Finch Collins
@finchinthestacks.bsky.social
PGR at the Uni of Manchester, hosted at Chetham’s Library | libraries and data, early modern books and bodies | posts my own
Pinned
The awaited life update: I’ve moved to the UK! At the end of the month, I’m beginning a PhD at the University of Manchester. I’ll be researching how library catalogue data can surface marginalized voices in early printed books, and working with Chetham’s Library as a case study. More to come!
Reposted by Finch Collins
I am currently, because I know how to enjoy a Saturday morning, writing some guidance for people on filling this consultation in. As I do several things are highly apparent. Before I go through them though I don't want this to put people off of filling it in. It is important to do so nonetheless. 1/
Government has today published its consultation into "earned settlement", the forward alone contains a hot mess of misrepresentation of the current system by the Home Secretary. I would strongly urge anyone affected by the current system to respond.
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/691edd...
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/691edd...
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk
November 22, 2025 at 8:57 AM
I am currently, because I know how to enjoy a Saturday morning, writing some guidance for people on filling this consultation in. As I do several things are highly apparent. Before I go through them though I don't want this to put people off of filling it in. It is important to do so nonetheless. 1/
Last night @chethamslibrary.bsky.social: Dr. John Dee, warden of the college at Manchester, dreams of books!
Part of the event “From Mortlake to Manchester,” which invited visitors to explore the medieval building through Dee’s eyes.
Part of the event “From Mortlake to Manchester,” which invited visitors to explore the medieval building through Dee’s eyes.
November 22, 2025 at 10:03 AM
Last night @chethamslibrary.bsky.social: Dr. John Dee, warden of the college at Manchester, dreams of books!
Part of the event “From Mortlake to Manchester,” which invited visitors to explore the medieval building through Dee’s eyes.
Part of the event “From Mortlake to Manchester,” which invited visitors to explore the medieval building through Dee’s eyes.
Reposted by Finch Collins
Oh wow! This is what happens when you're photographing MSS & don't capture the text in the inner gutter. 1st, here's the photograph (made about 100 yrs ago) of the Codex Salernitanus, f. 82ra. Although that big tear of the page is obvious, the inner gutter hasn't been fully captured in the photo.
November 18, 2025 at 7:13 PM
Oh wow! This is what happens when you're photographing MSS & don't capture the text in the inner gutter. 1st, here's the photograph (made about 100 yrs ago) of the Codex Salernitanus, f. 82ra. Although that big tear of the page is obvious, the inner gutter hasn't been fully captured in the photo.
Reposted by Finch Collins
#BookHistory!
This is a hybrid panel so please do join us even if you’re not in Bloomington!
This is a hybrid panel so please do join us even if you’re not in Bloomington!
Hi DH friends, join us on Nov 10, 10-11 am CT, for “New Book History Research with Internet Data”, a hybrid panel sponsored by SHAR, to explore challenges and opportunities of using Internet data and digital methods for book history research. More info in the poster attached and comments :)
November 6, 2025 at 7:10 PM
#BookHistory!
This is a hybrid panel so please do join us even if you’re not in Bloomington!
This is a hybrid panel so please do join us even if you’re not in Bloomington!
Reposted by Finch Collins
#GLAM friends, quite a lot of you went to IU for your undergrad, MLS, and PhD! Those of us still here would appreciate alumni support against the upper administration’s nonsense, especially in regard to academic/intellectual freedom
My undergrad alma mater, Indiana University, has gone full Project 2025 - from eliminating liberal arts majors, to suppressing campus protest to shuttering the student paper. A group of alums are organizing thanks to @juliedicaro.bsky.social. Join us by filling the form.
forms.gle/vbsHAGUH6JHa...
forms.gle/vbsHAGUH6JHa...
Alumni For a Better IU
Connecting alumni to save IU
forms.gle
November 8, 2025 at 5:30 PM
#GLAM friends, quite a lot of you went to IU for your undergrad, MLS, and PhD! Those of us still here would appreciate alumni support against the upper administration’s nonsense, especially in regard to academic/intellectual freedom
Reposted by Finch Collins
“Franklin did not succeed, partly because she was working on her own without a peer with whom to swap ideas. She was also excluded from the world of informal exchanges in which Watson and Crick were immersed.”
This is the painful part.
This is the painful part.
If I see one more stupid Rosalind Franklin take I'm going to lose my mind. Thank god for @matthewcobb.bsky.social and @nccomfort.bsky.social. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
What Rosalind Franklin truly contributed to the discovery of DNA’s structure
Franklin was no victim in how the DNA double helix was solved. An overlooked letter and an unpublished news article, both written in 1953, reveal that she was an equal player.
www.nature.com
November 8, 2025 at 7:59 AM
“Franklin did not succeed, partly because she was working on her own without a peer with whom to swap ideas. She was also excluded from the world of informal exchanges in which Watson and Crick were immersed.”
This is the painful part.
This is the painful part.
Reposted by Finch Collins
As part of the Fredson Bowers award from @bibsoc.bsky.social (🙏) I’ll be giving a short talk on ‘The reassembly, analysis and appraisal of John Bellingham Inglis (1780-1870): #rarebooks collector; savant; scholar; slave owner’
November 18th, 5-7pm.
In person / online bibsoc.org.uk/event/panel-...
November 18th, 5-7pm.
In person / online bibsoc.org.uk/event/panel-...
November 2, 2025 at 9:13 AM
As part of the Fredson Bowers award from @bibsoc.bsky.social (🙏) I’ll be giving a short talk on ‘The reassembly, analysis and appraisal of John Bellingham Inglis (1780-1870): #rarebooks collector; savant; scholar; slave owner’
November 18th, 5-7pm.
In person / online bibsoc.org.uk/event/panel-...
November 18th, 5-7pm.
In person / online bibsoc.org.uk/event/panel-...
Reposted by Finch Collins
Fill out Charlotte's survey! 📚
Research opportunity! I’m studying how traditional media literacy instruction adapts to digital challenges like memes & algorithms. Seeking librarians & educators with media literacy experience for a short confidential interview. Interested? forms.gle/bZs7JfVxCfeN... #MediaLiteracy TC IRB 25-496
Screening Questionnaire: Beyond Information Literacy
Study: Beyond Traditional Information Literacy: Educator Perspectives on Digital Memetic Content
IRB Protocol Number: Teachers College IRB 25-496
Thank you for your interest in participating in this...
forms.gle
October 23, 2025 at 7:10 PM
Fill out Charlotte's survey! 📚
Reposted by Finch Collins
Look a new thing
Librarians you should become experts in that new thing
No we aren't gonna give you new staff so you can hire or train specialists
You all just need to be experts at that and whatever else you're doing too
Don't drop anything though
We'll get mad
You have to do the new thing
Librarians you should become experts in that new thing
No we aren't gonna give you new staff so you can hire or train specialists
You all just need to be experts at that and whatever else you're doing too
Don't drop anything though
We'll get mad
You have to do the new thing
October 23, 2025 at 7:42 PM
Look a new thing
Librarians you should become experts in that new thing
No we aren't gonna give you new staff so you can hire or train specialists
You all just need to be experts at that and whatever else you're doing too
Don't drop anything though
We'll get mad
You have to do the new thing
Librarians you should become experts in that new thing
No we aren't gonna give you new staff so you can hire or train specialists
You all just need to be experts at that and whatever else you're doing too
Don't drop anything though
We'll get mad
You have to do the new thing
Reposted by Finch Collins
Interesting post on the CILIP website: 'AI Wars - The Libraries Fight Back' www.cilip.org.uk/news/712840/...
Timed for Green Libraries Week, which is examining the environmental impact of AI www.cilip.org.uk/page/GreenLi...
#AI4LAM #GreenLibrariesWeek
Timed for Green Libraries Week, which is examining the environmental impact of AI www.cilip.org.uk/page/GreenLi...
#AI4LAM #GreenLibrariesWeek
AI Wars - The Libraries Fight Back
Open Fifth explains how library management systems are fending off the AI bot attacks… for now.
www.cilip.org.uk
October 22, 2025 at 11:54 AM
Interesting post on the CILIP website: 'AI Wars - The Libraries Fight Back' www.cilip.org.uk/news/712840/...
Timed for Green Libraries Week, which is examining the environmental impact of AI www.cilip.org.uk/page/GreenLi...
#AI4LAM #GreenLibrariesWeek
Timed for Green Libraries Week, which is examining the environmental impact of AI www.cilip.org.uk/page/GreenLi...
#AI4LAM #GreenLibrariesWeek
Reposted by Finch Collins
Again, your mostly non-profit mostly uni press humanities publishers are not the thing making a wreckage of scholarly publishing. Paying for their work is a good thing, and we should keep doing that.
October 22, 2025 at 11:59 AM
Again, your mostly non-profit mostly uni press humanities publishers are not the thing making a wreckage of scholarly publishing. Paying for their work is a good thing, and we should keep doing that.
Reposted by Finch Collins
Good morning to everyone, but especially to all the opossums, for today is their special day!
This woodcut of an opossum was printed in 1635 in the book 'Historia Naturae, Maxime Peregrinae' by Juan Eusebio Nieremberg.
📷 Baring-Gould Library 0689 Folio
#NationalOpossumDay #OpossumDay #RareBooks
This woodcut of an opossum was printed in 1635 in the book 'Historia Naturae, Maxime Peregrinae' by Juan Eusebio Nieremberg.
📷 Baring-Gould Library 0689 Folio
#NationalOpossumDay #OpossumDay #RareBooks
October 17, 2025 at 8:20 AM
Good morning to everyone, but especially to all the opossums, for today is their special day!
This woodcut of an opossum was printed in 1635 in the book 'Historia Naturae, Maxime Peregrinae' by Juan Eusebio Nieremberg.
📷 Baring-Gould Library 0689 Folio
#NationalOpossumDay #OpossumDay #RareBooks
This woodcut of an opossum was printed in 1635 in the book 'Historia Naturae, Maxime Peregrinae' by Juan Eusebio Nieremberg.
📷 Baring-Gould Library 0689 Folio
#NationalOpossumDay #OpossumDay #RareBooks
Doing mandatory research integrity training and resisting the urge to give the training feedback that just says "shut up"
October 21, 2025 at 2:35 PM
Doing mandatory research integrity training and resisting the urge to give the training feedback that just says "shut up"
Reposted by Finch Collins
This sounds fascinating, especially for anyone interested in Manchester’s history. Congratulations Emily. I suspect this will be on a lot of reading lists very quickly.
Was Manchester really as segregated as Engels said? What kept the rich and poor apart.... if anything? My first article is out today in @historicaljnl.bsky.social and I'm so pleased to share it with you all! doi:10.1017/S0018246X25101246
@stjohnscollege.bsky.social @camunicampop.bsky.social
@stjohnscollege.bsky.social @camunicampop.bsky.social
October 21, 2025 at 10:26 AM
This sounds fascinating, especially for anyone interested in Manchester’s history. Congratulations Emily. I suspect this will be on a lot of reading lists very quickly.
Reposted by Finch Collins
A personal opinion is that if an archive is moving to ‘structured content releases’, it is no longer an archive but a private comms repository. What an incredible loss to our understanding of UK culture and heritage.
"The BBC has clanged their doors shut on those histories, those stories, those lives and ways of working that are revealed through the joint industry of the historian and the archivist." @helenwheatley.bsky.social on the devastating decision to limit access to BBC archives. tinyurl.com/y4tnyw9a
Defending the WAC: All the things I haven’t (yet) written by Helen Wheatley
People following the last few weeks of the Critical Studies in Television blog will have seen my brilliant colleagues discussing the essential work that they have been able to do thanks to the…
cstonline.net
October 19, 2025 at 8:36 AM
A personal opinion is that if an archive is moving to ‘structured content releases’, it is no longer an archive but a private comms repository. What an incredible loss to our understanding of UK culture and heritage.
Reposted by Finch Collins
Critical to mobilizing “AI” resistance is understanding that corporations now know that the marketing term “AI,” is becoming toxic. That doesn’t mean they’re going to halt their data extraction & prediction business. It just means they’re getting sneakier about how they’re punching it into products.
October 17, 2025 at 9:53 PM
Critical to mobilizing “AI” resistance is understanding that corporations now know that the marketing term “AI,” is becoming toxic. That doesn’t mean they’re going to halt their data extraction & prediction business. It just means they’re getting sneakier about how they’re punching it into products.
Reposted by Finch Collins
Quietly devastating. How AI firms lied, cheated and robbed their way to killing the open web and decades of mutually agreed, protocol-based technical cooperation
All technologists who work for them are culpable.
They murder knowledge and systems of informal and hard-learned collaboration and care.
All technologists who work for them are culpable.
They murder knowledge and systems of informal and hard-learned collaboration and care.
"The protocol taught us that technology can be based on human values like ethics and morality. It showed that voluntary compliance works when all parties benefit."
On robots.txt.
www.heise.de/en/backgroun...
On robots.txt.
www.heise.de/en/backgroun...
Obituary: Farewell to robots.txt (1994-2025)
The voluntary compliance protocol that civilized the internet has departed, bids Henning Fries farewell.
www.heise.de
October 17, 2025 at 11:13 AM
Quietly devastating. How AI firms lied, cheated and robbed their way to killing the open web and decades of mutually agreed, protocol-based technical cooperation
All technologists who work for them are culpable.
They murder knowledge and systems of informal and hard-learned collaboration and care.
All technologists who work for them are culpable.
They murder knowledge and systems of informal and hard-learned collaboration and care.
Reposted by Finch Collins
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 Finch Collins
🧵It has been clear for years that a key difference between past instances of book banning and the present censorship cataclysm is that the banning happening now targets not only books, but librarianship as a profession and libraries as an institution. 1/4
October 15, 2025 at 1:58 PM
🧵It has been clear for years that a key difference between past instances of book banning and the present censorship cataclysm is that the banning happening now targets not only books, but librarianship as a profession and libraries as an institution. 1/4
Reposted by Finch Collins
I will never stop being tired of Digital Humanities professors who never approach archivists as peers deeming fit to tell archivists how and why to do their jobs differently. It happens time and time again, rarely with a spirit of collaboration and often with an uncomfortable tech-disruptor energy
October 15, 2025 at 2:18 PM
I will never stop being tired of Digital Humanities professors who never approach archivists as peers deeming fit to tell archivists how and why to do their jobs differently. It happens time and time again, rarely with a spirit of collaboration and often with an uncomfortable tech-disruptor energy
Reposted by Finch Collins
Deadline extended! You have until Monday October 20th to put in an abstract! #queerbibliography #transbookhistory
@bibsoc.bsky.social @bibsocamer.bsky.social @obs1922.bsky.social @transbookhistory.bsky.social @thetransfemininereview.com @sharpnews.bsky.social @royalhistsoc.org
@bibsoc.bsky.social @bibsocamer.bsky.social @obs1922.bsky.social @transbookhistory.bsky.social @thetransfemininereview.com @sharpnews.bsky.social @royalhistsoc.org
Your challenge for this weekend is to put in an abstract for Queer Bibliography 2026. It's what all the cool kids are doing.
The theme is Space, Place, Community (widely understood, certainly not limited to the South). CFP: shorturl.at/XAVJ0; Submit: forms.gle/XD7FgrrStp3j...
Athens GA and online
The theme is Space, Place, Community (widely understood, certainly not limited to the South). CFP: shorturl.at/XAVJ0; Submit: forms.gle/XD7FgrrStp3j...
Athens GA and online
October 14, 2025 at 11:45 PM
Deadline extended! You have until Monday October 20th to put in an abstract! #queerbibliography #transbookhistory
@bibsoc.bsky.social @bibsocamer.bsky.social @obs1922.bsky.social @transbookhistory.bsky.social @thetransfemininereview.com @sharpnews.bsky.social @royalhistsoc.org
@bibsoc.bsky.social @bibsocamer.bsky.social @obs1922.bsky.social @transbookhistory.bsky.social @thetransfemininereview.com @sharpnews.bsky.social @royalhistsoc.org
Reposted by Finch Collins
I think what's bothering me about all these statements I'm seeing from politicians that are variations of "Israeli hostages and Palestinians are returning to their homes, yay" is that Israelis are returning to their homes and Palestinians are returning to uninhabitable post apocalyptic rubble.
October 14, 2025 at 10:51 PM
I think what's bothering me about all these statements I'm seeing from politicians that are variations of "Israeli hostages and Palestinians are returning to their homes, yay" is that Israelis are returning to their homes and Palestinians are returning to uninhabitable post apocalyptic rubble.
Reposted by Finch Collins
Homegrown madder pigment. It's wonderful to create medieval pigment from something grown in your garden #bookhistory #medievalpigments #medievalsky
October 12, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Homegrown madder pigment. It's wonderful to create medieval pigment from something grown in your garden #bookhistory #medievalpigments #medievalsky
Reposted by Finch Collins
It's true: I wrote a book. And what's more, the book is done and soon you'll be able to own a copy. And what's more more, if you want a hard copy you can order one for 50% off now, with the code SAR50. And if you want it digitally, it'll be open access!
www.arc-humanities.org/978180270163...
www.arc-humanities.org/978180270163...
Trans Histories of the Medieval Book - Arc Humanities Press
Archival collections are political spaces: the decisions that govern whose histories are preserved, when, and by whom are not neutral. They reflect the commu...
www.arc-humanities.org
October 8, 2025 at 3:17 PM
It's true: I wrote a book. And what's more, the book is done and soon you'll be able to own a copy. And what's more more, if you want a hard copy you can order one for 50% off now, with the code SAR50. And if you want it digitally, it'll be open access!
www.arc-humanities.org/978180270163...
www.arc-humanities.org/978180270163...
Reposted by Finch Collins
This PhD on a reparatory history of the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, exploring the legacies of empire is open for applications. It features a great supervisory team (moi, Kerry Pimblott, and Sadia Habib) and fabulous public history opportunities. Please share.
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
[HUMS Bicentenary PhD] A reparatory history of the Manchester Royal Exchange in collaboration with the Royal Exchange Theatre at The University of Manchester on FindAPhD.com
PhD Project - [HUMS Bicentenary PhD] A reparatory history of the Manchester Royal Exchange in collaboration with the Royal Exchange Theatre at The University of Manchester, listed on FindAPhD.com
www.findaphd.com
October 13, 2025 at 9:55 AM
This PhD on a reparatory history of the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, exploring the legacies of empire is open for applications. It features a great supervisory team (moi, Kerry Pimblott, and Sadia Habib) and fabulous public history opportunities. Please share.
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...