Jason W. Dean
@jasonwdean.com
Librarian + bibliographer.
Associate Librarian, Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas.
Website: https://www.jasonwdean.com/
Faculty Page: https://spencer.lib.ku.edu/people/jason-dean
Newsletter: https://twohalfsheets.substack.com/
Associate Librarian, Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas.
Website: https://www.jasonwdean.com/
Faculty Page: https://spencer.lib.ku.edu/people/jason-dean
Newsletter: https://twohalfsheets.substack.com/
So pleased that Paul Needham's recent talk @illinoisrbml.bsky.social is up! Interested to learn more about the progression of his work on the Catholicon... 📜 #bookhistory #booksky #libsky #rarebooks www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYa5...
Paul Needham talk, 10/23/25 - "Gutenberg's Second Invention: The 1460 Mainz Catholicon"
YouTube video by IllinoisRBML
www.youtube.com
November 10, 2025 at 4:28 PM
So pleased that Paul Needham's recent talk @illinoisrbml.bsky.social is up! Interested to learn more about the progression of his work on the Catholicon... 📜 #bookhistory #booksky #libsky #rarebooks www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYa5...
Reposted by Jason W. Dean
I love books and I love looking at them with people. That’s the skeet.
November 8, 2025 at 12:44 AM
I love books and I love looking at them with people. That’s the skeet.
😁 goes the elephant
Time for another ‘elephant done by a medieval artist that had never seen one’ - 12th century, Cambridge, University Library, MS Ii.4.26, f. 7v
November 7, 2025 at 8:20 PM
😁 goes the elephant
Y'all, this new Bach recording from Chris Thile is really a gift. Amazing: www.youtube.com/watch?v=dair...
Chris Thile - Bach: Partita No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004: V. Ciaccona (Official Audio)
YouTube video by ChrisThile
www.youtube.com
November 7, 2025 at 8:19 PM
Y'all, this new Bach recording from Chris Thile is really a gift. Amazing: www.youtube.com/watch?v=dair...
My colleague, Molly, wrote a bit about our speculative fiction here at Spencer! Link below! 📜 #bookhistory #booksky #libsky #rarebooks
Explore sci-fi history at Kenneth Spencer Research Library: manuscripts, original artwork, papers - even a typewriter - from some of speculative fiction's biggest names. Discover more in the latest KSRL blog post.
📝 rockcha.lk/ksrlblog
📝 rockcha.lk/ksrlblog
November 6, 2025 at 1:50 PM
My colleague, Molly, wrote a bit about our speculative fiction here at Spencer! Link below! 📜 #bookhistory #booksky #libsky #rarebooks
Reposted by Jason W. Dean
Whoa Rebecca Lawrence has resigned as Chief Executive of @britishlibrary.bsky.social. Sorry that this might mean more turmoil at an institution that is a critical part of UK research infrastructure
www.bl.uk/about/press/...
www.bl.uk/about/press/...
British Library Board statement
The British Library Board has announced that Rebecca Lawrence has stepped down as Chief Executive.
www.bl.uk
November 4, 2025 at 2:59 PM
Whoa Rebecca Lawrence has resigned as Chief Executive of @britishlibrary.bsky.social. Sorry that this might mean more turmoil at an institution that is a critical part of UK research infrastructure
www.bl.uk/about/press/...
www.bl.uk/about/press/...
Reposted by Jason W. Dean
Library (archives, research) folk, could you give me your best one liners about Why Cataloguing Matters, please?
Because sometimes 'Without cataloguing no-one can find or use the stuff' just isn't enough, although it clearly should be.
Thank you very. #GLAM #archives #rarebooks #metadata 📚
Because sometimes 'Without cataloguing no-one can find or use the stuff' just isn't enough, although it clearly should be.
Thank you very. #GLAM #archives #rarebooks #metadata 📚
October 30, 2025 at 2:48 PM
Library (archives, research) folk, could you give me your best one liners about Why Cataloguing Matters, please?
Because sometimes 'Without cataloguing no-one can find or use the stuff' just isn't enough, although it clearly should be.
Thank you very. #GLAM #archives #rarebooks #metadata 📚
Because sometimes 'Without cataloguing no-one can find or use the stuff' just isn't enough, although it clearly should be.
Thank you very. #GLAM #archives #rarebooks #metadata 📚
Cataloging a book in signatures, mostly unopened, untrimmed, and unbound. As one does. 📜 #bookhistory #booksky #libsky #rarebooks
October 30, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Cataloging a book in signatures, mostly unopened, untrimmed, and unbound. As one does. 📜 #bookhistory #booksky #libsky #rarebooks
Reposted by Jason W. Dean
What a time to be alive
October 30, 2025 at 2:41 PM
What a time to be alive
Reposted by Jason W. Dean
the nyt posts this stuff like avoiding AI for 48 hours is hard and meanwhile i have literally never once intentionally used an AI program for anything ever
October 28, 2025 at 5:55 PM
the nyt posts this stuff like avoiding AI for 48 hours is hard and meanwhile i have literally never once intentionally used an AI program for anything ever
So proud to count Rhiannon among my closest and dearest friends! Well deserved and lovely profile!
Squeaking in under the wire as a “young bookseller.” Talking about myself is mortifying but I hope this is enjoyable to some! www.finebooksmagazine.com/fine-books-n...
Bookseller Rhiannon Knol on Cataloging, Bookwomen, and Andreas Vesalius
Our Bright Young Booksellers series continues today with Rhiannon Knol, a bookseller with Bruce McKittrick Rare Books in Pennsylvania:How did you get started in rare books?
www.finebooksmagazine.com
October 21, 2025 at 1:43 PM
So proud to count Rhiannon among my closest and dearest friends! Well deserved and lovely profile!
Good morning from Diné Bikéyah.
(Mostly offline till Sunday)
(Mostly offline till Sunday)
October 20, 2025 at 1:59 PM
Good morning from Diné Bikéyah.
(Mostly offline till Sunday)
(Mostly offline till Sunday)
Working on a blog post with my colleague Adrienne about the Hinman Collator, and so 3 of us went upstairs (with trepidation) to see if the Spencer collator still works - IT DOES!* 📜 #bookhistory #booksky #libsky #rarebooks
*except the flasher/oscillator, which is the whole crux of the machine...
*except the flasher/oscillator, which is the whole crux of the machine...
October 17, 2025 at 1:33 PM
Working on a blog post with my colleague Adrienne about the Hinman Collator, and so 3 of us went upstairs (with trepidation) to see if the Spencer collator still works - IT DOES!* 📜 #bookhistory #booksky #libsky #rarebooks
*except the flasher/oscillator, which is the whole crux of the machine...
*except the flasher/oscillator, which is the whole crux of the machine...
Reposted by Jason W. Dean
“This is a problem everybody has been attacking as a STEM problem,” Mr. Kobek said in an interview...Cryptographic science, he argued, could not solve Kryptos — “but library science could.”
#Kryptos #Cryptography #CIA 🗃️📜
#LibraryScience #Archives #ArtHistory
#Kryptos #Cryptography #CIA 🗃️📜
#LibraryScience #Archives #ArtHistory
a mystery solved by going to the ARCHIVES
A C.I.A. Secret Kept for 35 Years Is Found in the Smithsonian’s Vault
www.nytimes.com
October 16, 2025 at 12:35 PM
“This is a problem everybody has been attacking as a STEM problem,” Mr. Kobek said in an interview...Cryptographic science, he argued, could not solve Kryptos — “but library science could.”
#Kryptos #Cryptography #CIA 🗃️📜
#LibraryScience #Archives #ArtHistory
#Kryptos #Cryptography #CIA 🗃️📜
#LibraryScience #Archives #ArtHistory
Reposted by Jason W. Dean
Fall foliage on Mount Oread leaves us in awe. 🍂
October 15, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Fall foliage on Mount Oread leaves us in awe. 🍂
Good news, 📜 #bookhistory #booksky #libsky #rarebooks folks - (and via @lynnemthomas.com ) - Paul's talk will be recorded and posted on the @illinoisrbml.bsky.social YouTube! (No livestream, tho, but glad to see it recorded)
Join us on Thursday, October 23 from 3-5 pm for a talk by Scheide Librarian Emeritus Paul S. Needham (Princeton University), titled "Gutenberg's Second Invention: The 1460 Mainz Catholicon."
All are welcome to attend. Refreshments will be served.
All are welcome to attend. Refreshments will be served.
October 15, 2025 at 3:40 PM
Good news, 📜 #bookhistory #booksky #libsky #rarebooks folks - (and via @lynnemthomas.com ) - Paul's talk will be recorded and posted on the @illinoisrbml.bsky.social YouTube! (No livestream, tho, but glad to see it recorded)
Reposted by Jason W. Dean
This talk will be recorded! It will be posted on our YouTube page once we have a chance to caption it. That can take a few weeks.
Join us on Thursday, October 23 from 3-5 pm for a talk by Scheide Librarian Emeritus Paul S. Needham (Princeton University), titled "Gutenberg's Second Invention: The 1460 Mainz Catholicon."
All are welcome to attend. Refreshments will be served.
All are welcome to attend. Refreshments will be served.
October 15, 2025 at 3:14 PM
This talk will be recorded! It will be posted on our YouTube page once we have a chance to caption it. That can take a few weeks.
Reposted by Jason W. Dean
Happy Indigenous People's Day
October 13, 2025 at 12:23 PM
Happy Indigenous People's Day
Counterpoint - god I hate checking watermarks in a rebound quarto.
Quarto is the best book size.
October 10, 2025 at 7:25 PM
Counterpoint - god I hate checking watermarks in a rebound quarto.
Whoa. Great new recording by Pygmalion of Brahms' deeply moving "Ein deutsches Requiem" - here the second movement that always, always makes me cry. www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYWq...
Ein deutsches Requiem, Op. 45: II. Chorus. Denn alles Fleisch, es ist wie Gras
YouTube video by Raphaël Pichon - Topic
www.youtube.com
October 10, 2025 at 4:25 PM
Whoa. Great new recording by Pygmalion of Brahms' deeply moving "Ein deutsches Requiem" - here the second movement that always, always makes me cry. www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYWq...
Chimayo is a very spiritually "thin" place for me - dedicated to the Christ of Esquipulas and the Santo Nino de Atocha, with a well of holy dirt. Great food, and the only remaining defensive plaza in northern NM. And amazing hispano weavings!
If you like Jesus, snow cones, chiles, low riders, and art, have I got the place for you...
Chimayo, New Mexico
#WackyWednesdayArt
#EastCoastKin #PhotographersUnited #PhotographersOfBluesky #photography
Chimayo, New Mexico
#WackyWednesdayArt
#EastCoastKin #PhotographersUnited #PhotographersOfBluesky #photography
October 9, 2025 at 3:46 PM
Chimayo is a very spiritually "thin" place for me - dedicated to the Christ of Esquipulas and the Santo Nino de Atocha, with a well of holy dirt. Great food, and the only remaining defensive plaza in northern NM. And amazing hispano weavings!
Beginning an 11 item Welsh bound with…
October 9, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Beginning an 11 item Welsh bound with…
Books like this led me to one of my favorite secondary bibliographical resources, titled "Triumphant Bore" about the Brunel's Thames Tunnel. Love the little joke in that title...
What do you get when you cross a peepshow with a petite book? A peti-pshow!
A peepshow, or tunnel book, is a book format that spaces multiple illustrated leaves apart from one another to create an illusion of depth when viewed through a front opening.
A peepshow, or tunnel book, is a book format that spaces multiple illustrated leaves apart from one another to create an illusion of depth when viewed through a front opening.
October 8, 2025 at 3:09 PM
Books like this led me to one of my favorite secondary bibliographical resources, titled "Triumphant Bore" about the Brunel's Thames Tunnel. Love the little joke in that title...
Reposted by Jason W. Dean
I just saw someone use the abbreviation “AI;DR” and I’ll be laughing for a while.
October 6, 2025 at 10:00 PM
I just saw someone use the abbreviation “AI;DR” and I’ll be laughing for a while.