Wednesday January 25, 2012
A Tribute to Mr Mosman
Dom Lopez OAM sadly passed away last night.
Born in 1939 to Italian immigrants and Mosman fruit shop owners Antonio and Terzita Lopez, Dominic Lopez’s passion for Mosman started early in this family business. Dom Lopez was educated at Mosman by the nuns at Sacred heart School and later the Marist Brothers. He married Zena, whose father ran the Montana milk bar at Mosman and brought up four children in Mosman.
The fruit shop was ‘home’ for Dom and the good will of the Mosman people encouraged him to give back a little to Mosman and so he ran for Council and was elected in December 1968.
Apart from a short break in the early 1970s, he continued to serve the Mosman people, including five terms as Mayor, with a passion and a pride for Mosman, his ‘Pearl of the Pacific’, that knew no bounds. R.I.P.
Wednesday December 7, 2011
Taking photos into the fourth dimension
‘A time machine in your pocket’ is how Historypin founder Nick Stanhope describes his app.
Speaking at the Powerhouse Museum last night, he showcased an exciting and ambitious project that will help individuals and institutions map photographs in time and space.
What sets Historypin apart is its simple interface to a powerful tool set. At Martin Place and on Macquarie Street, I used the Historypin app to view photos from the 1900s overlaid on the camera view of my phone. A slider varies the opacity between ‘then’ and ‘now’ bringing the old photo to life through the lens of the present. Previously you would have needed a graphics program and some time and expertise to achieve this effect. Now it is simple and instantaneous.
The app also encourages you to take a contemporary photo of the view, enriching both the Historypin collection’s scope and the photo’s metadata.
If you’re not in situ the website allows you to overlay photos onto Google Street View. On the feature list is the ability to match historic videos to paths, not just points, and to – get this – look inside buildings.
Nick called his presentation ‘fourth-dimensional mapping’ and he showed how each point on earth has a ‘column’ of history. With ‘then and now’ comparisons we can look through time.
Historypin also encourages a curatorial approach to sharing images. Photos can be grouped as collections (themes or topics) and tours (photos as narrative).
The tech behind the project is impressive but its primary aim, says Nick, is to connect communities, generations and cultures. Photos have that magic that can spark conversations. Sharing stories with his grandmother over family photos was, he said, the catalyst for Historypin.
Run by a non-profit foundation (We Are What We Do) with a community and cultural mandate, and partnered with Google and authoritative institutions like the Powerhouse and U.S. National Archives, Historypin is a new form of museum and library. With ambition. Historypin has already engaged a whole town. In 2013, their Australian Memory Project aims to engage a nation.
Ahead of that, have a play with Historypin. At Mosman Library, we’ll be experimenting with some images in the very near future.
Historypin in 90 seconds
Friday December 2, 2011
Library News & Views - Summer 2011/2012
Thursday December 1, 2011
Mosman Faces at #SWITCH2011
Friday November 11, 2011
Major P.S. Woodforde, 1st Battalion A.I.F.
Today – 11 November 2011 – is Remembrance Day. Mary-Lou Byrne chose one Anzac to remember on our Flickr photo stream.
Monday October 10, 2011
Beach branches for French libraries
For a fifth consecutive summer, the department of Seine-Maritime on the northern coast of France has brought its colourful library cabanas to beach-goers.
The seaside branches have about 1,000 titles each – kids books, graphic novels, classics, thrillers and romances, books in English and books by local writers.
Librarians (“animateurs du livre”) are at your disposal for help and advice.
The way it works is simple. Choose a book, then install yourself on one of the brightly coloured sun lounges. Books must be read ‘in place’.
The Lire à la Plage program runs daily in July and August at twelve popular seaside towns in the Haute-Normandie region.
Monday October 10, 2011
Buckle yourself in
… for one of the most anticipated author talks at Mosman Library!
Thursday September 1, 2011
Library News & Views - Spring 2011
Wednesday August 17, 2011
Biblion – the boundless library
A new iPad app from the NY Public Library developed to explore their collections, holdings and exhibitions through this new media.
With Biblion you can experience the ‘The World of Tomorrow’ by exploring the 1939-40 World’s Fair collection through images, documents, films, audio and essays.
This was created directly from the NYPL’s Manuscripts and Archives Division and covers a range of topics from technological innovation, music and pop culture, to the issues of economic hardships and the crises developing from a world at war.
I was recommended this app through a magazine article on emerging technologies.
- Introduction: Explains how to use Biblion
- A Moment in Time (On the brink of War)
- Beacon Of Idealism (Building Democracy)
- Fashion, Food and Famous Faces (Pop Culture At The Fair)
- From The Stacks (The Fair Comes To NYPL)
- You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet (Fun At The Fair)
- Enter The World Of Tomorrow (To Futurama…and Beyond)
I found Biblion easy to navigate and full of fascinating stories, photos and original documents.
I particularly enjoyed the ‘Fashion, Food and Famous Faces’ Mad Science section with pictures of epic competitions of hand washing vs the modern dishwasher, robots of the future and first looks at plastic from the Bakelite Corporation which was described as a material of a thousand uses!
Take a leap into history and discover what riches can be found within!
Monday August 15, 2011
The many faces of Bungaree
Bungaree, known as the Chief of the Broken Bay Aborigines, was a central figure in early Colonial Sydney. As an Aboriginal leader, he was the first person known to have been called an ‘Australian’.
His story presents a rich and layered history of one man’s remarkable exploits and ability to navigate calamitous times to become a highly respected leader, and bridge between Aboriginal and white cultures.
Dr. Keith Vincent Smith, an eminent historian, author and curator, spoke recently at Mosman Art Gallery. This talk and his Dictionary of Sydney entry on Bungaree are an excellent resource for those studying Sydney and Australia’s early history.
Mosman Library also has the following books available:
- The Story of Bungaree – Patrick Fletcher, 2009
- King Bungaree : a Sydney Aborigine meets the great South Pacific explorers, 1799-1830 – Keith Vincent Smith, 1992
