Rebuilding the village library
With a little help from their friends and neighbors, including university staff, the residents of Charles Village will receive the gift of a new library this winter.
   Staff members from Volunteer Services, the Milton S. Eisenhower Library and the Institute for the Academic Advancement of Youth have played an active role in the development of the Village Learning Place Inc., a library and educational program center that will replace the St. Paul Street branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library that closed in September 1997.
   The new nonprofit facility, now undergoing extensive renovations, will open in the 2521 St. Paul St. location sometime in February and will feature a library, a learning center, a coffee bar and a community garden. Full story...

Transformation tool helps move images
To send images and video from one place to another, computers now rely on compression--a method of squeezing large amounts of digital information into smaller packets that can be moved swiftly along an electronic highway. Before compression can take place effectively, the data collected from the sensors of a digital camera or a scanner must first undergo a mathematical transformation.
   A Johns Hopkins University engineer has invented a new digital transformation method that promises to speed up the transmission of digital multimedia while using far less power. The increased speed could make it easier to conduct high-quality video-conferencing in real time, the inventor says. At the same time, the reduced demand for power will make it more economical to process images on battery-operated devices, including laptops, hand-held computers and digital cameras, the researcher suggests. Full story...

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