versions with new introductions, both in England and the US. There are also
four film adaptations and an electronic edition, with notes and commentary from Cambridge University Press.

The exhibit includes treasured pre-publication volumes signed by the author, Edwin Abbott (1838 –1926). The materials comprising this exhibit are now part of the permanent Flatland collection donated to the Library by Professor Thomas Banchoff.

Date: November 1 – November 29, 2013
Location: John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library

The Yale Indian Papers Project boasts of materials relating to over four hundred years of New England Native American history, community, culture, sovereignty, land, gender, race, identity, migration, law, and politics.

On Tuesday, October 29, at 5:30 p.m., Paul Grant-Costa and Tobias Glaza will discuss the this project and how it offers students, educators, researchers, Native American tribal members, and the general public, visual and intellectual access to significant historical knowledge for the purposes of teaching, scholarly analysis, and research.

This event is free and open to the public.

Date: Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Time: 5:30 p.m.
Location: Digital Scholarship Lab

Contact: Mark Baumer |  401-863-3642