iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Adam Chapman @adamchapman.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

A resource I hadn't come across (but based on the excellent Defence of Britain data - which recorded civil defence and anti-invasion structures from both World Wars), an interactive map of the data maintained by Steve Thompson. (to whom many thanks!):

edob.mattaldred.com

eDoB Online

Online viewer for the Extended Defence of Britain Database as maintained by Steve Thompson. View the interactive map, or search through the database for a particular record.

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Jennifer @bibliojenni.bsky.social · 13h

What do you do with the chains when reading a chained book?, I hear you ask. As of today, we'll put them into these little calico bags made by the broderers! Inspired by a conservator who told us she put it in a sock while working on one of our books.

Chained book with bag containing Chained lying next to it.

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Katie Birkwood @girlinthe.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Ha. People can read them on the buses and trains they keep reinventing, too.

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Dorothy Berry @dorothyjberry.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

I'll never understand how "a lot of mostly/potentially/probably incorrect metadata is better for digital discovery than accurate but sparse metadata" became a popular idea than "we will put things online more slowly, but we will do it with accuracy"

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Katie Birkwood @girlinthe.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

You know the new CILIP website populated with slop AI images (eg this header image: www.cilip.org.uk/about/govern...)? Has there been any official comment about it? Did anyone get a reply to any email about it? I wrote, and didn't get a reply, and it's been two months now.

cilip.org.uk

Byelaws and General Regulations

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RCP museum @rcpmuseum.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Visit the 'Patient voices' exhibition at the RCP Museum until 23 July 2027. Check out our website for opening details & exhibition themed events. Next Thurs 8 October you can join our Museum Late to explore after hours with free talks! history.rcp.ac.uk/exhibitions/... @rcphysicians.bsky.social

Exhibition graphic showing a black and white photo of a female patient sitting up and smiling in a hospital bed. The text reads:
Patient voices: power, truth, understanding
Exploring the lived experience of healthcare
14 September 2026 – 23 July 2027
Exhibition| Free entry

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RCP museum @rcpmuseum.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

😍Exhibition 'Patient voices' is open to visit! We celebrated with a private view featuring speeches from the patient advocacy group who helped develop the exhibition, senior curator Liz Douglas & musical performances of baroque pieces evoking the experience of a patient. 🎼 Photos Saul Perryman

Visitors on the gallery explore the exhibition

A violinist, harpist and narrator perform on a stage in the Dorchester Library.

A visitor listens to oral history interviews in the exhibition

Diary of Augusts d’Este the earliest documented account of multiple sclerosis in the exhibition.

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Sarah Pyke @sarahpyke.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Extremely excited to share the CFP for the ✨fifth✨ annual #QueerBibliography conference! bit.ly/QB2027CfP When? 2-4 September 2027 Where? Manchester, UK & online Theme: TAKING STOCK Deadline for abstracts: 29 January 2027 Decisions: by 12 March 2027 Submit here: forms.gle/WGjXKA1d6gWm...

Queer Bibliography
Taking Stock
Manchester, UK and online
2-4 September 2027

Call for Proposals

Since the inaugural 2023 conference, queer bibliography has grown from an interesting concept to a burgeoning field. Our 2027 theme, Taking Stock, marks the fifth annual conference and is a chance to pause and reflect on genealogies of the field, the present state of queer bibliographical enquiry, and our senses of the future. How might we trace queer histories of queer bibliography? How can we imagine critical futures for bibliographical enquiry within and beyond its traditional academic locations? Where do we find ourselves and our work?

Stock also has meaning in bibliography. While “stock” originally referred to a tree trunk or plant stem, and figuratively to the source of a line of descent or even a human torso, it later began to connote an aggregate of goods—in the context of bookmaking, one might own a stock of paper or pasteboard. Towards the mid-nineteenth century, “paper stock” began to connote the raw material of paper itself. “Stock” might refer to the inventories of booksellers, the process of beginning and curating an institutional or personal collection, and the supply and material characteristics of paper. From the raw materials of books to the origins and shapes of personal, commercial, and institutional collections, how does "stock" participate in the production, articulation, and study of queer textuality and textual communities? What is queer about materiality, the ecology of books, and the processes of making and engaging with (collections of) physical textual objects?

We invite participants to engage in stock-taking or reflect on
bibliographical stock, broadly defined. We welcome meta, theoretical, and historiographical work that takes stock of queer bibliography, and we
welcome proposals that relate to “stock” in bibliography, book history, and reception studies.

This three-day hybrid conference will be hosted at the John Rylands
Library, part of the University of Manchester, and online on 2–4 September 2027. The conference will feature two days of panels, conversation, and discussion on 2 and 3 September and will be followed by an optional workshop on 4 September. Conference programming may also include evening receptions, tours of Manchester libraries (including Chetham’s Library, the oldest public library in England), and collection viewings at the Rylands.

The conference welcomes participants from a diverse range of fields and
career stages, including: book arts practitioners, activists, postgraduates,
early career researchers, independent scholars, librarians, archivists, and
booksellers, both in person and via video conference. As in past years, the goal of the broadly articulated theme of “taking stock” is to bring people in and to shape conversation, not to exclude or limit. All submissions that engage with the intertwined relationship between queerness and bibliography are encouraged.

Participants will be invited to submit a 2000-word pre-circulated paper,
before presenting in panels of 10-minute papers. We also welcome
alternative contributions, such as workshops, roundtables, or self-organised seminars and creative presentations, with a pre-circulated submission that provides a grounding for the conference contribution.

Contributors should submit an abstract of 200–300 words, along with a
short bio, by 29 January 2027:

https:/ /forms.gle/WGjXKA1d6gWmtfjZ8

Prospective speakers will be informed of the outcome by 12th March. Pre-circulated papers will be collected and shared in mid-July.

Any questions should be directed to: queerbibliography@gmail.com

http://queerbibliography.org

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Kieran Healy @kjhealy.co · 01/10/2026

I keep seeing this Semafor graph that seems to show the Trump administration’s effect on international visits is comparable to the pandemic. My first thought was “that can’t be true” and indeed it is not. This is monthly data. We only have to Jun/Aug 2026. The lines are over-fitted to the months.

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Odd This Day @oddthisday.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Well, happy Charles Darwin is “very poorly today & very stupid & hate[s] everybody & everything” to all who celebrate, because he wrote those words in a letter to his friend (and author of Principles of Geology) Charles Lyell 161 years ago today

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Michael Spicer @michaelspicer.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Most TV is just this now.

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Ian Coldwater 🧊🚫 @lookitup.baby · 30/09/2026

BREAKING NEWS: “Do geese see God” is a palindrome

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Physicians' Gallery @physiciansgallery.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

We've just launched a new digital resource! Almost 15,000 entries, covering every Fellow, Honorary Fellow, Member and Licentiate of our College from our foundation to 1926. Check it out 👉 www.rcpe.ac.uk/heritage/phy...

Promotional image. A composite image of nine doctors, text on image reads 'physicians database'

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Suzanne Karr Schmidt @drkarrschmidt.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

ImPRESSed Yet? I am thrilled to announce that Impressive Textiles: Premodern Printing on Fabric will be published October 27 in print and Open Access with @acmrs.bsky.social, thanks to 30 textile and print scholars, and 1 groundbreaking exhibition @newberrylibrary.bsky.social! #CoverReveal 1/5

Cover art for Impressive Textiles: Premodern Printing on Fabric!

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Lisa Fagin Davis @lisafdavis.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Every page is available online, freely downloadable, shareable, & reusable, per Yale's #OA policies! If you're going to post about the manuscript, please use real images, not AI. It's not helpful for fakes to be circulating. Here are some actual images: collections.library.yale.edu/catalog/2002...

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Lisa Fagin Davis @lisafdavis.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

It's not necessary to use generative AI to create images of the #Voynich Manuscript, so why do people continue to do it? There is so much wrong in this online image. Neither of the pages shown here is actually from the manuscript. The verso is labeled "r" ("recto") & the language is not Voynichese.

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RCP museum @rcpmuseum.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

This recipe book compiled 1644-1691 includes 3 cures 'Against Biting of a Mad dog'. Could this be rabies in the archive? #worldrabiesday 🧵 1. 'A poultice for ye biting of a mad dog' made with the bitten person's urine, boiled bread, turpentine and rose or chamomile oil applied to the bite.

Handwritten recipe: A poultice for ye biting of a mad dog.

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Katie Birkwood @girlinthe.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

More digital systems doom. National data provided through a third-party that goes bust and boom! Of course, national data provided through unmaintained internal systems can also go boom! The solution? People to maintain the stuff!

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Dr Vanessa @hpsvanessa.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Huh, it's almost like the death of the highstreet is not being caused by individual lifestyle choices but by a grabby class of landlords who'd prefer to squat on property than let it out at lower profit margins or, you know, sell it to someone who actually wants to use it. How unpredictable!

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Ryan @ryanwright.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

This is how I remember the order of Henry VIII’s wives.

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Andy Lewis @andylewis.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Every time someone links to this film, I have to repost it. It's one of the most significant bits of British 20th century art. Everything about it is incredible. Groundbreaking music production by Daphne Oram. Amazing camera work by Wolfgang Suschitzky (who later filmed Get Carter).-

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Katie Birkwood @girlinthe.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Duck Egg Designs was at Ely market today, and has some really lovely stuff including spooky Pride badges. I think they may appeal to some of you... www.duckeggdesignss.co.uk/collections/...

duckeggdesignss.co.uk

Pride

All my pride designs in one place, available all year round - not just for pride month. Colourful coaster, fans and pin badges.

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Katie Birkwood @girlinthe.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Double whammy: a rail delay reason I've never seen before, and one that clearly had to be added to the available options because of That Specific Incident.

Train updates website. Specific train journey irrelevant to the point, which is that it's delayed with the following message: This service is running late because of a late departure while the train was cleaned specially.

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Gwen C. Katz @gwenckatz.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Fuck ChatGPT flyers. The future is broadsheets.

A crowded broadsheet with way too many fonts. It says:
Forget ChatGPT Flyers
Say it with
Broadsheets
Unlimited fonts
Stretch them
Or cram a really long sentence into one line for no good reason
No whitespace
Mix capital and lowercase
Pointing hands
(They're called manicules!)
Don't be left behind
Broadsheets are the future

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Katie Birkwood @girlinthe.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I'm half an hour behind, but good god this #TOTP is bleak.

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Katie Parker @kparkerhistorian.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Calling all London #creatives! Come and grab surplus #maps for FREE the week of 5 October from the Foyle Reading Room @rgs.org . All we ask is that you show us your creations later on! #art #geography #skystorians

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Laura Cleaver @laurajcleaver.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Marking the 350th anniversary of the oldest English book auction catalogue, this year’s book trade history conference returns to the theme of auctions. 🧑‍⚖️ 📚 London 22-23 November, book now at www.sas.ac.uk/news-events/...

sas.ac.uk

47th Annual Conference on Book Trade History | Battling Over Books: Auction Catalogues and Their Contexts, 1676-2026

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Dr Francis Young @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

From 18 October there will be a new exhibition at the Museum of Cambridge devoted to folklore (and supported, among others, by the @folkloresociety.bsky.social)

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Katie Birkwood @girlinthe.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

We had regular evangelists, one of whom would do a 'something something something and that's a bit like God' talk, followed by the other who would do a solo dance about it on a thin sliver of stage. Usually to M People.

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Alexis Wolf @dralexiswolf.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Do you or one of your colleagues need an index created for a book in the humanities? I make beautiful indexes that convey complex research to the reader w/o the use of AI or indexing software. I have space to take on 1-2 additional projects October, and 1 in Nov. Get in touch! RTs appreciated.

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Yvonne Lam @yvonnezlam.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Only tangentially related, but more and more I find myself actively hostile to demands that I make what I am doing legible to entities that do not have good intentions toward me.

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Raf Nicholson @rafnicholson.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Please do come along to this webinar - we'd love to share our research into Scottish women's cricket with you. Registration link in the post below.

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Jennifer @bibliojenni.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

What's not to love about a woodblock in a Wynkyn de Worde printing?

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Mags L Halliday @magslhalliday.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Every year on 19 December, the famous Christmas lights at Mousehole in Cornwall are dimmed between 8 and 9pm, leaving just the Cross and Angels shining down across the village and out to sea.

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Felicity Callard @felicitycallard.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Trying to describe what it’s like working inside British universities at the moment is very hard. One small vignette: not a single week of my teaching this semester looks the same as any other. We have virtually no courses/modules that are taught by

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Katie Birkwood @girlinthe.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Dammit. I could have been at this tonight, but somehow missed that we're already back to concert season. :(

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Katie Birkwood @girlinthe.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

A very happy #TeaUp to everyone else who's broken out the big guns this morning. Rose Congou/earl grey blend.

A small highly decorated teapot and a mug covered in hand drawn pictures of dogs.

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Katie Birkwood @girlinthe.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

NOUGHT FOR ONE? Oh, come on Somerset. #TheCricket

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Rebecca Whiteley @rebeccawhiteley.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Anyone who is interested in Material Culture and the Medical Humanities should definitely come and join our new Collective! medhumsplatform.org/call-for-col... @annafranjam.bsky.social @harrietbarratt.bsky.social @drfijohnstone.bsky.social

medhumsplatform.org

Call for collaborators – launching the Material Medical Humanities Collective | The Platform

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Katie Birkwood @girlinthe.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Having yesterday got the hang of a fiddly import process, today I find that doing exactly the same thing (as far as I can tell) results in precisely one (1) row from the list being added, and then without one of its fields.

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Alexandre Klein @alexandreklein.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

(Call for papers) Inside/Insight: Popular and biomedical representations and the aesthetics of the inner body histoiresante.blogspot.com/2026/09/repr... #histbody #histmed

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Dr Beatriz Pichel @beapichel.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Really excited to announce the online launch of The Ethics of Medical Photography Toolkit, the result of two years of work between academics, archives and museums. Register here forms.gle/PYBjxGNDitDp... to join us on Friday 16 Oct at 3 pm BST online #histmed #photohist #ethics #medhums

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Katie Birkwood @girlinthe.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Just seen this picture accompanying a 'garlic basil pesto' recipe and ... just why are things so rubbish? That's not pesto! That's not anything. That's just pasta that was in a neighbouring room when a potted herb sneezed.

Bowl of thin tagliatelle or thick linguine (long flat pasta) very, very, very lightly dressed with a tiny quantity of green herb. Nothing like 'pesto' as commonly understood.

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Katie Birkwood @girlinthe.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Seen at Cambridge station. Bad on so many fronts.

A 'map' showing the route from Cambridge station down Station Rd and Hills Red towards Rutherford's punting station at quayside, only there's a Mill Rd, populated with the Kings Parade/St Johns Street famous buildings joining Hills Rd roughly where OLEM would be, and the immediately the round church.

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Jack Gann @jackgann.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Here I am promoting the display of Elizabeth Blackwell's 'A Curious Herbal' in the pages of The Yorkshire Post. But why, of all the plants I could have gone with to highlight for our exhibition on folklore, magic, and medicine, have I chosen to look at something as everyday as a tomato?

A photo of me in a newspaper clipping. I am looking at an old book, open to a page with a colour illustration of a tomato plant.

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Claire Cullingworth @ccullingworth.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

This made me smile, attached to an ordinary cast iron drainpipe on a house in Durham. #TinyJoys

A cast iron drain pipe going down the side of a white-painted house. A crest of red feathers and a bright orange beak made from something solid have been attached around it. It looks remarkably like "Feathers McGraw", the evil criminal penguin from The Wrong Trousers.

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Tom Cox @dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Next-door's weird cat has been in again.

This is actually a photograph of Joe, my local hedgehog from a few summers ago, who would sneak into my kitchen and steal my cats' biscuits.

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