David Staniunas
@boxreceiver.bsky.social
archivist at PresbyHistory, menasky-adjacent, obligated to say positions are mine, not PC(USA)'s
Pinned
Every couple of years the same article comes about about an ambitious information storage mechanism. Like 7 years ago it was etched nickel plates getting shot onto the moon: "the civilizational backup disk". There's no reason to debase ourselves thinking through moronic ideas
February 18, 2026 at 6:15 PM
Every couple of years the same article comes about about an ambitious information storage mechanism. Like 7 years ago it was etched nickel plates getting shot onto the moon: "the civilizational backup disk". There's no reason to debase ourselves thinking through moronic ideas
Glad to have spent time with clerk of session Stephanie Cox and pastor Alice Ogden Bell of Fifteenth St PC Washington DC, home of Henry Highland Garnet, Robert Pierre Johnson and so many other Black Presbyterian lights
February 17, 2026 at 11:14 PM
Glad to have spent time with clerk of session Stephanie Cox and pastor Alice Ogden Bell of Fifteenth St PC Washington DC, home of Henry Highland Garnet, Robert Pierre Johnson and so many other Black Presbyterian lights
Glad to put my man Gene in the News Service pcusa.org/news-storyte...
The Rev. Dr. Gene Turner is interviewed at 40 years’ distance
“My father started a business cutting pine trees for paper. He did well with that until racism destroyed it. The banks told him overnight you can't get any more money.”
pcusa.org
February 12, 2026 at 8:28 PM
Glad to put my man Gene in the News Service pcusa.org/news-storyte...
Currently playing back a tape from 1956
February 11, 2026 at 2:07 PM
Currently playing back a tape from 1956
Message from Snoopy, on Palestinian child's shirt at "Baptist-run school in Jerusalem" digital.history.pcusa.org/islandora/35...
February 10, 2026 at 10:26 PM
Message from Snoopy, on Palestinian child's shirt at "Baptist-run school in Jerusalem" digital.history.pcusa.org/islandora/35...
Reposted by David Staniunas
Hah, yes, it drives me crazy that immediately before that sentence it says "Digital search offers disintermediated discovery" and then invokes intermediating algorithms.
In a similar vein, there's Hitchcock 2013, "Confronting the Digital" www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
In a similar vein, there's Hitchcock 2013, "Confronting the Digital" www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Confronting the Digital
This discussion piece argues that the design and structure of online historical resources and the process of search and discover embodied within them create a series of substantial problems for his...
www.tandfonline.com
February 8, 2026 at 2:31 AM
Hah, yes, it drives me crazy that immediately before that sentence it says "Digital search offers disintermediated discovery" and then invokes intermediating algorithms.
In a similar vein, there's Hitchcock 2013, "Confronting the Digital" www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
In a similar vein, there's Hitchcock 2013, "Confronting the Digital" www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Putnam (2018) looks terrible tbh.
See
utppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3...
and
www.jstor.org/stable/43955...
Even small platform/infrastructure changes can have unexpected effects on "the scholarly landscape."
utppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3...
and
www.jstor.org/stable/43955...
Even small platform/infrastructure changes can have unexpected effects on "the scholarly landscape."
February 7, 2026 at 11:05 PM
Putnam (2018) looks terrible tbh.
This is about right, the apparent sudden viability of HTR is like discovering you have a cool new sword. I don't think it's going to reshape the scholarly landscape tho lol
Handwriting recognition (HTR) is now on the same track as printed character recognition (OCR). It ain't perfect and there are some types of docs and some languages that it's much worse for, but for an increasing set of documents, it's basically infinitely faster than and about as good as people.
February 7, 2026 at 10:03 PM
This is about right, the apparent sudden viability of HTR is like discovering you have a cool new sword. I don't think it's going to reshape the scholarly landscape tho lol
Reposted by David Staniunas
I don't have my notes in front of me but basically, because he had an American passport he spent a week in Hong Kong and called up all the participants using someone else's phone card
January 31, 2026 at 4:46 AM
I don't have my notes in front of me but basically, because he had an American passport he spent a week in Hong Kong and called up all the participants using someone else's phone card
While we are discoursing about "opsec" I'm reminded of David Gelzer, setting up an officially banned ecumenical conference in Taiwan under the noses of the KMT
The life of the PCT under the Kuomintang was circumscribed -- some people were exiled, some imprisoned, many banned from exiting the island -- but it didn't go away
January 31, 2026 at 4:44 AM
While we are discoursing about "opsec" I'm reminded of David Gelzer, setting up an officially banned ecumenical conference in Taiwan under the noses of the KMT
I'm reading and writing about Taiwan under martial law and the phrase "regime newspapers -- there was no other kind" made me think of the Washington Post
January 30, 2026 at 7:15 PM
I'm reading and writing about Taiwan under martial law and the phrase "regime newspapers -- there was no other kind" made me think of the Washington Post
Many are saying this, more and more
January 29, 2026 at 8:11 PM
Many are saying this, more and more
Sorry to hear that Princeton Seminary Library chose Summon by Ex Libris for its new library discovery layer. A very gentle way of opposing the genocidal state is not buying its software
January 29, 2026 at 2:21 PM
Sorry to hear that Princeton Seminary Library chose Summon by Ex Libris for its new library discovery layer. A very gentle way of opposing the genocidal state is not buying its software
I know that dude
Last October, Pastor Jorge Bautista was telling a Border Patrol agent "we come in peace" when the agent fired toxic powder at him, leaving him struggling to breathe.
“No one should be assaulted for being out there protesting,” he says.
(Published Nov. 2025 w/ @frontlinepbs.bsky.social)
“No one should be assaulted for being out there protesting,” he says.
(Published Nov. 2025 w/ @frontlinepbs.bsky.social)
Trump’s Immigration Forces Deploy “Less Lethal” Weapons in Dangerous Ways, Skirting Rules and Maiming Protesters
Civil rights and weapons experts cite the consequences of federal agents’ use of crowd control weapons: religious leaders shot with pepper balls and noxious chemicals. A nurse nearly blinded by tear g...
www.propublica.org
January 27, 2026 at 4:22 AM
I know that dude
Good work here from my colleagues in the PC(USA) mothership pcusa.org/news-storyte...
Historic Raven Helmet returns to Kiks.ádi clan after a century in church custody
LOUISVILLE — Raven Helmet worn during the 1804 Battle of Sitka has returned to the Kiks.ádi clan in Alaska after more than 100 years, marking a significant milestone in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A....
pcusa.org
January 26, 2026 at 2:37 PM
Good work here from my colleagues in the PC(USA) mothership pcusa.org/news-storyte...
Prospectus for the UPCUSA Frontier Internship in Mission, 1963, from RG 527 papers of Margaret Flory -- note the hammer and sickle closing in on the space needle-looking minaret and its crescent
January 21, 2026 at 7:18 PM
Prospectus for the UPCUSA Frontier Internship in Mission, 1963, from RG 527 papers of Margaret Flory -- note the hammer and sickle closing in on the space needle-looking minaret and its crescent
Hey, you want to see something disgusting
January 21, 2026 at 3:18 PM
Hey, you want to see something disgusting
Reposted by David Staniunas
We are at the APCE Annual Event this week! Come by, say hello, and grab some stickers. 🤩
January 21, 2026 at 3:13 PM
We are at the APCE Annual Event this week! Come by, say hello, and grab some stickers. 🤩
Oh that is an attractive picture of files 🗃️
January 15, 2026 at 4:27 PM
Oh that is an attractive picture of files 🗃️
Looking an interview with David Gelzer (RIP) where, in 1975 the government of Taiwan castigates the PC of Taiwan for one of its statements, and says "the business of the church is to take care of spiritual things, put your mind inside the building of the church" app.trint.com/public/2514d...
Search, edit and share transcripts with unlimited access to our A.I.-powered platform. Flexible subscriptions for individuals and teams; bespoke Enterprise plans also available.
app.trint.com
January 13, 2026 at 4:42 PM
Looking an interview with David Gelzer (RIP) where, in 1975 the government of Taiwan castigates the PC of Taiwan for one of its statements, and says "the business of the church is to take care of spiritual things, put your mind inside the building of the church" app.trint.com/public/2514d...
A year later, AHA leadership rolls out the same language about "fiduciary responsibility", like who wrote the script?
Really interesting piece, and it's not surprising to hear people in leadership punt toward "fiduciary responsibility" when disclosure and divestment come up. Really makes clear that the purpose of the organization is itself
IHE reported on protests at MLA over the Exec Council blocking a vote on a resolution. 2 things:
1) the MLA prez calling the EC suppression of a vote “bold” & “courageous” sets a terrible precedent—esp rn for AHA leadership debating their resolution
www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty...
1) the MLA prez calling the EC suppression of a vote “bold” & “courageous” sets a terrible precedent—esp rn for AHA leadership debating their resolution
www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty...
January 13, 2026 at 12:00 AM
A year later, AHA leadership rolls out the same language about "fiduciary responsibility", like who wrote the script?
I like the young person walking away from the camera, in this 1960s church picnic in Grand Rapids, Mich
January 8, 2026 at 4:31 PM
I like the young person walking away from the camera, in this 1960s church picnic in Grand Rapids, Mich
Outstanding production work by my main man Randy on this video combining PHS's two oral histories with Eugene Turner, African American Presbyterian bureaucrat pcusa.org/news-storyte...
Gene Turner Interviewed At Forty Years’ Distance
“My father started a business cutting pine trees for paper. He did well with that until racism destroyed it. The banks told him overnight you can't get any more money.”
pcusa.org
January 6, 2026 at 9:19 PM
Outstanding production work by my main man Randy on this video combining PHS's two oral histories with Eugene Turner, African American Presbyterian bureaucrat pcusa.org/news-storyte...
It's interesting when this happens: Idaho church asks the archives if they have anything on itself, 1984
January 6, 2026 at 7:59 PM
It's interesting when this happens: Idaho church asks the archives if they have anything on itself, 1984