The Armchair Reference Radio Half Hour

The Armchair Reference Radio (Half) Hour!, is a bi-monthly, short-form virtual program that allows the Researcher Services team to share information about resources and new projects, while also engaging with viewers in a light-hearted but meaningful way.

Each program in the series is conceived as an episode of a vintage radio show—including a live studio audience—broken down into segments that incorporate radio formats including interviews and conversations, short stories, and news. Episodes revolve around the Folger’s strengths and researcher needs—format-based research themes like printed books and manuscripts or genre research of poetry and drama.

Invitations are issued to registered Folger readers. If you are not already a reader, you are welcome to sign up at our online portal.

Show notes and recordings

Episode 3: Poems and Tomes

• "Folger Focus": a feature to spotlight Folger research resources
  • Union First Line Index of English Verse

• "Fancy Free: Tomes": a feature showcasing freely available web resources
  • English Short Title Catalogue: books printed between 1473 and 1800 printed in Britain or in English on the continent
  • Universal Short Title Catalogue: continental books published between 1450 and 1650
  • Shakespeare Census: attempts to locate and describe all extant copies of all editions of Shakespeare’s works through 1700
  • British Book Trade Index: biographical and trade details for those who worked in English and Welsh book trades until 1851
  • Scottish Book Trade Index: biographical and trade details for those who worked in Scottish book trade until 1850
  • Thomas Gravell Watermark Archive
  • Women in Book History Bibliography

• "Fancy Free: Poems"
  • Manuscript Verse Miscellanies: 1700-1820: first lines, coteries, and poem roles indexed from manuscript miscellanies
  • Early Stuart Libels: indexes over 350 political poems from the Stuart period
  • English Broadside Ballads Archive: 17th century printed broadside ballads
  • Broadside Ballads Online: 16th-20th century printed broadside ballads, indexes EBBA catalog

• "What's New with You?" with special guest Teri Cross Davis, O.B. Hardison Poetry Series Artistic Curator and Poetry Programs Manager
  • "study the masters" by Lucille Clifton
  • Teri Ellen Cross Davis on Lucille Clifton's "study the masters"
  • "The Goddess of Cleaning" by Teri Ellen Cross Davis
    • Teri Ellen Cross Davis reading "The Goddess of Cleaning"
  • Folger Poetry program Shara McCallum and Tamiko Beyer "Writing the Past to Right the Future: The Poets of Alice James Books"

Episode 2: Manuscripts to the Max

• "Folger Focus": a feature to spotlight Folger research resources
  • Hamnet online catalogue, Finding Aids (archival collections), Digital image database collections
  • Examples from program:
    • Individually bound manuscript record
    • Manuscripts not in a collection
    • Manuscript collection level record (Hamnet)
    • Manuscript collection finding aid

• "Hey, what's cookin'?": spotlight on early modern manuscript recipe research tools
  • Before Farm to Table project website
  • Recipe books at the Folger Shakespeare Library
  • Manuscript Transcriptions digital image collection
  • List of online resources for early modern English paleography
  • Call numbers
  • Manuscript Cookbooks Survey

• "Subscribe & Save": introduction to manuscript databases, "Perdita Manuscripts: Women Writers 1500-1700," "Literary Print Culture: The Stationers' Company Archive," and "State Papers Online, Parts 1-4"
  • State Papers Online video tutorials
• Access the databases through online research portal at request.folger.edu (account required)

• "Off the Shelf": feature of Folger collection items
  • Euclid, Elements (1482), INC E86
  • Francis Cruys, Ars Nova Natandi, or New Swimming Girdles (1698), C7447.5
  • Edward Cocker, The Tutor to Writing and Arithmetick (1664), 234- 037q

• "What's New with You?": an interview with a Folger Collections staff member about a recently completed project
  • Conversation with Sara Schliep, Archivist and Cataloger about the Folger's manuscript transcription efforts
    • Practical Paleography, weekly transcription meetup
    • Early Modern Manuscripts Online (EMMO)
    • John Ward's diaries, including V.a.284

Episode 1: The Infinite Variety Show

• "Subscribe & Save": a feature highlighting subscription e-resources available through the online research portal at request.folger.edu (account required)
  • How to use the online research portal
  • Introduction to three newest resources, Early Modern England: Society, Culture and Everyday Life, 1500-1700, New Cambridge Shakespeare, Bibliography of British and Irish History
    • Contact registrar@folger.edu for assistance with research account or help navigating to these resources
    • Contact reference@folger.edu for assistance using these resources and others

• "Fancy Free": a feature showcasing freely available web resources
  • Introduced The Folger Shakespeare site, including navigation, new quotes feature, and download options
  • Navigation and features of Shakespeare Documented

• "Off the Shelf": short story highlighting a Folger collection item
  • This month's feature: Diary of Junius Brutus Booth for 1864, Y.d.374

• "What's New with You?": an interview with a Folger Collections staff member about a recently completed project
  • Conversation with Erin Blake, Senior Cataloger for Art and Manuscripts about the addition of 24,000 card catalog records to the Folger online catalog
  • Read more about this project at The Collation