Latest news with #Library
NZ Herald
36 minutes ago
- General
- NZ Herald
Rotorua library service delivers thousands of books to schools and housebound readers
A mobile Rotorua library service has delivered more than 80,000 books to housebound residents, school children and youth offenders over the past five years. Rotorua Lakes Council's Library to You service – previously the housebound delivery service and onsite outreach van selection service – has operated for more than 25
3 days ago
- Entertainment
Stephen Sondheim's papers head to Library of Congress, revealing Broadway genius
NEW YORK -- Manuscripts, music and lyric drafts, recordings, notebooks and scrapbooks from Stephen Sondheim have been donated to the Library of Congress, offering the public a chance to see firsthand the creativity of one of musical theater's giants. The collection includes about 5,000 items, ranging from drafts of songs that were cut from shows or never made it to first rehearsal, as well as a spiral music book titled 'Notes and Ideas' that document some of his musical efforts while a student at Williams College. He died in 2021. 'It's staggering,' said Senior Music Specialist Mark Horowitz in an interview. 'He's constantly refining, changing words or phrases here and there. It's like he never gives up on trying to perfect the things.' The cache includes drafts of variations on the lyrics to 'I'm Still Here' from 'Follies' and 'Putting It Together' from 'Sunday in the Park with George' that Sondheim wrote for Barbra Streisand at her request. The collection arrived at the Library in March. There also are lyrics for a reprise of 'Side by Side by Side' that never made it into 'Company' and 40 pages of lyric sketches for 'A Little Priest' — 'Is the politician so oily it's served with a doily?' go one of the final lines — from 'Sweeney Todd,' with lists of more than 150 possible professions and types of people who could have been baked into pies written in the margins. 'It seems like the older he gets, the more sketching there is,' says Horowitz. 'For the early shows, there may be three boxes of materials or four boxes. By the later shows, it eight or nine boxes. I don't know if it's because it became harder for him or because he became more detail-oriented.' The Library of Congress expects a surge in requests to view the collection when it becomes available this summer. Anyone over 16 with a driver's license or a passport can ask for access to the original pages. It becomes available July 1. Horowitz, the author of " Sondheim on Music: Minor Details and Major Decisions" and editor for The Sondheim Review, who has taught musical theater history at Georgetown, has been surprised by some of the items. One of them was a song Sondheim wrote as part of a public TV contest in the early 1970s. The winner wanted the Broadway icon to write a song for his mother's 50th birthday and Horowitz stumbled over their correspondences. 'I had no idea that existed,' he said. Horowitz convinced Sondheim to donate his papers to the Library of Congress in 1993 and the composer put it in his will. 'I'd seen his manuscripts to some degree in his home before, but nothing like the kind of in-depth page after page after page that I'm doing now.' Horowitz, who has been processing collections for 34 years, built a friendship with Sondheim and even found his own name a few times in the collection. "For large collections that I spend a lot of time on, I tend to feel the ghost of that person over my shoulder. But with Sondheim, it's the first time I can think of that I'm processing a collection of someone who I really knew." Six of Sondheim's musicals won Tony Awards for best score, and he also received a Pulitzer Prize ('Sunday in the Park'), an Academy Award (for the song 'Sooner or Later' from the film 'Dick Tracy'), five Olivier Awards and the Presidential Medal of Honor. In 2008, he received a Tony Award for lifetime achievement. The fact that Sondheim had anything to donate to the Library at all is a miracle. He suffered a fire in 1995 that started in his office, just feet from where the collection rested on wooden shelves and in cardboard boxes. But somehow it survived, albeit with some papers suffering scorch marks. 'There's absolutely no reason why the collection should not have gone up in flames. And it is truly the closest I've ever seen to a miracle, the fact that they didn't,' said Horowitz. The country's oldest federal cultural institution, the Library of Congress was founded in 1800 under legislation by President John Adams and has traditionally enjoyed bipartisan backing. It contains more than 100 million books, recordings, images and other artifacts and offers a vast online archive, and its contents span three buildings on Capitol Hill. It's not a traditional circulating library but is instead a research library. In his second term, President Donald Trump fired the Librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden, amid criticism from conservatives that she was advancing a 'woke' agenda. The Library of Congress is already home to the collections of several Broadway icons, including Neil Simon, Arthur Laurents, Marvin Hamlisch, Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon.
Irish Post
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Post
British Library will reinstate Oscar Wilde's revoked reading pass
THE British Library has confirmed it will reinstate an historic reader pass once belonging to Oscar Wilde which was revoked when he was found guilty of 'gross indecency' in 1895. 'After 130 years, the British Library plans to symbolically reinstate the Reader Pass that belonged to the renowned poet and writer Oscar Wilde,' the organisation confirmed this month. 'As revealed in a Trustees' entry in the British Museum's Standing Committee Papers, Wilde was officially excluded from the Library on June 15 in 1895, which at the time was still known as the British Museum's Reading Room,' they explain. Wilde's exclusion from the library is referenced in trustees papers from May 1889 to April 1896, in the British Museum Archive (Pic: Trustees of the British Museum) 'The decision to revoke Wilde's Reader Pass was made following the trial and conviction he faced as a result of the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885, which criminalised acts of "gross indecency" between men.' Theya added: 'Oscar Wilde is regarded by many as one of the greatest playwrights of the Victorian age and is celebrated for his prolific literary output, including novels, poems and plays.' The library holds a collection of Wilde's works, including the handwritten love letter written by Oscar Wilde to Lord Alfred Douglas from Reading Gaol titled De Profundis. His reinstated pass will be officially handed over to Wilde's only grandson Merlin Holland at a special event due to be held at the library in October 2025. During the event Holland will launch his new book After Oscar, which is described as 'the definitive study of the rise and fall of Oscar Wilde'. The book will be released on October 16, 2025 to coincide with Wilde's 171st birthday. See More: British Library, Merlin Holland, Oscar Wilde, Reading Pass
Android Authority
4 days ago
- Android Authority
Spotify's much hated 'Create' button could soon go away, if you want it to (APK teardown)
Ryan Haines / Android Authority TL;DR Spotify introduced a 'Create' button in its app's bottom navigation, but the move sparked widespread user backlash. Code within the latest app release suggests the company is listening to user feedback, as it could soon give users an option to hide the Create button. This opt-out toggle is not yet live, nor has Spotify officially confirmed it. Old habits die hard, and Spotify is learning this the hard way. The service introduced the 'Create' button on its homepage's bottom navigation bar in good faith, making it easier for users to create different types of playlists. While a few people like the Create button, almost everyone else hates it. Users have been very vocal about how the Create button messes up their muscle memory, and it seems Spotify has taken note of the feedback as it works on making the Create button optional on the homepage navigation bar. Authority Insights story on Android Authority. Discover You're reading anstory on Android Authority. Discover Authority Insights for more exclusive reports, app teardowns, leaks, and in-depth tech coverage you won't find anywhere else. An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release. Spotify v9.0.58.206 includes strings that suggest the app could make the contentious Create button optional: Code Copy Text The Create button will appear in your navigation bar. Create button Currently, users on the latest Spotify update have the new Create button enabled by default, and no setting is available to remove it. The strings above suggest that users could get a toggle that will bring the Create button to their navigation bar when enabled and remove it when disabled. Once removed, users who hate the button will presumably return to their beloved three-button Home-Search-Your Library navigation bar. Aamir Siddiqui / Android Authority The option to remove the Create button isn't live yet in Spotify, nor has the company announced that this change is coming. We'll keep you updated when we learn more. Got a tip? Talk to us! Email our staff at Email our staff at news@ . You can stay anonymous or get credit for the info, it's your choice.
Irish Independent
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Madeleine Keane on books: Oscar Wilde's reader's card is ‘uncancelled' by the British Library, 130 years on
Plus the Cork Midsummer Festival, and something for Beatles fans too Today at 09:30 After 130 years, the British Library plans to symbolically reinstate the reader pass that belonged to Oscar Wilde. Wilde was officially excluded from the Library on June 15, 1895, following the trial and conviction he faced as a result of the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885, which criminalised acts of 'gross indecency' between men.
