Tag: MIT Libraries

Can Computers be Feminist? Procedural Politics and Computational Creativity

By on May 26, 2016

Join the Program on Information Science for a brown bag talk, Can Computers be Feminist? Procedural Politics and Computational Creativity. Discussant Gillian Smith will examine how computers are increasingly taking on the role of a creator — making content for games, participating on Twitter, and generating paintings and sculptures. These computationally creative systems embody formal models of both the product they are creating and the process they follow. Like that of their human counterparts, the work of algorithmic artists is open to criticism and interpretation, but such analysis requires a framework for discussing the politics embedded in procedural systems. In this talk, we will examine the politics that are (typically implicitly) represented in computational models for creativity, and discuss the possibility for incorporating feminist perspectives into their underlying algorithmic design.

Gillian Smith is an Assistant Professor in Art+Design and Computer Science at Northeastern University, where she performs research and teaches in the game design program. Her research interests are in computational creativity, computational craft, and gender in games and technology.

Event details
Location: E25-401
Lunch is provided. Please bring your own beverage.
More information

Information Science Brown Bag talks, hosted by the Program on Information Science, consists of regular discussions and brainstorming sessions on all aspects of information science and uses of information science and technology to assess and solve institutional, social and research problems. These are informal talks. Discussions are often inspired by real-world problems being faced by the lead discussant.

June 14, 2016 12 - 1 pm

It’s Leap Year Day!

By on February 29, 2016

Common knowledge says we enjoy this extra day every four years, but is that really the frequency of February 29? Two online resources from the MIT Libraries answer this question and highlight the breadth of information they offer the MIT community.

Credo, a vast array of online encyclopedias, offers quick background on the subject of Leap Year. Besides confirming only century years divisible by four “leap,” you can also learn the term is first written in “English medieval encyclopedia On the Properties of Things (1398), translated by John Trevisa from the 12th-century Latin original by Bartholomew the Englishman.”[i]

MathSciNet, a major international math database, provides more leap year math. To quote:

“N is called a leap year if ∑∞k=1(−1)k+1(a1a2⋯ak|N)=1, where (x∣y)=1 if x divides y and 0 otherwise.”[ii]

Leap into this day and the MIT Libraries!

[i] Leap year. (2004). In Word histories and mysteries. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. Retrieved from http://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/hmwhm/leap_year/0

[ii] http://www.ams.org/mathscinet-getitem?mr=1300279

Searching in harsh environments

By on February 12, 2016

A Libraries & Big Data Brown Bag brought to you by the Information Science program at the MIT Libraries

Bring your lunch and join us for this fascinating presentation with Ophir Frieder, the Robert L. McDevitt, K.S.G., K.C.H.S. and Catherine H. McDevitt L.C.H.S. Chair in Computer Science and Information Processing at Georgetown University. This brown bag is appropriate for intermediate and advanced researchers and anyone interested in Big Data.

Many consider “searching” a solved problem, and for digital text processing, this belief is factually based. The problem is that many “real-world” search applications involve complex documents — comprising a mixture of images, text, signatures, tables, etc., and often available only in scanned hardcopy formats — and such applications are far from solved. Some of these documents are corrupted, some contain multiple languages, and accurate search systems for such document collections are currently unavailable.

This session will cover:

Efforts at building a complex document information-processing prototype and previous complex document benchmark development efforts
Spelling correction in adverse environments, including foreign name search and medical term search
Analyzing social media, an additional, non-traditional search environment

Learn more about this presentation.

Location:
E25-401
Lunch will be provided, but attendees should bring their own beverage.

March 15, 2016 12 - 1pm

How to make an inexpensive book cradle for your treasures

By mit-admin on January 12, 2015

Two rare volumes from the Institute Archives and Special Collections supported on Tyvek + air cushion book cradles. Back: need title. Front: Theodore Reisch's Margarita Philosophica, 1508.

Two rare volumes from MIT Libraries Institute Archives and Special Collections rest on these easy to make book cradles.

Book cradles are a type of support that help to reduce stress on the spine of a book, stress that over time can cause book covers to pull away from the area where they connect to the text pages. Cradles help prop a book open, usually at an angle less than 180° so that the book doesn’t lay flat on a tabletop. Reducing stress on the book opening is a preventative measure and helps reduce the need for expensive and time consuming repairs.

Here is a quick, easy, and inexpensive way to make one with simple materials. You’ll need Tyvek™ envelopes and recycled air pillows to make this support for your bound treasures. This type of book cradle has other benefits:

Replenish envelopes and pillows as needed (after the bags are soiled or air pillows deflate)
Lightweight and portable (easy to set up and break down)
Great for working with books that require mold abatement (throw away supports after exposure)
Easy to use and easy to store when not in use
Adjustable by filling in more or fewer air pillows
Also useful as a spacer to keep books vertical (while in a partially filled box or during transit).
Cost: probably less than $1.00 to acquire materials, $0 if using recycled envelopes and air cushions

Time: 10 minutes or less

Materials:

Two Tyvek™ side opening envelopes (new or recycled) slightly larger than the size of the book to be cradled
Recycled air pillows often found as cushioning material inside shipped packages.

Here are instructions to make the simplest version of this cradle:

Place your book in the palm of your hand and open it, feeling how wide the book will open without forcing either side down. Is the angle less than 180 degrees? This action will help you determine how many air cushions to place inside each Tyvek™ envelope.

Insert an air cushion (or more than one) into each envelope pouch.

If you need to use several air cushions or Styrofoam peanuts to create the amount of cushion you’ll need to support your book, place them into a resealable bag or Tyvek™ envelope to contain the cushioning material first before inserting it into either side of the book cradle.

Remove self-adhesive guard strip from one of the envelope flaps and adhere it to the flap of the other envelope. By adhering the two flaps together, you create an area for the spine of the book to rest in. Apply pressure over the adhered area to ensure firm attachment.

Place the book on the book cradle. Use different air cushion sizes to support the desired opening. Use book snakes (light padded weights) as needed to help hold the pages down while consulting your treasured book.

Dandy Roll: A Papermaking Security Device

By mit-admin on May 12, 2014

Detail of watermark found in Vannevar Bush’s handwritten note about integraphs, circa 1920s, Harold L. Hazen Papers, MC 106.

When we hold a sheet of paper to the light, sometimes we can see designs, letters or symbols embedded in it. These images are called watermarks. They can be found in both hand– and machine-made paper crafted in the western tradition.

One type of watermarking device used in machine papermaking is the dandy roll. This is a lightweight hollow cylinder that has a raised design attached to its surface. After the paper sheet has been formed on a conveyor belt, it travels to the dandy roll which lightly presses the design into the wet fibers. The roll displaces and thins the paper fibers in the area where the design appears.

Once the paper sheet is dried, the watermark can’t be changed, and remains in the paper permanently. For this reason, watermarks can provide security and authenticity, and may be used to help distinguish an original document from a copy.

In the current exhibit in the Libraries’ Maihaugen Gallery, Thanks for the Memory: 50+ Years of Computing at MIT, there is a handwritten proposal for research funding that was prepared in 1927 by MIT professor Vannevar Bush. If you look closely at the document, you can see the MIT logo in a watermark that was created using this Dandy Roll technology.

This post was written by guest blogger Ayako Letizia, Conservation Assistant, Wunsch Conservation Lab.

Adventurer in Light and Color: Stained glass exhibit

By mit-admin on May 6, 2014

Stop by the Jackson Homestead in Historic Newton before the end of July to catch the “Charles J. Connick: Adventurer in Light and Color” exhibition. It features drawings, photos, studies, and stained glass works by Charles J. Connick a prominent stained glass artist from Newton, Massachusetts. Included in the exhibit are several reproductions of drawings held by MIT Libraries as well as a stained glass window (Sir Bors Succours the Maid) from the Libraries’ collections. For more information about the Charles J. Connick Stained Glass Foundation Collection held at MIT, visit our Special Collections page or watch the video at TechTV.

Design inspired by E. Dickinson poem “There is no Frigate Like a Book.”

The exhibition features the cartoon, or full-size study for a work in another medium, shown here. This design was executed in pencil and gouache and later realized in stained glass in 1939 for the Newtonville Public Library, which is now the Newton Senior Center. The work was inspired by the Emily Dickinson poem, “There is no Frigate Like a Book.” For more information about this image, please visit the Charles J. Connick image collection in Dome.

For more about the work of Charles J. Connick and his studio, visit the Charles J. Connick Stained Glass Foundation website and the Boston Public Library’s Charles J. Connick Gouaches: Massachusetts Flickr collection.

The following details were captured when the cartoon was in the Wunsch Conservation Lab for examination.

This post was researched written with Lorrie McAllister, Digital and Special Collections Strategist.

Connick’s initials “CJC” and date 1939.

This detail reveals underdrawing in pencil.

White drips of paint may suggest that Connick worked some areas upright.

This detail shows the painterly quality of the work.

Historic Letterlocking: The Art and Secrecy of Letterwriting

By mit-admin on April 4, 2014

Would you like to have your very own “locked letter”? One that’s based on a historic manuscript letter folding format used by Elizabeth I, Queen of England? If so, plan on attending our talks on “The Art and Science of Document Security: Past, Present, and Future” on April 29th. Each attendee will receive their very own locked letter with a secret message. This event kicks off Preservation Week at MIT, April 29-May 1, 2014.

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Historic letterlocking refers to any movable object (such as paper, parchment, or papyrus) that has been written on, folded, and secured shut to function as its own envelope. The tradition dates back 4,000 years in Western and Mediterranean cultures. Documenting the physical details of well-preserved original manuscripts has helped to define the different locking formats with their multiple levels of built-in security and their various authentication devices. In some instances the letters employ anti-tamper and authentication devices that enhance the format protection.

All events are free and no registration is required.

Binders’ Tickets in the Peterson Telegraphy Collection

By mit-admin on January 30, 2014

Binders’ tickets are one type of signed binding and are rare finds. They would have been placed in the book by the binder for a little “PR”. Here are the only two found in the books in the newly donated and catalogued Peterson Telegraphy Collection.

photo 2 copy

Leighton Son and Hodge.

Binder’s Ticket #2

Wyman and Sons. Publisher binding. London. 1880s.

Wyman and Sons advertised themselves as printers, engravers, lithographers, bookbinders, and stationers. They made the books from scratch, literally, from the printing of the text pages to the binding of the books. They were located at 74, 75 and later 81 Great Queen Street, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London, W.C. Check out their many advertisements in The Academy and Literature. The one in volume 12, August 25, 1877, p. 205 is informative. See Google free eBooks.

Shown above (left to right) are Marianna Brotherton and Leslie To, who have just completed an internship in our lab. For the past few months, Marianna and Leslie have been helping to process and conserve the Peterson Telegraphy Collection–a total of 42 boxes of books, pamphlets, photos, and artifacts. Stay tuned for a “farewell guest blog post” from Marianna and Leslie about their favorites treasures from the Peterson Telegraphy Collection.

Thanks, MIT music, for your dulcet tones.

By mit-admin on January 17, 2014

This week was an all-things-MIT-Music for the conservation lab. We de-installed the “Noteworthy Connections” exhibition in the Maihaugen Gallery featuring the music treasures from the Lewis Music Library and the Institute Archives and Special Collections.

MIT’s Chorallaries, an a cappella music group, provides cheerful music to listen to while we make protective enclosures for some of the illuminated music manuscripts folios that will be used for teaching next semester. We are curious to discover more “whistle-while-you-work” music created by MIT faculty, staff, and students.