#Science library

[basicallyanotherwitchesthing]

Conrad G. Mueller, Mae Rudolph and the Editors from Time-Life Books - Light and Vision - Time - 1975

[microsff]

The patron

The alien came to the library again, shortly before closing time, and quickly found a book.

"May this entity borrow The Complete History of Knitting?"

They always return the book they borrow after five minutes, but the ritual of checking it out seems important to them. 

"Of course. Did you bring your card?"

I looked them up, after the first time I saw them for real. They first registered with us over ninety years ago. The senior librarian who first told me about them said I shouldn't stare, or pry.

"Whatever else they are, they are a patron, and should be treated as such," she said. "If they seek knowledge, it is our duty to help them find it."

There isn't an ancient and secret code of librarians, but that is definitely a core part of it. If such a code existed.

I scan the card and the book. "There you go," I say and hand them over. "Please return it within two weeks."

They tilt their head. "This entity will honour your terms."

"Oh! That reminds me, we have updated the terms since your last visit." I hand them the pamphlet we got from the printers last week. "It's mostly about internet usage, but I'll need you to read them and agree."

They study the pamphlet.

"These are terms this entity can abide by." They pause. "Is there no requirement to keep your existence secret?"

"Of course not," I say, "we always welcome new patrons."

They stand silent, long enough for me to realise the implications of what I have just said. 

"This entity had made an assumption, based on prior experiences on countless worlds, where knowledge is always closely guarded and costly to obtain" they say at last. "You will provide knowledge for free to all who seek it?"

In my mind, I weigh humanity's ignorance of those countless worlds of alien civilisations against the code.

"Yes," I say, "this is a library."

[peach-and-cherryblossom]

[mydirtyvalentine]

pretty normal podcast listening experience i think,

[jstor]

In a very Shelleyan twist of fate, a manuscript has been brought back to life–not in a lab, but in a library. 🕯️

At Drew University, librarians and students used JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services to catalog and share the unfinished Mary Shelley biography and research notes of Dr. Betty T. Bennett.

“To me, it was kind of giving her work a second life, which is very Frankenstein. Very Shelley.” – Candace Reilly, manager of Special Collections

Alongside Bennett’s archive, a selection of the Byron Society's realia was also made digital. These items include portraits, busts, Staffordshire pottery, and more, all connected to Lord Byron’s myth and memory. The material came in many forms, and Drew’s Special Collections team used JSTOR’s structured tools to catalog it all.

Now, students are getting hands-on experience in digital humanities through two new courses at Drew. One curates articles on social change from The Drew Acorn (the campus newspaper), and the other rescues deteriorating 19th-century pamphlets.

It’s preservation, it’s participation, and it’s a bit poetic, too. Full case study below!

[stjohnstarling]

It can be tough to love a man who keeps trying to dissect you.

The doctor's devoted assistant knows his master isn’t dead, because he brought him back with his own hands — but he can't say that to the police...

🧪 Witness a man transformed against his will in a manner both monstrous and sublime.

🧪 Accompany a lost soul as his search for the object of his obsessive devotion leads him into a labyrinthine network of conspiracy and murder.

🧪 Revel in villainous excess as they conduct unethical yet homoerotic experiments on each other.

A COMPANION IN VICE is a gothic-noir hybrid novel about hazardously toxic queer romance and mad science — a chapter per week, sent (for free!) directly to your inbox — beginning SUMMER/FALL of 2025!

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[arabellasdoingthework]

6/100 days of productivity (interrupted)

very few things in life inspire me as much as studyblr does. i will in fact be studying on an evening

[amnhnyc]

The Research Library’s Rare Book and Rare Folio Collection includes close to 15,000 volumes dating back to the 15th century. Would you read this rare tome? 🕯️ 👻

[nerd-brarian]

A nice librarian gave me this and I really like it.

[othmeralia]

When you accidentally type “moon faces” into Google instead of “moon phases.” Oops!⁠ ⁠ This resting moon face is from Liber Chronicarum (1493).⁠

[siryl]

Another artistic interpretation of a microscopic black hole.

[annabelle--cane]

in isolation I think it's fine as a writing move for sasha and melanie to misattribute people weird to them at their Spooky Jobs as being because of misogyny, that is a reasonable conclusion for those characters to make when they are unaware of the Spooky Reasons that people don't want them involved, but alas it leads to this weird thing I see sometimes where fans get boiling mad at these characters and start saying "this stupid bitch thinks she's experiencing discrimination in the workplace when akshually she's being iced out for completely logical reasons due to her lack of skills, something she might realize if she weren't so self-centered with such a massive victim complex." like guys. you don't actually need to say this.

[nitewrighter]

[archeracy]

“Kids and teens have no third spaces these days!!!”

Before you go to Starbucks or other corporations who want to co-opt the term “third place” and make you become more consumerist, consider:

Are you making full, effective use of your public library?

This is especially true if you live in a big city. I know going to a store or mall is the most tempting third place. But go to the library. Find out what the library has available to you. I live in a major metropolitan area, and my local library offers books, e-books, and audiobooks to library card-holders, but also: sewing machines, 3D printers, recording studio space, individual study space, group study space, an auditorium hall, and conference rooms! Not to mention a website where you can use your library login to log in to ADDITIONAL websites that teach you valuable skills or crafts, or read research journals for free!

If you don’t live in a densely populated area and your local library has less of those things, you better go there and start asking about it. Because librarians WANT you to use their services. They WANT to stock up the library with loads of books and services, but they need the foot traffic and continued requesting to get the ball rolling.

You can also ask about donating things to the library! My library, despite its numerous riches, does not have a laminator. But I guarantee you if someone donated it, they would be eager to let people know they can use it. If you have a tool or machine you don’t use, find out if a library would make better use of it!

[thefearofcod]

Had a bad idea: books organized by Dewey classification but the numerals are arranged alphabetically

[ryustana]

It’s finally feeling like fall 🍁🎃