Our Customer Services team are at an all-day training event so us non-CS managers are each covering an hour on library reception today... Can confirm I've not felt this out of my depth since doing my 10m swimming badge at Junior school. 😱 However, halfway through shift: building still standing. 🎉

I have had several huuuuge, disparate projects on, all of which need to be done by 5pm today cos of the financial year end - and my goodness, Bluesky, my shoulders will be lighter at approx 5:01pm! I am PLOUGHING through these projects like a fricking PLOUGH. In your FACE, metaphorical top-soil

There needs to be a button you can press on insta that says ‘I’ve now bought the item you somehow creepily know I’ve been looking for so you can tell your advertisers to stop wasting their time making 90% of my feed that item’

Big job available if anyone's up for it: jobs.york.ac.uk/vacancy/dire...

I agree with this fully, but also LinkedIn is who you follow. Not a single one of you lot have, as far as I've seen, compared your recent project management journey with The Odyssey... The key thing to keeping LinkedIn tolerable is to disconnect with anyone who does all the awful LinkedIn tropes.

Karen K. Ho@karenho.bsky.social · last wk.

LinkedIn posts about The Odyssey highlight a kind of business mentality where art cannot be enjoyed for art's sake or even provoke introspection, it has to be turned into some sort of inspiration content for how to be more productive, entrepreneurial, or a better leader.

I went to a festival this weekend and let my 12 year old niece glitter and colour my beard and NEVER have I had so many compliments from strangers! 😄 (At one point I danced onto someone’s foot and turned around to apologise and all their anger vanished when they saw the beard…)

This = good, at least they're getting rid!

CILIP@cilip.bsky.social · 2w ago

We’ve listened carefully to your feedback on our new website, and you are absolutely right to hold us to account. During the development phase we used AI generated images as place holders, and unfortunately not all of these were replaced before the site went live.

Trying not to get wound up by this use of GenAI on CILIP's website... (Were I overthinking it, I'd think it says: are librarians principled enough to take a stance against GenAI? No. But are they competent enough to use it well? Also no. Ah, but can they proof-read websites? Still no.)

Huddersfield Exposed@huddersfield.exposed · 2w ago

Just waiting 'til you check out the binding on this book 🤯

I was really pleased to work with @openingthefuture.bsky.social again recently. We did a session about the idea of trying to 'market' open access better - I see a lot of comms, and a lot of advocacy, but not the marketing part that sits somewhere between them... #OA

OpeningTheFuture@openingthefuture.bsky.social · 3w ago

📢 From partnerships & community-building to metadata, discoverability & author engagement, effective #OA marketing is about connecting the right audiences with the right content at the right time! Watch the recording from our recent workshop @nedpotter.bsky.social 🔗

It may have been unprecedented but it would surely surprise no one if it became a precedent...

Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 2w ago

'OpenAI said the incident was "unprecedented", and it was conducting an investigation alongside Hugging Face, whose boss Clement Delangue said..it was "mind-blowing that all of this happened autonomously".' Other adjectives than 'unprecedented' & 'mind-blowing' come to mind, & a noun: 'regulation'.

My university has done what now?

elia ayoub@ayoub.bsky.social · 3w ago

Jesus. 35 UK universities quietly- without debate - joined the Ministry of Defence’s “Battlefield Alliance” which seeks to “reorientate academia towards Defence and National Security” They’re destroying the social sciences and humanities while militarising the institutions

Imagine looking so bad doing something, that it turns out a teacher uses you as an example of resilience to his class 😄 This morning someone stopped me on my run &> told me he sees me every morning (it's actually every other morning but hey...) & inspires his pupils with stories of how I'm always >

A time-lapse of (a small portion of) the affinity mapping @andypriestner.bsky.social and I are doing today! We’re taking probably 200 or so insights on post-its, and arranging them by theme. #UX

(Yesterday): Ford shows what happens when you go all-in on GenAI (Today): Oxford goes all-in on GenAI www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/about/media/...

Dare Obasanjo@carnage4life.bsky.social · last mo.

Ford has rehired hundreds of senior engineers after replacing them with AI backfired and has cost the company billions of dollars. AI adoption is blamed for Ford being the most recalled automaker in the U.S. with 51 recalls covering over 11 million vehicles in the first half of 2026 alone.

This morning I am in the attic bedroom / office - which is like the sun itself, but hotter and less orange - delivering a workshop on marketing with video... During all the activities I will mute my mic and put on the fan full blast 😬 Here's a slide from it, on virality's relative merits.

I wrote about inspiration and interactions, and sneaking my parents into my conference talk (why yes, I am 46 years old...) at the wonderfully inclusive #UXLibs conference: www.ned-potter.com/blog/inspira...

Inspiration and interactions at UXLibs 10 — Ned Potter

Exactly a decade ago I attended my first User Experience in Libraries Conference. It changed everything for me: I’ve said before that I think UX is the most exciting thing to happen to UK librarianshi...

ned-potter.com

Went on an adventure last night! My dad came out of retirement for one last gig in London (in the Oranges and Lemons church! From the nursery rhyme!) so me and the girls surprised him by going to it… he sang so beautifully and he was so thrilled when he saw them 🥹 It was all round an ace night.

I'm talking about library social media and authenticity at an @m25consortium.bsky.social event this morning: here's my final slide. 📚 I mean this in many ways: SocMed is better when connected with your wider strategy; with purpose and intention; with other social media; with non-social media...

Shout out to all the other parents waking up to the post-GCSE exam era! No stress for a while, at least until results day eh? 😄

Super Strong Baby Lifting Weights

Alt: A baby lighting a weight off its shoulders and then celebrating

static.klipy.com

I put this GenAI statement on my #UXLibs slides and so many people came up to me and thanked for me for it over the next 2 days! Sometimes it feels like an uphill battle to care about this sort of thing, and I enjoyed this not being one of those times...

manu schwendener@manuschwendener.ch · 2mo ago

Thank you, @nedpotter.bsky.social #UXLibs

Thoroughly enjoyed my first #uxlibs conference in York this week. My main takeaway was that we should be designing for real people and not averages and that we shouldn't be afraid to fail!

Having promised #UXLibs yesterday that I'd just published a blog post with my slides and associated links, it turned out I didn't actually press publish... Apologies! So here it is, now. Elevating Voices: UX as a tool for equity. www.ned-potter.com/blog/elevati...

Elevating voices: UX as a tool for equity — Ned Potter

Presentation and related links from the User Experience in Libraries Conference Keynote speech.

ned-potter.com

I have to be honest, the conference starts today and the York weather very much has not held... 👀 In the meantime in my #UXLibs excitement I've written a post about ten tiny tips for preparing a conference talk >> www.ned-potter.com/blog/ten-tin...

Ned Potter@nedpotter.bsky.social · 2mo ago

The sun is (at least temporary) welcoming delegates to York for the User Eperience in Libraries Conference… Do I know anyone else on here going to #UXLibs this year?

The sun is (at least temporary) welcoming delegates to York for the User Eperience in Libraries Conference… Do I know anyone else on here going to #UXLibs this year?

I've just done my first run-through of my #UXLibs talk, and it's 10 minutes too long, which is fixable, so that's good news. The bad news it means this slide is going to have to go, and will now never be explained... 🥹

I've said it before and I'll say it again - @yalepress.bsky.social / @yalebooks.bsky.social are really good at cover design! Check out the jacket for my Dad's (forthcoming) book, I think this is really lovely stuff. 🤩

10 years from now

Jason Koebler@jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 2mo ago

New: Google is quietly trying to buy code from Android developers to train an AI coding tool as part of a "confidential" program. Tells them it's a "once-in-a-generation opportunity" for "helping society at large" www.404media.co/google-is-qu...

Someone check what the Temple Run people have to say about Open Access, so we can update our policies accordingly.

Noted, thanks Mel. We should probably hold off on making any firm decisions about REF2029 until we've heard from the bloke who made Angry Birds.

Research Professional News@resprofnews.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Peer-reviewed papers are ‘old hat science’, says millionaire investor. Candy Crush businessman Mel Morris says universities “must embrace AI” to transform into economic powerhouses. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-i...

Alice’s dress for York Pride is 🤩🤩 (It’s like being here with a celebrity, we get stopped every 2 minutes for someone to talk to her about it 😄)