iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Dr. Ben Mitchell @drlibraryben.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Reason 1629 why I don't like the fact that Telus is my primary healthcare provider.

A screenshot of a login screen from Telus Health, asking if the user would like to share their data with Manulife, an insurance company.

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Dr. Ben Mitchell @drlibraryben.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

10 Years ago today a different Ben Mitchell gained far more notoriety than I.

A screenshot from an old Facebook page. It is a list of trending topics, just bellow Prime Minister's Questions (at 2.7k people talking about this), and Paul Weller (at 8k people talking about this), it Ben Mitchell (1k people talking about this). This is not the same Ben Mitchell as the person currently posting on this account.

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Dr. Ben Mitchell @drlibraryben.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Almost a third of the landscape between Williams Lake and Kamloops looks like this

A burnt forest scene from interior BC. It is a hilly region. Blackened tree trunks bereft of branches litter the landscape, some are fallen, but most remain upright. Burnt out cars are stacked in the foreground.

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Dr. Ben Mitchell @drlibraryben.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

New reaction image courtesy of the BBC series Evolution:

A Digital reconstruction of metaspriggina, an ancient precursor to all vertebrate animals that lived in the Cambrian sea about 500mn years ago © BBC Studios/Moonraker. It is a small, tube-like creature with tiny dot eyes on its forehead and a wide open mouth like the shocked emoji.

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Dr. Ben Mitchell @drlibraryben.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

This is the tone in which I read all emails from universities and other corporation when they're talking about AI during periods of mass layoffs, austerity, and wildfires... especially the emails I am unable to opt out of.

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Dr. Ben Mitchell @drlibraryben.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

Feel like I've been spending my time here a lot lately... like, emotionally (also practically)

A screenshot of a loading screen with far too much white space around a small single sentence. At the top left of the page it reads "Please wait while we transfer you to EBSCO Information Services..."

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Dr. Ben Mitchell @drlibraryben.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

"Impact" metrics, no matter how positive, don't feel like they are often used to actually inform any kind of evidence based decision making, but mainly serve as post hoc rationalizations when a reason is needed for taking something away. It is another form of governance through gaslighting.

A version of the Marge and the Law meme. Two panels. The first panel shows Marge Simpson talking while looking forlorn. She is handcuffed and surrounded by three police officers. Chief Wiggum on the right is smiling and looking at her while holding an ice creme cone in his left hand. The text below her reads: "I thought you said metrics were important?" The second panel is near identical to the first, except Chief Wiggum is talking. The second caption reads: "Important for defunding you, not helping you."

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Dr. Ben Mitchell @drlibraryben.bsky.social · 11/07/2025

Glad to see @smallhistory.bsky.social on BlueSky Celebrating with a copy of one of their first posts that really caught my eye (still don't know what lobster smacking is though) #NovaScotia #Seamonsters #lobstersmacking

A screenshot of an old tweet by Small History NS. Their icon is of a ship. The tweet reads "The Latest sensation here is the appearance of a sea serpent. One fine morning as Mr. B. Conrod was making his rounds 'smacking' lobsters for Smith Bros, he saw what he believes to be a sea serpent, about 30 feet long, swimming on the water quite near his boat. Popes Harbour, Jul 5th 1906.

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Dr. Ben Mitchell @drlibraryben.bsky.social · 30/06/2025

Between workplace surveillance, surveillance capitalism, state surveillance, and social surveillance (the cop in your head and everyone else's), I can't help but keep thinking of this fundamental animal need: Even lizards need hides.

A photo of an artificial reptile hide against a white background made to look like a log with a hole in it. It is affixed to the white with two transparent suction cups. A winding tawny gecko is poking its head and forelegs out of the hole in the artificial log.

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Dr. Ben Mitchell @drlibraryben.bsky.social · 16/05/2025

Going over student feedback from last year and just remembering this gem. This will get me tenure, surely?

A photo of a postit on a faux wooden desk. The postit reads "Your government assigned fursona is a unicorn" with a picture of a smiling face beneath it.

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Dr. Ben Mitchell @drlibraryben.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

After getting covid again in February, I'm finally accepting that it's not like public health is going to get _better_ any time soon. May as well be fancy with it.

A selfie taken in a hallway from a slightly low and askew angle. A figure can be seen from the torso up. They are white with hazel eyes and thick eyebrows. They are wearing a bowler hat and have a slightly wide-eyed expression as if to say "oh well, world's on fire forever I guess." They are also wearing a shiny, starry, cosmic, white stars on a blue background face mask-like scarf that obscures all but their eyes, a purple collared shirt, and a dark grey vest.

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Dr. Ben Mitchell @drlibraryben.bsky.social · 13/04/2025

I think I may have been under-watering my tradescantia. It's flowering much more frequently now.

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Dr. Ben Mitchell @drlibraryben.bsky.social · 24/03/2025

Speaking as an academic librarian, this is my preferred one-shot model:

A promotional image from the indy game "OneShot." It features a pixily text "One Shot" (bottom) beside an anime inspired cat person (top). The cat person has large eyes, a hat that has holes for their ears, overly long sleeves, and a long purple-blue scarf trailing to the left of the image. The "O" in One Shot is a stylized incandescent light bulb.

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Dr. Ben Mitchell @drlibraryben.bsky.social · 16/03/2025

Whenever anyone asks me about my heritage on my mother's side of the family:

An old brown book with gold images and text that is standing virtually up so that it's spine and front cover are facing the viewer. The spine reads "British Goblins, Wirt Sikes, Sampson Low & Co." The cover features an image of a man at a doorway holding a slightly translucent spectre in his arms. The image is framed by rectangles that each have a bat in them, for flavour one assumes.

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Dr. Ben Mitchell @drlibraryben.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

"Registration for Breaking Barriers: APLA Virtual Conference 2025, is now open! Proposal Submission Deadline is March 14, 2025! [Virtual] Click here to visit our website! tinyurl.com/49pkevkb "

A black and white photograph of a bearded person in a flat cap, with thick glasses and a black medical mask. They are wearing a linen collared shirt and are standing with their arms clasped in front of them. There is an elaborate tattoo on the back of their left hand. They are standing in front of a natural history display, a circle of crustaceans with smaller ones radiating out to larger ones. The legs of a Japanese spider crab fan out on either side of them like chitinous wings.

"They help to organize the Neuro-GLAM-erous Discord server and yearly NeuroGLAM conference for neurodivergent gallery, library, archives, and museum (GLAM_ workers. Engaging inspiration!

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Dr. Ben Mitchell @drlibraryben.bsky.social · 01/01/2025

Seventh night of Hannukkah, and the last night of 2024.

A photo of a menora on the 7th night of Hannukkah. The candles are lit. A colorful dreidel lays in front of it.

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Dr. Ben Mitchell @drlibraryben.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

Hate flying. Love being with the people I love.

A photograph of a hawk in the sky carrying away a cartoon version of the autism creature in its talons. The autism creature is looking down expressionless. It is by Tumblr user molabuddy.

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Dr. Ben Mitchell @drlibraryben.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

Honoured to announce that I have been invited to be a keynote speaker at the Atlantic Provinces Library Association's annual conference: Breaking Barriers #APLA2025. The working title is: Rainbows at Night: Neurodiverging Literacy and Librarianship in “the Darkest Timeline”

A poster with text framed with a fragmented collection of dark blue, light blue, and brown triangles. The text reads: APLA: Breaking Barriers/Brisons les Barriéres 2025

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Dr. Ben Mitchell @drlibraryben.bsky.social · 03/10/2024

I've been asked to do an "Academic Integrity in Context" kind of talk.... Not sure they knew what they were getting themselves into.

A screenshot of a keynote slide titled "Not Always a Place of Honour." A bullet point on the left of the slide reads: "The difficult, messy reality is that we're somewhere between "All of this is BS" and "Everything academia says about itself is true." An image on the right displays a pair of red bootyshorts with "This place is not a place of honor" written on the butt, in reference to the "Long-term nuclear waste warning" from the 1993 report by the Sandia National Laboratories.

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Dr. Ben Mitchell @drlibraryben.bsky.social · 24/09/2024

CFP: Fungal Horror and Popular Culture networks.h-net.org/group/discus...

A pixilated picture of Shroom from the SNES game Earthbound. It is an uncanny mushroom man with noodly arms, a kind of melting texture to his body, and a vacant expression. He sits on pixilated patch of green surrounded by smaller mushrooms.

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Dr. Ben Mitchell @drlibraryben.bsky.social · 20/06/2024

Source: Annika Stefanie Reinhold et al., Behavioral and neural correlates of hide-and-seek in rats. Science 365, 1180-1183(2019). DOI:10.1126/science.aax4705

A screenshot from the study featuring two illustrated boxes. The box on the left has the word "Interact" written above it. The illustration in the box shows an abstract human hand tickling the belly of a blobily drawn mouse on its back. The box on the right has "Return" written on it, and is an illustration of human hands returning the mouse to its box.

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Dr. Ben Mitchell @drlibraryben.bsky.social · 11/06/2024

As the campus librarian at a small satellite campus, it's easy to feel more like a mascot than a decision maker... then I realized that if I had to be a mascot, at least I could be the library's Gritty.

An extreme closeup of the face of the Philadelphia Flyers's mascot Gritty. His large orange eyes stare directly at the viewer. His mouth is open.

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Dr. Ben Mitchell @drlibraryben.bsky.social · 07/06/2024

The frequency which with Greg Rutkowski's art is used in AI art was brought up today at #CAPAL24 once again bringing my Magic: The Gathering obsession into these sphere of my professional activity. Though about making a Karn commander deck, but decided to use Alibou, Ancient Witness instead.

The Magic: The Gathering card Karn, Legacy Reforged ( https://scryfall.com/card/mat/49/karn-legacy-reforged )

Alibou, Ancient Witness from Magic: The Gathering (https://scryfall.com/card/c21/7/alibou-ancient-witness)

A four armed bronze looking statue with sculpted robes and hood. Two of it's lower arms have clasped hands. Alibou's top left hand it to its chest, and it's top right hand is holding up a stone head as if it is examining it. Students sit around it taking notes.

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Dr. Ben Mitchell @drlibraryben.bsky.social · 24/05/2024

Ah, how I miss the unique and vibrant culture of Halifax

A poster for a "ShrekRave" The text reads: "ShrekRave: It's dumb just come have fun! Shrek themed rave - June 29th, 2024. "Cool is dead!" "Who cares?" Marquee Ballroom, 2037 Gottingen St, Halifax, NS B3K 3B1, Canada. It it framed in green rave lights and maples leaves. Shrek is standing in the middle of the image with a wide stance, hands out in front of him, almost like jazz hands. His fingertips glow. He is wearing rainbow rave glasses, and a pixelated, smiling Shrek face necklace.

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Dr. Ben Mitchell @drlibraryben.bsky.social · 19/05/2024

When your colleague takes a picture of you sleeping in his talk. (I was mostly awake, like 70% of the talk [non-contiguous] I swear XD)

A vertical image focusing on a bald sleepy librarian in glasses. They wear a black face mask over a KN95. They are leaning back in a chair with their arms crossed, their conference lanyard over their arms, eyes closed. They are wearing a black vest and orange long-sleeved collared shirt.

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Dr. Ben Mitchell @drlibraryben.bsky.social · 05/05/2024

Now for sale at the Haus of Misfit, Kamloops.

A white feminine presenting hand holding up a green key chain against a black, red, and gold pained backdrop. The key chain has a simple picture of a goose on it. Above the goose is written "silly goose club."

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Dr. Ben Mitchell @drlibraryben.bsky.social · 10/04/2024

The deposition of this Musk case is something else, and I've seen some wild ones in my time: www.scribd.com/document/721...

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Dr. Ben Mitchell @drlibraryben.bsky.social · 01/04/2024

When your editor asks you to find reviewers for your manuscript

The scene from Ghost Busters where the team are told to "Choose! Choose the form of the destructor!" It features the four ghostbusters on top of a building looking up at the viewer. Behind them is a night scene of the New York skyline.

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Dr. Ben Mitchell @drlibraryben.bsky.social · 16/02/2024

Skidaddle-skibblety Bloom’s Taximmity

A picture of the Skidaddle Skidoodle wizard from Tumblr

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Dr. Ben Mitchell @drlibraryben.bsky.social · 15/02/2024

And like, it's presented in this "just asking questions" sort of way that feels kind of calculated. They say it gained "a lot of notoriety," which like, might be distancing from it, but doesn't actually say the position is wrong anywhere or mention the much broader discussion around why it's wrong.

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Dr. Ben Mitchell @drlibraryben.bsky.social · 15/02/2024

Introducing Disability Studies (2021) has a deeply disappointing approach to autism. It leans uncritically into functioning labels (pg 17-18) and mentions that autism "might" be caused by vaccines (pg 89). Is this a disability studies vs. critical disability studies thing? Cannot recommend.

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Dr. Ben Mitchell @drlibraryben.bsky.social · 17/10/2023

Did some research last night (Image source: Samuel R. Wells, New Physiognomy, or, Signs of Character, As Manifested Through Temperament and External Forms, and especially in ‘The Human Face Divine,’ 1875.)

A page from Samuel R. Wells' phrenological book "New Physiognomy, or, Signs of Character, As Manifested Through Temperament and External Forms, and especially in ‘The Human Face Divine," Some text with two pictures above it, on the left a drawing of a rather shaggy goose placed beside a human wearing a scruffy top hat labelled "goosey" who is supposed to look like the goose. Bellow the text is a drawing of a rather shaggy fox with an image of a man's face with mutton chops who is supposed to look like the fox. He is labelled "foxy."

A drawing of a caricature of a man who is supposed to resemble a boar, labelled "An Ignorant Boor." Below that are drawing of a head of a wolf and a head of a sheep.

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