Serena Strecker

Unlocking the Digitized Archive of Early Modern Print: The Automatic Transcription of Early Modern Printed Books* | The Sixteenth Century Journal: Vol 56, No 2 Major digitization projects have made sixteenth- and seventeenth-century printed books more accessible than ever, yet most of these digitized sources have not been transcribed due to time, labor, and ...

"Scholars who rely on early modern sources must decide how labor and technology should be combined to produce the transcriptions on which the next generation of early modern studies will depend."

Wise words in a new paper by @scstrecker.bsky.social and Kimberly Lifton 👉 bit.ly/4fcz1fJ

Good article! Read it yesterday. I’ve worked a bit with Transkribus and have found it still needs some training on 16th c. French handwriting. Your point about the intent of using these programs is key: I get a lot from going word by word manually, but I see the utility of having a computer do it.

Want to know more about the ethics of transcription labor, AI-powered automated text recognition, and early modern print? Check out my and Kim Lifton‘s new article out in the Sixteenth Century Journal! www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1... #earlymodern #dh #aiethics

Confessional Cross-Pollination: Basel Humanists as Suppliers of Lutheran and Catholic Exempla Basel humanists shaped religious discourse beyond the Reformed sphere through their collections of exempla, short narratives designed to illustrate a moral or doctrinal message. Because scholars of ea...

Check out my new article! Corpus keyword search used to gauge the impact of Swiss humanists on later Lutheran/Catholic religious discourse, published today in Religions (open access):
www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/15...

I usually think of stress dreams as involving things like forgotten exams or having to give a lecture on chemistry but last night’s was frankly more creative: putting an early printed book through the washing machine

Too long for alt text here's a summary: faculty members at UT Austin are condemning the university administration's decision to invite heavily armed city police and state troopers to the campus in response to a planned peaceful educational event by the Palestine Solidarity Committee. The event was meant to include teach-ins, study sessions, pizza, and an art workshop, with no threat of violence or disruption. The faculty members witnessed police using excessive force against students, including punching a female student, knocking over a legal observer, and violently arresting students for standing at the front of the crowd. They are calling for no business as usual on campus and are urging the community to gather at the main mall in front of UT Tower the following day.

statement by UT Austin faculty, announcing a strike tomorrow in protest of the police presence on campus

Pictured is a filing from the National Labor Relations Board website showing a petition for certification of a labor organization as the representative of a collective bargaining unit. The employer is Trustees of Princeton University doing business as Princeton University. There are 1000 employees in the proposed bargaining unit made up of All postdoctoral researchers who provide services to Princeton University, including Postdoctoral Research Associates, Postdoctoral Research Fellows, Associate Research Scholars, Associate Research Physicists, Senior Research Assistants, and Postgraduate Research Associates.

BREAKING: 1,000 Post-doc researchers at Princeton are forming a union and joining UAW

From Daniel Schneider‘s Titius continuatus et illustratus (1669)

Note printed in margin of 17th century book saying Student vergißt alles, which means Student forgets everything

The exemplum of my nightmares

Projector screen with title slide with the Wolpi mascot and Transkribus User Conference ‘24 The future of information extraction

Sandwich board welcoming Transkribus User Conference goers with a background of historical written and printed texts

Haven’t posted in awhile—immersed in settling into Munich and getting into the swing of diss research! But I had to say I loved presenting on HTR for early modern German print at the Transkribus User Conference. Trying to resist the temptation to try every new method I learned at once!

The Specter of the Archive An exploration of the proliferation of paper in early modern Britain and its far-reaching effects on politics and society.   We are used to thinking of ourselves as living in a time when more informa...

oooooooo! Nick Popper's book on #earlymodern archives coming up! 🗃️ press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...

Thread 🧵

The following is a translation of Israeli activist Ariel Bernstein’s words on the passing of his friend Khalil Abu Yahia, who was killed in Gaza by an Israeli airstrike along with his wife and daughters. Shared with permission:

Student worker unionization is on the rise at U.S. colleges - Marketplace Student workers at Harvard and the University of Oregon voted to unionize last month. Cal State undergrad students may soon join them.

We’re in the news! Literally, this is our library, and these are our student workers at the beginning of the piece. So excited they’re unionizing and organizing for better pay and sick leave ✊🔥

www.marketplace.org/2023/11/06/c...

Just a Zotero+ILL/Scan and Deliver rabbit hole kind of cloudy, cozy Monday

The Roll Top Backpack | Waterproof Material | Laptop Pocket Explore our collection of Roll Top backpacks & rucksacks. Versatile & durable bags. Stay stylish & dry with our collection using waterproof recycled materials.

I got the Stubble&Co “The Roll Top” 20L—so far it’s been sturdy, comfy, and a good size, but I’ve had it less than a week, so my endorsement is pending a little more time to see if it holds up!

I‘ve finally broken down and given up my tote bag lifestyle. Just did my 30 min walk commute in the rain with my waterproof roll top backpack and my back is thankful and my stuff is dry—the weeks obsessing on backpack reddit have finally paid off

i am no longer up for debating whether palestinians deserve to live. the answer is an emphatic yes, palestinians deserve to live with dignity and freedom. nothing will ever justify a genocide. killing more than 7,000 civilians who belong to a distinct ethnic group in less than a month is a genocide.

An exemplum cited in the Discourse™️ about ChatGPT! Thrilling

#Skystorians #earlymodern #medievalsky historians 🗃️:
I am about to start my archival research and I find it rather daunting.
I'd love to hear your suggestions/advice/tips for working in the archives.

Any recommendations for best practices, tools/technology to use, preparation tips, etc.?

Brilliant op ed from incredibly brave teachers whose own jobs are on the chopping block & who have been pressured to remain silent. Please read & share widely. https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/an-open-letter-from-faculty-at-west-virginia-university/

I find it easier to think about taking one day completely off and one day for just work I‘m really excited about but the struggle is real!

It‘s normal to get obsessed with a new art form right as you‘re about to start researching your dissertation for real right? That‘s not just me? #LinocutScrollingThroughInstagram

That‘s a great tip! Waiting for the day when citation software and plug-ins is well tuned to early modern printed/archival sources…

I plan to incorporate it but it’s still new to me!

That feeling of giddy power when you‘re plunking away at your CV in LaTeX after years of struggling with Microsoft Word

I keep coming back to this typography, which is extremely good, and there are so many layers of references here, down to the selective use of red, it is truly a work of art in addition to a protest object. It is a broadside in more ways than one and I hope it’s plastered all over campus.

Hi #earlymodern folks— I’m teaching some of Cellini’s autobiography for the first time, any advice? It’s such a wild text, hoping to have a productive discussion about what kinds of evidence we can glean from it.

Strategies for getting stuff done Dr. Smith’s strategies for getting stuff done We all struggle with things like procrastination, feeling overwhelmed, and feeling like our work isn’t good enough. These are some of the strategies ...

I made this list for my students in the throes of finals last year, but it’s probably more useful at the start of the year. Feel free to use, adapt, and share.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uvVs6N-Da9o26nsUiqbO1Aakh5D7_J3PyUVQ3eS4vgc/edit

Got my Mellon/ACLS Diss Innovation Fellowship reviewers‘ comments & it‘s so encouraging to see my work through other scholars‘ eyes. Even though I didn’t get the fellowship, I feel like my project is a less solitary one. More fellowships should give the option to receive reviewers‘ feedback!