The cyberattack on The British Library in October 2023 knocked out ebooks and almost ever other computer thing there for years.
Ebooks just came back. They were knocked out everywhere using the BL’s license (legal deposit libraries I think? More libraries?)
Distributed physical copies matter.
assuming everyone has already read this but if not: please be advised that the first time I read it I was at my desk at work and I had to go for a little walk halfway through because I thought I was about to die from quietly laughing
Next Friday (24th April)!
Join us for our next Doctoral Open Day: 'Contemporary British & Irish Collections' - including whistle-stop tours of a range of collections, 'Meet the Curators' & reference services sessions, & a whole panel on contemporary collecting!
events.bl.uk/events/docto...
Fully-funded AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership project:
'Cold War Socialism, Non-Alignment and Anti-Colonialism in the Yugoslav Press, 1961-1979' - British Library & University of Exeter
www.exeter.ac.uk/study/fundin...
Deadline for student applications: 5 May (noon)
We're seeking interdisciplinary perspectives on radicalism, protest, and the political power of print, from satirical caricatures and regional newspapers to the "hidden agency" of those working within the trade. Full submission details are included in the poster 5/5
Don't miss your last chance to join us in Manchester to hear from #publishing professionals working across the industry. Our panellists will offer insight into different roles and ways into the industry.
Book: www.writersandartists.co.uk/events-and-courses/caree...
My forthcoming book has a page! No cover yet, but a page! It's really happening!
press.jhu.edu/books/title/...
Just watched this talk: Resisting Dehumanization in the Age of “AI.” Absolutely worth 50 minutes of your time.
God, I love her so much. Just banger after bager.
She's in it purely for the love of the game and I respect that.
Jeff Bezos has $222 billion.
If he paid my wealth tax this year, we could fund insulin in America for everyone who needs it plus free school lunch for every kid in Texas—and have plenty of money left over.
And Bezos would still have $215 billion dollars to spare.
Four PhD studentships are now open for applications. As part of AHRC’s Collaborative Doctoral Partnership Scheme, these studentships are co-supervised by Library staff and academics based at UK universities.
Find out more about the projects 😃
2 people consulting a printed volume on a book cushion
📢Job alert! We’re looking for 3 new full-time graduate trainee Archives & Special Collections Assistants to join our innovative, user-focused engagement team.
See more details and apply: www.jobs.gla.ac.uk/job/archives...
🗓️Closing date: 16 April 2026
Samuel Pepys had significant professional and social connections to transatlantic slavery in the years covered by his diary and afterwards, mediated by his involvement with two English slave-trading companies – the Royal African Company and the Company of Royal Adventurers trading to Africa. He also owned and sold at least two enslaved people in London in the 1670s and 1680s. This article uses previously neglected manuscript evidence to reassess Pepys’s involvement in enslavement and his status as an enslaver. It emphasizes three themes: the relationship between Pepys’s official connections to the African companies and his private ownership of enslaved people; the development of his involvement in slavery within his extensive social and professional networks; and Pepys’s own agency in curating his official and personal archives to shape and limit our knowledge of his slave ownership. In doing so, it considers how the consciously expressed professional and ethical priorities of administrators and slave-owners like Pepys shaped the complex archival traces of slavery in England and erased the experiences and voices of enslaved people.
📣Out now on #firstview
Michael Edwards @jesuscollegecam.bsky.social on 'Samuel Pepys, the African Companies, and the Archives of Slavery, 1660–1689'
#Archives #Letters #Diary #History 17thc 🗃️
👉Read open access: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
London Palaeography Summer School courses will run in person @ies-sas.bsky.social 8-12 June. Bursary deadline is 7 April. The introduction course is ideal for any thinking of doing graduate study on a medieval topic. 👇 #medievalSky
palaeography.uk/study/short-...
Like the tobacco industry - and the opioid industry - Meta and YouTube repeatedly redesign their products to cause maximum addiction and harm.
"jurors in the California case found Meta and YouTube acted with malice, oppression and fraud".
Fully-funded AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership project:
'The Dispersal of the Cotton Collection' - British Library & University of Birmingham
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
Deadline for student applications: 10 May
Fully-funded AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership project:
'Children's reading & cultural engagement across libraries & community spaces in Leeds' - BL & Uni of Glasgow
www.gla.ac.uk/colleges/soc....
Now open for student applications! Deadline: 24 April
I know we all say it a lot but it is REALLY recent that numbers like this were close to unimaginable, for a grid the size of Britain and its current level of interconnection elsewhere.
This is important because pretending we can't exist without fossil fuels is a big lie designed to stop us trying
Job opportunity with manuscripts and early printed books!
Librarian at Lincoln Cathedral – Cathedral Library
£43,722 - Full time
applicaiton DL: 14 April 2026
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQX901/l...
Fully-funded AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership project:
'Children's reading & cultural engagement across libraries & community spaces in Leeds' - BL & Uni of Glasgow
www.gla.ac.uk/colleges/soc....
Now open for student applications! Deadline: 24 April
Fully-funded AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership project:
'Rediscovering a Woman Collector at the British Library: New Sources and Perspectives on Sarah Sophia Banks' - BL & UCL Dep of Information Studies
www.ucl.ac.uk/arts-humanit...
Now open for student applications! Deadline: 14 April
breaking news: ostrich has no concern about approaching cheetah
Yes don't forget to register your works with @britishlibrary.bsky.social to receive your PLR monies as well
www.bl.uk/services/plr
Got a real insight into the realities of not having a fixed office just now: a poor colleague in the tiny kitchenette with her laptop perched on the microwave because she couldn’t find anywhere quiet to attend a departmental meeting. Grim.
Happy ALCS money day to all who celebrate.
Public History in Global Perspectives
Call for Presentation. Student-led online international seminar.
Organised entirely by the students of the Master in Digital and Public History at the Université du Luxembourg, FOR students and WITH students.
www.uni.lu/c2dh-en/news...
Golden sunlight bursts through a tangle of budding trees, casting long beams of light across a mossy woodland floor. New green shoots push up through leaf litter and patches of moss, catching the glow of the morning sun. A soft haze fills the air, with a hint of warmth and life returning to the woods.
It's the Spring Equinox - the first astronomical day of spring! ☀️
Longer days. Lighter evenings.
Sunshine warm on your skin, birds singing, blossom in the branches.
In case you're interested: here is a list of recent accessions in #HistSTM at the @uomlibrary.bsky.social Special Collections
blogs.manchester.ac.uk/chstm/2026/0...
Oh wow, thank you so much - that's incredibly kind and helpful! I'm going to start reading up now.
