This is our Christmas Eve too! Although in an effort to stay awake for Midnight Mass we did also watch some Christmas University Challenge.

Festive classic #AcademicChatter #TwistedDoodles

Loving Sweet Chiming Bells on the radio Christmas morning. Merry Christmas from Sheffield! @bbcradio2bot.bsky.social

Happy publication anniversary to Northanger Abbey! Celebrate by accusing your crush’s dad of murder.

One of the good ones.

I've been learning all about archives for work recently, so am obviously completely drawn to the UCL Archives MA. Always want to be doing another degree. Of course I can't afford it and can't afford to not be working FT. But its a nice dream.

For reasons that are too complicated to explain, I am reminded of Adam Stuart Smith’s 2005 paper “Are Jaffa Cakes Really Biscuits?”. Here’s his cladogram (it says they aren’t): Full paper here: plesiosauria.com/pdf/smith_20...

The Crash Course lectures at the @crick.ac.uk are a really great introduction to a biomedical subject. Check out this one by @kathaschmack.bsky.social talking about psychosis and the research that her lab is doing.

The library is on tour today, lending books in the atrium for the Christmas break. We've built ourselves a Christmas tree and a Snowman. What do you think? 🎄⛄️

I've never really liked Calibri as a business font. But I will now be using it exclusively.

Want to read my book but don't have access to a library that has it? 50% off means this might be the time to buy it 😉 www.facetpublishing.co.uk/page/detail/...

I was writing a sentence when I had to go to a meeting so stopped abruptly. I came back to this: "Simply conducting research for the joy of disco isn’t enough in 21st century academia" I suspect I was writing discovery 😂 Maybe I should just leave it and check people are reading.

Well it's a good job I don't want to go at the moment anyway!

We've just set up an official library account for the Crick Library & Information Services team - which means I won't have to use this account to promote when we've done something cool! Do follow 😉

I'll give the answer I always give - Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters

What about carpenters? Any room at the inn for them? Happy Christmas everyone, I can't really describe how much I loathe this government.

This is absolutely the kind of content aim looking for to distracted me between sets in the gym. Moar of this sort of thing!

Totally agree with Paul. However I am annoyed with the BBC for using a photo with another excellent scientist and not naming her. So it's Lucy Collinson, Head of the Electron Microscopy STP @em-stp.bsky.social at @crick.ac.uk

"Why do we put hurdles in the way of the people that are actually going to drive our economy? It makes zero sense." Prof Sir Paul Nurse, Nobel prize winning scientist, says the UK's scientific future is being put at risk www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Did you know it's nomination time for Royal Society medals? royalsociety.org/medals-and-p... And did you also know that there's 1 for EDI & for scientific communication? One of my proudest moments was being awarded the Athena prize for the LGBTQ+STEMinar. So if you think you deserve it, get on it.

I love this approach to working with Dewey Decimal. We shouldn't feel bound by a legacy system that doesn't work for us. www.libfocus.com/2025/12/how-... #library

ICE Goons were out in force today Holy Family they took away Shepherds chased over hill and dale Three wise men are awaiting bail The stable left in quite a state His manger smashed, as was the gate!

I was described today as the library conference version of the comedian you see on all the panel shows. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not 😂 At least I wasn't actually speaking at today's one.

Glad to see that my #spotifywrapped still pretty much defies categorisation. A nice mix of classical/choral, country music and musicals.

Mark Hughes from Cardiff finishing the day talking about AI in libraries. Discourse currently is a bit of a bin fire and also very much a marmite polarisation situation. Hard to cut through the noise. #UKSGForum2025

Can I manage to keep doing this? We'll see. #ResearchAdvent Day 1 Me & my research interests I started off as a bioinformatician, then I retrained as a librarian. Now I do research around open research - particularly around policy. How do they develop, do they work, how do they change behaviour?

Lovely to be nabbed in the coffee break to be told that this video we did at the Crick was really useful when getting to grips with OA and the STEM publishing landscape. How to Fix Scientific Publishing - YouTube share.google/Ytus0j0a3839... #UKSGForum2025

Going to CellBio25? Attend 'Raising mental health in the CellBio research community: sidestep stigma and learn peer and trainee support', Tues 2:15–3:45 rm 126A. The session is a collaboration between LGBTQ+ and Compass committees! #outinstem #LGBTQIA #LGBTQ #queerinstem #cellbio #cellbiology #ascb

Post coffee break and a very sugary but delicious cake, the next talk is @kirahopkins.bsky.social from @copim.bsky.social Building an info hub around open access books. It was massively overwhelming, so decided to create a hub of the existing resources #UKSGForum2025

Are you a postdoc with a passion for cell biology? We are looking for a postdoc representative to join the BSCB committee! Applications are open to existing BSCB postdoc members. See our website for further details. Apply by 31st Jan bscb.org/call-for-app...

Apparently people get really nervous talking about systematic review. Can start to cost a lot in terms of ILL both demand and financial! Also, copyright. ILL says its for individual use, but systematic review is shared. (The slides for this are amazing) #UKSGForum2025

There's actually a talk about Open Data at #UKSGForum2025 - scuttlebutt is that it's very difficult to get talks about the wider open research agenda accepted.

From what I've seen the vast majority of women involved in these groups are not supportive of these changes - they're mostly supportive of trans involvement. It's outside pressure trying to paternalistically 'protect' cis women, bc they obviously don't know what's best for them 😒

Interesting perspective about changing keywords and metadata for public rather than research use. In a fashion digital collection nothing came up when you looked for blue 😂 #UKSGFORUM2025

This is amazing. This sort of story is why I love the non-science talks we have at the Crick. You've got to widen your perspective.

Whenever someone explains what copilot does, all the useful bits seem to be functions that don't need LLM involvement. Automation existed before the current excitement for genAI, and it usually worked a bit more consistently...

After coffee we've got UWTSD talking about AI : we're all in this together (Disney refernce - High School Musical?) #UKSGForum2025

Now we've got an Irish perspective from Dublin City & Maynooth University. Like the last talk it's about having to cope with reductions in shelf space whilst keeping access to content (and we all know that just switching to e-books isn't the answer). #UKSGForum2025

Next up - Notes from a small library, planning for the future at the University of Suffolk. Small libraries can help us deal with how to cope with cutting resources - they've always been in that place. #UKSGForum2025

Starting off the schedule by talking about "Discovering the hidden insight between data points". Starting off by stating that AI and technological changes aren't going to replace people - we still need humans for stories, context, unheard voices. #UKSGForum2025

We're getting started with #UKSGForum2025 - I'll try and do some live posting, but will probably get distracted half way through the day! Already had a chance to catch up with some folks and learn about some new developments in the sector.

Graduate of the American Studies programme that the University of Nottingham wishes to close wins 2025 Wolfson History Prize for Survivors: The Lost Stories of the Last Captives of the Atlantic Slave Trade. History, it's a long game. Divest in haste, repent for the longue durée.

Introduce yourself with 5 concerts you've been to: Saffron Walden Choral Society Sheffield Hallam Choral Society Sheffield Chamber Choir Gainsborough Choral Society The choir of St John's, Ranmoor Oh! Was it meant to be pop/rock concerts?

Train from London to Brighton cancelled yesterday and train from Brighton to London cancelled this evening. At least they've told me early, but the state of public transport in this country!

“Have Yourself A Merriam Little Christmas” Merriam, a career-oriented lexicographer from the city, returns to her small town for the holidays and meets Webster, a ruggedly handsome librarian, who shows her the true DEFINITION of Christmas.

So who is on their way to #UKSGForum this morning then?

I would like this woman to be my new best friend and mentor, please.

"it seems improbable that the robots would choose the University of Exeter’s Classics Department as the bridgehead for world conquest" I mean, I was surprised when an ex chose it for an undergraduate degree. So who knows! 😉 (No shade, I'm sure they're great)

In light of record submission rates and a large volume of AI-generated slop, SocArXiv recently implemented a policy requiring ORCIDs linked in the OSF profile of submitting authors, and narrowing our focus to social science subjects. Today we are taking two more steps: /1

Publishers say they're putting in research integrity teams and trying to combat nonsense AI stuff, but these immediately obvious images keep slipping through and they're just so easy to spot! (of course it may be 99% are being caught earlier)