Stuart: Student Art Online Community

A New York Times article today covered a new online community for student artists. Stuart is a facebook or myspace-like site that provides an opportunity for student artists to create profiles where they can post and sell their work online without giving a cut to a middleman. Structured like many social networking sites, Stuart allows users to connect with each other by “friending,” leaving comments on user profiles, and communicating via live chat.

Winter Intersession Hours

The Pratt Institute Libraries will stay open for limited hours during Winter Intersession, returning to our regular hours on Saturday, January 13.

Brooklyn Library Hours

Monday, December 18th – Thursday, December 21st: 9am-5pm

December 22nd – January 1st: Closed

Tuesday, January 2nd – Friday, January 12th: 9am -5pm, Closed Saturdays and Sundays

Manhattan Library Hours

Monday, December 18th – Thursday, December 21st: 10am-6pm

December 22nd – January 1st: Closed

Tuesday, January 2nd – Friday, January 12th: 10am -6pm, Closed Saturdays and Sundays

Searching Inside Books Online

Microsoft recently released a beta version of Live Search Books, a service that allows people to search the contents of scanned books from research libraries like the British Library, University of California, University of Toronto, and New York Public. All of the books included in Live Search Books are in the public domain (i.e. mostly published before 1923 or published 1923-1977 without notice of copyright). Each book’s entire contents are available for download. This is a different approach from Google Book Search, which scans the full text of all books from participating libraries, allowing users to search across a broader range of materials, but still only allowing users to view the full text of public domain books.

Library Catalog Unavailable Monday, Dec. 18

Due to upgrades and maintenance, PrattCat, our library catalog, will be unavailable on Monday December 18th.

Please call (718 636 3704) or e-mail (libref@pratt.edu) us to ask questions concerning the availability of any of our resources before visiting.

We apologize for any possible inconveniences that this project may cause.

Extended Library Hours for Final Critiques and Exams

This week, in preparation for final critiques and exams, both the Manhattan and Brooklyn Campus Libraries will offer extended hours.

Brooklyn Campus Library Hours

Friday, December 8: 8:30am-9pm

Saturday, December 9: 1pm-9pm

Sunday, December10: 1pm-11pm (Regular Hours)

Monday, December 11- Thursday, December 17: 8:30am-11pm (Regular Hours)

Manhattan Campus Library Hours

Friday, December 8- Sunday, December 10: 10am- 6pm (Regular Hours)

Monday, December 11: 10am-10pm (Regular Hours)

Tuesday, December 12- Thursday, December 14: 10am-10:30pm

Friday, December 15- Sunday, December 17: 10am-6:30pm

Library hours are listed at http://library.pratt.edu/hrs.html.

Sharing and Visualizing Data Online

A new site billing itself as “a place where curious people explore data– all kinds of data” opened to the public yesterday. Swivel allows users to upload, compare, and share data sets, creating what some users have described as a YouTube for data.

From the Swivel site:

• Explore popular data or obscure data. Search for it or have fun cruising all the colorful graphs, data sets and opinions.
• Compare gas prices to presidential approval ratings or UFO sightings to iPod sales. You might find a crazy coincidence or something more.
• Share your insights by posting a graph to your blog or emailing a link to your friends and coworkers.
• Upload the information you care about, describe it, pick a color scheme and even pick a cool photo to bring it to life.

[link: Swivel | via: information aesthetics]

Library Exhibit at Proteus Gowanus

Proteus Gowanus is an interdisciplinary gallery and reading room located right next to the Gowanus Canal. Each year they choose a different theme for their exhibits; for 2006/2007 the theme is “Library.”

The Library Exhibit and Program participants include:
The Brooklyn Museum Library, The Brooklyn Historical Society, The Prelinger Library, Reanimation Library, The Encyclopedia Project, Cabinet Magazine, Bomb Magazine, Kentler International Drawing Space, Place in History, Recrossing Brooklyn Ferry, Ugly Duckling Press, Purgatory Pie Press, the Institute For Figuring, Temporary Services, J & L Books, The New York Public Library’s Donnell Media Center, The Artistsbook Library (curated by Maddy Rosenberg), The Museum of Matches Project, “Library Correspondents” Wendy Walker and Tom LaFarge, artists Nick Defriez, Harrell Fletcher, David Gatten, Nina Katchadourian, Jeanne Liotta, Jeffrey Schiff, Tracy Priest, Robert The, Alexandra Walcott and many more.