HAPPY NEW YEAR! Someone let Teams know we are back.

With pessimism of the intellect; optimism of the spirt. I'm signing off 2025. As for 2026; it can't go on like this, can it?

Forwarding on the basis that we're either in places where it has, is, or hasn't just yet: Rethinking the Role of Libraries as Democracies Falter ischool.illinois.edu/news/publica...

Not that they care, in fact, it is probably the intent, but this is not a "waiver," it's a visa!

This is caused almost entirely by UK governments who appear to think they are powerless to arrest or reverse it, but also seem to leap onto any policy choice that will make it worse.

Buried in here, but this was the 👀 line: "The website for applications would also be decommissioned, leaving a mobile app as the only platform to request a visa waiver."

Pleased to know World Cup draws are similar to how I put together a conference programme: "We'll skip that", "Can't have two papers from the same confederation". Mispronouncing names. Concludes with the Village People.

A positive aspect of this World Cup draw: I was right to hate Robbie Williams all these years.

There was an excellent webinar earlier this week on AI in digital repositories, organised by SIB under the @fidelis-project.bsky.social. Video www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvd4... and presentations drive.google.com/drive/folder...

Today's fun editorial task takes me to into an ontological discussion: is a screenshot of a table a table? Discuss.

Ideally timed for the 2025-12-25 market. Congratulations @kbriney.bsky.social!

Question here for repositories and archives, is there a corresponding rise in the submission or deposit of genAI slop datasets?

Workshop Alert! FIDELIS project virtual workshop: Adapting the FAIR-enabling data policy checklist for repositories Speakers: 🎤 @Joy Davidson & Laurence Horton (@laurencehorton.bsky.social) from @digitalcuration.bsky.social 🎟️ Registration is free: eden-fidelis.eu/events/adapt...

UK electorate: "Can you please just get public services functioning?" Labour government: "So, what we are hearing is you want us to rob asylum seekers? On it!"

The ability of publishers to bypass first sale doctrine when it comes to ebooks has been one of the great heists of our time.

Reminds me of the old line about the music industry: "Everyone's a one-hit wonder. If they're lucky." Just for the journal I help edit, there is one article that accounts for nearly 20 per cent of ALL views. The top five visited articles account for just over half of all abstract and article views.

I'm thinking about another Laurence Horton on this Remembrance Day. Laurence or Lawrence (birth certificate and index give different spellings) is my first cousin once removed. No, I am not named after him. #RemembranceDay #ArmisticeDay #LestWeForget

Heard comments that data rescue initiatives are nice but what we actually need is infrastructure. Well, yes. But resilience needs a foundation in people, so 👏@lyndamk.bsky.social "It's not just about the rescues, it's about the community we build through the rescues" www.404media.co/podcast-a-ma...

Two things you should think about very carefully before committing to are tattoos and adding documents to Sharepoint. You may regret them; you can never remove them.

My great wish for this moment in time is that my laptop calendar and phone calendar put aside whatever differences they may have and find a way to communicate with each other.

Also, there's nothing to *learn* about AI that can't be taught through a grounding in epistemology, logic, and ethics. Same old story about information systems and information and communication technologies.

Thinking back to a month a two ago when Sam Altman was reassuring us they'd solved the suicide machine problem, and so were giving us the chance to add big boobs to women.

I wonder if she's ever Meta social media company that could be providing a platform for extremist views?

From a data cleaning perspective the only thing worse than an open text field is a controlled vocabulary one.

One thing we try with IDCC is to give a platform to people working where we are visiting. Delighted to see this announced. @anticac.bsky.social will, no doubt, provide an engaging kick-off from the perspective of a researcher working in open science and based in Croatia. #IDCC26.

A voice in your head that finds everything you do at fault for failing to do this, that, or something else, allied with a natural reaction of "what's your motivation for saying that?" to any praise you do receive, does tend to inoculate you against the egregious flattery of these chatbots.

Ok, using spaces is poor practice, but otherwise, short, descriptive, indicates version ✅

In other news, "I am not a bot! I am not an AI crawler! I am a human being! I... am... a man!"

Really digging the way Copy Link in Outlook does not in fact copy the link. Great job Gatesy.

Nice idea from @icpsr.bsky.social for #LoveData26. Help translate "Love Data Week" and "Where's the data?" into as many languages as possible. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... Check what's been submitted so far: docs.google.com/document/d/1...

A modern classic for your RDM/research methods presentations on data anonymisation.

I've heard of selling your body for sex, but, of course, it's Open AI so they're going to be selling other peoples'.

Great call for the next @rdapassociation.bsky.social summit: "Practical, Personalized, Impactful: Research Data in the Real World". With RDAP it's always programme quality high, cost of attending low. Recommended! rdapassociation.org/summit

Another Bsky welcome, this time to Sonraí, who have been putting together and sustaining an excellent data steward network in Ireland. And, would you believe it, happen to be presenting on this at next year's #IDCC26 (registration now open, etc...)

"The King has said he's going to put a tax on tea, And that's the reason y'all Americans drink coffee" (Harvey, 1976)

"Our AI data stew..." *SLAMS LAPTOP SHUT*

Friday. The day when I work through closing all the tabs I opened from Monday to Thursday.

Sometimes you can see where there is a natural end point. A point of full stop, end of discussion, nothing else to see, everyone go home now. “I just don’t know how you go around, asking everyone first. I just don’t see how that would work,” Clegg said. Naturally, Cleggy goes on.

📢Good news alert!📢 NEW version (v002) of the CODATA RDM Terminology now online! Info + link: codata.org/codata-and-t... Direct link: vocabs.ardc.edu.au/viewById/685 Thanks to our fabulous expert Working Group and technical heroes @ardc.edu.au 👏 @codata-isc.bsky.social

God bless delimiter-separated values.

Good point this. It's a disingenuous slop feedback loop.

It's open. No dynamic pricing! No Oasis songs either! Win, win. #idcc26

Another of the wonderful @dpc-chat.digipres.club.ap.brid.gy team is here! #digipres

Apparently you can only opt out by posting a facebook status asserting copyright "as a result of the Berner [sic] Convention."

🏨Venue announcement!🏨 #IDCC26 will be hosted in the Hotel Esplanade Zagreb next year from 16-18 February. Check out the venue now, ahead of an exciting announcement next week.... ➡️https://dcc.ac.uk/events/idcc26/venue-and-accommodation

I'd never have estimated a share this high for a positive response to the Q: "In your opinion, what impact will open-source generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT, have on the peer review process?" but that's my librarian focused bsky bubble for you. ioppublishing.org/ai-and-peer-...

Sending my best to @lyndamk.bsky.social and team on this special day!

Having to check submissions hallucinated works, and getting the occasional email asking for an article that AI made up has added a whole load of value to the academic publishing game.

Yes please @bsky.app. Honestly I treat this and Twitter (RIP) as electronic doodles or post-it notes. A place to scribble something for the moment, and then forget about it.

Today's gripe. Organisations with names that look like typos.