Sounds like fun : NY Library launches overnight Scavenger Hunt for 500 lucky invitees

The New York Public Library, which became the first public library to launch a Foursquare badge this week, is going one step further in mobile innovation by inviting 500 people to compete in a smartphone-based challenge for a library game night.

“Find the Future: The Game,” devised by renowned game designer Jane McGonigal, is a series of “quests” delivered via an app on players’ mobile devices that can be completed at the Library’s 42nd Street location. A group of 500 players will be invited to play the game for the first time at 8 p.m. on May 20 to tackle a list of 100 overnight challenges.

The challenges are designed to encourage players to explore and reflect upon the objects from the library’s collections. A player might be tasked, for instance, to scan a QR code located at the Declaration of Independence, and then respond to a creative essay prompt. Once enough quests have been completed, they will be “unlocked” for the public, who can begin playing the game online May 21.

“There is something to be said for being in the presence of rare, historic objects,” says Caro Llewellyn, producer of the Library’s Centennial celebration. “Wikipedia and Google are fantastic, but to see objects like these in the flesh has enormous power and can truly inspire creativity.”

To sign up to become one of the first 500 participants, interested parties are asked to go to nypl.org/game to complete a “top secret” quest for entry. Judges will invite the authors of the 500 most “innovative and creative” entries to the event.

More here on how to play: http://game.nypl.org/#/menu

Alexandra, Egypt Library one of most beautiful libraries in world

Wow! Check out this Library in Alexandra, Egypt. Between the ancient pyramids and the Bibliotheca Alexandria, Egypt now has the best of the old and new. Like a giant discus landed at an angle or an enormous light switch, Alexandria's oceanfront library is arguably the a great design of the new millennium. Completed in 2002, it's inspired by the original Alexandria Library, founded in the 3rd century BC and acclaimed as the greatest of all classical institutions. The building's sloped design represents a second sun rising beside the Mediterranean. The vast rotunda space can hold eight  million books.

Casanova memoirs return to Paris

Two and a half centuries after Giacomo Casanova was hounded from Paris, the Venetian adventurer returned to his adopted home when the State acquired his memoirs for £6 million.


Casanova made a hurried escape from Paris in 1760 after earning the wrath of eminent subjects of Louis XV for seducing their wives and daughters and cheating them of money.

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The tale of the manuscript’s survival was almost as colourful as the 73-year life of the gambler, swindler, diplomat and impenitent libertine who died in exile in Bohemia in 1798. Bowdlerised, pirated versions were published across Europe from the early 19th century, mainly focusing on Casanova’s amorous exploits with 120 women and girls, including a nun.

The original book lay hidden in German vaults and was thought to have been destroyed in the bombing of Dresden in 1945 but it survived in a vault. It was first published in 1960 but has only been consulted since by a handful of scholars.

The memoirs offer one of the most sensitively observed accounts of life in Europe’s great cities. In Paris, for example, Casanova, a part-time alchemist, hobnobbed with the likes of Madame de Pompadour and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

Casanova’s adventures read like action movies, with sex scenes, narrow escapes, duels, carriage chases and scams. He writes that he is offering a full honest account: “Worthy or not, my life is my subject, and my subject is my life.”

British Library in London delights

On a recent visit to London I stopped by the venerable British Library. Here you see a photo I snapped of the "King's Library", a tall glass tower - the King's Library Tower - which houses books collected by King George III (reigned 1760-1820). It is considered one of the most significant collections of the Enlightenment, containing books printed mainly in Britain, Europe and North America from the mid 15th to the early 19th centuries. Consists of 65,000 volumes of printed books, with 19,000 pamphlets. Before this time there were no collections of books outside wealthy persons personal libraries. The great thing about this collection is that you, yes you, or anyone with a library card (and you can get one by simply registering) can examine these books, as well as thousands of others in the Library collections.
For more about the British Library King George collection