This meant everything to me today.

At the end of today's annual Southern University Libraries Conference attendees were asked for their most important takeaway using a Mentimeter word cloud. Central to the results & biggest of all was the word "tryangle"- let me explain why that's so special to me

Been a while since I've got an early morning train but off to Bournemouth today for the Southern University Libraries Networking Day at which I'm very excited (and a touch nervous) to be presenting something I've been working on for 2 years! Will be so nice to give it it's first public airing!

For now though I'm relaxing my mind and tucking into a delicious burger and refreshing beer from Honest Burgers, then thinking about heading to the cinema!

The journey begins, Woolston-Brighton. See you soon #UKSG2025

Suitcase is packed. Very excited to being making the journey eastward along the south coast to Brighton for #UKSG2025 in the morning!

Thanks for the response. Like Perplexity, your tool correctly identified a cinema in Southampton but gave incorrect screening times - it said 6 & 6:50 when in reality they are 12:10 & 8:40.

Also thought that the top result in the "what are people saying" is an interesting response to the prompt! 😯

If it can't handle something this simple, how are we meant to trust it with anything?

Their own definition of what an answer engine is says it prevents the need for sifting through links, but then suggest you should as it isn't guaranteed to be accurate!

4/4

I've started running some "play with AI" sessions for library colleagues and am prepping the next one looking at the idea of "answer engines" and playing with Perplexity.

As they're billed as an alternative to traditional search engines I thought I'd ask it something I would usually Google...

1/4

With the #Oscars noms announced yesterday I got to work on my annual spreadsheet of tracking what films from the categories I had and hadn't seen in an attempt to watch as many of the nominated films before the ceremony. I've got 24 to watch in the next 5 weeks to tick off all feature length awards!

I like to keep stats on all of the films I've watched for the first time each year (something that's been greatly aided by the advent of Letterboxd) and then compile an annual list of my top 5 as well as an overview of key stats.

So here's my 2024 breakdown! Would love to hear your favourites!

I've had a crazy busy last 5 weeks of back to back support appointments with our Adult Nursing students as they complete their dissertation. Seeing them go from panic to understanding, knowing I've made a difference, has made it worthwhile though - that & this bag of goodies from the Nursing team

Happy #ChristmasJumperDay

Frankly everyday is Xmas jumper day at the moment for me but today's the official one and offers an important reminder of the great work that Save The Children do at this time of year (and always).

Today Karl McCormack from Uni of Staffordshire introduced us to playful learning using Playmobil!

We had to adorn a figure with 5 items that represented us.

Was a great way of encouraging us to introduce ourselves to others with details unlikely to have come up in a standard intro

This is me...

Obligatory "I'm on a train heading to a library event" selfie. Used to be up and down to London a few times a year for training and events pre-pandemic but far less opportunity to do so these days, so nice to have a little day out in the big smoke. Discussing inclusion in HE today!

Lovely little stroll through London from Waterloo to Leicester Square and a little ride on the tube to Kings Cross.

Leeds is on the board and train two of the day will follow shortly!

#LILAC24

And so my #LILAC24 journey begins. Train number one heading towards the capital!

Lovely to have some blue skies to accompany the journey, hopefully this will last for the whole of the conference (checks weather forecast and clutches to the brolly I thankfully put in my bag 🌧️🌂)

After feeling sorry for myself last Tuesday, having missed out on an opportunity - this Tuesday started much more brightly when I arrived at my desk to find this little fellow, a gift from one of my academics as thanks for some help with her research.

Also pictured, today's awesome Xmas jumper!

Had some disappointing (but completely fair) work-adjacent news this afternoon but can't be down when I'm wearing a Xmas jumper this awesome!