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Libraries

Trending Today

A Crashed Spacecraft Might Have Put Earth’s Most Indestructible Organisms on the Moon

The microscopic tardigrades were part of a lunar library sent aboard the Beresheet lander that crashed last April

Engraved portrait of Melvil Dewey.

Melvil Dewey’s Name Stripped From Top Library Award

An American Library Association resolution points to Dewey’s history of discriminatory and predatory behavior

The hand-tooled leather cover

A Bible Owned by Lincoln, Unknown to Historians for 150 Years, Goes on Display

The relic offers a new opportunity to reflect on Lincoln’s religious beliefs

Illustration from woodblock-printed text on the life of Gautama Buddha

Library of Congress Digitizes Taiwanese Watercolors, Rare Chinese Texts

The library’s rare Chinese book collection includes 5,300 titles, 2,000 of which will ultimately be included in the online portal

Alaska Resources Library and Information Services (ARLIS) provides the public with an extensive selection of birds as part of its collection of items that are available for circulation.

This Library in Anchorage Lends Out Taxidermic Specimens

All you need to check out a snowy owl or a mounted rockfish is a library card

Cool Finds

Book of Lost Books Discovered in Danish Archive

The index is part of the Libro de los Epítomes, an effort by Christopher Columbus’ illegitimate son to create a searchable index of the world’s knowledge

These illustrations come from a miniature book of classical Persian poetry.

The Library of Congress Has Digitized 155 Persian Texts Dating Back to the 13th Century

Offerings include a book of poetry featuring the epic Shahnameh and a biography of Shah Jahan, the emperor who built the Taj Mahal

Winnie-the-Pooh dolls owned by A.A. Milne's son Christopher Robin

Get Excited: The New York Public Library Is Launching Its First Permanent Exhibition

Come 2020, new gallery will feature a rotating trove of artifacts drawn from NYPL’s 46 million-strong collection of treasures

Interior of the British Library in London

The British Library’s Dirtiest Books Have Been Digitized

The collection includes around 2,500 volumes and many, many double entendres

Cool Finds

Egyptian Schoolboy’s 1,800-Year-Old Lesson to Go on Display

The British Library took the exercise out of storage as part of an upcoming exhibition on the history of writing

Woodside Mansion, home to the Rochester Historical Society since 1941

Rochester’s 150-Year-Old Historical Society Hit Hard by Lack of Funding

The institution, which houses such precious relics as clothing worn by Susan B. Anthony, has furloughed its staff and suspended its programming

"Mrs. Tabitha's Cats Academy"

Cats in Literature? It’s a Long Tail

A new exhibition at the British Library explores how cats have inspired—and frightened—writers across the centuries

Dorothy Porter in 1939, at her desk in the Carnegie Library at Howard University.

Remembering the Howard University Librarian Who Decolonized the Way Books Were Catalogued

Dorothy Porter challenged the racial bias in the Dewey Decimal System, putting black scholars alongside white colleagues

Trending Today

Chicago Cancels Sale of Kerry James Marshall’s ‘Knowledge and Wonder’

The site-specific mural, featuring black children and adults gazing at the marvels of the universe, will not go up for auction following intense criticism

Monster of Rome from Image of the Papacy

Rare Book Library Summons Tales of World’s Oldest Monsters

The monsters have arrived at Toronto’s Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library

The NYPL's Insta Novels are available via Instagram.

Fall Down the Rabbit Hole With the New York Public Library’s Instagram Version of Classic Tales

Featured texts include ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,’ ‘The Metamorphosis’ and ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’

How an Artist Is Rebuilding a Baghdad Library Destroyed During the Iraq War

“168:01,” an installation now on view at the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto, encourages visitors to donate books to the University of Baghdad

Archaeologists identified the library based on a series of wall niches that once housed ancient scrolls

Cool Finds

Cologne Archaeologists Unearth Foundations of Germany’s Oldest Known Library

The library, which was built between 150 and 200 C.E., held an estimated 20,000 ancient scrolls

An authentic copy of a letter written by Christopher Columbus as displayed at the Vatican. The United States is returning to the Vatican Library a letter written by Christopher Columbus in 1493 announcing his discovery of the New World that was stolen and replaced with a forgery.

Stolen Christopher Columbus Letter Returned to Vatican, But Mystery Persists

The letter, which had been printed in 1493, was replaced with a convincing fake—and investigators still don’t know who committed the crime

These Portuguese Libraries Are Infested With Bats—and They Like It That Way

They actually serve a very specific purpose

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