iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Dr Beth @drbeth.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

If I could bring a coffee to interviews I would be 100x better. I don't work without a coffee on me at all times, so all those coffee-less interviews aren't really getting me. I don't bc of this attitude.

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Robin Hayward 🌳 🏳️‍⚧️ @canopyrobin.com · 25/09/2026

We're publishing new guidance to support trans people who do fieldwork (any work outside the office)! Now we need your help to get them seen so please share! inclusivefieldwork.leeds.ac.uk/trans/

a cartoon of three fieldworkers. One has a small trans flag. The logos of the university of leeds, research england, and canopy robin are shown, as well as the URL: InclusiveFieldwork (dot) Leeds (dot) AC (dot) UK (slash) trans

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Dr Beth @drbeth.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Woop! Article accepted in the Scottish Journal of Open Research. It's an article about open methods, @protocolsio.bsky.social, and funder open research policy.

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Dr Theresa Oakley @archaetexts.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

c.org/zyLJYVV4sy Petition for a sensible 50p stamp price for Christmas cards! Please sign!

c.org

Sign the Petition

Save Christmas Cards - Urge Royal Mail to introduce a 50p seasonal Christmas stamp

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Dr Beth @drbeth.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

100% - if you share things as supplemental data at the Crick it's not data sharing according to our policy. Because it's nearly always in a form that's difficult to use (tables as pdfs etc.)

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NLISN @nlisn.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

An ode to the organisations that brought you 'Doing More With Less' "Pizza Parties Don’t Fix Burnout”: The State of Librarian Mental Health bookriot.com/the-state-of... #MentalHealth #Wellbeing #Librarian #Library #LIS #Burnout

bookriot.com

"Pizza Parties Don't Fix Burnout": The State of Librarian Mental Health

Library workers are feeling increased pressures to be everything to everyone, and the impact on their mental health matters.

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Ancestral Enquiries - Tony Smith 🌳 @ancestralenq.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

A blue plaque has been unveiled at the National History Museum in Tring, Hertfordshire for palaeontologist, Dorothea Bate. Self taught, she published more than 80 scientific papers, despite spending most of her career without a permanent paid position. 👇 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.uk

Carmarthen fossil hunter Dorothea Bate recognised with blue plaque

Dorothea Bate discovered the dwarf elephant and the myotragus, an extinct goat-like antelope.

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Dr Beth @drbeth.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Finally got around to dyeing some test pieces in my quest to learn about using plants for fabric dyeing. Super pleased with the colour (turmeric). White muslin included in the photo for contrast.

Bright yellow fabric alongside white fabric

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Saloni @scientificdiscovery.dev · 05/09/2026

This is interesting. You get assigned to being born at a random place and time in history, to see what a typical person's life might have been like then. Unfortunately I was born in 1403 in the valley of Mexico and died at age 4 from dysentery.

anyhumanever.com

Any Human Ever

One life, drawn at random from all who have ever lived.

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Dr Beth @drbeth.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Bit of a weird ask - does anyone have copies of CILIP & RLUK conference programmes, with abstracts, from 2025 - 2022? (I already have CILIP 2025 bc that's still on the website) I'm contacting the orgs as well, but thought I'd check here in case any of you are hoarders 😉

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Dr Jamie Gallagher @jamiebgall.co.uk · 02/09/2026

Sadly Dawn won’t be able to join us any more. Good news! There is an opening for someone to come and explore science and Star Trek! As the remaining speakers are all white I’d love to have some other voices included. Recommendations (and self recommendations) very welcome.

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Dr Beth @drbeth.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

A call out to the network - I really like to talk to someone who has worked in prison libraries & has experience of providing LGBTQ+ books in that sector. Is this you? Or do you know someone who I could talk to?

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Dr Beth @drbeth.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

A little bit of writing this morning. Still incredibly behind on the book, and now reaching the stage where I mostly hate it. So that's a fun Saturday for me.

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Dr Beth @drbeth.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Obvs hate this re unions. But also, I've always felt that PGRs were the equivalent of apprentices with the thesis essentially being the apprentice piece. Postdocs = journeymen. Employed by a master but not bound to them. Considered competent. They are workers, and so unionisation is appropriate.

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Margarida Cardoso Moreira @margaridamcm.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Dear #LondonEvoDevo colleagues, don't forget to register for our next meeting (deadline on Sep 15th). It would be wonderful to see a lot of our #Cambridge colleagues.

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Peter Tennant @pwgtennant.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Does the new shingles vaccine (Shingrix) protect against cardiovascular disease (CVD)? Yes, according to a new 'natural experiment' study in @natmed.nature.com. But the truth is sadly far less convincing! Pull up a chair and let's examine another peer review failure in a Nature journal. 1/10 🧵

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Dr Beth @drbeth.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Sometimes I think to myself would I be happier if I ran a book/coffee shop with a microbrewery on the side? And then I remember that would be really stressful, so chances are I wouldn't...

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Dr Beth @drbeth.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Sad to see the what's happening at this place (now Bishop Lincoln). They gave me my first qualified library job, and though I fairly quickly moved on, I will always appreciate the enormous amount of faith they put in me - inviting me to all sorts of pretty senior research committees & REF things.

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Dr Beth @drbeth.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

I just read someone's post about doing the Reading triathlon. Rather than the place, I thought it was the reading triathlon and I was intrigued. Hardback, paperback, audiobook?

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Dr Beth @drbeth.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

I'm not sure it wasn't already, but I'm on board. Writing Star Wars Day as 5/4 rather than specifically May 4th is an abomination though.

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Dr Beth @drbeth.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

After months of back and forth with technical specs and legal agreements I think 🤞I might finally get two projects in place this week. Send me all the good thought y'all!

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FT @fucktheory.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Imagine being talented and beautiful and rich and famous and still the most noteworthy thing about you is how good a person you are.

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Jess McLaughlin, PhD (they/them) @jfmclaughlin92.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

there's not a lot of super rich people who really earned their wealth, and very few who used it to truly make the world better. as much as i love her music, it's that part that i've always loved the most about Dolly Parton

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Dr Beth @drbeth.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Oh no! We lost a seriously good one. RIP Dolly. Here you come again is one of my absolute favourite songs, but then so are many other of her songs... youtu.be/bflkeWVTNk0?...

youtu.be

Dolly Parton - Here You Come Again (Official Audio)

YouTube video by DollyPartonVEVO

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Dr Beth @drbeth.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

The problem with working both Mon and Tues in London is I'm so exhausted by the time I get home that I keep thinking it's Friday 😭

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Hugh Jones @hbsj.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Here's a #HigherEducationPostcard of @dmu.ac.uk Like many UK universities, De Montfort's origins lie in a technical college, enabled by late C19 legislation If you like this image, I’d really appreciate a repost - remember, BlueSky has #NoAlgorithm

An old monochrome picture postcard showing the Technical and Art School, Leicester: its a solid Victorian brick building on an empty street

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Dr Beth @drbeth.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

I would like to be buried with at least one Wheel of Time book, please.

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Dr Beth @drbeth.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Today I'm reading articles pushing back against the transition to ebook from print. While I've been at the Crick we've doubled our print loans, whist ebook stayed at 0 (!). Hoping ebook will now grow with a new collection, but I'm not convinced it's what everyone wants. doi.org/10.1016/j.ac...

doi.org

Redirecting

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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

So normal has the BBC's both-sidesing of far right talking points become that about half the respondents to this post took it seriously.

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Dr Beth @drbeth.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Slightly disappointing day, but I repurposed one of our meeting rooms as an office and have powered through some things. So that's good. Including all the systematic review abstracts @acraftylibrarian.bsky.social @alicecann.bsky.social

A photo taken inside a small meeting room with a laptop and coffee mug on a table and a large screen behind it.

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Dr Beth @drbeth.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

FFS. If you can't be bothered to actually read a book (listening counts), maybe just don't. Read something else. Unless it's a class requirement no one is forcing you to read (or read an AI summary of) Last of the Mohicans.

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Dr Beth @drbeth.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

When I got my ADHD diagnosis they suggested that I could get a personal assistant through access to work. But that seemed a) ridiculously unlikely b) a waste of resources c) far too many forms. But if someone would like to make it magically happen I'm pretty certain it would transform my life!

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Dr Beth @drbeth.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

I keep being sent articles in the LIS field to review that just aren't written as journal articles. I keep thinking about how to create resources/teach in this area, but given there are so many resources out there and people don't seem to be reading them it seems a bit hopeless.

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Dr Beth @drbeth.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Dark when I woke up, raining on the walk down to the station. I couldn't be happier! 🌧 #AutumnPerson

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Richard Oelmann @richardsedtech.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Now you've done it! You know the rules folks!

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Dr Beth @drbeth.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Today's book: Supporting trans people in libraries by Stephen Krueger. Expecting some harsh truths in here, but I'm at least heartened that on the first page it says "Some libraries are doing spelendidly".

A purple book with a cartoon image on the front of books in trans flag colours. The book is in my lap and you can see a cafe behind me.

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Steven J. Gibbons @stevenjgibbons.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

In the continuing onslaught of in-your-face AI, it is now almost impossible to open a scientific paper without an AI-summary coming up. Your first instinct may be “Ah that is useful”, but is it really close to the truth or what the author intended? (contd. - full "rant" on lnkd.in/p/euwbwNgY)

Snapshot of how the article “Improvements to Seismic Monitoring of the European Arctic Using Three-Component Array Processing at SPITS“ by S. J. Gibbons et al. (https://doi.org/10.1785/0120110109) appears on line with an AI-generated summary. The author has highlighted each of the highlights listed by the AI with criticism to how useful it is, even to the point of distracting from the true key points.

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Alice Roberts @profaliceroberts.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

When I see commentators using terms like “DEI” I immediately suspect that they’re trying to ignite a US inspired (and maybe funded?) culture war here. Because the acronym used in the UK is EDI - equality, diversity, inclusion - linked to the equality act 2010. www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/1...

legislation.gov.uk

Equality Act 2010

An Act to make provision to require Ministers of the Crown and others when making strategic decisions about the exercise of their functions to have regard to the desirability of reducing socio-economi...

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Dr Dave Hitchcock @davehitchcock.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

I'm writing a thing about history education and "AI". Myself and another came up with some 'considerations' and I was wondering what people make of them in their current form. All critique appreciated, I'm trying to get to durable and defensible positions.

"Considerations for Large Language Models and the Teaching of History
1. Education is a process, not an event. And a history education is an active process through which we seek to understand our pasts and presents. We encounter history experientially through our senses and by using our memories, and we learn to do history iteratively, through the process of producing it ourselves in various formats.
2. Generative AI models cannot ‘replace’ historical thinking so much as generate a simulacrum of thought. Their use seems to offer shortcuts to a particular outcome. These shortcuts risk the acquisition of historical skills, because they subvert or replace the core processes of ‘doing history’.
3. LLMs potentially save users time by undertaking tasks like tabulating large datasets, surfacing patterns, and computing information, so long as results are carefully checked. But such tasks are to historical research like calculations are to accounting: they might support the practice but cannot inspire critical insight or reflective thought, which are the primary aims of historical scholarship.
4. Therefore, classrooms should first train history students to locate, identify, and describe sources of information and only then to learn the skills to reflect on the selection, organisation, and mining of datasets used by LLMs. "

"5. History teaching should privilege the value of quoting accurately, citing work correctly, paraphrasing sources honestly, and marshalling arguments carefully and specifically. LLM prompt responses do not yet reliably do these things, and may never do so.
6. Unless history students can assess the selection, organisation, and algorithms that power a given LLM, they should treat its outputs as sources of uncertain provenance.
7. Use of LLMs in a history classroom should always be subject to ethical and critical scrutiny, just as with any other source of information.
8. Most widely available large-language models are commercial systems, and administrator control of their parameters, tone, capabilities, acceptable answers, and programming resides with commercial firms. Their use entails significant energy expenditure and environmental degradation. These facts place significant limits on their use and on our ability to undertake the required ethical scrutiny."

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Dr Beth @drbeth.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

It's taken almost a whole year to write the first 20,000 words of my book. Now I've got to more than double that in the next 4 months. That post I made yesterday about becoming a hermit is sounding less like a joke now! #YouShouldBeWriting

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Dr Beth @drbeth.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

For some completely unknown reason this makes me incredibly happy.

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Dr Beth @drbeth.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Doing the personal data training at work and came across this statement "The simplest rule is to always treat people’s data the way you would like other organisations to treat yours or your family’s." That's a stupid rule, I'm incredibly lax about my own data, but know that others aren't.

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Dr Beth @drbeth.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Sensible UKSG proposal rejected, terrifying might be brilliant, might be awful UKSG proposal accepted! Okay then! #UKSG2027

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Dr Beth @drbeth.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

I'm currently back in a new Stardew Valley farm. You wouldn't even need to pay me!

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Marie Le Conte @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 18/08/2026

really does feel, as an ideology, like to them there is A Norm, and you can either obey The Norm and be exactly like everyone else, or you can be A Freak and not be meaningfully welcome in society, and everyone should be trying their hardest to fit The Norm a sad view of the world!

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Dr Beth @drbeth.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Met a friend on my run this morning.

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