Ned Potter
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nedpotter.bsky.social
Ned Potter
@nedpotter.bsky.social
3.6K followers 360 following 1.5K posts
Right then, this is the one. I'm all in.

I want to talk with you about libraries, Higher Ed, communications, and LIFE.

As a freelancer I run workshops on marketing, social media and presentation skills: https://www.ned-potter.com/training
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nedpotter.bsky.social
Grace communicating her displeasure at the tooth fairy forgetting its duties for the second night in a row 😄
Screenshot of a text. There’s a picture message showing the unclaimed tooth still under the pillow, with a sad face emoji
November 24, 2025 at 11:42 AM
nedpotter.bsky.social
A slide from my (otherwise very practical) video marketing workshop for UKeIG today... 📚
A shamelessly opinion-led slide for a practical workshop… GenAI video will soon be ubiquitous. It will be incredibly easy to generate high quality video, and social media / ads etc will be full of them. We can differentiate ourselves in libraries, here, by NOT doing this. We can be the rare beacon of authenticity, of human-made content. The real ‘opportunity’ GenAI presents is in antithesis…
November 13, 2025 at 9:24 AM
nedpotter.bsky.social
Can't stop thinking about this quote, from @maggietokudahall.bsky.social.

"Fascism and AI, whether or not they have the same goals, they sure are working to accelerate one another."

(Read the full article here: www.404media.co/ai-is-superc...)
Screenshot from 404media. Headline is "AI Is Supercharging the War on Libraries, Education, and Human Knowledge" Pullquote is "Fascism and AI, whether or not they have the same goals, they sure are working to accelerate one another."
November 12, 2025 at 11:19 AM
nedpotter.bsky.social
Alice made eyeball jelly last night - is this not the worst thing you’ve ever seen
A grotesque red jelly containing lychees with blueberries in them that look like hideous decaying eyes
October 31, 2025 at 10:34 AM
nedpotter.bsky.social
Bluesky, help me out... What would you do about a totally fabricated quote attributed to you in a journal article?

I suspect the author has used GenAI to research their article and it just made this (frankly tortuous) quote up - the article it cites is from 2013! I had no concept of GenAI then.
"A humorous article in Library Journal puts it well: “market the library like Hellmann’s markets mayonnaise—market everywhere and make your brand the first thing people associate with meeting an information need—or, if you’re positioningas an AI hub, with ‘AI’ itself.”
October 28, 2025 at 9:08 AM
nedpotter.bsky.social
The 'you wouldn't steal a car' copyright theft meme, edited to say 'you wouldn't kill an industry'
October 10, 2025 at 1:31 PM
nedpotter.bsky.social
First favourite tree klaxon!
A dead very sculptural tree in a meadow The tree - with chopped branches and a thick trunk - with the sun behind it
September 28, 2025 at 2:57 PM
nedpotter.bsky.social
*First misty picturesque run of the season klaxon*
Figures silhouetted against the mist on a grassy stray area
September 5, 2025 at 6:38 AM
nedpotter.bsky.social
Flashback to the time in Venice we saw a bloke who looked just like my dad who was dressed in the exact same outfit as my Dad, walking just behind my Dad
A Venetian street, including two men dressed remarkably similarly Close up of the two men. They are both wearing a brown jacket over a navy top with blue jeans, and neither have much in the way of hair
August 26, 2025 at 9:26 AM
nedpotter.bsky.social
International cat day is it?

Slap a Parental Advisory sticker on this pic I took of Shnoops and MegaCat and it’s basically an album cover.
String lights, a dark blue evening sky, and two cats sitting on a wall. One looks at the camera while the other stares off into the distance.
August 8, 2025 at 1:26 PM
nedpotter.bsky.social
Sadly my colleague Raj isn't on Bluesky (yet!), but she organised the Trespasser's Conference at York to explore this issue, and so I'll finish this thread with a quote from her keynote address.
For those of you here today who support racially minoritised staff and students, ask yourselves: have I provided people with the tools they need to be able to thrive in the space? If not, what else do I need to be doing? Instead of helping underrepresented groups to walk past the metaphorical ‘no entry or ‘no trespassing signs,’ instead pull down the sign before they get there, have a comfortable seat ready for them: don’t just applaud the courage and grit on getting there.
July 31, 2025 at 2:22 PM
nedpotter.bsky.social
Obviously go and read the whole thing, but here's a key quote.
People from underrepresented groups are not afraid that they are imposters; they are afraid that the majority groups won’t see them for who they are and won’t welcome them if they do see them. These fears are not the fears of imposters; they are the fears of trespassers. A trespasser is someone who enters spaces they are not supposed to be, where they do not belong. A trespasser isn’t afraid of being discovered for who they really are; they are afraid of being treated like they don’t belong where they are.
July 31, 2025 at 2:22 PM
nedpotter.bsky.social
Updating a classic

warwick.ac.uk
xkcd comic: venn diagramm shpowing 'things on a front page of a University website' like alumni in the news, letter from the president - and 'things people go to the site looking for' such as academic calendar, and parking. In the original 'full name of the school' is the only item in the overlapping circles - here I've pasted over 'learn more about our brand' from the Warwick website.
July 23, 2025 at 11:16 AM
nedpotter.bsky.social
She’s not allowed on the table but when there’s a table *on* the table (due to floor mopping) she sees it as a loophole

Ps she and MegaCat are TWO TODAY 🎂🎉🥳
A black and white cat sat on a yellow coffee table on top of a kitchen table
July 22, 2025 at 7:42 PM
nedpotter.bsky.social
It’s my mum’s 81st birthday and my dad has taken her away on a surprise trip somewhere, and they’ve just sent me this photo from wherever it is they’ve gone, and they’re just SO happy together it gladdens my heart ❤️
A 78 year old man and 81 year old man smiling in front of some sort of lake
July 18, 2025 at 2:27 PM
nedpotter.bsky.social
If you've worked on a library project to showcase ethnically minoritised authors, and you've received recommendations for books from students and staff (and you see this today or over the weekend...) I'd love to hear from you. We're buying some books on a tight deadline!

Some more context below. 📚
I'm working on a UX-led project at the moment in inclusivity and belonging in the library. One of the recommendations is a showcase space for ethnically minoritised authors - a physical space, with physical books, which we're setting up now. Thanks to an unexpected injection of funds we are currently buying items to go into this space, but our ordering window ends on Monday due to the impending close of the financial year. If you work in a library that has done this sort of thing before, specifically via *recommendations from staff and students*, I'd love to hear from you. Quite honestly, ideally with a list of the books you've ordered! Just send me a message here. I want to be clear that this isn't just about adding books to stock, or diversifying our collections as an end in itself, or anything generic. This is designed as a *celebration* of works by ethnically minoritised authors, and we want to buy books that are important to real people - and in fact we're ordering additional copies of items we already own as part of this if they're recommended to us, because we don't want to remove them from their regular places on our shelves. So if you've ever worked on a similar project, and happen to see this in the ludicrously short time-span required, get in touch! Thanks all.
July 18, 2025 at 10:27 AM
nedpotter.bsky.social
She literally RAN when she saw me coming to start work, in order to get my work chair and lie down on it and instantly settle down to sleep
A black and white cat sat in a chair designed for a human, in front of a desk with monitors on
July 18, 2025 at 7:52 AM
nedpotter.bsky.social
I gave a presentation earlier this year which neatly encapsulates some of the absolutely key issues around libraries and the frankly very complicated social media landscape. 📚

It was filmed, and here’s the first three minutes of the talk.

🧵 >>>
July 9, 2025 at 1:43 PM
nedpotter.bsky.social
Delighted to see this. When one door is shut so reprehensibly, it's good to see another door open so hopefully.

www.mellon.org/news/mellon-...
Mellon Foundation Announces Appointment of Dr. Carla Hayden as Mellon Senior Fellow
July 8, 2025 at 8:42 AM
nedpotter.bsky.social
Absolutely shocked, as a non-tea-drinker, to have been sufficiently indoctrinated to bubble-tea by my children that I sometimes buy one when they’re not present…

(DO NOT TELL MY KIDS I GOT A PISTACHIO BUBBLE TEA WITHOUT THEM.)
A green Bubblelogy tea with tapioca balls
July 4, 2025 at 2:09 PM
nedpotter.bsky.social
Literally permanent companion on my WFH days.

Just sleeps on the window seat (head often resting on the windowsill) and makes a mewling complaint noise if I have the temerity to cough.
A small cat asleep on a window seat next to a rug with houses and trees visible through the window
June 16, 2025 at 12:57 PM
nedpotter.bsky.social
Ironic that the one time the Gemini Google summary is actually accurate, it's about its own total unsuitability to do even 'low-stakes' marking.
Using AI for marking can introduce several issues. AI might be biased based on training data, potentially leading to unfair results. Over-reliance on AI-generated feedback could hinder students' critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Ethical concerns also arise regarding data privacy, potential misuse of student information, and the devaluation of human expertise in assessments
June 12, 2025 at 7:50 AM
nedpotter.bsky.social
Look at this! The congregation 😮

Playing live music to an appreciative audience is pretty euphoric at times.
June 9, 2025 at 7:52 PM
nedpotter.bsky.social
Last night we headlined a mini two-day festival in a church! It was absolutely epicly brilliant.

We played God is a DJ by Faithless and everything.
Me (mid-40s man wearing a Cyberdog hoodie and light up glasses) and Flat Eric (a sort of muppet thing from the 90s Levi’s ads) The stage bathed in multicoloured lights beneath the vaulted church roof A view of 150 people watching a band beneath a stained glass window A singer and a keyboard player on stage in 90s clothing
June 8, 2025 at 2:24 PM
nedpotter.bsky.social
This morning I'm presenting at an @academiclibsnorth.bsky.social event on academic library social media.

I will make the following claims based on what I've learned, and then I will attempt to prove them using FACTS, STATS and RHETORIC and stuff like that. 📚
Instagram is by far the most important platform to get right Your students are already searching tiktok for your library (so it may be worth the enormous amount of time it takes) Bluesky is where all the researchers have gone and it’s well worth being there too Unless you can quantify the benefit of being on facebook, it’s not worth your bandwidth We shouldn’t be on x anymore
June 4, 2025 at 8:46 AM