The Vegetable Orchestra (Youtube)

Library of Congress dumps a ton o' pix on Flickr (BoingBoing)

The Library of Congress today launched a pilot project with Flickr -- of the ~14 million prints, photos and other visual materials at the LoC, they've uploaded about 3,000 copyright-free photographs from two popular collections to a new Flickr account. The big idea: get folks to tag 'em all. (more. . .)

The new information order (Pew Internet)

Where do you turn when you have a problem? Family and friends? Experts? Internet searches? Libraries?

We asked those and a variety of other questions on a recent survey and found some surprising things. In a report we issued this afternoon, we found that for a cluster of problems with government connections more people turn to the internet than to experts or family members.

This preference for the internet isn't the case for every person's every problem. But it was interesting to see how much the internet has moved from the periphery of people's lives a decade ago to the center of their information environment now. (more. . .)

Bagdad's Brave Librarian (Christian Science Monitor)

Loud talkers, lost books ... and the occasional sniper fire, rocket attacks, and death threats are what Saad Eskander is up against in rebuilding the National Library and Archive.

By Tom A. Peter | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Like most librarians, Saad Eskander, director of the Iraq National Library and Archive in Baghdad, has to deal with a number of disturbances: people speaking loudly in the study area, lost books, and the occasional sniper fire or Katyusha rocket attack.

"Our building was rocketed a few times," says Dr. Eskander, in the same level tone he might use to describe a trip to the grocery store. "It was mortared and part of our fence was destroyed.... Stray bullets and sometimes snipers' bullets smashed some windows as well, including my office."

Though none of Eskander's staff have been injured in these attacks, five have been killed in sectarian violence, and death threats have displaced dozens of his 300-plus staffers.

Eskander hardly seemed the Jack Bauer of librarianship as – during a recent tour of the US – he recounted his experiences in the Cambridge apartment of his colleague, an archivist at Harvard University. A slight man, Eskander is soft-spoken and not easily excitable. His wire-rimmed glasses and slick sports coat belie the stereotype of librarians committing 30-year-old fashion faux pas. But then again, Eskander is not your typical librarian. (more. . . )