Matt Shaw

Thrilled for @senatehouselib.bsky.social, who've secured funding to catalogue Jonathan Cutbill's Haud Nominandum, the largest personal collection of English-language LGBTQ+ materials in the world! We had a handling session at #QueerBibliography 2023 with a tiny selection and it's a riot

also

jobs!

heard an early paper on it, so expect as much!

look forward to reading!

review is in: they all enjoyed it, "very atmospheric", "not sure if story was accurate". Emerald Fennell has found her audience at last and it's the WI

I came for the Kerouac Scroll, but stayed for the spy tooth onlineonly.christies.com/s/jim-irsay-...

Society of Authors closed its account

Once reviled, now celebrated, London’s Southbank Centre is a genuine civic wonder The cultural complex’s national importance has belatedly been recognised

‘the listing protects that remarkable legacy too, a genuine civic and public investment in culture that elevated the public above the city, as if to take possession of it, whether you had a ticket or not.’

giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

Shirley Chisolm standing next to Major Owens, both smiling broadly.

Major Owens was a librarian who helped found the NY Social Responsibilities Round Table. He went on to become a NY State Senator and then a US Rep, following Shirley Chisolm. He shepherded the Americans with Disabilities Act through the House. #BlackHistoryMonth
www.bklynlibrary.org/blog/2021/05...

Text of Merritt, Pinax, 1667 with reddish ink finger print

Caught red handed

Biblio-nerdy chuckle of the afternoon (with a chocolate theme!):
Francis Fry (1803-1886) has been described as “a Quaker and a maker of Chocolate and Bibles, which he makes up from imperfect copies”.
And here he is in 1865, exposed, buying an imperfect Cranmer “‘most useful for completing copies”

Shelf Life Periodically culling books may be a wrench but it is also a necessity In his short story The Library of Babel, Jorge Luis Borges conceives of the universe as a library containing all possible books, including those of complete gibberish, of a certain length and number of characters per line. It is finite but not remotely possible as a physical space. On a far smaller scale, British universities are encountering a similar par-adox. Their libraries are running out of shelf space. Some university libraries house more than a million items. The collection of the Bodleian at Oxford exceeds 13 million. A new scheme called UK Print Book Collection will help stem the tide and free up the shelves. Libraries that subscribe will be able to co-ordinate "deaccession" policies. They will be able to discard, sell or otherwise dispose of a book if at least seven copies are held by other institutions within the scheme. This is sensible. And it may provide reassurance to readers whose living arrangements are inadequate to accommodate their collection. Books accumulate, and not only through habits of read-ing. It is enough merely to have firm intentions to read an improving volume but never quite get round to it. Liz Gold, the ingenue who falls in love with a jaded British agent in John le Carré's novel The Spy W Cm i from the Cold, has in her sparse bedsit "a bookcase full of paperback books, mainly classics which she had never read". She represents all for whom the presence of the written word is a comfort, even in volumes unopened. But enough is enough. Where university_lib-raries lead, the rest of us may follow. It is not wrong to cull your collection every few years. You are not engaged in the destruction of the Library of Alexandria. You are preserving your own comfort and, just possibly, domestic harmony.

Deaccessioning (and the UK PBC) makes it to The Times

Call for Papers: Forgotten Libraries: Lost, Dispersed, and Marginalised Manuscript Collections - Centre for Manuscript and Text Cultures The Centre for Manuscript and Text Cultures (CMTC) is pleased to invite Oxford-based researchers to participate in the workshop Forgotten Libraries to be held at The Queen’s College (Oxford)...

Don't forget this CFP cmtc.queens.ox.ac.uk/call-for-pap...

The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind. RSC - Swan Theatre. An absolutely joyous production 👏👏👏💐💐💐 Featuring “The wobbly Giraffe with three legs”

Woad day in the French Republican Calendar

I almost forgot what day it was

Red cake with Fredrick Douglass picture

Here at Swarthmore we are celebrating @douglassday.bsky.social with this stunning cake and an exhibit from the Friend Historical Library #DouglassDay

Seeking an Assistant Librarian - Marsh's Library We are seeking to recruit an Assistant Librarian for Marsh’s Library in central Dublin. Location: St. Patrick’s Close, Dublin 8 Reporting to: Assistant Director, Marsh’s Library Salary: €40,000 – €45,...

We are seeking to appoint an Assistant Librarian in Marsh's Library. This will be a great position for an early-career librarian. Further details at: marshlibrary.ie/assistant-li...

The Cyberattack That Exposed The Fragility Of Digital Heritage Saturday 28 October 2023 is a date that will live long in the memory of staff at the British Library. As they arrived for work that day, they encountered

On ransomware and under-funded GLAMs: 'At no point was the British Library particularly negligent or unprepared. Instead, it was hindered by vulnerabilities shared by the majority of cultural institutions. ...the attack [is] a warning to the whole sector.' informationsecuritybuzz.com/the-cyberatt...

Writing to authors and getting replies In the mid-1990s I wrote some short stories, and, not knowing quite what to do next, I looked up the names of authors I knew and liked in Who’s Who, found some addresses, and sent copies, asking for f...

open.substack.com/pub/adamsmyt...

now with authenticator app!

If research excellence is linked to research specialisation, why don't more specialist universities routinely outcompete more generalist ones in global league tables?

And should UK HEIs intent to climb the rankings think twice before mothballing their Arts & Humanities?

Asking for a friend. 1/5

As someone once assigned to be an Olympic dove, I appreciate this line of journalistic enquiry

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

looks great. Have ordered a library copy. Topic of interest to @awickenden.bsky.social ?

I want to say a bit more about our initiative to hire scholars to 3yr Research Associate positions.

None of us know what the twinning of humanities research support and employment will look like in another 5(?) years. But we do know that we need it. As a matter of social and cultural health. 1/

Macbeth: SHIT

THINGS YOU CAN DO WITH A HISTORY MAJOR

Lead Curator: Modern Archives & Manuscripts (1601 – 1800) at British Library Discover an exciting academic career path as a Lead Curator: Modern Archives & Manuscripts (1601 – 1800) at jobs.ac.uk. Don't miss out on this job opportunity - apply today!

speaking from experience, this is a great job www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQH179/l.... Although chron. sucks if you are into Giordano Bruno or are a Jefferson scholar.

Without naming your job, tell me something you say over and over again at work.

“The professional standard is clean, dry hands, and has been for all of this century.”

Sarcasm aside for a moment, it is a really good speech, spoken with passion and a genuine call for unity. This is good.

Interesting cut to Denmark