In “Against AI: Critical Refusal in the Library,” I examine LIS as in need of a values-realignment, asking readers to refuse the technosolutionism we are so often offered in place of human-centered possibilities, like taking racism, climate change, and labor rights seriously doi.org/10.1353/lib....

Hello fellow archivists, can anyone think of a citable source for the fact that reformatting (digitization/microfilming) seldom obviates the need to care for the original? Like, you and I know that we don't just throw out 19th-c letters when we take them off the scanner, but LIS profs need refs

It's the #AutumnalEquinox today at 18.20 GMT! This 16th-century paper machine, called a volvelle, helps explain how the sun moves through the sky from equinox to solstice throughout the year. Find a full explainer video on our exhibition website: history.rcp.ac.uk/exhibitions/... #BodyofKnowledge

www.eventbrite.com/e/panel-talk... I'm doing this "Panel Talk: Ephemera and Movement Politics" on Monday 9/29. They're charging, mostly so they get an accurate audience headcount. My plan is a zine story (quarter) hour, pending permission from the creator of the zine I have in mind.

a few thoughts (gift link) www.nytimes.com/2025/09/20/o...

From Heather Wolfe of @folger.edu et al., a wonderful explainer on accounting practice and documentation in early modern England, including images from a commonplace book held at Beinecke Library: www.folger.edu/blogs/collat...

Need some weekend reading? We have 5 new #OpenAccess publications for you, hot off the press! Announcing the publication of “Community Defining Archives: A comparative view of community archives definitions” by Britney Bibeault: elischolar.library.yale.edu/jcas/vol12/i...

On Kawara, I Got Up..., 1977 https://botfrens.com/collections/14377/contents/1137596

I'm sorry, worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable permission to my voice and likeness? For what now? In any manner for any purpose??? This is in academia/.edu's new ToS, which you're prompted to agree to on login. Anyway I'll be jumping ship. You can find my stuff at hcommons.org.

Today is the feast day of Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179), here surrounded by plants & a mineral she touted as medical treatments, her invented alphabet & model of the universe. One of my most popular prints this year! 🧪🐡👩🏼‍🔬 #histsci #histmed Her writings preserve not only her own knowledge & 🧵

Museum of Color, by Stephanie Krzywonos explores pigments across human time emergencemagazine.org/essay/museum...

I hope you keep writing and researching and publishing, even if it’s about distant and abstruse topics. It’s not stupid, it’s beautiful, because it’s a testament to the curiosity and care they’re trying to eradicate.

The Studio Museum (which is entering an exciting new chapter) is hiring an archivist!

Aussies, Kiwis, and people of the Southeastern Hemisphere: I’m teaching ✨Pop Bibliography✨ at the Australian & New Zealand Rare Book School in Feb. 2026!! Applications are now open: www.sl.nsw.gov.au/preview-link...

I recently spoke to the head of the Monuments Men and Women Foundation about intercepting two 17th-century Dutch paintings looted by Nazis during World War Two and then listed for sale at an auction house in Newark, Ohio: www.artnews.com/art-news/new...

A.R.T. is excited to announce New York Archives Week 2025! Archivists and institutions throughout the city are invited to share virtual and in-person events, collection tours, and community conversations on the A.R.T. Archives Week calendar. Submit your events here: forms.gle/6ufV3rtPE19h...

no better time to check out Amy Paeth's incredible book on the history of US Poet Laureate & the role of the state in American poetry @columbiaup.bsky.social cup.columbia.edu/book/the-ame...

what lovely news. the beinecke has Sze's papers: archives.yale.edu/repositories...

Arthur Sze has been named the new U.S. poet laureate. He succeeds Ada Limón, who has held the position since 2022. During his term as poet laureate, Sze plans to have a special focus on translating poetry originally written in other languages. Read more: at.pw.org/ArthurSze

Texas A&M is one of the biggest schools in the country, but alarming events there receive a fraction of the attention given to Harvard. I wrote about a campus vigil for Charlie Kirk, and how TX Republicans plan to honor his legacy by cracking down on speech www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...

Who in NYC will organize a public library propaganda fair where people who appreciate libraries can distribute/trade/cheaply sell posters, stickers, buttons, zines, art, etc??? This would be so much fun. Someone make this happen, lol.

Helen Adelaide Wood (1860-1927) was a botanical artist and scientific illustrator known for her illustrations held at the Natural History Museum of Jamaica. Her artwork collection has been inscribed on the UNESCO Latin America and the Caribbean Regional Memory of the World Register.

Excited the Spring/Summer 2025 issue @saa-official.bsky.social American Archivist is out! It includes a ✨Special Section on Accessioning✨ (edited by Audra Eagle Yun, Rachel Searcy & myself). 5 case studies straight from the field. Practice-driven, principle-supported scholarship: ow.ly/2epI50WVnyP

Felix Gonzalez-Torres's Untitled (Death by Gun) is a stack of posters listing the more than 460 people killed by firearms during a single week in 1989. Viewers are invited to take a poster as the stack is constantly replenished www.moma.org/collection/w...

Call for submissions - We are now open to academic articles, notes from the field (briefer and less formal than full articles), and creative works! cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/dislis/vol2/...

"Bird"

I’ve posted an update on Fobazi. Thank you all so much for all of the love and support! ❤️❤️❤️ -Elena Update here: gofund.me/506f89f9

it's aliiiiiveeeeeee! all 700 pages of my dissertation can be found here: hdl.handle.net/2429/92159

Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and three other Democrats are reminding the Smithsonian's secretary that the institution "is the responsibility of Congress."

“Esther Kim Lee, chair of the department of Theater Studies, said part of what first attracted her to Duke was the librarians’ expertise, and that ‘we as an institution cannot take that for granted.’”

We took the paywall down on this one. defector.com/how-the-fuck...

Great news! The Baltimore Museum of Art is taking “Amy Sherald: American Sublime,” which was originally scheduled to take place at the National Portrait Gallery. artbma.org/exhibition/a...

I've been the "Design Indexer" in rez at the Cooper Hewitt library this 😎. On Sept 10 we'll explore library resources that frame the INDEX itself — the Index of 🇺🇸 Design (the prjct's namesake), the index card, the manicule 👈, etc — as a material, designed thing, esp contra AI's indexical flattening

Earlier today, AASLH and a coalition of museum, library, and cultural organizations jointly filed an amicus brief in Rhode Island v. Trump, a lawsuit brought to combat White House efforts to dismantle the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). Read more at tinyurl.com/3mwum4jb.

THEY VOTED TO RESTORE THE IMLS FUNDING. This isn't the end. It's nowhere near the end. But the House and Senate subcommittees voted to restore the IMLS in their budget markups. Full House budget markup is tomorrow.

A good Fall reminder: "If you feel like you’re overworking, that you can’t slow down when you need rest, if you feel guilty for taking sick days when you need them, if you rely on getting things done for your self-worth, it’s worth interrogating the stories you tell about yourself and your work."

Here is my annual prediction of autumn colors in the eastern deciduous forest. Find out whether they will be bright or dull, and subscribe to Our Trees for updates over the season.

obsesssssed with these dreamy cyanotypes the beinecke recently acquired. and i love the @mazarine.bsky.social quote: "thoughtful captures of shape and density, but not necessarily color and texture..." 💙https://news.yale.edu/2025/08/04/otherworldly-images-produced-early-form-photography

La perspective amoureuse / The amorous vista - 1950 #artbots #magritte https://botfrens.com/collections/61/contents/3112059

New post: Impacts of the Trump Administration on archives and archival workers: “Lone Arrangers” / Small Archives (8th in the Impacts series) awefund.wordpress.com/2025/09/01/i... (or link in bio) #solidarity #archiveslabor #archivalworkers #lonearrangers #soloarchivists

‪Our colleagues at the Nelson-Atkins made this great video of @finchinthestacks.bsky.social and I talking about books for the "Mapping the Heavens" show we co-curated - and it's up now! Watch, share, enjoy, etc! 📜 #bookhistory #booksky #libsky #histstm 🔬 #histastro 🔭 www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8PB...

‼️‼️‼️ GENDERTRASH IN PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ‼️‼️‼️ "Riotous...fascinating...powerful...a remarkable and inspiring record of community-building.” Ty @publisherswkly.bsky.social 🙂

“In the late 1960s, Dr. Rossiter was working on her Ph.D. at Yale, when a comment from one of her male professors puzzled her. Who, she had asked, were the women in science? There were none, he said. Another professor mumbled something about Marie Curie being the exception.”🙃

Imagine the complicated and precious genius of the girl who made this embroidery sampler in 1811 The Solar System, sampler, unknown maker, 1811, England. Museum no. T.92-1939. Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

On September 25, at 1pm ET, I'll be talking with @tjowens.bsky.social about his book, After Disruption. I especially want to know how we think about the values informing cultural memory practice amidst such ubiquitous, nefarious disruption — and plan ahead for the aftermath. Hosted by @archive.org.

When governments police museums, they are not simply policing exhibitions. They are policing imagination itself. Censorship has taken hold at the Smithsonian. I refused to play along.” —Amy Sherald

"WGBH, the bellwether public TV station in Boston, has laid off the 13 people who worked on the history series “American Experience” and announced that no new documentaries will be produced for the show until further notice." 🗃️ www.nytimes.com/2025/08/27/a...

Plaintiffs in one of the two lawsuits against the Trump administration's dismantling of the IMLS seek permanent injunction. A *lot* more details about what went down just emerged–and how another SCOTUS case may impact this one. This is a big IMLS right now update. bookriot.com/more-details...

Who knew NYC municipal accounts can’t post here and it’s an archives reason?! cc: @beta.nyc

Registration is now open for Zine Librarians unConference (ZLuC) until November 1st 11:59 p.m. CST A virtual gathering on Zoom. November 8–9. For librarians, zinesters, & collectors. All are welcome! zinelibraries.info/wiki/zluc2025