Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Lorcan Dempsey @lorcand.bsky.social · 5h

Lovely to see this nod from somebody whose work is central here.

Lyn Robinson @lynrobinson.bsky.social · 10h

Great reading for LIS folks - covers development of LIS related disciplines through to contemporary concerns for information professionals and LIS students.

Lorcan Dempsey @lorcand.bsky.social · 2d

I like the 'boots of concrete' phrase :-) > 'Large companies have built vast consolidated infrastructure - we are used to thinking of information as immaterial, however, AI has also emphasized how the cloud has boots of concrete.' buff.ly/MAzHirK

The ‘Best’ Colleges Aren’t the Best Forever

Lorcan Dempsey @lorcand.bsky.social · 2d

'More and more families are measuring a school’s worth by what it delivers rather than what it represents.' buff.ly/GfbMVaQ

Prestige isn’t permanent.

www.theatlantic.com

Information: a brief schematic history

Lorcan Dempsey @lorcand.bsky.social · 2d

I like the 'boots of concrete' phrase :-) > 'Large companies have built vast consolidated infrastructure - we are used to thinking of information as immaterial, however, AI has also emphasized how the cloud has boots of concrete.' buff.ly/MAzHirK

In a piece on the informational disciplines and the iSchool, I sketched this very schematic and informal overview of information, broadly construed. My focus is pragmatic, related to library…

www.lorcandempsey.net

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Lorcan Dempsey @lorcand.bsky.social · 2d

'University of California faculty and alumni won five Nobel Prizes this week, highlighting the ongoing contributions of America’s #1 public research university and the central role of federal funding in advancing world-changing scientific inquiry.'

UC wins 5 Nobel Prizes in 3 days — and sets a new world record

These discoveries span decades and disciplines, but they all have one important thing in common: They’ve all relied on competitive funding from the federal government.

A World Cup preying on Fomo: Fifa’s 2026 ticket scheme is a late-capitalist hellscape

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Lorcan Dempsey @lorcand.bsky.social · 2d

Harsh words for FIFA > 'Dynamic pricing, crypto detritus and corporate doublespeak have made the task of buying 2026 World Cup tickets a grim case study in the monetization of emotion' buff.ly/n5B4v3K

NFTs, dynamic pricing and double resale fees have turned the 2026 World Cup into a fintech carnival where fandom meets late-capitalist absurdity

You won’t believe what degrading practice the pope just condemned

Lorcan Dempsey @lorcand.bsky.social · 3d

The pope has condemned clickbait as a “degrading” part of journalism, at a private audience with global newswires.

Communication must be freed from clickbait and misguided thinking, head of Catholic church tells journalists

Political Views and College Choices in a Polarized America

Lorcan Dempsey @lorcand.bsky.social · 4d

'The median student is willing to pay up to $2,617 (12.5%) more to attend a college where the share of students with opposing political views is 10 percentage points lower, suggesting that political identity plays a meaningful role in the college choice process.' buff.ly/d4cSoNZ

We examine the role of students’ political views in shaping college enrollment decisions in the United States. We hypothesize that students derive utility from attending institutions aligned with…

edworkingpapers.com

Lorcan Dempsey @lorcand.bsky.social · 6d

Feeling a slight touch of imposter syndrome as I prepare for my keynote at Charleston ... Libraries, librarianship and cross-LAMination. I discuss education and career preparation.
www.charleston-hub.com/the-charlest...

Agenda - Charleston Hub

March 5, 2015 - This is a publicly searchable version of the preliminary conference agenda. We will once again be using the Whova event platform for both our in-person -

www.charleston-hub.com

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Lorcan Dempsey @lorcand.bsky.social · 6d

Deloitte will provide a partial refund to the [Australian] federal government over a $440,000 report that contained several errors, after admitting it used generative artificial intelligence to help produce it.

Deloitte to pay money back to Albanese government after using AI in $440,000 report

Partial refund to be issued after several errors were found in a report into a department’s compliance framework

The Pushkin job: unmasking the thieves behind an international rare books heist

Lorcan Dempsey @lorcand.bsky.social · 6d

... an unprecedented grand tour of bibliophilic crime, which snaked its way from north-east to south-west Europe between spring 2022 and winter 2023. As many as 170 rare Russian books, valued at more than £2.5m, vanished ...

The long read: Between 2022 and 2023, as many as 170 rare and valuable editions of Russian classics were stolen from libraries across Europe. Were the thieves merely low-level opportunists, or were…

When Focusing on Terminology Becomes a Hurdle to Open Access Outreach

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Lorcan Dempsey @lorcand.bsky.social · 10d

"from hard experience, I and others working in scholarly communications have learned that the term “institutional repository” often elicits blank expressions from faculty. It is much more efficient to emphasize prestige, visibility, impact, legacy, flexibility—whatever resonates." buff.ly/UsQhdNA

Conversations about open access can be riddled with distracting language. But what if we treated these failures to communicate as opportunities to learn more?

katinamagazine.org

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Lorcan Dempsey @lorcand.bsky.social · 10d

Dame Sarah Mullally has been named as the first female leader in the history of the Church of England as Downing Street announced the 106th archbishop of Canterbury buff.ly/BnHcRwj

Sarah Mullally is named as first female archbishop of Canterbury

Former chief nursing officer for England will legally assume role at Canterbury Cathedral ceremony in January

The Ann Arbor District Library Plans to Acquire the Ann Arbor Observer | Ann Arbor District Library

Lorcan Dempsey @lorcand.bsky.social · 13d

'The Ann Arbor District Library announced that it plans to acquire the Ann Arbor Observer, one of Ann Arbor’s most beloved publications, serving the community since 1976. The acquisition is subject to the parties finalizing the terms of a purchase agreement.' buff.ly/EFSbWGi

All libraries will be closed on Monday, October 13, for a staff in-service day.

aadl.org

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Lorcan Dempsey @lorcand.bsky.social · 13d

"My editor’s email started off friendly enough, but then came the hammer blow: “We need you to remove all the em dashes. People assume that means it’s written by AI.” " buff.ly/rLpQjTr

My petty gripe: not only am I losing my livelihood to AI – now it’s stealing my em dashes too

The humble em dash is being used as a tell that something is written by a large language model. But it’s James Shackell’s favourite piece of punctuation, and he’s not ready to lose it

Historical letters from Western archives inspire Blyth Festival play

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Lorcan Dempsey @lorcand.bsky.social · 15d

Emma Donoghue uses immigrant stories from Western archives. > But researching archives is quite a solitary experience, and every now and then I come across something that I feel needs to go to a wider audience, sometimes in the form of a novel and in this case in the form of a play. buff.ly/ThRpICv

Johnson-McConnell letters from 1800s brought to life on stage by Emma Donoghue

news.westernu.ca

Why I gave the world wide web away for free | Tim Berners-Lee

Lorcan Dempsey @lorcand.bsky.social · 15d

Tim Berners-Lee >> Somewhere between my original vision for web 1.0 and the rise of social media as part of web 2.0, we took the wrong path. buff.ly/rAcxesP

My vision was based on sharing, not exploitation – and here’s why it’s still worth fighting for

Meta expanding New Albany site for the world's highest capacity data center

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Lorcan Dempsey @lorcand.bsky.social · 17d

More Central Ohio news > Meta expanding New Albany site for the world's highest capacity data center buff.ly/iCGuzO9

Meta's expansion at its New Albany data center, underway since 2022, is for the world's first online gigawatt data center.

www.dispatch.com

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Lorcan Dempsey @lorcand.bsky.social · 18d

Former US president Barack Obama has been awarded the Freedom of Dublin. [...]

Mr Obama was presented with a first edition of Ulysses and a bottle of Teeling Whiskey.

Obama receives Freedom of Dublin after boycott call

Former US president Barack Obama has been awarded the Freedom of Dublin, amid calls by some councillors for a boycott of the event.

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Lorcan Dempsey @lorcand.bsky.social · 19d

will.i.am to teach ASU class on agentic AI | ASU News news.asu.edu/20250924-uni...

will.i.am - East LA

New single out now

will.i.am

Children’s books on type and typography

Lorcan Dempsey @lorcand.bsky.social · 19d

Delightful. I especially like the story about the letter trying to figure out which typeface it is from > [Children's] Books on type and typography in English — for those who are too young to apply to a design school buff.ly/z3TsJec

Books on type and typography in English — for those who are too young to apply to a design school

type.today

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Lorcan Dempsey @lorcand.bsky.social · 26d

Tariffs and international ILL >> Rising to the challenge: How the SHARES resource sharing community navigated a global disruption to international shipping - Hanging Together hangingtogether.org/rising-to-th...

Rising to the challenge: How the SHARES resource sharing community navigated a global disruption to international shipping - Hanging Together

When international ILL shipping faced an unprecedented disruption, the OCLC RLP SHARES community turned confusion into collaboration, crafting creative solutions to keep library materials moving…

hangingtogether.org

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Lorcan Dempsey @lorcand.bsky.social · 27d

Nicely said. This was a central theme of my course on collaboration and the value of consortia > Time and again, connections to trusted peers have proven to be every bit as essential as all the other types of infrastructure we depend upon to do our jobs. buff.ly/ru6fpPR

Rising to the challenge: How the SHARES resource sharing community navigated a global disruption to international shipping - Hanging Together

When international ILL shipping faced an unprecedented disruption, the OCLC RLP SHARES community turned confusion into collaboration, crafting creative solutions to keep library materials moving…

hangingtogether.org

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Lorcan Dempsey @lorcand.bsky.social · Sep 9

#JaneAusten "Bringing together woodcuts, watercolours and silk-weaving, these designs for Folio Society's luxury 250th anniversary edition are simply stunning. So we couldn't wait to find out how they were made." buff.ly/XDN90kJ

How Jane Austen's novels got a brand new look for 2025

Bringing together woodcuts, watercolours and silk-weaving, these designs for Folio Society's luxury 250th anniversary edition are simply stunning. So we couldn't wait to find out how they were made...

www.creativeboom.com

Lorcan Dempsey @lorcand.bsky.social · Sep 6

I love the sea view! > Award-winning but initially controversial building has become Ireland’s busiest public library

Ten years of DLR LexIcon in Dún Laoghaire: ‘People thought it was a vanity project and too much money’

Award-winning but initially controversial building has become Ireland’s busiest public library