Mike Jones

TRYangle is the name I've given to the new approach to evaluating information sources that I've been working on for a while and today I talked about it in public for the first time. I was supremely touched and enthused by the response.

Hopefully you'll hear more about it soon!

Mentimeter word cloud displayed on a projection screen. The question at the top reads "what is your most important takeaway from today?" Underneath are a jumble of words but prominently in the middle is the word "tryangle"

This meant everything to me today.

At the end of today's annual Southern University Libraries Conference attendees were asked for their most important takeaway using a Mentimeter word cloud. Central to the results & biggest of all was the word "tryangle"- let me explain why that's so special to me

White and blue train sat at the station waiting to depart

Been a while since I've got an early morning train but off to Bournemouth today for the Southern University Libraries Networking Day at which I'm very excited (and a touch nervous) to be presenting something I've been working on for 2 years! Will be so nice to give it it's first public airing!

A reminder that CILIP's Academic & Research Libraries Group (of which I'm secretary) are hosting our AGM next Weds including a talk from CILIP CEO @louiscoiffait-gunn.bsky.social & an opportunity to contribute to the CILIP strategy consultation.

Register to attend using the link in the post below!

Notes from the UKSG Conference 2025 in Brighton From 31st March to 2nd April, I had the delight of attending the UKSG Conference in Brighton. It was my first time attending this event and I was really impressed by how well organised it was and the ...

I've typed up my summary of the key themes and ideas I took away from last week's brilliant @uksg.bsky.social Conference:

Notes from the UKSG Conference 2025 in Brighton
www.linkedin.com/pulse/notes-...

#UKSG2025

I was very glad of the short train ride along the coast to Southampton - hope your journey isn't too much longer and you get to have a chilled evening

I think it was more stupidity than stamina 🤣

Was lovely to meet you too, thanks again for being so welcoming

Home, unpacked and snuggling on the sofa with the kiddo after a fantastic 3 days in Brighton for #UKSG2025

So many ideas and learning to unpack but that can wait until tomorrow.

For now I just want to say a huge thank you to the organisers and speakers who made it such a great event.

Also brilliant panel on neurodiversty and how we can all work in a more compassionate way to ensure inclusivity for all is embedded into all we do and we don't put the additional burden on ND students and colleagues.

Now it's party time!

#UKSG2025

Another really interesting day at #UKSG2025

As someone whose role mainly focuses on student support and info lit skills I'm loving learning more about the publishing debates, with a couple of fascinating panels on the alternatives to the journal establishment.

For now though I'm relaxing my mind and tucking into a delicious burger and refreshing beer from Honest Burgers, then thinking about heading to the cinema!

Really interesting and thought provoking first day at #UKSG2025

One thing that's clear, 2 years into the GenAI boom there is no consensus on the answers for libraries, guidance and governance...in fact some of the answers offered today I fundamentally disagreed with 🤣

The debate rages on!

A train pulls into a station backlit by a low sun

The journey begins, Woolston-Brighton. See you soon #UKSG2025

Suitcase adorned with pictures of campervan sat on a bed

Suitcase is packed. Very excited to being making the journey eastward along the south coast to Brighton for #UKSG2025 in the morning!

I was just going to pop onto here to recommend Abi Elphinstone, my 9yo daughter just read the first Ember Spark novel and is obsessed with it - even dressed up as her for World Book Day.

This is really useful, thank you! I'm heading to UKSG and would love to be added if possible - thanks!

Brilliant, thank you!

Do you have a link to this "research" - sounds like it would be a useful example to show how funding can impact the bias of research outcomes

Just this week I've had 2 examples (one in work, one in a volunteering role) where people have presented info that proved to be inaccurate & which after investigation, was found to be because of GenAI tool use. The additional labour caused was unnecessary & could have had further implications

AI Search Has A Citation Problem We Compared Eight AI Search Engines. They’re All Bad at Citing News.

The outcomes of this research are really interesting. The % of inaccurate results from GenAI search tools makes them plain useless...but the ease with which people can search for & find info makes them too tempting for a lot of people.

AI literacy is so important!

www.cjr.org/tow_center/w...

Thanks Andrew! Congratulations on your own looming milestone! 🥂

Reflecting on 20 years in librarianship and looking to the next 20! To borrow a phrase from the greatest band of all-time, ”it was twenty years ago today…”, however in this instance Sgt Pepper had no involvement in teaching any band to play. Instead, a 25 year old, sl...

Today is my 20 year anniversary of working in libraries! It's got me in a reflective mood and so I've written a little something about my librarianship journey so far and what I see as my plans for the next 20 years!

www.linkedin.com/pulse/reflec...

We are currently firming up our AGM plans. Watch this space for date/time. We'd love to see you there!

CILIP: the library and information association The 9th CILIP ARLG DARTS Conference will be held at Stanton House Hotel, Stanton Fitzwarren, on 21st – 22nd May 2025, with a conference theme of empowering Librarians to conduct and support research. Full details about this and past DARTS conferences can be accessed via our website.

Day tickets are now available for DARTs conference 21-22/5/25

The main theme is

"Empowering Librarians to conduct and support research".

For more details go to:
www.cilip.org.uk/events/Event...

Questions? Please email arlgdarts@gmail.com

The CILIP Academic & Research Libraries Group (of which I'm secretary) are now on here. Please give us a follow and get in touch if you'd be interested in getting involved in joining us and helping put on events!

@cilip-arlg.bsky.social

Thanks for the response. Like Perplexity, your tool correctly identified a cinema in Southampton but gave incorrect screening times - it said 6 & 6:50 when in reality they are 12:10 & 8:40.

Also thought that the top result in the "what are people saying" is an interesting response to the prompt! 😯

Screenshot of Perplexity FAQ section. The text reads: "What is an answer engine, and how does Perplexity work as one? An answer engine is a tool designed to give you direct, detailed answers to your questions. Perplexity serves as an answer engine by searching the web, identifying trusted sources, and synthesizing information into clear, up-to-date responses. Unlike traditional search engines, which make you sift through a list of links, Perplexity delivers the insights you’re looking for in one place. While we aim for accuracy, we encourage you to double-check sources for added confidence."

If it can't handle something this simple, how are we meant to trust it with anything?

Their own definition of what an answer engine is says it prevents the need for sifting through links, but then suggest you should as it isn't guaranteed to be accurate!

4/4

It then goes on to give me times of 2:10pm and 5:20pm for screenings. The latter of these would be perfect so I click through to the Picturehouse website...where I find that actually the screening times are 1:45pm and 7pm - absolutely useless information! 🤬

3/4

The response starts strongly, identifying Harbour Lights Picturehouse as a cinema in Southampton and giving me its location - great!

Then it begins the next paragraph with "For tonight, Monday, February 4, 2025..." - Today is TUESDAY 4th! 🤦 - very worrying if it can't even get the day right!

2/4

Screenshot of Perplexity. The prompt asks "where can I watch The Brutalist tonight in Southampton". The generated response reads: "You can watch "The Brutalist" tonight at the Harbour Lights Picturehouse in Southampton. The cinema is located at Ocean Village, Southampton, SO14 3TL2. For tonight, Monday, February 4, 2025, there are two screenings of "The Brutalist" at Harbour Lights Picturehouse: 14:10 (2:10 PM) 17:20 (5:20 PM) It's worth noting that "The Brutalist" has been nominated for 10 Academy Awards, including Best Picture18. The film is directed by Brady Corbet and stars Adrien Brody as László Toth, a visionary architect who escapes post-war Europe in 1947 to rebuild his life in America."

I've started running some "play with AI" sessions for library colleagues and am prepping the next one looking at the idea of "answer engines" and playing with Perplexity.

As they're billed as an alternative to traditional search engines I thought I'd ask it something I would usually Google...

1/4