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Brown University’s Digital Garibaldi Scroll Tours Italy
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Garibaldi sits upon his horse wearing a broad-brimmed hat with an ostrich feather in it and an American poncho; his servant who came with him from America rides behind him. Story, J. J. (Nottingham: 1860). 1 scene; 147.5 x 258.6 cm. Reformatted digital. PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] – The Brown University “Garibaldi on the Surface” project is featured again in international exhibitions. A centerpiece in last year’s British Library exhibition, “Growing Knowledge – the Evolution of Research,” the digital scroll was recently on display in Bologna Salaborsa (November 15-30, 2011) as part of the Storia da toccare [History to Touch]: the Panorama Garibaldi at Salaborsa, and is currently on view through January 15 in the Sala del Risorgimento of Siena’s Palazzo Pubblico. In Siena the inauguration of the Garibaldi exhibit coincided with the opening event of the International Council of Museums Conference. Several museum directors as well as the German president of the association were present with Brown’s Italian Studies Professor Massimo Riva who coordinated the display of the panorama. Both exhibits were sponsored by Microsoft Research and included Microsoft touchscreens and displays.
Once a “moving” panorama created around 1860 by John James Story, the Garibaldi panorama is one of the few remaining examples of this type of commercial entertainment that was commonly available in the 1800s. In 2007, with financial support from the Department of Italian Studies and Vincent J. Buonanno (Brown ’66), the Brown University Library digitized the panorama and added it to the Garibaldi/Risorgimento website. Later in 2009 the Brown University Library in conjunction with Brown’s Computer Science Department, co-sponsored by Microsoft Research, embarked on a pilot project to exhibit the panorama with the Microsoft Surface.
Garibaldi on the Surface allows users to explore and examine this massive double-sided 270 foot linear painting depicting the life and times of the Italian liberator, along with a wide array of pre-selected historically and culturally relevant digital documents, images, web pages, video and audio narration from the Garibaldi-Risorgimento digital archive. Researchers can zoom in and out on specific scenes, listen to a voice-over narration in both Italian and English, access embedded documents, and read explanatory notes about characters and events depicted in the panorama.
Further exhibitions are in the works. Visitors to the digital archive can retrieve additional information about panoramas and dioramas as optical devices and popular representational media in 19th-century Europe. A video about the scroll is also available online.
The Brown University Library is home to more than 6.8 million print items, plus a multitude of electronic resources and expanding digital archives serving the teaching, research, and learning needs of Brown students and faculty, as well as scholars from around the country and the world.
Contact: Jennifer Braga | 401-863-6913
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Brown University Library Receives Mellon Foundation’s 2011 Hidden Collections Award
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The Hall-Hoag Collection consists of hundreds of thousands of items documenting dissenting and extremist movements (left- and right-wing) in the United States, primarily between 1950 and 2000, on controversial subjects confronted by American society. PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] – The Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) announced that Brown University Library is a recipient of the Mellon Foundation’s 2011 Hidden Collections award for “The Gordon Hall and Grace Hoag Collection of Dissenting and Extremist Printed Propaganda, Part II.” This three year project, headed by Jennifer Betts, University Archivist and Andrew Ashton, Director of Digital Technologies, will complete the processing of materials Gordon Hall began compiling when he returned from World War II and encountered U.S. domestic hate groups at both ends of the political spectrum.
Along with a group of volunteers, including Grace Hoag, Hall infiltrated and investigated radical and dissenting groups, collecting their printed propaganda as part of his efforts to preserve these irreplaceable materials for posterity. This project will organize and make available over 700,000 items that reflect a continuum of views on the Cold War, civil and women’s rights, and the relationship of religion and state.
Created in 2008 and supported by ongoing funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives awards program supports the identification and cataloging of special collections and archives of high scholarly value that are difficult or impossible to locate. Award recipients create web-accessible records according to standards that enable the federation of their local cataloging entries into larger groups of related records, enabling the broadest possible exposure to the scholarly community.
The Brown University Library is home to more than 6.8 million print items, plus a multitude of electronic resources and expanding digital archives serving the teaching, research, and learning needs of Brown students and faculty, as well as scholars from around the country and the world.
Contact: Jennifer Braga | 401-863-6913
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Library Closings and Handicap Access
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Library Closings: All Libraries will be closed from Thursday, December 22 at 5pm until Monday, January 2 at 8:30am, except the Friedman Study Center which will be open Tuesday, December 27 through Thursday, December 29 from 10am to 5pm.
Handicap Access: From December 23rd through January 7, the handicap access ramp in front of the Rockefeller Library will be closed for repair. From January 2-7, patrons who require the handicap ramp will be referred to the Sciences Library for services since physical access to the Rock via the handicap ramp will not be possible. Patrons with questions about access should contact the Library by calling 863-2165.