I have sung its praise before, but it is time to do it again: EThOS - the "Electronic Theses Online Service" offered by the British Library. They basically list all the Theses of Britain, and as many of them as possible are downloadable. For free (you just need to register with them). It's even possible to order them on CD/DVD or as printout, though then they are obviously not free anymore, but will cost a bit to cover for material, time and postage. (If you are a multi-tab opener like me: resist the temptation. Downloads and links don't work properly when opened in a new tab, and the back button is not recommended for use; you'll need to click on "search results" or "order history" to go back to your lists. The site works smoothly that way, though.)

And there's more good free info stuff from Britain - meet the Portable Antiquities Scheme. It's a scheme trying to encourage members of the public from England and Wales who have found archaeological objects to register them in an open database. It's mostly metal objects, and there are very many of them - among it pins, needles, buckles, and spindle whorls. The search function is nice and works quite well, and there are additional filters to narrow down on item groups.

While the garden slowly goes into Autumn Mode (less flowers, more seeds - which also brings more birds), things in the house and in my brain don't. Well, there might be more craving for hot chocolate (or normal chocolate), but otherwise there is no rest for the wicked notoriously curious.

One of the developing things: Plans for the next Textile Forum. Yes, I know, I haven't wrapped up the last one yet - but still. Another one is a joint project with three other people, and it is sort of an offspring of the eternal Spinning Experiment. More is to come soon, and it will include the possibility for spindle spinners to again join in some research. (It will possibly also include me becoming a bit more active on Ravelry.)

In other news: Cathy has thoughts about Neanderthals and clothing, as well as a linky bit to a nalbinding article in a journal on her blog.

There has been a textile find (link goes to a German newspaper) from 12th century in a German church as well - I hope that we'll get a more detailed account about that soon, too!

From time to time, I mention that some things are so much easier to find these days than just a decade ago - thanks to the Internet. And there's more databases and info-portals springing up, such as these ones:

Arachne - meant to help make research easier, this project from Uni Köln mainly focuses on antique stuff. It includes a possibility to browse the Trajan pillar in detail, among much other stuff. The interface seems to be German only, though.

Then there's Europeana, a multi-language portal and searchable database of... stuff, from all over Europe. Searchable, though you might have to look through a lot of entries or miss some, and search terms can be in different languages. I'd say that is a space to watch, though.

And then there's DARIAH, with an even more high and noble aim: to interconnect all arts and humanities resources in Europe. It seems to still be in its building phase, though.

Maybe, one day, it will actually be possible to search all the picture databases in a collection such as my bookmark list? That would be a happy day...

I am returned home from a wonderful and lovely time outdoors with friends - time spent paddling in warm, clear waters, swimming, reading, having lovely food (both homecampsite-made and dining out), knitting some socks, looking at the lush greenery, making oodles of bad puns and generally relaxing a lot. It was not only wonderful, but also a much-needed recharge of my batteries.

I spent the first day back going through 300+ emails, and one of those is the reason you get a blogpost today already instead of tomorrow. If you have read German academic books, chances are that you have held one published by de Gruyter in your hands. It's one of those typical academic publishing houses that have a very good reputation, but can be extremely pricey.

De Gruyter has bought up two other academic publishers, namely Akademie Verlag and Oldenbourg Verlag. To celebrate this, they are granting free access to the ebook versions of all the current titles of both publishing houses. The books are in German, but if you read German and need a book from their programmes, this is your opportunity.

Free access is possible until August 31; you find the titles of Akademie Verlag here and those of Oldenbourg here. And if you visit the site, have a laugh at some of the ebook prices they offer - the printed and bound version costs 19.80 €, while the ebook is priced at 198.00 €! (I wonder why... don't they want to sell ebooks too?)

Yes, I know, that title does not sound too much like the more positive blogpost that I promised you yesterday - and it will not be much of a standalone blogpost, it's more the wrapping for a link.

The guy who told the story behind this link is Chris Brecheen, and he's a writer. And a blogger, obviously. The story itself is about an all-too-common occurrence - woman on public transport getting hit on by a man - but turns all non-common. Go read it, you won't regret it. At least it totally made my day.

Someone is leaning a ladder to our house, right in front of the front door. Probably to check the roof - and I confess it's a little distracting. (I'm sitting very close to the front door when I'm at my workplace, both the normal one and the summer-workplace in the winter garden.)

Speaking of distraction - there is an archaeological podcast in the internet (in German). It's called "angegraben" and looks quite nice. I have not managed to sit down and listen to it yet... but it's on my list of things to do.

Another thing in German: In Erlangen, the classical archaeologists have a slight problem. With buildings... their own building, to be precise, as it's coming down on top of their heads. For those of you not reading German: the article has pics.

While I'm helping spread the bad news, here's an article about the sellout of the Stralsund archives, in English (with links, many of them to German texts). And that's it for today - more positive stuff tomorrow!

I will admit it: I'm one of those who only look into books for the piccies. Well, old books, that is. While I can read Middle High German well enough to get most texts once they are transcribed and can read some very little Middle English (and thank you, Chaucer, for your tweets!), I have yet to read a manuscript in its original state.

Every time I run across a digitised manuscript library on the internet, I do a little happy dance (yay! More accessible manuscripts, and more manuscripts that will be there for posterity even if something dire happens - remember the archives at Cologne?) and then... I do a search.

I look for the search terms "spindle" and "wool" typically, both in English (if there is an English archive version) and in the archive's native language. Sometimes I'm lucky, other times I'm not.

I was not lucky in the St. Laurentius Digital Manuscript Library from Lund - but if you are looking for pics of nice medieval manuscripts, with pretty initials, you will really like this page. There's 64 digitised manuscripts from the 9th/10th century to the 16th century, and they are worth a look if only for the initials. (At least that's what I think.)

While I'm at links to libraries online: Umeå University has rare old books digitised as well, accessible via their "special collections" page. It was very slow for me, but if you are looking for an old print - you might get lucky there.

Oh, by the way: There is a lot of work still to be done on the Cologne archive material - the city has an info page about the damages and the work being done here (German only, but there's pics).