Google Books includes new Penn State titles

via Penn State University Libraries Newswire 
“Each month new Penn State titles are added to Google Books. Sacred and legendary art, Applied motion study, Hopes and fears for art, The afterglow of European travel, The castle builders, Aliens or Americans and Memorials of prison life are a few of the books now available online...”
Read the full story on Live here. Among the books they have digitized is Instruction in photography (1905). You can find the updated listing of books here.

New York Public Library’s ‘Find The Future’

via the morning news
“As some Christians prepared for the Apocalypse, Elizabeth Kiem and 499 questers spent Friday night locked inside the New York Public Library with game designer Jane McGonigal…”
Read the rest here.

360º Panorama is the largest indoor photo in the world

via letterology

“Read a fascinating story from Wired about a 360 degree photograph of Prague’s Philosophical Hall, a Baroque reading room in the city’s 868-year-old Strahov Monastery Library. And then view the 40 gigapixel photo produced by photographer Jeffrey Martin here. This room is a repository of rare books and is typically off limits to the public. Martin received special permission to spend the five days of shooting it took to make the composite image. The camera took another 111 hours of post-processing in order to stitch together the nearly 3000 images of the final 360 degree photo. You can actually scan the entire room of the finished photograph and zoom in close enough to read some of the titles on the rare books.”

New York Public Library to hold 500-person scavenger hunt in honor of 100th anniversary

via mybug 

“It's every book worm’s dream—a night at the New York Public Library. For the first time ever, the library said Thursday it will let select members of the public roam its main branch for a special after-hours event.

On May 20 the 42nd St. location will host a giant, modernized scavenger hunt to help commemorate the library's 100th birthday. ‘Find the Future: The Game’ will allow 500 contestants, split into teams of eight, to search for historic objects within the library, according to the library officials. The groups will use smart phones to get clues, leading them to items like a draft of the Declaration of Independence, Jack Kerouac’s glasses or Charles Dickens’ letter opener, fashioned out of his dead cat Bob’s amputated arm.”

Read the rest here, visit the New York Public Library site here; registration to participate starts at 9 a.m. today.