Sign in

Fletcher Durant

@fletcherdurant.bsky.social
1.3K followers 920 following 618 posts

Preservation : Conservation : Academic Libraries : Archives : Stuff

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
Ben Gross @bhgross144.bsky.social · 15h
Exciting news from Austin: @ransomcenter.bsky.social has acquired the archive of author & @mcsweeneys.net founder Dave Eggers! (This collection will complement & enrich the McSweeney's Records, which joined the HRC's collections in 2013.) www.hrc.utexas.edu/press/releas... #booksky #newacq 🗃️📜📚
Dave Eggers author card, published by McSweeney’s, 2024. Dave Eggers Papers. Harry Ransom Center.
0123
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
Dan Cohen @dancohen.org · 06/10/2026
On the 20th anniversary of Zotero's 1.0 release on October 5, 2006, I wrote a history of the collaboration and years it took to create the popular research tool now used by over 20 million people: newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/the-...
newsletter.dancohen.org
The Slow Formation of Durable Software
How a group of historians took years to imagine Zotero, the research application that would eventually be used by millions
213256
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
AIC & FAIC @conservators.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
#AskAConservator Day is November 4! This year's theme is "Past and Present," looking back on the 60 years since the Florence Flood & giving conservators an opportunity to reflect on their personal path to conservation & where they are today: culturalheritage.org/ask-a-conservator-day [1/2]
122
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
Willie Jack's Favorite Uncle @dandantransient.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Let's be clear if the elders that shared their stories didn't want them to be kept by the gov/academics then that is the only option. Yes it sucks to lose this history, these words, and stories, but they belong to those elders and we must abide by their boundaries. thenarwhal.ca/trc-resident...
thenarwhal.ca
Canada plans to destroy thousands of residential school testimonies. These women think survivors should have a choice
The 38,000 testimonies are the largest body of evidence about children’s experiences in these institutions. Journalist Connie Walker and lawyer Kimberly Murray say losing it would mean losing history — both painful and illuminating
14012
Fletcher Durant @fletcherdurant.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
This debate is also filled with the assumption that people who go into the trades aren't deserving of a liberal arts education.
020
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
Shannon Mattern @shannonmattern.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
This is John Cage’s handmade paper, composed of milkweed, cattail, pigweed, honeysuckle, saffron, and more — at the NYPL
Very fibrous handmade paper with different colored globs and flecks from various plants
116223
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
Patricia Hswe @pmhswe.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Friends, please check out this new report on community-based archives, "Powerful But Precarious," linked from the Mellon website. A participatory action research study, it provides a rich portrait of these organizations—their aspirations, wants, and resilience. Enjoy! www.mellon.org/features/com...
mellon.org
Mellon Foundation
The Mellon Foundation makes grants to actively unlock the power in the arts and humanities that helps connect us all.
18134
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
Nina Beguš @ninabegus.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Delivering dinosaurs for exhibit at the Boston Museum of Science. Arthur Pollock, 1984
052
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
Melanie Walsh @mellymeldubs.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
You can make flipbook GIFs 🤩 Play with it here: hadro.github.io/flipbook/#m=...
1177
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
Simon is on strike ✊🏻 @simonxix.com · 28/09/2026
Historic England outsourced their digital image provision to a third-party company. Then the company went bust and now all their images are inaccessible. Tell me again how outsourcing to the private sector is sustainable?
8238131
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
Craig Pittman @craigtimes.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Three #Florida counties declare a state of emergency over outbreak of dengue fever. The 3 Tampa Bay counties have reported 169 cases as of Sept. 19. www.tampabay.com/news/health/...
tampabay.com
Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas counties issue states of emergency over dengue fever
Tampa Bay has reported 169 cases, including 160 in Hillsborough, seven in Pinellas and two in Pasco counties as of Sept. 19.
22019
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
the Mountain Goats @themountaingoats.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Jackie Jackson died two days ago. His death did not get the fanfare that the big celebrities get but I assure you he was no less than any of them: a titan astride the earth. In this thread, a few of the songs he played bass on. You know these songs. You know their bass parts. youtu.be/DKVB_CtU8XQ
youtu.be
Pressure Drop
YouTube video by Toots & The Maytals - Topic
211061361
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
Tim Carmody @tcarmody.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Some people cannot tolerate any physical violence to books but imo if you bought it it’s yours
271
Fletcher Durant @fletcherdurant.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
The ambiguity of “Partially used” leads to two very different places.
080
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
Sarah E. Bond @sarahebond.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
The Iowa City Public library has framed art 🖼️ that you can check out and hang on your wall for a few months. And that is cool.
Art on the wall of a public library with a little boy looking at the art
211521
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
Melinda Haunton @melindahaunton.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
One of the worst sentences :-(
051
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
Stewart J. Brookes @stewartbrookes.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
You never *quite* know what to expect when ordering items in @bodleian.ox.ac.uk. Here’s MS. Canon. Liturg. 237
1102
Fletcher Durant @fletcherdurant.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
My copy (from Bookshop dot org) has an even trim throughout. Looks like your locally distributed print run might...be a collectible.
140
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
'The records have been digitised and indexed by the genealogy company Ancestry, which has partnered with the Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery at University College London.' Leaps and bounds forward in our understanding of the histories of the British enslaved. #Skystorians
theguardian.com
Nearly 4m records of enslaved people in 20 former British colonies now searchable online
Exclusive: Collection’s 300,000 pages record lives of enslaved people in countries including the Bahamas, Barbados, Jamaica, Mauritius, South Africa and Trinidad
113586
Fletcher Durant @fletcherdurant.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Don’t blame the bookbinder!
010
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
David Staniunas @boxreceiver.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Were, were people teaching each other to cover paper in matte acrylic medium
Hints for better spraying (of what, God knows)
131
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
Annette Gordon-Reed @agordonreed.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Two Centuries On, Smithsonian Connects Jefferson’s Hair to Hemings’s Children www.nytimes.com/2026/09/18/a...
nytimes.com
Two Centuries On, Smithsonian Connects Jefferson’s Hair to Hemings’s Children (Gift Article)
A new book describes how cutting-edge genomics techniques yielded “extraordinary proof” that Thomas Jefferson fathered children with Sally Hemings.
715568
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
Martin Austermuhle @maustermuhle.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
I've been curious about the balancing act that professional female athletes have to deal with when they become moms, and @emmabaccellieri.bsky.social does a great job explaining how four Washington Spirit players have managed it — with help from their teammates: www.washingtonsun.com/sports/spiri...
washingtonsun.com
The Spirit’s New Moms Navigate the Season with Babies in Tow
A league policy allows players to have their babies — and their spouses — travel with the team.
424263
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
Yonette Joseph @sugarcane99.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
He was cleaning his garage. Then he found a file marked ‘SECRET. 🎁 wapo.st/4yDFDwu
wapo.st
He was cleaning his garage. Then he found a file marked ‘SECRET.’
A surprise discovery unearthed a large cache of World War II documents that had been lost to history.
084
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
Caitlin G. DeAngelis @caitlindeangelis.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
On 9/11, hundreds of boxes of historical artifacts from New York's African Burial Ground and Five Points were in Sherrill Wilson's research lab at 6 World Trade Center. While most of the African Burial Ground artifacts were later recovered, the Five Points artifacts (~850,000) were destroyed.
nationalgeographic.com
The Archaeological Treasures That Survived 9/11
Nearly a million artifacts spanning four centuries of New York history were stored at the World Trade Center. These are the stories they told.
316457
Fletcher Durant @fletcherdurant.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
I'm really sorry everyone. I was "Corn in the USA".
040
Fletcher Durant @fletcherdurant.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Bruce Stringbean and the Pea Street band
171
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
Colleen T @librarycolleen.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
“Thank God for the microfilm. Truly.” 📜 news.northeastern.edu/2026/09/04/m...
news.northeastern.edu
This old research tool can teach an iPhone some new tricks
A microfilm reader at Northeastern's library helped one student finish a century-spanning project her iPhone storage could not handle.
14214
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
Steven Van Impe @svanimpe.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Update: all issues of the Book Historical journal De Gulden Passer = The Golden Compass from 1923 up until 2015 are now available in Open Access on DBNL: www.dbnl.org/titels/tijds.... Later years will follow as the wall moves (and scanning infrastructure permits).
Cover for De Gulden Passer, Journal for Book History (2015/1).
03413
Fletcher Durant @fletcherdurant.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
One of the great things about returning to a childhood home is basking in the water pressure from unregulated showerheads.
010
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
Derbyshire Record Office @derbyshiredro.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
This photograph shows why all archives are wary of silverfish, which thrive in damp conditions: most of the image has been devoured, leaving only the linked arms of this - presumably - bride and groom. #EYAErased
The remnants of a black and white photograph, stuck to a piece of card. Silverfish have devoured most of the image, leaving small patches throughout and a central larger patch showing the linked arms of a woman in a white dress and a man in a suit.
0259
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
Lawrence Vulis @lvulis.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
#climaterisk
032
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
Phil Salvador @philsalv.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
There was a period in the 90s/00s when people would get paid $100,000 to be "futurists" and say shit like "CD-ROMs are the new town square" in Wired magazine. Current-day tech grifters must have FOMO for this era
1022041
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
Uncle Mojtaba's Cavern Complex @wellburrowed.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
No one says if this 1580 text *was* actually checked out, despite being available
2181
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
Sarah Finn @romanceofbooks.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Chromolithograph from ‘Reports on Observations of the Total Eclipse of the Sun, August 7, 1869, conducted under the direction of Commodore B. F. Sands, U.S. N., Washington, 1870. #Solareclipse #naturalhistory #naturalhistoryillustration #scientificillustration #chromolithograph
The Corona of the Total Eclipse on August 7, 1869, as seen by the aid of a four inch telescope.
06822
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
N.N. Scott @nnscott.com · 13/08/2026
Fun news on the digital media archiving front. "Nine PBS" is KETC Channel 9, a PBS member TV station in St. Louis, Missouri. 50 TB of storage would be enough to hold high-res digital captures of about 2,000 half-hour television shows. Never leave the only copy of your data with someone else.
tomshardware.com
PBS broadcaster loses access to 50TB of data comprising 70 years of TV history after contracted cloud storage vendor goes defunct — public TV channel sues Iron Mountain data center, which hosts archiv...
This wouldn't have been an issue if the organization bought a $1,000 NAS and populated it with a few hard drives.
032
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
When climate adaptation runs up against “heritage”.
lemonde.fr
French state heritage architects block roof-insulation projects over height restrictions
Sarking, which involves slightly raising zinc roofs to insulate them, is authorized under Paris's bioclimatic local urban plan but often faces resistance from guardians of the city's landscape.
57423
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
Funranium (AKA Phil Broughton) @funranium.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
While I love a good posting, this is a grim one for a museum. The case is completely empty.
Posting of “Some of the artifacts in this case have been removed temporarily off-site for fire protection during the fire season. Thank you for your understanding.”
647483
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
Jenn Wong @jennwong.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
"The Morgan Library & Museum obtained $2.5m from the Lilly Endowment to digitize about 300 religious manuscripts from the Middle Ages & Renaissance. Called The Morgan Illuminated, the program should lead in 2029 to a free portal giving access to the volumes in their entirety, nearly 120,000 pages"
0178
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · 08/08/2026
Restoration work on the gilded “Arts of War” and “Arts of Peace” statues near the Lincoln Memorial is nearing completion. The restoration work, ordered by President Trump, is expected to cost more than $5 million, according to the Associated Press and other reports.
393028
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
Shannon Mattern @shannonmattern.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
The Times writes about BookOps, the logistical hub managing book distribution btw the NY and Bklyn public libraries. Its director, Sal, is retiring today, after decades of service. (I wrote about BookOps and Sal back in 2015: urbanomnibus.net/2015/06/midd...)
nytimes.com
Waiting for a Library Book? This Man Makes Sure You Get It. (Gift Article)
For 20 years, a retired Police Department captain has overseen the shipping of books to library branches. Tens of thousands of books are sorted each day.
03415
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
Lynne M. Thomas 🏳️‍🌈🚀🦄 📜 @lynnemthomas.com · 07/08/2026
And keep in mind that librarians have been yelling about this for literal decades.
17624
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
💾💜 Digital ⚓️ Vagabond 💜💾 @b33tk33p3r.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Luke McKernan looking at three lost digital resources making a strong case for a true registry of endangered and lost digital archives (not simply a high-level symbol of endangerment) lukemckernan.com/2026/06/28/l... #digipres #DigitalPreservation #Archives #GLAM #LegalDeposit #Registry
lukemckernan.com
Lost resources
To lose one database is a misfortune; to lose four feels like a conspiracy. Recently three online databases and one audiovisual digital archive with underlying database, on each of which I worked f…
179
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
Deva Woodly @devawo.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
This is a very serious problem for libraries, archives, and knowledge-keepers of all kinds. If you don’t control access to your collections, *you do not have collections.* If we do not have permanent access to records, stories, & sources of knowledge then our histories and memories are not our own.
6790440
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
BOO! k HistoriAAAH 🎃 @book-historia.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Would anyone like to try making some iron gall ink? If so, this book on miniature painting has a recipe for you!
“A Receipt to Make Black Ink” written on the pastedown of a book
58013
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
Dr Alison Ray @liber-ray.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
NBD, just hanging out with the Cathach, @rialibrary.bsky.social MS 12 R 33 dating to 560-600 AD and the oldest extant Irish manuscript of the Latin Psalter 🤩📜
78118
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
ian says DC statehood now @wareian.com · 04/08/2026
i think it was larry g that said big windows in a client's house are a dealer's greatest enemy. museum architects heard that as a challenge.
281
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
ian says DC statehood now @wareian.com · 04/08/2026
very funny logic here. it's "disrespectful" to cover the huge windows the architect built for a museum full of light-sensitive objects? have we not learned from harvard and rothko, from lacma and govan, from every light-based fuck up in the past 100 years of art. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/04/a...
The museum’s first response was to lower blackout shades on the large upper windows. But when Louise Mirrer, the director of the museum (formerly the New-York Historical Society), realized how much that undermined the wing’s soaring architecture, she insisted the shades be raised back up.

“I felt it was disrespectful of the architect’s final museum project,” Mirrer said in an interview. “We had to find a means that could accommodate both the architecture and the exhibition narrative — which we did.”

So, to protect the vulnerable works, the museum replaced 17 of them with reproductions and removed another three.
2165
Fletcher Durant @fletcherdurant.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
On the positive (?) side, it makes it almost impossible to double screen with a book and the tv.
021