Scholarly Communication

In the mid-1930s a group of New York Yiddishist intellectuals established the Central Jewish Library and Press Archive, whose collections became the nucleus of the YIVO Library when the Institute relocated from Vilna to New York in 1940. Over the succeeding decades, the Library grew by leaps and bounds, thanks to the dedication of its librarians and supporters. It emerged as a “collection of collections,” absorbing the extensive personal libraries of prominent Yiddish writers, scholars, and book collectors. Crucially, after 1945 the Library also recovered large portions of the Vilna YIVO’s prewar holdings along with thousands of rabbinic works from Vilna’s Strashun Library. Throughout its history, the YIVO Library has been a beehive of scholarship and bibliography, which has been fostered by such outstanding figures as Mendl Elkin and Dina Abramowicz.

In this presentation, Zachary M. Baker will offer some personal reflections on the legacy that the YIVO Library’s founders and builders have left behind.

View the bibliography for this talk: here

This lecture originally took place on February 19, 2025.
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What does it take to turn a self-published book into a traditional publishing deal? Science writer Siri Carpenter — executive director of The Open Notebook and author of The Craft of Science Writing — joins host Sarah Russo on The Publishing Playbook to break down her path from self-publishing to an expanded second edition with University of Chicago Press.

Siri shares how she landed an agent after self-publishing, why course adoption became the key to her book’s success, and the design decisions that helped it stand out. She also previews her newest project, The Best Science Stories and How They Work (also published by UCP), which features articles and annotations from Mary Roach, Ed Yong, and other leading science journalists.

Plus: Siri's take on empathy as a core writing skill, how science writers can combat misinformation, and what she’s currently reading, underwater!

In this episode:

Why Siri self-published The Craft of Science Writing before going the traditional route

How course adoption drove sales and caught a publisher’s attention

The behind-the-scenes story of landing a University of Chicago Press deal

What makes The Best Science Stories and How They Work different from a typical writing anthology

Why empathy is essential in all good writing

If you’re a writer, editor, or aspiring author weighing self-publishing vs. traditional publishing, this episode is for you. Subscribe to The Publishing Playbook for new episodes every week.

For more information on Siri’s work, please visit The Open Notebook

Books mentioned in this episode:

“The Craft of Science Writing,” edited by Siri Carpenter

“The Best Science Stories and How They Work,” edited by Siri Carpenter

“A Sand County Almanac: And Sketches Here and There,” by Aldo Leopold

“Why We Swim,” by Bonnie Tsui

“You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World,” by Ada Limón

“The Sea Around Us,” by Rachel Carson

Key Moments

00:57 — Why Siri Started The Open Notebook 📓

Siri opens up about feeling isolated as a freelance science writer, and how a friendship with a fellow journalist sparked the side project that became a major nonprofit.

02:58 — The Real Reason Siri Self-Published Her First Book 📖

Agents wouldn't touch "The Craft of Science Writing,” so Siri went the self-publishing route instead, admitting just how naive she was about the workload ahead.

05:18 — From Self-Published to University of Chicago Press 🎓

Siri walks through how a self-published book still sold over 3,000 copies and eventually landed her an agent and a traditional book deal for a second edition.

10:32 — Designing a Book You Can Read in a Hammock 🌳

Siri describes the collaborative design process behind “The Best Science Stories and How They Work,” where original articles sit side-by-side with expert annotations in the margins.

15:39 — “Every Story Is a Science Story” — Even Traffic Reports 🚗

Siri unpacks The Open Notebook’s tagline with a hilarious real-life story about a stranger shouting “what’s a science story today?” out a truck window.

19:46 — Can Journalists Actually Fight Misinformation? 🔍

Siri gets real about the uphill battle science journalists face against well-funded disinformation campaigns, and the role storytelling still plays in helping readers think critically.
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The opening of Iraq's Ba'th
Party archives revolutionized the study of Iraqi politics and history,
offering scholars unprecedented access to the inner workings of one of
the world's most impenetrable autocracies. Ba‘thist Iraq Through Archives: Reflections, Explorations, and Opportunities (Stanford University Press, 2026) edited by Dr. Lisa Blaydes
and Dr. Samuel Helfont brings together leading scholars to take stock
of what we have learned from over a decade of research using the Ba'thist
archives, contributing to a new understanding of Iraq's history, with
wider implications for understanding authoritarianism in general.

The
contributors show how research in these unique archives challenges
previous assumptions about Ba'thist Iraq and the workings of
authoritarian regimes. Their chapters provide
fresh insights into how Saddam Hussein's regime functioned both at the
elite level and through everyday bureaucratic practices, shedding light
on state power, social relations, and international politics of the
Middle East. The volume also critically reflects on the ethical
questions posed by the archives, including their origins, the impact of
their removal from Iraq, and access barriers for local scholars. Rich in
empirical detail yet framed by cutting-edge theoretical questions, this
book demonstrates
how the Iraqi archives have reshaped debates about authoritarianism,
governance, repression, and state-society relations well beyond the
Iraqi case.

This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose 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. You can find
Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. 
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Since 1925, the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research has been a pioneer in the field of Jewish studies. At the core of YIVO since its founding was its commitment to scholarship which supported the Jewish “folk.” This manifested in a variety of initiatives, including youth autobiography contests and a youth research division (yugfor), an Economic-Statistical section (ekstat), and the establishment of various YIVO branches. These YIVO's activities continue to pique the interests of scholars, who have recently produced new scholarship analyzing these initiatives through the lens of new pioneering research methods.

Join YIVO for a panel discussion sharing new research on these historic YIVO initiatives featuring presentations by William Pimlott, Kamil Kijek, and Nicolas Vallois, followed by a conversation led by Jessica Kirzane.

This panel discussion originally took place on June 11, 2025.
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This is a special edition of the New York Institute for the Humanities’ Vault podcast. On May 13, 2026, Princeton’s Center for Human Values hosted a day-long conference titled Audio and Ideas: Exploring the Possibilities for Scholarly Podcasting. It was co-sponsored by Princeton’s Journalism program, and the NYU Podcast Initiative. Over the course of four panels, scholars, podcasters, and journalists discuss how academics might employ the techniques of narrative audio as part of their research.

 

In the fourth panel, Jody Avirgan led a discussion about what it takes for someone to make an academic podcast. Jody Avirgan is a podcast host, producer, and editor. His production company is Roulette Productions; Sara McCrea is a writer, audio producer, and researcher, who leads podcast strategy and production at Random House Publishing Group. She has produced podcasts for Slate, Pushkin Industries, TED Audio Collective, Audible, and the Center for Humane Technology. She created and produced the "Attention Lab" series for the Strother School of Radical Attention, and wrote and produced the award-winning "McCartney: A Life in Lyrics", a 24-episode narrative journey through Paul McCartney's songwriting, hosted by poet Paul Muldoon; Caleb Zakarin is the CEO and Publisher of the New Books Network.; Julia Barton  is an award-winning podcast, audiobook, and radio editor. She was the executive editor of Pushkin Industries, where she helped develop Revisionist History and Against the Rules. She’s the editor of Malcolm Gladwell’s The Bomber Mafia, Michael Specter’s Fauci, and Michael Lewis’s unabridged Liar’s Poker and companion podcast. Her 2019 series, Spacebridge, was called “dazzling” by The New Yorker. She writes the audio history newsletter, Continuous Wave.
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