Dan Cohen
@dancohen.org
Vice Provost/Dean of the Library, Professor of History at Northeastern University
Posts originate at social.dancohen.org, but I'll hear you if you reply
Subscribe at newsletter.dancohen.org for longer-form writing
Posts originate at social.dancohen.org, but I'll hear you if you reply
Subscribe at newsletter.dancohen.org for longer-form writing
Reposted by Dan Cohen
“It’s a story about a bunch of historians who were knowledgeable about emerging technologies and knew how to code … and who spent a lot of time, some of it wasted time, at a big table chatting.”
On the history of Zotero. Which, unsurprisingly, is beautiful.
On the history of Zotero. Which, unsurprisingly, is beautiful.
On the 20th anniversary of Zotero's 1.0 release on October 5, 2006, I wrote a history of the collaboration and years it took to create the popular research tool now used by over 20 million people: newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/the-...
The Slow Formation of Durable Software
How a group of historians took years to imagine Zotero, the research application that would eventually be used by millions
newsletter.dancohen.org
October 7, 2026 at 2:48 AM
“It’s a story about a bunch of historians who were knowledgeable about emerging technologies and knew how to code … and who spent a lot of time, some of it wasted time, at a big table chatting.”
On the history of Zotero. Which, unsurprisingly, is beautiful.
On the history of Zotero. Which, unsurprisingly, is beautiful.
On the 20th anniversary of Zotero's 1.0 release on October 5, 2006, I wrote a history of the collaboration and years it took to create the popular research tool now used by over 20 million people: newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/the-...
The Slow Formation of Durable Software
How a group of historians took years to imagine Zotero, the research application that would eventually be used by millions
newsletter.dancohen.org
October 6, 2026 at 3:57 PM
On the 20th anniversary of Zotero's 1.0 release on October 5, 2006, I wrote a history of the collaboration and years it took to create the popular research tool now used by over 20 million people: newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/the-...
"Reader Responses, Summer 2026"—Good thoughts, writing, & projects from the readers of Humane Ingenuity, including feedback on reducing the environmental impact of AI, saving the scientific record, and using AI to supplement, rather than replace, human thought newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/read...
Reader Responses, Summer 2026
Good thoughts, writing, and projects from the readers of this newsletter
newsletter.dancohen.org
September 18, 2026 at 2:51 PM
"Reader Responses, Summer 2026"—Good thoughts, writing, & projects from the readers of Humane Ingenuity, including feedback on reducing the environmental impact of AI, saving the scientific record, and using AI to supplement, rather than replace, human thought newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/read...
New issue of my newsletter: “Scholarship Will Soon Be Much Harder to Save” — It’s not easy to be confident in a body of knowledge that has phantom limbs newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/scho...
Scholarship Will Soon Be Much Harder to Save
It's not easy to be confident in a body of knowledge that has phantom limbs
newsletter.dancohen.org
September 2, 2026 at 2:10 PM
New issue of my newsletter: “Scholarship Will Soon Be Much Harder to Save” — It’s not easy to be confident in a body of knowledge that has phantom limbs newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/scho...
“A Major New Grant for a Library-Led Approach to AI and Books“—A 5-yr, $5M grant to HathiTrust, w/ Northeastern University Library & Authors Alliance, for responsible, equitable, & transparent services that leverage AI for the public good & scholarly discovery newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/a-ma...
A Major New Grant for a Library-Led Approach to AI and Books
A five-year, $5 million grant to HathiTrust, with the Northeastern University Library and Authors Alliance as partners, will create responsible, equitable, and transparent services that leverage AI for the public good and scholarly discovery
newsletter.dancohen.org
August 27, 2026 at 6:17 PM
“A Major New Grant for a Library-Led Approach to AI and Books“—A 5-yr, $5M grant to HathiTrust, w/ Northeastern University Library & Authors Alliance, for responsible, equitable, & transparent services that leverage AI for the public good & scholarly discovery newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/a-ma...
Reposted by Dan Cohen
A Mellon Foundation award to HathiTrust, in collaboration with @northeasternlib and @authorsalliance.bsky.social, enables responsible, equitable, and transparent AI services for the public good and scholarly exploration of the 19M-item corpus within reach. bit.ly/3SyW9hB
https://bit.ly/3SyW9hB
bit.ly
August 27, 2026 at 6:03 PM
A Mellon Foundation award to HathiTrust, in collaboration with @northeasternlib and @authorsalliance.bsky.social, enables responsible, equitable, and transparent AI services for the public good and scholarly exploration of the 19M-item corpus within reach. bit.ly/3SyW9hB
New issue of my newsletter: “How Can We Minimize the Environmental Impact of Our AI Use?” — It’s not easy being green when there’s little research on the energy consumption of specific AI tasks newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/how-...
How Can We Minimize the Environmental Impact of Our AI Use?
It's not easy being green when there's little research on the energy consumption of specific AI tasks
newsletter.dancohen.org
August 11, 2026 at 3:32 PM
New issue of my newsletter: “How Can We Minimize the Environmental Impact of Our AI Use?” — It’s not easy being green when there’s little research on the energy consumption of specific AI tasks newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/how-...
New issue of my newsletter Humane Ingenuity: “The Breath of the Author” — The palpable presence of someone else’s mind in our best writing should give us pause about the encroachment of AI text newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/the-...
The Breath of the Author
The palpable presence of someone else's mind in our best writing should give us pause about the encroachment of AI text
newsletter.dancohen.org
July 30, 2026 at 4:59 PM
New issue of my newsletter Humane Ingenuity: “The Breath of the Author” — The palpable presence of someone else’s mind in our best writing should give us pause about the encroachment of AI text newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/the-...
A new essay: “Perils of the New Armchair Scholarship” — Like nineteenth-century scholars who wrote about the world without deeply engaging with it, academics who lean too heavily on AI risk becoming paper-thin newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/peri...
Perils of the New Armchair Scholarship
Like nineteenth-century scholars who wrote about the world without deeply engaging with it, academics who lean too heavily on AI risk becoming paper-thin
newsletter.dancohen.org
July 14, 2026 at 9:32 PM
A new essay: “Perils of the New Armchair Scholarship” — Like nineteenth-century scholars who wrote about the world without deeply engaging with it, academics who lean too heavily on AI risk becoming paper-thin newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/peri...
New issue of my newsletter: “The Kids Are All Right” — Advice I will not give, and books I have not written newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/the-...
The Kids Are All Right
Advice I will not give, and books I have not written
newsletter.dancohen.org
June 15, 2026 at 1:22 PM
New issue of my newsletter: “The Kids Are All Right” — Advice I will not give, and books I have not written newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/the-...
New issue of my newsletter: “A Framework for Books and AI in the Public Interest” — How libraries could create a thoughtful and ethical interface between their shelves and artificial intelligence newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/a-fr...
A Framework for Books and AI in the Public Interest
How libraries could create a thoughtful and ethical interface between their shelves and artificial intelligence
newsletter.dancohen.org
May 1, 2026 at 2:04 PM
New issue of my newsletter: “A Framework for Books and AI in the Public Interest” — How libraries could create a thoughtful and ethical interface between their shelves and artificial intelligence newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/a-fr...
Reposted by Dan Cohen
"It's hard to read The Soul of a New Machine in 2026 without wondering whether all this AI hype is really so new."
https://newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/the-role-of-a-new-machine/
https://newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/the-role-of-a-new-machine/
The Role of a New Machine
An old book puts today's new technology in perspective
newsletter.dancohen.org
April 21, 2026 at 10:11 AM
"It's hard to read The Soul of a New Machine in 2026 without wondering whether all this AI hype is really so new."
https://newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/the-role-of-a-new-machine/
https://newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/the-role-of-a-new-machine/
New issue of my newsletter: "The Role of a New Machine" — An old book puts today's new technology in perspective newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/the-...
The Role of a New Machine
An old book puts today's new technology in perspective
newsletter.dancohen.org
April 20, 2026 at 7:22 PM
New issue of my newsletter: "The Role of a New Machine" — An old book puts today's new technology in perspective newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/the-...
New issue of my newsletter: “Vibe Analysis” — Despite its unserious name, vibe coding shows promise for elements of serious scholarly work
Featuring good work by @sarahebull.bsky.social, @jasonheppler.org and @cblevins.bsky.social
newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/vibe...
Featuring good work by @sarahebull.bsky.social, @jasonheppler.org and @cblevins.bsky.social
newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/vibe...
Vibe Analysis
Despite its unserious name, vibe coding shows promise for elements of serious scholarly work
newsletter.dancohen.org
April 6, 2026 at 5:29 PM
New issue of my newsletter: “Vibe Analysis” — Despite its unserious name, vibe coding shows promise for elements of serious scholarly work
Featuring good work by @sarahebull.bsky.social, @jasonheppler.org and @cblevins.bsky.social
newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/vibe...
Featuring good work by @sarahebull.bsky.social, @jasonheppler.org and @cblevins.bsky.social
newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/vibe...
A small, strange museum shows how human intelligence can be more surprising and engaging than artificial general intelligence can ever hope to be newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/a-mu...
A Museum's Sublime Hallucinations
Sometimes you need the fake to show you what's real
newsletter.dancohen.org
March 9, 2026 at 2:28 PM
A small, strange museum shows how human intelligence can be more surprising and engaging than artificial general intelligence can ever hope to be newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/a-mu...
New essay: “A Museum’s Sublime Hallucinations” — Sometimes you need the fake to show you what’s real (a love letter to the Museum of Jurassic Technology) newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/a-mu...
A Museum's Sublime Hallucinations
Sometimes you need the fake to show you what's real
newsletter.dancohen.org
March 6, 2026 at 4:38 PM
New essay: “A Museum’s Sublime Hallucinations” — Sometimes you need the fake to show you what’s real (a love letter to the Museum of Jurassic Technology) newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/a-mu...
The second piece in my series on finding the right line between human thought and AI assistance: “Can AI Prompt Us to Ask New Questions?” newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/can-...
February 25, 2026 at 6:35 PM
The second piece in my series on finding the right line between human thought and AI assistance: “Can AI Prompt Us to Ask New Questions?” newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/can-...
New essay: “Can AI Prompt Us to Ask New Questions?” — Not with chatbots as we know them, but perhaps with what comes next
newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/can-...
newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/can-...
Can AI Prompt Us to Ask New Questions?
Not with chatbots as we know them, but perhaps with what comes next
newsletter.dancohen.org
February 23, 2026 at 2:28 PM
New essay: “Can AI Prompt Us to Ask New Questions?” — Not with chatbots as we know them, but perhaps with what comes next
newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/can-...
newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/can-...
And an occasional reminder that you can subscribe to my newsletter Humane Ingenuity at newsletter.dancohen.org
February 3, 2026 at 7:51 PM
And an occasional reminder that you can subscribe to my newsletter Humane Ingenuity at newsletter.dancohen.org
New issue of my newsletter: “Where Should Scholars Draw the Line on AI?” — Between the poles of Zero AI and AI For Everything lies a vast, poorly mapped middle ground newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/wher...
Where Should Scholars Draw the Line on AI?
Between the poles of Zero AI and AI For Everything lies a vast, poorly mapped middle ground
newsletter.dancohen.org
February 3, 2026 at 7:50 PM
New issue of my newsletter: “Where Should Scholars Draw the Line on AI?” — Between the poles of Zero AI and AI For Everything lies a vast, poorly mapped middle ground newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/wher...
A special issue of my newsletter for Martin Luther King Jr. Day: “A Hero's Iconography” — A shocking photograph featured a brave man — and visual echoes of the art he loved newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/a-he...
A Hero's Iconography
A shocking photograph featured a brave man — and visual echoes of the art he loved
newsletter.dancohen.org
January 19, 2026 at 3:20 PM
A special issue of my newsletter for Martin Luther King Jr. Day: “A Hero's Iconography” — A shocking photograph featured a brave man — and visual echoes of the art he loved newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/a-he...
New issue of my newsletter: "Far From Reassuring" — AI companies need to focus on limits, not limitless possibilities, to get the public on board newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/far-...
Far From Reassuring
AI companies need to focus on limits, not limitless possibilities, to get the public on board
newsletter.dancohen.org
January 15, 2026 at 7:28 PM
New issue of my newsletter: "Far From Reassuring" — AI companies need to focus on limits, not limitless possibilities, to get the public on board newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/far-...
I have now tested this with Claude 4.5 Opus and it's as good as Gemini 3 Pro, nearly perfect transcriptions. And I've gotten a lot of email that they also work well on non-English-language transcriptions & have heard from some libraries/archives that AI has finally reached a state of usefulness here
New issue of my newsletter: "The Writing Is on the Wall for Handwriting Recognition" — One of the hardest problems in digital humanities has finally been solved, and it's a good use of AI newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/the-...
The Writing Is on the Wall for Handwriting Recognition
One of the hardest problems in digital humanities has finally been solved
newsletter.dancohen.org
December 1, 2025 at 8:01 PM
I have now tested this with Claude 4.5 Opus and it's as good as Gemini 3 Pro, nearly perfect transcriptions. And I've gotten a lot of email that they also work well on non-English-language transcriptions & have heard from some libraries/archives that AI has finally reached a state of usefulness here
New issue of my newsletter: "The Writing Is on the Wall for Handwriting Recognition" — One of the hardest problems in digital humanities has finally been solved, and it's a good use of AI newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/the-...
The Writing Is on the Wall for Handwriting Recognition
One of the hardest problems in digital humanities has finally been solved
newsletter.dancohen.org
November 25, 2025 at 4:35 PM
New issue of my newsletter: "The Writing Is on the Wall for Handwriting Recognition" — One of the hardest problems in digital humanities has finally been solved, and it's a good use of AI newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/the-...
New issue of my newsletter: "The Index and the Vector" — Converting ambiguity into precision can help a broader audience discover and learn from collections newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/the-...
The Index and the Vector
Converting ambiguity into precision can help a broader audience discover and learn from collections
newsletter.dancohen.org
October 20, 2025 at 3:30 PM
New issue of my newsletter: "The Index and the Vector" — Converting ambiguity into precision can help a broader audience discover and learn from collections newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/the-...