Amanda Whitmire
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thalassalib.bsky.social
Amanda Whitmire
@thalassalib.bsky.social
Oceanographer-turned-librarian | knitting/sewing/dying/fibers | Stanford Libraries + Hopkins Marine Station | MPUSD Board of Education Trustee | on WikiData & iNaturalist as ThalassaLib | How can I help? | she/hers
Pinned
A short piece about my passion project at work: surfacing & making historical biodiversity & oceanographic datasets actionable. Librarians call this "collections-as-data" and it's my jam! 🦑🌊
Digitization efforts reveal the Pacific’s past
A Stanford librarian brings decades of ocean observations to today’s scientists with advanced tools and a dedication to information accessibility.
news.stanford.edu
Reposted by Amanda Whitmire
A List of Things Said to Have Been Ruined by Women

🧵
November 6, 2025 at 8:43 PM
Hell yes here for this. 🤘🦑
Welcome to the 2025 #Nudivember art challenge!

Like last year, here is a list of some lesser known, yet always fabulous, nudibranch species.

Participate as much or as little as you want in any art form you like.

Make sure to use #Nudivember and use alt text!
November 4, 2025 at 2:26 AM
We saw a bumper sticker on the way to school this morning that said "LEGALIZE UPDOG" and I am still laughing about it.
October 24, 2025 at 11:06 PM
A photo from this morning of waves hitting the beach with my library in the background. The sea is angry today, my friends. 🌊
October 23, 2025 at 2:39 AM
🙄
October 22, 2025 at 10:06 PM
Hell, I live in Monterey and even I'm considering purchasing a Lenny Kravitz scarf. Let's all prioritize comfort this year.
Winter is approaching and I'm considering purchasing a Lenny Kravitz scarf. The Chicago winter has broken the spirits of many. I want to lug around a big ol blanket and call it clothes. I am prioritizing comfort this year and that means wearing a comforter to work.
October 1, 2025 at 3:47 PM
Reposted by Amanda Whitmire
I get that the news cycle is packed right now, but I just heard from a colleague at the Smithsonian that this is fully a GIANT SQUID BEING EATEN BY A SPERM WHALE and it’s possibly the first ever confirmed video according to a friend at NOAA

10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)
September 24, 2025 at 8:30 PM
Hell yeah, @montereybayaquarium.org, send me that otter content! 🦦🌊🦑
September 19, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Reposted by Amanda Whitmire
Biology Department

xkcd.com/3140/
September 11, 2025 at 9:24 PM
I am “I better print transparencies of this talk for the overhead projector in case the technology fails” years old.
September 11, 2025 at 4:54 PM
Photos and data from nearly 20 years ago, back when we put CTD casts on floppies! 😂 Found the disks in my garage - an apparently safe storage method …
August 18, 2025 at 2:43 AM
The tsunami warning yesterday was a good reminder to have an emergency plan, whether it's your house or it's your library or lab. What would you take with you to safer ground? Here's what I took home from Miller Library ... 1/ 🌊🦑📚
July 30, 2025 at 8:54 PM
Reposted by Amanda Whitmire
Watch how seismometers recorded the passing earthquake waves from the magnitude 8.8 earthquake off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula.

Each dot in this animation is a seismic station—red 🔴 means the ground moved up, blue 🔵 means it moved down.

More ➡️ https://loom.ly/6Eo_fYc
July 30, 2025 at 12:58 PM
After one of the biggest earthquakes ever recorded (M8.8), we have been extremely lucky on the California coast to experience only a small tsunami. Looking at the tide gauge data in Monterey, the first wave peaked around 12:50 AM (<1 ft) and we saw the highest wave at 4:30 AM (1.1 ft). 🌊
July 30, 2025 at 4:48 PM
Dispatch from @stanfordhopkins.bsky.social - it’s a gorgeous day & the kelp beds are bigger than I’ve ever seen them. They wrap all the way around the station toward Lovers Point. 🌊🦑
July 24, 2025 at 11:20 PM
Saw a sign in England last week that said, "You aren't stuck in traffic. You ARE traffic." 🤯
July 21, 2025 at 5:55 PM
Mordecai is business in the front, party in the back.
July 18, 2025 at 9:13 AM
We thought learning Icelandic was a fun challenge, but Welsh takes it to a whole other level. Hats off to y’all. 🫡
July 13, 2025 at 12:04 PM
UK camper van 🚐 trip update. I’ve been to yarn shops in Glastonbury, Bath, & Conwy (Wales). I’ve missed a couple on my list b/c we passed through when they were closed. 😔 Off to the Lakes District & then York. England & Wales are *so* lovely so far.
July 13, 2025 at 8:48 AM
I’m in England & I’ve been taking pictures of lots of things I want to upload to @inaturalist.bsky.social, but we’re caravanning around & haven’t had WiFi, so now there’s a queue. Hitting a pub tomorrow for lunch - that’ll be my chance. 10 new “lifer” birds ID’d via Merlin though!
July 9, 2025 at 6:34 PM
I wrapped a @zotero.org demonstration into a reference chat with a student and they were SO excited about it. "I can't believe I wasn't using this before. This is going to save me so much time!" I also snuck password manager advice in there. 😎
June 30, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Reposted by Amanda Whitmire
Great breakdown of the decision by someone deep into copyright and fair use. We need better AI legislation but trying to make copyright do that work comes with lots of awful side effects. Glad to see this ruling isn't pushing that direction much.
Huge news in AI copyright world. Still reading the opinion, but encouraged that Judge Alsup got it right on training. Act I Scene 1 in a long drama, but a promising start.
🚨BREAKING: Federal judge concludes that using copyrighted works to train generative A.I. is transformative and ultimately a fair use. (Nevertheless, Anthropic can’t beat the lawsuit because it pirated books for another purpose too.) First of kind ruling. www.documentcloud.org/documents/25...
June 24, 2025 at 3:38 PM
I am an introvert. I am also currently president of a school board, so over the last two days I’ve presided over 9 ceremonies (8th grade promotion or high school graduation). I’ve shaken over 1,000 hands. The best days of the year, but I am TIRED. 😮‍💨
June 7, 2025 at 3:47 AM
Been trying to resist adding printmaking to my crafting roster, but the #DHmakes timeline makes it increasingly difficult. This may be the final straw: openpressproject.com
Open Press Project – The 3D-printed printing press
Use printmaking for your art whenever and wherever you want. This little 3D-printed press fits into your backpack and gives you the ability to print outside, on vacation or in your living room! We are...
openpressproject.com
June 2, 2025 at 5:14 PM
They pay me to work here? Beautiful morning at @stanfordhopkins.bsky.social
May 29, 2025 at 3:40 PM