Today’s What We’re Reading features memories of Pauline Maier, Edward Ayers on the future of digital scholarship, 25 deeply painful PhD problems, and much more!

Remembering Pauline Maier

Pauline Maier Photo Courtesy of Andrea Maier

Pauline Maier, distinguished constitutional historian, passed away on Monday. The New York Times has published an obituary, and the Journal of the American Revolution has posted a series of “Maier Moments”—a collection of online tributes authored by historians who were influenced by her work.

History in the News

The Entire History of the World—Really, All of It—Distilled Into a Single Gorgeous Chart

The Histomap, published in 1931 and now in the David Rumsey Map Collection, graphs “relative power of contemporary states, nations, and empires.” (So not really “all of” history, but still…)

Historians Who Love Just a Bit

At the Junto, Michael Blaakman worries about “friending” one of his research subjects.

Moving to the Taft Mansion, a Yale Conservative Group Seeks a National Presence

The William F. Buckley Jr. Program will use the former home of William Howard Taft as a headquarters for its plan to “expand political discourse on campus and to expose students to often-unvoiced views.”

Archives Readies a Schoolgirl’s Records and a Trove of Jewish Treasures for Return to Iraq

The Washington Post has an interesting story about preserving the records of Iraq’s Jewish community.

Digital Scholarship

Americans’ Reading Habits over Time

Pew Research Center finds that in the past year, the number of those who read an e-book rose by 16%. Even more interesting, the number of Americans who read a printed book in the last year fell from 72% of the population to 67%.

Google Play Hits the Books in Time for Fall Semester

Announced on its official Android blog, Google Play moves into the digital textbook market.

Does Digital Scholarship Have a Future?

Edward Ayers questions how much real transformation digital scholarship has brought: “Yet the foundation of academic life—the scholarship on which everything else is built—remains surprisingly unaltered. The articles and books that scholars produce today bear little mark of the digital age in which they are created. Researchers routinely use electronic tools in their professional lives but not to transform the substance or form of their scholarship.”

News in Higher Education

AAUP Names Labor Organizer Julie Schmid as Executive Director

Via the Chronicle, Schmid, currently  chief of staff at the Wisconsin affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers, could signal a new direction for the AAUP.

Now Available: Report and Data from SCI’s Survey on Prep and Graduate Education

The Scholarly Communications Institute based at UVA’s digital humanities hub, the Scholar’s Lab, has released new survey data on humanities graduates working outside the academy.

Unironically referring to the library or the lab as “home.” blog.lib.umn.edu

Fun and Off-Beat

25 Deeply Painful PhD Student Problems (Besides Your Thesis)

A collection of animated .gifs that perfectly capture the mood of PhD students finishing a dissertation. What is a “weekend”?

Google Maps Has an Incredible Doctor Who Easter Egg

Adding to list of various Google easter eggs, Google Streetview offers a 360 degree view of the Doctor’s famous time machine.

This post first appeared on AHA Today.