Don't steal pies this Christmas.

Right! Links to preorder, should you need them! And as the book comes out in March, if you want to give a gift for Christmas, we are also giving away FREE printable Molly files!

Today's Practical Cataloguing webinar is on "Enhancing metadata quality : a practical introduction to #MARC data cleaning using #Python and #RDA principles" with Dalia Kbar, Collection Development Librarian at the American University in Dubai. www.cilip.org.uk/events/Event... #cataloguing #metadata

Announcement: 🏆The John Rylands Library has been awarded the FX Award for Museum or Exhibition Space 2025, triumphing in a highly competitive international category. 😀 https://www.manchester.ac.uk/about/news/the-john-rylands-library-wins-prestigious-fx-award/

The other one I've only run on request before for individual library services, and is "supporting neurodivergent library users", that's on 27th Feb. I'll open bookings for them next week, so just a "hold the date" today for anyone interested! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1975823292...

Sneak peak at a couple of webinars I've just set up to run in Feb. One I've run before is "Supporting ND colleagues" - running that one again on 16th Feb. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1975823292...

Obviously this government are wantonly reckless and idiotic and their treatment of universities, and see this as a disciplining of an out of touch elite. But what all of this unwillingness to intervene means is that a critical industry will collapse and a lot of ordinary people will be unemployed.

Are you a PhD student & interested in using museum collections in your teaching or research? We're running a *free* doctoral training programme for students at any institution to learn about working with collections. Find out more: collections.reading.ac.uk/whats-on/

An Important Information Film. Please share widely so that more people receive the information. Tickets: www.mickperrin.com/tours/alasdair-beckett-king-king-of-crumbs

And the recording of the #NAGWebinarWeek presentation on #Metadata in #Partnership is now available! nag.org.uk/development/...

(This is the temperature after 3 minutes, it started at 21 degrees for all of the insulation materials.)

I make each of my flower necklaces by casting real flowers in silver incl snowdrop & bluebells. I also hand-sculpt much-loved bird species to make wearable versions incl wrens & blackbirds 20% off my jewellery atm with code TINYOWL20 Cut off day for🌲orders is Tue 25 Nov: www.etsy.com/uk/shop/silv...

Grey skies and motivational graffiti along the Huddersfield Narrow canal.

A cat enjoying the view of stars being born 🌌

I've written up the findings from our work with people and organisations who have used AI notetakers in meetings, identified 9 risks and a bunch of mitigation strategies. www.careful.industries/blog/2025-11...

thanks! The text of the defense along with the slide deck for the defense can be found here: www.byanyothernerd.com/2024/12/the-...

Teaching in Semester 2? Update your taught course recommendations in Reading Lists Online as soon as possible. Remember always click ‘Submit changes to the Library' https://www.library.manchester.ac.uk/services/teaching-services/reading-lists/preparing-course-materials

When people say that Wuthering Heights doesn't have anything to do with race or that no film has engaged with race, what they mean is that for them Romani people do not count and they also haven't been paying attention. I'm going to share a little material from a recent talk. Content note: racism 1/

This goes for scholars too. I've had conferences try to get me to agree that they can record and resell my presentation forever and that the materials now belong to them The Medical Library Association contracts are the worst I've ever rejected 📚(and yes I've told them that, I tried multiple times)

This week's ALN Staff Development Weekly Update is now available. Lots to look at including a last opportunity to join the first Frontline Forum of the academic year, this time on use of social media, and a last call for contributions on a green OA event: academiclibrariesnorth.ac.uk/staff-develo...

This week's ALN Staff Development Weekly Update is available at academiclibrariesnorth.ac.uk/staff-develo.... More job opportunities in the region this week, plus details of how to become a mentee on our next mentoring wave, a call for contributions on green OA and some interesting events.

My latest article, out now in Katina Magazine: 'How Fanfiction Can Help Us Reimagine Scholarly Publishing' Basically: what if the next big idea for open access came from @archiveofourown.org instead of Els*vi*r? 👀 There's a thought... Read here → katinamagazine.org/content/arti...

Yesterday's brief canal walk after the Standedge tunnel trip. The tunnel gate has a design of metal legs going from centre up to the arch of the tunnel to represent the leggers who used to propel boats through pre-electric engines.

All hail Sir Gaslightalot! "Have you tried simply not being seriously unwell?" #MECFS #pwME #LongCovid #MedicalGaslighting #Spoonies #MEDeliveryPlan #TheGreatestMEdicalScandal

I was up stupidly early for me this morning and it was an absolutely beautiful day to go spend two hours underground. 1/8

Interesting post on the CILIP website: 'AI Wars - The Libraries Fight Back' www.cilip.org.uk/news/712840/... Timed for Green Libraries Week, which is examining the environmental impact of AI www.cilip.org.uk/page/GreenLi... #AI4LAM #GreenLibrariesWeek

In Mexico, blackouts caused by data centers destroyed people's refrigerators and oxygen equipment in hospitals, and water shortages meant toilets couldn't flush in schools. AI is another version of colonial extraction.

This is a welly good dog.

oooh. Bookmarking this! "How to turn off AI tools in Apple, Google, Microsoft, and more." Step-by-step instructions from Consumer Reports.

I was pleased to see this news story shared by my institution to promote the work we have been doing to expand our access to digital archival collections: www.manchester.ac.uk/about/news/n...

The destruction of statutory youth services in the UK, particularly England, is criminal. (F the guardian and better late than never, but not much better). A biography🧵 www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

real shitposters only use lower case because we are anti-capitalism

Skeptical of AI transcription services (transloption?)? Want to support a small but fantastic disabled-majority, unapologetically intersectional AND research specialist transcription social enterprise instead? Contact us quoting code SPOOKY10 for a spooky 10% off our definitely all-human services

On the off chance: Does anybody have these two Dorothy L. Sayers books *in these editions* and are willing to part with them for money? I'm finding it impossible to get my eager hands on them.

Our CILIP LGBTQ+ Network seeks a new Chair. You'll act as leading officer, informing the decisions made to raise awareness & advise Library, Knowledge & Information workers on LGBTQ+ subjects. Role open to those identifying as LGBTQ+ or Queer. informationprofessionaljobs.com/jobs/chair-u...

YES! THIS on GenAI! Please read this absolutely splendid piece of writing that had me cheering, a little bit weepy, and writing in the margins: "An extraordinary amount of money is spent by the AI industry to ensure that acquiescence is the only plausible response. But marketing is not destiny."

When I was a teenager there was a bus direct from my hometown in Germany to London - we had a British army base, and this direct bus connection was one of the benefits of that. One summer I went on that bus to go volunteer in an old people's home in Southend-on-Sea. I had just turned 18 and was... 🧵

Time for me to deploy my expertise from having worked with databases of individuals and their data in the public sector: whatever you might imagine will be happening behind the scenes of a digital ID card, the actual reality of that dataset is going to be an information governance nightmare.

When we posted this a couple of weeks ago, we had some AI enthusiasts insist that this diagram was the result of poor prompting, or that the prompt that the original poster made was to generate a funny, bad diagram. So we decided to test ChatGPT's capability...

“These companies all advertise these tools as knowing your intent,” Taylor told 404 Media. “Understanding what you meant when you put those terms in. They don’t know. They don’t understand. None of those things are true. There is no technical way these tools can do that.”

Joining a SCONUL webinar on "AI in the library supply chain" feat. Dr Sandra Tury Senate House Library and Elly Cope & Alison Hazelaar of University of Leeds Library. Particularly interested in #AI in relation to #metadata both its utility and its implications for ethics & sustainability.

Call for book proposals! Are you passionate about punk? 🤘 Do you have an idea for a book? 📖 Send us your idea for a fresh take on punk to mark the 50th anniversary, that could be the next instalment our acclaimed British Pop Archive series. 🎶 More details below 👇 #booksky #punk

Publishing today! Ghosts and the Gothic, edited by @ruthheholt.bsky.social and @joparsons.bsky.social The first book to examine ghostly presences (and absences) in #Gothic texts bit.ly/3I59Uzy #Ghosts #GothicStudies Find out more: manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526181923/

Main Library re-opens, featuring new study spaces at Muriel Stott. Over the summer, the Library has made some exciting upgrades to Main Library - based on what you told us matters most. Find out more about these changes: ow.ly/vCLa50WQYlp

Also great! "That's why I think we should fund libraries more. It's not just because they're a great resource, it's because I don't wanna know what librarians will do if we don't give them a place to go."

Um… LEGO just teased a Star Trek set (!), so friendly (definitely unrelated) reminder that I’ll have prints in my shop this Wednesday 😆 stellerarts.com/pages/spectr...

News in the history of molecular biology. The Science History Institute in Philadelphia has acquired a huge archive of correspondence and other scientific material from the pioneers of molecular biology (Franklin, Klug, Perutz, Delbrück etc, with items from Crick and Watson, too). 1/n

Finally! 🤩 Our position piece: Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI' Technologies in Academia: doi.org/10.5281/zeno... We unpick the tech industry’s marketing, hype, & harm; and we argue for safeguarding higher education, critical thinking, expertise, academic freedom, & scientific integrity. 1/n

A personal thread about perceived threat vs actual threat, fear and flags, because recent events around asylum seekers in the UK and the flag based responses, and the way they are discussed in the media is really bothering me 1/