Emily Higgs Kopin
@ehkopin.bsky.social
texpat in philly, working in digital archives, libraries, and preservation. 20% professional, 80% nonsense. 🐶🐱🎮📖🧶💾
Pinned
MILF (metadata I'd like to fix)
one of my longest-standing and deepest-held grievances in this profession is that we should stop naming all of our systems cutesy things that obfuscate what they actually do
December 12, 2025 at 4:54 PM
one of my longest-standing and deepest-held grievances in this profession is that we should stop naming all of our systems cutesy things that obfuscate what they actually do
I would save myself a lot of time trying to hunt down documentation if I remembered that 98% of all organizational policy is set because some guy perceived a slight to his ego one time
December 12, 2025 at 3:45 PM
I would save myself a lot of time trying to hunt down documentation if I remembered that 98% of all organizational policy is set because some guy perceived a slight to his ego one time
Reposted by Emily Higgs Kopin
I wrote this a few years ago now, but it's still very relevant sadly. Constant redundancy has been the norm for many of us since we began our careers. Sorry for everyone who is now facing it unexpectedly. Logging off for a bit. #UKHE #UCU
hagenilda.wordpress.com/2022/01/31/a...
hagenilda.wordpress.com/2022/01/31/a...
Academic precarity harms us all
I’ve been working on this for a while. It sums up my experience of and thoughts about academic precarity. Tl;dr it harms us all: staff, institutions and, most importantly, students. I am writ…
hagenilda.wordpress.com
December 12, 2025 at 2:42 PM
I wrote this a few years ago now, but it's still very relevant sadly. Constant redundancy has been the norm for many of us since we began our careers. Sorry for everyone who is now facing it unexpectedly. Logging off for a bit. #UKHE #UCU
hagenilda.wordpress.com/2022/01/31/a...
hagenilda.wordpress.com/2022/01/31/a...
I think books are cool
December 12, 2025 at 1:39 PM
I think books are cool
Reposted by Emily Higgs Kopin
“You can't offer poverty wages to staff who kept the British Library running through the cyber-attack, then offer bonuses to directors who benefit from their hard work.”
@graceblakeley.substack.com asks: who are Britain's cultural institutions really for?
graceblakeley.substack.com/p/you-should...
@graceblakeley.substack.com asks: who are Britain's cultural institutions really for?
graceblakeley.substack.com/p/you-should...
“You Should Be Honoured to Work Here”: British Library Staff are Striking for Pay, Conditions, and Respect
A battle over pay has become a fight over who Britain's cultural institutions are really for.
graceblakeley.substack.com
December 12, 2025 at 4:11 AM
“You can't offer poverty wages to staff who kept the British Library running through the cyber-attack, then offer bonuses to directors who benefit from their hard work.”
@graceblakeley.substack.com asks: who are Britain's cultural institutions really for?
graceblakeley.substack.com/p/you-should...
@graceblakeley.substack.com asks: who are Britain's cultural institutions really for?
graceblakeley.substack.com/p/you-should...
Reposted by Emily Higgs Kopin
I’ve said this before but the only type of multiplayer I want to play is when me and the boys are all down in my mom’s basement. I want to see the last flickers of hope in your eyes die as I turn Kirby into a brick for the 40th time and send your ass out of the stadium
December 12, 2025 at 2:04 AM
I’ve said this before but the only type of multiplayer I want to play is when me and the boys are all down in my mom’s basement. I want to see the last flickers of hope in your eyes die as I turn Kirby into a brick for the 40th time and send your ass out of the stadium
Reposted by Emily Higgs Kopin
Let It Snow - The Donner Party Remix
December 11, 2025 at 11:37 PM
Let It Snow - The Donner Party Remix
Reposted by Emily Higgs Kopin
i know my body is not the right shape for it but i would still love to have it thrown and skipped across a waveless lake
December 11, 2025 at 8:53 PM
i know my body is not the right shape for it but i would still love to have it thrown and skipped across a waveless lake
Even in its final moments, this year is desperately trying to boost its chances for designation as the worst year of my life. I need someone to let it know that it already won, several times over, no contest, please Stop
December 11, 2025 at 9:40 PM
Even in its final moments, this year is desperately trying to boost its chances for designation as the worst year of my life. I need someone to let it know that it already won, several times over, no contest, please Stop
I do think that continuing to outsource all parts of the research enterprise to the same 3 mega-corporations is how academia is currently hammering the last(?) nail into our coffin
December 11, 2025 at 7:16 PM
I do think that continuing to outsource all parts of the research enterprise to the same 3 mega-corporations is how academia is currently hammering the last(?) nail into our coffin
This may be conspiratorial thinking, but I wonder if the campus Wellness Fair set up in the library right outside my office specifically because I was once quoted in Bitch about how much I hate workplace wellness initiatives
December 11, 2025 at 7:10 PM
This may be conspiratorial thinking, but I wonder if the campus Wellness Fair set up in the library right outside my office specifically because I was once quoted in Bitch about how much I hate workplace wellness initiatives
Reposted by Emily Higgs Kopin
To propose that GenAI can compensate for "archival silences" perverts Trouillot's work. It's is a contradiction to say that a product whose logic exacerbates power imbalances--creating a most-likely guess based on the existing record--can restore absences that are the product of those imbalances.
December 6, 2025 at 8:59 PM
To propose that GenAI can compensate for "archival silences" perverts Trouillot's work. It's is a contradiction to say that a product whose logic exacerbates power imbalances--creating a most-likely guess based on the existing record--can restore absences that are the product of those imbalances.
consensus-based decision making does not work when people have different levels of access to relevant information
December 11, 2025 at 5:28 PM
consensus-based decision making does not work when people have different levels of access to relevant information
Reposted by Emily Higgs Kopin
One big effect of AI hype and promotion of unreliable chatbots is that a significant amount of additional friction and labour is being injected into our knowledge-making and -maintaining systems. At a time when these systems are already contracting and being starved by growing austerity.
Folks might not know a lot of people are getting *very* upset that the materials they request are not available in the libraries/archives they're requesting from.
We're getting lots here at the Library of Virginia: requests of documents likely surfaced by large language models that *do not exist*.
We're getting lots here at the Library of Virginia: requests of documents likely surfaced by large language models that *do not exist*.
I wish a notice like this wasn't necessary.
www.icrc.org/en/article/i...
www.icrc.org/en/article/i...
December 8, 2025 at 5:09 PM
One big effect of AI hype and promotion of unreliable chatbots is that a significant amount of additional friction and labour is being injected into our knowledge-making and -maintaining systems. At a time when these systems are already contracting and being starved by growing austerity.
I'm giving bookshop.org gift cards and a list of personalized recommendations to most of the folks on my list this year. If you have any books you've read recently-ish that are "generally recommendable" please let me know, my reading tastes are WAY too weird and horror-heavy for my sister-in-law
December 9, 2025 at 5:30 PM
I'm giving bookshop.org gift cards and a list of personalized recommendations to most of the folks on my list this year. If you have any books you've read recently-ish that are "generally recommendable" please let me know, my reading tastes are WAY too weird and horror-heavy for my sister-in-law
Reposted by Emily Higgs Kopin
Mislead on your scholarly journey by the allure of illusory gifts?
You, my good sir, have been 𝓕𝓪𝓮walled
You, my good sir, have been 𝓕𝓪𝓮walled
Folks might not know a lot of people are getting *very* upset that the materials they request are not available in the libraries/archives they're requesting from.
We're getting lots here at the Library of Virginia: requests of documents likely surfaced by large language models that *do not exist*.
We're getting lots here at the Library of Virginia: requests of documents likely surfaced by large language models that *do not exist*.
I wish a notice like this wasn't necessary.
www.icrc.org/en/article/i...
www.icrc.org/en/article/i...
December 9, 2025 at 1:03 PM
Mislead on your scholarly journey by the allure of illusory gifts?
You, my good sir, have been 𝓕𝓪𝓮walled
You, my good sir, have been 𝓕𝓪𝓮walled
In a very brave reversal of past policy, I have decided that I have purchased enough Skyrim and probably do not want or need a seventh copy
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Anniversary Edition is now available on Nintendo Switch 2: www.rpgsite.net/news/19126-s...
December 9, 2025 at 3:52 PM
In a very brave reversal of past policy, I have decided that I have purchased enough Skyrim and probably do not want or need a seventh copy
Reposted by Emily Higgs Kopin
It's going to be fun when these fake archival sources just get copy-pasted directly from the chatbots into bibliographies and lazily re-cited for years/decades, until someone tries to actually find the original source, fail, and assume the archive has destroyed or misplaced it, rendering it "lost"
I wish a notice like this wasn't necessary.
www.icrc.org/en/article/i...
www.icrc.org/en/article/i...
Important notice: AI-generated archival references
www.icrc.org
December 8, 2025 at 2:36 PM
It's going to be fun when these fake archival sources just get copy-pasted directly from the chatbots into bibliographies and lazily re-cited for years/decades, until someone tries to actually find the original source, fail, and assume the archive has destroyed or misplaced it, rendering it "lost"
Reposted by Emily Higgs Kopin
IT’S FINALLY FRIDAY
November 21, 2025 at 3:27 PM
IT’S FINALLY FRIDAY
Reposted by Emily Higgs Kopin
but i mean also, how does anyone survive life if you’re not looking at every single event that happens to you through a sitcom lens how do you survive being sad or uncomfortable lmao
November 21, 2025 at 3:21 PM
but i mean also, how does anyone survive life if you’re not looking at every single event that happens to you through a sitcom lens how do you survive being sad or uncomfortable lmao
Reposted by Emily Higgs Kopin
Unfortunately, we have moved past the Cyberpunk dystopia directly in Cyber-ska. I'm as confused as all the rest of you about the implications.
November 21, 2025 at 1:16 PM
Unfortunately, we have moved past the Cyberpunk dystopia directly in Cyber-ska. I'm as confused as all the rest of you about the implications.
Reposted by Emily Higgs Kopin
Humpback whales sing to find others — after the recent population rebound, they’re singing less because they’re less lonely. 🐋 www.biointeractive.org/planning-too...
November 21, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Humpback whales sing to find others — after the recent population rebound, they’re singing less because they’re less lonely. 🐋 www.biointeractive.org/planning-too...
Reposted by Emily Higgs Kopin
Hi library 📚 colleagues! There are 12 days left to apply for two tenured, unionized positions at my academic library in Upstate New York. These are management positions that require supervisory experience, and the salary range for each is $85k to $115k. Details below, reposts appreciated! (1/4)
November 21, 2025 at 1:44 PM
Hi library 📚 colleagues! There are 12 days left to apply for two tenured, unionized positions at my academic library in Upstate New York. These are management positions that require supervisory experience, and the salary range for each is $85k to $115k. Details below, reposts appreciated! (1/4)
Obviously this is funny and short-circuited my brain, but I also think there’s something deeply interesting about describing shared folklore as “open source”
Turning into my father one "the problem is no one reads enough books these days" grumble at a time
November 21, 2025 at 4:59 AM
Obviously this is funny and short-circuited my brain, but I also think there’s something deeply interesting about describing shared folklore as “open source”