wikipedia turns 25 today! the last unenshittified major website! backbone of online info! triumph of humanity! powered by urge of unpaid randos to correct each other! somehow mostly reliable! "good thing wikipedia works in practice, because it sure doesn't work in theory" - old wiki adage

Maybe the best thing on the internet still? Certainly the most essential counter we have to our current shitstream of social media-driven misinformation.

I am more a cat person than a dog person, but it is always nice to see Tinker at her "office hours" at EMU's Halle Library. She is well-behaved & visitors seem to really enjoy her company. Special shout out to my colleague Alexis, one of Tinker's handlers! concentratemedia.com/tinker-emus-...

Hi, I spent several weeks testing five AI browsers to see if they could help me buy a pair of New Balances, sort my emails, rip transcripts from YouTube videos, and a whole bunch of other scenarios. They're not great, Bob. www.theverge.com/tech/837287/...

This #GivingTuesday, support academic library workers who are working to advance learning, transform scholarship, and create diverse and inclusive communities by donating to the ACRL Advancement Fund! https://bit.ly/4ovWZpk

I am going through the #loexff2025 recordings to make sure they are properly trimmed (e.g., no unnecessary cross talk) and man, Zoom's auto-transcription for closed captioning is impressive. Beyond getting proper names wrong sometimes (e.g., LOEX is not LOX, Zoom!) it gets 99% of the rest right.

Grateful to The Verge for publishing my essay on why large-language models are not going to achieve general intelligence nor push the scientific frontier. www.theverge.com/ai-artificia...

"Defining Engagement for Academic Librarians" by Ellis, Indiana University Bloomington and Becker, University of Kansas (C&RL) rebrand.ly/nf99njs

Reminder -- these are due next Monday!

As basically anyone who’s talked to me since the summer knows, I’ve been working on this for months. Thanks to everyone who shared their insights. (I’ve got a lot more to say in the future, too.) www.nytimes.com/2025/11/18/m...

"Information in the Age of Infocracy: Recalibrating the Definition of Information for Library Instruction" by Richard M. Cho, UC Irvine (C&RL News) rebrand.ly/xz3b51e

It's that time of year -- time for Glenn Danzig and his Readers' Advisory Service. #halloween #bookcollection #alldocumented #alltrue www.youtube.com/watch?v=RERG...

I use Claude (an AI) to scan my posts for spelling and grammar errors. On the most recent post (about the East Wing, link below), I got a really amazing addendum. www.pbump.net/o/yes-most-a...

Reminder that this is due next Friday, Oct 31!

Registration is now open for LOEX Fall Focus 2025! This is an online, information literacy & library instruction conference focused on: - Focus 1: Artificial Intelligence - Focus 2: Archives & Special Collections - Focus 3: Sense of Belonging loexfallfocus.org November 17-19, #loexff2025

So for-profit AI companies have trained on the world's largest collaborative volunteer project and a precious free resource, to make money for their for-profit enterprises. They have crushed traffic to the volunteer project, starving it of donors and volunteers www.404media.co/wikipedia-sa...

"Inclusion and Empathy Are Not Enough: Cultivating Student Belonging in the Academic Library Through Compassion" by Emily Reed, Penn State Harrisburg (portal: Libraries and the Academy) rebrand.ly/q9o9al4

“We’ve decided to make it so society can’t trust anything they’ve shown so you’re just going to have to “evolve” with that.”

The ACRL University Libraries Section Professional Development Committee has issued a Call for Proposals for online programs that further ACRL members' professional development, knowledge, and practice. Due Oct 31, 2025. More details about this webinar series at forms.gle/BJk9Swh9wWBa...

This is next week!

"Reading Between the Lines: Celebrating Banned Books Week Through the Lens of the Information Literacy Framework" by Chakraborty and Ford (C&RL News) rebrand.ly/aahcn1o

The proposal topic for the California Conference on Library Instruction #ccli2026 is ready! Propose by October 29, 2025 for our in-person conference May 29, 2026 at Cal State Monterey Bay. More information on our site: www.cclibinstruction.org

The call for LOEX 2026 (Norfolk, VA, May 7-9) Breakout Session Proposals is posted! "Oceans of Knowledge: Diving into Information Literacy" loexconference.org/proposals/br... Due December 1, 2025 #loex2026

"Librarians as Faculty Developers: Shaping Disciplinary Classroom Experiences through Information Literacy" by Rachel Fundator et al. (C&RL) rebrand.ly/b5h2oi8

Free Online Presentation: "Citational Privilege: Disrupting the Patriarchy and Empowering Students Through Feminist Citation Practices" by Laura Sheets et al (BGSU) - October 8, 2025, 2-3pm ET Sponsored by the ACRL ULS Professional Development Committee. Register ala-events.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

“Chrome’s cheating tool exemplifies Big Tech’s continuing gold rush approach to AI: launch first, consider consequences later and let society clean up the mess.”

"For-Credit Library Instruction: Exploring the Experiences of Academic Librarians Serving as Instructors of Record" by Elizabeth Nelson and Angela Davis (C&RL) rebrand.ly/ezzfvt0

"Effectiveness of Academic Library Research Guides for Building College Students’ Information Literacy Skills: A Scoping Review" by Erica Lynn DeFrain, Leslie Sult, Nicole Pagowsky (C&RL) rebrand.ly/eawa2ne

Free Online Presentation: "A Discussion of Faculty and Predatory Journals: The Potential Role of Librarians" by Stephanie Wiegand et al (OSU) - September 17, 2025, 2-3 pm ET Sponsored by the ACRL ULS Professional Development Committee. Register ala-events.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

This is a good post on how to get better at using AI. It's the product of pretty intensive research on what consistently works although I don't surface that research directly in it. Bluesky and AI, so obviously comments on this are off. mikecaulfield.substack.com/p/is-the-llm...

These are due tomorrow!

AI "boring history" slop has taken over YouTube and is particularly insidious because it flattens history and drowns out the tireless work of creators who have been integral to legitimizing YouTube as a place for high-quality history videos www.404media.co/ai-generated...

The ALAO Annual Conference is taking place November 6 & 7, 2025 at the OCLC Convention Center in Dublin, Ohio (just outside of Columbus). Registration is now live. Note that early bird rates will end on September 19, 2025. alaoweb.org/conferences/...

I just had my first (actual) reference question of the year. A FY student asked for "books on anatomy." A textbook question? No! He wanted comprehensive, overview books that he could read ahead of the class to "get ready." I found 3 books, explained the LOC, knighted him, and sent him on his way.

The fire alarm just went off at LOEX HQ in Ypsi, completely surprising me, and my body clenched so hard I almost pulled something. Glad it's just a test and I can easily hear it!

Call for Proposals for ALA 2026 in Chicago next June. #alaac26 Program and Poster Proposals are open through September 22, 2025 Celebrating 150 years of the American Library Association. 2026.alaannual.org/call-proposals

“[Students] wondered why faculty weren’t doing more to adjust teaching practices to match the fundamental changes wrought by new technologies—and potentially improve the learning experience in the process.”

AI slop and the destruction of knowledge irisvanrooijcogsci.com/2025/08/12/a...

This website is something else. I have many problems w the big weather sites/apps out there, as they are snowed under by ads. This is a nostalgia-driven, all-killer / no filler, weather report. It's scraped from weather.gov - shows value of good govt information. weatherstar.netbymatt.com

I feel like every single day I need to post a reminder: if you ask an LLM about itself it DOES NOT KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT ITS INNER WORKINGS and WILL NOT TELL YOU ANYTHING ACTUALLY ABOUT ITSELF. It just (as it always does) will make up some plausible sounding answer.

How is it possible universities (and other institutions) are so bad about the "hold" process in 2025? I'm the 23rd person in line, good to know. Just put the hold music on so I can get to other work, instead of interrupting it literally every 5-10 seconds with an automated voice recording! 1/2

Traffic Apocalypse: Google’s AI Overviews are killing click-throughs to news sites" by Klaudia Jaźwińska (Columbia Journalism Review) rebrand.ly/nc8luo0

Literal yikes. Hard to get the book more wrong.

Examine this chart from @niemanlab.org. It ranks the top 50 LOCAL news sites by number of monthly visits. You'd expect LA Times to be high on the list. But The Post-Standard in Syracuse, NY? Let @joshuabenton.com explain. And see where your local newspaper falls. www.niemanlab.org/2025/07/how-...

It’s over

'“I Don’t Think Librarians Can Save Us”: The Material Conditions of Information Literacy Instruction in the Misinformation Age' by Amber Willenborg and Robert Detmering (C&RL) rebrand.ly/98hddxv

I just realized after 10 years of being in fabulous downtown Ypsilanti that, along with Washington St (which LOEX's office is on), the next two N/S streets are Adams St and Hamilton St --- they're all named after founding fathers. I am very smart.

Call for Proposals for LOEX Fall Focus 2025 (Online) has been posted. Due September 5. #loexff2025 Conference will be held over November 17-19 loexfallfocus.org/proposals/

"They Have Their Doubts: What it’s like to be in school, trying not to use A.I." by Nitish Pahwa (Slate) slate.com/life/2025/07...