Owl y Cat
banner
alexag.bsky.social
Owl y Cat
@alexag.bsky.social
Rando mid century SuperFan
Reposted by Owl y Cat
I'm org'ing a session on the problems + possibilities of web search; we'll explore past + (AI-sloppified) present of commercial web search; library discovery tools; + speculative/critical approaches.

Are there any NYC libraries still doing experimental discovery work (à la NYPL Labs / LoC Labs)?
Apps are open for our spring session of the Cross-Reference Coalition! We're exploring Search & Discovery! "Our journey will encompass the history of exploration + cartography, legacies of inquiry, tools of discovery, theories of curiosity, and counter-algorithmic means of 'finding things out.'"
January 6, 2026 at 5:19 AM
December 31, 2025 at 11:56 PM
👀👀
Pantone’s 2026 color of the year is technically not a color at all — meet Cloud Dancer, the first-ever white shade to receive the designation from the world’s color authority.
Pantone makes a surprising choice for its 2026 color of the year
We did not see that coming.
www.washingtonpost.com
December 4, 2025 at 2:21 PM
Reposted by Owl y Cat
I can't stress enough that you should take every opportunity that comes your way to support your local public libraries. Many of them are currently struggling and are being DEFUNDED. Local action matters on this front. Don't sit back until those libraries are gone before taking ACTION.
December 2, 2025 at 10:48 PM
Reposted by Owl y Cat
This piece (and ensuing drama) took on a life of its own. I hear from students, teachers, migrants, imprisoned people — all wanting to unpack some part of this. My favorite might be the trainings that some unions do that includes challenging their internalized beauty beliefs about power.
November 25, 2025 at 2:08 PM
Reposted by Owl y Cat
This is a good look at how HBCUs are using large unrestricted gifts that they have never seen before. It's a combination of strategic investments, student support, and seeding endowments.
How HBCUs Plan to Spend MacKenzie Scott’s Money
The philanthropist dropped upward of $300 million on historically Black colleges and universities this fall. Campus leaders are overjoyed and spending in ways they never thought possible.
www.insidehighered.com
November 6, 2025 at 10:31 AM
Reposted by Owl y Cat
I wrote about public libraries as spaces of civic solidarity, common knowledge, and public infrastructure — all endangered by commercial and federal saboteurs
Extralibrary Loan: Making the Civic Infrastructure We Need
Amid a war on public knowledge, libraries are pushing outward, enlarging the commons through new configurations of civic and creative life.
placesjournal.org
October 28, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Reposted by Owl y Cat
Here's my segment from CBC's Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud yesterday on the theft of the crown jewels at the Louvre: youtu.be/kgqjkj5GfFw?...
Why are we so captivated by a heist?
YouTube video by Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud
youtu.be
October 22, 2025 at 2:43 PM
Reposted by Owl y Cat
“I am not interested, nor will I ever be interested. I'm 61, and I hope to be able to remain uninterested in using it at all until I croak. ... The other day, somebody wrote me an email, said, ‘What is your stance on AI?’ And my answer was very short. I said, ‘I'd rather die.’” 🫡
Filmmaker Guillermo del Toro says 'I'd rather die' than use generative AI
Del Toro's new Frankenstein adaption reimagines Mary Shelley's 1818 Gothic novel. Frankenstein was like a tech bro: "creating something without considering the consequences," he explains.
www.npr.org
October 23, 2025 at 10:08 PM
Reposted by Owl y Cat
Happy birthday Dorothy Liebes. The acclaimed textile designer, educator & entrepreneur, famous for her innovative use of color and materials, a long list of notable commissions, and advocacy of therapeutic craft programs, was born today in 1897. #textiledesign
October 14, 2025 at 8:29 PM
Reposted by Owl y Cat
The documentary I made with Miss Major 10 years ago is on Vimeo on Demand. If you want to spend some time with her on screen tonight and learn some abolitionist trans history while you're at it, it's free to rent with the code "shinebright" vimeo.com/ondemand/major
Watch MAJOR! Online | Vimeo On Demand
The award-winning documentary "MAJOR!" follows the life and campaigns of Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, a Black transgender elder who has been fighting for…
vimeo.com
October 14, 2025 at 1:08 AM
Reposted by Owl y Cat
this is how it feels to wear high rise pants
September 30, 2025 at 6:40 PM
Reposted by Owl y Cat
Based on her eyeglasses alone, you might assume that curator Elissa Auther is The Absolute Coolest, and you would be right. She also wrote String, Felt, Thread, which is the essential book on fiber art, feminism and the art world in the 1960s and '70s:
www.upress.umn.edu/978081665609...
September 23, 2025 at 6:44 PM
Reposted by Owl y Cat
So much bad news, but this fall the Metro NY Library Cncl is launching the first iteration of its Cross-Reference Coalition, an experimental interdisciplinary school ft 17 participants from across NYC’s libraries, colleges + municipal depts, plus artists + designers. We’re exploring The Misfit.
August 14, 2025 at 8:42 PM
Reposted by Owl y Cat
THE HOUSE ARCHIVES BUILT AND OTHER THOUGHTS ON BLACK ARCHIVAL POSSIBILITIES BY @dorothyjberry.bsky.social COMING OCTOBER 14 LETS GO ❤️‍🔥 www.weherepress.org
September 11, 2025 at 4:35 PM
Reposted by Owl y Cat
For example, when men demand empathy but only women are socialized to have empathy, it becomes a demand for accommodation.
September 11, 2025 at 6:49 PM
For example, when men demand empathy but only women are socialized to have empathy, it becomes a demand for accommodation.
September 11, 2025 at 7:17 PM
Reposted by Owl y Cat
I posted my script, my slides, and photos of — along with a full bibliography of — all the library materials we featured in the event!!
September 11, 2025 at 5:14 AM
Reposted by Owl y Cat
The artist Chloë Bass is taking over the PA system in 14 NYC subway stations for a month, urging riders to free themselves from policing others with her new piece “If you hear something, free something.” Gift link here. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/06/a...
Those New Announcements in the Subway? They’re Art
www.nytimes.com
September 6, 2025 at 10:50 AM
Reposted by Owl y Cat
Pritzker: "Any rational person who has spent even the most minimal amount of time studying human history has to ask themselves one important question: once they get the citizens of this nation comfortable with the current atrocities committed under the color of law, what comes next?"
September 2, 2025 at 8:21 PM
Reposted by Owl y Cat
writing residency.
kingston.

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
August 27, 2025 at 2:02 AM
Reposted by Owl y Cat
9 CDC Directors going back to 1977 speak out. What RFK Jr has done to our nation’s public health system "should alarm every American."

It "is unlike anything we have ever seen at the agency, and unlike anything our country has ever experienced." www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/o...
Opinion | We Ran the C.D.C.: Kennedy Is Endangering Every American’s Health
www.nytimes.com
September 1, 2025 at 11:23 AM