Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Nancy Foasberg @nfoasberg.bsky.social · 21d

I think there was a Judge John Hodgman episode about him!

Reposted by Nancy Foasberg

Amanda Watson @amndw2.bsky.social · 23d

You know what else is being affected by the tariffs on parcels worth less than $800? International interlibrary loan. I'm hearing reports of libraries overseas that won't lend to the US anymore. (That's in addition to the libraries here that have shut down their ILL b/c of lost IMLS funding.)

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Nancy Foasberg @nfoasberg.bsky.social · 22d

Peter Suber making some great points about how Green OA can counteract censorship <3 #nisoplus25

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Matthew Noe @noethematt.bsky.social · Aug 11

Apparently we didn't learn our lesson from working with Google books

These partnerships are extractive and never end well

www.iowapublicradio.org/news-from-np...

Boston Public Library aims to increase access to a vast historic archive using AI

The library is launching a project in collaboration with Harvard Law School and OpenAI this summer to digitize the materials and make them more fully searchable.

www.iowapublicradio.org

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Reposted by Nancy Foasberg

Miriam Posner @miriamposner.com · Aug 5

It is abhorrent that these functionaries, many of whom have never visited a college classroom, can change the context and content of my job without anyone’s consent, least of all mine.

Jaweed Kaleem @jaweedkaleem.bsky.social · Aug 5

NEW: Senior UCLA and University of California officials say they will negotiate with the Trump administration over lifting $339 million in medical and science grant freezes. No decision has been made about terms of an agreement, including a potential fine www.latimes.com/california/s...

UCLA will negotiate with Trump over $339 million in medical and science grant freezes

UCLA and University of California officials said Monday that it will negotiate with Trump over $339 million in medical and science grant freezes.

www.latimes.com

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Cody Mejeur @cmejeur.bsky.social · Jul 25

Historiographies of Game Studies is now published open access with @punctumbooks.bsky.social ! This massive collection examines why game studies is the way it is, and how it might change and grow in the future. Congrats to all contributors, and please share!

punctumbooks.com/titles/histo...

Historiographies of Game Studies: What It Has Been, What It Could Be – punctum books

punctumbooks.com

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Donna Lanclos @donnalanclos.com · Jul 22

"Uncritically adopting AI tools in discovery systems will perpetuate, if not exacerbate, existing biases and suppression of minoritized people. Try this safer topic. Try this approved topic. Try this unobstructed topic"

Alice Cann @alicecann.bsky.social · Jul 22

Just read this - it was shared on LinkedIn. ‘To my users, “we couldn’t generate an answer for your question” translates to “your topic is not worthy of pursuing—change it.”’ While it’s nice to think that students will come & ask when they don’t find results, many won’t.

And the blocking of content…

“We Couldn’t Generate an Answer for your Question” - ACRLog

Editor’s note: We welcome a guest blog post from Jay Singley, Document Delivery and Circulation Desk Manager at North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics. In March 2025, Ex Libris unveiled thei...

acrlog.org

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Reposted by Nancy Foasberg

michelle⁷ @poisonivy47.bsky.social · Jul 21

is your workplace trying to force ai on you? is a family member giving ai too much power in their life? are you sick of billionaires destroying the environment and making life worse for everyone? here's a list of resources 10+ pages long to help you fight back: docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Questioning AI Resource List

Excellent summary of major problems with companies’ focus on AI written by expert in machine learning: https://ludic.mataroa.blog/blog/i-will-fucking-piledrive-you-if-you-mention-ai-again/ Another g...

docs.google.com

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Reposted by Nancy Foasberg

librarypunk @librarypunk.bsky.social · Jul 15

not a libguide but this was suggested: acrlog.org/2025/06/11/a...

AI Refusal in Libraries: A Starter Guide - ACRLog

This week I was on a panel at the Generative AI in Libraries (GAIL) virtual conference. Along with my fellow panelists Andrea Baer and Emily Zerrenner, I joined moderator Sarah Appedu to discuss the c...

acrlog.org

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Reposted by Nancy Foasberg

petersuber @petersuber.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · Jul 2

Springer Nature makes clear that federally-funded authors who want to publish in SN journals will have to pay #APCs.
https://www.springernature.com/gp/open-science/us-federal-agency-compliance

Submitting articles to one of SN's non-OA or subscription-based journals, to avoid the APC, is not an […]

Original post on fediscience.org

fediscience.org

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Reposted by Nancy Foasberg

Jess McLaughlin, PhD (they/them) @jfmclaughlin92.bsky.social · Jun 11

ooooh new paper out today. a couple of years ago a big group of us were like "hey let's spend a few weeks painstakingly looking up the sources of every official bird common name" and as of today, you too can join us in our ornitholetymological (yes i made that up) rabbit-hole:

AvianLexiconAtlas: A database of descriptive categories of English-language bird names around the world

Common names of species are important for communicating with the general public. In principle, these names should provide an accessible way to engage with and identify species. The common names of spe...

journals.plos.org

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Miriam Posner @miriamposner.com · May 29

This is really the perfect use of generative AI: to create a report whose purpose is solely to exist as A Report, which no one is supposed to read because no one involved in its creation even pretends to have the slightest genuine interest in the actual facts at issue.

Sarah Todd @sarah-todd.bsky.social · May 29

Seven of the sources cited in MAHA commission's report do not exist:

“The paper cited is not a real paper that I or my colleagues were involved with," says one researcher.

www.notus.org/health-scien...

The MAHA Report Cites Studies That Don’t Exist

The Trump administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” report misinterprets some studies and cites others that don’t exist, according to the listed authors.

www.notus.org

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Reposted by Nancy Foasberg

David William @nrvscrcts.bsky.social · May 27

Academic publishing is a field that requires precision. Generative AI makes errors. It is a virtually useless type of tool for tasks that require precision, like academic publishing.

Annalisa Nicholson @apuddleofmuddle.bsky.social · May 27

Academia in 2025: For weeks I’ve been working through botched copy-edits of my monograph, outsourced by the publisher to a company I’d never heard of, until it finally dawned on me the terrible job might be AI. A quick search confirmed the company recently launched new AI software, which now means..

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Reposted by Nancy Foasberg

Alondra Nelson @alondra.bsky.social · May 13

"For me, the answer now lies in refusal, the withdrawal of participation from systems that require dishonesty as the price of belonging."

Today I am resigning from the National Science Board and the Library of Congress Scholars Council.

I wrote about my decision in TIME.

time.com/7285045/resi...

Why I’m Resigning from the NSF and Library of Congress

I cannot participate in systems that require dishonesty as the price of belonging.

time.com

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Ryan Cordell @ryancordell.org · May 12

Some sad confirmation from @bcgl.bsky.social while I was at UW last week—the National Digital Newspaper Program—which builds Chronicling America—has been shut down

Historical newspapers are probably the archival material most used by the general public—for genealogy, local history—it’s such a loss

About this Collection | Chronicling America | Digital Collections | Library of Congress

Search America's Historic Newspaper Pages through 1963 Please Note: The Library of Congress has transitioned the longstanding Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers website to this new digi...

www.loc.gov

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Oona Hathaway @oonahathaway.bsky.social · May 10

The firing of the Librarian of Congress is worse than many appreciate. The Librarian is appointed for a ten year term by the president with the advice and consent of the Senate. The position is nonpartisan and runs the critically important Congressional Research Service.

www.npr.org/2025/05/09/n...

Librarian of Congress firing is latest move in upheaval of U.S. cultural institutions

President Trump fired Carla Hayden, the Librarian of Congress, via email late Thursday night, the latest in a string of actions the president has taken to shape American cultural institutions.

www.npr.org

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Andromeda Yelton @thatandromeda.bsky.social · May 9

For the nonlibrarians who follow me, I wish you could have felt *how excited* my library colleagues were when Carla Hayden was nominated. So respected for her work as a big-city library director & ALA president, back when ALA stood up against the Patriot Act. Impeccable library & leadership cred. 1/

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Mary Rizzo @maryrizzo.bsky.social · May 9

She was also the director of Baltimore's library system when Freddie Gray was murdered by police and kept the libraries open during the "riot" because community members needed a safe place to go. That ethic of care is just not welcome in our federal government anymore.

Emily Drabinski @edrabinski.bsky.social · May 9

Carla Hayden was president of the @amlibraryassoc.bsky.social when ours was one of few organized voices opposed to the USA PATRIOT Act.

Librarians have been fired all across the federal government, gutting not just ours but the world’s intellectual infrastructure. Devastating.

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Roxanne Shirazi @roxanneshirazi.bsky.social · May 7

That’s right, folks. A “research” article in the top journal of my field that gets away with citing a bunch of trade books and popular press because there’s no such thing as the scholarship of race and ethnicity once you enter a library workplace, it’s all just ~opinions~

Jess Schomberg @schomj.bsky.social · May 7

If you read this article at a superficial level, it's confusing.

If you try to really understand what's being said, it's probably the most intellectually dishonest article I've seen since.... the last time I read a piece of conservative media that pretended to be moderate, I guess?

Respecting Privacy of Thought in DEI Training | Antelman | College & Research LibrariesAntelman

Respecting Privacy of Thought in DEI Training

crl.acrl.org

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Emily Zhou @emializh.bsky.social · May 1

every gender transition is a statement in favor of human possibility and freedom and i’m tired of hearing it talked about like it’s some kind of disease

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aj boston @aj-boston.bsky.social · Apr 30

anakin: our library buys access to thousands of journals in subjects taught at our institution, in case our researchers need them

padme: so you sponsor these ten diamond open access journals in subjects taught at our institution in case our researchers needs those articles

anakin:

padme: you sponsor diamond open access, right?

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Reposted by Nancy Foasberg

Miriam Posner @miriamposner.com · Apr 24

They’re taking *our* investment—the money that we spent months writing grants for, the hours and hours we all spent reviewing each others’ work, the money that was supposed to go to libraries and community groups—and blowing it on this nonsense.

Rob Townsend @rbtownsend.bsky.social · Apr 24

“the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is pleased to announce a special funding opportunity to support the design and creation of statues of important American historical figures for the planned National Garden of American Heroes.” bit.ly/42KlpCz

NEH Announces Grant Opportunity to Create Statues of Iconic Americans for the National Garden of American Heroes

bit.ly

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Maura Smale 😷💉 @maurasmale.bsky.social · Apr 16

Search extended, join us in the CUNYverse, academic librarians! Brooklyn College is hiring an Eresources Librarian, Instructor or Asst Prof! Info here: cuny.jobs/brooklyn-ny/... (and feel free to ask me ?s)

Jobs | City University of New York

cuny.jobs

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Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · Apr 11

Google et al were hungry for these more-difficult-to-process objects, such as paintings, on which to train their models. Museums were happy to partner with them as they splashed out money on digitizing their holdings and for the promise of "coolness" and relevance derived from association with tech.

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Roxanne Shirazi @roxanneshirazi.bsky.social · Apr 5

Oh my god this is everything

Molly @mollyjune.bsky.social · Apr 5

Here's my lightning talk about AI at #acrl2025 this morning. Thanks to @nicoloff.bsky.social for recording.

youtu.be/H2UdS1MqH8w?...

Take a Breath. Most Students Don't Need AI Skills

YouTube video by Molly June Roquet

youtu.be

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