Ask a Erika

Thrilled to be presenting at BSA in January!!! This book is so WEIRD I can’t wait to tell you about it

I hate gay Halloween what do you mean you’re an uncataloged book someone tried to rebind with duct tape

We are delighted to announce the winners of the 2025 Honey & Wax Book Collecting Prize! Stay tuned this week for more on the fascinating winning collection and honorable mentions: themillions.com/2025/09/meet...

I attended a talk from a museum professional last night who praised librarians for their organized systems of mentorship for new members of the profession. RBMS is in need of new mentors! THAT MEANS YOU. Invest the time to make that praise true! 📜 rbms.info/committees/m...

Very exciting: the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography published a cluster of new entries on women stationers. See the intro by Valerie Wayne: www.oxforddnb.com/newsitem/906... ODNB entries are so helpful in identifying women from traces on printed material. So happy to see this work ❤️

When I say “technology” I mean the codex

Fobazi is currently in the ICU and could use your support. Apologies to those I haven’t been able to reach out to yet. You can message me for more info and I will be posting updates to GoFundMe. Please share, send healing thoughts, prayers, etc. ❤️ -Elena gofund.me/c8485b58

I’m thinking a lot about what Fobazi Ettarh called “vocational awe” in librarianship, where the mythos & idealization of the “sacred” nature of the work leads to under-compensation (“not for the money”), job creep, martyrdom & burnout, silences marginalized folks, & more.

Hello, I’m a special collections librarian in a film. I can’t go two appearances without shushing someone, and I insist people handle the collections with white gloves. I use the Dewey Decimal System for the manuscripts. I am either a spinster or a bombshell.

Historians! What are your favorite things to give grad students on how to read?

Me whenever I watch a piece of media where people have archival materials or records and there's nary an #archivist nor records manager to be seen. 📜 #GLAMS #archives

DC comic cover of the day. If you see this post a DC comic cover you love. First romance comic I ever bought!

‘Tis the season!

Please apply, especially early career and independant scholars! Come visit #Antwerp and use our magnificent collections!

Researchers! Short-term fellowships for working with Beinecke Library (and all Yale special collections) are open for applications. Deadline is July 31. beinecke.library.yale.edu/programs/fel...

If you’re at #SHARP2025 this week and you’re interested in becoming the next SHARP bibliographer, come talk to me! We’re going to start looking for the next bibliographer(s) soon! #BookHistory @sharpnews.bsky.social

New blog post about my favorite book of doodles! “In which a 16th century monk flips me off, and we all pick out our next tattoos.” www.folger.edu/blogs/collat...

Happy RBMS week! I’m tuning in virtually. If you’re attending in person, please do one of those elbow taps to everyone you see for me

Reference librarians all have to take a course in omniscience as part of their training.

"i asked grok" "i asked chagpt" yeah well I asked a rare books librarian and they found things I didn’t even know I was looking for, while answering questions about provenance

old ads used to be so cool. baffling lie. four kinds of typesetting. ends in a demand

Today is National Biscuit Day, and it’s about time that I populated this account with biscuit (cookie) sets from the past few years. Here are some of my favourites. 🧵 First up, a set inspired by the delicious designs of William Morris and John Henry Dearle.

Fury. Rage.

You turn 30 and you start fantasizing about investing in a really nice umbrella

Opening emails from the professional listserv

Every book published in the United States is sent to the Library of Congress. Also, if you are under 16 you cannot use the reading room or order books.

#BookHistory friends! Work has begun on the LGBTQIA+ Book History bibliography, and the team is looking for you to share your citations! If you know of or have published something on LGBTQIA+ book history, submit it to this Google form! forms.gle/c1pkNBPbbyCF...

applying for jobs again

New full-time #BookLab job just dropped for the #KingLibraryPress: ukjobs.uky.edu/postings/580... Please share widely as you can, I am on the search committee and am also happy to chat about what it means to live in Kentucky.

Shakespeare’s birthday is very easy to remember because it’s my mom’s birthday. Happy my mom’s birthday!

In honor of tonight's First Seder, here's a thread about the magnificent Sarajevo Haggadah... #MedievalSky

On what is a really difficult day, here are some resources for our trans friends and allies. Solidarity 💜 goodlawproject.org/resource/sup...

This is all going to get harder, but they literally cannot legislate you out of existence. When tomorrow arrives, you will still be here, you will still be who you are, and we will all still be here with you.

Hi! Are you a US researcher who spent time thinking about humans? Then your work is in danger of censorship and loss. I'm here to walk you through basic self-archiving. Maybe you think I am being hyperbolic. You only worked on bacteria! Not your problem. Do me a favor and join me anyway.

Call for Papers: ‘Built with books: shaping the shelves of the early modern library’ Deadline 16th May 2025 9 –10 September 2025 at UCL, London

We did WHAT with our copy of #Shakespeare 's #FirstFolio? 🤯

a primer on IMLS and implications of its closure. www.libraryjournal.com/story/what-h...

SCOOP: DOGE notified the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences (IMLS) today that the entire staff is being put on administrative leave effective immediately, I’ve learned from an agency source. They’ll be cancelling huge swaths of grants/contracts and starting a Reduction in Force (RIF).

I finally bullied my friend into getting a library card, and I’m coming for you next: Get a library card! Use it or lose it! They are terrific local resources in more ways than you think! And you’ll find out how when you go get that library card!

Hey there, we're the Bibliographical Society of America, aka The BSA. We're new here on BlueSky! Give us a follow to keep up with info about our programs for researchers & bibliophiles across the professional & disciplinary spectra.

If you’re wondering what a spreadsheet looked like in 1800 BCE, here is one that tallies foodstuffs for cattle received by four cowherds. Three are named in the right hand column as Ubar-Shamash, Sin-iddinam, Sin-re’um, and the last one making the record simply writes “mine”

Pedro Pascal as Falvey Library Book Covers. A Thread.

Plese repost & share widelye: open access, free, scholar-produced resource for studyinge & teachinge *The Canterburye Tales* at the university level: THE OPEN ACCESS COMPANION TO THE CANTERBURY TALES opencanterburytales.dsl.lsu.edu

Mood: 📚

I wrote for @folgerlibrary.bsky.social's The Collation about some curious items belonging to the antiquarian William Stukeley, which are held at the Folger Shakespeare Library. Check it out: www.folger.edu/blogs/collat...

Is it time for another round of free zines for our collective sanity? forms.gle/gAQQSRVvemEZ...

It’s happening y’all! The students came & we’re printing the kissing booth coupons, using a form of type that was probably set 50-60 years ago Try doing that with a WordPerfect file you saved to Zip disk! More seriously, it’s by far the tiniest thing I’ve ever printed