The Library and Oxford University Press sponsored a panel lecture on October 1, 2008 to celebrate the 80th birthday of the OED, the comprehensive dictionary of the English language. The speakers were Fred Shapiro, Simon Winchester, Jesse Sheidlower, and Ammon Shea, and each brought unique and engaging insights to this discussion of the history, function, and future of the dictionary.

The OED was formally launched June 6, 1928, and it took 70 years to compile the initial 10 volumes, which contained almost 415,000 words. Former British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin called the creation of the OED “the greatest enterprise of its kind in history.” Today, the OED fills 20 volumes and weighs 137 pounds. It has also been available on the Internet since 2000 as the OED Online.

You can listen to and download the netcast for free via Yale iTunes U web site.

In this new Netcast from the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Caryl Phillips, Professor of English at Yale University and the author of eight novels, two anthologies, and three works of non-fiction, describes his process of writing the introduction to the Vintage Books, British edition of Richard Wright’s landmark text, Native Son. The Richard Wright Papers are held at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

You can listen to and download the podcast free via the Beinecke’s Blogs & Podcasts page and through Yale's iTunesU web site.

Jonathan Holloway, Yale Professor of History, African American Studies, and American Studies recounts visiting the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library in his first month of graduate school and the transformative experience that grew out of his surprise encounter with Richard Wright's landmark text, Native Son.

You can listen to and download the podcast free via the Beinecke’s Blogs & Podcasts page and through Yale's iTunesU web site.

Famous for her strong opinions about art as well as for her beauty and wit, radical editor Margaret Anderson was a key figure in American and European Modernism. Archivist Molly Wheeler speaks with Nancy Kuhl, Curator of the Yale Collection of American Literature, about this archival collection.

You can listen to and download the podcast free via the Beinecke’s Blogs & Podcasts page and Yale's iTunesU web site.

In this new netcast, antiquarian bookseller William Reese, Yale class of 1977, discusses American naturalist and artist John James Audubon; Yale's copies of Audubon’s monumental work "Birds of America," and Audubon's contribution to American natural history.

You can listen to and download the netcast free via the Beinecke’s Blogs & Podcasts page or Yale's iTunesU web site.

In "The Gutenberg Bible at the Beinecke,” Dr. William Whobrey, Assistant Dean of Yale College and Lecturer in Germanic Languages and Literature, discusses Johannes Gutenberg, Yale's copy of the Gutenberg Bible, and the significance of the invention of moveable type. See a folio from Yale's Gutenberg Bible and download or listen free to this Netcast via the Beinecke's Blogs & Podcasts page or Yale's iTunesU web site.

A new Library netcast, "Reading History and Writing Fiction: A Life in Books," a lecture by Booker Prize winning novelist Penleope Lively, with a reply by Pulizter Prize winning historian David McCullough, is now available. You can listen to it and download it for free through Yale's iTunes U site. The recording was made during an event on May 9, 2008 that was organized and sponsored by the University Library.

This new netcast describes the scope and contents of the Gay Rights Movement microfilm collection, an important primary resource for the study of gay and lesbian history in the United States and around the world. It is also available on Yale's iTunes U web site.

This new netcast describes the Yale Collection of Mountaineering Literature in Sterling Memorial Library. The Collection includes contemporary and historical materials on all aspects of mountaineering and in many languages. You can listen to and download the netcast free via Yale's iTunesU web site.

David McCullough, Yale class of 1955 and twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, narrates this fascinating guided tour of Sterling Memorial Library. You can access it here.

In this netcast, Nanette Stahl, Curator of the Judaica Collection and curator of "The Passover Haggadah: Modern Art in Dialogue with an Ancient Text," an exhibition in Sterling Memorial Library, discusses highlights from the show and the history of this important Jewish text.