SHARP News

Genre bending The realist fiction of the eighteenth century took its origin, or at least part of it, from the single-sheet essay-periodicals that were the talk of

"invariably entertaining" and "exuberant, erudite" and "occasionally infuriating": man, this TLS review. i feel seen: excluding the first two, and the adverb "occasionally," this is exactly what my loved ones say about me. #18c #c18 #vastearlyamerica #bookhistory
www.the-tls.com/literature/p...

An Introduction to Book Collecting and Book Cultures This course will pursue a panoptic view of the growth of book culture and the practice of book collecting.

I’ll be teaching this, with help from some excellent guest speakers, in person, in London, in June. It will be fun. #BookHistory 👇

ies.sas.ac.uk/study-traini...

New project+page started: "Home for Broken Wood Type". Celebrating: collecting, mending+understanding, preserving, printing w/broken wood letterpress type. Part of my printing+research during my Jan. artist residency+fellowship. Better+more photos+info to come. enthusiastictype.com/brokenwoodty...

I collect my digital+analog #bookhist +arts projects @ EnthusiasticType.com:
*Limited Letterpress: tools for not-enough-type
*Queer Book History zine (@sharpnews.bsky.social collab)
*TBA zines for letterpress financial/physical/+ accessibility
Broken Wood Type, DIY Queer Historical Letterpress, blog

Wonderful news from Birkbeck's School of Historical Studies. We're hiring not one but TWO open-ended, full-time roles: Medieval Studies, and History of Art! cis7.bbk.ac.uk/home.html#fi...

Publishing beyond the market This talk will outline the argument in my new book Publishing Beyond the Market: Open Access, Care, and the Commons (University of Michigan Press, 2025). The book explores the evolution of the open ac...

Join us this Friday 16 January 2026 at 15:00 CET for a seminar at @cwtsnl.bsky.social with Dr. @samuelmoore.org on the current OA landscape and how we can move to a scholar-led infrastructure beyond the market. #ScientificPublishing #OpenAccess #BookHistory
www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/events/20...

Position Announcement: Curator of African American Experience Collections, University of Kansas Position Overview Kenneth Spencer Research Library (KSRL) at the University of Kansas (KU) Libraries seeks a creative and collaborative curator for our established and growing African American Expe…

🚨JOB KLAXON🚨 we're seeking a Curator of African American Experience colls here at KU! GREAT colls & colleagues, tenure track, unionized, salary $61,000-$68,000. Not on the committee, but would be a colleague! More info at link!📜 #bookhistory #booksky #libsky #rarebooks rbms.info/blog/news-ev...

Poster with a white and beigey-orange background with event details for Jody Mason's talk about her new book _Books for International Development_ on January 23 from 12pm-1:30pm. The poster is en français but the talk will be in English. See link in post for registration.

Jody Mason (my supervisor) will be talking about her new book, Books for Development: Canada in the Late Twentieth-Century World!

When: January 23, 2026 12-1:30pm EST

Where: zoom

Register in advance here: uqam.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

#bookhistory

Why Rare Book Rooms Are the Best-Kept Secret for Travelers Who Love History Anyone into history or literature should set aside one afternoon on their next trip to visit a rare book room. Here's what to know.

Why Rare Book Rooms Are the Best-Kept Secret for Travelers Who Love History

They remind us that not everything happens online. And also, swoon!

Graduate Trainee Librarian (One-year fixed term contract, full-time) Trinity College Library wishes to appoint an enthusiastic Graduate Trainee for one year from September 2026. The post offers an ideal opportunity to gain a…

Job Opportunity! We're looking for a Graduate Trainee Librarian

#libraryjob

www.trin.cam.ac.uk/vacancies/gr...

SHARPists ... what do ya got!?

#BookHistory #Archives #Research #RareBooks #Libraries #SpecialCollections

I worked for library special collections as an undergrad, sorting, labelling, and shelving (music) records. One day I opened a box, got a whiff, and knew there was something dead (old dead, not fresh dead) in there. This was above my pay grade so I called my boss, and it turned out to be a bat 🦇

When I was a postdoc at Dartmouth, a librarian told us that he could arrange special collections visits for any class. "Calculus?" This was apparently a new question.

He rocked it. Einstein's work (w/ Kemeny's corrections) back to old yearbooks back to a 1482 Euclid. Thank you, Jay!

#MathSky

At Harvard’s Houghton Library, I found a letter with salt crusted onto it. When I read the letter, I realized it was the guy’s dried tears because the letter was about the death of his young daughter

If I wanted to try to write about Boston publishing history (more recent, like last 50 years or so, not 19th c) in some kind of serial way, what is best platform? Substack seems lowkey evil. Happy to get opinions on this. Thanks! #publishing #bookhistory #Boston #books

Do you enjoy my periodic rantings on Isaac Newton's alchemical citations? If so, take a look at my shiny new article on our improved #TEI encoding system of Newton's citations & what we can learn from some preliminary analyses of the data!
#BookHistory #histsci (tldr in 🧵)
doi.org/10.14434/tc....

FLIPPING OUTSTANDING WORK, of interest to 📜 #bookhistory #booksky #libsky #rarebooks and #histSTM

We're on board with it. :p

a person is holding a passport with a stamp that says passport Alt: A hand is holding a passport open to a spread with many stamps. In the background, photos of international landmarks and scenery change rapidly.

Would you consider your passport a book? Not sure about it?

Read Inge Orlowski's FEATURES article, "Passports as Books and Books as Passports" on SHARP News to get you thinking!

Read it here: sharpweb.org/sharpnews/20...

#Travel #BookHistory #WhatIsABook #Materiality #Mobility

Three new SHARP grant/fellowship reports, live now on SHARP News!

👉 25th Anniversary Fellowship Reports by...
Hyei Jin Kim: sharpweb.org/sharpnews/20...
Gloria Morales Osorio:
sharpweb.org/sharpnews/20...

👉 SHARP Grant Report 2024 by...
Farhana Shaikh: sharpweb.org/sharpnews/20...

#SHARP

#BookHistory #MediaHistory 🔥

Introduction to Making Medieval Manuscripts (Practice Based) This course introduces students to the complicated and messy processes of production through which pre-modern manuscripts were created

Booking is now open for Making Medieval Manuscripts! A practice-based course where we make ink, cut quills, illuminate, make pigments and bookbind, using #medieval techniques and materials. We also explore early medieval art. No experience necessary! #bookhistory ies.sas.ac.uk/study-traini...

A hand that was scanned while digitizing an old book in the BSB München. The little finger is used to form a V. Source: https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/de/view/bsb10980705?q=Montag&page=7

V for Vendetta! Looks like this example of #scanninghands is calling for a revolution...

A hand soaked with sweat, in a plastic glove, caught in the act while doing a digital scan of a broadside for a Munich based library. Source: https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/de/view/bsb10811151?page=6,7

Say hi. This is an example of how human labor will be remembered when all books are digitized and we all work with digital copies only. And maybe, hand on heart, this hand was intentionally raised to greet us from the past. #skystorians #bookhistory #digitalhumanities

Book used as a collecting tool. Image is author's own.

Don't miss! 🌿 Pocket Books and Floating Libraries: Books as Collecting Tools in Instructions to Travelers. Anna Svensson will discuss how books haven’t just described the natural world, they’ve also helped collect it. Wed. 10 Dec, 15:00–16:00 CET Zoom link, email: instructingnaturalhistory@uu.se

#BookHistory

Edwin Pickstone - Sabhal Mòr Ostaig Edwin Pickstone lives and works in Glasgow. Focusing on the material nature of print Pickstone uses letterpress technology, collaborating with artists and

Typographica Scoto-Gadelica: Scottish Gaelic Typographic Visual Identity through Print & Book Culture
3 Dec @sabhalmorostaig.bsky.social & online – free

Exploring Scottish Gaelic’s contemporary visual identity & typographic heritage
#BookHistory #typography #Gaelic
www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/edwin-pickst...

❤️

It has been a pleasure and an honor to be SHARP bibliographer the last 3 years, and I’m looking forward to seeing what @juliaboechat.bsky.social and Shu do for the next 3!

a penguin is sticking his head out of a hole next to a job application Alt: A penguin (from the movie Madagascar) is sticking his head out of a hole in a box, tapping a sign that says "job application."

Deadline to apply to be the next SHARP News Editor in Chief is fast approaching. As in, it's tomorrow, November 28!!

Application details here: sharpweb.org/sharpnews/20...

#BookHistory #Editor #Academic #OnlinePublishing