“A.I. stated that a previously undetected record might be found at Swarthmore.”

There are 1500+ objects in our artifact collection and I know almost nothing about any of them so I’m very excited to learn with the ten students doing a semester-long object study (and exhibit!) One student picked the cutest lil scale (it includes weights mapped to international currencies)

manuscripts reading room: do not bring anything in, including yourself. place your internal organs in a clear plastic bag and keep it on the table at all times office at rare books seller: hold manuscript at least 20cm away from your face if eating a hotdog. ashtrays must be kept on the windowsill

List 3 things you can talk about for 3 hours with no prep: 1. Literally just say something and let me run 2. I can rant for hours 3. I'm not angry, really; I just have a lot of thoughts

Today’s work bright spot:

So this is 40. Unbothered. Moisturized. Happy. In My Lane. Focused. Flourishing.

If you are considering or planning to seek appointment or run for your local library board, FTP is here to support you. You can complete this form and we'll be in touch soon re: applying to join our next candidates' cohort kicking off in early 2026: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

TGIF from your friend PALLID QUAKER DRAB

Dan has set me up for success with his early morning text. May all library workers have a Dan!

“I think your instinct is correct that Grok is not able to provide you a real reference” is an email I just sent to a patron :(

Got to teach about friendship albums yesterday and ended up a little sad that a contemporary parallel one of the students suggested was “shared Spotify playlists” The same student said “slam books” though so I guess the vibe also endures in a vendor-nonspecific way

They're The Same Picture.

Wittgenstein: It is impossible to use words without making meaning. Vogue:

“Hope this helps!” is the Mortal Kombat “FATALITY!” of email signoffs

When the shelf location field says "Ask [Former Employee]"

Slightly diminish a book. Hypnerotomachia Monophili

I don’t know anything about Duke’s library governance (or budget) but I work at a college library and I love our faculty and yet I also do not want them having one more inch of control over the library’s operations.

Yeah well whose fault is that??

I’m lucky to have a mother with diverse interests who found this lovely early c20 friendship album in a thrift store a few years ago and gave it to me for my birthday. Looking forward to sharing it with my students next week!

Don’t tell Burton’s, but someone printed their ad plate upside down. (Amesbury News, 1892-09-09, very crispy)

Having now read it I encourage everyone to read it - ESPECIALLY those with curatorial authority over records who may not think of donor cultivation as appraisal (and vice versa). I trust that those of us with acquisition responsibilities will embrace that appraisal is a core and ongoing practice.

Archival appraisal is a craft and it can be taught. My and @boxreceiver.bsky.social 's chapter on archival appraisal is available as a pre-print here: digitalcommons.lib.uconn.edu/libr_pubs/77/. It's very, very practical and it centers our values. We would love your feedback!

Looks like the Library Company finances have been in the red since 2017 wonder what happened that year 😈 Anyway, truly puzzled how a university that just announced layoffs is positioned to bail anyone else out but genuine fingers crossed for LCP. share.inquirer.com/XcoYhN

Apologies to @dhm.bsky.social who sent me an old post about children’s books this afternoon because he knows I have thoughts about children’s books and received in return (six hours later) 247 text messages of my THOUGHTS about children’s books.

to put this all another way—every time someone chuckles about MOOCs in the past tense, I worry they took the wrong lessons from the rise & fall of MOOC hype. Whether you’re bullish or bearish about AI, AI hype will certainly fade—but that doesn’t mean its effects on higher ed will fade

“stop listening to Waxahatchee in the morning” challenge

I’m sorry but I simply must have them all. 1911 edition of Whittier’s Snowbound (duh) published by the Hayes Lithographing Co. There’s a nice full page frontispiece and it’s bound in a cutie padded leather but I’m just here for the SHINY

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 spend fewer than three hours a week on Whittier (desk! shift! project!) but they are sometimes the funnest hours. Here are five different editions of Snow-Bound (all from the year 1900) simply RIPE for the right class session on publishing and audience.

If you can’t handle the library at its worst* then you sure don’t deserve its best** *working in nearly windowless, hot, cramped spaces **non-library departments booking the only decent classroom space we have

“series bindings are the AI slop of their day” - me reaching for a timely hook to hang this 1907 nonsensical cover of Whittier’s Snow-Bound

Absolute horror story from beginning to end - which is evidently the only kind of story that can come from the Mutter Museum share.inquirer.com/tpXOXV

Without doubt, a record of enduring value

If there is a lesson here its this… Be ready to stand on the business you participating in

I don’t remember where my phone is or when the English Civil War was but don’t worry, I still know every word to “32 Flavors”

No it's the same kind of guy as always.

I think the most important thing for those of us who do some sort of “book history for generalists” is avoid the easy narrative of teleology in technological means of production

Early Quaker meeting records tend to be pretty brief, but sometimes they go a little Love Island on you

I made my first tunnel book yesterday, time to find an excuse to teach a session on tunnel books

Honoring the life work of the irrepressible Will Noel, PACSCL announces the No-el Prize for open access projects. Applications due August 1st. To apply, go to: pacscl.org/what-we-do/f...

99% of my life is spent leaping without looking and the other 1% is making a commit in GitHub

My joker moment is how grocery stores ALMOST alphabetize the spices

if you have a public library near you, you have access to a copy machine. if you can print legibly and learn to impose four half-sheets to print two-up double-sided, you can make a one-folio book. (or do it flat and there's a broadside.) and then you more or less own the means of production

Philly, our city workers need a fair contract. Do not cross the picket line. Do not take your trash to the drop off sites. Take care of one another. www.inquirer.com/politics/phi...

I sometimes find myself about to explain how our proofing press works by saying “it’s kinda like an old credit card machine” but stop because 1. undergrads don’t get that 2. grad students don’t get that 3. & indeed many junior professorial colleagues have never seen one in action

Dropping this at 5pm on a summer Friday sure says something about how “exciting” this “partnership” is 🫣 I should have bet on John “gotta catch em all” Fry

I feel bad for the New Haven train station seagulls; the one consolation of being a seagull is living down the shore and yet

Our digital repositories team spends a great deal of their time now simply protecting our commoned public digital resources from bots. This insatiable, aimless, destructive desire to excrete novel slop is impeding our access to — and even damaging — our cultural heritage + vetted public knowledge.