Maureen Babb 🍁
@librarian-m.bsky.social
Science Librarian. Fond of Classics, Archaeology, Paleontology, Comics, and of course Library Stuff. Queer.
Excellent article.
Also, I think if I was attending an "education seminar" (actually a vendor talk, in libraries we should be used to recognizing those for what they are by now) and the speaker said an AI chatbot was going to be my friend, I might spontaneously vomit.
Ideally on the speaker.
Also, I think if I was attending an "education seminar" (actually a vendor talk, in libraries we should be used to recognizing those for what they are by now) and the speaker said an AI chatbot was going to be my friend, I might spontaneously vomit.
Ideally on the speaker.
I finally got around to reading this. You should read it too.
"We are exporting the very labor of teaching and learning—the slow work of wrestling with ideas, the enduring of discomfort, doubt and confusion, the struggle of finding one’s own voice."
www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-d...
"We are exporting the very labor of teaching and learning—the slow work of wrestling with ideas, the enduring of discomfort, doubt and confusion, the struggle of finding one’s own voice."
www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-d...
AI is Destroying the University and Learning Itself
Students use AI to write papers, professors use AI to grade them, degrees become meaningless, and tech companies make fortunes. Welcome to the death of higher education.
www.currentaffairs.org
December 4, 2025 at 4:54 PM
Excellent article.
Also, I think if I was attending an "education seminar" (actually a vendor talk, in libraries we should be used to recognizing those for what they are by now) and the speaker said an AI chatbot was going to be my friend, I might spontaneously vomit.
Ideally on the speaker.
Also, I think if I was attending an "education seminar" (actually a vendor talk, in libraries we should be used to recognizing those for what they are by now) and the speaker said an AI chatbot was going to be my friend, I might spontaneously vomit.
Ideally on the speaker.
Reposted by Maureen Babb 🍁
Girl Guides of Canada has made a statement, likely in response to the cowardly decisions of Girlguiding UK. 🏳️⚧️
December 4, 2025 at 1:57 AM
Girl Guides of Canada has made a statement, likely in response to the cowardly decisions of Girlguiding UK. 🏳️⚧️
Reposted by Maureen Babb 🍁
Reposted by Maureen Babb 🍁
My third #artadventcalendar piece this year is my 2021 illustration of a burnt Hell Creek forest. Two stem-chickens (not based on a specific taxon) forage in the ash as a lone tyrant passes on the distance. 🪶🎨🐡 #paleoart
December 3, 2025 at 12:29 PM
My third #artadventcalendar piece this year is my 2021 illustration of a burnt Hell Creek forest. Two stem-chickens (not based on a specific taxon) forage in the ash as a lone tyrant passes on the distance. 🪶🎨🐡 #paleoart
Reposted by Maureen Babb 🍁
I like this very, very much
A Terror Bird in seven-league boots. Brown pencil, 68 × 89 mm. From 2020.
November 28, 2025 at 12:03 AM
I like this very, very much
I've been an academic librarian for quite a while now, and I still find the vendor proliferation at library conferences weird. Like I know why it happens, but I still find it weird for academic conferences.
November 26, 2025 at 6:54 PM
I've been an academic librarian for quite a while now, and I still find the vendor proliferation at library conferences weird. Like I know why it happens, but I still find it weird for academic conferences.
Reposted by Maureen Babb 🍁
let's take the CAR out of CARCINIZATION
when we say we want more streets to be pedestrianized, this is what we mean
November 25, 2025 at 5:06 PM
let's take the CAR out of CARCINIZATION
Reposted by Maureen Babb 🍁
The University of Winnipeg has terminated its president.
U of W president removed
The University of Winnipeg has terminated its president.
www.winnipegfreepress.com
November 25, 2025 at 5:28 PM
The University of Winnipeg has terminated its president.
Maaan when I say UW is more queer-friendly than UM people sometimes take that real personally and get annoyed at me about it, but like. There's a reason I feel that way.
From: www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/c...
From: www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/c...
November 25, 2025 at 4:48 PM
Maaan when I say UW is more queer-friendly than UM people sometimes take that real personally and get annoyed at me about it, but like. There's a reason I feel that way.
From: www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/c...
From: www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/c...
I understand the need for multifactor authentication but holy fuck is it annoying as hell
November 24, 2025 at 5:33 PM
I understand the need for multifactor authentication but holy fuck is it annoying as hell
Reposted by Maureen Babb 🍁
I'm so tired of people telling me to have students critique LLM outputs. I'm just going to print this on little cards and hand them out
I will add the following: our students lack the research skills required to audit an LLM essay for errors. They don’t arrive on campus with these skills; we teach it to them over four long years. So throwing freshmen in the deep end and saying “swim your way to a shore of rectitude” is folly.
November 24, 2025 at 2:36 PM
I'm so tired of people telling me to have students critique LLM outputs. I'm just going to print this on little cards and hand them out
Reposted by Maureen Babb 🍁
Sweet budgies (so fun to draw!) When I was much younger, my siblings and I got a cute budgie as a companion for my grandfather. He named the wee fella, 'Pete'. Not the most common of names for a budgie, perhaps but Pete didn't mind 🦜
#budgies #illustrator #kidlitartist #picturebookillustrator
#budgies #illustrator #kidlitartist #picturebookillustrator
November 24, 2025 at 12:04 PM
Sweet budgies (so fun to draw!) When I was much younger, my siblings and I got a cute budgie as a companion for my grandfather. He named the wee fella, 'Pete'. Not the most common of names for a budgie, perhaps but Pete didn't mind 🦜
#budgies #illustrator #kidlitartist #picturebookillustrator
#budgies #illustrator #kidlitartist #picturebookillustrator
Outlook stop fucking up your default calendar view for funsies challenge
November 20, 2025 at 3:42 PM
Outlook stop fucking up your default calendar view for funsies challenge
Reposted by Maureen Babb 🍁
November 19, 2025 at 4:20 AM
I'm so impressed with the @winnipegfreepress.com tech support; a few days ago, I reported an issue with the app that wasn't so much a bug or a proper problem, it was just annoying to me, personally.
And they just.... updated their app and fixed it, just because I asked. Just...... ❤️Incredible.
And they just.... updated their app and fixed it, just because I asked. Just...... ❤️Incredible.
November 18, 2025 at 5:42 PM
I'm so impressed with the @winnipegfreepress.com tech support; a few days ago, I reported an issue with the app that wasn't so much a bug or a proper problem, it was just annoying to me, personally.
And they just.... updated their app and fixed it, just because I asked. Just...... ❤️Incredible.
And they just.... updated their app and fixed it, just because I asked. Just...... ❤️Incredible.
The icon choices available in outlook calendar are bewildering to me. You have three different types of cars/trucks, but no... camera, for example, or phone.
November 14, 2025 at 9:38 PM
The icon choices available in outlook calendar are bewildering to me. You have three different types of cars/trucks, but no... camera, for example, or phone.
Reposted by Maureen Babb 🍁
For #FossilFriday & in honor of @alinemghilardi.bsky.social & colleagues' fantastic discovery of a new Cretaceous pterosaur in Brazil in a dinosaur regurgitalite ("fossil vomit"), here's a diagram I made for my book 'Dinosaurs Without Bones' (2014) showing the physics of a puking brachiosaur. 🧪🦕🤮🪨
November 14, 2025 at 1:14 PM
For #FossilFriday & in honor of @alinemghilardi.bsky.social & colleagues' fantastic discovery of a new Cretaceous pterosaur in Brazil in a dinosaur regurgitalite ("fossil vomit"), here's a diagram I made for my book 'Dinosaurs Without Bones' (2014) showing the physics of a puking brachiosaur. 🧪🦕🤮🪨
Me disliking something will not stop me from learning about it.
November 13, 2025 at 7:29 PM
Me disliking something will not stop me from learning about it.
"No other country, or group of countries, will be able to replace what is being lost in U.S. funding and collaboration, however. Ultimately, Canada’s researchers will need the Canadian government to step up to try and fill the gap."
universityaffairs.ca/features/fea...
universityaffairs.ca/features/fea...
Science interrupted - University Affairs
How the Trump administration’s cuts to U.S. science are derailing Canadian research
universityaffairs.ca
November 12, 2025 at 10:01 PM
"No other country, or group of countries, will be able to replace what is being lost in U.S. funding and collaboration, however. Ultimately, Canada’s researchers will need the Canadian government to step up to try and fill the gap."
universityaffairs.ca/features/fea...
universityaffairs.ca/features/fea...
Something real depressing about trying to access the links on an older list to examples of diversity plans at American uni libraries in this day and age.
November 12, 2025 at 8:57 PM
Something real depressing about trying to access the links on an older list to examples of diversity plans at American uni libraries in this day and age.
The thing about online learning with multiple choice tests you can retake repeatedly, is that you learn pretty quick that more often than not, the problem isn't that *you* got the question wrong, it's that whoever built the quiz did so poorly, and, say, forgot to define a correct answer altogether.
November 12, 2025 at 6:55 PM
The thing about online learning with multiple choice tests you can retake repeatedly, is that you learn pretty quick that more often than not, the problem isn't that *you* got the question wrong, it's that whoever built the quiz did so poorly, and, say, forgot to define a correct answer altogether.
Reposted by Maureen Babb 🍁
Librarians told 404 Media they are being inundated with new pitches for AI library tech and catalogs are being flooded with AI slop books that they need to wade through. AI maximalism across society is supercharging the ideological war on libraries, schools, academics
www.404media.co/ai-is-superc...
www.404media.co/ai-is-superc...
AI Is Supercharging the War on Libraries, Education, and Human Knowledge
"Fascism and AI, whether or not they have the same goals, they sure are working to accelerate one another."
www.404media.co
November 6, 2025 at 4:27 PM
Librarians told 404 Media they are being inundated with new pitches for AI library tech and catalogs are being flooded with AI slop books that they need to wade through. AI maximalism across society is supercharging the ideological war on libraries, schools, academics
www.404media.co/ai-is-superc...
www.404media.co/ai-is-superc...
"X, Y, and Z databases were searched systematically using MeSH terms and keywords related to [topic]" is NOT an adequate description of a search strategy for a systematic or scoping review oh my GOD.
November 5, 2025 at 5:33 PM
"X, Y, and Z databases were searched systematically using MeSH terms and keywords related to [topic]" is NOT an adequate description of a search strategy for a systematic or scoping review oh my GOD.
Reposted by Maureen Babb 🍁
As many have pointed out, Mamdani didn't stand apart from our trans brothers and sisters. He didn't play the "Gee, gosh, it sure is complicated," milquetoast moderate card. And he crushed.
The way forward is together, not over the bodies of our own.
The way forward is together, not over the bodies of our own.
November 5, 2025 at 2:52 AM
As many have pointed out, Mamdani didn't stand apart from our trans brothers and sisters. He didn't play the "Gee, gosh, it sure is complicated," milquetoast moderate card. And he crushed.
The way forward is together, not over the bodies of our own.
The way forward is together, not over the bodies of our own.