Awesome Archives

Coffee With A Codex is an informal lunch or coffee time to meet virtually with Kislak curators and talk about one of the manuscripts from Penn's collections. Each week we'll feature a different manuscript and the expertise of one of our curators. Everyone is welcome to attend.

On May 14, curator Dot Porter will be joined by Schoenberg Curator of Manuscripts Nicholas Herman to show you a very special and exciting new acquisition! What is it? We can't tell you, but we can promise that no matter what kind of manuscripts you're interested in, you will want to see this! One clue? ZODIAC MAN. See you there!

Register here:

GUYS I AM SERIOUS, IF YOU HAVE EVER THOUGHT ABOUT ATTENDING COFFEE WITH A CODEX BUT HAVEN'T, THIS IS THE ONE YOU WANT TO SEE.

Les Parisiennes à la mer, early 20th c. John Monroe collection of artist-signed postcards, Newberry Library This summer, take a trip through the past via handwritten travel documents — from pioneer journals to handwritten postcards. See our May newsletter for more info!

The Antiquarian Bookseller's Association of America is yet again providing a opportunity for those curious about the rare book trade to come to Boston, hang out with amazing book people, and learn about the business of rare books.

If you've been curious about rare books or the book trade but haven't been sure where to start, or you've seen rows and rows of old guys in suits standing behind glass cases of expensive stuff and felt a little intimidated, this program meant to help break the ice and make the whole thing less mysterious.

All you need is to be available during Nov. 5-9 and willing to travel to Boston.

Details are here, and if you have any questions, you can shoot me an ask or email Xin, who has contact info in the application.

Of the many weird items in the Newberry's collection of valentine postcard, this set -- featuring boot-faces pursuing romance and also money -- might be the weirdest? If you have any clue as to what's going on here, we'd love to hear it in the comments...

If you, like us, have strong opinions about stamp issues, you may now complete Linn's Stamp News' survey of the best and worst U.S. stamps of 2024. Choose wisely.

From 1976 to 2000, Feminist Bookstore News (FBN) acted as a vital connector in the feminist publishing and bookstore community. An ambitious idea at the first Women in Print Conference, it quickly became a must-read newsletter for sharing resources, uplifting voices, and chronicling the dynamic work of feminist and lesbian movements.

FBN documented the nascent world of feminist publishing. Through listing books from independent feminist presses or gossiping about "bookwomen" (in the best way), it captured a changing tide in publishing, bookselling, and culture.

FBN’s archive, now part of Reveal Digital on JSTOR, is a treasure trove for researchers and dreamers.

Explore the archive and read the full article from JSTOR Daily.

that a couple days ago someone was searching through a VMS/VAX tape backup from 1983 of a computer that had been in Atari's coin-op division, when they found...

...a previously unknown Atari 2600 game named 'Fish'.

No one knows for sure who the programmer was, or whether this was something official or just a fun project someone was working on (since this was not found in the home console division).

But I'm here to tell you it is freaking amazing. I've thrown the ROM at every emulator I have (Stella 7 on the PC, StellaDS on the Nintendo DS, Dingux Stella on the Dingoo A-320 handheld, and of course the Atari Flashback Portable) and it plays in all of them.

Where to get the ROM as a .bin [AtariAge] A review and instructions thus figured out [AtariProtos]

Throwback Thursday: Jeremy Furchtgott '12 lighting the Hanukkah menorah at Princeton University's Center for Jewish Life, 2010.

Recent Acquisition - Postcard Collection

With America's Thanksgiving holiday on the horizon, it is crucial to delve deeper into the historical context and dispel the sanitized notions surrounding the colonization of the "New World" by Europeans. While the Europeans considered this land new, it was home to Indigenous peoples for generations, with rich cultures and traditions that often go unacknowledged.

Thanksgiving was established as a national holiday in 1863 by President Lincoln, during a time marred by the deeply divisive Civil War. The intention was to foster a sense of togetherness among the American people. However, the holiday's origins are rooted in notions of peaceful coexistence between European Pilgrims and the Native Americans already residing in the Plymouth region. This narrative, though popularized, is built on flimsy foundations, as it only represents a few decades of relatively minimal conflict between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag.

Contrary to common belief, the Pilgrims' gratitude for surviving their initial winter was not directed towards the Wampanoag, whom they viewed as instruments of God's will, but rather towards God himself. It is important to acknowledge that while there may have been a period of relative peace, primary sources reveal an underlying sense of white superiority rather than a genuine atmosphere of open cultural exchange.

The initial cooperation and mutual assistance during the early 17th century gave way to a chapter in history characterized by brutal violence and the detrimental impacts of colonization. As European settlers expanded their presence, territorial disputes, cultural clashes, and the introduction of diseases took a devastating toll on Indigenous communities. The narrative of Plymouth Colony's early years must be examined in its entirety, recognizing the complexities and consequences that arose from the subsequent period of colonization.

By delving into these historical details, we can gain a more comprehensive understanding of the complexities surrounding Thanksgiving and its historical context. Learn more in this Open Access book chapter: "Pilgrims and Puritans and the Myth of the Promised Land."

Often, pseudoscience and misinformation comes packaged with a lot of very important sounding words, and the jargon gets to the point where it seems like a lot of work to fact check it. Which makes the 'I encourage you to do your own research' statements real obnoxious. If it's phrased in a way that's impossible to navigate, good luck.

It sucks, but you gotta.

If you don't want to fact check individual words, that's fine. That's a lot to ask of someone that's just trying to figure out whether something is true.

This is where we get into something called 'lateral research.' Instead of trying to draw a map to a sentence, you check the credibility of their source material.

This is your Snopes, your Fact Check/Media Bias, your Follow The Money.

Knowing more context about what someone is saying will save you a lot of time and energy.

Practice SIFT! SIFT is based on lateral research and can be very helpful for these situations.

DON'T just share information without doing your due diligence.

i have found this post and infographic and i want to share it

INVESTIGATE THE SOURCE

zetabrarian's blog says they are a socially progressive librarian monsterfucker, which a quick scroll through their blog seems to support. This makes them pretty cool but not necessarily the perfect source -- anyone can say they are a librarian, and surely not every librarian is correct about processing information

FIND BETTER COVERAGE

if i go to a search engine (in this case google via firefox) i see that several universities, libraries from large municipalities (like Los Angeles) as well as the BBC all agree that this is a real method experts in information fields recommend. I wouldn't necessarily take any single one of these sources as 100% credible, but they are individually reasonably reliable, and taken together indicate a high probability of factual information

TRACE TO ORIGINAL CONTEXT

A brief search reveals that the SIFT method was created by Mike Caulfield, who is a research scientist at the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public, where he studies the spread of online rumors and misinformation. This is an extremely good source of information for how to process information on the internet. As the creator of the SIFT method, he has taught thousands of teachers and students how to verify claims and sources through his workshops.

I could not find a post or page about SIFT written by Mike Caulfield himself, so i went to the University of Washington's website for this page about it, since that is the university that employs him.

It corroborates the above information, though there are a few notable differences. For example, under the "trace to original context" section in the Washington U. source (again, as close to the original as i could find) this step contains advice to check the date. This seems very good to include, as in the fast moving world of internet information, things become outdated or get updated very quickly, and yet first takes and outdated articles hang around and get shared for a long time.

EXTRA CREDIT