Live from the Library...

I just submitted these two articles to LiS news... we'll see if they both appear there, but these are interesting reads anyway.

(EDIT: one is posted already... and here's the other... yay!)

National Archives Thief Gets Jail Time -- A Virginia man was sentenced to two years in prison yesterday, after having been caught and convicted of stealing Civil-War Era materials. He was caught when a researcher recognized that something the thief as trying to sell on EBay was something from the National Archives.

I don't think I could state the impact of this better than two people interviewed for this article, however:

This sentence sends a very clear signal that theft of cultural property belonging to the American people will not be tolerated," U.S. Archivist Allen Weinstein said in a statement....

Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Chasson said that Harner caused two kinds of damage. "Not only is a piece of the nation's history gone, but it's also had serious ramifications for the operations of the archives and is going to have the effect of crimping the freedom that researchers have at the archives," she said. "There's a trust that's been broken between the archives and researchers who rely on it."

--

Meanwhile, back in Arkansas, the Clinton Presidential Library will be opening a new exhibit: A rotating exhibit of musical memorabilia called: "World of Music" running through Dec. 31st.

We all know of Clinton's saxophone performance on Arsenio Hall back in the day, and the exhibit has plenty of saxes Clinton has recieved from well-wishers over the years. The exhibit doesn't stop there -- memorabilia runs the gamut of musical influences/styles: a recorder that Vaclav Havel gave Clinton, Elvis, U2 and Beatles memorabilia... even an Eritrean lute.