Kieran Hegarty
banner
kieranhegarty.bsky.social
Kieran Hegarty
@kieranhegarty.bsky.social
✨ Sociologist | Research Fellow at RMIT | Researching how we record, remember & study people’s engagements with technologies over time | kieranhegarty.com ✨
One of my favourite podcasts 🤓

A fabulous discussion about Mackenzie & Wajcman’s ‘The Social Shaping of Technology’ and discussion with Judy Wajcman 💚

podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/t...
The Sociology of Everything Podcast
Social Sciences Podcast · Updated Twice Monthly · The Sociology of Everything Podcast offers listeners a (sometimes) comedic and accessible look at the wonders of sociology. It is created and hosted b...
podcasts.apple.com
September 2, 2025 at 9:02 AM
Reposted by Kieran Hegarty
Research with Implications for Library and Information Professionals 👩‍💻online seminar, 28 Aug, 12PM (AEST) 1️⃣Legal deposit libraries in an age of large digital platforms & 2️⃣Charting the future of library and information science in Aust & NZ #librarians #libraries shorturl.at/p4XJr
Research for Practice – Exploring Recent Research with Implications for Library and Information Professionals. - Event Registration
shorturl.at
August 21, 2025 at 7:54 AM
Lovely to see this little @libraryjuicepress.bsky.social book I contributed to in print! ✨

Commercial platforms are increasingly shaping library operations - my chapter focuses on how crackdowns on crawling & API access limit what is preserved by deposit libraries 🚫

litwinbooks.com/books/platfo...
July 22, 2025 at 2:51 AM
I have a chapter in "Platform Power & Libraries" which has just been published by Library Juice Press✨

As in many other sectors, commercial intermediaries are increasingly shaping how libraries fulfil their functions & serve their users - but there is resistance!✊

litwinbooks.com/books/platfo...
June 6, 2025 at 3:12 AM
Just returned from 2 inspiring weeks of fieldwork in Cape York, visiting the remote First Nations communities of Wujal Wujal and Kowanyama for the Mapping the Digital Gap project, which tracks media & communications across 10 remote First Nations communities over several years ✨

(1/5)
May 12, 2025 at 1:32 AM
Looking forward to chairing the next Critical Archives Reading Group on 28 May at 1pm (AEST)📜✨

We'll be discussing "The cloud, the public square, and digital public archival infrastructure" by Tom Nesmith (Archival Science, 2023).

Please join us!

www.criticalarchivesreading.com/2025/05/meet...
Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: Critical Archives Reading Group: Tom Nesmith. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.
Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: Critical Archives Reading Group: Tom Nesmith. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.
unimelb.zoom.us
May 7, 2025 at 7:41 AM
Reposted by Kieran Hegarty
ADM+S Research Fellow Dr Kieran Hegarty presented his research on how public libraries are navigating systems developed by and for private platforms, and what this means for their role in securing access to information of long-term public interest.

🔗 More: admscentre.org/4isplhe
#AI #libraries
April 24, 2025 at 5:55 AM
Had an inspiring time at #AlgoSoc2025 in Amsterdam! 💛💙

I presented a paper with @admscentre.org.au colleagues on how public libraries are (re)negotiating their roles in the algorithmic society & learned a lot from the wonderful ideas shared throughout the conference.
April 11, 2025 at 8:04 PM
In Amsterdam to present with ADM+S colleagues at @algosoc.org !✨

Our paper is about how libraries navigate competing values as they engage new technologies and what's at stake as market actors increasingly shape cultural access and preservation.

Program looks lekker: algosoc.org/uploads/Algo...
April 8, 2025 at 9:45 AM
Reposted by Kieran Hegarty
#OutNow in #iCS
This article by Kieran Hegarty interrogates the methods for social media data for archiving by libraries and suggests it is possible to read it along the grain of platformisation to bring attention to their power dynamics.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Web archives after platformization: reading social media collections along the archival grain
This article draws on ethnographic and historical research at two Australian libraries to explore how the platformization of the web has altered the content, character, and potential future utility...
www.tandfonline.com
November 8, 2024 at 1:09 PM
I'll be in London next week for Born-Digital Collections, Archives & Memory at @dh-researchhub.bsky.social

I'll be presenting on how public libraries are navigating & resisting the increasing dominance of commercial platforms 📖✊

Looking forward to seeing friends & colleagues, new & old :)
Born-Digital Collections, Archives and Memory
Born-Digital Collections, Archives and Memory is a conference that seeks to further an interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral discussion on how the born-digital transforms research.
www.sas.ac.uk
March 27, 2025 at 4:28 AM
Nice piece by @jeppestricker.bsky.social on the structural causes & epistemic consquences of use of GenAI in knowledge production…

“AI is not the disease; it is the symptom of a system that already prioritized measurable output over thoughtful inquiry”

jeppestricker.substack.com/p/the-synthe...
The Synthetic Knowledge Crisis
How AI is Reshaping Knowledge, and Not for the Better
jeppestricker.substack.com
March 3, 2025 at 11:39 PM
Had the pleasure of visiting the National Communications Museum in Melbourne for a tour today ☎️ 📡 🖥️

Such an inspiring, fun and hopeful look at the histories and possible futures of communications technologies in Australia ✨

Especially loved the CyberCafe 🩵⚡️
February 14, 2025 at 6:15 AM
My review of @ianmilligan1.bsky.social's Averting the Digital Dark Age is out in Internet Histories! 📖✨

It shows how the imaginary of the "digital dark age" saw a bizarre array of actors mobilise to create what are now known as web archives that are shaped by their anxieties & hopes for the future.
February 11, 2025 at 11:21 PM
New article in IJCP with the wonderful Indigo Holcombe-James from ACMI!✨

We explore the long history & lively politics of efforts to bring together the holdings of diverse & dispersed museums into a single 'distributed collection' in Australia.

doi.org/10.1080/1028...

LMK if you'd like a copy!📜
November 20, 2024 at 11:08 PM
Just read this gem about content moderation on Usenet - highly recommended!

A beautifully written reminder that communication networks have always been contested ✨
November 18, 2024 at 2:00 AM
A small, personal reflection from me in Inside Story on how The Internet Archive (@archive.org) is reshaping the idea of what a library is, could, and should be 📖✨

insidestory.org.au/what-is-a-li...
What is a library? • Inside Story
Targeted by hackers and sued by publishers, the Internet Archive continues to push boundaries
insidestory.org.au
November 7, 2024 at 8:58 AM
Just in time for #AoIR2024!🥳

My new paper in Information, Communication & Society explores how platform power is reshaping how libraries collect & share records in the long-term public interest & presents a critical methodology for reading collections after platformization✨

doi.org/10.1080/1369...
October 28, 2024 at 10:45 AM
Excited to be heading to my 1st ever AoIR in Sheffield next week to present on how platform power is reshaping how libraries collect & share records in the public interest.

Looking forward to meeting & engaging with internet researchers whose work I've learnt so much from over the years! 💽✨
October 27, 2024 at 7:33 AM
Beautiful sounds, stories and images at the Palestinian Sound Archive exhibition at Festival Hall in London 💔
October 22, 2024 at 1:31 PM
Looking forward to chairing the next Critical Archives Reading Group meeting on 25 September 1-2pm AEST!

We'll be discussing Eira Tansey's report on climate change and archives, 'A Green New Deal for Archives'✨

Please join us! Details & registration: www.criticalarchivesreading.com/2024/09/meet...
Meeting 4 2024 (25 September)
Meeting 4 of 2024 will be held on 25 September 1pm AEST. We will be reading Eira Tansey,  A Green New Deal for Archives , Council on Library...
www.criticalarchivesreading.com
September 9, 2024 at 12:19 AM
New OA paper in Mobile Media & Communication!📶

I usually study the internet's pasts, so it was wonderful to have the opportunity to explore how particular visions for the future of the (mobile) internet are imagined & enacted through the standard-setting process🔮

doi.org/10.1177/2050...
Shaping infrastructural futures: The International Telecommunication Union’s visions for mobile communications and the anticipatory politics of 5G standardization - Kieran Hegarty, Rowan Wilken, James...
This article shows how dominant actors inscribe certain ideas, visions, and predictions of infrastructural futures for international mobile telecommunications t...
doi.org
August 12, 2024 at 3:12 AM
New OA paper in @mobilemediacomm!📶

I usually study the internet's pasts, so it was wonderful to have the opportunity to explore how particular visions for the future of the (mobile) internet are imagined & enacted through the standard-setting process🔮
November 19, 2024 at 11:40 AM
My PhD thesis is bound, online & I am now officially a Dr!✨

"Assembling a Record of the Australian Internet" explores how a nation's library collections are imagined & enacted in a globally networked & digital information environment 📡💫🌏

To read: doi.org/10.25439/rmt.26157835
July 16, 2024 at 8:10 AM
My PhD thesis is bound, online & I am now officially a Dr!✨

"Assembling a Record of the Australian Internet" explores how a nation's library collections are imagined & enacted in a globally networked & digital information environment 📡💫🌏

To read:
November 19, 2024 at 11:40 AM