I keep forgetting to add the -ai to my google searches and the responses are so pointlessly try hard and more importantly not at all what I was looking for at all. I'm using keywords you loser, not a phrase, stop trying to make it mean something.

We're halfway through Monday AM and I can already see that this is going to be a week of trying to explain how academic Library culture is really quite different to academic IT department culture no matter how often people want to smoosh us together...

I really miss the influx of new students at this time of year to give you a boost in enthusiasm - in my current role I'm close enough to see it happening, but not close enough to get the benefits! Maybe I'll wander down to U of Sheffield later to soak up some of the atmosphere 😂

This makes me feel physically sick (even if it won't happen). For most of my life my Mum and Aunts were all here building lives and families on indefinite leave after coming to England as teenagers. Luckily they've managed to get Irish nationality, but not everyone is that privileged.

Starting to move into the "you have to write even if you don't want to" era of the book after languishing in the "if the mood takes me" phase for a bit too long. Got to think of it like the gym, and non-negotiable.

For those who pay attention to UK politics, the Liberal Democrats and #LDConf A bunch of TERFs tried first thing this morning to impose a transphobic policy on our internal elections (they wanted to exclude trans women from the gender balance criteria) They failed, spectacularly.

Last heavy deadlift competition before I go to the Sheffield Pride Deadlift Party. Doubles at 100kg, so...I'm hoping for 110kg on the platform. Which would be a massive PB. Send positive vibes 💪

Biggest take away for me from my workshop yesterday is apparently I'm massively under charging 😂 Good that I've got a full time job with a salary really, I'd be rubbish at being freelance.

Support your local library. 📚

Applications for Society Supported Conference Grants close on 01 October at 23.59 BST. Awards of up to £2,000 are available to members who wish to organise a conference in any field of microbiology. Check your eligibility and apply now: microb.io/SocietySuppo...

Workshop went well, but talking knowledgeably and enthusiastically about EDI for 2 hours is exhausting...

This term I'm hosting monthly talks on LIS/Library/Schol Comms research through Cassyni. 📚 Talks on OA, demographics and international student support. Do take a look and sign up, or share with those you think would be interested. cassyni.com/series/KVXBf... #Library #LISResearch #LISConference

I like this stage of book writing where there's so much to do I can just flit around between things. Yesterday I was writing about Section 28, today I'm writing about Sappho's poetry in the Royal Library of Alexandria. #BigGayBookOfLibraries #Writing

My latest cartoon for @newscientist.com p.s. this week I am on a USA/Canada tour with my new book. Details and preorder links at tomgauld.com

Quarterfinals have been pretty hard to watch so far - saying goodbye to two of my teams 🇦🇺🇮🇪 England better save the weekend. #RWC2025 #TripleNational

Two weeks out from deadlift comp. Still peaking - little PB today at 102.5kg. #Powerlifting #SundaySport

Someone cold messaged me this week to tell me my book was really important to them. It's just the best feeling.

Have you seen my Its Dr Actually pin? Get your own here!

"... contemporary discovery systems operate through what Zuboff identifies as extraction architectures that gather user behavioral data while providing search results optimized for vendor algorithms rather than local ... strengths or community needs." scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2025/08/26/g...

What a brilliant day at #Mercian25 I spend so much time thinking about research culture and research evaluation that it's lovely to dive back into the core of academic libraries.

Ooh, this talk has subtitles. Yes! I should have put subtitles on my talk. #Mercian25

Really interesting talk from NTU about how timetabling the voluntary support sessions from the library increased the attendance by ridiculous numbers. So important to get students to see it as a 'real' part of their course. #Mercian25

Slight weird one - are there any boys in children's books that people coded as queer when they were growing up? For me with girl characters it's George from Famous Five, Nancy from Swallows & Amazons, Jo from Little Women. Anything similar for the boys? Or other characters for non-boys?

Shoutout to libraries for keeping fiction and non-fiction separate, that is not easy to do these days

Off to get the train to Coventry for #Mercian25 - very excited to be invited to be the keynote. The first proper library conference I went to was #Mercian17 at DMU, I didn't really know anyone and I hadn't properly found my place in libraries. It's lovely to be returning now to talk about EDI!

Paper acceptance day 🎉🥂

I love this. My Dad continued to read to me for years, we did every Arthur Ransom book and I really treasure those evenings. I sometimes read out loud to my wife, its a lovely communal thing that I wholeheartedly endorse!

Once again feeling weird about the England national anthem. He's the Australian's King too 😂 (even if a good chunk of Aussies would rather he wasn't!) Looking forward to this game as a duel citizen! #RWC2025

Eurgh, I'm hitting the "I don't know enough, I don't do enough" point of a conference. Wanting to do more research, but also make more practical change. Must keep reminding myself that its just not possible to be an expert on all the things and there's only so much power I have to elicit change.

On the same day in the Telegraph:

Today I'm really struggling with auditory processesing, and while the bits I've caught of this keynote seem really interesting, I'm hopelessly lost. Can we normalise automated subtitles at conferences? (Even if sometimes they're bad)

Now @alicejanegibson.bsky.social is talking us through how systems theory/ systems thinking can help us map and understand research culture as an ecosystem, locating the leverage points for transformative impact across the ecosystem #OpenFest25

The panel was fun, the audience seemed to like it and I got to say some controversial things about peer review as the last word 😂 #STIENID2025

Curr talk is trad bibliometricians/sociologists talking about how new metasci isn't embedded in history/theory of their field. What I've seen lots in the new field are primarily psych/bio etc. so of course they dont have the soc background. Its not their thing. Not sure how things gets bridged.

This is all Prof Mike Thelwall from @sheffielduni.bsky.social - really great talk. I'll be looking up his work. #STIENID2025

Keynote talk this morning about LLMs and citation impact indicators. Going to try very hard to keep an open mind 😂 #STIENID2025

The keynote this morning is sponsored by Clarivate. Slightly awkward being on a panel later talking about how indexes (particularly WoS) can be problematic and might have too much power 🙊 #STIENID2025

Some chats last night helped me remember what academic conferences are like, rather than the impact driven professional services events I normally attend. Going in today accepting that some things are just curiosity driven, and that I don't always need to understand others' paradigms & theories!

Love being at an institution like the @crick.ac.uk - I'm in a talk about how incidence of data availability statements is low, and good ones is even lower. In biomedicine, they work, they make sense, people get it. We're sitting at 73.3% good DAS for 2025 (increasing all the time). #STIENID2025

The current US administration is really exhibiting strong 'fragile white man' behaviour. So pathetic.

Almost 50% of lab workers identify as neurodiverse. So what difference could it make for research organisations to fully embrace neurodiversity in their workplace culture? We supported the John Innes Centre to implement a project aiming to do just that 👇

Massively failed to switch off the regular day job to allow me to really concentrate on this conference today. Far too much thinking about 2 things at once. Will endeavour to be better tomorrow.

I found a dodgy graph in a paper (4 exactly the same graphs for different variables), but I want to give the authors the benefit of the doubt so I contacted them directly. How long do I wait before making a fuss in a different way?

At a session on Research mobility now. Looking at PhD careers and movement to start with. #STIENID2025

Interesting point from @crsugimoto.bsky.social about how often with a book you get a few reviews at proposal and then you work with an editor who really doesn't know anything about your field. There's no dialogue in the process. That's very familiar to me. #STIENID2025

This session is highlighting the gap I'm seeing all the time in the research on research & scientometrics communities. Loads of researchers talking deep theory - how do you translate this for the libraries, research managers, policy makers who are working in and supporting changes in measurement?

Saw @crsugimoto.bsky.social talk at Metascience and now at #STIENID2025 - bought one of her books for our library last time...might end up buying more now! Particularly interested in "Theories of Informetrics and Scholarly Communication", I'm rubbish at theory. Maybe this is a good way to learn?

Something I'm really interested in is how some conferences make chatting to strangers easy, but with some it seems really hard. I suspect people have looked at space, social dynamics, networks etc. Might be something I start reading about...

Very embarrassing to print this like it means anything www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

I find that the people in organisations who love LLMs are often trying to create a story where if we dont have everyone using them then they/the organisation will be "left behind" 😱 Which seems like nonsense to me, but its such a strong story that's being told at all levels of society