LibraryThingTim
@librarythingtim.bsky.social
LibraryThing founder. Father, hacker, bibliophile, ex-classicist, Mainer, Catholic. I tweet books, libraries, technology, culture.
LibraryThing: @librarything.com
LibraryThing: @librarything.com
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Talpa Search is BETTER! We've released a big upgrade to @LibraryThing's groundbreaking new library search, with significant advances on "What's that book?" benchmark searches. 🧵
FWIW, I'm pretty damn proud of this work. Every percent improvement in the quality score was a struggle. There are some genuinely new ideas underneath here, but also a lot of experimenting, testing, tuning, and running things over and over!
I wonder if that's Whole Foods, or sorting and delivery alone.
November 30, 2025 at 4:52 PM
I wonder if that's Whole Foods, or sorting and delivery alone.
Just confirmed: I'm going to the Guadalajara International Book Fair in early December. Anyone else attending?
November 27, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Just confirmed: I'm going to the Guadalajara International Book Fair in early December. Anyone else attending?
Reposted by LibraryThingTim
Canadian Soul: "Aretha Franklin considered Anne Shirley somewhat of a kindred spirit, and was quoted saying 'Anne of Green Gables' was one of her 'favourite things.'" #CanLit #BookSky www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
Why Aretha Franklin found a kindred spirit in Anne of Green Gables | CBC News
Aretha Franklin considered Anne Shirley somewhat of a kindred spirit, and was quoted saying Anne of Green Gables was one of her "favourite things."
www.cbc.ca
November 20, 2025 at 12:18 AM
Canadian Soul: "Aretha Franklin considered Anne Shirley somewhat of a kindred spirit, and was quoted saying 'Anne of Green Gables' was one of her 'favourite things.'" #CanLit #BookSky www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
Thing that irritates me: Turks on social media correcting me I have to call their country "Türkiye." I call it that when I speak Turkish, of course, but Turks can't get huffy when they call Germany "Almanya," not Deutschland, Albania "Arnavutluk," not Shqipëria, Greece "Yunanistan," etc.
November 20, 2025 at 12:27 AM
Thing that irritates me: Turks on social media correcting me I have to call their country "Türkiye." I call it that when I speak Turkish, of course, but Turks can't get huffy when they call Germany "Almanya," not Deutschland, Albania "Arnavutluk," not Shqipëria, Greece "Yunanistan," etc.
Does anyone go to the Guadalajara International Book Fair? I don't have any Spanish. How many vendors will be able to talk to me?
November 19, 2025 at 6:11 PM
Does anyone go to the Guadalajara International Book Fair? I don't have any Spanish. How many vendors will be able to talk to me?
That thing where serious devotees call it "caving" not "spelunking" needs to be opposed. It's spelunking and they're spelunkers. You don't get to change the word, especially when it's so great.
November 19, 2025 at 5:56 PM
That thing where serious devotees call it "caving" not "spelunking" needs to be opposed. It's spelunking and they're spelunkers. You don't get to change the word, especially when it's so great.
I'm in NYC for 2-3 days. Any bookish events or places I should be going to?
November 19, 2025 at 5:52 PM
I'm in NYC for 2-3 days. Any bookish events or places I should be going to?
How many of you get these emails from Nextdoor? It's such a shitty pattern to present a tiny, tiny bit of the message, so you click it. When someone messages you on LibraryThing, you get the whole message in your email. If you don't want to go to LibraryThing, okay.
November 18, 2025 at 4:22 PM
How many of you get these emails from Nextdoor? It's such a shitty pattern to present a tiny, tiny bit of the message, so you click it. When someone messages you on LibraryThing, you get the whole message in your email. If you don't want to go to LibraryThing, okay.
I'm not sure I trust this algorithm.
November 18, 2025 at 4:55 AM
I'm not sure I trust this algorithm.
1/2 What is it like to learn Greek and Latin these days? I had basically no tech when I did; looking up words was such a pain, you really had an incentive to memorize. Or you could read with a Loeb, but I found that a VERY mixed blessing. Perseus existed, but it as clunky and slow. I never used it.
November 11, 2025 at 10:51 PM
1/2 What is it like to learn Greek and Latin these days? I had basically no tech when I did; looking up words was such a pain, you really had an incentive to memorize. Or you could read with a Loeb, but I found that a VERY mixed blessing. Perseus existed, but it as clunky and slow. I never used it.
I'm sorry to find out that the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty has failed. My condolences to the former resident of this smoking crater.
November 10, 2025 at 11:57 PM
I'm sorry to find out that the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty has failed. My condolences to the former resident of this smoking crater.
I was going to post a chart showing the crushing decline of many PHP and Perl books on LibraryThing, but actually ALL programming books fell off a cliff.
Confirmation of what we all know: People don't read programming books anymore.
Confirmation of what we all know: People don't read programming books anymore.
November 10, 2025 at 11:45 PM
I was going to post a chart showing the crushing decline of many PHP and Perl books on LibraryThing, but actually ALL programming books fell off a cliff.
Confirmation of what we all know: People don't read programming books anymore.
Confirmation of what we all know: People don't read programming books anymore.
Reposted by LibraryThingTim
This is a nightmare for comics
So every freelancer you know is going to lose their insurance or be bankrupted by premiums because Schumer is an invertebrate
November 10, 2025 at 10:50 AM
This is a nightmare for comics
RAILS consortium posts that their Baker and Taylor "Boundless" app will be defunct on November 17. Is that everyone's Boundless app? Is it other B&T products, like Content Cafe? Any anyone gotten any info on… anything?https://ereadillinois.com/transition?utm_source=chatgpt.com
2025 Boundless Transition | eRead Illinois
ereadillinois.com
November 10, 2025 at 8:22 PM
RAILS consortium posts that their Baker and Taylor "Boundless" app will be defunct on November 17. Is that everyone's Boundless app? Is it other B&T products, like Content Cafe? Any anyone gotten any info on… anything?https://ereadillinois.com/transition?utm_source=chatgpt.com
Who will end of the patron saint of AI?
FWIW: Isidore of Seville has been considered—and if often said to have been named—the patron saint of the internet, but that was a bad, early-internet idea. The internet did not turn out to be a big enyclopedia (Isidore's thing), but a communication device.
FWIW: Isidore of Seville has been considered—and if often said to have been named—the patron saint of the internet, but that was a bad, early-internet idea. The internet did not turn out to be a big enyclopedia (Isidore's thing), but a communication device.
November 10, 2025 at 3:10 AM
Who will end of the patron saint of AI?
FWIW: Isidore of Seville has been considered—and if often said to have been named—the patron saint of the internet, but that was a bad, early-internet idea. The internet did not turn out to be a big enyclopedia (Isidore's thing), but a communication device.
FWIW: Isidore of Seville has been considered—and if often said to have been named—the patron saint of the internet, but that was a bad, early-internet idea. The internet did not turn out to be a big enyclopedia (Isidore's thing), but a communication device.
There's much that's excellent in this book. Even the doomer stuff is interesting. But when it gets into AI's effects on squishy things, like society or international politics, I want to hide from vicarious embarrassment. www.librarything.com/work/3384443...
The Scaling Era: An Oral History of AI, 2019–2025 by Dwarkesh Patel
The Scaling Era: An Oral History of AI, 2019–2025 by Dwarkesh Patel
www.librarything.com
November 10, 2025 at 2:35 AM
There's much that's excellent in this book. Even the doomer stuff is interesting. But when it gets into AI's effects on squishy things, like society or international politics, I want to hide from vicarious embarrassment. www.librarything.com/work/3384443...
1/ The great thing about OpenAI's API batch processing is that it's so insanely fast. In theory it's the reverse--things can take up to 24 hours--but in my experience they rarely take 30 minutes, and you can submit thousands of prompts in a batch and as many batches as you like.
November 10, 2025 at 2:26 AM
1/ The great thing about OpenAI's API batch processing is that it's so insanely fast. In theory it's the reverse--things can take up to 24 hours--but in my experience they rarely take 30 minutes, and you can submit thousands of prompts in a batch and as many batches as you like.
1/4 More naive AI musing, in case anyone wants to answer.
It seems to me the big question is "Can a machine trained on data produced by human intelligences achieve super-human intelligence?" (Ignore for the moment my glib use of intelligence.)
It seems to me the big question is "Can a machine trained on data produced by human intelligences achieve super-human intelligence?" (Ignore for the moment my glib use of intelligence.)
November 8, 2025 at 6:11 AM
1/4 More naive AI musing, in case anyone wants to answer.
It seems to me the big question is "Can a machine trained on data produced by human intelligences achieve super-human intelligence?" (Ignore for the moment my glib use of intelligence.)
It seems to me the big question is "Can a machine trained on data produced by human intelligences achieve super-human intelligence?" (Ignore for the moment my glib use of intelligence.)
Since 2022, LLMs have jumped ahead in astounding ways. Let's call that a 10. How would we characterize improvements in image interpretation (medical, military, self-driving, etc.)—a 3? 5?
November 8, 2025 at 5:52 AM
Since 2022, LLMs have jumped ahead in astounding ways. Let's call that a 10. How would we characterize improvements in image interpretation (medical, military, self-driving, etc.)—a 3? 5?
Idea: Signed-in LibraryThing members will of course get full data. But Google and other search engines can get different pages. Let's hide books by publishers that don't make their data public. Clearly you don't want people to find your books.
I don't understand why publishers don't just put their ONIX online. We have to jump through hoops to get covers and so forth—the basic promotional info publishers should be BEGGING people to use. Sage just denied LibraryThing ONIX access. This helps them how?!
November 7, 2025 at 5:06 PM
Idea: Signed-in LibraryThing members will of course get full data. But Google and other search engines can get different pages. Let's hide books by publishers that don't make their data public. Clearly you don't want people to find your books.
I don't understand why publishers don't just put their ONIX online. We have to jump through hoops to get covers and so forth—the basic promotional info publishers should be BEGGING people to use. Sage just denied LibraryThing ONIX access. This helps them how?!
November 7, 2025 at 5:03 PM
I don't understand why publishers don't just put their ONIX online. We have to jump through hoops to get covers and so forth—the basic promotional info publishers should be BEGGING people to use. Sage just denied LibraryThing ONIX access. This helps them how?!
Any company that uses AI to evaluate resumes is begging to be sued, but it will probably matter whether your company KNEW that AIs were prone to this.
So… whoops, this is on your timeline and you know it now. :)
So… whoops, this is on your timeline and you know it now. :)
Is this the "democratization" hypers promised?
When ChatGPT was asked to rate 40,000 résumés, it ranked the older male candidates as better quality than the younger female applicants.
November 3, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Any company that uses AI to evaluate resumes is begging to be sued, but it will probably matter whether your company KNEW that AIs were prone to this.
So… whoops, this is on your timeline and you know it now. :)
So… whoops, this is on your timeline and you know it now. :)
Have people done LLM prompt battles? For example, five players each get a color, and write a prompt. The goal is to get the LLM to say your color *last*.
November 3, 2025 at 4:41 AM
Have people done LLM prompt battles? For example, five players each get a color, and write a prompt. The goal is to get the LLM to say your color *last*.
This is a good idea and we'll be doing it. But you can also just connect with your local food bank. They're set up to deal with donations of stuff and money, and people who need their services are going to be showing up in greater numbers.
📣 IF YOU HAVE A LITTLE FREE LIBRARY TURN IT INTO A COMMUNITY PANTRY ASAP IF YOU ARE ABLE
October 30, 2025 at 3:44 AM
This is a good idea and we'll be doing it. But you can also just connect with your local food bank. They're set up to deal with donations of stuff and money, and people who need their services are going to be showing up in greater numbers.
Looks like this explains the Baker and Taylor Content Cafe outage today. Did anyone get an incident report from them?
I've found out through a colleague that Baker & Taylor does indeed use Azure and that it's being attributed as the cause of the issues with Content Cafe.
October 30, 2025 at 3:40 AM
Looks like this explains the Baker and Taylor Content Cafe outage today. Did anyone get an incident report from them?