Cynthia Heider
LightNews LightNews
banner
cynthiaheider.com
Cynthia Heider
@cynthiaheider.com
690 followers 450 following 240 posts
She/her. Public historian, data & digital humanist, would-be skee ball champion. Public Digital Scholarship Librarian at the University of Pennsylvania. Views do not reflect those of my employer.

cynthiaheider.com
Posts Replies Media Videos
cynthiaheider.com
Submitting to @kcommons.bsky.social today and so relieved to see that they're asking if genAI contributed to the production of the work. Love to see transparency in a repository like this!
A screenshot of the submission form to Knowledge Commons, which contains a Yes/No question: "Did generative AI contribute to the production of this work?"
October 27, 2025 at 8:49 PM
cynthiaheider.com
A successful zine take-and-make event for new student orientation is in the bag 🎉 Obligatory proud mama pic of our little tech and data zine corner:
A woman in a yellow shirt wearing glasses stands in front of a whiteboard reading "Zines by Penn Libraries staff. Take one!" Next to her is a metal rack with zines clipped to it.
August 20, 2025 at 8:50 PM
cynthiaheider.com
Love this cute mini print vending machine from Fabiola Lara at the Bok Building!
A vending machine labeled "Philadelphia Mini Prints"
July 16, 2025 at 12:52 AM
cynthiaheider.com
A T-shirt with the DARE logo except instead it says "DAMN I wish I was your lover," referencing the 1992 banger by Sophie B. Hawkins
July 7, 2025 at 2:34 AM
cynthiaheider.com
My takeaway from my first (possibly last?) ALA conference is that I'm so proud to be part of LFP. Liberatory library practices and information freedom 4eva #ALAAC25
June 30, 2025 at 7:43 PM
cynthiaheider.com
Love that Library Freedom Project's "AI Ethics and the Library" panel got an encore preservation at #ALAAC25! Resist the polycrisis, babes 🛠️
A panel of speakers sit at a table on a stage in front of a projected slide with the LFP logo and the title "AI and the Polycrisis." A meme depicts a hallway of open doors with individual trails of blood, labeled "Second Life," "MOOCs," "Pinterest," "Blockchain," and "NFTs." A final door labeled "Gen AI" is closed but about to be knocked on by the grim reaper.
June 29, 2025 at 1:29 PM
cynthiaheider.com
Tastykakes and Philly-style pretzels at Dream Lab, all stellar Philadelphia institutions. Thank you @pricelab.bsky.social!
A catering table with a blue tablecloth that features three kinds of Tastykakes and Philadelphia-style pretzels (with mustard)
May 22, 2025 at 8:35 PM
cynthiaheider.com
I started doing this when I was an undergrad and I love to see that students still may find it helpful!
A sheet on a bulletin board with tearaway affirmations, labeled "Finals are tough. Take what you need!"
May 12, 2025 at 5:04 PM
cynthiaheider.com
So proud of this tiny tomato baby
A tomato plant with one little tiny tomato beginning to grow
May 10, 2025 at 3:36 PM
cynthiaheider.com
Me on the internet, mostly
License plate that reads "IH8YALL"
April 25, 2025 at 12:55 AM
cynthiaheider.com
💯 where can I get these stickers
A sticker that reads "if not fascism, why fascism shaped?" It may only make sense to the extremely online
April 24, 2025 at 6:28 PM
cynthiaheider.com
Repost with a favorite book from childhood
Book cover of Ellen Raskin's "The Westing Game" showing a house made of dollar bills and a sky lit with fireworks
April 15, 2025 at 1:05 AM
cynthiaheider.com
Love that #HandsOff Philly @indivisiblephl.bsky.social kicked off by the Mother Jones historical marker at City Hall. This is where the March of the Factory Children to protest child labor began; we're in good company!
A blue historical marker on the north side of Philadelphia's City Hall in honor of Mother Jones. It reads: "Mary Harris Jones began the March of the Factory Children here, July 1903, to dramatize the need for child labor legislation. Born in Ireland, Jones was an organizer and inspiring presence in the U.S. coal, steel, and textile labor movements."
April 5, 2025 at 7:11 PM
cynthiaheider.com
Spotted yesterday on Penn campus
A black and white wheatpaste poster stuck onto an electrical transformer that shows the seal of Wharton School of Business reimagined as a garbage pile. Maggots are depicted coming out of the center of the seal and turning into Tesla Cybertrucks with wings around the outer perimeter. At the top of the seal, books are labeled with "45" and "47."
April 5, 2025 at 2:41 PM
cynthiaheider.com
Tomato babies ❤️ In case you needed a joyful thing
The stems of tiny tomato seedlings emerge from their dirt cocoons
March 24, 2025 at 1:59 AM
cynthiaheider.com
How dare you do me like this, NYT Games? #Severance
NYT Games Connections board shows 4 selected inner spaces that have the names of 4 characters from the TV show "Severance": Mark, Helena, Irving, and Dylan. The names were not a valid group of 4 in today's puzzle.
March 8, 2025 at 1:11 AM
cynthiaheider.com
Excerpt from article: "While previous administrations have considered removing the de minimis exemption or introducing reforms, Trump is the first to have actually done so. 'This is the administration’s version of moving fast and breaking things,' says Ram Ben Tzion, cofounder and CEO of Publican, a digital shipment vetting platform, citing one of the core tenets of startup culture."
February 5, 2025 at 1:23 PM
cynthiaheider.com
Went to the Kimmel Center for the 1st time tonight to hear "The Planets." If you're able, I highly recommend taking a short break for beauty amidst the chaos
A high-up balcony view of the stage of the Kimmel Center, where the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra sets up for a performance
January 31, 2025 at 2:22 AM
cynthiaheider.com
A relatable teenage punk experience voiced by HR in the DCPL exhibit on DC punk
"You realized, what a bunch of weirdos and then you go: 'Aha, I'm a weird person'... Madams Organ was a house full of people like that. And that was so impactful, to finally have a place where I belonged or felt I belonged." - Henry Rollins, musician, interviewed for the documentary 'Punk the Capitol'
January 18, 2025 at 5:23 PM
cynthiaheider.com
The cafeteria of the Air & Space Museum is really giving "Silo"
The cafeteria of the National Air & Space Museum features a wall decoration meant to look like a porthole looking out onto the barren landscape of an alien planet
January 17, 2025 at 10:09 PM
cynthiaheider.com
Taking time this solstice to reflect on Mary Oliver's poem, "Lines Written in the Days of Growing Darkness" 🕯️
Text of Mary Oliver's poem "Lines Written in the Days of Growing Darkness" with a border of stars and evergreen trees
December 22, 2024 at 4:29 AM
cynthiaheider.com
Conflicted about this AI defeatism in Philly
A storefront painted with "doomed future" and "artificial intelligence will be weaponized"
November 23, 2024 at 8:21 PM
cynthiaheider.com
Toki and Pickles want to know if it's Friday yet
A gray cat with white paws licks the head of a smaller gray cat in front of a window
November 21, 2024 at 3:04 PM
cynthiaheider.com
Love that Wharton has this up in one of the building lobbies unironically
Wharton School's deed of gift from 1881 listing stipulations Continuation of Wharton School's deed of gift from 1881 listing stipulations
November 19, 2024 at 9:05 PM
cynthiaheider.com
38th birthday nosh at a special table 🎉
Half of a large corned beef Reuben sandwich with a "Famous 4th Street Delicatessen" flag in the top Plaque that marks a table where President Barack Obama and Senator Robert Casey Jr. ate in 2010
November 14, 2024 at 12:15 AM