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 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
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
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.
Reposted by Eliza Bettinger
🧵
OpenAI's rapid rush into education has been achieved by habituating users through training programs, institutional lock-ins, strategic marketing partnerships, and third party integrations that together are helping it become infrastructural to teaching and learning. It's going to be hard to get out.
September 26, 2025 at 10:58 PM
🧵
Reposted by Eliza Bettinger
Again, the public & parents about to send kids to colleges don't understand the scale of this threat & what it means for the quality & quantity of classes/degrees/etc, bc university leaders are totally MIA (bsky.app/profile/mcop...). Meanwhile, stuff everyone takes for granted is just disappearing:
We're sending out cancellation of FLAS (Foreign Language & Area Studies) fellowships to dozens of students today, bc Trump has illegally refused to disburse year 4 of our DoE grants. Congrats to everyone in the GOP who is laser-focused on 🇺🇸 national security & the threat of rising 🇨🇳 to 🇺🇸 hegemony.
Yes, we’re literally about to zero out funding for every Title VI area studies center at every university in the country, along with FLAS fellowship funding. A generation of human capital that feeds into our diplomatic & intelligence corps that will simply not exist. National security madness.
August 8, 2025 at 6:29 PM
Again, the public & parents about to send kids to colleges don't understand the scale of this threat & what it means for the quality & quantity of classes/degrees/etc, bc university leaders are totally MIA (bsky.app/profile/mcop...). Meanwhile, stuff everyone takes for granted is just disappearing:
Reposted by Eliza Bettinger
Again, you cannot unplug 1/4-1/5 of an R1 university's budget & expect the same quantity or quality of "things" on campus. The math simply doesn't work. And pretending it does & we can uphold our "core values," & not talking loudly & publicly about how it doesn't, is not a strategy. It's madness.
Here is UW - Madison's budget. Our <largest> funder is the federal government. 25%. It used to be the state. Either way, the university in its current form ceases to exist if these federal cuts really happen. But The. Public. Doesn't. Know. This. And our leaders are absent from the public debate.
August 8, 2025 at 6:41 PM
Again, you cannot unplug 1/4-1/5 of an R1 university's budget & expect the same quantity or quality of "things" on campus. The math simply doesn't work. And pretending it does & we can uphold our "core values," & not talking loudly & publicly about how it doesn't, is not a strategy. It's madness.
New reporting on those threats against Tompkins County (Ithaca) from the feds earlier this year. #twithaca
GOP Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan blasted New York sanctuary policies during a June congressional hearing. Newly obtained emails tell a different story.
nysfocus.com/2025/09/09/d...
nysfocus.com/2025/09/09/d...
Trump-Targeted Sheriff Did Not Rely on Sanctuary Law in High-Profile…
GOP Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan blasted New York immigration law during a June congressional hearing . Newly obtained emails tell a different story.
nysfocus.com
September 18, 2025 at 9:15 PM
New reporting on those threats against Tompkins County (Ithaca) from the feds earlier this year. #twithaca
Yessssssss.
Best description yet. Thank you for articulating that, @shannonmattern.bsky.social
Best description yet. Thank you for articulating that, @shannonmattern.bsky.social
Yet another demonstration that AI is not a labor-saving device; it merely displaces the cleanup and mitigation (in realms where care, caution, accuracy, etc., actually matter) onto other people
September 18, 2025 at 6:45 PM
Yessssssss.
Best description yet. Thank you for articulating that, @shannonmattern.bsky.social
Best description yet. Thank you for articulating that, @shannonmattern.bsky.social
Was talking to an actual machine learning scholar about this common phenom of researchers bringing us AI-generated fake citations for us to find for them. She was gob-smacked — “But why do they trust it so much?”
Reference librarian Eddie Kristan said lenders at the library where he works have been asking him to find books that don’t exist without realizing they were hallucinated by AI.
🔗 www.404media.co/librarians-a...
🔗 www.404media.co/librarians-a...
Librarians Are Being Asked to Find AI-Hallucinated Books
It’s a trippy time to have a library card.
www.404media.co
September 18, 2025 at 6:41 PM
Was talking to an actual machine learning scholar about this common phenom of researchers bringing us AI-generated fake citations for us to find for them. She was gob-smacked — “But why do they trust it so much?”
Reposted by Eliza Bettinger
Extremely important to foreground that this is not only about faculty IP. Think hard about what students have divulged to you - health diagnoses, immigration status, political affiliations - either via private messages or personal essays.
How many of those confessions are warehoused on Canvas?
How many of those confessions are warehoused on Canvas?
And the big push from admin, at least at my college, to use the online gradebook really is "just in case something happens to you" not in case we decide to strike or they decide to fire us....
It appears Instructure has removed the capacity to delete old courses in Canvas. In many cases (depending on institutional settings) those course are also uneditable.
But they definitely aren't stealing our IP and using it to train algorithms.
But they definitely aren't stealing our IP and using it to train algorithms.
September 18, 2025 at 1:52 PM
Extremely important to foreground that this is not only about faculty IP. Think hard about what students have divulged to you - health diagnoses, immigration status, political affiliations - either via private messages or personal essays.
How many of those confessions are warehoused on Canvas?
How many of those confessions are warehoused on Canvas?
Reposted by Eliza Bettinger
As was posted earlier, how to delete your account without agreeing to the ToS:
Opening this "privacy policy" link www.academia.edu/privacytakes you to a page where you can access the drop-down menu and reach "account settings." From there I was able to delete my account without agreeing.
Opening this "privacy policy" link www.academia.edu/privacytakes you to a page where you can access the drop-down menu and reach "account settings." From there I was able to delete my account without agreeing.
September 17, 2025 at 8:48 PM
As was posted earlier, how to delete your account without agreeing to the ToS:
Opening this "privacy policy" link www.academia.edu/privacytakes you to a page where you can access the drop-down menu and reach "account settings." From there I was able to delete my account without agreeing.
Opening this "privacy policy" link www.academia.edu/privacytakes you to a page where you can access the drop-down menu and reach "account settings." From there I was able to delete my account without agreeing.
Reposted by Eliza Bettinger
I'm sorry, worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable permission to my voice and likeness? For what now? In any manner for any purpose???
This is in academia/.edu's new ToS, which you're prompted to agree to on login. Anyway I'll be jumping ship. You can find my stuff at hcommons.org.
This is in academia/.edu's new ToS, which you're prompted to agree to on login. Anyway I'll be jumping ship. You can find my stuff at hcommons.org.
September 17, 2025 at 5:16 PM
I'm sorry, worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable permission to my voice and likeness? For what now? In any manner for any purpose???
This is in academia/.edu's new ToS, which you're prompted to agree to on login. Anyway I'll be jumping ship. You can find my stuff at hcommons.org.
This is in academia/.edu's new ToS, which you're prompted to agree to on login. Anyway I'll be jumping ship. You can find my stuff at hcommons.org.