overholt

overholt, 1 year ago to random

The Ambitious Plan to Open Up a Treasure Trove of Black History

Check in on the progress of the seven-year project to digitize the Johnson Publishing Company archive (via @researchbuzz)

https://www.getty.edu/news/johnson-publishing-company-archive-getty-smithsonian-digitization-project/

overholt, 1 year ago to random

Before social media, especially, Snopes was one of the primary ways I experienced the culture of the web. The work the site did was really important to me as someone who believes in the defense of reality against its predators, and I wish the guy behind it wasn’t such a shit.

Inside Snopes: the rise, fall, and rebirth of an internet icon https://www.fastcompany.com/90901113/inside-snopes-the-rise-fall-and-rebirth-of-an-internet-icon

overholt, 1 year ago to random

As an outgrowth of Houghton's Slavery, Abolition, Emancipation, and Freedom (SAEF) digitization project on African American history, Harvard is today releasing an open data set of the materials in the collection. Learn more at https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataverse/SAEF via @internetstine

overholt, 1 year ago to random

CT scanning early printed books reveals reused medieval manuscript fragments inside the bindings. (No word on whether the books’ insurance covered the procedure.) https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/23/science/medieval-books-hidden-manuscripts.html?unlocked_article_code=qk6COFo0mZg21cMPPMz8OfwhG6TN1NsB7ImGc4GQ22J_m_oLXtSMfoe93heA7gzPamClPX2hd_Erz02DhXFN2qvHwDTshr1smmerNg30JYYhleCmup7i9nTuprqggb1WGlb53YkcVkIwAOPtSkvoknSUx5kdqv5cqRhmyWNzZZDV3bhohlANemidhUMhB5AX5jGAr6oJBbAdWkmuOq780u-AHaEx3HCbTQR5LiY023UHLgbAQTAO-rFqa6K-Xp3PHl8082b8v_aB1xaOwegomVyGLa4a-rACf0M5h4P17-niYKlbWdkVH0jRNK9HVkyU2oGouSJwlw_gx2resPdmVKSyatPv_eIYxw7xIg&smid=url-share Via @researchbuzz

overholt, 1 year ago to random

The “From Jikji to Gutenberg” conference formed part of the planning for upcoming celebrations of the 650th anniversary of the oldest surviving movable type book, printed in Korea in 1377. https://blogs.loc.gov/preservation/2023/05/jikji-gutenberg/

overholt, 1 year ago to random

The thing I really love about our external contractor-designed website is how it’s one long scrolling page with no way to link someone to the specific piece they need.

No, wait, not love, what’s the other one?

overholt, 1 year ago to random

Advertisement for an 18th century dancing master: “No man can be well prepared in any sort of genteel trades, professions, sciances, employments, servitudes, music, the army, or navy, unless they can dance exceedingly well.” https://campuspress.yale.edu/lewiswalpole/at-mr-christopher-towles-in-high-street/

overholt, 1 year ago to random

What do I do if I don't like a book at the library? A handy step-by-step guide.

https://action.everylibrary.org/what_do_i_do_if_i_don_t_like_a_book_at_the_library

overholt, 1 year ago to random

According to the presentation I'm watching, the singularity looks to be happening in the next couple of years, so FYI.

overholt, 1 year ago to random

I've just been asked to serve on this search committee, so if you haven't seen this announcement, Harvard College Library is hiring a Director of Technical Services for Archives and Special Collections, which will oversee a newly reorganized TS Division overseeing operations for Houghton, University Archives, Music, Fine Arts, and the Film Archive.

Review begins June 9th. Minimum salary $94,300.
https://sjobs.brassring.com/TGnewUI/Search/home/HomeWithPreLoad?partnerid=25240&siteid=5341&PageType=JobDetails&jobid=1991763

overholt, 1 year ago to random

Making iron gall ink the really old fashioned way, with a 16th century recipe. Just remember to pick up some gum Arabic and German vitriol at the store on the way home. http://blogs.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/archivesandmanuscripts/2023/05/15/the-gall-of-it/

overholt, 1 year ago to random

A perfect pairing of journalist and story. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-leicestershire-65633762

overholt, 1 year ago to random

We hear you saying that the organization is understaffed, and we’re committed to working on solutions to the problem that are creative, flexible, and most importantly do not involve hiring additional people.

overholt, 1 year ago to random

Thanks, I hate it. https://www.propublica.org/article/college-high-school-research-peer-review-publications

overholt, 1 year ago to random

I did not expect to see my actual city on this US Census list of fastest-growing cities, unless they are counting the bunnies who live under our shed and recently doubled in numbers. https://www.census.gov/library/visualizations/2023/comm/heading-south-fastest-growing-large-cities.html

overholt, 1 year ago to random

1555 divorce petition in Mexico city by Doña Beatriz de Herrera against her husband Doctor Juan Álvarez de Castañeda, describing his physical and emotional abuse of her.
#newacq #NewAcquisition

overholt, 1 year ago to random

“The Library of Congress has completed a yearslong effort to digitize the Yongle Encyclopedia (Yongle dadian 永樂大典), the largest reference work created in pre-modern China, and possibly the world.” Via @researchbuzz
https://newsroom.loc.gov/news/library-of-congress-completes-digitization-of-yongle-encyclopedia--largest-reference-work-of-pre-mod/s/cd1b7136-376b-43c2-a1d0-25f738c1ad7f?loclr=ealn

overholt, 1 year ago to random

Shall we play a game? A 1960 Japanese tin toy puts you on the DEW Line in the Canadian Arctic on the lookout for Soviet bombers. https://alembicrarebooks.com/products/masudaya-modern-toys-distant-early-warning-radar-station

overholt, 1 year ago to random

I just got a reference question about an interesting acquisition I posted on Twitter in 2014. I’m all in on Mastodon and I’m never going back, but I do sometimes mourn what I lost.

overholt, 1 year ago to random

Tiny brain: this is a 16th century map of Paris
Giant brain: this is a facsimile of a 16th century map of Paris
Galaxy brain: there never was a 16th century map of Paris.
http://blogs.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/maps/2023/05/11/copy-reconstruction-or-fake

overholt, 1 year ago to random

“‘Three of your Earth years’: The science fictional ’your’ as signal of alienness”

overholt, 1 year ago to random

The secret to comedy is timing, and I just got the payoff to a hundred year old joke. I was listening to the Blank Check podcast on Buster Keaton, which mentioned that the title of his short “One Week” was a play on “Three Weeks” a scandalous 1907 erotic novel.

We have a novelty fake book called “Four Weeks: A Loud Book” with a cap gun mechanism inside, and when you open it, the cap fires. The joke is that you were trying to steal a look at a sexy book and got very dramatically caught.

GIF of the cover of Four Weeks, A Loud Book and the cap gun mechanism

overholt, 1 year ago to random

Looks like I picked the wrong year to get back into blogging.

codinghorror, 1 year ago to random

oh no, the singularity has already happened