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Faye McLeod

@saffiemcleod.bsky.social
103 followers 100 following 35 posts

Archivist and Records Manager, Balliol College, Oxford. All opinions here are very much my own.

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Reposted by Faye McLeod
Merriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · 02/12/2025
“Have Yourself A Merriam Little Christmas” Merriam, a career-oriented lexicographer from the city, returns to her small town for the holidays and meets Webster, a ruggedly handsome librarian, who shows her the true DEFINITION of Christmas.
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Maria J Pérez Cuervo @mjpcuervo.com · 22/10/2025
Parents, please check your kids’ candy this Halloween. I’ve just found an ancient metal whistle with the inscription “QUIS EST ISTE QUI VENIT" inside a Snickers bar. I blew it and heard a note of infinite distance, and now I’m haunted by a figure in pale, fluttering draperies. Be safe.
Snickers bar and a metal whistle
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Daniel F Gosling @thegozfather.bsky.social · 10/09/2025
A lovely endorsement on the back of this deed, "this deed was cancelled by cause it is forged" TNA C 147/1097
Dorse of a deedA deed
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Faye McLeod @saffiemcleod.bsky.social · 11/09/2025
Rainbow over Holywell Street, Oxford
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Rebecca Menmuir @rebeccamenmuir.bsky.social · 24/08/2025
Accidentally took the mathematically perfect shot of our local cat.
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H e t e r o t o p ia @artsofexistence.bsky.social · 13/08/2025
Insult your local politicians, even your friends, like a true Shakespearean!
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Odd This Day @oddthisday.bsky.social · 10/08/2025
Today is the 47th anniversary of this clearly unimprovable photo, from a story so absurd that it shouldn’t be true, but is: the day a team of workers from British Waterways pulled the plug out of the Chesterfield Canal, and all the water emptied out
A man with a spectacular 1970s mullet, wearing big wellies and a v-neck jumper over a T-shirt, looks at camera as he stands on a boat which is itself standing on the muddy bottom of an empty canal. He is holding up an enormous wooden plug on a long chunky chain
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Faye McLeod @saffiemcleod.bsky.social · 05/08/2025
The price of sloe gin
Photo of a scratched forearm
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Faye McLeod @saffiemcleod.bsky.social · 05/08/2025
Struggling to believe the sloes are ripe so early this year, but they are soft and have their waxy coating. Time to make gin (and worry about the weather)
Photo of a blackthorn bush with fruit
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Heather Froehlich @heatherfro.bsky.social · 04/08/2025
ok cool not a big deal at all
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Aaron Tay @aarontay.bsky.social · 29/07/2025
[Blogged] The AI powered Library Search That Refused to Search - From Clarivate's Summon to Primo Research Assistant, content‑moderation layers meant mostly for chatbots are "quietly" blocking controversial topics from being searched aarontay.substack.com/p/the-ai-pow...
aarontay.substack.com
The AI powered Library Search That Refused to Search
From Clarivate's Summon to Primo Research Assistant, content‑moderation layers meant mostly for chatbots are "quietly" blocking controversial topics from being searched
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inthefade @ihavethatonvinyl.com · 29/07/2025
good morning. on the blog today, a piece i wrote in 2003 about love, marriage and what happens when "i love you" becomes meaningless to only one of you. it's about witnessing the end of someone else's relationship. please read to the addendum at the end michelecatblog.wordpress.com/2025/07/29/i...
michelecatblog.wordpress.com
i love you. i know.
when words ring hollow [i originally wrote this in 2003, please see footnote for an update] I know this couple. They have been married long enough to have accumulated children and a complete set of…
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Twonks @twonks.bsky.social · 25/07/2025
En garde
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University of Illinois RBML @illinoisrbml.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
Have you ever seen a book made entirely of silk? One item getting a lot of reading room attention recently is this "Livre de Prières." This book was manufactured with the Jacquard process, which relied on perforated punch cards to operate a loom, and is considered a precursor to early programming.
Book opened to highly illustrative title pageClose up of highly-illustrative page of textClose up image of the word "Christ" woven from silkClose up image of silk fibers forming the letter C
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The Fake History Hunter @fakehistoryhunter.net · 22/07/2025
Time to update... nay downdate your slang!
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Faye McLeod @saffiemcleod.bsky.social · 21/07/2025
Completely charmed by these fabric samples found in a file of Sir Louis Mallet's papers relating to Anglo-French trade agreements 1826-1877 #BalliolArchives
Four labelled squares of white linen on top of an old envelope
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Rebecca Menmuir @rebeccamenmuir.bsky.social · 17/07/2025
Whispering different possibilities for pronouncing 'Boger' in the manuscripts reading room like I'm playing a weird version of Bogies
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Faye McLeod @saffiemcleod.bsky.social · 02/07/2025
Oooo. Goody. www.bbc.com/news/article...
bbc.com
Warwickshire council boss vetoed Reform's Pride Flag removal request
Reform UK accuses Warwickshire council's chief executive of a "coup d'etat" in a Pride flag row.
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Faye McLeod @saffiemcleod.bsky.social · 01/07/2025
I have been looking forward to this
A copy of a book titled "Book and Dagger", held on a person's lap, with a cat in the background
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David Veevers @davidveevers.bsky.social · 30/06/2025
Archive Monday: love these ink drawings from MS Tanner 118 in the Bodleian. Skeleton representing death with various scenes of a moralistic nature. Dress suggests late Elizabethan / early Jacobean. Scenes include royal court, hunting, duelling, trade/banking, religious/political persecution.
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Jess M. F. Hughes @jessmfh.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
TIL AI is not only stealing our archives, it’s killing them. www.404media.co/ai-scraping-...
404media.co
AI Scraping Bots Are Breaking Open Libraries, Archives, and Museums
"This is a moment where that community feels collectively under threat and isn't sure what the process is for solving the problem.”
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The Fake History Hunter @fakehistoryhunter.net · 20/06/2025
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Helen Dafter @historyhelen123.bsky.social · 20/06/2025
Working on file appraisal today. The first file I picked up had the unholy trio - elastic bands, post its, and metal fastenings 😬
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Faye McLeod @saffiemcleod.bsky.social · 14/06/2025
A great chance to get out some of my favourites from the @ballioloxford.bsky.social archives and show off the catalogue conversion project.
A long table loaded with archival documents and booksThe oldest admission book in the Balliol College ArchivesA laptop alongside a notebook belonging to Benjamin JowettAn antique atlas open at a world map
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Old English Wordhord @oewordhord.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
þyrel, n.n: hole. (THUE-rell / ˈθy-rɛl) Image: De natura rerum; E France, 9th century; Bamberg, Staatsbibliothek, Msc.Nat.1, f. 26v. #OldEnglish #WOTD
A hole in a page of a medieval manuscript reveals a dragon on the page beneath.
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Faye McLeod @saffiemcleod.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
Peace at last
A beautiful black cat, sitting on her less-glamorous owner  who is wearing cloggies and doesn't care.
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The Rubaiyat of Victor Kiam @phantomcorsair.bsky.social · 07/06/2025
When I searched to see if Mary Shelley and Jane Austen could have met in Bath, Google AI informed me that they were, in fact, sisters...
Google AI Overview saying (correctly) that 'Jane Austen and Mary Shelley were both famous female novelists in the early 19th century', and then adding (quite erroneously) that 'They shared a mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, who wrote The Vindication of the Rights of Women.'
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Faye McLeod @saffiemcleod.bsky.social · 07/06/2025
A damp, but fun Oxford Pride
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Old English Wordhord @oewordhord.bsky.social · 07/06/2025
lǣwede, adj: lay, i.e. not learned, not of the church; by gradual change of meaning it became modern English ‘lewd’. (LAE-weh-duh / ˈlæː-wɛ-də) #OldEnglish #WOTD
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University of Reading Special Collections @uorspeccoll.bsky.social · 06/06/2025
‘The feminine monarchie…’ by Charles Butler revolutionised beekeeping in 1609 by confirming the queen bee existed. It also includes musical notation of bee’s drones, recipes for marmalade, and descriptions of bees building little wax chapels in their hives! [Bee Coll. Cotton 01]
An open book held in hand, showing musical notation of the sound of bees.An open book held in hand, showing a recipe for marmalade
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Museum of Natural History, University of Oxford @morethanadodo.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
This Friday the Museum is open late for our Summer Late Night event. Both we and the Pitt Rivers Museum will be open until 10pm (free ticket required for entry) where we will have a host of activities, talks, tours, poetry, and film as well as a cash bar!
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Balliol College, University of Oxford @ballioloxford.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
Balliol is delighted to announce that the Mastership of the College has been offered to Professor Seamus Perry, who has accepted and will assume the role in July 2026. www.balliol.ox.ac.uk/news/2025/ma...
Professor Seamus Perry
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Colleen Curran @ccurran.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
Behold, my favourite Latin word of the day: floccipendentes 😂😂😂
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The Fake History Hunter @fakehistoryhunter.net · 24/05/2025
That should do the trick.
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Rachel Deering @racheldeering.bsky.social · 25/05/2025
@marandina.bsky.social
LISTEN, IM NOT GOING TO KEEP LETTING YOU IN AND OUT ALL DAY.
Coffin opened by vampire to let cat out.
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Matthew Holford @matthewholford.bsky.social · 25/05/2025
and apologies to anyone getting a 502 on medieval.bodleian.ox.ac.uk as a result of the same scrapers
medieval.bodleian.ox.ac.uk
Medieval Manuscripts in Oxford Libraries
A catalogue of Western manuscripts at the Bodleian Libraries and selected Oxford colleges
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Public Books @publicbooks.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
New at PB, Richard Ovenden (@richove.bsky.social‬) reviews Elyse Graham's “Book and Dagger” (Ecco), a book about the librarians and archivists who were involved in secret and dangerous tasks during WWII.
publicbooks.org
Secrets in the Stacks
A new book demonstrates that the skills taught and honed in the humanities are of vital importance to the defense of democracy.
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Dark Asylum Radio @darkasylum.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
🦇 “Children of the night, be happy.” Even Dracula’s cracking a smile (internally) — because it’s World Goth Day. He’s not brooding, he’s celebrating aggressively. Tag your favorite creature of the night. #WorldGothDay #BelaLugosiApproves #DarkAsylumMemes #SmileButMakeItGoth #FangsOutForFun
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Catherine Clarke @cathamclarke.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
If M.R. James wrote safety signage
Museum display recreating a Saxon burial, with a notice reading:
For your safety, please do not touch the items in the Saxon burial or attempt to climb into the grave.
(Red House Museum, Christchurch)
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The Museum of English Rural Life (MERL) @themerl.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
today is World Bee Day. not to be confused with World Bidet
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Faye McLeod @saffiemcleod.bsky.social · 11/05/2025
I completed my first 10k race, running as part of team #Balliol! The Oxford #TownAndGown10k. Huge fun, great atmosphere, and something I never thought I'd be able to do. Thanks to all those who supported. I've already decided to sign up for next year!
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jessamyn @librarian.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
A University of Virginia professor enlisted students to document the messages—profane, hopeful, despairing—left on library carrels by previous generations and you can browse all 3000+ of them. daily.jstor.org/graffiti-lim...
Book shelf with books on top with library stickers with call numbers on it. Shelf has blue painter's tape over it and the phrase "Carpe the fuck out of this diem" written on it.Wooden shelf or table with the phrase "I want sleep and chiken tenders" written on it and then "tenders" has been crossed out and replaced with "nugs"Side of a shelf in a library with book stacks in the distance. Someone has drawn a heart with an infinity symbol over it.
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Richard Ovenden @richove.bsky.social · 28/03/2025
What a surprise - the attack now is on the independence of the great Smithsonian Institution, which has strong connections to @ox.ac.uk. Asserting control over its curation is an attack on knowledge itself. Solidarity from Oxford’s Gardens, Libraries and Museums. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
theguardian.com
Trump executive order on Smithsonian targets funding for ‘improper ideology’
JD Vance to lead plan as Trump says there’s been ‘concerted’ effort to rewrite US history with ‘distorted narrative’
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Faye McLeod @saffiemcleod.bsky.social · 25/03/2025
It's spring at St Cross when the Holywell magnolia comes out
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Erika Wittekind @erikalyn.bsky.social · 22/03/2025
The power of on-screen representation 😻🐈‍⬛
Image of the black cat from Flow next to a photo of an adorable black cat tilting its head curiously at the camera. Text reads, "The global success of Academy Award-winning animation Flow has helped to increase the adoption rate of black cats." Not attributed but I fact checked it.
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 21/03/2025
You want to see an octopus riding a shark. 🎥: University of Auckland www.nytimes.com/2025/03/20/s...
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will pooley @willpooley.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
‘which came first, the pun, or the research project?’ *academics, head hung low, whispering* ‘the… the pun’
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Professor Marion Gibson @witchesetc.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
New academic article: full text edition of a Victorian play on the Pendle witches, written by Emma, Lady Ribblesdale, previously unpublished, with biography of Emma #Pendle #witches #womenwriters Access via: muse.jhu.edu/issue/54108
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Dr Eleanor Baker @eleanormaybaker.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
Perhaps the best spam mail I've ever received. The subject line was 'Twilight of the trousers'.
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James Corcoran @jamescorcoran78.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
Someone clever did this to a lamppost on Coverdale road and now I am disappointed that every lamppost doesn’t have one
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