Hey!
We are just under two weeks away from the next Solutions Showcase Series event - How VuFind® Users are Blocking the Bots and we couldn’t be more excited. This Showcase isn’t just for VuFind® users either. The tools and applications our panelists are discussing can be valuable for any users experiencing the same types of aggressive bot behaviours being seen across our industry. The practical application and use of these mitigation strategies has proven to be a solid resource for our community, and we are grateful for all of our wonderful presenters.
Registration is still open, so don’t hesitate to reserve your spot. All Solutions Showcases are recorded, and all registered attendees will receive a copy.
Details:
Date: Tuesday, November 3rd, 2026
Time: 10:00am Eastern
Location: Zoom - https://lyrasis.zoom.us/meeting/register/yobnJhWUSMOraw0JTebWUQ
Looking forward to seeing you all in November.
Cheers,
Arran
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Arran Griffith
Program Manager, Fedora Program
Lyrasis
Book a time to meet with me<https://calendly.com/griffith-lyrasis/new-meeting>
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https://fedorarepository.org/
From: Arran Griffith <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tuesday, October 13, 2026 at 12:00 PM
To: Fedora Tech <[log in to unmask]>; Fedora Community <[log in to unmask]>; [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>; [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>; [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>; [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>; Digital-Preservation Announcement and Information List <[log in to unmask]>; Digital Learning Network DLNet <[log in to unmask]>; Code for Libraries <[log in to unmask]>; [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>; [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: AI Discussions WG: Solutions Showcase Series
Hi Everyone,
This is a reminder about the upcoming Solutions Showcases, hosted by the AI Discussions Working Group.
November - We are pleased to welcome members of the VuFind® community who are coming to share their experiences and implementations for blocking aggressive bot traffic on their VuFind® instances. This session is not just for VuFind® users - there is valuable information in tool tuning, implementation and set up that can be applied across a wide variety of use cases.
Solutions Showcase #12 - How VuFind® Users are Blocking the Bots
Date: Tuesday, November 3rd, 2026
Time: 10:00am Eastern
Location: Zoom - https://lyrasis.zoom.us/meeting/register/yobnJhWUSMOraw0JTebWUQ
December - We welcome back Xe Iaso, creator of Anubis. Xe will be sharing an update on new features, development plans for future and insights in to what it takes to maintain the software. Xe was gracious to join us and introduce us to Anubis just over a year ago at one of our first Solutions Showcases, and we are extremely grateful that we can host another session to talk about this critical work.
Solutions Showcase #13 - Anubis Update with Xe Iaso
Date: Wednesday, December 2nd, 2026
Time: 1:00pm Eastern
Location: Zoom - https://lyrasis.zoom.us/meeting/register/PLCXoYLNRlKKJcaZFRWqbA
Looking forward to seeing you all there.
Cheers,
Arran
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Arran Griffith
Program Manager, Fedora Program
Lyrasis
Book a time to meet with me<https://calendly.com/griffith-lyrasis/new-meeting>
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https://fedorarepository.org/
From: Arran Griffith <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tuesday, October 6, 2026 at 3:50 PM
To: Fedora Tech <[log in to unmask]>; Fedora Community <[log in to unmask]>; [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>; [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>; [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>; [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>; Digital-Preservation Announcement and Information List <[log in to unmask]>; Digital Learning Network DLNet <[log in to unmask]>; Code for Libraries <[log in to unmask]>; [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>; [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Next Up in the Solutions Showcase Series
Hi All,
We are excited to share details about the next two Solutions Showcases in our series. This will make the 13th and 14th Solutions Showcases in the Series, and we couldn’t be more excited.
If you’re new to this event, The Solutions Showcase Series is a regular virtual event, bringing together individuals and institutions from across the cultural heritage sector to demo practical solutions they've implemented to mitigate the negative impacts of AI bot activity and harvesting on their systems, including repositories, websites, catalogues, and more.
Details:
Solutions Showcase #12 - How VuFind® Users are Blocking the Bots
Date: Tuesday, November 3rd, 2026
Time: 10:00am Eastern
Location: Zoom - https://lyrasis.zoom.us/meeting/register/yobnJhWUSMOraw0JTebWUQ
* This session will feature a live demo and time for Q&A.
* Demos will span a diverse range of technical approaches, including open and non-open-source solutions.
The session will bring three VuFind® community users together to share how they are individually tackling aggressive bot traffic on their VuFind® instances at their institutions.
Demian Katz, Falvey Library - Falvey Library hosts multiple VuFind® instances (as well as various other PHP applications). They have built a custom PHP application-level firewall which can be included into the bootstrapper of any PHP application to perform checks to block bots. This tool allows us to quickly respond to changing behavior and implement custom solutions to urgent problems.
Maccabee Levine, Lehigh University Library - The library is using VuFind's built-in Rate Limiter including its integration with Cloudflare Turnstile. A brief overview explanation can be found here: https://vufind.org/wiki/administration:rate_limiting
Megan Schanz, Michigan State Library - Here, the library is making use of a layered approach for bot detection and blocking. They deploy the open-source tool go-away, which issues automated challenges that require no user interaction, alongside custom Traefik and Apache rules that filter out known bad URL patterns and checking against aggregated blocklists before requests hit our application layer.
Solutions Showcase #14 - Anubis Update with Xe Iaso
Date: Wednesday, December 2nd, 2026
Time: 1:00pm Eastern
Location: Zoom - https://lyrasis.zoom.us/meeting/register/PLCXoYLNRlKKJcaZFRWqbA
We are excited to bring Anubis back to the Solutions Showcase Series! Xe Iaso returns to provide an update what's new with the tool, and to talk openly about the hard parts of raising the bar for "bad" traffic without blocking the good. Xe will discuss the complications around detection, the dilemma of deploying tools that can become targets, and why accessibility tools and scrapers increasingly look alike.
To read more about the presenters, and see information about previous Solutions Showcases, check out our wiki space: https://wiki.lyrasis.org/display/cmtygp/Solutions+Showcase
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The Solutions Showcase Series is organized by the AI Discussions Group, a collaborative initiative that emerged from shared concerns about the impact of AI-driven web harvesting on academic institutions. While our initial focus was on academic repositories, we’ve since expanded our scope to include all corners of the GLAM sector.
Read more about some of our working group here: https://wiki.lyrasis.org/spaces/cmtygp/pages/364743611/Community+AI+Discussions+Working+Group
Have a solution to share?
We’re actively looking for additional presenters! If your institution has addressed AI bot scraping in a creative or effective way, we’d love to feature your work. Please reach out to Arran Griffith at [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> to book a presentation slot.
Cheers,
Arran Griffith, on behalf of The AI Discussions Group
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Arran Griffith
Program Manager, Fedora Program
Lyrasis
Book a time to meet with me<https://calendly.com/griffith-lyrasis/new-meeting>
[A picture containing logo Description automatically generated]
https://fedorarepository.org/
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