In celebration of B.B. King’s 86th Birthday (Sep 16) we at ibiblio delved in to the B.B. King archive to bring you some photos of the King of the Blues.
Check out the archive for more pictures, audio and video.
The archive is the work of Dr. William Ferris, professor of history and Senior Associate Director of the Center for the Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Every Christmas we here at ibiblio see our traffic skyrocket. The man behind this spike is Michael Hart, the founder of Project Gutenberg, one of our favorite and most popular partners.
In 1971, Hart began manually entering the text of books into a University of Illinois computer network. This was a solitary passion for 17 years until he was able to publicize his pursuit, convincing others to join. At that time he had uploaded “only” 313 books, including the Bible and the Declaration of Independence.
Today, with thousands of volunteers following Hart’s lead, Project Gutenberg boasts over 17,000 titles, including classics from Kafka, Shakespeare, Plato, and Dickens. Almost any book you could think of from the early 20th century and before is available to download by anyone with an Internet connection, for free.
So this Christmas, when you get your shiny (or matte) new Kindle or Nook, join thousands of others in accessing the world’s largest collection of free e-books. Curl up in a big chair, and before you start reading, shoot Mr. Hart a quick thank-you.
Michael Hart, the inventor of e-books, the founder of Project Gutenberg, a man who was famously idiosyncratic, and loved by many, died on September 6, 2011 in his home in Urbana Illinois.
The world owes Mr. Hart a debt of gratitude, and we here at ibiblio are sad to lose him. You can read his full obituary at the Project Gutenberg homepage.
As America struggles to remember and make sense of the September 11 attacks on their upcoming 10th anniversary this week, ibiblio encourages users to look back at another distressing moment in American history.
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.
“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.
A complete collection of the joint congressional hearings that took place between1941 and 1946, in which eyewitnesses give their testimony to provide a complete story of the attack
A photographic look at the United States Navy during the attack on Pearl Harbor
ibiblio urges you to peruse these and other sites and remember those that lost their lives, but also reflect on the fact that the Pearl Harbor attack brought the people of this country together, and 70 years later we’re still going strong (in the grand scheme of things).
60 years from now, we hope we can host a similar collection that will commemorate the lost, and shed light on the attacks that shook this country just a decade ago.