I'm now recruiting for a crucial post in my team - Curator: Parliamentary Art Collection. A rare chance to work with a wonderful collection in a unique setting. Please do share, and feel free to get in touch with any questions

Me: I'll try and use Google Lens to identify this photo of an unknown Senator of the College of Justice GL: it's an old white guy in a robe Me: I'll narrow it down by adding "Senator" and "Scotland" GL: there are no senators in Scotland Me: I can assure you there are, they've existed since 1532!!!

Two news stories from this month: "Social workers’ AI tools risk errors in care records" - AI transcription problems care.org.uk/news/2026/02... "The MoJ also wants to see greater use of AI for tasks such as transcribing hearings" - AI transcription incoming problems www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

On Friday in Parliament Hall we had the drinks reception I had organised, hosting over 120 people for an event to celebrate an @oldedinburghclub.bsky.social grant funded project. It was absolutely lovely, utterly exhausting, and I think I'm almost recovered from it now! 😁

Love how these two skeets by @poorfrankraw.co.uk and @johnnymains.co.uk lined up

Is this the ideal library? Possibly. blackiehouse.org

Edinburgh Uni 1 day course on "Forensic Science and Pathology in Scottish Literature and Film" is bookable now. shortcourses.ed.ac.uk/course/foren...

“You can’t have a reasonable discussion about AI” just sounds like a reboot of the “civility in politics” discourse. If I sound shrill about AI, it’s because it’s putting thousands like me out of work, sucking up all the water and filling the net with child porn. No, I fucking won’t be civil.

Yay! Going to get to attend a day of the @biall.org.uk conference cos with it being in Scotland this year we don't have to cover any extra travel and accommodation costs!

We're now fully booked for this event but we do have a waitlist you can join in case of cancellations.

The study points to using libraries and visiting museums as bringing these enormous brain health benefits ... who would have thought? Well, librarians and museum folk for a start ... www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

I know people complain about excessive cleaning fees on holiday lets but I expect that for this place they're justified

Okay, we can’t get ENOUGH of our Suffragette Pennies— that have just gone LIVE in our shop for Val/Galentines Day. But did you know the history behind them? 👇👇👇

The book club scam has taken an exciting new leap forward. I got one today from a "curated literary platform and newsletter" that, unusually, offered a link to its website. I'm in edits, so obviously I took the opportunity to procrastinate. /1

Taking "I'll give you something to cry about" to a whole new level.

Just seen an image advertising a 'creativity in the law' event. It's made with AI. *cognitive dissonance intensifies*

"One telltale sign of an AI courtroom video: The scale seems way off." Uh-huh. www.courthousenews.com/generative-j...

I'm enjoying unfollowing everyone on LinkedIn who post AI generated drivel for the sake of it. It just shows me you don't have good judgement and thus I don't need your input into my professional network.

References libraries. Fails to use libraries. Fails. "But at the hearing, Failla said that she thinks Feldman had “access to the walled garden” of legal databases, if only he “would go to the law library” to do his research, rather than rely on AI tools." arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...

Guess which books are the wedge issue. Just guess. Anti-trans to fascism takes months, not years, now. It’s not a slippery slope, it’s luge.

one of the greatest human triumphs of my lifetime is the relentless, unceasing, heroic effort by DECADES' worth of doctors and scientists to find a cure for a disease much of the world didn't take seriously for years because it predominantly affected a community they thought kinda deserved it

Picture 1: Two plain clothes police officers during a search of Peter Mandelson's home Picture 2: Police search Nicola Sturgeon and Peter Murrell's home

IF {applying to study a PhD with me}; AND {your application includes hallucinated papers credited to me as author}; THEN {don't be surprised when your application is yeeted}. I mean, really...!

New on the blog: 'The Curious Case of the Missing Curling Stone' - a Tale from the Session Papers of @signetlibrary.bsky.social: www.kgbaston.co.uk/2026/02/05/t... #TalesFromTheSessionPapers A curling stone has been missing for three years, but now it's been found. Or has it?

I would say that core British values are being very suspicious of anyone who asks you if you are British.

Using our collection for your research? Join one of our open days for a deep dive into the collection areas most relevant to your research and the opportunity to pick the brains of our experts. Find out what areas we’re exploring this spring and book your place. link.bl.uk/DoctoralOpenDays

Reviving attempts to find out how to get WWI/WWII War Office papers that are marked as Top Secret confirmed to be NOT Top Secret (it's wartime admin letters). War Office no longer exists. Tried the National Archives in 2024 and got no response to me email or follow up, so not sure what to try next.

Are you an information or archives professional in the Edinburgh area, and want to come talk about what AI is doing in your sector? Join this EKLIPs event (which I suspect may become an AI-traumatised professionals therapy session...) www.eventbrite.com/e/ai-friend-...

Are you an information or archives professional in the Edinburgh area? Do you think AI will make work better? Or do you think it will make work worse? Come along on the 4th of March and see what everyone else thinks (spoiler: I'm mainly in the 'foe' camp): www.eventbrite.com/e/ai-friend-...

Big important tech job alert www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4368…

Our fabulous placement student is currently navigating issues with trying to access (and ideally, update the file type) of boxes of floppy discs from 1993.

Apply for our PhD placement scheme to get involved in extraordinary research at the Library. There are eight available placements exploring a variety of themes including war poetry, 21st-century digital tools, illustrated newspapers and decarbonisation. Find out more: link.bl.uk/PhDPlacements

Neil Gaiman is crawling out of his bog two years after sexual assault allegations to play the sweet old fantasy uncle again -- complete with name-dropping that book you like & his twee "make good art" catchphrase -- all in order to (of course) sell you his upcoming book. Don't you dare fall for it.

The Cymera Prize for Speculative Short Fiction is open to any writer living in Scotland or Scottish by birth or inclination, aged at least 14 years. Submissions are open from Monday 12th January 2026 until 8pm BST on Sunday 22nd March 2026. www.cymerafestival.co.uk/2026-prize

Journalists/podcasters: the central premise of my Anna Sharpe novel, out last week, is that (spoiler) an Epstein-like figure corrupts a British politician in order to conceal criminal acts. So suddenly rather relevant. I'm a criminal justice solicitor as well as a writer so happy to chat.

Are you an information or archives professional in the Edinburgh area? Do you think AI will make work better? Or do you think it will make work worse? Come along on the 4th of March and see what everyone else thinks (spoiler: I'm mainly in the 'foe' camp): www.eventbrite.com/e/ai-friend-...

Anyway friendly reminder that Good Omens going forward is being piloted by the Terry Pratchett estate, run by Rob Wilkins, no money from merch is going towards That Man, and Terry wrote 70% of the originally book

Book launch: The Cromarty Library Circle 25 Feb, Dunkeld: £5 @shonamaclean.bsky.social launches her latest novel, THE CROMARTY LIBRARY CIRCLE: a Scottish town on the cusp of change & the townspeople whose lives will be irrevocably altered over one tumultuous year www.culturepk.org.uk/event/an-eve...

Are you a @cilipscotland.bsky.social member in a special library or archive service and you won't have funding to go to the annual conference in June? Good news: there's a CILIPS bursary funding a full place just for YOU! More info here: www.cilips.org.uk/cilips26-fun...

OK @biall.org.uk, what are we being offered to? Some hellish legal gods?!?!😱

YOU HAVE TO READ THIS THREAD

Scots is often wrapped up in classism and labelled as 'weird' or 'uneducated', but by every standard it is its own language with its own grammar, syntax and words, and should be respected as such, writes Emma Grae ✍️ Read more: www.thenational.scot/commen...

Early Arthropods xkcd.com/3199/

The wonderful @scotunipress.bsky.social has some vacancies on the Editorial Board, which I chair - if you care about Open Access scholarship, academic accessibility and not-for-profit academic publishing, come and join us. T&Cs, details and processes 👇 #OpenAccess

Happy 3 year anniversary to this post

BROKE: Are the giants mentioned in The Hobbit real, or just a literary flourish? WOKE: Did Tolkien encounter giants while hiking in the Swiss mountains at age 19?!

Sorry, but pubs are to get 100 million to help prop them up and school libraries have to fight over 5 million is it? Year of Reading? They're taking the piss.

IASH offers many opportunities to do a research stay in Edinburgh, including the Edinburgh Environmental Humanities Fellowship. Take a look if that's ok interest.

It's a Glasgow/Edinburgh cultural exchange day - bumped into @sarasheridan.bsky.social getting off the inbound Glasgow train as I was hopping on it to go to Glasgow 😁