Librarians told 404 Media they're being inundated with new pitches for AI library tech and catalogs are being flooded with AI slop books. But more broadly, AI maximalism across society is supercharging the ideological war on libraries, schools, government workers, and academics.

My favourite part about living in the UK is that fireworks are not regulated to hell and I can get sparklers whenever I please. (From experience: stricter fireworks regulation tends to make things worse. Much worse.)

Apologies to anyone expecting us to be at the Tales Of The Weird event at the British Library this weekend, but in support of the PCS industrial action, we’ve decided not to cross the picket line. Will and I are both former librarians, and want to show support to the striking staff.

Applications Open for 2026 Will Eisner Graphic Novel Grants for Libraries Contact @libcomix.bsky.social with any questions! #libcomix 📚 www.ala.org/news/2025/10...

my workplace is recruiting for a Digitisation Officer to work in special collections if anyone wants to come and join us (full time, fixed term) jobsite.sheffield.ac.uk/job/Digitisa...

Don’t cross a picket line, folks. I know it’s super difficult and inconvenient so let’s hopes resolution can be agreed and planned action called off

We are excited to announce that Caroline Ball @heroicendeavour.bsky.social has joined as our new Community Engagement Lead. Hooray! 🥳 Caroline is a committed advocate for libraries, #OpenAccess & knowledge equity, a Trustee at @wikimediauk.bsky.social, & played a key role in the #EbookSOS campaign.

The strangest and most frustrating thing about my 30s approaching is *feeling* my mind starting to slow down. Cant memorise things nearly as fast anymore, no magical improvement with new languages, no easy recall of whatever Ive recently read. Im sure you're all laughing, but it's a bit unsettling!

Words being printed and bound into book format doesn't convey sacredness upon them. Some books are devoid of value and it would be fine if every last copy disappeared from the earth. Weed your little free libraries. Toss that shit in the trash.

not the ex libris developers having a mini nova festival

The best part about being a non-native speaker of English is that I can show up to all the classic plays and productions of classic literature with 0 idea of what's about to hit me. Experiencing theatre the way God intended.

Today in my flu and fever diaries: I heard Québecois but forgot it existed and didn't recognise it. My fever-addled mind wondered if I had become brain damaged for a good 5 minutes, before remembering the Quebec of it all.

Trying to fix a particularly nasty corrupt system file without my external hard drive on hand for an easy back-up + reinstall is reminding me why I decided a career in IT is not for me. One mental breakdown away from rage-installing Linux and calling it a day.

The ability to gather and report information without authorization from the government is pretty much the definition of a free press

Nothing harder than finding something to watch when you enjoy political/historical documentaries but hate WWII documentaries (especially those made from Anglophone perspectives).

The solution is clearly to double the number of testicles per young man through Dr Brinkley patented xenotransplantation of goat testes! Improves virility, hardiness and balance!

What might seem like a small announcement—it’s just one institution—actually carries substantial weight and has a strong symbolic meaning. @utrechtuniversity.bsky.social, has taken another bold step: it won't renew its Web of Science license. www.uu.nl/en/news/acce...

So, who is taking bets that the pause of the REF is for an AI-ification implementation or an AI-related policy change?

Today in "AI made me do it" ...

Four Al Jazeera staff, including reporter Anas Al Sharif, were killed in an Israeli attack on a tent for journalists outside the main gate of Gaza's al-Shifa hospital aje.io/onll19

Fantasy as an assembly-line commodity leaves me cold.

Dismay as north of England universities miss out on share of £54m talent fund. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

The hardest thing about being bilingual is that in English I only have access to one, default accent. No more posho accent I can put on, and more critically: no more chav accent that makes everyone *just* a little bit anxious and worried about what you may be unleashing.

The real struggle of adulthood is eating regular, balanced meals when there's no one else around who also needs to eat. Nothing stopping me from eating some berries, watermelon, and pickles from the jar and calling it a day.

📢 Applications open for the 2026 Software Sustainability Institute Fellowship on 11 August, just a couple of weeks away, closing 6 October! 🚀 You don't have to be writing software yourself, just interested in promoting good research software practice. It's UK-based but there are 3 places […]

The new journal is published by... @openlibhums.bsky.social. This rarely gets mentioned in these press releases, but if you ever subscribed to Journal of Political Philosophy and appreciate the move away from for-profit publishers to an OA model, then your institution should support OLH.

My real beef with commercial publishing-based infrastructure is the absolute tonnes of labour we have to pour into work that will go absolutely nowhere because SMT and academic colleagues have bought into it 💀

Something about not being allowed to be very wrong, very confidently and very publicly from a young age may have something to do with it 🤷‍♀️ (Though when we talk about actual ML as opposed the genAI, there will be the 'traditional' tech gender imbalance.)

🎉 Excited to see our project 'CRediTs for Students? – Promoting Student Authorships in Psychology' recognized alongside so many other inspiring initiatives! If you're interested in implementing something similar, reach out! Or check out our OSF page: osf.io/tygsp/.

hey do you think i could hire a dude on fiverr to go lick the chernobyl elephants foot real quick just real quick need someone to lick the foot

Have now made a Freedom of Information Request, so let's see if we find out how much the University of Warwick paid Vogue Singapore to advertise one of their senior leadership team with photos of his wardrobe ('talent's own'). www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/cost...

Self-inflicted embarrassment for the University of Warwick — first it rebrands hyper-generically, then someone totally unhinged decides the *front page of the uni website* should say ‘Learn more about our Brand’.

Someone took issue with me saying that American male Protestants are unique in how they've removed themselves from aesthetics. I thought it was obvs that I'm talking about fashion and interior decor, which today are coded as "gay interests," not paintings or architecture. But let me elaborate. 🧵

“I’m plainly convinced that my situation in this ICE jail is direct retaliation for my coverage,” Mario Guevara told @ajc.com in an exclusive interview from the Folkston, Georgia ICE detention center where he is currently detained, despite a judge's bail order. “I haven’t committed any crimes.”

UKHE in 2025

🧵 1/? It is time for my birthday tradition once more: what loyalty programmes/cards give me the best birthday freebies and discounts? I may have limited family, but luckily the companies taking my money 364 days a year have my back 😌 Last year's favourites: * Neuhaus chocolate * Lindt * Booths

What a good day to be a librarian and have eyes.

Very happy to announce this major boost for the Netherlands University Presses #NUPs network. The aim of this @opensciencenl.bsky.social funding is to strengthen collaboration and coordination, and promote inclusive (e.g. diamond) #openaccess models. 👉 www.openscience.nl/en/news/gran...

There's something deeply ironic as someone with a severe dog allergy about nearly being bitten by a "service" dog outside a random corner shop 🙃

"We are very sorry about your cancer diagnosis, but you should have thought of that 20 years ago, when you decided to marry a Danish man."

Sometimes librarianship is me, my cornershop energy drink and my gummy bear vape against the world.

Same in the UK. My partner recently asked our Scottish Labour MP's office when his surgeries are and was told they're posted on Facebook a week before they happen. So to talk to my Westminster representative I have to go on Facebook and hope the algorithm throws up that post.

You know you've truly made it as a librarian when you've been spending enough time on vendor websites to get personalised YouTube ads from them 🫠💀

Are there #medlibs who could help me locate a database and (and I cannot believe I am saying this) whether it (still) exists? I cannot find trace of it, outside of the occasional reference. Not on the org's website either... It's: RECAL Legacy (National Centre for Prosthetics & Orthodontics)

Indiana Jones and the 👍 response on a nationwide mailing list.

Anyone want to hire me? I’m in the mood for new challenges and a change of direction. I’m qualified, experienced, knowledgeable; also fully house-trained, with all my own teeth, a (mostly) agreeable disposition, and a fabulous wardrobe. 📚 www.linkedin.com/in/caroline-...

They're also not very accurate. More about this and a resource to help track your own here www.bishuk.com/bodies/track...

Reclaiming academic publishing: @ojcollective.bsky.social is a community-led, no-APC #openaccess alternative to corporate publishers + transformative agreements/ big deals. Fund #diamondOA. Cancel TAs & big deals. Let’s build something better, together: www.openlibhums.org/news/795/

If you are a scholar or practitioner interested in comics you must have thoughts about GenAI. This is an opportunity to think seriously, establish dialogue, and draw lines of future enquiry. 200-word abstract submission deadline: 10 July 2025. comicsandai.org/call-for-pap... #CFP

High court tells UK lawyers to stop using AI after fake case-law citations