Kategorie: English Corner
Open Access: Digital Writing Technologies in Higher Education
Borromei Bank Research project
Fragment
Coming up for auction this week: printed book covered in a MS leaf with 15th-c writing in German (?) #fragmentology @HSCensus https://t.co/MjsmCxPGw3 pic.twitter.com/IKBjS6fOyO
— Pieter Beullens (@PieterBeullens) September 23, 2023
Manuscript about British cheese (saec. XVIex) has been acquired by the University of Leeds
Blog: Library Cards, Collectibles and Ephemera From Around the World
The Library of the Late Christopher Foyle of Beeleigh Abbey
“Covering eight centuries of manuscripts and book printing history, from a fine Latin bible c. 1240 (lot 1) to an original drawing of Winnie-the-Pooh and Piglet by E. H. Shepard (lot 400), we are delighted to announce that our latest catalogue is now available in various viewing formats: https://www.dominicwinter.co.uk/auction-calendar/”
#7 Cartulary of Garendon Abbey in Leicestershire. Manuscript on vellum, circa 1450
#buchgeschichte
A look at how a third party sold authorships on an academic paper and got it published
A Book Is a Book Is a Book—Except When It’s an e-Book
🎯 "The Internet Archive, and all libraries, should have the same protections under the first sale doctrine that have always allowed them to preserve and lend books to readers." – @mariabustillos in @thenation https://t.co/RpJqXcenvs
— Internet Archive (@internetarchive) August 31, 2023
A 14th-century Killer Monk
Hebraic Manuscripts digitized by the Library of Congress
Text on maps
Our new Machines Reading Maps tool that allows searching Text on Maps is now live at https://t.co/I78lXjjztf 100 million words indexed on 57,000 maps. Users can correct any errors. See our Text On Maps Help Guide for detailed descriptions on using this exciting new feature. pic.twitter.com/KUUyCRMxTx
— David Rumsey (@DavidRumseyMaps) August 30, 2023
Why preprint review is the way forward
Tracing medieval women in documents and manuscripts
“Any selection has its limits, but I think this project of the British Library is truly a gem.”
What we know about the British Museum thefts so far
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-66543589
With a small list of famous museum thefts.
Meteorological Disasters in Medieval Britain (AD 1000‒1500)
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110719628 (Open Access)
ChatGPT applications in Academic Research: A Review of Benefits, Concerns, and Recommendations
Poland to reform academic grant system after funding of study on “transfemininity and sadomasochism”
“Poland’s conservative education minister has pledged that the government will “completely reform” the system of awarding grants for academic research after being made aware of the “absurd decision” by a state body to finance a study on “transfemininity and sadomasochism”.”
The Why and How of Digital Archiving
A Harvard library mystery: Was a Titanic victim’s rare book a fake?
https://wapo.st/3qlrS7X (Thanks to HR)
#buchgeschichte
Ornamental Hermits Were 18th-Century England’s Must-Have Garden Accessory
How a publisher and a citation index turned the science communication system into a highly profitable global industry
“Scholarly reputation is now increasingly measured by journal rankings, ‘impact factors’ and ‘h-indexes’. Non-Anglophone journals are disproportionately excluded from these indexes, reinforcing the stratification of academic credibility geographies and endangering long established knowledge ecosystems. Researchers in the majority world are left marginalised and have no choice but to go ever faster, resorting to research productivism to keep up.”
#sprache
The Role of Preprint Peer Review
History without Chronology (2019)
https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.11418981
“Although numerous disciplines recognize multiple ways of conceptualizing time, Stefan Tanaka argues that scholars still overwhelmingly operate on chronological and linear Newtonian or classical time that emerged during the Enlightenment. This short, approachable book implores the humanities and humanistic social sciences to actively embrace the richness of different times that are evident in non-modern societies and have become common in several scientific fields throughout the twentieth century. Tanaka first offers a history of chronology by showing how the social structures built on clocks and calendars gained material expression. Tanaka then proposes that we can move away from this chronology by considering how contemporary scientific understandings of time might be adapted to reconceive the present and pasts. ”
#chronologie
Big Ten Open Books: The first 100-title collection centered on Gender and Sexuality studies is now published
Google not indexing Wikisource
“Google is not indexing any Wikisource language editions for the last couple of years which practically means that any Wikisource contents in any languages, which are being created in these years, are not searchable on Google and hence largely remain invisible on the web.
This is an extremely demotivating and frustrating situation for the existing Wikisource volunteers to witness, draining away all of our past and current efforts to bring and retain viewers, readers, GLAM partners and any potential new editors. We already have a very low awareness and visibility about Wikisource among general internet users due to lack of organized support in these years but the invisibility on Google search engine could become the last nail in our coffin, unless it is fixed soon.” (Wikisource-L)
Laptops for Ukraine initiative extended to help museums and libraries safeguard cultural heritage
Current and former employees at the Arolsen Archives say work of the international center on Nazi persecution has suffered as a result of abuse and bullying by top management
AI-voiced free Audiobooks
Stolen Archives returned
“In 2002 archivists at the Belgian State
Archives in Liège became suspicious of a reader and managed to catch him in
the act of stealing documents. The arrest led to the recovery of some 100,000
pieces purloined from several major archives in Western Europe and the United
Kingdom during the 1980s and 1990s. They were all deposited in Liège for
sorting and returning to their legitimate repositories, an operation that has
been going on for the past 20 years. This summer has seen some new
restitutions, which have been covered by mainstream media, e.g.:
“Wellington papers return after crooks meet their Waterloo” (see full text
below FYI)
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/wellington-papers-return-after-crooks-meet-their-waterloo-9bxc70x8n
“Quand les archivistes liégeois démantèlent un trafic international” (with
video)
https://www.rtc.be/video/info/patrimoine/quand-les-archivistes-liegeois-demantelent-un-trafic-international_1516284_325.html
Before the arrest, thousands of stolen documents had already been sold and are
probably in private collections or back on the market – to quote from the
article below, “the story continues.”
Best,
Volker
Wellington papers return after crooks meet their Waterloo
By Jack Blackburn
The Times (London), July 15, 2023
If one thinks of international criminal networks, what usually comes to mind
is people trafficking guns or drugs, not old archival material.
However, the exposure of a ring of thieves in Belgium has led to the retrieval
of thousands of documents, including papers signed by the Duke of Wellington,
which have now been returned to Britain.
The criminals were stealing the documents to make money by selling them to
collectors. Teams are still scanning websites and auctions to find and
retrieve lost materials.
The British embassy in Brussels announced yesterday that it had received the
documents, which were seized by police in 2001. It has taken two decades for
archivists to sort through them, as so many had been taken. The thief who was
initially caught had stolen two tonnes of items on his own, while others were
also convicted after the investigation.
The documents are being sent to the National Archives, where they will be
assessed before a decision is taken on where they should be filed, or whether
they should be given to a museum or library. They include a number of items
signed by Wellington during the Napoleonic wars, as well as pieces in the hand
of Earl Spencer at the time, ancestor of the late Princess Diana and the
present Prince of Wales.
Similar donations have been made to the French, German and Dutch governments.
The criminals apparently gathered their collection over ten to 15 years, with
one method of stealing being to enter the archive with a briefcase that had a
false bottom. They would ask to withdraw a number of documents and then,
before returning them, concealed a few in the case. The first criminal was
apprehended in the state archive in Liège after an archivist noticed that
documents were missing and grew suspicious.
“He was always asking for very different types of archives: mostly Napoleonic,
but he could also ask for early modern archives,” Dr Bernard Wilkin, of the
state archives in Liège, said. “That is really unusual because usually people
come with a purpose. They usually don’t cross periods of time.”
It seems that he gathered so many documents almost by accident, apparently
going into the archives and grabbing as much as he thought he could get away
with.
After the Liège thief had received a five-year sentence, the archives were
charged with sorting through the immense number of documents. During this
work, the decision was taken to return some to countries for whom they would
be more relevant.
France, for instance, has received 550 documents, including a letter signed by
Louis XIII and addressed to Cardinal Richelieu. For Wilkin though, the story
continues. All year round, he and other archivists have their eyes kept on
sites such as Ebay, as well as the catalogues of leading auction houses,
looking for stolen documents that have come to light. “Last year personally I
recovered about 800 pages of Napoleonic documents,” Wilkin said.
Announcing the transfer of the documents, the British embassy in Brussels
offered its thanks to Wilkins. Alongside the Wellington and Spencer materials
is a letter about HMS Britannia, as well as personal letters between soldiers
which may be of historical interest.” (Exlibris-L)
See also:
https://www.rfgenealogie.com/infos/39-departements-concernes-par-les-restitutions-belges