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Finch Collins

@finchinthestacks.bsky.social
2.2K followers 866 following 1.1K posts

PGR at the Uni of Manchester, hosted at Chetham’s Library | libraries and data, early modern books and bodies | posts my own

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Reposted by Finch Collins
Mar Hicks @histoftech.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
The way AI is going to “kill everyone” is just by manufacturing consent for ever worse outcomes & conditions, like many governments do. It is a governing technology after all. And like bureaucracy it launders responsibility so the people & institutions who deploy it aren’t accountable for the harms
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The Verge @theverge.com · 02/09/2026
As a new Harry Potter trailer makes the rounds, it bears repeating that there’s no way to watch this show without supporting J.K. Rowling’s bigotry and the structural violence she’s inflicting on the trans community.
theverge.com
There is no ethical consumption of HBO’s Harry Potter series
You can’t without supporting Rowling’s transphobic bigotry.
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David Brauer @dbrauer.net · 28/08/2026
Sucks that the Univ of Minnesota libraries are closed to the public. If the past several years have taught us anything, it’s that knowledge is necessary to fighting stupid bad fascists. So here’s a helpful doc on how to assist good U people who want knowledge freed: docs.google.com/document/d/1...
docs.google.com
UMN Libraries Public Access
THE CONTEXT After slowly closing parts of campus off to the public over a handful of years, in January of 2026 amidst Operation Metro Surge, the University of Minnesota’s upper administration decided...
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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
I have seven invitations from student groups to talk about A.I. They know what I think about A.I. That's why they asked me. They aren't feeling it, y'all.
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Ryan Cordell @ryancordell.org · 27/08/2026
Ok I can share—today MSLIS student Nadja Robot donated a teletype machine to @skeuomorphpress.org’s Undead Media Lab But this is not just any teletype—it’s the one Michael S. Hart used to digitize the Declaration of Independence & Alice in Wonderland—the 1st texts in what became Project Gutenberg
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kelly jensen @heykellyjensen.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
This. Libraries are places where HUMANS with EDUCATION and EXPERTISE help you navigate information and connect you with resources. Data centers are warehouses. Libraries are not warehouses. They can be repositories, but they don't just store. They're alive. Support the fuck out of the PEOPLE.
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Caroline Lucas @carolinelucas.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Unbelievably disappointing u-turn from the PM - where is the serious culture change at Westminster we were promised? Our democracy should not be for sale
theguardian.com
Burnham drops support for political funding cap aimed at curbing mega-donors
PM said he would set bar at £500k, but trade unions say funding reforms could undermine their ability to donate to Labour
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Robert Paulett @robertpaulett.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
This is the chart I made for my undergrads that’s worked pretty well for me.
Chart of text laying out different ways of reading.
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Adam Koszary @adamkoszary.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
people underestimate the power of the curators. they can just pick up, like, a baked bean and put it in the collection. bean will be there for forever. bean will have a label.
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Dr Vanessa @hpsvanessa.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Someone outside academia once suggested I "get my PA to organise a workshop so we could discuss [topic]" and I laughed and laughed and laughed. Mate, I barely have my own desk, let alone a PA.
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Lilly Irani @gleemie.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Mechanical Turk may be shutting down, but AI will always depend on data workers whose knowledge trains and tunes models. AI runs on extracted cultural skills and knowledge, and culture is always changing. Less the end of an era, but the end of an early prototype.
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Rebekah Higgitt @rhiggitt.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
We (the fabulous Science & Technology department @ntlmuseumsscot.bsky.social) are looking for a FT fixed-term Assistant Curator. Details here: careers.nms.ac.uk/job/936922 Deadline: 6 September
careers.nms.ac.uk
Assistant Curator, Technology
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Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
How on earth is the framing for this about dopamine and not the expansion of mining for behavioral data to those who cannot afford to buy the things they want? restofworld.org/2026/south-k...
restofworld.org
The online shopping trend where you buy nothing
On South Korea’s “dopamine sites,” the pleasure comes from aspirational shopping rituals like browsing, curating, and tracking — not from a delivery.
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Jonathan @jsench.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
PBSA is searching for an Editorial Assistant! Review of applications begins September 1 and goes through the 15th. Information & instructions to apply are at the link below. Position manages logistics of journal processes. $5000 annual honorarium, 1 year w possibility of renewal.
docs.google.com
Editorial Assistant job description
PBSA Editorial Assistant description and qualifications The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America (PBSA) seeks an Editorial Assistant. PBSA is a peer-reviewed quarterly journal published o...
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Tamara Atkin @tamarajatkin.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
I was first contacted by Callum at the Island Archives in 2024, and it feels like barely a month goes by without a new discovery! Shout out not only to him and @drdavidrundle.bsky.social but also J.R Mattison, with whom I’ve been writing about the Griselda fragment. Excellent collaborators all!
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claire m. l. bourne @roaringgirle.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
now in press! 📖 the contributions to this collection are brilliant and a little bit weird (compliment!) & i can’t wait for it to be out in the world. forthcoming 2027… ✨
the table of contents of a collections called SHAKESPEARE AND TEXTUAL FAILURE printed on white computer paper. full text here: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/utntr2lzaby23fzfjqhlo/TOC-shakespeare-and-textual-failure.pdf?rlkey=cog3pis71494adnioh3o0h6el&st=m5axwkxt&dl=0
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Talia "ATTACK DOGS is out now!" Bhatt ⚢ @taliabhatt.itch.io · 22/08/2026
I better not see anyone waving this around as though a worthless statement counterbalances funding a right wing hate campaign and constant legal attacks on trans people's ability to exist in public.
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David M. Perry @lollardfish.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
what's funny about this is that monks were perfectly delighted with the printing press, the myth that the late medieval church resisted printing is false, you can actually embellish printed books and people did, illuminators and scribes are not the same people, and simon should read more.
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Sean Aitchison @sean8urson.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
oh shit its for real for real fucking DO NOT update your windows, I had to do a clean reinstall
pcworld.com
Windows 11's August update is crashing games and causing PC problems
Following the installation of the August security patch for Windows 11, some users have reported serious problems with their systems. This is a known issue, and here’s how to resolve the error.
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Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 20/08/2026
I've never seen such an effort to censor a document as I have the Amnesty International report on gender critical groups because of JK Rowling. They removed the report from the Wayback Machine and now I got a DMCA strike on my Google Drive for having it. It was deleted and removed from my account.
A screenshot of an email viewed in dark mode with the subject line "Google DMCA Violation." The email from Google informs the recipient that they have received a notification under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) that some of their materials allegedly infringe on copyrights. It explains the removal process, mentions that notice details will be posted on Lumen, warns against repeated violations, and lists one affected Google Drive URL at the bottomA nearly identical mobile browser screenshot of the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. It shows a search for the same Amnesty International UK resources URL, resulting in the same message: "This URL has been excluded from the Wayback Machine."A mobile browser screenshot of the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. A URL for an Amnesty International UK resources page is entered in the search bar, but the page displays the message: "This URL has been excluded from the Wayback Machine."
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Kate Crowe @kcrowe.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
I have had to clarify that when I'm labeled an AI skeptic it's mostly that I am a capitalism and potential for state violence skeptic. My field of librarisnship used punch cards and semiautomatic data processing to create expansive access to the world's libraries. The same technology...
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sarah clark (they) @sarahclark.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
i hope being in the hole in omelas looks good on my resume
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Steven J. Gibbons @stevenjgibbons.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
In the continuing onslaught of in-your-face AI, it is now almost impossible to open a scientific paper without an AI-summary coming up. Your first instinct may be “Ah that is useful”, but is it really close to the truth or what the author intended? (contd. - full "rant" on lnkd.in/p/euwbwNgY)
Snapshot of how the article “Improvements to Seismic Monitoring of the European Arctic Using Three-Component Array Processing at SPITS“ by S. J. Gibbons et al. (https://doi.org/10.1785/0120110109) appears on line with an AI-generated summary. The author has highlighted each of the highlights listed by the AI with criticism to how useful it is, even to the point of distracting from the true key points.
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SHARP News @sharpnews.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
REMINDER TO SUBMIT! #BookHistory #Publishing #Authorship #Reading #Bibliography
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Elizabeth (Liz) Lehfeldt (she/her/hers) @lizlehfeldt.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Super-niche question: I'm looking for descriptions/insight into how #earlymodern people would have crafted sheets of paper into provisional "notebooks" for the purposes, say, or record keeping/accounting. Not formal, bound books, but spaces for jotting things down, etc.
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Kate Ozment @grubstreetwomen.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Hold the phone -- the London Book Trades database is BACK and I missed it! It was a limited but useful index of tradespeople that was a victim of the "oh no hackers" Bodleian takedown in 2024. AND because it's back I found another woman publisher!! lbt.bibsoc.org.uk/index.php?ti...
lbt.bibsoc.org.uk
History of the Project - London Book Trades
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Beth DeBold @elizaaudacis.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Also a lot of what researchers might view as a small/annoying favour are either routine, easier than you’d think, or are actually interesting! So ask librarians and archivists for small/annoying favours! (Just be prepared to hear “it may take us a couple days” or “no” if it really isn’t possible)
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thene @thene.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
out it goes: my long post about Rachel Hope Cleves's claim that Tillie Walden plagiarised her book. It's long because Cleves's claim is much, much more bizarre than it looked on first reading. I'm not going to bury the lede here. Cleves's claim does not hold up. buttondown.com/thene/archiv...
stick a pin in this metaphor

…because these covers are a microcosm of the entire conflict; Walden's book is mostly built on writing and other objects left by Sylvia Drake, Charity Bryant, and others. Her work includes many elements from these records that Cleves does not refer to in her book, and many of her interpretations of those records are different from Cleves's interpretations, often intentionally so. In addition to her historical basis, Walden's book includes fictional dialogue and story elements that are original to her work, some of which are inspired by Walden's own life.
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Dr Vanessa @hpsvanessa.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Chasing goose meme with the text “who structured the data”. It is a reference to a silly post by an academic asserting that with “properly structured historical data” genAI can “do history”
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Elise Watson @ewatson.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
#earlymodern #bookhistory Workshop Call for Papers: Women’s Professional Networks in the Early Modern Book Trade, University of Edinburgh 6-7 May 2027 Please feel free to share with anyone who might be interested!
Call for Papers
Women’s Professional Networks in the Early Modern Book Trade
University of Edinburgh
6-7 May 2027Over the past two decades, women’s book history and feminist bibliography have exploded with renewed interest. Even so, women’s work is still to an extent seen as an exception or curiosity. It examines them from a gender history perspective, asking to what extent their relationships were influenced or determined by constructions of femininity. Proposals should therefore involve a dimension of gender analysis beyond simply the inclusion of female subjects. 

This conference will seek to explore (but is not limited to) to the following themes and questions:

*Gendered Networks. To what extent were professional book trade networks gendered? How did these networks intersect with other types of women’s networks, whether they be familial, friendly, religious, political, or intellectual?
*Identity and Representation. Did women express professional solidarity with other women, and how did this manifest? How did women’s self-representation in imprints and paratext differ from men’s?
 *Legal and Structural Considerations. In what ways were women’s professional networks dependent on legal structures of inheritance in their region, or participation in guilds? How did these networks stretch across economic and class divisions?
*Digital Approaches. Can digital humanities tools such as network visualisation effectively help document these relationships?

The conference will also host the launch of a new collaborative database sourcing biographical information about women in the early modern book trade.

Contributions will be published in a volume of conference proceedings, to be submitted by the end of 2027.

Proposals for papers of maximum 20 minutes, including title, an abstract of up to 300 words, and a biography of up to 150 words should be sent to Dr Elise Watson, elise.watson@ed.ac.uk, by 20 December 2026. While all papers will be delivered in person, virtual attendance will be available as well.
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Dr Laura Sangha @lsangha.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Things people don't realise fall into the category of 'being a historian': creating editions and datasets from primary evidence that people stumble, use, and then say 'history doesn't need historians!' And now let me tell you about librarians and archivists
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The History on Film Podcast @historyonfilm.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
One of the driving principles of the Black Digital Humanities is that real human work has to be done to combat racialized structures built into technological systems and “well-structured datasets”. AI definitionally cannot do that. It obscures AND entrenches systematic/systemic biases.
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Liesbeth Corens @onslies.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
ARGH. There are many causes of the UKHE crisis, and the governmental underfunding is undoubtedly the most harmful one. But let’s not let that big one draw sole attention, so we forget the harm done by the pure disrespect of managers for staff & their disdain for meaningful conversation with them.
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Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 08/08/2026
exactly 💯 on LLMs: they simulate the output we call language, not the cognitive capacity we call language!
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Caroline Ball @heroicendeavour.eurosky.social · 07/08/2026
If you're receiving a lot of complaints, perhaps it's because things aren't working the way they should? So, I don't know, maybe that should be what services and governments focus on, rather than what tools people are now using to make their voices heard? Vox populi and all that, you know...
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Weird Alex @jackalpants.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
It's time again! Cis allies: if you can, please consider being chaff for us. Toilet hobbycops think like 10% of people are trans, and to overturn our segregation we need respectable cis people causing trouble on our behalf. Please wear a trans flag pin. Get in good trouble, as John Lewis put it.
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Finch Collins @finchinthestacks.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
now this is a good framing of one tension at the heart of my work with library data!
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Elise Watson @ewatson.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
We are so proud of the brilliant work of friends and contributors in this issue: thank you to all who brainstormed, peer reviewed, proofread, and helped us think through these #QueerBibliography subjects!
euppublishing.com
Edinburgh University Press Journals - Table of Contents - lih: Vol 42, No 2
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Malcolm Noble @malcolmjnoble.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
The first journal number from #QueerBibliography 2025 is available online, guest edited with the utterly brilliant @ewatson.bsky.social. Thanks to @jilld17.bsky.social and Nadine Kozak for making space so quickly, to anonymous reviewers, our authors, and for Fran Affleck's meticulous copy editing.
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Dr Evelyn Koch @evelynkoch.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
My timeline might be pleased to know that there's now a statue of Sylvia Townsend Warner on Dorchester's high street.
A statue of Sylvia Townsend Warner. The statue sits on a bench holding a book and papers in her hand. There are more books near her feet. Part of the statue is a cat canoodling with the writer's legs and feet.
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Finch Collins @finchinthestacks.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Friday afternoon catalogue data wrangling -- personally, I'm fond of "bookse;;er."
Screenshot of a dozen spellings of "bookseller" in the data cleaning interface of OpenRefine: bokkseller, bokseller, bookbinder, bookdealer, bookeseller, bookse;;er, bookseller,$dfl.1746-1749, bookseller, booksellers, boookseller, booseller, booskeller, bpokseller.
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Dot Porter @leoba.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Do you use digitized medieval manuscripts in any capacity? Do you have opinions about the metadata that describes them? We want to hear from you! Please take a moment to fill out our very short survey. Please repost and share with anyone you know who might be interested! forms.gle/sBPXAnoRhwe1...
forms.gle
Digitized Medieval Manuscripts: Metadata Preferences
A brief survey about what metadata formats people prefer to go along with their digitized medieval manuscripts. The results of this survey will be used to consider what metadata we make available thro...
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Caroline Ball @heroicendeavour.eurosky.social · 29/07/2026
Reading articles on the amounts HE has spent in APCs over the last 5-10 years, and slowly watching my blood pressure rise. Millions upon millions, on something WE CAN ABSOLUTELY DO OURSELVES FOR A FRACTION OF THE COST - what universities couldn't do with that kind of money now... 😠 And breathe...
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Dorothy Berry @dorothyjberry.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
This is a great student-authored short piece about, in my read, how the allure of innovation/problem solving/bragging rights has led a lot of smart people to ignore the work of archivists and historians when developing historical, archive driven tools.
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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
every time you write overly defensively you should remember that you are pursuing a strategy of writing careful sentences specifically for people who demonstrably either won't or can't read them
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Claire Boardman @claireboardman.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
👀 CfP: "Submissions are open for our two-day conference ‘What does a good digital society look like?’ on 10 & 11 June 2027, at Sheffield Hallam University, UK. Submit your abstract or proposal by 29 October 2026." Full Details: digitalgood.net/conference-2... @digitalgoodnet.bsky.social #DH
digitalgood.net
Conference: What does a good digital society look like? - ESRC Digital Good Network
Digital technologies should be good for people, societies and the planet, but there is ample evidence that they are often not. Social scientists, humanities scholars […]
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Faculty of English, University of Oxford @engfac.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
We’re delighted to announce that Professor Leah Price has been appointed to the Professorship of Bibliography and Modern Book History.
english.web.ox.ac.uk
Professor Leah Price appointed as Professor of Bibliography and Modern Book History
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SHARP News @sharpnews.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
📢 ATTN BOOK HISTORY PEOPLE 📚 Have you or a friend published an edited collection on a #BookHistory topic in 2026? A monograph? An exhibition catalogue? Yes?! Submit the citation information to have the work included in the SHARP 2026 Annual Bibliography. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
docs.google.com
SHARP 2026 Annual Bibliography
This form is for collecting citation information for 2026 edited collections, monographs, and exhibitions catalogs. They should be: Published in 2026 Any language Any topic in book history We encoura...
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Katie Birkwood @girlinthe.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
In things I wish I hadn't seen, but now I have and you will too... New research published in the Journal of the Institute of Conservation recommends PPE for handling all red rot because of the risk of heavy metal contamination (lead, arsenic, cadmium). #GLAMS 📚 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
tandfonline.com
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