Eliza Bettinger
@scalywager.bsky.social
libraries, privacy, surveillance, new york state, digital humanities, odd datasets, maps, indigenous-settler history of the northeast.
member, Library Freedom Project.
member, Library Freedom Project.
This! Take time to plan and fortify and relish the world we want to build. Libraries can be such a central piece of that.
If you are a justice-minded person in Chicago, there's a good chance you are exhausted and catching your breath in the wake of the CBP surges here in recent months, but we can't just fight what's evil in these times. We must also fortify and defend what's good. We must defend our libraries.
You Can’t Fight Fascism While Defunding Libraries
“Libraries embody everything that we need right now to fight back against fascism," says Sara Heymann.
organizingmythoughts.org
December 4, 2025 at 1:20 AM
This! Take time to plan and fortify and relish the world we want to build. Libraries can be such a central piece of that.
Reposted by Eliza Bettinger
Wherever you live, this story has significant implications because the trend of defunding libraries, when we should be fortifying these outposts of learning, sharing, and survival, is a national phenomenon. Libraries are models of the kind of infrastructure we must EXPAND to get the world we want.
You Can’t Fight Fascism While Defunding Libraries
“Libraries embody everything that we need right now to fight back against fascism," says Sara Heymann.
organizingmythoughts.org
December 3, 2025 at 6:28 PM
Wherever you live, this story has significant implications because the trend of defunding libraries, when we should be fortifying these outposts of learning, sharing, and survival, is a national phenomenon. Libraries are models of the kind of infrastructure we must EXPAND to get the world we want.
Reposted by Eliza Bettinger
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has proposed disastrous cuts to our city's libraries while setting aside $5M for a ShotSpotter replacement. As library associate Sara Heymann told me, “Libraries embody everything we need to fight back against fascism.” My piece on what’s at stake and how to fight back:
You Can’t Fight Fascism While Defunding Libraries
“Libraries embody everything that we need right now to fight back against fascism," says Sara Heymann.
organizingmythoughts.org
December 3, 2025 at 6:25 PM
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has proposed disastrous cuts to our city's libraries while setting aside $5M for a ShotSpotter replacement. As library associate Sara Heymann told me, “Libraries embody everything we need to fight back against fascism.” My piece on what’s at stake and how to fight back:
Reposted by Eliza Bettinger
I really hate it when scientists keep saying that “we need to rebuild trust in science,” because it implies that scientists are to blame for the mistrust rather than the millions of dollars of dark money that have funded political attacks on science in order to advance a far right agenda.
November 19, 2025 at 9:48 PM
I really hate it when scientists keep saying that “we need to rebuild trust in science,” because it implies that scientists are to blame for the mistrust rather than the millions of dollars of dark money that have funded political attacks on science in order to advance a far right agenda.
Interesting 🧵
LLMs give people with delusional belief systems a way to organise those beliefs. The model fills in gaps, supplies connective tissue, and wraps the madness in formal language.
It doesn't make the claims more credible to us, it just tidies them up.
It doesn't make the claims more credible to us, it just tidies them up.
November 19, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Interesting 🧵
So true and this is what I’ve been saying too.
Our admins say: “We’ve lost public trust.”
No, we’ve bern target of focused attacks for many years and you haven’t lifted a finger to fight back or to protect our work.
Makes it seem like you kind of like where we headed.
Our admins say: “We’ve lost public trust.”
No, we’ve bern target of focused attacks for many years and you haven’t lifted a finger to fight back or to protect our work.
Makes it seem like you kind of like where we headed.
Few things bug me more than higher ed leaders saying that we lost our mission and lost the trust of the public, when we have actually been the target of a decades-long smear campaign by the right wing that worked. The moment we’re losing our mission is right now, in capitulation.
November 19, 2025 at 1:55 PM
So true and this is what I’ve been saying too.
Our admins say: “We’ve lost public trust.”
No, we’ve bern target of focused attacks for many years and you haven’t lifted a finger to fight back or to protect our work.
Makes it seem like you kind of like where we headed.
Our admins say: “We’ve lost public trust.”
No, we’ve bern target of focused attacks for many years and you haven’t lifted a finger to fight back or to protect our work.
Makes it seem like you kind of like where we headed.
Reposted by Eliza Bettinger
It is clear what we need. It is to re-communalise academic publishing. Its costs funding are met by learned societies and their funders; profits go back to research, as do the data it generates. Researchers repeatedly call for this. tinyurl.com/bdekus68rofits
Reformation of science publishing: the Stockholm Declaration
tinyurl.com
November 12, 2025 at 11:41 AM
It is clear what we need. It is to re-communalise academic publishing. Its costs funding are met by learned societies and their funders; profits go back to research, as do the data it generates. Researchers repeatedly call for this. tinyurl.com/bdekus68rofits
Reposted by Eliza Bettinger
Our libraries are cutting staff so that Elsevier can have its 32% profit margin
A staggering statistic: "North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year." What are we doing?
We wrote the Strain on scientific publishing to highlight the problems of time & trust. With a fantastic group of co-authors, we present The Drain of Scientific Publishing:
a 🧵 1/n
Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820
Strain: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
Oligopoly: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
a 🧵 1/n
Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820
Strain: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
Oligopoly: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
November 14, 2025 at 1:37 AM
Our libraries are cutting staff so that Elsevier can have its 32% profit margin
Reposted by Eliza Bettinger
Profits from scientific publishing are eye-watering, costing us billions. In ‘The Drain of Scientific Publishing’ (arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820), (building on ‘The Strain of Scientific Publishing’ doi.org/10.1162/qss_a_00327) we show how it is harmful – and unnecessary.
The Drain of Scientific Publishing
The domination of scientific publishing in the Global North by major commercial publishers is harmful to science. We need the most powerful members of the research community, funders, governments and ...
arxiv.org
November 12, 2025 at 11:41 AM
Profits from scientific publishing are eye-watering, costing us billions. In ‘The Drain of Scientific Publishing’ (arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820), (building on ‘The Strain of Scientific Publishing’ doi.org/10.1162/qss_a_00327) we show how it is harmful – and unnecessary.
Reposted by Eliza Bettinger
Our friend Janneke Adema says that scholar-led publishers are not best seen as an alternative to the commercial publishing industry but instead as positioned against the marketised university. We can carve out space for good stuff without wasting effort trying to unseat commercial publishing.
I truly do not understand the urge, let alone desire, to migrate the existing legacy publications to some kind of open. That is not the paradigm shift! The paradigm shift is building on top of the other open infrastructures. Why sully the new with the old‽
November 13, 2025 at 7:20 AM
Our friend Janneke Adema says that scholar-led publishers are not best seen as an alternative to the commercial publishing industry but instead as positioned against the marketised university. We can carve out space for good stuff without wasting effort trying to unseat commercial publishing.
This is the Epstein reading that matters.
November 15, 2025 at 2:43 PM
This is the Epstein reading that matters.
Reposted by Eliza Bettinger
And how do we get there? First, stop working with commercial publishers to reform the system. We have had decades of failed attempts at reform in which the only constancy is publishers’ profits. We cannot continually try to reform a broken system.
November 12, 2025 at 11:41 AM
And how do we get there? First, stop working with commercial publishers to reform the system. We have had decades of failed attempts at reform in which the only constancy is publishers’ profits. We cannot continually try to reform a broken system.
Reposted by Eliza Bettinger
Over the past months (and at least 11 versions!), I was lucky to work with 11 amazing colleagues on a call to action to reform academic publishing.
Not another declaration, but an appeal to our powerful friends, research funders & institutions, to Stop the Drain of Scientific Publishing. 1/n
Not another declaration, but an appeal to our powerful friends, research funders & institutions, to Stop the Drain of Scientific Publishing. 1/n
November 13, 2025 at 8:17 PM
Over the past months (and at least 11 versions!), I was lucky to work with 11 amazing colleagues on a call to action to reform academic publishing.
Not another declaration, but an appeal to our powerful friends, research funders & institutions, to Stop the Drain of Scientific Publishing. 1/n
Not another declaration, but an appeal to our powerful friends, research funders & institutions, to Stop the Drain of Scientific Publishing. 1/n
Reposted by Eliza Bettinger
I asked about this, and one of our excellent librarians discovered that in fact AI summaries/"Research Assistant" can be switched off at the level of the library. Something to request. support.proquest.com/s/article/Eb...
November 11, 2025 at 9:44 PM
I asked about this, and one of our excellent librarians discovered that in fact AI summaries/"Research Assistant" can be switched off at the level of the library. Something to request. support.proquest.com/s/article/Eb...
My last RT goes for university administrators, too.
November 10, 2025 at 2:12 PM
My last RT goes for university administrators, too.
Reposted by Eliza Bettinger
COMPLICITY NOT COWARDICE. COMPLICITY.
November 10, 2025 at 2:06 PM
COMPLICITY NOT COWARDICE. COMPLICITY.
Reposted by Eliza Bettinger
I don't think it's cowardice. I think that they are OK with what the GOP is doing. The sooner folks reconcile with this, the better.
November 10, 2025 at 12:17 AM
I don't think it's cowardice. I think that they are OK with what the GOP is doing. The sooner folks reconcile with this, the better.
Reposted by Eliza Bettinger
I’m no great fan of the ACA.
I believe we should guarantee health care as a human right through a single-payer Medicare for All system.
But — at minimum — we cannot allow Republicans to destroy our already-broken system by doubling insurance premiums for 20 million Americans.
I believe we should guarantee health care as a human right through a single-payer Medicare for All system.
But — at minimum — we cannot allow Republicans to destroy our already-broken system by doubling insurance premiums for 20 million Americans.
November 9, 2025 at 9:09 PM
I’m no great fan of the ACA.
I believe we should guarantee health care as a human right through a single-payer Medicare for All system.
But — at minimum — we cannot allow Republicans to destroy our already-broken system by doubling insurance premiums for 20 million Americans.
I believe we should guarantee health care as a human right through a single-payer Medicare for All system.
But — at minimum — we cannot allow Republicans to destroy our already-broken system by doubling insurance premiums for 20 million Americans.
Set aside the NYC election results this week. There were major D/Left wins all over the stare — including the Onondaga County legislature (home of Syracuse), which just flipped to majority D for the first time in 50 years!
So why in the WORLD are NY’s elected reps caving on this?
So why in the WORLD are NY’s elected reps caving on this?
John Fetterman, Angus King, Maggie Hassan, Dick Durbin, Jon Ossoff, Jeanne Shaheen, Kirsten Gillibrand, Catherine Cortez Masto, Mark Warner, Cory Booker, and of course Chuck Schumer. Maybe others not top of mind. Not all responsible will publicly vote for the cave - that's not how this works.
November 9, 2025 at 10:37 PM
Set aside the NYC election results this week. There were major D/Left wins all over the stare — including the Onondaga County legislature (home of Syracuse), which just flipped to majority D for the first time in 50 years!
So why in the WORLD are NY’s elected reps caving on this?
So why in the WORLD are NY’s elected reps caving on this?
Reposted by Eliza Bettinger
The smartest thing a politician can do in 2026 is to come up with a bold plan for shoring up and EXPANDING public libraries. Call it Project 2050. It's a way to reintroduce the grammar of commoning and the commons to a new generation in a way they can easily grasp. Such low hanging fruit.
November 9, 2025 at 6:06 PM
The smartest thing a politician can do in 2026 is to come up with a bold plan for shoring up and EXPANDING public libraries. Call it Project 2050. It's a way to reintroduce the grammar of commoning and the commons to a new generation in a way they can easily grasp. Such low hanging fruit.
Reposted by Eliza Bettinger
The Cornell AAUP chapter has consistently stated that any deal with the Trump administration would be strategically unwise and a betrayal of Cornell’s principles. This remains the case. At best, we can say that this deal could have been worse.
Read our full statement here:
Read our full statement here:
Statement on Cornell’s agreement with federal government
The Cornell AAUP chapter has consistently stated that any deal with the Trump administration would be strategically unwise and a betrayal of Cornell’s principles. This remains the case. We ar…
aaup-cornell.org
November 7, 2025 at 11:24 PM
The Cornell AAUP chapter has consistently stated that any deal with the Trump administration would be strategically unwise and a betrayal of Cornell’s principles. This remains the case. At best, we can say that this deal could have been worse.
Read our full statement here:
Read our full statement here:
My heart breaks again.
Cornell has reached an agreement with the federal government to restore our funding:
statements.cornell.edu/2025/2025110...
statements.cornell.edu/2025/2025110...
An agreement to restore Cornell’s federal research funding | University Statements | Cornell University
statements.cornell.edu
November 7, 2025 at 5:07 PM
My heart breaks again.
Yes, yes, yes!!!
I always say libraries are *tech organizations.* They have the potential to model the antithesis of the Silicon Valley tech organization, which is NOT the only way to be!
Digital doesn't have to be extractive, exploitative, *worse.*
I always say libraries are *tech organizations.* They have the potential to model the antithesis of the Silicon Valley tech organization, which is NOT the only way to be!
Digital doesn't have to be extractive, exploitative, *worse.*
What if we could work with our public libraries to create + sustain convivial infrastructures for local news, local 🎶, digital equity, and more? I wrote abt lots of communities that are doing this work, bldg networks of solidarity + resistance, modeling alternatives to extractive commercial systems.
I wrote about public libraries as spaces of civic solidarity, common knowledge, and public infrastructure — all endangered by commercial and federal saboteurs
November 5, 2025 at 3:11 PM
Yes, yes, yes!!!
I always say libraries are *tech organizations.* They have the potential to model the antithesis of the Silicon Valley tech organization, which is NOT the only way to be!
Digital doesn't have to be extractive, exploitative, *worse.*
I always say libraries are *tech organizations.* They have the potential to model the antithesis of the Silicon Valley tech organization, which is NOT the only way to be!
Digital doesn't have to be extractive, exploitative, *worse.*
Reposted by Eliza Bettinger
Allowing AI on a course supposedly training students how to think is as useful as allowing mobility scooters on an exercise run. And the result for the long-term welfare of the participants will be much the same.
October 24, 2025 at 8:19 PM
Allowing AI on a course supposedly training students how to think is as useful as allowing mobility scooters on an exercise run. And the result for the long-term welfare of the participants will be much the same.
Reposted by Eliza Bettinger
Commercial knowledge dissemination predicated on proprietary systems and logics sutures hierarchies across spaces, places, and peoples. All to serve hegemonic, capitalist, power fantasies. They are tools of and for oppression, not liberation.
October 14, 2025 at 9:39 AM
Commercial knowledge dissemination predicated on proprietary systems and logics sutures hierarchies across spaces, places, and peoples. All to serve hegemonic, capitalist, power fantasies. They are tools of and for oppression, not liberation.