Lorcan Dempsey

ASU launches ASU London, bringing global reputation for innovation to the UK | ASU News Arizona State University is creating ASU London, expanding its presence in the United Kingdom with a U.K.-accredited higher educational institution.Building on the success of The Engineering & Design…

'Arizona State University is creating ASU London, expanding its presence in the United Kingdom with a U.K.-accredited higher educational institution.' buff.ly/3hPgAr9

Does Britain value culture any more? Ask the striking workers at the British Library | Zadie Smith The dispute over pay at this great national institution gets to the heart of our misplaced priorities, says novelist Zadie Smith

Facilitating our work is a great army of library staff, who are also cultural workers. Without them, the library does not function, the books do not get read, the culture does not come to pass. buff.ly/riUOc4I

Ohio State to hire 100 new faculty with AI expertise The Ohio State University has announced a major Artificial Intelligence (AI) Faculty Hiring Initiative that will add 100 new tenure-track faculty with expertise in AI over the next five years. The…

A key component, the AI Fluency initiative, was announced in June and ensures that every student, beginning with the Class of 2029, graduates fluent in applying AI within their field of study.

Ohio State to hire 100 new faculty with AI expertise The Ohio State University has announced a major Artificial Intelligence (AI) Faculty Hiring Initiative that will add 100 new tenure-track faculty with expertise in AI over the next five years. The…

AI with everything > "The Ohio State University has announced a major [AI] Faculty Hiring Initiative that will add 100 new tenure-track faculty with expertise in AI over the next five years. The initiative will expand AI research and education across disciplines ... "

Columbus library pauses plans for northwest Columbus branch, citing funding limbo - Columbus Business First Columbus Metropolitan Library pauses plans for new branch in northwest Columbus.

The Columbus Metropolitan Library has pressed pause on plans to build the city's 24th library branch > uncertainty in library funding due to recent state funding policy changes and the move to reform Ohio’s property tax laws buff.ly/6qeucjQ

Very nicely done. Intriguing font choice. Two freely available fonts, one open source. Each font is created by an interesting designer who publishes a small range of distinctive fonts. Great to see this thoughtfulness.

Chegg's CEO once said he's the 'poster child' for AI shock. Now, the company is slashing 45% of staff | Fortune The edtech pioneer is cutting 388 jobs and bringing back Dan Rosensweig as CEO, underscoring how generative AI and shrinking Google traffic are reshaping student learning.

Chegg's CEO once said he's the 'poster child' for AI shock. Now, the company is slashing 45% of staff | Fortune fortune.com/2025/10/28/c...

British Library workers to strike in pay dispute Workers at the British Library in London have voted to take strike action in a dispute over pay. Over 300 Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) members who work at the British Library will walk…

British Library workers to strike > “The employer’s well-paid executives need to take the blinkers off and understand that our hard-working members are what makes the British Library the vital cultural institution that it is."

Cal State Invited Tech Companies to Remake Learning With A.I. (Gift Article) Spurred by titans like Amazon and OpenAI, California State wants to become the nation’s “largest A.I.-empowered” university.

Cal State > As part of the effort, the university is paying OpenAI $16.9 million to provide ChatGPT Edu, the company’s tool for schools, to more than half a million students and staff — which OpenAI heralded as the world’s largest rollout of ChatGPT to date.

Cal State Invited Tech Companies to Remake Learning With A.I. (Gift Article) Spurred by titans like Amazon and OpenAI, California State wants to become the nation’s “largest A.I.-empowered” university.

Really? ... > Cal State’s partners, like Amazon, said they were eager to help students use a range of A.I. tools in different ways — not just use chatbots to look up answers. buff.ly/nFLiKPH

ChatGPT's Atlas: The Browser That's Anti-Web - Anil Dash A blog about making culture. Since 1999.

Anil Dash > But Atlas is a browser that actively fights against the web, and in doing so, it's fighting against the very idea that you should have control over what you see, where you go, and what watches you while you're there. ilo.im/167ut1

Hundreds of Carnegie Libraries to Receive $10,000 Gifts in Celebration of United States’ 250th Anniversary | Carnegie Corporation of New York The foundation established in 1911 by Andrew Carnegie, Carnegie Corporation of New York, honors the country’s democratic ideals with $20 million in new funding to support America’s civic institutions

"The special initiative aligns with the foundation’s overarching goal of reducing political polarization." > Hundreds of Carnegie Libraries to Receive $10,000 Gifts in Celebration of United States’ 250th Anniversary | Carnegie Corporation of New York

New From @lorcand.bsky.social: The Informational Disciplines www.lorcandempsey.net/the-informat... #infoscience #librarianship #libraries

‘Significant exposure’: Amazon Web Services outage exposed UK state’s £1.7bn reliance on tech giant Cloud computing disruption highlights risk of deepening ties despite warnings from UK’s own regulators, including the Treasury

UK Gov. AWS exposure > "until significant diversification or sovereign cloud adoption occurs, the UK government’s own stance shows an uncomfortable contradiction with the very resilience principles regulators have advocated.”

The Majority AI View - Anil Dash A blog about making culture. Since 1999.

Discuss > "Technologies like LLMs have utility, but the absurd way they've been over-hyped, the fact they're being forced on everyone, and the insistence on ignoring the many valid critiques about them make it very difficult to focus on legitimate uses where they might add value."

Ireland’s data centres now consume more than a fifth of national electricity Data centres now account for 22% of Ireland’s electricity use, prompting warnings about grid strain and climate goals

'Data centres accounted for 22% of the electricity consumed in Ireland last year — up from 21% in 2023, and significantly higher than the 5% share they held in 2015.' buff.ly/U7K3drd

A digital dark age? The people rescuing forgotten knowledge trapped on old floppy disks From lectures by Stephen Hawking to the letters of British politician Neil Kinnock – it's a race against time to save the historical treasures locked away on old floppy disks.

[Stephen Hawking's] disks are now part of a project at Cambridge University Library to rescue hidden knowledge trapped on floppy disks. The Future Nostalgia project reflects a larger trend in the information flooding into archives and libraries around the world. buff.ly/5FfQU3H

Klim Type Foundry · Die Grotesk design information Die Grotesk was shaped in the long shadow of Helvetica, a typeface both revered and resented in equal measure. Graphic designers love it. Type designers hate it. Endlessly revived and resold,…

'Graphic designers love Helvetica. Type designers hate it.' buff.ly/doWlmZQ

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

The ‘Best’ Colleges Aren’t the Best Forever Prestige isn’t permanent.

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

Information: a brief schematic history 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…

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

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.

'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.'

A World Cup preying on Fomo: Fifa’s 2026 ticket scheme is a late-capitalist hellscape NFTs, dynamic pricing and double resale fees have turned the 2026 World Cup into a fintech carnival where fandom meets late-capitalist absurdity

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

You won’t believe what degrading practice the pope just condemned Communication must be freed from clickbait and misguided thinking, head of Catholic church tells journalists

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

Political Views and College Choices in a Polarized America 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…

'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

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 -

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...

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

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.

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

... 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 ...

When Focusing on Terminology Becomes a Hurdle to Open Access Outreach Conversations about open access can be riddled with distracting language. But what if we treated these failures to communicate as opportunities to learn more?

"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

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

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