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Kirsten the Goblin Keeper @librarykirsten.bsky.social · 18m

This image reminds me that one of the many things I learnt at Edinburgh was that I have the wrong accent for any chant that rhymes "masses" with "classes." Anyway, I've sent a grumpy "as an alumna..." email in support of the UCU dispute and encourage other alumni to do the same.

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University of Nottingham UCU branch @uonucu.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

With two days of strike action under our belts, we now begin over two months of continuous in response to our university's gross financial negligence. Shout out to Notts Solidarity Group for the slides! And @tregenza.bsky.social for the original photos.

67 days of industrial action against course closures and job losses

Why are staff striking?

The University of Nottingham identified a £30 million deficit after wasting £80 million pounds on consultants and vanity projects such as the
‘Castle Meadow’ Campus, which is now unsellable.

Over 3900 staff received notice of risk of redundancy, with 258 administrative
/ professional services roles to be made redundant.

UCU argues that there is now no financial justification for compulsory redundancies.

Student recruitment has been strong, voluntary redundancy has increased, staff have submitted extensive alternative proposals capable of delivering further savings and the university itself is saying it now has a surplus.

Management have refused to rule out further compulsary redundancies and are intent on making students and staff pay for their mistakes by closing courses vital for the East Midlands.

When are staff striking?

Staff at the University of Nottingham Started striking on 30th September and 1st October, as the University’s governing Council met to finalize restructuring plans.

The two-day strike is now followed by sustained strike Action from 5th October TO 11th December.

Support the UCU: email the vice chancellor to tell her what you think of her plans. and Please consider making a donation if you are able. The Local Branch Hardship Fund is maintained to help strikers who will suffer significant hardship from loss of pay due to striking.

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FairLibraryJobs @fairlibraryjobs.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Last time we queried the salary for a "private librarian" it was unexpectedly generous, so do not low ball your pay expectations if applying! We'll email and see if the recruiter will share any more details.

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Dr Beth @drbeth.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

I'm so disappointed and heartbroken at what is happening at Nottingham. I loved working there, first as a biology postdoc, then as a librarian. It's sad to see senior management is so keen to destroy everything that made it beautiful.

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Kirsten the Goblin Keeper @librarykirsten.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

Charitable donations are a drop in the ocean where there should be government funding, but for what it’s worth I’ve been asking to people to give to St Christopher’s Hospice in memory of my father, in memory of his love for my mother, who was cared for there. www.stchristophers.org.uk

Photo of a couple on their wedding day. A man with light brown hair and a beard is kissing the cheek of a dark-haired woman in a wedding dress and veil. She has dimpled and one eye-brow raised.

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Kirsten the Goblin Keeper @librarykirsten.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

It’s a year today since my father died. I‘ve marked it by making crumble to his recipe (2 parts flour, 1 butter, 1 white sugar, topped with brown to caramelise, NO OATS) and teaching a friend Gin Rummy by his rules.

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Kirsten the Goblin Keeper @librarykirsten.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Update my name to be spooky for October but also to accurately reflect my current main occupation as cat furniture.

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Kirsten the Goblin Keeper @librarykirsten.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I dropped by the @uonucu.bsky.social rally yesterday - so lovely to see union pals and their pups! Best of luck for the dispute ✊

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Kirsten the Goblin Keeper @librarykirsten.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Ok that was possibly too many trains, still a little bit feel like I’m moving en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mal_de_...

en.wikipedia.org

Mal de debarquement - Wikipedia

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Nadia Whittome MP @nadiawhittomemp.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Solidarity with @uonucu.bsky.social members once again striking against compulsory redundancies and course closures. Such an outcome would devastate workers, students, and our city, as well as UK research. I urge the university leadership to do the right thing and protect jobs and courses.

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Kirsten the Goblin Keeper @librarykirsten.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

V happy to learn about Sister Smudge, the feline companion of Elspeth King and a union member en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smudge_...

en.wikipedia.org

Smudge (People's Palace cat) - Wikipedia

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University of Nottingham UCU branch @uonucu.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Look, ma! We made the news! Again! Find us handing flyers out on Wednesday and on the picket line on Thursday. Let's show this university what strength means! 💪✊

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Nat Guest @unfortunatalie.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

"My house and his house are two different houses, territories overlaid and overlapping. Our topographies don’t yet mesh; we are both creeping around each other’s edges, living together but apart." My first few weeks with a cat. nothingbutawordbag.substack.com/p/where-a-ca...

Substack preview. Art of two black cats, voids against a floral sofa. Text: Where a cat could sit - on learning to live alone together

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Kirsten the Goblin Keeper @librarykirsten.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

My ex would use "That's an old-fashioned thing to say!" in work contexts as a relatively non-confrontational response that still signaled disagreement.

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Alexander Kasprzyk @amkasprzyk.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

The ability to end these disruptive strikes lies in the hands of @uniofnottingham.bsky.social managers. The staff on strike are trying to save the university and the education of current and future students. #UCU #UKHE www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.uk

Student: University of Nottingham strikes 'not what we signed up for'

The University of Nottingham said it was "disappointed" by the timing of industrial action.

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Peter Kraker @peterkraker.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

❓ I have a question: Why are we still in business with Elsevier in 2026? Academic institutions are committed to democracy, digital sovereignty and environmental sustainability. But do these values also guide purchasing decisions? Let’s look at Elsevier and its wider corporate group 🧵

Two children at a climate protest holding colourful handmade signs. One reads “Fairy dust won’t fix this” and features a drawing of the Earth. The other reads “Princess Elsa says it’s time to act”

Image: Garry Knight / CC0 1.0 Universal

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Violet Fox 🦊 @violetbfox.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

If you've got some time in the next few days, the September #Wikipedia editathon to show solidarity with the new Wikimedia union is behind its goal of editing 10,000 articles. You can help by registering, finding a relevant article, & making it a little better! 📚 meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Event:W...

meta.wikimedia.org

Event:WikiProject Organized Labour Month Online Campaign - Meta-Wiki

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Hannah Shelley, MLIS (Maggots, Lycanthropes & Ice Skeletons) @hannahshelley.site · 13/08/2025

Since search is dead, how soon do you think Google Scholar is headed for the Google Graveyard? I'm betting it's soon, and academia is NOT prepared

hannahshelley.neocities.org

Google Scholar Is Doomed

Academia built entire careers on a free Google service with zero guarantees. What could go wrong?

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Kirsten the Goblin Keeper @librarykirsten.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Just got locked out of Google Scholar on my home network after one (1) search due to "unusual traffic". One of those times I'd rather not be proved right.

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Kirsten the Goblin Keeper @librarykirsten.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Not come across this job title before - Librarian and Emotional Literacy Support Assistant. ELSA seems to be a pretty established scheme - interesting example of how the term "literacy" is being used. www.thepilgrims-school.co.uk/wp-content/u...

thepilgrims-school.co.uk

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Katie Birkwood @girlinthe.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

More digital systems doom. National data provided through a third-party that goes bust and boom! Of course, national data provided through unmaintained internal systems can also go boom! The solution? People to maintain the stuff!

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Kirsten the Goblin Keeper @librarykirsten.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Solidarity to all @ucuedinburgh.bsky.social! I did my Masters there and had an incredible year, the staff were so wonderful and supportive.

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👻madeline bOoOoOoOodent👻 @oldenoughtosay.com · 27/09/2026

please use relevant key words WITHOUT ASTERISKS in your posts for those of us with content filters okay thanks

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Ned Potter @nedpotter.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Imagine five-years-ago-you hearing that *this* company, the company that did this stuff below, is the one the Bodleian have **partnered with** in order to let it train its model on their materials. You’d think it like something from dystopian sci-fi (and it basically is).

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Kirsten the Goblin Keeper @librarykirsten.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I personally would not take an iced coffee into an interview because of that time interviewers plonked a medieval book of hours in front of me with no warning. (The job spec did not mention knowledge of medieval books, I sort of knew what it was but didn’t want to guess and it completely threw me)

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University of Nottingham UCU branch @uonucu.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Our massive strike action for the fall begins on Wednesday, but we will be facing some intense financial hardship to do so. Please consider supporting our members by donating to our solidarity fund. www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding...

justgiving.com

Help raise £10000 to support the Nottingham UCU hardship fund – JustGiving Crowdfunding

Iʼm raising money to support the Nottingham UCU hardship fund. Support this JustGiving Crowdfunding Page.

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Kirsten the Goblin Keeper @librarykirsten.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I have a memory of a @cursedobjectsuk.bsky.social episode discussing “dark tourism“ but can’t find it from the episode descriptions - anyone know which it might be? Thinking about it in light of Auschwitz cafe lady and also my own current travels.

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Kirsten the Goblin Keeper @librarykirsten.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

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University of Nottingham UCU branch @uonucu.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

“If you can’t take significant action when there are 750 [people’s] jobs on the line in this job market, then I don’t really know when you can.” www.timeshighereducation.com/news/uk-univ...

timeshighereducation.com

UK universities face autumn of chaos as ‘prolonged’ strikes planned

Unprecedentedly long strikes at Nottingham, Edinburgh and Dundee could be the shape of things to come, observers say

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 19/09/2026

When we talk about the costs that LLMs impose on society we should not forget the fact that nothing works anymore because everyone is so scared of getting their shit scraped. I can't even use google scholar from my university or starlink because they send too much traffic.

Google
Sorry...
We're sorry...

... but your computer or network may be sending automated queries. To protect our users, we can't process your request right now.
See Google Help for more information.

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Mike Rowe @mikerrowe.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

If you can, put yourself forward to be a union rep - there is more case work at the moment in UK HEIs than your reps can handle.

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University of Nottingham UCU branch @uonucu.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

With strike action set to begin in a week and a half, here is a quick overview of what is happening at your university, why it is happening, what UCU is doing about it, and how you can support us as we fight for the future of UoN. #UCU #UoN #UoNUCU #UniversityOfNotting #StopTheCuts #SaveHE

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Daniel C. Blight @danielcblight.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

***URGENT PLEASE SHARE*** University of Brighton management have announced today that they ‘give notice of termination of all collective agreements’. This is a fundamental erasure of workers' rights. Management have announced the termination of all contractual documents, which includes:

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Kirsten the Goblin Keeper @librarykirsten.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

I think I've been added to another starter pack so just I reminder I'm not a librarian any more, also haven't been a book-librarian for some years, last job was all databases and spreadsheets and metrics.

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Julia Laite @julialaite.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Anyone working in the sector already knows, but still good to see it in black & white. Professional services *people*--not just interchangeable hubs of administration--are essential to a good university. Their institutional knowledge has been consistently undervalued & their loss is catastrophic.

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Violet Fox 🦊 @violetbfox.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

📣 Brand new zine published to celebrate Labor Day: "Don’t Cross the Picket Line : Strike Solidarity for Beginners." Free to print or read online at violetbfox.info/dontcross/. This 24-page zine was created for anyone who's *not* part of a union and doesn't know much about unions or strikes.

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It's Pipes, Mum! Pipes is here! @scriblit.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

For UK & RoI based authors, illustrators etc etc only, but loads of people don't know this. NEVER feel bad getting a book from the library! We get paid! Really quite well! PLR money is a real help for small-mid range authors!

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Kirsten the Goblin Keeper @librarykirsten.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Completely agree! I’d also say if you have a niche hobby that involves a lot of specialist stuff or things that require maintenance, e.g. a boat or bees, make sure you have a designated niche hobby friend who has agreed to help out. I will be forever grateful to my dad’s beekeeping friends.

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👻madeline bOoOoOoOodent👻 @oldenoughtosay.com · 07/09/2026

Having now dealt with the deaths of two parents within two months, let me just say that the kindest thing you can do for your loved ones, at every stage of life, is assume that some of them will outlive you, and make that as easy as possible for them, logistically. it sucks and it's morbid, but.

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Kirsten the Goblin Keeper @librarykirsten.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Spent a v happy hour in the cafe at at Nottingham Contemporary going through the zine library and left them all neatly arranged with my favourites out on the shelves.

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Ben @cinemashoebox.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

everyone is going insane for this but it's a slop machine. the first character i rolled was a child who died in 5th century BCE Iran and the site generated me a picture of "his home" which had drainpipes and telephone wires. fuck this.

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Kirsten the Goblin Keeper @librarykirsten.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Also absolutely loved Shannon Chakraborty’s Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi and Tapestries of Fate, and have the new Frances Hardinge on request from the library. I really feel like I’m living in a golden age of fantasy written for me specifically.

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Kirsten the Goblin Keeper @librarykirsten.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

This does make me feel better about the using an old wet wipes box with a broken lid for the Family Treasures

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Charlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Writers! There’s an ongoing scam (that everyone has probably experienced by now tbh) which involves AI-written invitations to book clubs and literary festivals. Only now they’re using real literary festivals and signing emails from real people. So: beware.

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Lisa Rullsenberg @rullsenberg.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Our Branch President laying it out for the @uonucu.bsky.social dispute to save jobs. Thanks all!

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Tracy @tcshields.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Another day, another #medlibs job posting where the hourly rate/salary is abysmally low, like insultingly so. Especially for position that requires a Masters degree and is full time. DO BETTER, libraries and library leadership.

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Caroline Ball @heroicendeavour.eurosky.social · 01/09/2026

Call for speakers! We are looking for speakers for the @nlisn.bsky.social event 'Intersections: Identity, Neurodivergence & Library/Information Work', in-person at City St George's, London, 21 Oct 2026. Deadline for submissions is 22 Sept, link below. First-time speakers especially welcome! 📚

forms.gle

Intersections: Identity, Neurodivergence, and Library & Information Work - Call for Speakers

We are inviting proposals for contributions to an in-person one-day event exploring intersectionality and neurodivergence in library and information work, taking place at City St George's University i...

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