Posted April 9, 2026 by L.P. Coladangelo, DS Catalog Project and Data Manager
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New Records
DS records have been added for manuscript objects from the following institutions:
- University of Dayton (Ethiopic manuscripts)
- University of Kansas (Greek and Russian manuscripts)
- Lehigh University (Codices)
- University of Pennsylvania (European, Hebrew, and Islamicate manuscripts)
- Princeton University (Islamicate manuscripts)
These new contributions bring the DS Catalog to just over 29,700 records.
Prospective Member Information Sessions
DS is offering information sessions for institutions interested in becoming part of the DS consortium and to help learn more about DS and the benefits of membership. Information sessions will be held online over Zoom on the following dates and times:
- Wednesday, April 22 (2-3pm ET)
- Thursday, April 30 (11am-12pm ET)
- Wednesday, May 6 (10-11am ET)
If you represent an institution that might be interested in learning more about the value of DS membership, please sign up at this link.
Workshops on Islamicate Manuscripts
DS will offer two short workshops on Islamicate manuscripts for institutions who have such items in their collections but do not have familiarity with that tradition. Workshops will be led by Kelly Tuttle, DS Manuscript Data Curation Fellow, and be held online over Zoom on Fridays May 22 & 29, 3pm to 4:30pm, described below:
May 22: Introduction to Islamicate Manuscripts
In this 1.5 hour workshop, members will be introduced to the basics of Islamicate manuscript production including bindings you may see, papers you may encounter, three of the main scripts, and a general overview of how manuscripts are produced and assembled.
May 29: Types of Islamicate Manuscripts
In this 1.5 hour follow-up workshop, members will learn more about the different types of manuscripts they may have in their collections and ways to recognize them. We will focus on some common genres and clues that the layout and design can offer. We will also look in more detail at scripts and decorations.
To learn more about the workshops and to register, click here.
New Blog Post
In this month’s blog post, Manuscript Data Curation Fellow Kelly Tuttle makes note of several fascinating cross-cultural examples of rules, or layout features guiding scribes while writing on the page, across DS member collections. Check out what she observed in different manuscripts from various traditions here!
NEH Collections Stewardship Grant Program
The National Endowment for the Humanities has announced a new Collections Stewardship grant opportunity which may be of interest to DS member institutions and others interested in having DS as a partner organization. The program is intended to fund projects to preserve and make available physical and digital collections important for research, teaching, and public engagement in the humanities. Awards support the work of libraries, archives, and museums; colleges and universities working on collections access; and organizations that provide preservation services or educate and train students and professionals in collections stewardship.
This notice of funding opportunity has two application deadlines: May 11, 2026, and December 15, 2026.
To learn more about the grant, please follow this link to the NEH website: https://www.neh.gov/program/collections-stewardship.
Reminder: Description Assistance Reminder
Thanks to the 2-year NEH-funded grant awarded to DS in late 2025, our Manuscript Data Curation Fellow Kelly Tuttle is on hand to provide metadata creation assistance. This help is currently available to all DS members, and we encourage non-member institutions to contact us about membership if they are interested in taking advantage of the metadata creation program. We are especially keen to assist under-resourced institutions who may lack the cataloging expertise to create their own metadata. Faculty members, scholars, and researchers are also encouraged to pass along this information to colleagues at institutions they believe may benefit from this manuscript description assistance program through DS membership.
If you would like to participate in the program or learn more about manuscript metadata creation through DS, please message us at [email protected].