Jane Falconer
@falkie71.bsky.social
190 followers 230 following 75 posts
Librarian at @lshtm.bsky.social. Systematic review searching, user services and teaching at work. History, #LFC and #crochet geek at home. Exiled highlander. She/her
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Reposted by Jane Falconer
ellaflem.bsky.social
Coming from mid-November 2025 for Cochrane reviews:

💥 A new AI disclosure section across all reviews
💥 Changes to all reviews types to reflect evolving methodological best practice & to align with recent changes to intervention reviews
💥 Changes to how rapid reviews are managed
cochrane.org
Clearer, more consistent Cochrane reviews are coming.

From mid-November, we’re updating reporting formats to make reviews easier to use, more accessible, and more impactful.

🔗 www.cochrane.org/about-us/new...
Cochrane logo on a blue background with the text 'Cochrane aligns reporting formats for diverse types of reviews.' Below, a stack of books on a table in a library setting conveys a scholarly tone.
Reposted by Jane Falconer
lshtm.bsky.social
👋It's #WelcomeWeek at LSHTM & the start of a new academic year!

We're excited to welcome our new & returning students who are pursuing their #PublicHealth dreams. Here's to a successful & inspiring year ahead!🎉

👉 www.lshtm.ac.uk/study/new-st...
falkie71.bsky.social
Interesting! I've not been told that. However, the vast majority of our publications are OA so maybe not so much of an issue. @lshtm.bsky.social is VERY pro-OA.
falkie71.bsky.social
I publish the final search, not all of my drafts. They're published in our institutional repository (see datacompass.lshtm.ac.uk/view/creator...). I keep my drafts in OneNote - I don't keep in Word or Excel so I can easily copy/paste plain text if needed.
Items where Data Creator is Falconer, Jane"
datacompass.lshtm.ac.uk
Reposted by Jane Falconer
barrydeutsch.bsky.social
DuckDuckGo has added a feature to filter out AI images from search results.
Post from "The Rundown"

July 18 at 5:30 PM
 ·
DuckDuckGo has introduced a new feature allowing users to filter out AI-generated images from search results, addressing growing concerns over synthetic content overwhelming authentic visuals online. 
The filter can be activated through a dropdown in the Images tab, search settings, or by using a dedicated AI-free domain: noai.duckduckgo.com. The system relies on curated blocklists, including uBlockOrigin’s Huge AI Blocklist, to detect and suppress AI-generated imagery. 
While not perfect, it significantly reduces synthetic content visibility. This move sets DuckDuckGo apart from competitors like Google and Bing by giving users direct control over their exposure to AI-generated material.
Source: TechCrunch
Reposted by Jane Falconer
stephenkb.bsky.social
I will never not understand how a minority of people have decided that wind farms - significantly prettier than pylons, coal power plants, nuclear power plants, and almost certainly fusion power plants - are ugly. In terms of energy generation, what else are you hoping for that is better?
dsquareddigest.bsky.social
On holiday, I notice that there are wind turbines on the shore of Lake Garda, which very much makes me think that residents with a view of some incredibly mid Cotswold or other can put a sock in it.
Reposted by Jane Falconer
silencedrowns.com
Tom Lehrer made all of his music 100% public domain so if seeing people sad about his death makes you want to check them out… it’s free. he wanted you to share them.

tomlehrersongs.com
Reposted by Jane Falconer
catacalypto.bsky.social
absolutely nails it. the work of language in the age of mechanical reproduction I guess
falkie71.bsky.social
I've found podcasts where historians are interviewing other historians are better at the historiography side of things than those with non-historians interviewing historians, or the main presenters telling the story.
falkie71.bsky.social
I like some of Suzannah Lipscomb's episodes in 'Not Just the Tudors' quite good. Occasionally she'll host a round-table talking in-depth about a topic with other historians. She has a lot of historians on and always asks geeky questions about sources.
Reposted by Jane Falconer
anne-infospec.bsky.social
Brilliant to see the important work of health information specialists highlighted. What use is a systematic review based on a poor search?
yhec.bsky.social
👋 Meet Mick Arber, Senior Information Specialist at YHEC.

With 25+ years in health information and evidence synthesis, Mick brings expertise in robust, high-quality literature searching.

Read more: sites.google.com/york.ac.uk/y...

#EvidenceBasedMedicine #MedLibs
Graphic showing a headshot of YHEC's Mick Arber. The wording reads: Senior Information Specialist, Mick Arber. There is a quote from Mick: "The challenges you meet for each review are different each time and, usually, there's no single correct way to meet that challenge. What we're always trying to achieve is the sweet spot, the balance of robustness and efficiency that is appropriate to the particular project." The YHEC logo is in the bottom right corner.
Reposted by Jane Falconer
nedpotter.bsky.social
If you've worked on a library project to showcase ethnically minoritised authors, and you've received recommendations for books from students and staff (and you see this today or over the weekend...) I'd love to hear from you. We're buying some books on a tight deadline!

Some more context below. 📚
I'm working on a UX-led project at the moment in inclusivity and belonging in the library. One of the recommendations is a showcase space for ethnically minoritised authors - a physical space, with physical books, which we're setting up now. Thanks to an unexpected injection of funds we are currently buying items to go into this space, but our ordering window ends on Monday due to the impending close of the financial year. 

If you work in a library that has done this sort of thing before, specifically via *recommendations from staff and students*, I'd love to hear from you. Quite honestly, ideally with a list of the books you've ordered! Just send me a message here. 

I want to be clear that this isn't just about adding books to stock, or diversifying our collections as an end in itself, or anything generic. This is designed as a *celebration* of works by ethnically minoritised authors, and we want to buy books that are important to real people - and in fact we're ordering additional copies of items we already own as part of this if they're recommended to us, because we don't want to remove them from their regular places on our shelves. 

So if you've ever worked on a similar project, and happen to see this in the ludicrously short time-span required, get in touch! Thanks all.
falkie71.bsky.social
That's even worse than a UK MP, responsible for negotiating our exit from the EU, admitting he didn't realise how much we imported using the Dover-Calais route. It's only the shortest crossing of the channel. 😲
Dominic Raab under fire over Dover-Calais comments
Critics suggest the Brexit Secretary doesn't
www.bbc.co.uk
falkie71.bsky.social
You can go to the same location now and see a replica of the pump, then go for a drink in the John Snow pub.

If you're really interested, you can join the John Snow society and come along to their annual lecture held @lshtm.bsky.social
falkie71.bsky.social
🤣 Those are terrible!
threadinburgh.scot
I'm the kind of person who semi-regularly trawls ebay looking for old books, pamphlets or ephemera related to Edinburgh history, so I'm absolutely *thrilled* that my searches are increasingly drowned by AI-generated gibberish "Vintage Travel Posters" selling at £19.99-29.99 a copy.
A clearly AI-generated "vintage travel poster" of Edinburgh, showing something vaguely like a famous Edinburgh landmark but totally different. A clearly AI-generated "vintage travel poster" of Edinburgh, showing something vaguely like a famous Edinburgh landmark but totally different. A clearly AI-generated "vintage travel poster" of Edinburgh, showing something vaguely like a famous Edinburgh landmark but totally different. A clearly AI-generated "vintage travel poster" of Edinburgh, showing something vaguely like a famous Edinburgh landmark but totally different.
Reposted by Jane Falconer
astrokatie.com
Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.
Reposted by Jane Falconer
falkie71.bsky.social
I've updated my blog post for LSHTM Library on issues arising in the academic information space from changes in the US federal landscape. This update has the future of FlyBase in doubt and a possible new education database from Clarivate Analytics to replace ERIC. blogs.lshtm.ac.uk/library/2025...
Alternative sources of US Federal Government Information - Library, Archive & Open Research Services blog
(and information about what is happening within the STEM information landscape) With the transition to...
blogs.lshtm.ac.uk
Reposted by Jane Falconer
goodlawproject.org
None of those newspapers (or the BBC) that gleefully ran stories when the EHRC gave trans people a shoeing will now report on the EHRC admitting they (and hence those stories) were wrong. Are those outlets craven - or dishonest?

Thank goodness for the legal press. www.law360.com/articles/235...
EHRC Drops Workplace Toilet Advice Amid Legal Threat - Law360
Britain's equal rights watchdog has dropped its advice to employers that they must provide single-sex toilets in the wake of a landmark U.K. Supreme Court decision in the face of a court challenge.
www.law360.com
Reposted by Jane Falconer
masudk.com
Yesterday, I had the privilege of visiting the @lshtm.bsky.social & their beautiful Library. So pleased to be part of an @ahuauk.bsky.social programme with amazing colleagues including the wonderful Lesley Castens. Lovely to bump into David Archer, another brilliant colleague from the library world.
Reposted by Jane Falconer
carlbergstrom.com
As a follow-up to _Calling Bullshit_, Jevin West and I developed the course about LLMs that we think every college freshman should take.

Yesterday I talked about the course in a seminar at UNSW. And thanks to my colleagues there, 24 hours later the video is already online.
selfdz.bsky.social
Yesterday, @carlbergstrom.com presented his course "Modern-day Oracles or BS Machines? How to thrive in a ChatGPT world". Neat way to make students aware of the capacities and limitations of LLMs👇🎰

Recording: www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZC0...

Course: thebullshitmachines.com

@unswbabs.bsky.social
Modern Day Oracles or Bullshit Machines? Seminar with Prof. Carl Bergstrom, University of Washington
YouTube video by UNSW eLearning
www.youtube.com
falkie71.bsky.social
Interesting. I've been pasting in my searches as one long string as i've been unconvinced the parentheses Scopus adds when you ask it to combine searches are entirely accurate.
falkie71.bsky.social
I've noticed that for a while - like months rather than days. I just ran a search this week, results are:
Medline 7,921
Embase 14,759
Global Health 10,948
GreenFILE 2,548
Web of Science 21,284
Scopus 36,159 🤯
We may drop Scopus if numbers are too huge after deduplication.
Reposted by Jane Falconer
lshtm.bsky.social
We need to talk about health #misinformation🤔

Join our flagship event on 15 Sept 2025 for ideas on how to defend yourself & your organisation from dangerous misinformation

Info/book tickets: www.lshtm.ac.uk/newsevents/e...

In-person in London + online #PublicHealth
Health Misinformation UNPACKED: Monday 15 September 2025 13:00-17:00, LSHTM, Online