Emily Higgs Kopin
@ehkopin.bsky.social
texpat in philly, working in digital archives, libraries, and preservation. 20% professional, 80% nonsense. 🐶🐱🎮📖🧶💾
Pinned
MILF (metadata I'd like to fix)
I was literally typing this lol (but worse)
Every couple of years the same article comes about about an ambitious information storage mechanism. Like 7 years ago it was etched nickel plates getting shot onto the moon: "the civilizational backup disk". There's no reason to debase ourselves thinking through moronic ideas
February 18, 2026 at 6:18 PM
I was literally typing this lol (but worse)
Reposted by Emily Higgs Kopin
“Get in, loser, we’re going to hell”
February 18, 2026 at 5:10 PM
“Get in, loser, we’re going to hell”
you can't ask me "what do you think about the America's Next Top Model documentary" as chit chat in a meeting, you need to put that on the agenda and send it out at least a week in advance
February 18, 2026 at 5:09 PM
you can't ask me "what do you think about the America's Next Top Model documentary" as chit chat in a meeting, you need to put that on the agenda and send it out at least a week in advance
Reposted by Emily Higgs Kopin
ME: *flawlessly performs Kate Bush's iconic dance from her Wuthering Heights video
COP: Ok so now we'll do MY field sobriety test
COP: Ok so now we'll do MY field sobriety test
February 18, 2026 at 12:16 PM
ME: *flawlessly performs Kate Bush's iconic dance from her Wuthering Heights video
COP: Ok so now we'll do MY field sobriety test
COP: Ok so now we'll do MY field sobriety test
I grew up in Texas before they changed the laws so my mom just had to sign a form at the DMV saying I knew how to drive. I never took driver’s ed and I didn’t learn to parallel park until I moved to Philly
okay one of my best friends just told me her driver's ed teacher was named
wait for it
Mr. Streetman
... and now, because the horrors are horroring, I wish to hear from Bluesky about all your great and bad and terrible and fun driver's ed stories
wait for it
Mr. Streetman
... and now, because the horrors are horroring, I wish to hear from Bluesky about all your great and bad and terrible and fun driver's ed stories
February 18, 2026 at 1:17 PM
I grew up in Texas before they changed the laws so my mom just had to sign a form at the DMV saying I knew how to drive. I never took driver’s ed and I didn’t learn to parallel park until I moved to Philly
Reposted by Emily Higgs Kopin
I have no interest in policing other people's personal health choices in any way. If you're taking a GLP-1 and happy with it, then I'm happy.
But we're never going to be a country without fat people — or the need to treat each other with grace and humanity regardless of size.
But we're never going to be a country without fat people — or the need to treat each other with grace and humanity regardless of size.
February 17, 2026 at 8:16 PM
I have no interest in policing other people's personal health choices in any way. If you're taking a GLP-1 and happy with it, then I'm happy.
But we're never going to be a country without fat people — or the need to treat each other with grace and humanity regardless of size.
But we're never going to be a country without fat people — or the need to treat each other with grace and humanity regardless of size.
if anyone has recommendations for an offline DAP with a good UI, I'm in the market
A Digital Audio Player renewed my love of music: aftermath.site/digita-audio-p...
February 17, 2026 at 7:58 PM
if anyone has recommendations for an offline DAP with a good UI, I'm in the market
Getting broken things to work again through manual dexterity, research, and sheer force of will is the best feeling in the world. But don’t clap for me im talking about my vape
February 17, 2026 at 2:14 PM
Getting broken things to work again through manual dexterity, research, and sheer force of will is the best feeling in the world. But don’t clap for me im talking about my vape
Reposted by Emily Higgs Kopin
This is the practice of solidarity.
The drunk uncle theory.
You don’t argue with the casually homophobic uncle at Thanksgiving dinner to change his mind; you argue so that the closeted cousin at the kids table knows there’s safe people and better possibilities out there
You don’t argue with the casually homophobic uncle at Thanksgiving dinner to change his mind; you argue so that the closeted cousin at the kids table knows there’s safe people and better possibilities out there
agree with this (hah) but also think a particular mistake the left made for a long time online, and still makes to an extent, is failing to understand that the person whose mind you may actually change is the one reading the argument you're having, not the one you're arguing with
February 17, 2026 at 12:58 PM
This is the practice of solidarity.
Reposted by Emily Higgs Kopin
What's with all the ducks?
February 17, 2026 at 1:03 PM
What's with all the ducks?
Reposted by Emily Higgs Kopin
Penn’s graduate student workers have reached a tentative agreement on a first union contract, averting a strike.
The two-year tentative agreement includes increases to wages among other benefits.
The two-year tentative agreement includes increases to wages among other benefits.
Graduate student workers at Penn reach a tentative agreement, avoiding a strike
www.inquirer.com
February 17, 2026 at 1:24 PM
Penn’s graduate student workers have reached a tentative agreement on a first union contract, averting a strike.
The two-year tentative agreement includes increases to wages among other benefits.
The two-year tentative agreement includes increases to wages among other benefits.
Happy New Year to all my kindred spirits who bought an 8 lb Napa cabbage for a two-person household with concrete plans for only half a pound of it
February 16, 2026 at 10:27 PM
Happy New Year to all my kindred spirits who bought an 8 lb Napa cabbage for a two-person household with concrete plans for only half a pound of it
Thinking about this re: transcripts of our digitized a/v collections from the archives, and how to approach assessing gender & race bias in our transcription processes. assessment!
I've transcribed dozens of interviews. With rare exceptions, everyone speaks with those um/uh tics, little restarts, hesitations, and most of us speak in sentence fragments with emphases, tones, pauses that create coherence not replicable in print. Spoken and written are distinct. Translate fairly.
February 16, 2026 at 9:35 PM
Thinking about this re: transcripts of our digitized a/v collections from the archives, and how to approach assessing gender & race bias in our transcription processes. assessment!
Reposted by Emily Higgs Kopin
Their "student experience" was adversely affected by the pandemic emergency? Everyone's fucking life experience was adversely affected, and millions died. The rhetoric of this being a customer service dispute is offensive.
February 16, 2026 at 5:43 PM
Their "student experience" was adversely affected by the pandemic emergency? Everyone's fucking life experience was adversely affected, and millions died. The rhetoric of this being a customer service dispute is offensive.
Reposted by Emily Higgs Kopin
He didn’t like me, I didn’t like him, and that was fine. It was absolutely fine.
February 16, 2026 at 9:15 PM
He didn’t like me, I didn’t like him, and that was fine. It was absolutely fine.
Another thing I will share about this, before I go home and play the horse girl video game demo, is that it's impossible to situate this data in the context of our larger impact + ethical commitments if we don't measure things. I know how many academics think "assessment" is a dirty word.
I will share more of our findings as we get into data analysis, but we're reviewing energy usage & climate impact metrics for our cloud-hosted digital collections at MPOW, and the results have been really misaligned with what our expectations were. I strongly encourage other folks to do this.
February 16, 2026 at 9:04 PM
Another thing I will share about this, before I go home and play the horse girl video game demo, is that it's impossible to situate this data in the context of our larger impact + ethical commitments if we don't measure things. I know how many academics think "assessment" is a dirty word.
Reposted by Emily Higgs Kopin
"come try Horses of Hoofprint Bay we have 25 positive reviews on our demo already", says video game horse expert
store.steampowered.com/app/4335510/...
store.steampowered.com/app/4335510/...
February 16, 2026 at 5:34 PM
"come try Horses of Hoofprint Bay we have 25 positive reviews on our demo already", says video game horse expert
store.steampowered.com/app/4335510/...
store.steampowered.com/app/4335510/...
Reposted by Emily Higgs Kopin
at digital library conferences, over-speakers are pelted with curly brackets by a mutant JSON schema
At @imc-leeds.bsky.social over-speakers are chased off the dias by someone dressed in full armor, wielding a sword ⚔️
At Wordsworth conferences, a laughing band of dancing daffodils rush the stage and carry the over-speaker off on a couch
February 16, 2026 at 2:45 PM
at digital library conferences, over-speakers are pelted with curly brackets by a mutant JSON schema
I will share more of our findings as we get into data analysis, but we're reviewing energy usage & climate impact metrics for our cloud-hosted digital collections at MPOW, and the results have been really misaligned with what our expectations were. I strongly encourage other folks to do this.
February 16, 2026 at 3:10 PM
I will share more of our findings as we get into data analysis, but we're reviewing energy usage & climate impact metrics for our cloud-hosted digital collections at MPOW, and the results have been really misaligned with what our expectations were. I strongly encourage other folks to do this.
Reposted by Emily Higgs Kopin
the thing is that there are lots of modest, tedious, repetitive tasks in many of our jobs and lives where we might be happy to pay a fee for an ethically developed standalone tool to do only that task. but we can’t have that because it won’t make people rich enough
Every time I try to question my kneejerk skepticism on LLMs because they seem like they might have some potentially interesting use cases, some company shoves them into a product I use all the time, and it absolutely sucks shit.
February 16, 2026 at 7:08 AM
the thing is that there are lots of modest, tedious, repetitive tasks in many of our jobs and lives where we might be happy to pay a fee for an ethically developed standalone tool to do only that task. but we can’t have that because it won’t make people rich enough
Re: conference papers + time, I need people to know that you can speak up in the moment, even from the audience. I’ve done it before in egregious instances and some people thought I was out of line and that was fine. We need way more “you’re going to get in trouble“ “ok” across the board
February 16, 2026 at 1:35 PM
Re: conference papers + time, I need people to know that you can speak up in the moment, even from the audience. I’ve done it before in egregious instances and some people thought I was out of line and that was fine. We need way more “you’re going to get in trouble“ “ok” across the board
Reposted by Emily Higgs Kopin
i love how every guy on the us curling team looks like he works in IT
February 16, 2026 at 12:53 AM
i love how every guy on the us curling team looks like he works in IT
Reposted by Emily Higgs Kopin
douglas adams was our most accurate futurist
We are at an airport restaurant. A robot just drove up to us with our food, said, "Hi! Here I am!" and then drove away with our food.
February 15, 2026 at 10:10 PM
douglas adams was our most accurate futurist
Reposted by Emily Higgs Kopin
When I have a civil & unequivocally polite conversation with one of my behateds, I imagine each deliberate & modulated word I say is a sporangium filled poisonous spores. Maybe that can help you this week.
February 16, 2026 at 2:16 AM
When I have a civil & unequivocally polite conversation with one of my behateds, I imagine each deliberate & modulated word I say is a sporangium filled poisonous spores. Maybe that can help you this week.
Reposted by Emily Higgs Kopin
So the results of my 3 months as Creative Technologist-in-Residence at the State Library of Victoria include 7 prototype apps/interfaces/sites, 3 presentations and a video (with a podcast to come), 12 blog posts, 3 GitHub repos containing 15+ notebooks and 12+ datasets, and assorted userscripts […]
Original post on hcommons.social
hcommons.social
February 15, 2026 at 4:30 AM
So the results of my 3 months as Creative Technologist-in-Residence at the State Library of Victoria include 7 prototype apps/interfaces/sites, 3 presentations and a video (with a podcast to come), 12 blog posts, 3 GitHub repos containing 15+ notebooks and 12+ datasets, and assorted userscripts […]