Year: 2011

  • The Snowstorm

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    Writing from Minnesota, this ibiblio staffer is struck by the contrast: Today is grey  and brown, damp, and a balmy 37 degrees. Last year at this time, workers were shoveling out the Metrodome, whose roof collapsed under seventeen inches of snow.

    Despite the costs and inconveniences, most Americans probably look forward to a white Christmas. Join us at ibiblio in welcoming and celebrating the colder months this year with a collection of winter tales and poems from Project Gutenberg. (more…)

  • Dec 7, 1941: A day that will live in Infamy…

    To commemorate the anniversary of one of the most dramatic attacks on American soil, we are reposting a description from earlier this year–one of the more fascinating collections ibiblio has to offer:

    The Pearl Harbor History Associates (PHHA) is a non-profit corporation chartered by the Commonwealth of Virginia on July 2, 1985 for the purposes of education, research, and promulgation of historical data.

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    “To honor the memory, to serve the truth, to protect the heritage, we are happy to host some of the best Pearl Harbor sites on the Web”

    This collection of sites is truly a unique, comprehensive, and valuable resource. (more…)

  • Get Bach!!!

    Mutopia wants to get you back to Bach and others, with their massive database of free sheet music available in easy to download pdfs. [Image no longer available]

    In the vein of Project Gutenberg, another popular ibiblio mainstay, Mutopia volunteers have uploaded hundreds of sheet music files from the public domain on to their database. Anyone can contribute, and anyone can access this music.

    Featured artists include masters such as Bach Mozart, and Chopin, as well as more obscure composers such as the 16th century’s  T. Arbeau. The 1698-piece archive is searchable by composer, instrument, and musical category, to make it easy for you to find that piece you’ve always wanted to learn. Don’t remember how it sounds? Entries include a midi file like this Prelude in E minor by Frederick Chopin:

     

    Chopin Prelude in E minor

    Break out your mandolin, your pipe organ, your piano or cello, and get playing!

    Photo: http://erdbeerengel.deviantart.com/