Laura Williams
@ljwilliams.bsky.social
Part-time PhD student researching running, information behaviour and social media. Librarian. Slow runner. Stroke survivor and neurodivergent. Evertonian. Prone to typos.
New! Boulean! Logic!
Oh joy, another helpful AI infographic via LinkedIn. Off I go to my job as a liberaian, maybe to run some critical evaligane workshops and of course use New! Boulean! Logic!
December 2, 2025 at 8:51 AM
New! Boulean! Logic!
Feel very unlucky to have two trips by train delayed by over 3.5 hours in the last 9 days.
November 30, 2025 at 4:40 PM
Feel very unlucky to have two trips by train delayed by over 3.5 hours in the last 9 days.
Today I tried to seek assistance from LNER about announcements whilst extremely anxious and distressed. Should start wearing my sunflower lanyard to travel. I know train crew are stressed but I was sobbing and shaking yet received no reassurance.
November 30, 2025 at 1:47 PM
Today I tried to seek assistance from LNER about announcements whilst extremely anxious and distressed. Should start wearing my sunflower lanyard to travel. I know train crew are stressed but I was sobbing and shaking yet received no reassurance.
Last week I was trapped at Crewe for many hours due to a signal outage. Today I’ve been sat on a train at Leeds since 1045 whilst the chaos of a signal outage plays out.
November 30, 2025 at 12:22 PM
Last week I was trapped at Crewe for many hours due to a signal outage. Today I’ve been sat on a train at Leeds since 1045 whilst the chaos of a signal outage plays out.
Reposted by Laura Williams
“Scholarly effort is in decline everywhere as never before. Indeed, cleverness is shunned at home and abroad. What does reading offer to pupils except tears?”
this guy has his finger on the pulse amirite
www.history-uk.ac.uk/history-in-p... 🗃️
this guy has his finger on the pulse amirite
www.history-uk.ac.uk/history-in-p... 🗃️
‘Doing the Readings’
Dr Will Pooley (Associate Professor in Modern History), University of Bristol The students, we often grumble, don’t read the secondary readings we set for class. Every year, we find ourselves press…
www.history-uk.ac.uk
November 28, 2025 at 6:13 PM
“Scholarly effort is in decline everywhere as never before. Indeed, cleverness is shunned at home and abroad. What does reading offer to pupils except tears?”
this guy has his finger on the pulse amirite
www.history-uk.ac.uk/history-in-p... 🗃️
this guy has his finger on the pulse amirite
www.history-uk.ac.uk/history-in-p... 🗃️
Reposted by Laura Williams
Late to the game sharing this: Stage 1 of #CALC26 CfP is out and we're accepting submissions
The Critical Approaches to Libraries Conference is for anyone with research, projects, perspectives on all things using critical practice in libraries and information studies
sites.google.com/view/calccon...
The Critical Approaches to Libraries Conference is for anyone with research, projects, perspectives on all things using critical practice in libraries and information studies
sites.google.com/view/calccon...
CALC
A conference to discuss critical practice in libraries.
sites.google.com
November 28, 2025 at 10:14 AM
Late to the game sharing this: Stage 1 of #CALC26 CfP is out and we're accepting submissions
The Critical Approaches to Libraries Conference is for anyone with research, projects, perspectives on all things using critical practice in libraries and information studies
sites.google.com/view/calccon...
The Critical Approaches to Libraries Conference is for anyone with research, projects, perspectives on all things using critical practice in libraries and information studies
sites.google.com/view/calccon...
Feel like I can sense the signs of burning out. Went for my monthly GP appointment to check in on mental health and review medication. Grateful for this level of care but it’s a reminder of being unwell. Work was draining today too and I feel very out of sync with routines at the moment.
November 26, 2025 at 7:53 PM
Feel like I can sense the signs of burning out. Went for my monthly GP appointment to check in on mental health and review medication. Grateful for this level of care but it’s a reminder of being unwell. Work was draining today too and I feel very out of sync with routines at the moment.
On AI and research: “Something without a brain scrabbled around and found stuff that looks like content but isn’t, because it wasn’t chosen, analyzed, and written by a person. Frankenstein’s monster copy-paste jobs from a bunch of different places? That’s not a summary. That’s word salad.”
LLM-based gen AI for writing, audio, art, and video are "digital vultures bloated on stolen books [and other human-made things] which they churn together and vomit out in imitations of words from actual thinking, feeling brains."
buttondown.com/surekhadavie...
buttondown.com/surekhadavie...
Basement adventures showed me why ChatGPT can only ever be garbage.
In The British Library. Photo by Surekha Davies. Hallo readers, First, a news flash: Join me for a virtual book launch for HUMANS: A MONSTROUS HISTORY...
buttondown.com
November 26, 2025 at 8:19 AM
On AI and research: “Something without a brain scrabbled around and found stuff that looks like content but isn’t, because it wasn’t chosen, analyzed, and written by a person. Frankenstein’s monster copy-paste jobs from a bunch of different places? That’s not a summary. That’s word salad.”
Apologising in advance to everyone in my office because all I’m going to talk about on Tuesday is how much I loved the Paddington musical. I’m not even that much of a Paddington fan but that was stunning theatre.
November 22, 2025 at 7:40 PM
Apologising in advance to everyone in my office because all I’m going to talk about on Tuesday is how much I loved the Paddington musical. I’m not even that much of a Paddington fan but that was stunning theatre.
Reposted by Laura Williams
“We analyzed 47000 conversations that people had with ChatGPT. We’re pretty sure we don’t have consent for a lot of them. So we are reproducing screenshots here.”
www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
November 15, 2025 at 7:40 PM
“We analyzed 47000 conversations that people had with ChatGPT. We’re pretty sure we don’t have consent for a lot of them. So we are reproducing screenshots here.”
www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
Reposted by Laura Williams
No no no begs every archivist. You are never going to be able to find anything. Please don’t start using emojis in file names. Who asked for this? What fresh hell is next?
November 12, 2025 at 10:38 AM
No no no begs every archivist. You are never going to be able to find anything. Please don’t start using emojis in file names. Who asked for this? What fresh hell is next?
Excellent cloud inversions on today’s lunch break walk
November 6, 2025 at 1:36 PM
Excellent cloud inversions on today’s lunch break walk
Everything is a remix but I don’t think this is a good explanation of the concept of postplagerism and how it might translate from art to academic writing.
I'm sorry but what in the everloving heck (no energy for alt text sorry)
October 30, 2025 at 10:50 AM
Everything is a remix but I don’t think this is a good explanation of the concept of postplagerism and how it might translate from art to academic writing.
Reposted by Laura Williams
🚨NEW PAPER ALERT 🚨 @tamigraph.bsky.social @briana-v.bsky.social and I discuss wellness chatbots, their labor implications, & "private vibes" vs "privacy". We call for critical human-AI communication scholarship that takes into account context & political economy: link.springer.com/article/10.1...
A chatbot for the soul: mental health care, privacy, and intimacy in AI-based conversational agents - Communication and Change
Artificial intelligence-based conversational agents—chatbots—are increasingly integrated into telehealth platforms, employee wellness programs, and mobile applications to address structural gaps in me...
link.springer.com
October 29, 2025 at 1:34 PM
🚨NEW PAPER ALERT 🚨 @tamigraph.bsky.social @briana-v.bsky.social and I discuss wellness chatbots, their labor implications, & "private vibes" vs "privacy". We call for critical human-AI communication scholarship that takes into account context & political economy: link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Reposted by Laura Williams
We will be closing our representation statistics survey at some point in the next month, and we have already heard from more than 1000 neurodivergent librarians! #librarians #neurodiversity
lancasteruni.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...
lancasteruni.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...
Qualtrics Survey | Qualtrics Experience Management
The most powerful, simple and trusted way to gather experience data. Start your journey to experience management and try a free account today.
lancasteruni.eu.qualtrics.com
October 27, 2025 at 8:38 AM
We will be closing our representation statistics survey at some point in the next month, and we have already heard from more than 1000 neurodivergent librarians! #librarians #neurodiversity
lancasteruni.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...
lancasteruni.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...
Every morning people look so upset and hard done by on the train when I ask for bags to be moved so I can have a seat.
October 24, 2025 at 7:33 AM
Every morning people look so upset and hard done by on the train when I ask for bags to be moved so I can have a seat.
If you’ve spent any time with me over the last few months you will be aware that I’m hyper focused level obsessed with mushrooms. Tonight I’m going to see Merlin Sheldrake talk about mushrooms. Very excited!
October 21, 2025 at 4:15 PM
If you’ve spent any time with me over the last few months you will be aware that I’m hyper focused level obsessed with mushrooms. Tonight I’m going to see Merlin Sheldrake talk about mushrooms. Very excited!
Duloxetine must be working magic on my brain. I just sat down and wrote a 500 word conference abstract in one go and then sent it to my supervisors. Minimal anxiety, fretting, overthinking or procrastination.
October 16, 2025 at 2:04 PM
Duloxetine must be working magic on my brain. I just sat down and wrote a 500 word conference abstract in one go and then sent it to my supervisors. Minimal anxiety, fretting, overthinking or procrastination.
I haven’t touched my thesis since 22nd September according to the last saved date of my thesis documents. Today’s task might just be getting familiar with it again.
October 16, 2025 at 9:39 AM
I haven’t touched my thesis since 22nd September according to the last saved date of my thesis documents. Today’s task might just be getting familiar with it again.
Reposted by Laura Williams
October 15, 2025 at 5:39 AM
One of many reasons why I’m stuck in a state of chronic stress. Universities shrinking and library work shrinking. I try to imagine possible alternative career paths but I’m not sure what else I’m good at.
'Universities have collectively announced more than 12,000 job cuts in the last year, new analysis from the University and College Union (UCU) suggests.'
Thousands more university jobs cut as financial crisis deepens
University workers will vote on national strike action this month over a 1.4% pay offer made in the summer.
www.bbc.co.uk
October 10, 2025 at 7:37 AM
One of many reasons why I’m stuck in a state of chronic stress. Universities shrinking and library work shrinking. I try to imagine possible alternative career paths but I’m not sure what else I’m good at.
Hello autumn term exhaustion. Every year at this time I fear I will never pick up my PhD work ever again. I am too tired. This year I feel extra stressed because I should be making progress with writing up.
October 8, 2025 at 5:35 PM
Hello autumn term exhaustion. Every year at this time I fear I will never pick up my PhD work ever again. I am too tired. This year I feel extra stressed because I should be making progress with writing up.
Should be thesis writing today as I don’t work on Mondays. But I was off sick for a day last week and feel so behind on teaching prep that I’m logging on to make PowerPoints. Autumn term workload can get in the bin.
October 6, 2025 at 10:29 AM
Should be thesis writing today as I don’t work on Mondays. But I was off sick for a day last week and feel so behind on teaching prep that I’m logging on to make PowerPoints. Autumn term workload can get in the bin.
Mandatory online training to access a system for taking on disability support in the library. Except I’m struggling with the training and it’s making me frustrated to be dyslexic. Not sure if I should ask if there is an alternative way of proving I’m capable of using the student records system.
September 29, 2025 at 5:03 PM
Mandatory online training to access a system for taking on disability support in the library. Except I’m struggling with the training and it’s making me frustrated to be dyslexic. Not sure if I should ask if there is an alternative way of proving I’m capable of using the student records system.
Reposted by Laura Williams
