Once upon a time, I pursued a career in the antiquarian book trade. It was so rife with sexism, I quickly changed course to libraries. Definitely feel like I made the right choice reading this. Profits over values it seems.

AI Firms Are Buying up Old Books, Then Scanning and Destroying Them

The world’s biggest AI companies are buying antiquarian books en masse so they can be scanned to train their large language models (LLMs) before being destroyed.

novaramedia.com

Libraries protect your privacy...and your wallet 💸 #surveillance "Social media sleuths suggest that using the library is the key to nabbing good deals in our current era of surveillance pricing." But really, this shouldn't be happening at all...

The Mystery of Online Prices: How Personal Data and Privacy Change What You Pay for Groceries

Is it true you'll get cheaper groceries or flights ordering them on a public library computer? Social media sleuths suggest that using the library is the key to nabbing good deals in our current era o...

mozillafoundation.org

More coverage of the fight for public data in the @nytimes.com yesterday! www.nytimes.com/2026/07/22/h...

Where U.S. Government Data Is Disappearing

Plus, the quest to preserve public data.

nytimes.com

🙌"If we all start using Wikidata unique identifiers to ground our data, we start collaborating at scale without needing to schedule a single meeting or apply for any grants."

Why Computational Historians Need Wikidata

Over the past several months I extracted several hundred thousand biographical statements from two Victorian reference works, the Colonial Office List and the India Office List, printed almost every y...

computationalhistory.substack.com

Thanks to @samleecole.bsky.social and @404media.co for covering this important issue!

404 Media@404media.co · last mo.

The new policy, which forbids "noise infusion" as a technique for anonymizing data, will "handcuff" the Census Bureau and limit what information becomes public, data experts say.

Yet another reason to visit Philly? I was sad when Temple's attempt to save UArts fell through, but fingers crossed that this merger with the Library Company will happen #libraries #specialcollections #rarebooks

Rare Books on Sex Have Spiced Things Up at a Library Franklin Founded

nytimes.com

Great overview of where we were, are, and the fight ahead! Thanks for the shout-out too! 🛟 @dataindex.us @prbdata.bsky.social @apduorg.bsky.social www.prb.org/news/researc...

Researchers Mobilize to Defend America's Public Data Infrastructure - Population Reference Bureau

At the 2026 PAA Annual Meeting, researchers and data advocates warned of mounting threats to federal statistics—and shared practical ways to respond.

prb.org

Some interesting explorations happening here re: automating dataset changes and risk assessment...

Library Innovation Lab@harvardlil.bsky.social · 2mo ago

In partnership with dataindex.us, LIL's #PubDataProject Team investigates solutions for detecting and monitoring changes in data over time at scale. Read more about our methods in our newest blogpost: lil.law.harvard.edu/blog/2026/06...

We ❤️ our data librarian community!

infoDOCKET@infodocket.bsky.social · 2mo ago

2026 Top Trends in Academic #Libraries: A Review of the #Trends and Issues (via C&RL News; @ala-acrl.bsky.social) crln.acrl.org/index.php/cr... #AI #GenAI #accessibility #fundings @datarescueproject.org

🧵 Some publishers & news organizations are blocking the Wayback Machine from archiving journalism, stifling access to the public record. 📣 If you rely on the Wayback Machine to preserve news & history, tell them not to block web archiving. ✏️ Sign the open letter👇 www.savethearchive.com/NewsLeaders

I've seen some of these project presentations multiple times now...fine, clear-eyed use cases, but do they actually work??? Have tried the Wikidata MCP with a few LLMs now and it takes multiple tries to successfully complete very basic queries...

Excellent new research from @cdt.org @mluria.bsky.social analyzes the dark patterns applicable to AI chatbots, including general-purpose systems (ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude) and “companion” platforms (Replika, Character.AI): cdt.org/insights/dar...

Dark Patterns in AI Chatbots: A Taxonomy to Inform Better Design

In this report, CDT Research draws on prior work in human-computer interaction and deceptive design disciplines to investigate how established dark patterns documented in other digital technology cont...

cdt.org

Data Rescue Project is teaming up with the Williams Institute, ICPSR and MAP for an LGBTQ+ Data Rescue Hackathon on May 28th. This event will focus on federal datasets that include sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI). Open to all and a great way to pre-game Pride Month!

LGBTQ Data Rescue Hackathon

These past few weeks have felt like months, and these months have been years. We’ve taken great solace in the company of data nerds interested in preserving and providing access to public federal data...

datarescueproject.org

🙌 "This commons gathers what indigenous communities are building, what researchers are documenting, and what history demands we remember — so the next generation of decisions about AI is shaped by those most affected by it."

⚠️Nearly all federal data users (93%) have been impacted by the changes of 2025. 54% say the impact on their work has been major. 📢A new SSRS EMERGE report gives these data users a voice — and the findings are urgent. Read the report: ssrs.com/emerge-initi...

EMERGE Initiative - SSRS

ssrs.com

Now's a great time to support LaVonnia Moore, a rural Georgia librarian who was fired because she approved a library display (set up by community members) that included a book featuring a transgender character. Her legal case enters the mediation process this week. 📚 www.gofundme.com/f/help-lavon...

Donate to Help LaVonnia Moore Seek Justice and Equality, organized by Lavonnia Moore

Seeking help for legal fees and life. My name is LaVonnia Moore. For … Lavonnia Moore needs your support for Help LaVonnia Moore Seek Justice and Equality

gofundme.com

"...what happens when institutions stop valuing the cumulative work of forming vocation and judgment — the kind of work that takes time?"

Data & Society@datasociety.bsky.social · 3mo ago

When people compare AI systems to grad students, it speaks to a real and consequential shift in how academic work is being reorganized, and the anxieties swirling around it, Program Director Ranjit Singh writes on Points. datasociety.net/points/could...

Thanks to @theguardian.com for highlighting the people involved in the effort to save and demonstrate the importance of federal public data. ❤️🛟 www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

‘Things were going dark left and right’: the race to save US government datasets before they’re deleted

Group has banded together to rescue data as Trump administration has removed or altered data on climate change, reproductive health, LGBTQ people and more

theguardian.com

These five librarians are running for state political offices across the country. Here's why they're running, and why librarians make good candidates. bookriot.com/librarians-r...

Why These Librarians Are Running for State Political Office–And You Should, Too: Book Censorship News, May 1, 2026

These librarians are running for state political offices across the country. Here's why they're running, and why librarians make good candidates.

bookriot.com

I really appreciate your role in this city @septaphilly.bsky.social, but what in the marketing rage-bait is this?! Please hire local copywriters and fix this jawn! #philly #septa

Beautiful essay..."Humans are incredibly good at adapting. When the environment is untenable, we move. When institutions and infrastructure fail, we come together in mutual aid. And through shared experience, memory, and continuity across geography, we remember that home is what we make of it."

Open Environmental Data Project@openenvirodata.bsky.social · 3mo ago

If you enjoyed reading Shannon Dosemagen’s AI blog this morning, check out her article “Holding Ground” in Southern Cultures’ Spring 2026 issue! “New Orleans is a weather city. Our relationship to the atmosphere is daily, immediate, visceral.” The story of New Orleans is not easily… (1/3)

In honor of ant season starting in my house: "What could we make with AI if scale wasn’t an objective? ...AI for Ants: A zine about Small AI” draws inspiration from the degrowth movement, climate justice, and low-tech to re-imagine AI that is locally-rooted and more attuned to our natural world." 🙌

AI for Ants: A zine about Small AI by AIxDESIGN & internet teapot

Bigger isn’t always better. What could we make with AI if scale wasn’t an objective? The 38-page zine “AI for Ants: A zine about Small AI” draws inspiration from the degrowth movement, climate justice...

aixdesign.metalabel.com

Outline of how to approach the problem of AI extraction of open data/content through shared incentives and reciprocal benefit instead of direct monetization: “reciprocal contributions — improved metadata, processing tools, derived datasets — may align better with mission than licensing revenue.”

Invest in Open Infrastructure@investinopen.bsky.social · 4mo ago

We're excited to share our new landscape scan: Sustaining the Commons in the AI Economy — on AI harvesting, open collections, and what it might take to bridge the gap between them. Read the post and download the report: investinopen.org/blog/sustain...

At a time when governments are willfully failing to preserve all their records, librarians and activists are using archival work to do more than document history. Guerrilla archives—whether digital or analog—are generally nonpartisan acts of preservation to serve the public good.

On Guerrilla Archives in the Disinformation Age

How the archival work of librarians and other activists helps preserve more than just history.

conversationalist.org

I don't know who needs to hear this, but app.radiooooo.com is probably one of the best things on the internet...tracks dripping in nostalgia, curated by actual humans, no algorithms. Taste is an interesting thing that...at least for now...still needs us

Radiooooo

Radiooooo - The Musical Time Machine

app.radiooooo.com

Had a great time in SF recently speaking @archive.org, meeting many folks that @datarescueproject.org has been working with. One outcome is this pledge committing to preserve and expand access to US government data and research. Please read, sign, share, and take action! publicinformationtrust.org

“Data is not enough” from OEDP’s Fieldnotes on AI Data & Tech Lead Cathy Richards focuses on the opportunity cost of the “lack of time to process information” refrain. ⚙️ 🔗Read/Listen to more here: open.substack.com/pub/openenvi... #Data #OpenData #AI #EnvironmentalData #EnvironmentalJustice

Is anyone really surprised that Claude code is a mess? Hilarious that Anthropic is issuing copyright takedown requests...

Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ@olivia.science · 4mo ago

jonny over on masto doing god's work: > anthropic [is running] an ENTIRE AD CAMPAIGN around "Claude code is written with claude code" and after the source was leaked that has got to be the funniest self-own in the history of advertising because OH BOY IT SHOWS. neuromatch.social/@jonny/11632...

Today, the Archive published a Disappearing Data Chronology--a timeline tracking changes in access to federal information under Trump, including major data losses and restorations, legal challenges to information takedowns, and threats to archival collections. nsarchive.gwu.edu/special-exhi...

A Disappearing Data Chronology

About the ExhibitThe Disappearing Data Chronology documents fundamental changes to the federal information landscape under the Trump administration, including major data losses and restorations, legal...

nsarchive.gwu.edu