Radical Left Lemmasmith

@k8bowers

Archivist at Harvard, librarian, contributing editor (Dictionary of Archives Terminology), Oxford comma enthusiast, grumpable knowmudgeon #archives #records #metadata #saawords #cataloging #bornDigital Mount Holyoke ‘86 she/her

867 Folgt1.670 Follower1.351 Posts

Bluesky

Ist das dein Profil?Übernimm es — dann gehört dir k8bowers.dirty.social.Profil übernehmen

Radical Left Lemmasmith@k8bowers· 17h

Unexpected beauty on my walk from the bus stop to urgent care

River bend with deeply green trees. A few small, puffy clouds reflected in the water.

Radical Left Lemmasmith@k8bowers· 9d

Honestly, probably #Birdoswald Roman Fort, but I can’t remember now.

Ruins of a second or third century fortification

Radical Left Lemmasmith@k8bowers· 9d

Watching the English countryside out the bus window, someplace between #Carlisle and #Brampton

Radical Left Lemmasmith@k8bowers· 9d

#Carlisle Castle

A view towards the gates of Carlisle Castle seen from the top the walls of Carlisle Castle

Radical Left Lemmasmith@k8bowers· 9d

Only in #Edinburgh

Green door with sign reading “Bagpipe makers” and a smaller, similar-looking sign reading “Funeral Services”

Radical Left Lemmasmith@k8bowers· 15d

I’ve been fairly quiet on here. Busy bee, but now I have cheery things to share. Posts to follow about #Edinburgh and Hadrians Wall Path.

Radical Left Lemmasmith@k8bowers· Jun 10

Having a down moment. Here are some nice flowers. #timelineCleanse

Blooming yellow coneflower and sweet pea.

Radical Left Lemmasmith@k8bowers· Jun 6

Timeline cleanse #noFilter #catsOfBluesky

A calico cat curled up on a white blanket with a dark wood floor in the foreground

Radical Left Lemmasmith@k8bowers· Jun 5

If you don’t use ISO 8601 on your leftover scallions, can you even call yourself a #librarian or a #metadata maven? #libraries #cataloging

A Ziploc bag with “green onions” and a date written on it in the form of YYYY-MM-DD.

Radical Left Lemmasmith@k8bowers· Jun 4

Lovely walk in Mount Auburn Cemetery with @bobbifox.bsky.social. A bit warm at 90F (32C), but there was a breeze, shade, and delightful conversation.

A statue of a sphinx surrounded by a garden.

Radical Left Lemmasmith@k8bowers· Jun 3

Cat, looking at a television screen on which sheepdogs are rounding up sheep

Radical Left Lemmasmith@k8bowers· May 30

If you don’t use ISO 8601 on your leftover scallions, can you even call yourself a #librarian or a #metadata maven? #libraries #cataloging

Ziploc bag labeled “green onions 2026–0 5–29”

Radical Left Lemmasmith@k8bowers· May 25

How it started / how it’s going

A black cat elegantly stretched out on a staircase

A yellow sign with black text, reading “tripping hazard”

Radical Left Lemmasmith@k8bowers· May 15

I think this is one of those evenings when I re-watch Harriet Walter and Edward Petherbridge solve crimes.

Harriet Walter as Harriet Vane and Edward Petherbridge as Lord Peter Wimsey share a dance

Radical Left Lemmasmith@k8bowers· May 10

Photograph of an advertisement for a 10 pack of blue urinal deodorant cakes

Radical Left Lemmasmith@k8bowers· May 10

I just realized that the stuff on the top of my table is a really good self portrait.

A colorful plastic children’s toy box being used as a toolbox, a small saw, a bottle of naproxen sodium, a silk floral pink scarf

Radical Left Lemmasmith@k8bowers· May 5

Post something random or you'll have the exact same May as you will if you don't post anything.

Homemade sign reading “strawberry festival” decorated with large strawberries, vines, and leaves and with an arrow pointing to the right.

Radical Left Lemmasmith@k8bowers· May 4

Post a picture of yourself from another era! #digitalPreservation #archives nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.AR... Me, circa 1998, used as test image during development of embedding links & images in EAD finding aids (circa 2003 maybe?) It is one of the earlier born-digital objects in Harvard's DRS.

A woman sitting at a desk in front of a CRT (cathode ray tube) computer screen, looking over her shoulder and smiling at the camera.

Radical Left Lemmasmith@k8bowers· Apr 25

Timeline cleanse. Sound on.

Radical Left Lemmasmith@k8bowers· Apr 25

#timelineCleanse Shoutout to 1) bus driver who waited for me as I ran to the bus stop 2) service folks at Toyota of Watertown who stepped up to help me 3) friends who listen to me whine a bit and then change the subject 4) people who sorta play chess with their cats

Cat sitting on a pizza box as a person moves a jar of red pepper flakes across the pizza box as if they are playing chess with the cat

Radical Left Lemmasmith@k8bowers· Apr 24

Pests vs snacks vs archives Solution: repurpose sturdy plastic container that held a personal archive, respectfully labeled with the donor’s name. #archives #humor

A plastic bin labeled like an archival record carton. The donor’s name on the label is blurred out. The label reads “[donor name] Memorial Pest-Resistant Container” and has a red border.

Radical Left Lemmasmith@k8bowers· Apr 22

I think I'm going to make a series of these. I call it Eddie Vedder syndrome because the first time I found an unqualified personal name incorrectly "controlled" to a completely different person it was changed to Eddie Vedder. #eddieVedderSyndrome #cataloging #libraries #authorityControl #linkedData

A screengrab of a library catalog record describing a 1933 US college senior honros thesis that has a display of linked data for a Scottish musician born in 1964.

Radical Left Lemmasmith@k8bowers· Apr 12

My coworker can‘t remember his password and absolutely *hates* the stupid touchpad! Would definitely fare better with a mouse!

Gray striped cat on a couch with his forepaws on the touchpad of a laptop

Radical Left Lemmasmith@k8bowers· Apr 7

I love my house.

A vase of orange tulips in the foreground; a painting of similarly orange California poppies on a lemon-yellow wall in the mid-ground.

Radical Left Lemmasmith@k8bowers· Apr 5

I am being *loomed* at’

Radical Left Lemmasmith@k8bowers· Mar 17

This is the day on which we remember that my grandfather was an undocumented immigrant teen from Ireland and the US did not fall apart when it offered him a path to citizenship. Happy St. Patrick's Day. #StPatricksDay #loveImmigrants

Citizenship petition with the words "being then a minor under eighteen years of age" underlined.

Radical Left Lemmasmith@k8bowers· Feb 28

Friends bought me this beautiful Paris-Brest for my birthday from Collette Bakery in Medford Mass. Delicious!

Circular pastry with a square chocolate sign with “Happy Birthday Kate” written on it.

Radical Left Lemmasmith@k8bowers· Feb 27

Radical Left Lemmasmith@k8bowers· Feb 26

I love my house sometimes! Morning light falls on tulips. #gloamingpictures

Picture of an interior living room. In the foreground is a mug, beyond that is some knitting. Beyond that is a bouquet of tulips with sunlight glowing on them, beyond that is a chair with a comfy pillow on it.

Radical Left Lemmasmith@k8bowers· Feb 24

Scenes from the blizzard: 1) Accidental snowman left by a plow 2) Porch looks quite charming after sunset and all the shoveling is done 3 & 4) Living room windows this morning—like every window on all sides of the house, covered in wind-driven snow