Episodes

  • Selena Wisnom, "The Library of Ancient Wisdom: Mesopotamia and the Making of the Modern World" (U Chicago Press, 2025)

    Selena Wisnom, "The Library of Ancient Wisdom: Mesopotamia and the Making of the Modern World" (U Chicago Press, 2025)
    Mar 13 2025
    When a team of Victorian archaeologists dug into a grassy hill in Iraq, they chanced upon one of the oldest and greatest stores of knowledge ever seen: the library of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal, seventh century BCE ruler of a huge swathe of the ancient Middle East known as Mesopotamia. After his death, vengeful rivals burned Ashurbanipal’s library to the ground - yet the texts, carved on clay tablets, were baked and preserved by the heat. Buried for millennia, the tablets were written in cuneiform: the first written language in the world. More than half of human history is written in cuneiform, but only a few hundred people on earth can read it. In The Library of Ancient Wisdom: Mesopotamia and the Making of History (U Chicago Press, 2025), Assyriologist Dr. Selena Wisnom takes us on an immersive tour of this extraordinary library, bringing ancient Mesopotamia and its people to life. Through it, we encounter a world of astonishing richness, complexity and sophistication. Mesopotamia, she shows, was home to advanced mathematics, astronomy and banking, law and literature. This was a culture absorbed and developed by the ancient Greeks, and whose myths were precursors to Bible stories - in short, a culture without which our lives today would be unrecognizable. The Library of Ancient Wisdom unearths a civilization at once strange and strangely familiar: a land of capricious gods, exorcisms and professional lamenters, whose citizens wrote of jealous rivalries, profound friendships and petty grievances. Through these pages we come face to face with humanity’s first civilization: their startling achievements, their daily life, and their struggle to understand our place in the universe. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose new book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    38 mins
  • The Library of Mistakes: A Conversation with Russell Napier

    The Library of Mistakes: A Conversation with Russell Napier
    Mar 10 2025
    The Library of Mistakes is a library located in Edinburgh, Scotland dedicated to financial and economic history. Russell Napier, the founder and keeper of the library is a professor at The Edinburgh Business School and investment manager. In this wide-ranging discussion, Russell discusses his work as a practitioner and a scholar of financial crises. He also discusses how and why he started a library, in addition to his writing on financial history. Professor Russell Napier is the author of The Solid Ground investment report for institutional investors and co-founder of the investment research portal ERIC- a business he now co-owns with D.C. Thomson. Caleb Zakarin is editor of the New Books Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    55 mins
  • Lisa Kallman Hopkins and Bridgit McCafferty, "Innovative Library Workplaces: Transformative Human Resource Strategies" (ACRL, 2025)

    Lisa Kallman Hopkins and Bridgit McCafferty, "Innovative Library Workplaces: Transformative Human Resource Strategies" (ACRL, 2025)
    Mar 2 2025
    Good workplaces require both autonomy--giving employees a sense of ownership over how and where they work--and collaboration in pursuit of common goals. They see employees for who they are and support them, pay them enough money to live comfortably, and provide the resources, training, and support they need to be successful. Innovative Library Workplaces: Transformative Human Resource Strategies (2025, Association of College and Research Libraries) provides the tools you need to make your workplace a good one for your employees. Though this book took root during the pandemic, it is not of the pandemic: The changes wrought are permanent. Innovative Library Workplaces proposes a way forward after this monumental disruption, recognizing that neither the pandemic nor the work culture prior to it is a good model for what comes next. Bridgit McCafferty is the Dean of the University Library & Archives at Texas A&M University-Central Texas and has led the library for twelve years. Prior to this, she oversaw reference and instruction services. She has taken on major administrative projects for her university, including recently chairing the SACSCOC Accreditation Reaffirmation Compliance Committee. She is the author of Library Management: A Practical Guide for Librarians and the coauthor of British Postmodernism: Strategies and Sources. Lisa Kallman Hopkins is an associate librarian at A&M-Central Texas. She is the head of Technical Services and assistant dean of the University Library & Archives. In her role as head of Technical Services, she is directly responsible for systems, E-Resources, and agreements, and manages cataloging and acquisitions, interlibrary loan, e-reserves and textbook reserves. She is the university copyright specialist and copyeditor. In addition to Innovative Library Workplaces, she has submitted chapters to Transforming Acquisitions & Collection Services: Perspectives on Collaboration Within and Across Libraries and Technical Services: Adapting to the Changing Environment. Dr. Michael LaMagna is the Information Literacy Program & Library Services Coordinator and Professor of Library Services at Delaware County Community College. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 3 mins
  • Astrid J. Smith, "Transmediation and the Archive: Decoding Objects in the Digital Age" (Arc Humanities Press, 2024)

    Astrid J. Smith, "Transmediation and the Archive: Decoding Objects in the Digital Age" (Arc Humanities Press, 2024)
    Feb 10 2025
    Building on the field of modern archival practice, Transmediation and the Archive: Decoding Objects in the Digital Age (ARC Humanities Press, 2024) explores the possibilities of archival objects. Investigating material as diverse as early modern printed books, death masks, a spirit photograph, and a manuscript choir book, Astrid J. Smith interrogates not only what the objects are now, but also asks what they were before taking material form, and what they can become as their format is transferred to other media. Blending insights from museum, library, archives, and media studies with experiential research, Smith examines the activities that shape the making of heritage objects and asks how an awareness of digitization practices can inform our knowledge of both their digital and physical form. She proposes a new methodological framework for evaluating the way materiality and media can affect our relationship with historical artefacts and book culture and demonstrates its fascinating application. Astrid J. Smith is Rare Book and Special Collections Digitization Specialist and a Production Coordinator at Stanford Libraries, focusing on medieval objects and fragile archival materials. A life-long creative, she is especially interested in book arts and the philosophy of digitization. Jen Hoyer is Technical Services and Electronic Resources Librarian at CUNY New York City College of Technology. She is co-author of What Primary Sources Teach: Lessons for Every Classroom (2022) and The Social Movement Archive (2021), and co-editor of Armed By Design: Posters and Publications of Cuba’s Organization of Solidarity of the Peoples of Africa, Asia, and Latin America (2025). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    43 mins
  • D. C. Helmuth, "Hidden Libraries: The World's Most Unusual Book Depositories" (Lonely Planet, 2024)

    D. C. Helmuth, "Hidden Libraries: The World's Most Unusual Book Depositories" (Lonely Planet, 2024)
    Feb 4 2025
    In Hidden Libraries: The World’s Most Unusual Book Depositories (Lonely Planet, 2024) by Diana Helmuth, discover 50 of the world's most magnificent hidden libraries - each with a unique and uplifting story to tell - featuring a foreword by librarian, bestselling author, and literary critic Nancy Pearl. Book swap your latest read in a cool 1950s style fridge in New Zealand or hike through the ethereal woodlands of Eas Mor in Scotland where a hidden library in a small log cabin awaits. Each entry shares the library's mission and impact on the local community and offers fascinating stories from its resident caretaker. From the rare to the romantic, this extraordinary guide explores our planet's hidden libraries. Nothing brings people together quite like a good book This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose new book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    41 mins
  • Silvia Vong, "Critical Management Studies and Librarianship" (Library Juice Press, 2024)

    Silvia Vong, "Critical Management Studies and Librarianship" (Library Juice Press, 2024)
    Feb 2 2025
    Critical Management Studies and Librarianship: Critical Perspectives on Library Management Education and Practice (Library Juice Press, November 2024) introduces key concepts in the field of critical management studies (CMS) and critiques dominant theories and concepts in the management field. The aim of CMS is to denaturalize dominant theories in the management field by introducing works and research from other fields (e.g., queer feminist theories, postcolonial studies, critical race theory). In this edited volume, Silvia Vong brings together contributions that offer critical perspectives on dominant CMS issues contextualized in LIS management education and practice such as strategic planning, consumer and assessment culture, and management institutes to name a few. In addition, the book includes discussions around approaches to leading using research and literature outside of the business and management literature to redress epistemic injustice in management education and provide inclusive and diverse perspectives on leadership. Silvia Vong is an Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream at University of Toronto’s iSchool. She was a professional librarian for 15 years in various roles at different Canadian universities ranging from liaison librarian to head of public services to associate dean of scholarly, research, and creative activities. Her experience in teaching, collections, scholarly communications, and management contributed to her research as a professional in critical management studies in librarianship as well as addressing anti-racism in the profession. Jen Hoyer is Technical Services and Electronic Resources Librarian at CUNY New York City College of Technology. She is co-author of What Primary Sources Teach: Lessons for Every Classroom (2022) and The Social Movement Archive (2021), and co-editor of Armed By Design: Posters and Publications of Cuba’s Organization of Solidarity of the Peoples of Africa, Asia, and Latin America (2025). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    38 mins
  • James Fenwick, "Archive Histories: An Archaeology of the Stanley Kubrick Archive" (Liverpool UP, 2024)

    James Fenwick, "Archive Histories: An Archaeology of the Stanley Kubrick Archive" (Liverpool UP, 2024)
    Feb 1 2025
    What can archives tell us about the film industry? In Archive Histories: An Archaeology of the Stanley Kubrick Archive (Liverpool UP, 2024), James Fenwick, a senior lecturer in cultural and creative industries at the University of Manchester examines the range of possibilities offered by The Stanley Kubrick Archive at the University of London. The book draws on the experience of being an archival researcher to situate the archive in relation to time and place, specifically London and the early 2020s. It connects the diversity of material held in the archive, much of it the everyday record of film industry lives, to key issues of work, sustainability, and technological change shaping media production today. A rich, fascinating and personal narrative, the book will be essential reading for film scholars, as well as the wider arts and humanities community. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    36 mins
  • Byron Ellsworth Hamann, "The Invention of the Colonial Americas: Data, Architecture, and the Archive of the Indies, 1781–1844" (Getty, 2022)

    Byron Ellsworth Hamann, "The Invention of the Colonial Americas: Data, Architecture, and the Archive of the Indies, 1781–1844" (Getty, 2022)
    Jan 18 2025
    The Invention of the Colonial Americas: Data, Architecture, and the Archive of the Indies, 1781–1844 (Getty, 2022) is an architectural history and media-archaeological study of changing theories and practices of government archives in Enlightenment Spain. It centers on an archive created in Seville for storing Spain's pre-1760 documents about the New World. To fill this new archive, older archives elsewhere in Spain--spaces in which records about American history were stored together with records about European history--were dismembered. The Archive of the Indies thus constructed a scholarly apparatus that made it easier to imagine the history of the Americas as independent from the history of Europe, and vice versa. In this meticulously researched book, Byron Ellsworth Hamann explores how building layouts, systems of storage, and the arrangement of documents were designed to foster the creation of new knowledge. He draws on a rich collection of eighteenth-century architectural plans, descriptions, models, document catalogs, and surviving buildings to present a literal, materially precise account of archives as assemblages of spaces, humans, and data--assemblages that were understood circa 1800 as capable of actively generating scholarly innovation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    52 mins