Friends, for a student:
does anyone know where a student might find digitized commonplace books & scrapbooks? All collections/suggestions welcome—she just needs more examples for a project she’s working on
From live lectures to in-depth conversations, the Omohundro Institute’s YouTube channel brings early American history to life. Watch and explore:
🔗 vist.ly/4ybew
There is no such thing as one objective narrative of history. Historians are actually a bunch of weird little guys obsessed with things like wars, yes, but also Washington's thighs and Henry's codpiece. Some weird little guys got into a textbook and some didn't.
"Contrasted Drummers", a humorous 1790s print depicting a stocky British soldier with a bass drum confronting an slender Frenchman with a much smaller drum. From the Bodleian Libraries.
Delighted to learn that my PhD dissertation has received the 2026 Research Prize from the International Society for the Research and Promotion of Wind Music.
The book version, Musical Warriors: British Military Music and the Napoleonic Wars, is out early next year with @mcgillqueensup.bsky.social
This one semester, Book Arts position may be of interest to you or someone you know. 📚🎨 ☀️
www.scrippscollege.edu/hr/faculty/v...
The remarkable power of... paperwork?
The Radical Spanish Empire is a new, groundbreaking history of political struggle in the Spanish New World—
A world where commoners and elites alike challenged the social order through paper politics.
Keep reading: bit.ly/46CYw73
"I saw a specimen of science and the natural world, of course, but I also saw a beautiful object constructed, created, by people—by paleontologists, museum curators, engineers, and welders."
Puzzle Binding!
Tricky! These are almost as rare as hen's teeth, and we just...
Had One???
And, it includes HOW Many Books? (Five from Germany c. 1601 and a blank one at last count...) #Vexierbuch #DosADos @newberrylibrary.bsky.social (Case C 823 .966)
Album with a pink and a yellow ticket to the US Senate Impeachments in April and May of 1868.
Why Can't We Have Nice Things Too?
An emerald-green moth missing for nearly 150 years has been rediscovered in South Africa.
Photos posted online confirmed the survival of Drepanogynis insciata, once known only from 1870s specimens — highlighting the power of citizen science platforms like iNaturalist.
People swatting a swarm of flying green and brown grasshoppers.
Dear BHL Users, We’re seeing significant bot traffic surges causing intermittent disruptions to the BHL website. While our firewalls are blocking much of this activity, some legitimate users may be affected. Our team is actively working to reduce the impact. Thank you for your patience. 🧪 🌱 📖 🦗
Thousands of institutions abandoned programs, ended or rewrote scholarships, closed down clubs and publications, all in pre-emptive compliance.
And you know why?
Mostly because they wanted to do it if they thought they could blame someone else for it.
I am looking for a part-time research assistant in the Cambridge (Mass.) area to help with a history of the Academy. Details at bit.ly/4asu0Pr and feel free to DM or email me with questions.
I used Transkribus awhile back (UConn days!) with some success, but haven't gone back to it recently. It's on our list of comparative models/platforms to try. Separately, you might be interested in this upcoming talk w/Drexel (on zoom, but you have to create an acct): www.chstm.org/group/collec...
Yeah, we’re using the paid version. Interesting, re: other figures - it’s possible this is an outlier, but for the four collections we’ve tried it on so far those numbers have held.
I'm curious about your experience with accuracy rates re: Gemini. We've been experimenting with various models to capture specimen/observational data in field notebooks for several months, and are running around 65-70% accuracy w/Gemini.
Two mudskippers (brown fish with large google eyes and large front fins used for "walking"), one on the mud on the ground, the other up a tree root.
BHL's new chapter has begun! 🌱
Our latest #BHLTransition Update shares where BHL is now: stable, fully operational, and nearing completion of its transition. BHL has retained its people, its expertise, and its ability to operate effectively. 🔗 blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2026/01/tran... #ILoveBHL
LIBRARIES WIN IN COURT. Federal court issues permanent injunction in Rhode Island V. Trump, stops the dismantling of the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
The court ruled that all actions taken by the Administration to dismantle IMLS are nullified. This injunction takes immediate nationwide effect: all grants, in every state and territory. The Administration is stopped from taking these actions again in the future. Show up for our libraries, American Library Association.
NEWS: Libraries WIN in federal court!
A judge in RI issued a permanent injunction stopping the Administration from dismantling the Institute of Museum & Library Services and nullifying all actions taken to do so.
Read the ruling: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us... (More to come from ALA)
The new Red List for Vascular Plants published this week by @bsbibotany.bsky.social highlights the serious decline in Britain’s freshwater plants.
A meme of 'Is this an archive?' showing a grid with various classifications of things that might be archives based on their content and structure.
Hoping this helps our colleagues across the industry
BHL had a strong presence at #LivingData2025 + the #GBIF #GB32 Governing Board Meeting in Bogotá 🇨🇴. We shared our transition progress, rallied support & strengthened collaborations for linked open biodiversity data. 🧪 🌎 📚 🌱🔗 Read more: blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2025/11/livi... #OpenScience
The AHA is pleased to announce the winners of its 2025 prizes, which honor exceptional books, distinguished teaching and mentoring in the classroom, public history, and other historical projects. Congratulations to the 2025 awardees! #AHAPerspectives🗃️
Did you know that BHL has #FullTextSearch? You can search for scientific names, places, etc, but you can also find all the things that "Alfred Russell Wallace" found "delicious" in his travels (search for "delicious" and then narrow search results by author). #ILoveBHL www.biodiversitylibrary.org 🧪
Do you want to be a part of our mass digitisation project, and potentially have your research shared more widely?
As we wrap up on this momentous project, we’re keen to showcase how Kew’s data is being used in research across the globe 🌍
Could you help us tell this story? ✨
Please spread the word—The Scholars’ Workshop in Early African American Print at AAS Jan. 12-15, 2026. A writing workshop and intro to archives for junior scholars working on the dissertation or first book. Fully funded. Apply by Oct. 15 2025. PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD
