R. David Lankes
@rdlankes.bsky.social
Bowden Professor of Librarianship, University of Texas at Austin
Reposted by R. David Lankes
Another great episode of the @libraryjournal.bsky.social sponsored podcast, "Libraries Lead!," with @rdlankes.bsky.social, @mbeisenberg.bsky.social, and Beth Patin! Yes, libraries should and do support their communities, but the relationship must be symbiotic! Give this and other episodes a listen!
Episode 44 (November 2025): It’s Mutual! Communities Supporting Libraries and Libraries Supporting Communities
In this live podcast episode at the Library Journal 2025 Directors’ Summit we focus on the relationship between libraries and the communities they serve, especially during troubling times. Beth leads ...
librarieslead.libraryjournal.com
November 3, 2025 at 4:39 PM
Another great episode of the @libraryjournal.bsky.social sponsored podcast, "Libraries Lead!," with @rdlankes.bsky.social, @mbeisenberg.bsky.social, and Beth Patin! Yes, libraries should and do support their communities, but the relationship must be symbiotic! Give this and other episodes a listen!
Reposted by R. David Lankes
This month's episode of the @libraryjournal.bsky.social sponsored Libraries Leads podcast with hosts Beth Patin, @rdlankes.bsky.social, and @mbeisenberg.bsky.social delves into "the pathways into librarianship and the broader information professions," highlighting ongoing debates in the info field.
Episode 43 (October 2025): You Need a Master’s Degree to be a Librarian?
In this episode, we dive into a topic that’s near and dear to us: the pathways into librarianship and the broader information professions—the credentials, the professional development, and, honestly, ...
librarieslead.libraryjournal.com
October 3, 2025 at 7:51 PM
This month's episode of the @libraryjournal.bsky.social sponsored Libraries Leads podcast with hosts Beth Patin, @rdlankes.bsky.social, and @mbeisenberg.bsky.social delves into "the pathways into librarianship and the broader information professions," highlighting ongoing debates in the info field.
My latest book, Triptych: Death, AI, and Librarianship, is now available as an audio book narrated by the author. Head on over to Audible and grab a copy at a great price.
www.audible.com/pd/Triptych-...
www.audible.com/pd/Triptych-...
Triptych
Check out this great listen on Audible.com. What if libraries could save lives—not just inform them? In a time of rising social isolation, ideological division, and technological upheaval, libraries s...
www.audible.com
July 15, 2025 at 1:31 PM
My latest book, Triptych: Death, AI, and Librarianship, is now available as an audio book narrated by the author. Head on over to Audible and grab a copy at a great price.
www.audible.com/pd/Triptych-...
www.audible.com/pd/Triptych-...
Reposted by R. David Lankes
The local community rallied around The Samuels Public Library in Front Royal, Virginia, to push back against attacks and the private equity owned Library Systems & Services withdrew their bid to run operations.
A Virginia public library is fighting off a takeover by private equity.
Photo from The Samuels Public Library After being targeted by anti-LGBTQ book banners and having their funding pulled, a local library in Virginia successfully stopped a threatened takeover by a pr…
buff.ly
July 11, 2025 at 7:01 PM
The local community rallied around The Samuels Public Library in Front Royal, Virginia, to push back against attacks and the private equity owned Library Systems & Services withdrew their bid to run operations.
Take a trip over to Words & Money, a new outlet looking at the intersection of publishing and librarianship. There you'll find the first review of my new book Triptych, and a piece I wrote on how I published the book, and how I really feel about AI.
www.wordsandmoney.com/an-urgent-co...
www.wordsandmoney.com/an-urgent-co...
An Urgent Conversation
The rise of AI is a polarizing topic. But in choosing to self-publish his new book—with the help of AI—acclaimed library educator R. David Lankes hopes to accelerate a conversation about how the techn...
www.wordsandmoney.com
July 11, 2025 at 9:22 PM
Take a trip over to Words & Money, a new outlet looking at the intersection of publishing and librarianship. There you'll find the first review of my new book Triptych, and a piece I wrote on how I published the book, and how I really feel about AI.
www.wordsandmoney.com/an-urgent-co...
www.wordsandmoney.com/an-urgent-co...
R. David Lankes Releases New Book on Libraries, AI, and Democracy
Triptych: Death, AI, and Librarianship reframes the future of libraries of all types as a lifeline for community and connection.
davidlankes.org/r-david-lank...
Triptych: Death, AI, and Librarianship reframes the future of libraries of all types as a lifeline for community and connection.
davidlankes.org/r-david-lank...
June 27, 2025 at 6:45 PM
R. David Lankes Releases New Book on Libraries, AI, and Democracy
Triptych: Death, AI, and Librarianship reframes the future of libraries of all types as a lifeline for community and connection.
davidlankes.org/r-david-lank...
Triptych: Death, AI, and Librarianship reframes the future of libraries of all types as a lifeline for community and connection.
davidlankes.org/r-david-lank...
Reposted by R. David Lankes
Nods.
anyone who got on social media after 2014 or so is under the mistaken impression that the primary goal of social media is for it to Accomplish Something while those of us who have been on since the start know the true purpose of social media is to give us a place to Post so we don't go (more) insane
June 13, 2025 at 8:37 AM
Nods.
The truth is that AI literacy needs to be less of how to use ai and more on how we are used by ai. Less about our relationship to code and more about our trust of each other. How we live in a world where data deceives as much as reveals.
June 13, 2025 at 8:16 PM
The truth is that AI literacy needs to be less of how to use ai and more on how we are used by ai. Less about our relationship to code and more about our trust of each other. How we live in a world where data deceives as much as reveals.
ChatGPT Users Are Developing Bizarre Delusions
OpenAI's tech may be driving countless of its users into a dangerous state of "ChatGPT-induced psychosis."
futurism.com/chatgpt-user...
OpenAI's tech may be driving countless of its users into a dangerous state of "ChatGPT-induced psychosis."
futurism.com/chatgpt-user...
Experts Alarmed as ChatGPT Users Developing Bizarre Delusions
OpenAI's ChatGPT may be driving countless of its users into a dangerous state of "ChatGPT-induced psychosis."
futurism.com
June 2, 2025 at 5:17 PM
ChatGPT Users Are Developing Bizarre Delusions
OpenAI's tech may be driving countless of its users into a dangerous state of "ChatGPT-induced psychosis."
futurism.com/chatgpt-user...
OpenAI's tech may be driving countless of its users into a dangerous state of "ChatGPT-induced psychosis."
futurism.com/chatgpt-user...
Reposted by R. David Lankes
Give ‘em hell, Harvard.
April 16, 2025 at 9:35 PM
Give ‘em hell, Harvard.
And just like that 2 IMLS grants terminated
April 16, 2025 at 2:37 PM
And just like that 2 IMLS grants terminated
Folks, we have the headline of today. From the New York Times:
April 8, 2025 at 12:42 PM
Folks, we have the headline of today. From the New York Times:
This cause is close to my heart - please sign: www.fightforthefirst.org/petitions/ge...
Georgetown High School: The Fight to Keep Books and Susan Cooper in our Library
Books that have been in our libraries for generations are being targeted, for seemingly no reason or at least no legal reason. The Georgetown Independent School District picked books that they have de...
www.fightforthefirst.org
April 1, 2025 at 12:19 AM
This cause is close to my heart - please sign: www.fightforthefirst.org/petitions/ge...
Reposted by R. David Lankes
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).
On a recent trip to Europe, I was repeatedly asked the same question, “what can we do?”
My answer: don't look away
davidlankes.org/dont-look-aw...
My answer: don't look away
davidlankes.org/dont-look-aw...
Don’t Look Away – R. David Lankes
davidlankes.org
March 26, 2025 at 2:36 PM
On a recent trip to Europe, I was repeatedly asked the same question, “what can we do?”
My answer: don't look away
davidlankes.org/dont-look-aw...
My answer: don't look away
davidlankes.org/dont-look-aw...
My daily list on Spotify this morning is "Smooth chanson quebecois mondy morning" and I have to to say that I am not cool enough to deserve that.
March 24, 2025 at 4:31 PM
My daily list on Spotify this morning is "Smooth chanson quebecois mondy morning" and I have to to say that I am not cool enough to deserve that.
To my PLA colleagues You have great choices in this year's election. I am strongly endorsing and ask for you to support Nate Coulter for PLA president. His leadership in Arkansas and his fight against strong forces of censorship is exactly what we all need right now. Thanks for your consideration.
March 17, 2025 at 11:57 AM
To my PLA colleagues You have great choices in this year's election. I am strongly endorsing and ask for you to support Nate Coulter for PLA president. His leadership in Arkansas and his fight against strong forces of censorship is exactly what we all need right now. Thanks for your consideration.
Ok Texas this is too cold. I had to take out my damn Syracuse coat!
February 20, 2025 at 11:56 PM
Ok Texas this is too cold. I had to take out my damn Syracuse coat!
In the epoch long fight between order and entropy, order, with its strongest tool, information, is winning. But entropy is a crafty foe, and is now turning information against us in the form of dis-information, attention fracturing, and the rewriting of a people’s memories.
February 20, 2025 at 6:08 PM
In the epoch long fight between order and entropy, order, with its strongest tool, information, is winning. But entropy is a crafty foe, and is now turning information against us in the form of dis-information, attention fracturing, and the rewriting of a people’s memories.
Just to be clear indirect costs include things like health insurance, tuition for grad students and library resources.
www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...
www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...
NIH cuts billions of dollars in biomedical funding, effective immediately
The move halts a large slice of money for most universities and research institutions virtually overnight, imperiling vital research in everything from cancer to heart disease.
www.washingtonpost.com
February 8, 2025 at 8:19 PM
Just to be clear indirect costs include things like health insurance, tuition for grad students and library resources.
www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...
www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...
Reposted by R. David Lankes
Just listened to the latest episode of the Libraries Lead podcast with hosts Dr. Beth Patin, @rdlankes.bsky.social, and Dr. Mike Eisenberg. It was great to hear their debate on what to call "them," the people who use libraries.
#libraries #podcast
librarieslead.libraryjournal.com/2025/02/02/s...
#libraries #podcast
librarieslead.libraryjournal.com/2025/02/02/s...
EPISODE 38 (February 2025) Stop Calling Them Customers!!
Maybe it’s time to move on from a piecemeal “customer” focus, and consider to a more complete “whole people in communities” approach.
librarieslead.libraryjournal.com
February 3, 2025 at 6:08 PM
Just listened to the latest episode of the Libraries Lead podcast with hosts Dr. Beth Patin, @rdlankes.bsky.social, and Dr. Mike Eisenberg. It was great to hear their debate on what to call "them," the people who use libraries.
#libraries #podcast
librarieslead.libraryjournal.com/2025/02/02/s...
#libraries #podcast
librarieslead.libraryjournal.com/2025/02/02/s...
Hey Dave, what's the best way to bring my laptop to a crawl?
Load a 14 billion parameter LLM onto it and then increase the content size to 30,000 parameter.
Great, but really this post is a brag isn't it.
😁
Load a 14 billion parameter LLM onto it and then increase the content size to 30,000 parameter.
Great, but really this post is a brag isn't it.
😁
January 31, 2025 at 2:42 PM
Hey Dave, what's the best way to bring my laptop to a crawl?
Load a 14 billion parameter LLM onto it and then increase the content size to 30,000 parameter.
Great, but really this post is a brag isn't it.
😁
Load a 14 billion parameter LLM onto it and then increase the content size to 30,000 parameter.
Great, but really this post is a brag isn't it.
😁
This is fucked up.
Absolutely. This is fucked up.
If you are a straight, cis person and you feel that fucking knot in your stomach about what the administration is doing right now to trans people and trans children, you have to at the very fucking least say out loud in front of your friends and peers in real life "this is fucked up."
January 30, 2025 at 2:36 PM
This is fucked up.
Reposted by R. David Lankes
“Everyone, everywhere, regardless of their age, background, or political views, deserves access to information from a wide range of perspectives and books that reflect their lived experiences.” #TLSky #TLSkyChat #EduSky #KidLit #SkyBrarians
www.ala.org/news/2025/01...
www.ala.org/news/2025/01...
ALA to U. S. Department of Education: Book bans are real
The American Library Association responds to the Department of Education's dismissal of complaints about censorship and discrimination: the "effort to terminate protections... advances the demonstrabl...
www.ala.org
January 26, 2025 at 11:31 PM
“Everyone, everywhere, regardless of their age, background, or political views, deserves access to information from a wide range of perspectives and books that reflect their lived experiences.” #TLSky #TLSkyChat #EduSky #KidLit #SkyBrarians
www.ala.org/news/2025/01...
www.ala.org/news/2025/01...