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Charles Darwin notebooks lost and assumed stolen

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Charles Darwin notebooks lost and assumed stolen

#71

Post by helsinkiandrew »

I wonder if a 'google streetview' like system could be used to find library books that have been misfiled.

A robot drives around the shelves taking photos of the books on the shelves, those are then matched to what is expected to be found in that section, obviously there will be some without names or labels on the spines - but hopefully not many. But it can atleast say there are 4 unknown books and 3 unaccounted for in a section.

Obviously that won't help in this case when delicate artifacts are in boxes.

Re: Charles Darwin notebooks lost and assumed stolen

#72

Post by dagw »

fakedang wrote: post #64
dagw wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And why shouldn't they? No one is saying they shouldn't. The main thing people are questioning is the ridiculous amount of money they spent for a painting more and more people are convinced isn't actually a Da Vinici. Secondly the painting hasn't actually showed up in any museum yet, and in fact no one knows for sure where it actually is. Anonymous Oil Sheiks drastically overpaying (and shattering the old art sale re…

Does it even matter why? They have the money, it's their concern, it's not a concern for people who aren't remotely interested in it. I think the painting's whereabouts are pretty well known in many circles - some vault in Switzerland. As for why it hasn't come up, it was originally bought by the Saudi Crown Prince as a vanity piece, which he decided to initially loan to the Louvre Abu Dhabi, but then he himself want…

Does it even matter why?

Of course it doesn't matter. It's a funny little news story about weird rich people and the weird world of high end art that pops up from time to time and that people find vaguely entertaining.

As for it's authenticity, no one is claiming it's a forgery or a copy, the question is if any of it was actually painted by the hand of Leonardo Da Vinci as opposed to perhaps one of his students or another artist working out of his studio.

Re: Charles Darwin notebooks lost and assumed stolen

#73

Post by MaxBarraclough »

MrRoadroller wrote: post #62
MaxBarraclough wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Somewhat related to this, the BBC have an annoying habit of using a photo in a thumbnail for an article, and not providing the full-size photo anywhere.

Just to let you know this may be due to the license for that image. They may have just bought the thumbnail size license. If you want find the full size image, it may be on one of the image archives (eg. Getty, PA images etc).

Then I wish they'd just use a thumbnail of one of the images they use at full size in the article.

Re: Charles Darwin notebooks lost and assumed stolen

#74

Post by Threeve303 »

helsinkiandrew wrote: post #71

I wonder if a 'google streetview' like system could be used to find library books that have been misfiled. A robot drives around the shelves taking photos of the books on the shelves, those are then matched to what is expected to be found in that section, obviously there will be some without names or labels on the spines - but hopefully not many. But it can atleast say there are 4 unknown books and 3 unaccounted for…

If anyone gets around to making this I suggest calling the robot Dewey.

Re: Charles Darwin notebooks lost and assumed stolen

#75

Post by crazygringo »

I'm curious if there have been any tech advances in tracking valuable objects in like rare books, sketches, paintings, etc. that are currently actually used by institutions or considered a best practice.

Whether it's RFID chips, Bluetooth tags, security cameras that do "book recognition", or something else.

Heck, even something as simple as a barcode per object, shelf, cart and holding area, and you've got to scan them in and out every time it's picked up and put down (tied to your ID), and the whole system beeps with loud errors if it isn't scanned in somewhere within 30 seconds of being scanned out.

The idea that a multimillion dollar object could be "misplaced" or lost in a large collection feels appropriate to the year 1980, but by 2020 it feels positively anachronistic. (I realize this happened in 2000, so I'm wondering what prevents it today.)

Re: Charles Darwin notebooks lost and assumed stolen

#76

Post by UShouldBWorking »

helsinkiandrew wrote: post #71

I wonder if a 'google streetview' like system could be used to find library books that have been misfiled. A robot drives around the shelves taking photos of the books on the shelves, those are then matched to what is expected to be found in that section, obviously there will be some without names or labels on the spines - but hopefully not many. But it can atleast say there are 4 unknown books and 3 unaccounted for…

In this case it seems that (devistatingly) they knew they were lost 20 years ago and just kept quiet about it.

Re: Charles Darwin notebooks lost and assumed stolen

#77

Post by UShouldBWorking »

spuz wrote: post #40
LatteLazy wrote: post #25

Lost/theft is inevitable. Lying about it for 2 decades isn't.

Nowhere in the article does it suggest that anyone lied about the books.

They kept it quiet when they could have had the whole world on the look out. Who knows how many opportunities were missed to have them found in the meantime.

Re: Charles Darwin notebooks lost and assumed stolen

#78

Post by dialamac »

crazygringo wrote: post #75

I'm curious if there have been any tech advances in tracking valuable objects in like rare books, sketches, paintings, etc. that are currently actually used by institutions or considered a best practice. Whether it's RFID chips, Bluetooth tags, security cameras that do "book recognition", or something else. Heck, even something as simple as a barcode per object, shelf, cart and holding area, and you've got to scan th…

Lol you’ve never stolen a book from the library before either intentionally or not? This should be pretty straightforward but the more valuable something is the more incentive there is to steal it. Meanwhile, while you can throw more money at physical security and scale it up, technology hasn’t changed much in 50 years let alone 20 - you hire enough people at considerable expense and implement good basic security systems. This costs money and stupid tech like “slap an rfid tag on it” doesn’t change anything

Re: Charles Darwin notebooks lost and assumed stolen

#79

Post by ericlewis »

crazygringo wrote: post #75

I'm curious if there have been any tech advances in tracking valuable objects in like rare books, sketches, paintings, etc. that are currently actually used by institutions or considered a best practice. Whether it's RFID chips, Bluetooth tags, security cameras that do "book recognition", or something else. Heck, even something as simple as a barcode per object, shelf, cart and holding area, and you've got to scan th…

My question to this solution would be: do you have to modify the book in some way? Would we want to potentially ruin a book to do that? If the solution is easily removable then does it help?

We should digitize as much as possible and background check the heck out of librarians it seems to me.

Re: Charles Darwin notebooks lost and assumed stolen

#80

Post by acomjean »

helsinkiandrew wrote: post #71

I wonder if a 'google streetview' like system could be used to find library books that have been misfiled. A robot drives around the shelves taking photos of the books on the shelves, those are then matched to what is expected to be found in that section, obviously there will be some without names or labels on the spines - but hopefully not many. But it can atleast say there are 4 unknown books and 3 unaccounted for…

They do this is some parking garages. Especially long term (airports) something drives around and reads all the license plates. Easier than books but same idea.
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