Yes, but obviously there’s a problem with the dates in my phone, because this was clearly only five years ago and I’m still basically a teenager.

For the celebration of the life and work of Christian in 2017, I put together a little exhibit of all the storage mediums/media we had for the HT over the years – starting with 1970s reel to reel tape. In the end the data fitted onto a tiny USB stick, which I think Christian felt was anticlimactic.

Christian Kay, the second director of the Historical Thesaurus, hands over a padded envelope to Tommy Cameron, University of Glasgow janitor, in the entranceway of 12 University Gardens, where we all worked

17 years ago today we sent off the 1st ed of the Historical Thesaurus to OUP for publication in 2009! Scary to think that someone born as we typed in the final word might now be an undergraduate starting this year… (Pictured is Christian Kay handing over the envelope to Tommy Cameron, our janitor.)

Each year, Archives and Special Collections at the University of Glasgow advertises several Fellowships for visiting researchers. The application deadline for 2025 is 6th January. It’s an amazing collection, especially for medievalists and early modernists - apply!

www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/li...

The weekend's almost here... What are ye doing for the weekend? Or should we be asking... What are youse doing tonight?

Do you use 'ye' or 'youse'? As the maps keep filling up, we're starting to see where people use one rather than the other!

It was a lucky shot, and maybe because it was so cold that’s why it was such a clear night!

The Wellington Church at the University of Glasgow campus against a bright moon behind clouds

Walking home last night and was struck by the moon and the clouds above the Wellington Church on the university campus (but didn’t stay to take any more as it was freezing cold!)

Cover of the paperback edition of Burning the Books by Richard Ovenden

Cover of the Harvard University Press edition of Burngin the Books by Richard Ovenden

Apols for the self promotion but #BurningtheBooks was written during the first Trump era (& in part responded to it). The coming years portend intensified attacks on knowledge. My CODA re-ups the argument for libraries & archives as infrastructure of democracy.

Soothing waves for those who need it today

Would any of these words do: ht.ac.uk/category/?id... - for a good number of them we have citations of them being used around that time!

That reminded me of the excellent post fifteen years ago about when Google Books first tried to OCR the long S and ended up, um, sucking it up: www.gilesthomas.com/2010/12/long...

Secretly wish I had asked to have a go at it myself, but I know it would have ended badly and probably with a trip to A&E

“Earl Stanhope, being teller of the latter, refused to return the Bishop of Lincoln, because he was not habited in his lawn sleeves [ceremonial robes made of lawn, a type of fine linen]. This drew on a warm altercation”

Not even a “warm altercation” over the Bishop of Lincoln trying to vote while being in inappropriately ceremonial garments can drag me back to working this afternoon

A photo of a recently-cut-open page in the Gentleman’s Magazine LXXI.1

Professional achievement unlocked: at the @britishlibrary.bsky.social today working on a bit of the Gentleman’s Magazine from 1801 so obscure that even the BL’s copy had uncut pages – I had to get a nice chap at the desk to use his official-looking knife on it. Now am overexcited and need a lie down

Laptop sticker from the Digital Preservation Coalition saying “storage is not preservation”

Thought-provoking laptop sticker given out for World Digital Preservation Day #wdpd2024 at Senate House in London today

Sunset earlier in the year from the office window – staring out at this and smiling is now my number one excuse for not getting all my work done.