“Being at the helm of the British Library has been – and continues to be – the greatest privilege of my life.”
After 12 years as Chief Executive, Sir Roly Keating has announced that he will step down from the role in April next year: bit.ly/BL-CEO-Update

We’ve made improvements to our Reader Registration system so we can now issue photographic passes again. Anyone with a photographic pass will be able to order collection items in our Reading Rooms.

If you’ve been issued a white temporary paper pass recently and need to access…

As I've argued ad nauseum at this point, libraries and universities cannot keep selling out their users by using third-party proprietary software systems that they haven't even assessed for privacy and security. It is fundamentally unethical. blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocial…

App Microscope did a full assessment of Libby, the iOS and Android app linked to OverDrive, and found it to be Very High Risk for user privacy. appmicroscope.org/app/672/

Another day, another proprietary library system with horrendous data privacy breaches. OverDrive and Libby are used by thousands of public libraries and have been found to be sharing data on which books users checked out with advertisers. infosec.exchange/@longobord/112…

You can find out more about this document on our website here beta.nationalarchives.gov.uk/explore-the-co…

For any #Chaucer enthusiasts in the London area, we currently have a mini exhibition of one of the life-records as part of our 'Stories Unboxed' series The National Archives

nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/visit-us…

‘In the shifting, centuries-long history of his reception, Chaucer has been read as both irreverent and pious, experimental and traditional, cosmopolitan and quintessentially English.’

Philip Knox visits the Bodleian:

lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/…

The latest catalogue from the publisher Shaun Tyas, who among much else publishes the proceedings of the Harlaxton conferences, raises some important points that deserve wider discussion. I attach his preface to the catalogue.

This is why humanities research that isn't focussed on extremely recent time frames is disapearing institutionally. 'How does England feed itself' seems like it's pretty damn relevant, but since it doesn't have immediate policy implications and is the past, it's somehow woke.

An important new article from History & Policy Institute of Historical Research by Dr Alison McClean University of Bristol. Thousands of previously declassified files have been closed at the National Archives in a process that is both opaque and contrary to the spirit of FOI legislation. historyandpolicy.org/opinion-articl…

Important new History & Policy paper on closing previously open files at Kew - incredibly worrying, & damaging for historians: 'My research also revealed that TNA appear to be undertaking the systematic withdrawal of access to 20th Century court records.' historyandpolicy.org/opinion-articl…

Thank you ! Association for Scottish Literature Edinburgh University Press History Scotland 18th Century Studies British Association for Romantic Studies

10x PhD STUDENTSHIPS in linguistics, language analytics, history of ideas etc, available at:

DHI University of Sheffield
University College Cork
University of Helsinki
Saarland University
KU Leuven

horizoncascade.net/apply-for-a-ph…

As UK academia prepares to shrink radically, it's now 44 universities with confirmed redundancy schemes. qmucu.org/qmul-transform…

History of Art at Edinburgh are looking for a new premodern lecturer - permanent, full time. Details here: elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candidat…

'Cultural and social vandalism': job cuts at Glodsmiths, with some departments possibly losing 25% of staff.
theguardian.com/education/2024…

Proposal by @powyscc to tarmac medieval Monks Trod path in Cambrian Mountains in order to ecourage off-road motorcyclists: theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/m…

a whole lot of what you ‘know’ about life in medieval Britain was in fact made up by the Victorians

Interested in our @uofginfostudies postgraduate degrees - Information Management & Preservation MSc or Museum Studies MSc?

Join our live Q&A - ask staff & current students your questions
Wednesday 27 March
2pm

ow.ly/zmqI50QVEHV