Harvard-Yenching Library's Aum Shinrikyo collection is now open to research. It contains 140+ publications issued in Japanese/English/Russian in the 1980s-90s by the cult's publishing arm #JapaneseReligions #JapaneseHistory

Headline of the Year

When you get rid of all the books and periodicals and switch to digital resources, you’ve given up resources you own in exchange for subscription services. Now you’re vulnerable to price increases and the disappearance of essential information. I’ve always been a fan of having MORE choices.

“I write with dismay, grief and sorrow for the permanent closure of MIT Libraries Barker, Dewey and Rotch, and termination of library staff in those libraries. For MIT to be closing three of its four major libraries..." fnl.mit.edu/may-june-202...

Rare books folks attending #RBMS2026: mark your calendar for our panel on new approaches to Chinese missionary collections + Zhang Jie (@zjarthistory.bsky.social) + Mårten Söderblom Saarela (@bcricciinstitute.bsky.social) + Alexander Akin (2024-26 President, @abaararebooks.bsky.social)

When Twitter was heavily used by liberals, it was a bubble. Now that it’s mostly right-wing bots directed by a ketamine-addicted neo-Nazi billion, it’s more like real life.

Penn State University (@pennstateuniv.bsky.social) Libraries just digitized (& fully transcribed!) a mind-blowing collection of 32 Vietnamese manuscript edicts and official documents during the Lê (1428–1789) and Nguyễn (1802–1945) dynasties: digital.libraries.psu.edu/digital/coll... #sinology

Duke’s Japanese #Medical #Manuscripts Collection Now Online (via Duke University Medical Center Library & #Archives) mclibrary.duke.edu/news/dukes-j... #digitalcollections #libraries

I'll contribute a short discussion on collecting and managing paper ephemera 📎 at Asian collections. Tune in if you can!

One perk of working at a massive university campus is that you meet people working these mind-blowing jobs that you never knew exist.

Job opening here at ITHAKA's JSTOR: Digital Collections Curator, Reveal Digital, focusing on important cultural, social, and political histories, especially those that have been dispersed, under-described, or difficult to access at scale. Full job description: www.ithaka.org/job/46724530...

The person who made this image is well versed in the iconography of the transatlantic slave trade.

A pop-up exhibition this week in our main reading room, showcasing items from our "K-pop Fandom Collection": photobooks, audiovisual, ephemera, posters, and lightsticks from 1990s-present. This collection was developed in support of a new Harvard undergrad class on "Korean Stars" (📸: Adrianne Gren)

Appreciate this helpful and detailed review by @devinfitz.bsky.social

After a year of hiring pause, we have finally resumed our search for Harvard's next #Librarian for #JapaneseStudies. Please help us spread the word! Friendly reminder: you don't need to check all the boxes to be a competitive candidate. careers.harvard.edu/job/libraria...

Two horse illustrations from 北平箋谱 Beiping jian pu (1951), a renowned collection of polychrome woodblock-printed Chinese artworks. This 1951 edition was the first in the iterative series to include artworks of all twelve Chinese zodiacs. id.lib.harvard.edu/alma/9900809...

Check out a new blog post by Benjamin Landauer on the Chinese and Japanese editions of 百美新詠圖傳, a 18th-century pictorial catalogue of "poetry, painting, and historical anecdote for 103 women hailing from Chinese history and mythology." #bookhistory #womenshistory #sinology

Chinese American Librarians Association (CALA) invites nominations for its annual Best Book Award. Titles eligible for nomination must be in Chinese, English, or French, authored by Chinese writers or those of Chinese descent, and published in 2025. Nomination form: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

"Scriptures and Liturgy in Inner Asia: A Symposium on Religious Books & Manuscripts" (2/27, hybrid) @harvarddivinity.bsky.social @rarebookschool.bsky.social RSVP: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... #bookhistory

I'd like to add that like in all industries, when we stop understanding how our tools work, we become entirely dependent on the corporate entities that own the mold. We are trading the ability to build and repair for the convenience of being permanent tenants in someone else's infrastructure/subs.

@nature.com can we make obituaries like this open-access due to their educational value to the general public?

I am excited and exhausted to finally release my annual data report on job advertisements in East Asian Studies! 📊🌏 This marks 5 years of collecting job data, so it's possible to see changes over time. For interactive visualizations, view via browser rather than phone. prcurtis.com/projects/job...

This Saturday! #sinology #theater

Love notes like this left in books by earlier librarians. This profession runs on the hope of ever having time to love things as they deserve, and our archives are full of the epitaphs of good intentions.

Everything happening now has a precedent. This is not new. Please understand that everything happening now is very American. The only change is that it is happening on camera to middle income white people. Ask BIPOC and low income white people about abuses by the state.

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RBS is now accepting applications for our summer 2026 courses—including new course offerings & partner locations! Details: rarebookschool.org/schedule The first-round deadline is 𝟭𝟳 𝗙𝗲𝗯𝗿𝘂𝗮𝗿𝘆. Applications received after that date will be reviewed on a rolling basis. #BookSky #RareBooks

Teaching the events of January 6—which are not a “moment” but the product of a long history—presents a familiar yet urgent challenge: how can students use historical knowledge & thinking to understand recent crises? Here are some resources that might help. 🗃️

New Yorkers! Sharing an exciting event in Flushing on 1/24 (Sat), featuring Stan Lai 賴聲川, Taiwanese-American playwright/theater director behind the blockbuster "Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land 暗戀桃花源." Join us & plz spread the word

Happy new year! Our library travel grants are still open to applications until January 31.

A great article that emerged out of the @digitalscriptorium.bsky.social project: openhumanitiesdata.metajnl.com/articles/10....

Registration is now OPEN for #NEASpring26 in Portland, ME! Join us for three inspiring days of exciting virtual and in-person workshops, sessions, special events, and roundtable discussions by registering today! newenglandarchivists.org/spring-2026

The Harvard-Yenching Library is now accepting applications for 10 travel grants up to $2,000 each. Open to non-tenured faculty and Ph.D. candidates who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... #sinology

The Plant Humanities Initiative at Dumbarton Oaks invites applications for two-week virtual faculty residencies in June 2026, concentrating on topics at the intersection of East Asia Studies and Plant Humanities.

The Library of Congress' Asian Division is now accepting applications for their 2026 Florence Tan Moeson Fellowship: up to $3,000 to support travel, lodging, and research expenses. Due January 11, 2026. #sinology #libraries blogs.loc.gov/internationa...

All DOGE accomplished was purging critical government staff, handing private data to outsiders, and sentencing thousands in developing countries to death by gutting USAID. I don’t say this lightly: if there were any justice in this world, the people responsible for this devastation would be in jail

Great points made, and not just about AI: "Students are afraid to fail, and AI presents itself as a savior. But what we learn from history is that progress requires failure. It requires reflection. Students are not just undermining their ability to learn, but to someday lead."

I roll my eyes every time a library job includes a salary range as wide as this. This is not the actual salary range. The HR included this only so they can advertise it to job boards that requires a salary range. This is the opposite of the pay transparency that our field has been advocating for.

CFP: 14th Annual ESPRit conference: “Periodicals and the World” 9-11 September 2026, Royal Library of Belgium (KBR), Brussels events.vub.be/periodicals-...

Bringing rare books to students of a Chinese language class that focused on Chinese food culture: >> 飲食須知, a manual for healthy diets; >> 宣和博古圖錄, an illustrated catalog of ancient bronze cookware; >> 熬波圖, a pictorial manuscript on salt production.

Justices decline case seeking to overturn landmark same-sex marriage ruling

ILS Panel on “New #BookHistory Research with Internet Data”: internet-based datasets have emerged related to books, reading habits, and reader communities—ranging from crowd-sourced genre tags and online reviews to platforms like BookTok ... events.iu.edu/siceiub/even...

Public libraries are receiving a clear mandate from voters this November: when presented with the choice, communities are willing to invest in their information infrastructure, programming, and future. www.everylibrary.org/what_a_week_... via @everylibrary.bsky.social

It's only Thursday morning and my grammar is already tanking.

"Can they read whole books anymore?" --> "How can we create the conditions that make reading whole books seem fun, easy, doable, rewarding?"

How did socialist projects of making antibiotics and building atom bombs amount to the primitive accumulation of "scientific capital" in the People's Republic? 🗓️ Tuesday, November 11 🕥 10:30–11:45 am Eastern Time 📍 Over Zoom Register: seow.scholars.harvard.edu/STinAsia #histstm #histsci #sts 🧪

In this as in so many other areas of American life, China has been the model

We are sad to share that Janet Theiss, historian of China at the University of Utah and AAS East & Inner Asia Council Chair, has passed away. Janet has been a longtime AAS member and a leader in the field of Qing Studies. Our deepest sympathies go out to her family & colleagues.

Mongolian Association for Manchu Studies is co-organizing a Manchu studies International conference w/ Eotvos Lorand University. Dunno if I mentioned it here, but National Library of Mongolia has a treasure trove of Manchu-language documents, w/out which "Manchu studies" is rather incomplete IMO 🤔

Radio Free Asia says it is halting its news operations due to funding troubles