Riley did a very good blog about this as a Library Science nerd that’s worth reading aftermath.site/google-searc...

Sorry chatbot lovers but the waning of Boolean operators in most search functions on websites has made my life actively worse. You can't find anything, you can only have things suggested to you.

I was thinking, fondly, of boolean search yesterday. not only is it a superior way to query Internet archives, it’s also an example of academia and k-12 being as nimble and tech forward as AI boosters claim they want us to be. We pivoted very efficiently on Google search. And now it’s dead.

Chris Person@papapishu.bsky.social · 4d ago

Sorry chatbot lovers but the waning of Boolean operators in most search functions on websites has made my life actively worse. You can't find anything, you can only have things suggested to you.

A year ago, I wrote about the court case that decided AI companies were off the hook for copyright vios for any books they legally bought, scanned and set on fire. Not defending Anthropic, but let’s be real: copyright law is to blame for this weirdness. www.techpolicy.press/in-copyright...

In Copyright ‘Wins’ for Anthropic and Meta, Judges Leave Ample Room for Future Defeats

Given the case-by-case nature of fair use findings, a legal consensus in the short term is unlikely, writes Tech Policy Press fellow Eryk Salvaggio.

techpolicy.press

Libraries are still essential in the digital age. Some librarians are even helping patrons ditch AI and get off Big Tech. This week Hannah Cyrus and @flexlibris.bsky.social join @parismarx.com to discuss how libraries address people’s concerns about tech. Full ep: techwontsave.us/episode/338_...

This is what Kamloops looks like right now while the liberals are building more pipelines and data centers

“Most people understand [we must reduce] global emissions of greenhouse gases fast or we are in deep trouble in the long term (20-30 years). However... heating is happening much faster than predicted. The average global temperature [expected by] around 2035 is actually here now.”

The Chronicle Herald@thechronicleherald.bsky.social · 2mo ago

GWYNNE DYER: It’s not the weather. It’s the climate www.saltwire.com/opinion/gwyn...

The 2026 Librarians' Research Institute has wrapped up! Thank you to our 16 participants and our incredible peer mentors for four inspiring days of learning, collaboration, and research at the University of New Brunswick. We can't wait to see what comes next!

This just in: companies need to be a viable business to survive. Who knew?

can’t believe a narcissist is being so publicly humiliated by a reflecting pool

It’s impossible to get, say, a full time washroom attendant in Toronto to keep them nice. On example. Everything declines except the police supply of public money.

Shawn Micallef@shawnmicallef.bsky.social · 2mo ago

The police demanded full time paid duty. The greatest legal shakedown in Ontario. www.thestar.com/news/gta/cit...

Last month two library workers reached out to Public Collectors to ask about making a booklet version of Fobazi Ettarh's essay "Vocational Awe and Librarianship: The Lies We Tell Ourselves" for a Celebration of Life event. We did, and it is now available for all: halfletterpress.com/vocational-a...

*screams in Indigenous*

It's the most radical change in my 26 Toronto years. I hop on & off at my pleasure, total freedom. Walk a while, take toddler/stroller to daycare, the hop on a bike. Off. On. Last evening had an event at Carlu. Ebiked to baby, took him home, change into suit, hoped on ebike, back downtown. 👏

The Rundown@therundowntvo.bsky.social · 2mo ago

"Bike Share Toronto is an impressive success story: a public policy that for a relative pittance has blossomed into a substantial way to move people around... in a way that doesn’t add to car congestion or require billion-dollar decades-long construction projects." — @jm-mcgrath.bsky.social

Congratulations to the inaugural cohort of the FLOURISH Leadership Program on receiving their certificates at the President’s Reception! We look forward to seeing your continued impact across Canada’s research library community. @megalos1.bsky.social @mutwirib.bsky.social @biblioqc.bsky.social

“Du Bois insists that technologies absent political safeguards are not emancipatory but instead reinforced hierarchies of race, class, and empire.” Important new read from @alondra.bsky.social on AI

Alondra Nelson@alondra.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Three things said about AI and social science: it's a topic to study, a thing to critique, a tool to use. My new Daedalus essay argues these aren't three conversations; they're one. A 🧵 on "Field Theory: AI as Social Science Question, Object, and Tool." www.amacad.org/publication/...

Wikimedia Foundation just fired a long time lead developer of MediaWiki as well as its entire community team for unionizing. If you’re a donor, email donate@wikimedia.org to protest this move. medium.com/@jakeorlowit...

Big Tech’s Anti-Labor Playbook Has Come for Wikipedia

TLDR: In ten days last month, the Wikimedia Foundation fired the longtime lead developer of MediaWiki and disbanded the team whose entire…

medium.com

Challenging the merchants of death and the agenda of #militarism and #austerity they usher in. #CANSEC

In Magnifica Humanitas, Pope Leo apologizes for the Doctrine of Discovery, which sanctioned colonialism & slavery, to talk about AI. Here, I thought I went off the rails in Data Empire, where I insist the Doctrine of Discovery is critical to the history of data’s power www.vatican.va/content/leo-...

Maybe fix all the above first & implement recs TF/GBV & MMIWG experts have called for over decades, THEN we can maybe consider starting to think about contemplating the idea of possibly discussing if LE really needs new "technical capabilities" to investigate crimes their own buddies are committing.

Woman’s advocacy group requests review to halt RCMP’s ‘shocking’ misogynistic violence

A women’s advocacy group is calling for an external review to halt human rights abuses perpetrated by the RCMP against women.

aptnnews.ca

3) it cynically exploits social justice issues to claim that preventive measures against a product will necessarily be discriminatory 4) it claims that educators must adapt to the rules of commerce, which, if subject to regulation necessarily results in the discrimination cited in number (3)

This is a fake problem. The research cited here makes four classic moves in tech boosterism: 1) it cites w/o evidence the inevitably wide uptake of a product 2) it prematurely frames a narrative of tech progression in terms of waves ("2nd-wave AI challenge") to make this future a fait accompli

Times Higher Education (THE)@timeshighered.bsky.social · 4mo ago

AI glasses and other smart apparel may be impossible to keep out of exams, adding to universities’ woes about the future of assessments #highered #AI https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/no-defence-against-wearable-ai-exams-researchers-warn

“While Trump’s trade war is hitting the Canadian economy, Mark Carney is insisting on a devastating round of austerity to ensure it is workers who pay, not profits” www.counterfire.org/article/aust...

Austerity is class war amidst the trade war

While Trump’s trade war is hitting the Canadian economy, Mark Carney is insisting on a devastating round of austerity to ensure it is workers who pay, not profits, reports John Clarke It becomes cl...

counterfire.org

AI produces MORE editorial labor, not less. “[To weed out slop] the journal doubled its deputy editors from 6 to 11 & nearly doubled its sr editors from roughly 30 to 60. All of this is volunteer labor, unpaid academics donating time to maintain scientific quality.“ www.forbes.com/sites/johndr...

AI Slop Is Flooding Academic Journals. A Top Journal Measured It

A top management journal measured AI’s impact on submissions and reviews. Submissions rose 42%, writing quality declined and AI reviews proved uninformative to editors.

forbes.com

Once academics were told to upload teaching materials to digital learning platforms, universities and tech firms alike were always going to monetize it. Now AI is being used to amplify the assetization of those digital archives of academic content. codeactsineducation.wordpress.com/2026/04/29/a...

AI and the amplification of academic content assetization

Photo by Viktor Forgacs on Unsplash A new AI-driven digital learning platform launched by Arizona State University has set off alarm bells among academics for its exploitation of scholarly work. AS…

codeactsineducation.wordpress.com

A Day in the Life of a Palestinian Lawyer: “In Gaza, missiles don't just destroy stone; they attempt to erase legal history. Families lose homes along with title deeds under rubble. A client asks: How will I prove this land is mine? With official archives destroyed, I fight to reconstruct the truth.

Indigenous land defenders are being killed and criminalised at alarming rates, AI systems scrape traditional knowledge without consent, while Indigenous women face escalating rates of violence, crises that Indigenous leaders confronted this week at the UN. www.teaonews.co.nz/2026/04/25/i...

Indigenous land defenders are being killed, AI is scraping their knowledge

UNPFII highlights crises: killings and Indigenous land defenders, AI-driven data exploitation, and severe violence against Indigenous women; calls for rights and data sovereignty.

teaonews.co.nz

The acting head of the CDC has canceled the publication of a study that found that the Covid vaccine sharply cut the odds of hospitalizations and emergency visits last winter www.nytimes.com/2026/04/22/u...

C.D.C. Cancels Publication of Study Showing Benefits of Covid Vaccines

nytimes.com

Joel Chan@kjoules.org · 4mo ago

As expected, Hong Kong Government's solution to fixing everything is tougher penalties, rather than what has been evidently needed based on the Tai Po fire inquiry hearings: competent enforcement www.scmp.com/news/hong-ko...

There is no dustbin of history. For better and for worse, archives can always be reactivated in new combinations