benjamin_vershbow@nypl.org's blog

We've gotten a number of questions over the past week of What's on the Menu? about menus marked as "done." Do we really mean done? As in finished, vetted, archived for posterity? Fear not, we've cleared up this confusion with some new language. What we really meant to say was "under review."

The 2009 World Series brings together two cities uncommonly rich in baseball history. Though you might guess which team NYPL is rooting for this year, we've posted a selection of images on The Commons on Flickr representing a variety of New York and Philadelphia ball clubs of yore.

Dear readers, the blog will experience a brief hiatus as we prepare to launch the new NYPL website. That's right, the Library is about to receive a massive digital makeover, the first chapter in a long journey ahead of improvement and innovation. Among the many exciting changes soon to come will be a far more prominent role throughout the site for staff blogging. This marks the end of the pilot phase.

The Digital Experience team would like to heartily thank all the brave and brilliant librarians and curators who were our 'early adopters.' They're still scribbling away intently behind the scenes, preparing to resume posting as soon as the new site deploys. Many new voices will also soon join the fray.

Thanks in advance for your patience, and check back soon for more news about the new NYPL.org!

As we watch with astonishment the "restructuring" of two American automotive titans, take a look back at the first four decades of their history, a time which saw multiple breaking waves of innovation in both engineering and design, and a steady absorption of manufacturing brands into the conglomerates we now see in crisis today.

Chances are, if you spend any time online you've come across Flickr. Flickr is a wonderful site for storing, sharing and building community around photographs. It's similar to online photo services like Kodak Gallery or Shutterfly except with a greater social focus and tools and features reminiscent of Facebook. About a year ago Flickr launched the Flickr Commons, a project dedicated to sharing and describing the public photo collections of the world's leading cultural heritage institutions.