Kate Long
gingeykate.bsky.social
Kate Long
@gingeykate.bsky.social
Libraries. Archives. Fun finds. Digital projects. Interested in all things history of the book and print culture. Low-key paper nerd. Research Services Archivist. she/her.
Pinned
My professional ethos has always boiled down to "We have cool things! Everyone come look at the cool things!"
Reposted by Kate Long
It is true: many things were indeed invented in early modernity! It is also true that many things were only “invented” in early modernity because modern historians don’t like reading Latin or Arabic or Greek.
November 1, 2025 at 8:29 PM
Reposted by Kate Long
Friendly reminder! Yes physical books feel so nice but audiobooks are not cheating.
October 17, 2025 at 12:26 PM
📣 Call for Applications!

No institutional affiliation needed!

Robert & Judith Raymo Chaucer Travel Fellowship for the use of books & materials in the Robert and Judith Raymo Chaucer Collection in Smith College Special Collections.

⏳️ Due Jan 5, 2026

More info: libraries.smith.edu/special-coll...
October 2, 2025 at 4:13 PM
Reposted by Kate Long
Remember when record labels bankrupted teenagers for downloading Metallica?
NEW YORK (AP) — Anthropic agrees to pay authors $3,000 per book in landmark settlement over pirated chatbot training material.
September 5, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Reposted by Kate Long
I refuse to give em dashes to the AI
September 3, 2025 at 12:56 AM
Reposted by Kate Long
One thing I really hope we can leave behind in the 2010s/early 2020s is the idea that being cynical = being wise.

If you want to have an impact on the world, that involves being sincere. Yes people will sneer, but sneering has no impact. Genuine sincerity breaks barriers and moves mountains.
September 2, 2025 at 12:47 AM
Reposted by Kate Long
In fairness, that’s because a bunch of PhDs are in actuality very annoying and disagree on everything but THAT’S HOW KNOWLEDGE WORKS
"chatGPT 5 is like having a bunch of phds in your pocket" here's ten trillion dollars

"bluesky is having an *actual* bunch of phds in your pocket" dying platform. it disgusts me
September 1, 2025 at 2:12 PM
Reposted by Kate Long
Good thread on the human and relational component of the best kinds of research. Why choose a poor substitute when real flesh-and-blood colleagues and collaborators are just a lunch or coffee meeting, or email or phone call away?
Thinking about the uses of gen AI in research: When you start e.g. working on a new article but don't yet know exactly where you want to go and what you want to say, why would you rather play around with a chatbot instead of sitting down with a colleague to discuss your ideas? 1/n
September 1, 2025 at 10:35 AM
The AI overviews continue to baffle. At least they're both correct?
September 1, 2025 at 1:20 PM
Reposted by Kate Long
One of the things that drives me up the wall is when people say students “need to learn how to use AI” to succeed in the workplace. It is EXTREMELY EASY to use a chatbot. That’s the whole point of it! You do not need training to type in the box! What are you even TALKING about?? +
August 30, 2025 at 3:25 PM
Best little note from a teacher appeared in the mail today.

"- for making old things cool for young kids
- for sparking wonder"

Immediately hung right by my desk, of course.
August 13, 2025 at 8:08 PM
"Being inclusive and expansive in imagining the futures we want also requires investigating the social expectations and pressures that often influence what we do and do not say in various professional circles."

www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2025/ai-feel...
Investigating the “Feeling Rules” of Generative AI and Imagining Alternative Futures – In the Library with the Lead Pipe
www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org
July 25, 2025 at 4:22 PM
Reposted by Kate Long
Something really important about organizations’ decisions to adopt AI tools which people need to understand is this: it often comes down to a room of a handful of people who are simply uninformed and think it’s just a new norm they’ll be left behind on if they don’t find a use for it in their work.
June 26, 2025 at 9:47 PM
Reposted by Kate Long
Day 4 of Digital Codicology (Rare Book School L-160) we started with fragments (I boosted @lisafdavis.bsky.social's Digital Fragmentology course), moved on to video & 3D imaging, then data visualization & physicalization, and now we're team-building a quire! Only one more day to go 😭
June 5, 2025 at 8:45 PM
Reposted by Kate Long
Days 2 & 3 of Digital Codicology (Rare Book School L-160)... more materiality (we bound our printed sheets and made illuminated initials!), talked about cataloging, IIIF, VisColl, DM, HTR, and we toured our digitization lab (SCETI) and took photos of our own. WHEW! Two more days to go!
June 5, 2025 at 12:38 AM
And that's a wrap on my return to the conference presentation circuit.
March 14, 2025 at 8:48 PM
Despite being inaccurately listed in the finding aid, I can't say I'm disappointed in the contents of this folder.

Meet one of the delightful felines of notable theologian, Mary Daly.
March 13, 2025 at 7:47 PM
Thinking back to weird covid times when I had to get creative to digitally capture the physicality of materials for an online book studies class using a light pad, a sideways table lamp, a stack of book supports, and a hovercam.

Paper from the Douglass Morse Howell collection, MRBC MS 38, SCSC
March 3, 2025 at 9:57 PM
Please enjoy Lal Tikon, the prophylactic peddling pachyderm. She distributed condoms and family planning pamphlets throughout India in the late 1960s.

Sophia Smith Collection topical files, Smith College Special Collections
February 25, 2025 at 1:56 AM
Welcome any opportunity to teach a little bit of book history.

Poke-A-Dot: Who's in the Ocean by Melissa & Doug (2023), personal collection.
February 22, 2025 at 11:34 PM
Reposted by Kate Long
I heard the NEA is only considering proposals related to 1776 & the USA’s 250th birthday & I was feeling intensely patriotic, so I’m printing these really big posters inspired *directly* by the Founding Fathers

The cut was carved from the masthead of a 19th century newspaper
February 20, 2025 at 6:09 PM
"WILL BE THERE TWO TO FOUR FIFTEEN TUESDAY PLEASE DONT MAKE ME TALK"

Telegram from author Munro Leaf to Marion E. Dodd, owner of The Hampshire Bookshop. Hampshire Bookshop records, Smith College Special Collections.
February 19, 2025 at 12:18 AM
Love a children's book that takes a moment to shout out to a very specific audience.

Found in Gustavo the Shy Ghost by Flavia Z. Drago
February 13, 2025 at 1:23 AM
Reposted by Kate Long
Teaching history of the book is, no question, the most immediately gratifying part of my job. I am grumpy midcareer faculty through and through but it is a privilege every single time I get to place a 500-year-old book in the hands of a college freshman.
February 10, 2025 at 8:22 PM
Joined Bluesky 4 hours ago and am so relieved to have my feed full of book people and medievalists again
February 12, 2025 at 4:30 AM