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SHARP News
@sharpnews.bsky.social
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An open-access publication of the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing (@sharpweb.org).

Read Bookish Feature Articles, Book Reviews, Pedagogical Materials, and Bibliographies here: https://sharpweb.org/sharpnews
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SHARP News @sharpnews.bsky.social · Nov 27
Announcing: The SHARP News Bibliography Team

We are delighted to welcome Julie Boechat Machado and Shu Wan as our incoming collaborative team of Bibliographers.

Thank you to our outgoing Bibliographer @bibliowingate.bsky.social for everything.

#BookHistory #Bibliography @sharpweb.org
An announcement for the new SHARP News Bibliography Team. The text is in black on a white background with the SHARP News logo at the bottom of the photo. The text reads: The SHARP News team is delighted to welcome Julie Boechat Machado and Shu Wan as our incoming collaborative team of Bibliographers. They will be formally taking over Bibliographies starting in January 2026. Julia Boechat Machado is a PhD Candidate at Central European University in Vienna, researching Tamizdat publishers and book history in Soviet Russia. Shu Wan is currently matriculated as a doctoral student in history at the University at Buffalo. An announcement for the new SHARP News Bibliography Team. The text is in black on a white background with the SHARP News logo at the bottom of the photo. The text reads: We want to express our endless gratitude to outgoing Bibliographer Alex Wingate, who brought so much innovation and collaborative spirit to SHARP News Bibliographies over the past 3 years. Thank you!
Reposted by SHARP News
mpbrown.bsky.social
"invariably entertaining" and "exuberant, erudite" and "occasionally infuriating": man, this TLS review. i feel seen: excluding the first two, and the adverb "occasionally," this is exactly what my loved ones say about me. #18c #c18 #vastearlyamerica #bookhistory
www.the-tls.com/literature/p...
Genre bending
The realist fiction of the eighteenth century took its origin, or at least part of it, from the single-sheet essay-periodicals that were the talk of
www.the-tls.com
February 10, 2026 at 2:08 PM
Reposted by SHARP News
laurajcleaver.bsky.social
I’ll be teaching this, with help from some excellent guest speakers, in person, in London, in June. It will be fun. #BookHistory 👇

ies.sas.ac.uk/study-traini...
An Introduction to Book Collecting and Book Cultures
This course will pursue a panoptic view of the growth of book culture and the practice of book collecting.
ies.sas.ac.uk
February 3, 2026 at 9:19 AM
Reposted by SHARP News
literaturegeek.bsky.social
New project+page started: "Home for Broken Wood Type". Celebrating: collecting, mending+understanding, preserving, printing w/broken wood letterpress type. Part of my printing+research during my Jan. artist residency+fellowship. Better+more photos+info to come. enthusiastictype.com/brokenwoodty...
Screenshot of the top of the "Home for Broken Wood Type" project webpage. The title says "Broken Wood Type" with lightning emoji interrupting or breaking the word "Broken" between the K and E, and E and N. A backdrop image shows some broken wood type pieces assembled into a letterpress lockup to spell "'Broken'", under the digital text "using, mending, saving 'broken'letterpress wood type". There are buttons to jump to parts of the page: view gallery, about collection, broken type prints. The top of the photo gallery is visible, where there are buttons to see all or filter to just broken type photos from the Penland or my personal (Visconti) collections. Photos of broken pieces of wood type, in an organic masonry grid formation, follow; there are purple tags above each indicating what collection a piece is from. Screenshot of part of the broken wood type webpage, showing "Penland's Home for Beloved Broken Wood Type" and three photos of a double-height typecase where one case has a neon-yellow label for "Penland's Home for Beloved Broken Wood Type: mend, or use gently—don't trash!"; and a closeup photo of the broken wood type pieces in that case. Captions: "I created a new case, lining, and labels (with some of my non-traditional letterpress color palette...) for Penland's broken wood type, in January 2026 during a monthlong fellowship & artist residency in the Letterpress Studio. Shelving alongside whole wood type encourages use & discourages throwing broken type away (or filing it into a missable "what do we do with this" pile). Sections for recognizable sorts, large pieces, and unrecognizable (when printed on their own) pieces." Screenshot of the text-heavy "about" section of the broken type webpage. It reads: " About the Home for Broken Wood Type I love how wood type carries the story of its human use; broken type is part of that visible story of our printing communities. If you have pieces of broken wood type you aren't using: please email me! I'll pay for shipping to get these to a good next home in my broken-type collection (and send you a print made from broken wood type if you're interested & I have any left). I'm interested in all kinds of broken wood letterpress type: they *really don't* need to have all the pieces of a whole sort, be an identifiable typeface or character, nor be mendable. Send me your unfathomable type-high wood shards, as well as things broken but closer to original form :) I'll take better photos of them, too—most of the current gallery is from type I didn't have a chance to photo up close before a winter storm closed the studio. In early 2026, I started a broadside print project using Penland School of Craft Letterpress Studio's broken wood type. I then cleaned a case to make a new safe storage home for them that suggests mending, gently printing, and preserving rather than tossing into the dreaded Hell Bucket (Penland's is a whole bucket, not a jar/box; love it). I’ll be printing with more broken wood type, including to encourage folks not to discard it. I'll also document the different ways different kinds of wood type has broken (e.g. material, character, typeface, size, ???), and get practice mending and protecting such type when it's in mendable condition. In case anyone is worried—no type is being deliberately broken! 😱 I have a background in book history, librarianship, and preservation. Any type that looks at risk of further breakage is *not* being printed with. Printable broken type is treated with extra care—e.g. not overtightening the quoins, attending to what the broken edges are against, etc. My goal is type preservation over print use <3. Whe… Screenshot of the "Printing (carefully) with broken type" section of the broken wood type project page. It shows a printing press bed where broken type has been assembled and blocked to roughly spell "'Broken' is a relative term", inked in redurple gradient ink. Next to that is a photo of the resulting letterpress print, on white paper, captioned "This broadside will eventually include further text, but a harsh winter storm ended the Winter 2026 Penland artist residencies early, so the rest of the print is delayed. It currently contains only text made using broken wood type from Penland, arranged to say "'Broken' is a relative term"." There are pastel rainbow buttons underneath pointing to back to the main site, contact, about, and gallery; as well as greyed-out "coming soon: conservation research" and "soon: mending"
February 4, 2026 at 12:37 PM
Reposted by SHARP News
literaturegeek.bsky.social
I collect my digital+analog #bookhist +arts projects @ EnthusiasticType.com:
*Limited Letterpress: tools for not-enough-type
*Queer Book History zine (@sharpnews.bsky.social collab)
*TBA zines for letterpress financial/physical/+ accessibility
Broken Wood Type, DIY Queer Historical Letterpress, blog
literaturegeek.bsky.social Amanda Wyatt! Visconti @literaturegeek.bsky.social · 6d
New project+page started: "Home for Broken Wood Type". Celebrating: collecting, mending+understanding, preserving, printing w/broken wood letterpress type. Part of my printing+research during my Jan. artist residency+fellowship. Better+more photos+info to come. enthusiastictype.com/brokenwoodty...
February 4, 2026 at 12:44 PM
Reposted by SHARP News
julialaite.bsky.social
Wonderful news from Birkbeck's School of Historical Studies. We're hiring not one but TWO open-ended, full-time roles: Medieval Studies, and History of Art! cis7.bbk.ac.uk/home.html#fi...
Current Vacancies - Birkbeck, University of London
Birkbeck
cis7.bbk.ac.uk
January 29, 2026 at 3:20 PM
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altibel.bsky.social
Join us this Friday 16 January 2026 at 15:00 CET for a seminar at @cwtsnl.bsky.social with Dr. @samuelmoore.org on the current OA landscape and how we can move to a scholar-led infrastructure beyond the market. #ScientificPublishing #OpenAccess #BookHistory
www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/events/20...
Publishing beyond the market
This talk will outline the argument in my new book Publishing Beyond the Market: Open Access, Care, and the Commons (University of Michigan Press, 2025). The book explores the evolution of the open ac...
www.universiteitleiden.nl
January 13, 2026 at 9:36 AM
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jasonwdean.com
🚨JOB KLAXON🚨 we're seeking a Curator of African American Experience colls here at KU! GREAT colls & colleagues, tenure track, unionized, salary $61,000-$68,000. Not on the committee, but would be a colleague! More info at link!📜 #bookhistory #booksky #libsky #rarebooks rbms.info/blog/news-ev...
Position Announcement: Curator of African American Experience Collections, University of Kansas
Position Overview Kenneth Spencer Research Library (KSRL) at the University of Kansas (KU) Libraries seeks a creative and collaborative curator for our established and growing African American Expe…
rbms.info
January 13, 2026 at 3:40 PM
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sarahpelletier.bsky.social
Jody Mason (my supervisor) will be talking about her new book, Books for Development: Canada in the Late Twentieth-Century World!

When: January 23, 2026 12-1:30pm EST

Where: zoom

Register in advance here: uqam.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

#bookhistory
Poster with a white and beigey-orange background with event details for Jody Mason's talk about her new book _Books for International Development_ on January 23 from 12pm-1:30pm. The poster is en français but the talk will be in English. See link in post for registration.
January 13, 2026 at 6:35 PM
Reposted by SHARP News
estherschindler.bsky.social
Why Rare Book Rooms Are the Best-Kept Secret for Travelers Who Love History

They remind us that not everything happens online. And also, swoon!
Why Rare Book Rooms Are the Best-Kept Secret for Travelers Who Love History
Anyone into history or literature should set aside one afternoon on their next trip to visit a rare book room. Here's what to know.
matadornetwork.com
January 13, 2026 at 5:30 PM
Reposted by SHARP News
trincolllibcam.bsky.social
Job Opportunity! We're looking for a Graduate Trainee Librarian

#libraryjob

www.trin.cam.ac.uk/vacancies/gr...
Graduate Trainee Librarian
(One-year fixed term contract, full-time) Trinity College Library wishes to appoint an enthusiastic Graduate Trainee for one year from September 2026. The post offers an ideal opportunity to gain a…
www.trin.cam.ac.uk
January 7, 2026 at 11:32 AM
sharpnews.bsky.social
SHARPists ... what do ya got!?

#BookHistory #Archives #Research #RareBooks #Libraries #SpecialCollections
appuhn.bsky.social Karl Appuhn @appuhn.bsky.social · Dec 22
I think we need a mega thread of everyone's craziest archive stories.
December 23, 2025 at 4:54 AM
Reposted by SHARP News
elisebell.bsky.social
I worked for library special collections as an undergrad, sorting, labelling, and shelving (music) records. One day I opened a box, got a whiff, and knew there was something dead (old dead, not fresh dead) in there. This was above my pay grade so I called my boss, and it turned out to be a bat 🦇
appuhn.bsky.social Karl Appuhn @appuhn.bsky.social · Dec 22
I think we need a mega thread of everyone's craziest archive stories.
December 22, 2025 at 6:02 PM
Reposted by SHARP News
johannamath.bsky.social
When I was a postdoc at Dartmouth, a librarian told us that he could arrange special collections visits for any class. "Calculus?" This was apparently a new question.

He rocked it. Einstein's work (w/ Kemeny's corrections) back to old yearbooks back to a 1482 Euclid. Thank you, Jay!

#MathSky
appuhn.bsky.social Karl Appuhn @appuhn.bsky.social · Dec 22
I think we need a mega thread of everyone's craziest archive stories.
December 22, 2025 at 9:35 PM
Reposted by SHARP News
drhardesty.bsky.social
At Harvard’s Houghton Library, I found a letter with salt crusted onto it. When I read the letter, I realized it was the guy’s dried tears because the letter was about the death of his young daughter
appuhn.bsky.social Karl Appuhn @appuhn.bsky.social · Dec 22
I think we need a mega thread of everyone's craziest archive stories.
December 22, 2025 at 7:42 PM
Reposted by SHARP News
brianbhalley.bsky.social
If I wanted to try to write about Boston publishing history (more recent, like last 50 years or so, not 19th c) in some kind of serial way, what is best platform? Substack seems lowkey evil. Happy to get opinions on this. Thanks! #publishing #bookhistory #Boston #books
December 22, 2025 at 4:44 PM
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bibliowingate.bsky.social
Do you enjoy my periodic rantings on Isaac Newton's alchemical citations? If so, take a look at my shiny new article on our improved #TEI encoding system of Newton's citations & what we can learn from some preliminary analyses of the data!
#BookHistory #histsci (tldr in 🧵)
doi.org/10.14434/tc....
A Bibliographical Framework for Citation Analysis of Isaac Newton’s Alchemical Manuscripts: Alexandra E. Wingate | Textual Cultures
doi.org
December 22, 2025 at 2:49 PM
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jasonwdean.com
FLIPPING OUTSTANDING WORK, of interest to 📜 #bookhistory #booksky #libsky #rarebooks and #histSTM
bibliowingate.bsky.social Alex Wingate @bibliowingate.bsky.social · Dec 22
Do you enjoy my periodic rantings on Isaac Newton's alchemical citations? If so, take a look at my shiny new article on our improved #TEI encoding system of Newton's citations & what we can learn from some preliminary analyses of the data!
#BookHistory #histsci (tldr in 🧵)
doi.org/10.14434/tc....
A Bibliographical Framework for Citation Analysis of Isaac Newton’s Alchemical Manuscripts: Alexandra E. Wingate | Textual Cultures
doi.org
December 22, 2025 at 2:57 PM
sharpnews.bsky.social
We're on board with it. :p
December 20, 2025 at 4:19 AM
sharpnews.bsky.social
Would you consider your passport a book? Not sure about it?

Read Inge Orlowski's FEATURES article, "Passports as Books and Books as Passports" on SHARP News to get you thinking!

Read it here: sharpweb.org/sharpnews/20...

#Travel #BookHistory #WhatIsABook #Materiality #Mobility
a person is holding a passport with a stamp that says passport
Alt: A hand is holding a passport open to a spread with many stamps. In the background, photos of international landmarks and scenery change rapidly.
media.tenor.com
December 17, 2025 at 10:03 PM
sharpnews.bsky.social
Three new SHARP grant/fellowship reports, live now on SHARP News!

👉 25th Anniversary Fellowship Reports by...
Hyei Jin Kim: sharpweb.org/sharpnews/20...
Gloria Morales Osorio:
sharpweb.org/sharpnews/20...

👉 SHARP Grant Report 2024 by...
Farhana Shaikh: sharpweb.org/sharpnews/20...

#SHARP
December 17, 2025 at 9:57 PM
Reposted by SHARP News
altibel.bsky.social
#BookHistory #MediaHistory 🔥
mkirschenbaum.bsky.social Matthew Kirschenbaum @mkirschenbaum.bsky.social · Dec 10
It finally happened. One of our fabulous @umdbooklab.bsky.social interns, @isabelleberube.bsky.social, printed (with movable type!) the entire first page of Benjamin’s WORK OF ART IN THE AGE OF MECHANICAL REPRODUCTION. That’s all handset type. They have ambitions to do more. 🤯
Letterpress printed pages with the Penguin edition of Benjamin’s book. The forme of handset type.
December 11, 2025 at 8:47 AM
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saracharles.bsky.social
Booking is now open for Making Medieval Manuscripts! A practice-based course where we make ink, cut quills, illuminate, make pigments and bookbind, using #medieval techniques and materials. We also explore early medieval art. No experience necessary! #bookhistory ies.sas.ac.uk/study-traini...
Introduction to Making Medieval Manuscripts (Practice Based)
This course introduces students to the complicated and messy processes of production through which pre-modern manuscripts were created
ies.sas.ac.uk
December 3, 2025 at 12:43 PM
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dbellingradt.bsky.social
V for Vendetta! Looks like this example of #scanninghands is calling for a revolution...
A hand that was scanned while digitizing an old book in the BSB München. The little finger is used to form a V. Source: https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/de/view/bsb10980705?q=Montag&page=7
October 20, 2025 at 6:18 AM
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dbellingradt.bsky.social
Say hi. This is an example of how human labor will be remembered when all books are digitized and we all work with digital copies only. And maybe, hand on heart, this hand was intentionally raised to greet us from the past. #skystorians #bookhistory #digitalhumanities
A hand soaked with sweat, in a plastic glove, caught in the act while doing a digital scan of a broadside for a Munich based library. Source: https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/de/view/bsb10811151?page=6,7
March 21, 2025 at 7:10 AM
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lindaaburnett.bsky.social
Don't miss! 🌿 Pocket Books and Floating Libraries: Books as Collecting Tools in Instructions to Travelers. Anna Svensson will discuss how books haven’t just described the natural world, they’ve also helped collect it. Wed. 10 Dec, 15:00–16:00 CET Zoom link, email: instructingnaturalhistory@uu.se
Book used as a collecting tool. Image is author's own.
December 8, 2025 at 10:50 AM