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Features a library designed by interior designer Alan Tanksley in the Hampton Designer Showhouse in Wainscott, New York. Use of paper clip chandelier by Gary Ponzo; Price range of Ponzo's chandeliers.

Family papers detailing the private life of the former first lady Bess Truman were released last week, with no apparent bombshells about her in the more than 24,000 pages. The Harry S. Truman Library and Museum opened the family papers to mark the 124th anniversary of the birth of Mrs. Truman. The library obtained the papers after the death of the Trumans' daughter, Margaret Truman Daniel, in January 2008. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Reports the purchase of the literary archives of author Susan Sontag by the University of California Library in Los Angeles, California.

Examines the problems faced by the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. regarding the conservation and restoration of books.

Reports the acquisition by Columbia University of the library and personal archive from playwright Tennessee Williams's home in Florida. Details of the literary material acquired by the university.

Discusses unusual collections at libraries. How libraries bid for or are given papers, manuscripts, letters and notebooks of major literary and historical figures and are often given personal effects, such as wallets, ashes, and jewelry as well; Lack of resources in libraries to store and preserve the items; Large quantities of hair as part of collections. INSET: Collected Works.

Details the efforts of restoring the books destroyed by fire at the Anna Amalia Library in Weimar, Germany. Description of items irreparably destroyed; Transportation of the books to the Center for Book Conservation; Challenge of soliciting the help of the government and the public to help finance the restoration.

The article offers information on Gladstone's Library in Great Britain that houses books and papers from the 19th-century Liberal British prime minister William Gladstone, views of its director Peter Francis, on an increase in visitors at the library and fundraising for its expansion.

Anna Bennett, a senior at New York University, was puzzled about where to find research material for a nine-page paper. ''The topic was 'Write whatever you want about a food group, recipe or ethnic food,' '' she said. ''The first thing that came to mind was Ethiopian food.'' She went online and started an instant-message chat with a librarian deep inside the university's fortresslike Bobst Library, across West Fourth Street from Washington Square Park: Do you have any cookbooks? [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Books have been born all over Brooklyn's Fort Greene. Richard Wright labored over ''Native Son'' here while sitting on a hill in Fort Greene Park; a bench there now bears his name. He lived nearby, as did Marianne Moore, and several contemporary writers have roots in the neighborhood, including Colson Whitehead, Jhumpa Lahiri and Nelson George. For a tour of this literary hub (or to take the free workshops the New York Writers Coalition holds here to help people find their inner author), hop the subway to DeKalb Avenue or a nearby station. Bring pen and paper, in case the muse strikes. NOON If you emerge from the DeKalb subway stop, stroll toward Fort Greene Park, where the Prison Ship Martyrs Monument, a memorial to Revolutionary War dead, stretches into the sky. Head toward the Walt Whitman branch of the Brooklyn Public Library, 93 St. Edwards Street, (718) 935-0244. In the early 1900s, the building was a resource for the families of workers at the nearby Brooklyn Navy Yard, at the time even having a special children's entrance. The library offers a modest selection of books on the borough -- check out Allen Abel's 1995 ''Flatbush Odyssey: A Journey Through the Heart of Brooklyn'' -- and plenty of thrillers by Dean Koontz and Mary Higgins Clark. Swing by for a book discussion, and be sure to ask a librarian for a good local reading spot. A favorite is Two Steps Down, a restaurant at 240 DeKalb Avenue, (718) 399-2020. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

To the Editor: I enjoyed the article ''Rare Books Don't Always Live in Glass Cases'' (Nov. 1) on lesser-known libraries with extraordinary collections. I was reminded of the detour-worthy art collection housed in the library of my hometown, Charles City, Iowa, population about 7,500. The public library was bequeathed an important collection of works on paper in 1941. The Mooney Collection, named for Arthur Mooney, an Eastman Kodak Company executive, contains engravings, etchings and prints by major artists including Rembrandt, Picasso, Durer, Cezanne, Whistler, Gauguin, Manet and others. The exhibition is open whenever the library is open to the public. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

If you have torn yourself away from the virtual library that is the Internet long enough to visit a real library, you know that the smell of old books -- musty, slightly acidic, even grassy -- is instantly recognizable. But is it quantifiable? And if so, might old-book odor prove useful to librarians and conservators charged with preserving collections? Matija Strlic, a researcher with the Center for Sustainable Heritage at University College London, thinks it might. With colleagues in Slovenia and with the assistance of the National Archives of the Netherlands, he has published proof-of-concept research that shows that it is possible to understand both the composition and condition of old paper by analyzing the volatile organic compounds they emit. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The University of Massachusetts Amherst said it would scan, catalog, digitize and put online papers of the civil rights movement pioneer W. E. B. Du Bois. The university's W.B. Du Bois Library has an estimated 100,000 diaries, letters, photographs and other items related to Du Bois, who helped found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The university received a $200,000 grant from the Verizon Foundation to put the collection online. The collection includes correspondence with people like Albert Einstein, Mohandas K. Gandhi, Langston Hughes and Booker T. Washington. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In an honor nearly as estimable as achieving Alpha-Plus status, the U.C.L.A. Library announced that it has acquired the literary archive of Aldous Huxley, the author of ''Brave New World.'' Among the materials in the collection are manuscripts and working papers for 12 of his books, as well as 35 essays, articles and speeches; recordings of Huxley reading from his lectures and his 1944 novel, ''Time Must Have a Stop''; and love letters he exchanged with his wife, Laura, who died in 2007. The archive also includes personal items like a magnifying glass and wallet used by Huxley, as well as his British passport. Though Huxley was born and raised in England, he lived in California from 1937 until his death in 1963. The U.C.L.A. Library's special collections department is already home to the manuscripts for ''Time Must Have a Stop'' and another Huxley novel, ''The Devils of Loudon.'' [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, that touchstone of atomic espionage, is a case that launched a thousand doctorates and enough historical texts to make a library groan. Now, however, the 50-year-old record may grow even more complex: on Monday, the federal government, in an unusual move, consented to release most of the secret grand jury testimony taken in the case. In papers filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan, prosecutors said that they would not oppose the release of testimony from 35 of the 45 witnesses who appeared before the grand jury in New York in 1950 and 1951. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Presents news updates on the arts, compiled as of May 14, 2004. Acquisition of the papers of playwright/director Richard Foreman by the Fales Collection of New York University's Bobst library; Keith Lockhart's opening of his 10th season as conductor of the Boston Pops.

Focuses on the papers of Malcolm X that were to be sold at auction in March 2002, but are to be made available to scholars at the New York Public Library's Schomburg Center in Harlem, under an agreement between his family and the center. Background on the documents, which have yet to be assessed by scholars; Comments of the center's director, Howard Dodson; Sample items, including photographs and a diary; Significance of Malcolm X's diaries and drafts of speeches.