Libraries and Museums Books

Handbook for Museums is an excellent source for both the inexperienced and the veteran. The book covers a wide range of topics, from artifact conservation to ethics. I found the information contained to be of great help to my budding museum career.

The book is written simply and concepts are easily grasped. As a bonus, each chapter includes a 'Questions from the Field' section, in which FAQs about subjects relating to the chapter are answered. In short, Edson and Dean stick to facts and keep it simple.

Due to large field of subjects covered, do not expect a technical dissertation in each chapter. This may not bode well with some people, however I feel the information contained applies to all skill levels and positions in the museum field.

'Handbook for Museums' is an excellent read; it's great for both classroom study or working reference. Definitely a 'Thumbs Up'!

Tim Caulton has prepared an excellent reference book for anyone involved in Science Centers and Children's Museums. He manages to contextualize all the relevant factors: history, education, exhibit development, marketing, finance, human resources, operations, special events and activities. I have used this book to a great extent. It has helped me plan and manage a mayor children's museum. His style is straightforward and synthetic. The book has a lot of useful information. It addresses the main educational theories and particular museum cases to illustrate the problems, risks and most effective procedures to run a kind of museum that is not like the rest. A must for anyone that operates interactive museums. Not many books on the subject. This one is a keeper.

This cute follow-up to Clean Your Room, Harvey Moon. Told in rhyme and with the signature, bright artwork of the talented Pat Cummings, the story details a day out with Harvey at the museum. He decides to bring his pet lizard along and you can only guess at the trouble that ensues. Funny, well-written....we liked it.

A quintessential bibliographical reference work for students of printing and typography. This book reproduces the subject card catalog of the company library of the American Type Founders; over 2700 pages containg about 16,000 items. This collection is now owned by Columbia University. It contains thousands of subject headings and is truly remarkable.

Book is well written, well illustrated and most importantly - well orgnized. Makes for not only good reading about presidential history, but also serves as a travel guide to everything presidential. Complete info and details are given about Presidential homes and libraries.

High quality photos and illustrations are used on high quality paper. Don't try to compare standard paperback books to this one! Glossy, coated paper is extensively used, and most photos are in color.

I borrowed this with the intention of taking it with me the next time I go to Cairo but the book is a great reference even if you have no intention of visiting the Coptic Museum. Illustrated with photographs, the guide is a window on a world that most tourists to Egypt are unaware even exists.

The Coptic Church is one of the oldest Christian communities in the world. It has survived repression under the Roman emperors, the Islamic invasion, wars, famines and various anti-Christian pograms. Today Copts are 9 million strong in Egypt, and yet are invisible to the world media.

The Coptic Museum in Cairo only recently reopened after damage caused by an earthquake in the 1990s and decades of neglect prior to that. At the very least this guide is an excellent eye opener to a history and culture that is seemingly invisible to the outside world.

This book is a fascinating analysis of how the World of Art changed with the introduction of the gallery space. It examines the reaction of artists to the confines, both physical and psychological, of the gallery.
I highly recommend this book for any student of art, or artist who wants to broaden their frame of reference with regards to art history and the current trajectory of contemporary art.

This is a fantastic book and I highly recommend this book to anyone seeking to pursue a house museum whether not-for-profit, government entity or privately. It has information I never thought of and I found the book to be highly useful and credible.

More than just a summary presentation of the Getty's extensive holdings, "Handbook of the Photographs Collection" provides an excellent history of the art and science of photography. That the material at the Getty alone would provide for such a discourse speaks volumes of the depth and breadth of their collection. This one stays on my coffee table.

The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum is located in Boston, Massachusetts. It's a ten-acre facility that is dedicated to the memory of the thirty-fifth U.S. President.

Many interesting exhibits and audio/visual materials relating to President Kennedy's 1,037 days in office can also be accessed at the JFK Library's website, located at www.jfklibrary.org.

That website is a fascinating place to browse through. There are historical resources available there, along with Kennedy biographies and profiles, a "virtual tour" of the physical Library/Museum in Boston, and lots of other interesting things to discover about the Kennedys and JFK's Presidency.

One of my favorite areas of the JFK Library website is called "The White House Diary", which is packed with detailed information regarding each and every one of John Kennedy's 1,000-plus days in the Oval Office. The "Diary" allows you to select any date during JFK's all-too-brief Presidential term (from the day of his inauguration on January 20, 1961, through the terrible day of his tragic assassination on November 22, 1963). Various pieces of information (e.g., JFK's appointments, meetings, bill signings, news conferences, White House ceremonies, etc.) for a particular chosen date will be printed on that "page" of the Diary.

Each Diary entry includes a related photo if one is available, plus (on some dates/pages) an audio or video clip is played that is associated with a speech or public statement that was made by President Kennedy on the selected date (including several audio snippets from some of JFK's 64 live press conferences).

A ton of info on the history of JFK's White House years can be obtained in that Diary. Fabulous stuff. I'm grateful to those people who put together such a comprehensive day-by-day record of John F. Kennedy's Presidency.

The website allows visitors to access the "White House Diary" in two ways -- with the best (and preferred) method being via "Macromedia Flash Player", which enables you to hear the audio clips and also displays the Diary in a realistic-looking "book-like" manner, complete with "turning pages".

Lacking the "Flash Player", you can still view the Diary's text by way of an HTML version that is also available.

If you happened to have been born during one of JFK's 1,037 days as President, it's easy to find out what Mr. Kennedy and family were doing on your date of birth via that nifty and handy "White House Diary" feature at the Library's site.

I, myself, was born during JFK's administration, and I've been able to quickly determine that President Kennedy had a physical exam on my date of birth. He was declared in "excellent general health, except for his back, although it is stronger than it was this past summer". That examination, btw, took place in Palm Beach, Florida, which is where the President, First Lady Jackie Kennedy, and other family members were celebrating the holidays during JFK's first Christmas season as President in December 1961.

Below I've included a link to the "White House Diary" via the JFK Library's Internet site. (Note: This link only accesses the HTML version of the Diary; in order to see the more-complete "Flash Player" version after you arrive at the following webpage, click on the link marked "White House Diary", located in the red toolbar/menu, just to the right of the "Site Map" link.)......

www.jfklibrary.org/white%20house%20diary/

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John Kennedy's tenure as President of the United States was short-lived. But in his less than one term in office, he revitalized America's interest in politics in a number of different ways. And despite the crises that the nation endured during those three JFK years in the early 1960s, things somehow seemed "better" because Jack Kennedy roamed the White House.*

* = I, of course, cannot speak from personal experience when it comes to my "better" remark, because, as I admitted just a moment ago, I was only a toddler in a crib during most of Mr. Kennedy's Presidential term. But I've heard people describe the "Camelot" years as being like no other, before or since. Well, perhaps that's just the "Kennedy myth" coming to the surface, above and beyond the real "substance" of Mr. Kennedy's accomplishments. I don't really know. That could be at least partially true, I suppose. But one thing's a certainty -- America was diminished a good bit after JFK was taken from the world on November 22nd, 1963.

But, thanks to the beautiful Library and Museum facility in Boston which bears Mr. Kennedy's name, and thanks to the associated JFK Library website that anyone with a computer can access....the memory of John Fitzgerald Kennedy will forever be instantly recallable.