Fletcher Durant
@fletcherdurant.bsky.social
Preservation : Conservation : Academic Libraries : Archives : Stuff
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
Solange Knowles’ Saint Heron has launched a free digital archival library of literature by Black and brown authors, poets, and artists. Readers can borrow rare and out-of-print books for up to 45 days
Solange Opens Free Digital Library Of Rare Black Books
Solange has launched a digital library archive of Black and brown authors where readers can borrow books at no cost.
peopleofcolorintech.com
November 18, 2025 at 11:58 PM
Solange Knowles’ Saint Heron has launched a free digital archival library of literature by Black and brown authors, poets, and artists. Readers can borrow rare and out-of-print books for up to 45 days
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
Good news today for anyone who got a grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Services: all grants are reinstated! www.imls.gov/news/statem...
Statement of Agency’s Reinstatement of Terminated IMLS Grants
Statement of Agency’s Reinstatement of Terminated IMLS Grants Washington, DC– Upon further review, the Institute of Museum and Library Services has reinstated all federal grants. This action supersedes any prior notices which may have been received related to grant termination.
www.imls.gov
December 3, 2025 at 5:09 PM
Good news today for anyone who got a grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Services: all grants are reinstated! www.imls.gov/news/statem...
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
based on how often the naughty teens of major cities throw the rentable scooters directly into the river i've formed a theory that the many iron age swords and cauldrons found in lakes around europe that we've previously assumed were ceremonial and sacrificial in nature were in fact thrown by teens
August 17, 2024 at 4:38 PM
based on how often the naughty teens of major cities throw the rentable scooters directly into the river i've formed a theory that the many iron age swords and cauldrons found in lakes around europe that we've previously assumed were ceremonial and sacrificial in nature were in fact thrown by teens
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
Our acquisitions person has been checking every book that comes in. This is the fourth AI-generated book in four weeks. I’m willing to admit that I bought this, mistakenly thinking I could trust what GOBI highlighted on their book lists.
December 2, 2025 at 4:06 PM
Our acquisitions person has been checking every book that comes in. This is the fourth AI-generated book in four weeks. I’m willing to admit that I bought this, mistakenly thinking I could trust what GOBI highlighted on their book lists.
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
Eventually today's boring payroll record become tomorrow's fascinating database.
A blast from my past - the Medieval Soldier database takes nearly 300,000 military service records from 1369-1453 and makes them available as a searchable database.
An invaluable resource for understanding medieval warfare, society and the English medieval state. Learn more in the link. 🗃️
An invaluable resource for understanding medieval warfare, society and the English medieval state. Learn more in the link. 🗃️
We built a database of 290,000 English medieval soldiers – here’s what it reveals
We created the database in order to challenge assumptions about the lack of professionalism of everyday soldiers.
theconversation.com
December 2, 2025 at 12:59 PM
Eventually today's boring payroll record become tomorrow's fascinating database.
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
University of Iowa Center for the Book fosters annual kozo tree harvest for Japanese-style paper 📜
www.thegazette.com/news/univers...
www.thegazette.com/news/univers...
This special paper is used to preserve the Constitution — and it's made in Coralville.
Every fall in Coralville, the University of Iowa's Center for the Book hosts one of only two mulberry harvests by universities in the country. The ancient Japanese tradition remains a key to preservin...
www.thegazette.com
November 30, 2025 at 1:38 PM
University of Iowa Center for the Book fosters annual kozo tree harvest for Japanese-style paper 📜
www.thegazette.com/news/univers...
www.thegazette.com/news/univers...
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
11/11 "...our understandings of history and ourselves rest on those invisible foundations. This book clarifies those foundations [labor and theory that upholds archives] while offering new possibilities for imagining archival futures in and outside of institutional holdings."
www.weherepress.org
www.weherepress.org
November 30, 2025 at 2:18 PM
11/11 "...our understandings of history and ourselves rest on those invisible foundations. This book clarifies those foundations [labor and theory that upholds archives] while offering new possibilities for imagining archival futures in and outside of institutional holdings."
www.weherepress.org
www.weherepress.org
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
6/ "We determine which voices are under- or over-represented in relation to the political composition of the collection as well as its content and we trace the origins of these biases in the digitisation process."
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Whose news? Critical methods for assessing bias in large historical datasets | Computational Humanities Research | Cambridge Core
Whose news? Critical methods for assessing bias in large historical datasets - Volume 1
www.cambridge.org
November 30, 2025 at 1:39 PM
6/ "We determine which voices are under- or over-represented in relation to the political composition of the collection as well as its content and we trace the origins of these biases in the digitisation process."
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
5/ "This article explores the methodological and epistemological issues of using colonial records of violence from the Caribbean as a starting point for life writing about the enslaved."
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
‘Runaway’ Ads as Records of Life Writing: Ariadne’s Story
This article explores the methodological and epistemological issues of using colonial records of violence from the Caribbean as a starting point for life writing about the enslaved. It does so thro...
www.tandfonline.com
November 30, 2025 at 1:37 PM
5/ "This article explores the methodological and epistemological issues of using colonial records of violence from the Caribbean as a starting point for life writing about the enslaved."
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
2/ "Materiality looms large in the world of archives in storage, conservation, and shape or materials of the records. How does this materiality change in the digital age?"
www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10....
www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10....
Archival Materialities in a Digital Age | Home
Ebook available to libraries as part of
www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk
November 30, 2025 at 1:26 PM
2/ "Materiality looms large in the world of archives in storage, conservation, and shape or materials of the records. How does this materiality change in the digital age?"
www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10....
www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10....
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
Some great books and articles on archives and libraries that came out in 2025.
In no specific order.
🧵
In no specific order.
🧵
November 30, 2025 at 1:18 PM
Some great books and articles on archives and libraries that came out in 2025.
In no specific order.
🧵
In no specific order.
🧵
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
Publication day! The Routledge Handbook of Heritage & Creative Practice is out today and it includes my piece on creative responses to the mass removal of love-locks along with some amazing pieces by some brilliant people www.routledge.com/The-Routledg...
November 29, 2025 at 9:58 AM
Publication day! The Routledge Handbook of Heritage & Creative Practice is out today and it includes my piece on creative responses to the mass removal of love-locks along with some amazing pieces by some brilliant people www.routledge.com/The-Routledg...
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
A #tinyjoy to take you into the weekend. I just learned that 13- year-old Charlotte Brontë's TINY book, A Book of Ryhmes [sic] (it measures 9.5 cm by 6 cm) contains a poem titled "A Thing OF fourteen Line's. commonly called a" (& her tiny handwriting made the next word illegible.) #BookHistory
November 28, 2025 at 6:14 PM
A #tinyjoy to take you into the weekend. I just learned that 13- year-old Charlotte Brontë's TINY book, A Book of Ryhmes [sic] (it measures 9.5 cm by 6 cm) contains a poem titled "A Thing OF fourteen Line's. commonly called a" (& her tiny handwriting made the next word illegible.) #BookHistory
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
Today in art crime www.nytimes.com/2025/11/28/w...
Aftershocks of an Epic Art Crime Reverberate in Japan
www.nytimes.com
November 28, 2025 at 1:57 PM
Today in art crime www.nytimes.com/2025/11/28/w...
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
Cal Lane, Canadian trained welder and metal artist, transforms common tools and also industrial steel products into intricate sculptures #WomensArt
November 26, 2025 at 6:07 AM
Cal Lane, Canadian trained welder and metal artist, transforms common tools and also industrial steel products into intricate sculptures #WomensArt
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
Great piece, Dan. I can confirm: Over the years, this has indeed been a longstanding problem. I've helped fund numerous projects over the years trying to address handwriting recognition and it is exciting to see what we can do today.
New issue of my newsletter: "The Writing Is on the Wall for Handwriting Recognition" — One of the hardest problems in digital humanities has finally been solved, and it's a good use of AI newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/the-...
The Writing Is on the Wall for Handwriting Recognition
One of the hardest problems in digital humanities has finally been solved
newsletter.dancohen.org
November 25, 2025 at 7:01 PM
Great piece, Dan. I can confirm: Over the years, this has indeed been a longstanding problem. I've helped fund numerous projects over the years trying to address handwriting recognition and it is exciting to see what we can do today.
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
Welcome to our three-part series on book rebinding, where Library of Congress advanced book conservation interns Brittany and Devon will take you through all the steps of rebinding a book from the Library's Thomas Jefferson Library Collection. Stay tuned for parts two and three!
November 21, 2025 at 6:59 PM
Welcome to our three-part series on book rebinding, where Library of Congress advanced book conservation interns Brittany and Devon will take you through all the steps of rebinding a book from the Library's Thomas Jefferson Library Collection. Stay tuned for parts two and three!
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
Live conservation at the Stanley Spencer Gallery is uncovering surprising details beneath the surface of ‘Christ Preaching at Cookham Regatta’. Thin paint layers, visible grids and unexpected methods are giving a rare look into Spencer’s unfinished final work.
buff.ly/g0a1aXm
buff.ly/g0a1aXm
November 20, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Live conservation at the Stanley Spencer Gallery is uncovering surprising details beneath the surface of ‘Christ Preaching at Cookham Regatta’. Thin paint layers, visible grids and unexpected methods are giving a rare look into Spencer’s unfinished final work.
buff.ly/g0a1aXm
buff.ly/g0a1aXm
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
The irony that world ‘cultural’ heritage wouldn’t exist without global environmental destruction and extraction
November 19, 2025 at 4:11 PM
The irony that world ‘cultural’ heritage wouldn’t exist without global environmental destruction and extraction
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
1/ Announcing GovScape – a public search system for 10 million U.S. government PDFs (70 million pages)! GovScape offers visual search, semantic text search, and keyword search. Explore below:
Website: www.govscape.net
ArXiv link: arxiv.org/abs/2511.11010
Website: www.govscape.net
ArXiv link: arxiv.org/abs/2511.11010
www.govscape.net
November 18, 2025 at 8:19 PM
1/ Announcing GovScape – a public search system for 10 million U.S. government PDFs (70 million pages)! GovScape offers visual search, semantic text search, and keyword search. Explore below:
Website: www.govscape.net
ArXiv link: arxiv.org/abs/2511.11010
Website: www.govscape.net
ArXiv link: arxiv.org/abs/2511.11010
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
That's AWS, Azure and Cloudfare in the last few weeks.
For a distributed network, the web sure does have some single points of failure.
For a distributed network, the web sure does have some single points of failure.
November 18, 2025 at 1:22 PM
That's AWS, Azure and Cloudfare in the last few weeks.
For a distributed network, the web sure does have some single points of failure.
For a distributed network, the web sure does have some single points of failure.
The thing about driving a car for 23 years is that you know things are going to start breaking, and you just hope that they are non-essential and easy/cheap to replace.
My side mirror just snapped off, so now I know how to replace a car’s side mirror.
My side mirror just snapped off, so now I know how to replace a car’s side mirror.
November 16, 2025 at 5:26 PM
The thing about driving a car for 23 years is that you know things are going to start breaking, and you just hope that they are non-essential and easy/cheap to replace.
My side mirror just snapped off, so now I know how to replace a car’s side mirror.
My side mirror just snapped off, so now I know how to replace a car’s side mirror.
Reposted by Fletcher Durant
This is a 52-pound 9000+ page accordion-bound artist’s book of Donald Trump’s lies, conceived, printed, and bound by Jill and Ray Nichols of @leadgraffiti.bsky.social in Delaware. Each of the 9000 pages has the text (per the Washington Post) of one or more of Trump’s lies; none are repeated.
November 15, 2025 at 7:09 PM
This is a 52-pound 9000+ page accordion-bound artist’s book of Donald Trump’s lies, conceived, printed, and bound by Jill and Ray Nichols of @leadgraffiti.bsky.social in Delaware. Each of the 9000 pages has the text (per the Washington Post) of one or more of Trump’s lies; none are repeated.