Gangtok: The Northeastern state of Sikkim is all set to have a Buddhist University -- named Khangchendzonga Buddhist University (KBU), it will become the first private Buddhist university in India and the first university in Sikkim to be founded by the Sikkimese people.

A bill in this regard was passed by the Sikkim Legislative Assembly 21 September to establish a Buddhist university in the northeastern Indian state. Interestingly, the session of the Legislative Assembly, which also passed eight other bills, was limited to a single session due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prem Singh Tamang, expressing gratitude to the members of the Legislative Assembly for passing the KBU bill, said: "This is a fulfillment of the SKM [Sikkim Krantikari Morcha] Party's manifesto to build a Buddhist university in Sikkim and will place Sikkim prominently on the map of higher education in India and the world."

Tamang in his release also stated that KBU would advance Buddhism in Sikkim and the world, and offer "innovative models of education and offer cutting-edge vocational programs with a broad-based foundation in liberal arts so that students of the lower and lower-middle class can be prepared for rewarding careers in India and outside."

Buddhism is one of the primary religions followed in the Himalayan state. A recent census shows that 57.8 percent ]of the population follow Hinduism, with Buddhists accounting for 27.4 percent and Christians 9.9 percent. Vajrayana Buddhism plays a significant role in Sikkim's public life.

Education Minister Kunga Nima Lepcha, who introduced the KBU bill in the Legislative Assembly, said the new university would promote knowledge, understanding, and development in all members of the community.

As per reports, this upcoming university is to be modeled on the guidelines laid out by the National Education Policy in India and is to help the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Also Watch: Assam DIG (retd) who owns 8kg gold, 5 hotels, 5 flats, 2 tea estates, 1500 bighas of land

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Sikkim to establish new Buddhist university in accordance with National Education Policy guidelines -... - The Sentinel Assam

Venerable Yvonne Tsai, a Buddhist nun with the Great Wisdom Buddhist Institute, spoke during a regular council meeting in Montague on Sept. 14. During the meeting, council put a proposal on hold from the Great Wisdom Buddhist Institute to build a nuns' residence in the community. - SaltWire file

Douglas Campbell Guest opinion

The National Farmers Union (NFU) is praising the Three Rivers municipal council for its care in dealing with issues relating to the Buddhist communities in the region. In recent days the council voted to refuse a permit to Great Wisdom Buddhist Institute (Buddhist nuns) for the building of a residence in Brudenell, eventually to be expanded to hold over 1,000 nuns. It was clear that the centre of concern for many attending the council meeting was far greater than the building permit. There has been an increasing growing anxiety in the surrounding area of Three Rivers, as well as other parts of P.E.I., about what appears to be unregulated land accumulation by foreign interests and corporations, through deliberate disregard for and manipulation of the Lands Protection Act.

For people who may not be aware, the Lands Protection Act was put in place in 1982 by the then Progressive Conservative government of Angus MacLean. It was, and continues to be, a forward thinking piece of legislation of spirit and intent and laws to ensure Islanders retain the right to the ownership and use of their land. It was also to protect Island farmers from direct competition by processors. The act is entrenched in the Canadian Constitution. While Island land has always been a target of outside interests with deep pockets, the NFU believes the act is more relevant than ever now as the worldwide land grab escalates.

The NFU wonders if the Buddhist presence in Southern Kings County might be following some of the same patterns of land ventures in other parts of P.E.I. Two corporations, along with others, cluster together family members to come up with numerous legitimate farm corporation, each of which can own 3,000 acres. It is a brazen breaking of both the letter and the spirit of the Lands Protection Act, which decrees that all such off-shoot corporations must be considered as one corporation.

Thus far we know of a number of organizations under the heading of Buddhist. Some of the Buddhist organizations, which come into the conversation in P.E.I. are: Bliss and Wisdom; Great Enlightenment Buddhist Institute Society (GEBIS), the monks with monasteries in Little Sands and Heatherdale; GEBIS Charlottetown, a non-profit organization on Great George Street; Moon Light International Foundation; Great Wisdom Buddhist Institute (GWBI), a monastery where nuns study and practise the teachings of Buddha, currently on the Uigg Road, with extensive plans for Brudenell. There is also the Moonlight International Academy, a private boarding school in Little Sands for the teaching of Buddhism especially to teenagers and some preteens.

The long-time residents of Southern Kings, from the first arrivals of the monks, nuns and students, have given the Buddhists an ongoing warm welcome, and have known these new neighbours as peaceful and kind. However, uneasiness entered the picture when people began noticing that farmland and other real estate seemed to be changing hands small-holding-by-small-holding.

Yet on all levels, the current government to-date is following in the footsteps of previous governments in its weakness and unwillingness to enforce the spirit, intent and even the letter of the Lands Protection Act. It seems powerless to follow the money or to enforce laws related to international money transactions, acquisitions and investments within their jurisdiction.

There are many unanswered questions which the P.E.I. government and IRAC must answer. The Municipality of Three Rivers should not have to be the enforcers of the Lands Protection Act. But how great it is that council listened and understood there are deep-seated issues behind the building permit request. The NFU insists that the responsibility for overseeing the letter, spirit, and intent of Lands Protection Act belongs squarely on the shoulders of the P.E.I. government. It is past time to see action relating to land acquisition in Southern Kings.

Douglas Campbell lives on their family farm in Southwest Lot 16 and is District Director of the National Farmers Union.

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NFU: Understanding the spirit and intent of the Lands Protection Act - TheChronicleHerald.ca

Neighbors please be mindful of social distancing guidelines while you do your part to slow the spread of the new coronavirus. See the latest guidance from the CDC here.

This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Live-Streaming Buddhist Retreat: The True Nature of Self, Saturday, October 10th, 10:00am 3:15pm. The object that we most grasp at is our self. We experience deep suffering when this self is criticized, judged or unhappy in any way. Buddha taught that we are actually very confused when it comes to understanding how this self actually exists and because of that confusion, we stay stuck in unhappiness. In this day retreat, we will explore the nature of the self and engage in practical meditations to help increase our wisdom and live our life more joyfully. Everyone is welcome. Cost: $25. Course will remain available online for 48 hours after class for those who pre-register and cant attend live. For info and registration visit: https://meditationinconnecticut.org/living-lightly-discovering-the-true-nature-of-self/

There is no greater method for experiencing peace of mind and happiness than to understand and meditate on emptiness. Geshe Kelsang Gyatso.

Free e-book Modern Buddhism: https://emodernbuddhism.com/

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The True Nature of Self: A Live-Streaming Buddhist Retreat - Patch.com

The National Farmers Union (NFU) is praising the Three Rivers Municipal Council for its care in dealing with issues relating to the Buddhist communities in the region. In recent days the council voted to refuse a permit to Great Wisdom Buddhist Institute (Buddhist Nuns) for the building of a residence in Brudenell, eventually to be expanded to hold over 1,000 nuns.

It was clear the centre of concern for many attending the council meeting was far greater than the building permit. There has been growing anxiety in the surrounding area of Three Rivers, as well as other parts of PEI, about what appears to be unregulated land accumulation by foreign interests and corporations, through deliberate disregard for and manipulation of the Lands Protection Act.

For people who may not be aware, the Lands Protection Act was put in place in 1982 by the then Progressive Conservative government of Angus MacLean. It was, and continues to be, a forward thinking piece of legislation of spirit and intent and laws to ensure Islanders retain the right to the ownership and use of their land. It was also to protect Island farmers from direct competition by processors. The act is entrenched in the Canadian Constitution.

While Island land has always been a target of outside interests with deep pockets, the NFU believes the act is more relevant than ever now as the worldwide land grab escalates.

The NFU wonders if the Buddhist presence in Southern Kings County might be following some of the same patterns of land ventures in other parts of PEI. Two corporations, along with others, cluster together family members to come up with numerous legitimate farm corporation, each of which can own 3,000 acres. It is a brazen breaking of both the letter and the spirit of the Lands Protection Act, which decrees all such offshoot corporations must be considered as one corporation.

Thus far we know of a number of organizations under the heading of Buddhist. Some of the Buddhist organizations, which come into the conversation in PEI are: Bliss and Wisdom; Great Enlightenment Buddhist Institute Society (GEBIS), the monks with monasteries in Little Sands and Heatherdale; GEBIS Charlottetown, a nonprofit organization (NGO) on Great George St; Moonlight International Foundation and Great Wisdom Buddhist Institute (GWBI), a monastery where nuns study and practice the teachings of Buddha, currently on the Uigg Road, with extensive plans for Brudenell. There is also the Moonlight International Academy, a private boarding school in Little Sands for the teaching of Buddhism especially to teenagers and some preteens.

The longtime residents of Southern Kings, from the first arrivals of the monks, nuns and students, have given the Buddhists an ongoing warm welcome, and have known these new neighbours as peaceful and kind. However, uneasiness entered the picture when people began noticing farmland and other real estate seemed to be changing hands small holding by small holding at a rapid rate. Much of which has fallen under the radar because of private transactions between supposed representatives of the Buddhists and local property owners. There was a rumour local farmers were offered inflated prices, sometimes in cash, for their land.

Yet on all levels, the current government to date is following in the footsteps of previous governments in its weakness and unwillingness to enforce the spirit, intent, and even the letter of the Lands Protection Act. It seems powerless to follow the money or to enforce laws related to international money transactions, acquisitions, and investments within their jurisdiction.

There are many unanswered questions which the PEI government and IRAC must answer. The Municipality of Three Rivers should not have to be the enforcers of the Lands Protection Act. But how great it is that council listened and understood there are deep-seated issues behind the building permit request.

The NFU insists the responsibility for overseeing the letter, spirit, and intent of Lands Protection Act belongs squarely on the shoulders of the PEI government. It is past time to see action relating to land acquisition in Southern Kings.

Douglas Campbell lives on the family farm in Southwest Lot 16 and is District Director of the National Farmers Union

See original here:
Understanding the spirit and intent of Lands Protection Act - peicanada.com

R. David Lankes said, Bad libraries build collections, good libraries build services, and great libraries build communities. However, ten years ago, a great community built a great library.

According to Branch Manager Dianne McLaurin, the Friends of the Forest Public Library had begun plans in January 2020 for a community-wide library celebration. Unfortunately, Covid-19 had other plans. The Friends group created a Ten-Year Anniversary Committee with Shawna Alexander, former branch manager and member of the group, as the chairman. The event was to be held in August or September 2020 to commemorate the grand opening of the current facility,McLaurin said. When the library closed on March 16th of this year, library life as we knew it changed for everyone. Even after we reopened to the public, the library programming has been completely virtual. Much to everyones disappointment, we knew that our plans for a Sunday afternoon celebration were not to be. I am so grateful for this opportunity to pay tribute.

Some people have called the Forest Public Library the Taj Mahal of Mississippi libraries. Mayor Nancy Chambers described it best ten years ago in a quote from The Scott County Times. Is this not a fantastic facility? Chambers question was answered with resounding applause at the librarys dedication ceremony hosted by the Forest Area Chamber of Commerce. She continued her address to a large crowd of residents in attendance, I dont believe there is a finer library facility owned by a municipality the size of Forest in the entire state of Mississippi. It says much about our people, it says much about our city, and it says much about our community. It tells everybody that we recognize where the emphasis should be.

Although much success was shared on that day in August 2010, the path to success was sometimes rocky and rough. Former Branch Manager Shawna Alexander remembers those days.

When discussions first began about building the new library, Mayor Chambers wanted to build the new facility in the same location of the previous library, Alexander said. She faced some serious opposition from those who wanted to preserve the structure because of the old band hall. They did not want the facility torn to the ground and a new one built in its place. However, the mayor was firm in her defense of the location, and the decision was made that the new library would remain in the heart of the downtown area.

Alexander said that the rocky road did not end with that positive decision. Everything in the building had to be packed up and moved to the Community Bank annex building and then unpacked for a year of continued library operation during the demolition of the old library and the construction of the new library.

The headquarters staff of the Central Mississippi Regional Library System helped with the transition of materials by offering support, organization, and physical labor.

We moved out of the building in April 2009 and stayed at the annex until of August of 2010, Alexander said. Some items had to be stored upstairs, so we made many trips up and down to make sure every item had a safe place until the building phase was finished. Mrs. Kaileen Thieling was the CMRLS director at that time. She was so helpful throughout the process. Four new libraries were built during her tenure as director, so she definitely knew the most efficient way to get everything done.

From the ambitious vision to the dedication ceremony, one part of the journey required the help of everyone.

This building would not be here without donations, Alexander said. She explained that everyone asked for donations. Mayor Chambers, Director Thieling, and Branch Manager Alexander visited every civic club, business, and organization to solicit donations.

Then Friends President Beverly Rhodes and Vice-President Esther Perry gathered up jugs and jars and took them to individual classes at the schools. Each class competed to collect the most change from the students.

I remember that we rolled piles and piles of change, Alexander said. It wasnt about winning a competition; I think the class that won received snacks from the Friends group. It was about everyone in the community doing their part, even children.

The community donations came from every corner of town. Whether it was a furniture company donating a recliner to be raffled or a bank donating a conference table, the community stepped up to the challenge. Soon the path to completion was becoming smoother, and the end destination was in sight.

The formal dedication and grand opening of the $2.5 million facility was held on Thursday, August 26, at 5:00 p.m. Former Scott County Times editor Sid Salter served as emcee for the event. Mayor Chambers enumerated the many people who had significant roles in building the new facility, including Bryan Brown architect, John Laws general contractor, the Forest Board of Aldermen, city administration, library staff, county officials, and the many donors.

Current Branch Manager Dianne McLaurin has strong ties to the Forest Public Library. She understands the appreciation of the new facility and the continued emphasis on community.

McLaurin is the only librarian to serve as childrens librarian, circulation clerk, assistant branch manager, and branch manager of the Forest Public Library. I cannot imagine this facility any other way than it is now, even though I worked in the former library, she said. At one point, we removed the carpet in that facility, painted the interior walls, and even painted the childrens area Bearcat Blue! I loved that library, but all the upgrades and repairs could not sustain the condition of the building.

There is nothing like experiencing the seasons in the new library with its floor to ceiling windows the spring blossoms, the summer sunsets, the fall foliage, and the Christmas decorations! I know why everyone feels welcomed and special here. I remember when WAPT news anchor Scott Simmons was covering a story in Forest, he was so impressed by the library. His exact words were this place is amazing.

John Grisham once said that all he had to do was visit the public library for an accurate impression of the town. The Forest Public Library continues to make a lasting impression upon everyone who drives around the city block, enters its doors, or uses the space for the services provided.

A few years ago, someone asked McLaurin how it feels to work in the beautiful facility, and she replied, It feels like being a part of something grand and common every single day. To me, true community feels the same.

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Forest Public Library celebrates 10th year anniversary in new building - Scott County Times

While the coronavirus pandemic forced the temporary closure of public libraries and programs throughout the country, the children of Redlands were not left behind. The Young Readers Room, which celebrates its centennial this year at the A.K. Smiley Public Library, continues to offer special literacy programs for kids in the virtual world with a human touch.

Pamela Martinez, the Smiley Librarys Youth Services librarian, leads a team that is ensuring local children have access to books and literacy programs. By taking youth programming online for the first time, the Young Readers Room staff has ensured that children, teachers and others can enjoy newfound access to the librarys story times and other offerings. The YRR also has an Instagram account.

The pandemic has helped the YRR expand globally, which Martinez calls an unforeseen benefit. In the future, some virtual programming will be available throughout the year.

It will continue being a platform to reach more people, she said about the move online. We do what we can and are always looking to incorporate new things.

After the Smiley Library closed temporarily in March, the staff changed its in-person story times for kids to virtual events, available on the YRRs Facebook page. For preschoolers, story time is streamed at 10:15 a.m. on Wednesdays; its also available on Redlands TV at 5 p.m. daily. Martinez reads books for kids ages 4-6 and also entertains with songs.

Virtual story time for babies is streamed live at 9:30 a.m. on Thursdays, with staffers reading stories, presenting songs and finger plays for babies up to age 2. Pajama time story time is presented Tuesday nights at 7 p.m. on Facebook, and a Spanish-language virtual story time for kids age 6 and younger is on Saturdays at 1 p.m.

In the first three weeks of August, a combined 3,000 minutes of story time programming was viewed online, said Martinez, who is tracking viewership. Preschool story time was the most popular.

We have people all over the United States watching so thats actually cool. Its opened up for people who dont live in the community to attend as well. Weve learned a lot and its been a great outreach, Martinez said.

Jessica Cross leads story time with her children, left to right, Jack, Charlie and Benjamin, holding baby Lila, in the Young Readers Room at A.K. Smiley Public Library. (Photo by Eric Reed)

Pam Martinez, childrens librarian at A.K. Smiley Public Library, gives an animated story time reading for children who can watch her and other readers on the Young Readers Room Facebook page. (Photo courtesy A.K. Smiley Public Library)

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The Young Readers Room is shown soon after the childrens wing was completed in 1920. (Photo courtesy A.K. Smiley Public Library)

Kids read books in the Young Readers Room. (Photo by Eric Reed)

Melanie Reilly of Beaumont and her two daughters, ages 2 and 5, are among the loyal story time followers. They enjoy watching Miss Pamela read stories.

Reilly used to take her girls to the Beaumont library for stories and crafts before that library closed, so seeing the YYR story time live on Facebook has been a great replacement for her daughters, especially her kindergartner who already knows how to read.

They get so excited when Miss Pamela recognizes them after they check in and she interacts with the kids. She does that with all the kids, Reilly said. Its just nice for our daughters to see a familiar face reading to them. It helps with me being more intentional with early literacy when I read to them. It really is another great opportunity for kids and its free.

Continuing virtual story times online will be a challenge in the long-term, since not all publishers are giving the A.K. Smiley Public Library permission to have their books read online. Some publishers gave the OK through the end of August and others have given permission until December.

Long, rewarding history

While nobody could have anticipated the Young Readers Room turning 100 during a pandemic, it has proven to be popular and enduring despite the librarys physical closure.

The YRR started in a windowless room in the basement of the A.K. Smiley Public Library. Today, the librarys special place for children has been adorned with stained glass windows and blessed with a staff who enjoy reading to children. Its filled with a collection of 31,775 books suitable for children up to ages 12-13 and 4,420 more books for older teens.

The program has expanded greatly since 1911, when Bessie Degenhart, the childrens librarian at that time, started a story hour attended by dozens of local kids on Saturday afternoons at the park. The first Childrens Reading Room as it was called at the time was located in the library upstairs in a small area before it was moved to the basement for more space.

In 1920, a new wing was added to the building and the childrens room was moved there, where it currently remains. In 1924, then-librarian Mary E. Pew started a summer reading program and also began hosting students for class visits from local elementary schools.

In the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, the childrens librarian treated local kids to walks where they ate lunch, read a book and wrote a journal.

They would see nature and talk about a book and hike back. That was pretty innovative back then, Martinez said.

This informal hikers club was started by Degenhart somewhere around 1913-18, when children ages 10-15 would meet in the librarys Tower Room for the walk.

The Childrens Reading Room continued to evolve. It was renamed the Young Readers Room in 1969 in an effort to expand the appeal to middle school students and older kids.

In 1980, Leo Politi, a well-known artist and childrens book author and illustrator from Los Angeles who fell in love with Redlands, donated artwork to the library and created the mural in the YRR.

A Family Day event was launched 17 years ago to involve even more local families, and it typically attracts 600-700 people. The YRR staff also has been a presence at local community events.

Martinez became the librarian in 2009, and the growth of social media during her tenure has helped to keep the program up and running virtually during the pandemic. Everyone on the staff is working to spread the love of reading books to youngsters everywhere.

Our goal is to keep kids reading, Martinez said. We want kids to still read for pleasure, not just for school. Whatever we can do to encourage that, we will do.

Drive-through Family Day

The 17th annual Family Day presented by the Young Readers Room will be a drive-through celebration on Saturday, Oct. 10. Its open to families of kindergarteners to fifth graders. Library staffers will hand out take-home crafts, one free book for every child, and a free book for each family as guests drive through the parking lot. A special Young Readers Room birthday cookie will be given out at the last station. Hours are 9 a.m. to noon.

Online resources for kids

The Young Readers Room offers dozens of online literacy, art, science, math, cooking, crafting, puzzles and educational programs for kids on its website, akspl.org/yrr. Resources include links to stories, activities and virtual fun from top educational brands and companies including Scholastic, A Mighty Girl, PBS, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Sesame Street, National Geographic for Kids and Khan Academy. Visit the San Diego Zoo via its webcam or visit Yellowstone National Park virtually. The YRR site also includes resources in Spanish for kids and links to popular fairy tales with Spanish translations.

Books to Go

Library cardholders of all ages can order books, CDs, DVDs or magazines online, by phone or by email, and pick them up curbside. When returned, all books are cleaned and disinfected according to CDC guidelines. Visit akspl.org to learn how to get books to go.

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Smiley Public Library Young Readers Room: 100 years, generations of readers - Redlands Daily Facts

Klamath County Libraries are providing online activities for families, kids and teens for the month of October, according to a Klamath County Libraries news release.

October is Harry Potter month at Klamath Libraries. Each week, pick up a different craft kit at the Youth Services desk, then join us for the tie-in live event on Zoom each Friday at 4 p.m. Zoom connection details will be in the craft kit. Kits for the week of Oct. 5 will by Pygmy Puff Pets. Kits for the week of Oct. 12 will be Monster Books. Kits for the week of Oct. 19 will be Slime. Kits for the week of Oct. 26 will be House Pride Bookmarks. The Library has also created a text-adventure escape room, with prizes from the Youth Services desk available after completion, at maxdcrow.itch.io/hogwarts-escape.

Other online activities include:

n Camp Write Stuff: Weekdays at 9 a.m. Join fellow authors each morning to bounce ideas or just leverage a little friendly peer pressure to make yourself finish that fic youve been procrastinating on. (You know the one.) For ages 12-18. Email Sarah at smiller@klamathlibrary.org for the link to join!

n Virtual Storytime: Tuesdays at 11 a.m. We go live on our Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/KlamathCountyLibrary, each week with stories, games, and surprisingly catchy songs. (Dont worry if you miss us live we host a recording of each Virtual Storytime on our Facebook page.)

n Teen Dungeons & Dragons: Tuesdays. We have everything you need to play just bring a healthy dose of imagination! We have three different playgroups: one from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., another from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., and one from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Email Sarah at smiller@klamathlibrary.org to get your character started!

n Teen Art Hour: Wednesdays at 3:30 p.m. Hang out and make art together! (Running low on art supplies? Stop by the Youth Services desk for a kit.) Email Sarah at smiller@klamathlibrary.org for the link to join.

n Animal Crossing: New Horizons Hour: Thursdays at 4 p.m. We gather in the Nintendo Switch game to trade items, admire each others outfits, and more! Email Vesta at vkerns@klamathlibrary.org for the code to enter our Animal Crossing island.

n Storytime Live: Fridays at 11 a.m. Do you like our Facebook live storytimes, but wish you could join in? Katies got an interactive storytime for you! Register once at https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMkcuuorDMoGNNV3QU2Xi5nmIhPqvpjjyQR and youll have access to a whole month of Storytime Live gatherings. Email Katie at khart@klamathlibrary.org if you need help connecting to Zoom.

n Teen Fan Club: Fridays at 3:30 p.m. Because libraries are more than just books, our book club for teens celebrates media of all kinds! From novels to manga, movies to K-Pop, lets chat about it all. Email Sarah at smiller@klamathlibrary.org to join.

n Lemon Brick Studios Comics Club: October 10 from noon to 3 p.m. Our ongoing comics club for artists and writers in sixth through 12th grade hangs out online on the second Saturday of every month! Email Sarah at smiller@klamathlibrary.org or club advisor Professor Franny at franny.howes@gmail.com to get the link to join in.

n Teen Discord! Did you know the Klamath County Library has a Discord server for teens to hang out! Its true! The conversations happening there inspire quite a bit of our online events. Email Sarah at smiller@klamathlibrary.org for the server info.

For more information, please call 541-882-8894, visit the Youth Services desk, or see our calendar at klamathlibrary.org/calendar.

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Online events for children, families and teens hosted by the Klamath County Library - Herald and News

Every day, dozens of like-minded mathematicians gather on an online forum called Zulip to build what they believe is the future of their field.

Theyre all devotees of a software program called Lean. Its a proof assistant that, in principle, can help mathematicians write proofs. But before Lean can do that, mathematicians themselves have to manually input mathematics into the program, translating thousands of years of accumulated knowledge into a form Lean can understand.

To many of the people involved, the virtues of the effort are nearly self-evident.

Its just fundamentally obvious that when you digitize something you can use it in new ways, said Kevin Buzzard of Imperial College London. Were going to digitize mathematics and its going to make it better.

Digitizing mathematics is a longtime dream. The expected benefits range from the mundane computers grading students homework to the transcendent: using artificial intelligence to discover new mathematics and find new solutions to old problems. Mathematicians expect that proof assistants could also review journal submissions, finding errors that human reviewers occasionally miss, and handle the tedious technical work that goes into filling in all the details of a proof.

But first, the mathematicians who gather on Zulip must furnish Lean with what amounts to a library of undergraduate math knowledge, and theyre only about halfway there. Lean wont be solving open problems anytime soon, but the people working on it are almost certain that in a few years the program will at least be able to understand the questions on a senior-year final exam.

And after that, who knows? The mathematicians participating in these efforts dont fully anticipate what digital mathematics will be good for.

We dont really know where were headed, said Sbastien Gouzel of the University of Rennes.

Over the summer, a group of experienced Lean users ran an online workshop called Lean for the Curious Mathematician. In the first session, Scott Morrison of the University of Sydney demonstrated how to write a proof in the program.

He began by typing the statement he wanted to prove in syntax Lean understands. In plain English, it translates to There are infinitely many prime numbers. There are several ways to prove this statement, but Morrison wanted to use a slight modification of the first one ever discovered, Euclids proof from 300 BCE, which involves multiplying all known primes together and adding 1 to find a new prime (either the product itself or one of its divisors will be prime). Morrisons choice reflected something basic about using Lean: The user has to come up with the big idea of the proof on their own.

Youre responsible for the first suggestion, Morrison said in a later interview.

After typing the statement and selecting a strategy, Morrison spent a few minutes laying out the structure of the proof: He defined a series of intermediate steps, each of which was relatively simple to prove on its own. While Lean cant come up with the overall strategy of a proof, it can often help execute smaller, concrete steps. In breaking the proof into manageable sub-tasks, Morrison was a bit like a chef instructing line cooks to chop an onion and simmer a stew. Its at this point that you hope Lean takes over and starts being helpful, Morrison said.

Lean performs these intermediate tasks by using automated processes called tactics. Think of them as short algorithms tailored to perform a very specific job.

As he worked through his proof, Morrison ran a tactic called library search. It trawled Leans database of mathematical results and returned some theorems that it thought could fill in the details of a particular section of the proof. Other tactics perform different mathematical chores. One, called linarith, can take a set of inequalities among, say, two real numbers, and confirm for you that a new inequality involving a third number is true: If a is 2 and b is greater than a, then 3a + 4b is greater than 12. Another does most of the work of applying basic algebraic rules like associativity.

Two years ago you would have had to [apply the associative property] yourself in Lean, said Amelia Livingston, an undergraduate math major at Imperial College London who is learning Lean from Buzzard. Then [someone] wrote a tactic that can do it all for you. Every time I use it, I get very happy.

Altogether, it took Morrison 20 minutes to complete Euclids proof. In some places he filled in the details himself; in others he used tactics to do it for him. At each step, Lean checked to make sure his work was consistent with the programs underlying logical rules, which are written in a formal language called dependent type theory.

Its like a sudoku app. If you make a move thats not valid, it will go buzz, Buzzard said. At the end, Lean certified that Morrisons proof worked.

The exercise was exciting in the way it always is when technology steps in to do something you used to do yourself. But Euclids proof has been around for more than 2,000 years. The kinds of problems mathematicians care about today are so complicated that Lean cant even understand the questions yet, let alone support the process of answering them.

It will likely be decades before this is a research tool, said Heather Macbeth of Fordham University, a fellow Lean user.

So before mathematicians can work with Lean on the problems they really care about, they have to equip the program with more mathematics. Thats actually a relatively straightforward task.

Lean being able to understand something is pretty much just a matter of human beings having [translated math textbooks] into the form Lean can understand, Morrison said.

Unfortunately, straightforward doesnt mean easy, especially considering that for a lot of mathematics, textbooks dont really exist.

If you didnt study higher math, the subject probably seems exact and well-documented: Algebra I leads into algebra II, pre-calculus leads into calculus, and its all laid out right there in the textbooks, answer key in the back.

But high school and college math even a lot of graduate school math is a vanishingly small part of the overall knowledge. The vast majority of it is much less organized.

There are huge, important areas of math that have never been fully written down. Theyre stored in the minds of a small circle of people who learned their subfield of math from people who learned it from the person who invented it which is to say, it exists nearly as folklore.

There are other areas where the foundational material has been written down, but its so long and complicated that no one has been able to check that its fully correct. Instead, mathematicians simply have faith.

We rely on the reputation of the author. We know hes a genius and a careful guy, so it must be correct, said Patrick Massot of Paris-Saclay University.

This is one reason why proof assistants are so appealing. Translating mathematics into a language a computer can understand forces mathematicians to finally catalog their knowledge and precisely define objects.

Assia Mahboubi of the French national research institute Inria recalls the first time she realized the potential of such an orderly digital library: It was fascinating for me that one could capture, in theory, the whole mathematical literature by the sheer language of logic and store a corpus of math in a computer and check it and browse it using these pieces of software.

Lean isnt the first program with this potential. The first, called Automath, came out in the 1960s, and Coq, one of the most widely used proof assistants today, came out in 1989. Coq users have formalized a lot of mathematics in its language, but that work has been decentralized and unorganized. Mathematicians worked on projects that interested them and only defined the mathematical objects needed to carry their projects out, often describing those objects in unique ways. As a result, the Coq libraries feel jumbled, like an unplanned city.

Coq is an old man now, and it has a lot of scars, said Mahboubi, who has worked with the program extensively. Its been collaboratively maintained by many people over time, and it has known defects due to its long history.

In 2013, a Microsoft researcher named Leonardo de Moura launched Lean. The name reflects de Mouras desire to create a program with an efficient, uncluttered design. He intended the program to be a tool for checking the accuracy of software code, not mathematics. But checking the correctness of software, it turns out, is a lot like verifying a proof.

We built Lean because we care about software development, and there is this analogy between building math and building software, said de Moura.

When Lean came out, there were plenty of other proof assistants available, including Coq, which is the most similar to Lean the logical foundations of both programs are based on dependent type theory. But Lean represented a chance to start fresh.

Mathematicians gravitated to it quickly. They were such enthusiastic adopters of the program that they started to consume de Mouras time with their math-specific development questions. He got a bit sick of having to manage the mathematicians and said, How about you guys make a separate repository? said Morrison.

Mathematicians created that library in 2017. They called it mathlib and eagerly began to fill it with the worlds mathematical knowledge, making it a kind of 21st-century Library of Alexandria. Mathematicians created and uploaded pieces of digitized mathematics, gradually building a catalog for Lean to draw on. And because mathlib was new, they could learn from the limitations of older systems like Coq and pay extra attention to how they organized the material.

Theres a real effort to make a monolithic library of math in which all the pieces work with all the other pieces, said Macbeth.

The front page of mathlib features a real-time dashboard that charts the projects progress. It has a leaderboard of top contributors, ranked by the number of lines of code theyve created. Theres also a running tally of the total amount of mathematics that has been digitized: As of early October, mathlib contained 18,416 definitions and 38,315 theorems.

These are the ingredients that mathematicians can mix together in Lean to make mathematics. Right now, despite those numbers, its a limited pantry. It contains almost nothing from complex analysis or differential equations two basic elements of many fields of higher math and it doesnt know enough to even state any of the Millennium Prize problems, the Clay Mathematics Institutes list of the most important problems in mathematics.

But mathlib is slowly filling out. The work has the air of a barn raising. On Zulip, mathematicians identify definitions that need to be created, volunteer to write them and quickly provide feedback on each others work.

Any research mathematician can look at mathlib and see 40 things its missing, Macbeth said. So you decide to fill in one of those holes. It really is instant gratification. Someone else reads it and comments on it within 24 hours.

Many of the additions are small, as Sophie Morel of the cole Normale Suprieure in Lyon discovered during the Lean for the Curious Mathematician workshop this summer. The conference organizers gave the participants relatively simple mathematical statements to prove in Lean as practice. While working on one of them, Morel realized her proof called for a lemma a type of short steppingstone result that mathlib didnt have.

It was a very small thing about linear algebra that somehow wasnt yet there. The people who write mathlib try to be thorough, but you can never think of everything, said Morel, who coded the three-line lemma herself.

Other contributions are more momentous. For the last year, Gouzel has been working on a definition of smooth manifold for mathlib. Smooth manifolds are spaces like lines, circles and the surface of a ball that play a fundamental role in the study of geometry and topology. They also often feature in big results in areas like number theory and analysis. You couldnt hope to do most forms of mathematical research without defining one.

But smooth manifolds come in different guises, depending on the context. They can be finite-dimensional or infinite-dimensional, have boundary or not have boundary, and be defined over a variety of number systems, such as the real, complex or p-adic numbers. Defining a smooth manifold is almost like trying to define love: You know it when you see it, but any strict definition is likely to exclude some obvious instances of the phenomenon.

For a basic definition, you dont have any choice [for how you define it], Gouzel said. But with more complicated objects, there are maybe 10 or 20 different ways to formalize it.

Gouzel had to maintain a balancing act between specificity and generality. My rule was, I know 15 applications of manifolds that I wanted to be able to state, he said. But I didnt want the definition to be too general, because then you cannot work with it.

The definition he came up with fills 1,600 lines of code, making it pretty long for a mathlib definition, but maybe slight compared to the mathematical possibilities it unlocks in Lean.

Now that we have the language, we can start proving theorems, he said.

Finding the right definition for an object, at the right level of generality, is a major preoccupation of the mathematicians building mathlib. Its creators hope to define objects in a way thats useful now but flexible enough to accommodate the unanticipated uses mathematicians might have for these objects.

Theres an emphasis on everything being useful far into the future, Macbeth said.

But Lean isnt just useful it offers mathematicians the chance to engage with their work in a new way. Macbeth still remembers the first time she tried a proof assistant. It was 2019 and the program was Coq (though she uses Lean now). She couldnt put it down.

In one crazy weekend I spent 12 hours a day [on it], she said. It was totally addictive.

Other mathematicians talk about the experience the same way. They say working in Lean feels like playing a video game complete with the same reward-based neurochemical rush that makes it hard to put the controller down. You can do 14 hours a day in it and not get tired and feel kind of high the whole day, Livingston said. Youre constantly getting positive reinforcement.

Still, the Lean community recognizes that for many mathematicians, there just arent enough levels to play.

If you were to quantify how much of mathematics is formalized, Id say its way less than one-thousandth of one percent, said Christian Szegedy, an engineer at Google who is working on artificial intelligence systems that he hopes will be able to read and formalize math textbooks automatically.

But mathematicians are increasing the percentage. While today mathlib contains most of the content through second-year undergraduate math, contributors hope to add the rest of the curriculum within a few years a significant milestone.

In the 50 years these systems had existed, not one person had said, Lets sit down and organize a coherent body of mathematics that represents an undergraduate education, Buzzard said. Were making something that will understand the questions in an undergraduate final exam, and that has never been done before.

It will probably take decades before mathlib has the content of an actual research library, but Lean users have shown that such a comprehensive catalog is at least possible that getting there is merely a matter of programming in all the math.

To that end, last year Buzzard, Massot, and Johan Commelin of the University of Freiburg in Germany undertook an ambitious proof-of-concept project. They temporarily put aside the gradual accumulation of undergraduate math and skipped ahead to the vanguard of the field. The goal was to define one of the great innovations of 21st-century mathematics an object called a perfectoid space that was developed over the last decade by Peter Scholze of the University of Bonn. In 2018, the work earned Scholze the Fields Medal, maths highest honor.

Buzzard, Massot and Commelin hoped to demonstrate that, at least in principle, Lean can handle the kind of mathematics that mathematicians really care about. Theyre taking something very sophisticated and recent, and showing its possible to work on these objects with a proof assistant, Mahboubi said.

To define a perfectoid space, the three mathematicians had to combine more than 3,000 definitions of other mathematical objects and 30,000 connections between them. The definitions sprawled across many areas of math, from algebra to topology to geometry. The way they came together in the definition of a single object is a vivid illustration of the way math grows more complex over time and of why its so important to lay the foundations of mathlib correctly.

Many fields of advanced math require every kind of math you learn as an undergraduate, Macbeth said.

The trio succeeded in defining a perfectoid space, but for now at least, mathematicians cant do much with it. Lean needs access to much more mathematics before it can even formulate the kinds of sophisticated questions in which perfectoid spaces emerge.

Its a bit ridiculous that Lean knows what a perfectoid space is, but doesnt know complex analysis, Massot said.

Buzzard agrees, calling the formalization of perfectoid spaces a gimmick the kind of early stunt that new technologies sometimes perform to demonstrate their worth. In this case, it worked.

You shouldnt think that because of our work every mathematician around the Earth started to use a proof assistant, Massot said, but I think quite a few of them noticed and asked a lot of questions.

It will still be a long time before Lean is a real part of mathematical research. But that doesnt mean the program is a science fiction sideshow today. The mathematicians busy developing it see their work as akin to laying the first railroad tracks a necessary start to an important endeavor, even if they might never get to take a ride themselves.

It will be so cool that its worth a big time investment now, Macbeth said. Im investing time now so that somebody in the future can have that amazing experience.

Correction: October 2, 2020A previous version of this article misstated Patrick Massots university affiliation, due to a recent change in its name. The article has been revised accordingly.

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Building the Mathematical Library of the Future - Quanta Magazine

The Library of Congress, which includes millions of books, recordings, photographs, newspapers, maps, and manuscripts in its collections, is seeking a cloud-based approach for interacting with digital collections as data.

In a Sept. 30 post on Beta.Sam.gov, the Library of Congress said it was awarded an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant titled Computing Cultural Heritage in the Cloud. The $1 million grant was awarded in October of 2019. The purpose of the grant was to test the cloud-based approach for interacting with digital collections as data, specifically to support researchers who are creatively applying emerging styles of research to Library material.

As technology advances, we envision a future in which all users researchers, artists, students and more are only limited by the questions they can think to ask; where scale, complexity, uniqueness, and speed are aligned to support their goals and result in fundamentally transformed ways of understanding the world around us, said Kate Zwaard, the Librarys director of digital strategy, when the grant waThe Library of Congress, which includes millions of books, recordings, photographs, newspapers, maps, and manuscripts in its collections, is seeking a cloud-based approach for interacting with digital collections as data.s awarded.

With its posting, the Library is looking to award contracts for up to four research experts to experiment with solutions to problems that can only be explored at scale. The Library is collaborating with subject matter experts and its IT specialists throughout the contract process. The goal of the research process is to help produce models for supporting cloud-based research computing, and will make the costs and possibilities of this work more transparent to the broader cultural heritage community.

The library is seeking a diverse group of research approaches for the exploratory project and is looking for technical, topical, and early-stage research provocations across multiple formats and collections. Research experts awarded contracts through this process will have access to a set of Library collections, computational resources in cloud infrastructure, and research expertise from digital scholarship librarians.

Projects proposed within this program area should come from researchers who can demonstrate appropriate disciplinary, linguistic, and historical knowledge, as well as technical, data, and cloud computing skills to carry out projects with limited support from Library staff beyond some research support, and information about library data practices, the Library of Congress said in its announcement.

The application process is two-fold. Researchers will first submit concept papers no later than Nov. 30, 2020. Next, a limited number of researchers will be asked to submit detailed project proposals. The Library is holding virtual Industry Days to answer questions on Oct. 28 at 1 p.m. and Oct. 29 at 4 p.m. The research will run for nine months from May 2021 to January 2022. The proposed research budget may not exceed $77,500. After the research has concluded, results will be available to the public.

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Library of Congress Seeks Cloud-Based Approach for Interacting With Digital Collections - MeriTalk

No one expected the lockdown to last as long as it has, so when Fort Bragg Seed Library enforced parameters of 20 packets of seed per individual, they only planned it to last through spring. Now were at the six-month mark and its time to start planning our fall and winter gardens and Fort Bragg Seed Library is resetting the parameters. Those who already collected 20 packets are now free to request 20 more.

They have quite a selection of seeds for fall and winter: root vegetables, lettuces, spinach and other greens. Instructions for requesting seeds can be found at mendolibrary.org/services/seed-libraries.

Questions? Call the library, Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., 707-964-2020 or shoot them an email at fortbraggbranchlibrary@gmail.com.

Need help getting started with your fall/winter garden? The library has tons of gardening books, DVDs and lots of online resources. Tons of gardening information is available on their online library.

Mendocino Seed Libraries are online with links to tips for gardening, seed saving and much more at mendolibrary.org/services/seed-libraries.

Happy gardening!

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Fort Bragg Seed Library launches fall and winter program - Mendocino Beacon