January 21, 2014, Filed Under: Books + ManuscriptsRansom Center acquires archive of poet Billy Collins The Harry Ransom Center has acquired the archive of American poet Billy Collins. The materials span Collins’ personal and professional life from the 1950s to the present and documents in detail his creative development. Collins, born in 1941, is known as a poet for the people, with a witty, conversational… read more
January 20, 2014, Filed Under: Books + Manuscripts, Research + TeachingRare French “Cisiojanus” fragment identified in bookbinding through crowdsourcing project Farley P. Katz is a tax lawyer in San Antonio who collects rare books, manuscripts, and “too many other things.” He is one of the contributors to the medieval fragments project, a crowdsourcing research project headed by archivist Micah Erwin to identify fragments of medieval manuscripts bound into rare books… read more
January 20, 2014, Filed Under: Books + Manuscripts, Cataloging, Research + TeachingArchivist declares medieval manuscript fragment crowdsourcing project success During the late medieval and early modern period, it was a common practice for bookbinders to cut out the sturdy parchment leaves of outdated or unwanted handwritten books to reuse those leaves as covers or binding reinforcements in new “cutting edge” printed books. This practice lasted until roughly the seventeenth… read more
