Brian Wilson
@brilwil.bsky.social
Archivist. Head of Archives and Library @ The Henry Ford. Comments are my own. GoBlue
Reposted by Brian Wilson
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 Brian Wilson
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 Brian Wilson
@peters.senate.gov I just called your office. I'm going to reiterate here. DO NOT VOTE TO REOPEN WITHOUT FULL ACA SUBSIDIES. The ACA saved my wife's life ten years ago. The GOP will never keep a promise. They are snakes. We cannot afford you to cave. The public knows whose fault this is. DON'T CAVE!
November 9, 2025 at 10:52 PM
@peters.senate.gov I just called your office. I'm going to reiterate here. DO NOT VOTE TO REOPEN WITHOUT FULL ACA SUBSIDIES. The ACA saved my wife's life ten years ago. The GOP will never keep a promise. They are snakes. We cannot afford you to cave. The public knows whose fault this is. DON'T CAVE!
Reposted by Brian Wilson
Caving on a deal that doesn’t fix health care is, and always has been, a giant betrayal of the American people.
Hold the line. Save health care. I’m a NO on anything that doesn’t extend ACA subsidies.
Hold the line. Save health care. I’m a NO on anything that doesn’t extend ACA subsidies.
November 9, 2025 at 10:06 PM
Caving on a deal that doesn’t fix health care is, and always has been, a giant betrayal of the American people.
Hold the line. Save health care. I’m a NO on anything that doesn’t extend ACA subsidies.
Hold the line. Save health care. I’m a NO on anything that doesn’t extend ACA subsidies.
Reposted by Brian Wilson
Celebrating the 80th anniversary of Ebony Magazine, we look back at the people who made it happen—the Johnson Publishing Company staff.
JPC is best known for its groundbreaking publications on Black life, but its influence also extended to the people who powered the institution itself.
JPC is best known for its groundbreaking publications on Black life, but its influence also extended to the people who powered the institution itself.
November 7, 2025 at 12:27 AM
Celebrating the 80th anniversary of Ebony Magazine, we look back at the people who made it happen—the Johnson Publishing Company staff.
JPC is best known for its groundbreaking publications on Black life, but its influence also extended to the people who powered the institution itself.
JPC is best known for its groundbreaking publications on Black life, but its influence also extended to the people who powered the institution itself.
Reposted by Brian Wilson
i am deeply, warmly, fantastically fortunate and grateful to have the team i do: library.yale.edu/news/accessi...
Accessioning Team works together as the “welcoming committee” for new archival collections | Yale Library
P.O. Box 208240 New Haven, CT 06520-8240 (203) 432-1775
library.yale.edu
October 10, 2025 at 7:27 PM
i am deeply, warmly, fantastically fortunate and grateful to have the team i do: library.yale.edu/news/accessi...
Reposted by Brian Wilson
So this #SHOT2025 panel has nearly wrapped up. But if you want to read more about historical issues surrounding multimedia and the preservation of born-digital collections, check out this piece on #DigiPres at @theul.bsky.social.
(Thanks for bringing this to my attention, @rhiggitt.bsky.social!)
(Thanks for bringing this to my attention, @rhiggitt.bsky.social!)
A digital dark age? The people rescuing forgotten knowledge trapped on old floppy disks
From lectures by Stephen Hawking to the letters of British politician Neil Kinnock – it's a race against time to save the historical treasures locked away on old floppy disks.
www.bbc.com
October 10, 2025 at 1:30 PM
So this #SHOT2025 panel has nearly wrapped up. But if you want to read more about historical issues surrounding multimedia and the preservation of born-digital collections, check out this piece on #DigiPres at @theul.bsky.social.
(Thanks for bringing this to my attention, @rhiggitt.bsky.social!)
(Thanks for bringing this to my attention, @rhiggitt.bsky.social!)
Reposted by Brian Wilson
Which leads me to an absolutely desperate plea: is there anyone in Japan who can collect this bag (not from Oshima [probably from Kyoto]) for us and send us the contents?
October 10, 2025 at 12:26 AM
Which leads me to an absolutely desperate plea: is there anyone in Japan who can collect this bag (not from Oshima [probably from Kyoto]) for us and send us the contents?
Reposted by Brian Wilson
Join us tomorrow at City Hall to celebrate Michigan’s first state historical marker honoring #LGBTQ history — which pays tribute to former #A2Council Members Kathy Kozachenko, Nancy Wechsler & Jerry DeGrieck, and community leader Jim Toy for their contributions to #AnnArbor #LGBT Rights & History.
September 4, 2025 at 12:37 AM
Join us tomorrow at City Hall to celebrate Michigan’s first state historical marker honoring #LGBTQ history — which pays tribute to former #A2Council Members Kathy Kozachenko, Nancy Wechsler & Jerry DeGrieck, and community leader Jim Toy for their contributions to #AnnArbor #LGBT Rights & History.
Reposted by Brian Wilson
Cataloging Sir Elton John’s photography book collection at Emory (Aug. 11)(Georgia) 📜
scholarblogs.emory.edu/woodruff/new...
scholarblogs.emory.edu/woodruff/new...
Cataloging Sir Elton John’s photography book collection at Emory
This summer, I had the extraordinary privilege of interning with Emory University’s Woodruff Library Resource Description team. As an undergraduate entering my final year and planning to pursue an …
scholarblogs.emory.edu
September 1, 2025 at 12:11 AM
Cataloging Sir Elton John’s photography book collection at Emory (Aug. 11)(Georgia) 📜
scholarblogs.emory.edu/woodruff/new...
scholarblogs.emory.edu/woodruff/new...
Reposted by Brian Wilson
I remember when I started grad school we took a trip to DC, to see libraries and special collections, including behind secret doors in the Natural History Museum. One was run by a post-retirement entomology expert, who knew where all the journals and original species descriptions were. And...
I think people assume that knowledge is just something that exists eternally, once achieved, as opposed to something that has to be cultivated and can be lost.
There will be many casualties from UChicago ending ('pausing') PhD admissions in Humantities, but one which I am keenly aware of: this is close to a death sentence for teaching cuneiform in the United States (esp. Sumerian, Hittite, Elamite, Eblaite, Luwian) and it will affect the whole world.
August 29, 2025 at 12:38 AM
I remember when I started grad school we took a trip to DC, to see libraries and special collections, including behind secret doors in the Natural History Museum. One was run by a post-retirement entomology expert, who knew where all the journals and original species descriptions were. And...
Reposted by Brian Wilson
Archival appraisal is a craft and it can be taught.
My and @boxreceiver.bsky.social 's chapter on archival appraisal is available as a pre-print here: digitalcommons.lib.uconn.edu/libr_pubs/77/. It's very, very practical and it centers our values. We would love your feedback!
My and @boxreceiver.bsky.social 's chapter on archival appraisal is available as a pre-print here: digitalcommons.lib.uconn.edu/libr_pubs/77/. It's very, very practical and it centers our values. We would love your feedback!
Appraising Records
This chapter operationalizes archival appraisal as a values-driven, lifecycle activity that begins in pre-custodial conversations and continues through transfer, accessioning, stabilization, descripti...
digitalcommons.lib.uconn.edu
August 25, 2025 at 3:10 PM
Archival appraisal is a craft and it can be taught.
My and @boxreceiver.bsky.social 's chapter on archival appraisal is available as a pre-print here: digitalcommons.lib.uconn.edu/libr_pubs/77/. It's very, very practical and it centers our values. We would love your feedback!
My and @boxreceiver.bsky.social 's chapter on archival appraisal is available as a pre-print here: digitalcommons.lib.uconn.edu/libr_pubs/77/. It's very, very practical and it centers our values. We would love your feedback!
Reposted by Brian Wilson
*rings the "it's not that humans can't do it, it's that you have chosen to not allocate resources (time/money) to let humans do it!*
I’m starting to think, when people say “we should have AI do it,” that they genuinely don’t know that certain skills and abilities exist in the minds of other human beings. It’s not just that they want it done cheaper, it seems like sometimes they think only AI could do this.
August 12, 2025 at 11:27 PM
*rings the "it's not that humans can't do it, it's that you have chosen to not allocate resources (time/money) to let humans do it!*
Reposted by Brian Wilson
The Black Memory Workers Founder Zakiya Collier on Audre Lorde Manuscripts and Memory Work 📜📚
www.finebooksmagazine.com/fine-books-n...
www.finebooksmagazine.com/fine-books-n...
The Black Memory Workers Founder Zakiya Collier on Audre Lorde Manuscripts and Memory Work
Our Bright Young Librarians series continues today with Zakiya Collier, an archivist and memory worker in New York City:Please introduce us to your role as an archivist and memory worker:
www.finebooksmagazine.com
August 5, 2025 at 11:08 PM
The Black Memory Workers Founder Zakiya Collier on Audre Lorde Manuscripts and Memory Work 📜📚
www.finebooksmagazine.com/fine-books-n...
www.finebooksmagazine.com/fine-books-n...
Reposted by Brian Wilson
Collage of mastheads from @uaw.org west coast local newspapers. From News-Letter, publication for @uawregion6.bsky.social. Sept 1955. From the archives at the @reutherlibrary.bsky.social.
July 29, 2025 at 6:58 PM
Collage of mastheads from @uaw.org west coast local newspapers. From News-Letter, publication for @uawregion6.bsky.social. Sept 1955. From the archives at the @reutherlibrary.bsky.social.
Reposted by Brian Wilson
Within the halls of U of M’s Hatcher Library, a wealth of transgender history 📜📚 (Michigan)
michiganadvance.com/2025/06/27/w...
michiganadvance.com/2025/06/27/w...
Within the halls of U of M’s Hatcher Library, a wealth of transgender history • Michigan Advance
For more than a century the Joseph A. Labadie Collection at the University of Michigan has been home to a wide collection of materials documenting social unrest, protest, and various movements that we...
michiganadvance.com
July 1, 2025 at 2:09 PM
Within the halls of U of M’s Hatcher Library, a wealth of transgender history 📜📚 (Michigan)
michiganadvance.com/2025/06/27/w...
michiganadvance.com/2025/06/27/w...
Reposted by Brian Wilson
#ArchivesAreAccessible. But only if you have a 'legitimate business need' apparently. Wtf
June 24, 2025 at 9:36 PM
#ArchivesAreAccessible. But only if you have a 'legitimate business need' apparently. Wtf
Reposted by Brian Wilson
"Effective democratization can always be measured by this essential criterion: the participation in and the access to the archive, its constitution, and its interpretation." Derrida, footnote 1 from Archive Fever.
![A screenshot of footnote from Jacques Derrida's Archive Fever. A highlighted portion reads: "It runs through the whole of the field and in truth determines politics from top to bottom as res publica. There is no political power without control of the archive, if not of memory. Effective democratization can always be measured by this essential criterion: the participation in and the access to the archive, its constitution, and its interpretation. A contrario, the breaches of democracy can be measured by what a recent and in so many ways remarkable work entitles Forbidden Archives (Archives interdites: Les peurs franfaises face a l'histoire contemporaine). Under this title, which we cite as the metonymy of all that is important here, Sonia Combe does not only gather a considerable collection of material, to illuminate and interpret it; she asks numerous essential questions about the writing of history, about the "repression" of the archive [318], about the" 'repressed' archive" as "power ... of the state over the historian" [321]."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:kbqwsrz74am3np44rjyld2je/bafkreig2emdumkvrkoxy3tbb3y7rab3erg5lg2pbitvly4wnmgiarwh2qq@jpeg)
June 24, 2025 at 9:06 PM
"Effective democratization can always be measured by this essential criterion: the participation in and the access to the archive, its constitution, and its interpretation." Derrida, footnote 1 from Archive Fever.
Reposted by Brian Wilson
Reposted by Brian Wilson
POV: You are a cat with seven children
June 9, 2025 at 10:22 PM
POV: You are a cat with seven children
Reposted by Brian Wilson
Does anyone here have an NYPL card and a selfless desire to help a researcher out 🥺 sad to report that somehow NONE OF MY NYC FRIENDS HAVE ACTIVE NYPL CARDS (????!!!!). I need a scan from a book not held by UPenn. It’s all online!
June 9, 2025 at 9:02 PM
Does anyone here have an NYPL card and a selfless desire to help a researcher out 🥺 sad to report that somehow NONE OF MY NYC FRIENDS HAVE ACTIVE NYPL CARDS (????!!!!). I need a scan from a book not held by UPenn. It’s all online!