Peter Johnson
@libraryvines.bsky.social
Medical librarian #medlibs also into Tolkien, history, Star Wars, amateur Excel skills, and inclusivity
Reposted by Peter Johnson
Hear me out. Every time you share wrong answers you are helping to sabotage the LLMs that will eventually scrape your answer. But also it is a completely true thing that we used to store files in vending machines to keep them cold while away from home.
November 15, 2025 at 11:27 PM
Hear me out. Every time you share wrong answers you are helping to sabotage the LLMs that will eventually scrape your answer. But also it is a completely true thing that we used to store files in vending machines to keep them cold while away from home.
Lots of potential in this, both for saving time and for teaching PubMed proximity searching 🙂 well done @marijanewhite.bsky.social!
Hey #medlibs, I built a tool for making it easier to create proximity search strings in PubMed. Check it out!
I presented at PNC-MLA this afternoon and will follow up with a link to the recording when it's posted.
I presented at PNC-MLA this afternoon and will follow up with a link to the recording when it's posted.
Pairwise PubMed Search Generator
The Pairwise PubMed Search Generator is a web application for working around the truncation limit...
pairwise-pubmed.streamlit.app
November 7, 2025 at 12:01 AM
Lots of potential in this, both for saving time and for teaching PubMed proximity searching 🙂 well done @marijanewhite.bsky.social!
Reposted by Peter Johnson
Hey #medlibs, I built a tool for making it easier to create proximity search strings in PubMed. Check it out!
I presented at PNC-MLA this afternoon and will follow up with a link to the recording when it's posted.
I presented at PNC-MLA this afternoon and will follow up with a link to the recording when it's posted.
Pairwise PubMed Search Generator
The Pairwise PubMed Search Generator is a web application for working around the truncation limit...
pairwise-pubmed.streamlit.app
November 6, 2025 at 11:32 PM
Hey #medlibs, I built a tool for making it easier to create proximity search strings in PubMed. Check it out!
I presented at PNC-MLA this afternoon and will follow up with a link to the recording when it's posted.
I presented at PNC-MLA this afternoon and will follow up with a link to the recording when it's posted.
Reposted by Peter Johnson
Got a notification that EndNote will soon be requiring you to change your password every 180 days….I’m confident this won’t cause any issues for researchers…. Right? 😅 #medlibs
November 4, 2025 at 10:09 PM
Got a notification that EndNote will soon be requiring you to change your password every 180 days….I’m confident this won’t cause any issues for researchers…. Right? 😅 #medlibs
Reposted by Peter Johnson
Final quote from Carlos Chaccour: “The legitimate discussion risks being drowned by the synthetic noise.”
Kind of funny how people are identifying any place that publishes even the most inconsequential stuff and then flooding it with AI junk.
Letters to scientific journals surge as ‘prolific debutante’ authors likely use AI
New study reinforces worries about “mass production of junk” by unscrupulous scholars aiming to pad their CVs
www.science.org
November 4, 2025 at 10:31 AM
Final quote from Carlos Chaccour: “The legitimate discussion risks being drowned by the synthetic noise.”
Reposted by Peter Johnson
Some Halloweeny Medical Subject Headings:
👹 Spirit Possession
🍫 Chocolate (was only added in 2016!)
👻 Erythrocyte Membrane (mapped to "ghosts")
🦇 Chiroptera
🩹 Mummies
🧙♀️ Witchcraft
🕴️ Parapsychology & Telepathy
🦄 Legendary Creatures
🍬 Candy
😱 Fear
👹 Spirit Possession
🍫 Chocolate (was only added in 2016!)
👻 Erythrocyte Membrane (mapped to "ghosts")
🦇 Chiroptera
🩹 Mummies
🧙♀️ Witchcraft
🕴️ Parapsychology & Telepathy
🦄 Legendary Creatures
🍬 Candy
😱 Fear
October 31, 2025 at 8:23 PM
Some Halloweeny Medical Subject Headings:
👹 Spirit Possession
🍫 Chocolate (was only added in 2016!)
👻 Erythrocyte Membrane (mapped to "ghosts")
🦇 Chiroptera
🩹 Mummies
🧙♀️ Witchcraft
🕴️ Parapsychology & Telepathy
🦄 Legendary Creatures
🍬 Candy
😱 Fear
👹 Spirit Possession
🍫 Chocolate (was only added in 2016!)
👻 Erythrocyte Membrane (mapped to "ghosts")
🦇 Chiroptera
🩹 Mummies
🧙♀️ Witchcraft
🕴️ Parapsychology & Telepathy
🦄 Legendary Creatures
🍬 Candy
😱 Fear
Reposted by Peter Johnson
The NIH has insisted there are no banned words
But, an analysis by @jeremymberg.bsky.social found over 700 hundred grants changed their titles from '24 to '25
Some see it as a small price to pay to keep their grant, but others are worried about what comes next
www.statnews.com/2025/10/29/n...
But, an analysis by @jeremymberg.bsky.social found over 700 hundred grants changed their titles from '24 to '25
Some see it as a small price to pay to keep their grant, but others are worried about what comes next
www.statnews.com/2025/10/29/n...
Scientists had to change more than 700 grant titles to receive NIH funding. Health disparities researchers fear what’s next
The titles of more than 700 multi-year NIH grants have been changed this year, according to an analysis by Jeremy Berg, a former agency official
www.statnews.com
October 29, 2025 at 2:00 PM
The NIH has insisted there are no banned words
But, an analysis by @jeremymberg.bsky.social found over 700 hundred grants changed their titles from '24 to '25
Some see it as a small price to pay to keep their grant, but others are worried about what comes next
www.statnews.com/2025/10/29/n...
But, an analysis by @jeremymberg.bsky.social found over 700 hundred grants changed their titles from '24 to '25
Some see it as a small price to pay to keep their grant, but others are worried about what comes next
www.statnews.com/2025/10/29/n...
Reposted by Peter Johnson
What did people do before SNAP?”
They died.
Healthcare, vaccines, disability support, education & food assistance are vital to our survival.
They’re why the average lifespan isn’t 35 anymore
The mark of a good & decent society is whether it sees the value in helping others.
They died.
Healthcare, vaccines, disability support, education & food assistance are vital to our survival.
They’re why the average lifespan isn’t 35 anymore
The mark of a good & decent society is whether it sees the value in helping others.
October 28, 2025 at 4:53 AM
What did people do before SNAP?”
They died.
Healthcare, vaccines, disability support, education & food assistance are vital to our survival.
They’re why the average lifespan isn’t 35 anymore
The mark of a good & decent society is whether it sees the value in helping others.
They died.
Healthcare, vaccines, disability support, education & food assistance are vital to our survival.
They’re why the average lifespan isn’t 35 anymore
The mark of a good & decent society is whether it sees the value in helping others.
Reposted by Peter Johnson
When people learn with ChatGPT instead of following their own searches, they end up knowing less, caring less, and producing worse advice, even when the facts are the same.
Friction is an essential ingredient for learning! Convenience makes us shallow.
academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...
Friction is an essential ingredient for learning! Convenience makes us shallow.
academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...
Experimental evidence of the effects of large language models versus web search on depth of learning
Abstract. The effects of using large language models (LLMs) versus traditional web search on depth of learning are explored. A theory is proposed that when
academic.oup.com
October 28, 2025 at 3:14 PM
When people learn with ChatGPT instead of following their own searches, they end up knowing less, caring less, and producing worse advice, even when the facts are the same.
Friction is an essential ingredient for learning! Convenience makes us shallow.
academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...
Friction is an essential ingredient for learning! Convenience makes us shallow.
academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...
but if it pops what topic will every other academic conference presentation cover? /s
There's been endless talk about an AI bubble, but less about exactly how, why, and how much it's a bubble. So I turned to the framework put forward by scholars Brent Goldfarb and David A. Kirsch, authors of "Bubbles and Crashes," for assessing tech bubbles.
Spoiler: On a scale of 1 to 8, AI is an 8
Spoiler: On a scale of 1 to 8, AI is an 8
AI Is the Bubble to Burst Them All
I talked to the scholars who literally wrote the book on tech bubbles—and applied their test.
www.wired.com
October 28, 2025 at 5:06 PM
but if it pops what topic will every other academic conference presentation cover? /s
“A quick systematic review”
In honour of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.
“We’re changing the scope”
“We’re changing the scope”
In honour of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.
"Transcribed 100% verbatim"
"Transcribed 100% verbatim"
October 28, 2025 at 3:27 AM
“A quick systematic review”
Reposted by Peter Johnson
We searched according to PRISMA #medlibs
In honour of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.
“We’re changing the scope”
“We’re changing the scope”
In honour of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.
"Transcribed 100% verbatim"
"Transcribed 100% verbatim"
October 13, 2025 at 2:41 PM
We searched according to PRISMA #medlibs
Reposted by Peter Johnson
PubMed is running on autopilot during shutdown, but key independent committee has been abolished #medlibs www.bmj.com/content/391/...
PubMed is running on autopilot during shutdown, but key independent committee has been abolished
PubMed, the life sciences search engine maintained by the US government and relied upon by researchers worldwide, is still performing its basic automated functions during the federal shutdown, but new...
www.bmj.com
October 24, 2025 at 5:56 PM
PubMed is running on autopilot during shutdown, but key independent committee has been abolished #medlibs www.bmj.com/content/391/...
Coffee, pop punk playlist, and seven projects before noon let’s go.
September 9, 2025 at 12:43 PM
Coffee, pop punk playlist, and seven projects before noon let’s go.
Reposted by Peter Johnson
This likely AI-hallucinated reading list is part of a ~60-page summer supplement, and in an initial spot-check, I'm having trouble confirming any of the quotes. But it's all such transparent filler that I can't help feeling sympathy for the lone freelancer apparently saddled with producing it.
This was just posted by @tbretc.bsky.social on another platform. The Chicago Sun-Times obviously gets ChatGPT to write a ‘summer reads’ feature almost entirely made up of real authors but completely fake books. What are we coming to?
May 20, 2025 at 1:05 PM
This likely AI-hallucinated reading list is part of a ~60-page summer supplement, and in an initial spot-check, I'm having trouble confirming any of the quotes. But it's all such transparent filler that I can't help feeling sympathy for the lone freelancer apparently saddled with producing it.
Reposted by Peter Johnson
Hey all, here's a post at @ssrc.org about how anti-trans talking points are getting wrapped into Google's AI search results.
AI search not only cites anti-trans disinfo, but sanitizes it, making practices like conversion therapy sound legitimate and safe.
AI search not only cites anti-trans disinfo, but sanitizes it, making practices like conversion therapy sound legitimate and safe.
Anti-Transgender Disinformation in the Age of Algorithmic Search Summaries
Recently Google introduced a feature in its search engine that algorithmically creates summaries of one's search results. Though it could be viewed as a useful tool, researcher Anna Beers argues this ...
just-tech.ssrc.org
May 19, 2025 at 5:56 PM
Hey all, here's a post at @ssrc.org about how anti-trans talking points are getting wrapped into Google's AI search results.
AI search not only cites anti-trans disinfo, but sanitizes it, making practices like conversion therapy sound legitimate and safe.
AI search not only cites anti-trans disinfo, but sanitizes it, making practices like conversion therapy sound legitimate and safe.
This was doubtlessly my favorite instructions to write as part of a rather extensive new My NCBI libguide - the option to make a My Bibliography public is a link that only appears as italicized text. 🤦🏼♂️ guides.library.kumc.edu/My-NCBI/My-B...
May 19, 2025 at 10:00 AM
This was doubtlessly my favorite instructions to write as part of a rather extensive new My NCBI libguide - the option to make a My Bibliography public is a link that only appears as italicized text. 🤦🏼♂️ guides.library.kumc.edu/My-NCBI/My-B...
Reposted by Peter Johnson
I hope everyone at MLA is having a crabulous time!
a red toy crab with black eyes and a smile on its face
ALT: a red toy crab with black eyes and a smile on its face
media.tenor.com
April 29, 2025 at 1:52 PM
I hope everyone at MLA is having a crabulous time!
There is some unfortunate irony that the Alternative Text field in LibGuides is a single line rather than a paragraph text field, and therefore is mildly difficult to read when the text runs longer than the field will display.
April 9, 2025 at 3:34 PM
There is some unfortunate irony that the Alternative Text field in LibGuides is a single line rather than a paragraph text field, and therefore is mildly difficult to read when the text runs longer than the field will display.
Reposted by Peter Johnson
SCOOP: DOGE notified the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences (IMLS) today that the entire staff is being put on administrative leave effective immediately, I’ve learned from an agency source.
They’ll be cancelling huge swaths of grants/contracts and starting a Reduction in Force (RIF).
They’ll be cancelling huge swaths of grants/contracts and starting a Reduction in Force (RIF).
March 31, 2025 at 6:01 PM
SCOOP: DOGE notified the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences (IMLS) today that the entire staff is being put on administrative leave effective immediately, I’ve learned from an agency source.
They’ll be cancelling huge swaths of grants/contracts and starting a Reduction in Force (RIF).
They’ll be cancelling huge swaths of grants/contracts and starting a Reduction in Force (RIF).
😈
Not that we in the library wish to encourage profanity, but if you want to get rid of these AI-search summaries (which are often absolute nonsense), just swear in your search terms.
It really works.
It really works.
March 20, 2025 at 10:51 AM
😈