CODE4LIB List

Job Posting: Scholarly Communications and Digital Initiatives Librarian at Bridgewater State University (MA)

Kerns, Halie — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 15:31:31 +0000

Hi all,
Bridgewater State University is hiring a tenure-track Scholarly Communications and Digital Initiatives Librarian. This position will provide leadership for the university’s institutional repository and digital collections, open access initiatives, and other emerging technologies for research and learning.
Please see the full posting and application details here: https://jobs.bridgew.edu/postings/32871
I'm happy to answer any questions.
Thanks,
Halie Kerns
Systems & Technology Librarian
Bridgewater State University
hkerns@bridgew.edu
she/her

Re: Brave Browser use

Teague Allen — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 14:14:56 -0400

Full message available at: Re: Brave Browser use

Early bird pricing for Fedora Camp 2026 ends July 24

Arran Griffith — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 15:59:26 +0000

[Fedora Camp 2026 Banner.png]

Fedora Camp 2026 is coming up September 2-4 at the University of Vienna, and early bird registration closes July 24. Just two weeks left to take advantage of this discounted pricing!

Register here: https://my.lyrasis.org/event-information?id=a0lUh00000l1D6bIAE

If you're weighing whether to attend, here's what's included:

*
Full accessto all programming across all days, including hands-on workshops — not just the presentation track
*
Coffee breaks and snacks provided for all 3 days and 2 full lunches provided
* A social dinner hosted by PHAIDRA<https://phaidra.org> for all attendees
* A guided tour of Cerabyte Labs' digitization facility, included at [...]

Re: llm technology is especially useful

LM — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 10:16:18 -0400

Charlow, Aurora wrote:
>1. It takes an afternoon (maybe two, if you don't know anything about databases) to learn SQL querying. I have done this. It is one of the simplest coding languages there is.

That's wonderful you've had that experience. I have personally
watched Cobol programmers and BI report developers struggle to switch
to using SQL at our District when we changed information systems.
Many of them were let go. Not everyone can make transitions like that
successfully. These were experienced IT professionals and it was
heartbreaking to watch them leave. (No AI involved in this situation.
Just a [...]

llm technology is especially useful

Canino, Adrienne — Thu, 9 Jul 2026 21:04:14 +0000

I want to say thanks that this conversation got a little more attention from all sides including the time it takes to express nuance and examples.

Plus one to everything Aurora said.

We have to be careful about what we could give up, in the slow, long term stance against major companies that are running very famliar playbooks. I think sometimes that means not using tools that could genuinely work until we're 1000% certain there's a way forward with those tools that don't repeat the problems of the past. Less 'worry about getting left behind' and more 'information ethics all [...]

Re: llm technology is especially useful

Maura Hausman — Thu, 9 Jul 2026 15:04:04 -0400

I don't have much to say here since Aurora has stated just about every
sentiment I harbored already, and has done a better job of it than I would.
Just chiming in to address some specific issues that have been troubling me
in this discussion.

On Thu, Jul 9, 2026, 11:55 AM Tim Spalding <
000001d841ece815-dmarc-request@lists.clir.org> wrote: [...]

Re: [External] Re: [CODE4LIB] llm technology is especially useful

Weston, Eleanor (NIH/NIEHS) [C] — Thu, 9 Jul 2026 18:59:37 +0000

[like] Weston, Eleanor (NIH/NIEHS) [C] reacted to your message:

Re: [External] Re: [CODE4LIB] llm technology is especially useful

Charlow, Aurora — Thu, 9 Jul 2026 18:07:03 +0000

Eric's entire framing was evangelistic from the subject on. Yes, he explained his process (which not everyone in this thread has done), which is appreciated and the reason I didn't say anything earlier, but the entire framing is that of a persuasive argument to accomplish something, which, as David says, has little to no practical value to any of us. It might be useful for someone outside of libraries seeking to learn more about them without having to debase themselves by actually talking to a librarian. I genuinely have seen some fairly interesting LLM based projects discussed here, all of [...]

Re: [External] Re: [CODE4LIB] llm technology is especially useful

RD B — Thu, 9 Jul 2026 13:45:02 -0400

I think the negative reactions to the original post are so strong because
there is no demonstrated value. Most of us can write a quick description
of this listserv, MARC, and open source. And if we really needed word
counts we can do it with a 10 line nltk script. If you're using this kind
of approach on a corpus you don't have expertise with, you need an expert
to verify it. The verification tax with LLM use is widely discussed.
Glossing over the massive environmental, socio-economic, intellectual,
legal and moral problems it creates or exacerbates as if they couldn't
[...]

Re: [External] Re: [CODE4LIB] llm technology is especially useful

Tim Spalding — Thu, 9 Jul 2026 13:31:22 -0400

*"But coming in to assert that 'LLM technology is especially useful' as if
we don't hear it from every angle, every single day, is unnecessary and
demeaning."*

Eric, who has been involved with Code4Lib from its start in 2003, did not
hop in to make a statement and leave. He did the things you asked for. He
described his project, named the models he used. Laid out his workflow. He
gave costs, details of the data, quoted his actual outputs, added a
footnote. You asked that people "unveil new tools, talk about processes"
and he did exactly that. Very few [...]

Re: llm technology is especially useful

Karen Coyle — Thu, 9 Jul 2026 10:28:09 -0700

On 7/8/26 8:38 AM, Eric Lease Morgan wrote:
> It is a black box? Yes, mostly. It black in the same way Google's search algorithms are black. It is back in the same way our bibliographic indexes rank relevance. It is as black as relational database implementations perform join queries through many-to-many relationships.
> [...]

Re: [External] Re: [CODE4LIB] llm technology is especially useful

Weston, Eleanor (NIH/NIEHS) [C] — Thu, 9 Jul 2026 17:23:01 +0000

[like] Weston, Eleanor (NIH/NIEHS) [C] reacted to your message:

Re: [External] Re: [CODE4LIB] llm technology is especially useful

Charlow, Aurora — Thu, 9 Jul 2026 16:23:15 +0000

I think if you feel I'm attempting to stigmatize discussion, you've missed the point.

I know I am not the only member of this list who feels the way I explained last night. For the most part, when discussion of LLMs arises, we are quiet.

What seems so exhausting about this discussion in comparison to other Code4Lib topics is the evangelizing. I do not need to be told why I should use AI. For every reason you give me, I have 3 against. [...]

Re: llm technology is especially useful

Tim Spalding — Thu, 9 Jul 2026 11:54:28 -0400

There are many conversations to be had about the value and dangers of AI. I
don't discount anyone's opinion. My own is AI has many good and important
uses, many bad—and is a particular disaster for education.

But Code4Lib is at a minimum about code, and AI coding has absolutely
transformed the software development industry over the last six months. If
it hasn't hit you yet, it will. It is the most significant change in
decades. It would be short sighted to shut down or stigmatize the
discussion of it here. [...]

Re: llm technology is especially useful

Karen Coyle — Thu, 9 Jul 2026 08:39:39 -0700

This reminds me of what we were told in school when calculators first
became affordable:

"You need to study math and learn to use it even though you now have a
calculator. Only if you understand math will you be aware if some
mistake has been made."

Like when I hit the multiply key rather than the divide key. [...]

[New webinar] Real Talk: DAM Implementation Lessons from the Field

Alex Kron — Thu, 9 Jul 2026 11:19:45 -0400

Your shiny new DAM is finally live. You did the research, sat through the
demos, and got leadership on board. So, why does the hard part feel like
it’s just starting?

For a lot of institutions, DAM implementation is where things stall. Old
workflows resist change, teams disagree on process, and the benefits take
longer to show up than promised. [...]

Brave Browser use

charles meyer — Thu, 9 Jul 2026 11:15:36 -0400

My esteemed listmates,

I've watched several YT videos and read sites which advise that if you want
to see your Bookmarks you press the gear icon or the 3 little dots.

Neither of those appear on my laptop's W11 newly downloaded Brave browser.

Also suggested right-click on the "toolbar" and choose Bookmark manager.
That is not an option listed in the drop down menu. [...]

Re: [Ext]Re: [CODE4LIB] [External] Re: [CODE4LIB] llm technology is especially useful

Eileen Lopez — Thu, 9 Jul 2026 11:11:09 +0000

[heart] Eileen Lopez reacted to your message:

Re: [External] Re: [CODE4LIB] llm technology is especially useful

Charlow, Aurora — Thu, 9 Jul 2026 00:59:29 +0000

I've been watching this debate back and forth for several months now, and I'm weighing in to say I sympathize with Alex's point and understand why he left. I won't be doing so, as I value this community, but let me take a moment to elucidate why all of this LLM hype is so upsetting - [...]

Re: llm technology is especially useful

Vishal Patel — Wed, 8 Jul 2026 21:53:20 +0000

Given Alex’s strong response, I feel compelled to weigh in.

1.
It’s clear that LLMs are divisive. We (namely, Mackenzie Salisbury) started one dedicated to LLMs at library-llm@listserv.it.northwestern.edu - it leans more LLM-curious.
2.
I don’t detect any “LLM slop” in this thread. This appears to me be a constructive evaluation of an LLM case study.
3.
I would advise against snubbing or canceling a forum or a person if you (even by mistake) catch a whiff of LLM generated content.
*
Language, ultimately, is just a collection of symbols to which we have assigned meaning, and, when we find [...]

Re: llm technology is especially useful

Alex Dunn — Wed, 8 Jul 2026 14:16:49 -0700

I think it's high time for this mailing list to enact a ban on LLM
slop. In the meantime, I'm unsubscribing. See you all around.

On Wed, Jul 8, 2026 at 8:39 AM Eric Lease Morgan
<00000107b9c961ae-dmarc-request@lists.clir.org> wrote:
>
> On Jul 4, 2026, at 7:44 PM, Karen Coyle <lists@kcoyle.net> wrote:
>
> > I would feel better about this if these results didn't sound like the platitudes of marketing speak. ("Collaborative refinement of library services" is something I don't think any of us would say about C4L.) Where did the model get this tripe?
>
>
> TL;DNR - I advocate [...]

NDSA Call for Proposals, extended deadline & Keynote Speaker nomination request

Helena Clarkson — Wed, 8 Jul 2026 17:48:27 +0100

Hi all,

Good news — the submission deadline for *NDSA* *Digital Preservation 2026* has
been extended! You now have more time to submit your proposal for this
virtual conference, taking place *November 4–5, 2026*.

*Theme:* *Striking a Balance: Optimizing Labor for Sustainability and
Resilience*

We're looking for talks that explore how the field is navigating labor,
capacity, and sustainability amid AI adoption, budget cuts, and ongoing
change — including topics like: [...]

Re: llm technology is especially useful

Eric Lease Morgan — Wed, 8 Jul 2026 11:38:31 -0400

On Jul 4, 2026, at 7:44 PM, Karen Coyle <lists@kcoyle.net> wrote:

> I would feel better about this if these results didn't sound like the platitudes of marketing speak. ("Collaborative refinement of library services" is something I don't think any of us would say about C4L.) Where did the model get this tripe? [...]

Join the Digital Curation and Preservation Network!

Andrea Davidson — Wed, 8 Jul 2026 14:35:38 +0000

Join the Digital Curation and Preservation Network!
The <https://eden-fidelis.eu/> EOSC EDEN project<https://eden-fidelis.eu/> invites data curators and data preservationists to join a webinar where we soft-launch the new Digital Curation and Preservation Network, contribute to a working group, and participate in our second in-person meeting in February 2027.
Three Working Groups will work alongside EOSC EDEN to ensure data remains accessible and reusable as technology evolves [...]

Re: Thanks! wos and openalex APIs

Eric Lease Morgan — Wed, 8 Jul 2026 10:22:05 -0400

On Jul 1, 2026, at 9:37 AM, Amy Schuler <000000088c12581f-dmarc-request@LISTS.CLIR.ORG> wrote:

> Thanks to Eric and Jason for the excellent advice on these two APIs. The C4L list members never disappoint!
>
> --
> Amy C. Schuler (she/her)
> Director, Information Services & Library
> Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies | 2801 Sharon Turnpike | Millbrook, NY [...]

Research survey request: Cataloging and use of generative AI tools

Thomale, Jason — Tue, 7 Jul 2026 16:14:43 +0000

*Please excuse any cross-posting.*

Greetings, colleagues,

The University of North Texas Department of Information Science is seeking participants who are 18 years of age or older and currently engaged in cataloging, metadata management, or other information organization-related work to participate in a research study about the use of generative AI tools in your work. The purpose of the study is to investigate factors influencing workers' intention to use AI-assisted tools and how those factors interrelate. It is funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (LG-256666-OLS-24) and has been approved by the University of North Texas Institutional Review Board [...]

REMINDER: MDLS Proposals due July 17

Summer Mengarelli — Tue, 7 Jul 2026 09:59:15 -0400

*As a reminder, proposals for MDLS 2026 are due next Friday, July 17th!*

The Midwest Data Librarian Symposium (MDLS) invites session proposals for
its 12th symposium, co-hosted by Purdue University, University of Notre
Dame, and Indiana University. MDLS provides librarians who support research
data management and research data services the chance to connect with
colleagues and expand their research data-related knowledge base and skill
sets. [...]

Affinity Publisher

charles meyer — Mon, 6 Jul 2026 17:17:26 -0400

My esteemed listmates,

Any Affinity Publisher users?

I've found their tech support wanting.

Thank you,

Charles.

Charlotte County Library

Spots open: Two-Part Systems Leadership Workshop | Free Office Hours [July 13 - 24]

Educopia Communications — Mon, 6 Jul 2026 16:03:36 -0400

Hi all,

**Apologies for crossposting**

We still have spots open for our summer + fall workshop series: *Practicing
Systems Leadership, A Two-Part Workshop for Knowledge Workers*
<https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1992403934803?aff=oddtdtcreator>, and we'd
love to have you with us:

*Over two sessions (inclu**ding async reading, interactive activities and
facilitated discussions)**, you'll:*

- Understand systems leadership and what it looks like in your specific
context and role
- Identify where you have real leverage to drive change in the systems
you're part of
- Build the skills to create shared understanding across difference,
competing priorities, and uneven power
- Develop your own practice of leading [...]

Invitation to participate in a community survey on research (meta)data quality

Andrea Davidson — Mon, 6 Jul 2026 13:40:23 +0000

Have you encountered any issues when it comes to sharing, finding, accessing, and working with research data? If you are:

*
a researcher who works with data on a daily basis,
*
a professional who manages or curates research data
*
a professional who works with the technical infrastructure required for managing or curating research data, [...]

Re: [EXTERNAL EMAIL] [CODE4LIB] Dragging over Word file to Android Cell Phone

Wil Blake — Sun, 5 Jul 2026 01:08:13 +0000

Try Google Messages (or similar apps) on the Web. It will run from a web browser and send text messages with optional attachments.
How to use Google Messages on your laptop or desktop<https://www.androidpolice.com/use-google-messages-laptop-desktop/>

Re: llm technology is especially useful

Karen Coyle — Sat, 4 Jul 2026 16:44:05 -0700

Eric,

I would feel better about this if these results didn't sound like the
platitudes of marketing speak. ("Collaborative refinement of library
services" is something I don't think any of us would say about C4L.)
Where did the model get this tripe?

But what really concerns me is that the system is a black box (others
have noted this), which means that there is no way to evaluate the
result other than ones' gut feeling that it's "right." Your gut feeling
returns "true and accurate" while mine concludes that honestly some of
the "facts" in the statements below could be [...]

Dragging over Word file to Android Cell Phone

charles meyer — Sat, 4 Jul 2026 11:27:09 -0400

My esteemed listmates,

I've watched several YT videos (most turned out to be incorrect) and
chatgpt'd this without success.

If one prefers not to use OneDrive (or other online storage) but wishes to
drag over a text file created in Word (Libre Writer, etc.) to your
android cell phone to either text out to another as an attachment or to
copy/paste into a text message to someone have you found any step-by-step
directions which word for you? [...]

Re: Thanks! wos and openalex APIs

Eric Lease Morgan — Thu, 2 Jul 2026 20:28:43 -0400

On Jul 1, 2026, at 10:47 PM, Tom Cramer <000002a25649fbba-dmarc-request@LISTS.CLIR.ORG> wrote:
>
> Free as in kittens, or free as in beer? Personally, I’d give OpenAlex a tip of my hat rather than a wag of my finger for working to ensure it remains both open and sustainable.
>
> from https://help.openalex.org/hc/en-us/articles/24396686889751-About-us

I concur. openalex++ So far, OpenAlex is very much practicing what they preach. --Eric Morgan <emorgan@nd.edu <mailto:emorgan@nd.edu>>

Re: Thanks! wos and openalex APIs

Tom Cramer — Thu, 2 Jul 2026 02:47:12 +0000

Free as in kittens, or free as in beer? Personally, I’d give OpenAlex a tip of my hat rather than a wag of my finger for working to ensure it remains both open and sustainable.

from https://help.openalex.org/hc/en-us/articles/24396686889751-About-us

The core OpenAlex data will always be free. The full dataset—hundreds of millions of works and all associated metadata—is free to download, share, remix, and build on under a CC0 license, with quarterly public snapshots. To keep that open infrastructure healthy and growing, we charge for services built on top of the data, in line with the POSI principle of revenue based on [...]

Wins in Digital Preservation Survey [Please excuse any cross-posting!]

Marcella Lees — Wed, 1 Jul 2026 13:58:19 -0500

Hello!

Our names are Marcella Lees (Digital Archivist at the Art Institute of
Chicago Archives) and Lisa Lawlis (Assistant Archivist at Western
University) and we are conducting a study titled “What Are You Letting Go
of and Why is That Still a Win? Highlighting Successes in Digital
Preservation.” The purpose of this study is to identify what parts of best
practice in digital preservation are being let go of in pursuit of “good”
practice and what metrics are being used to measure success at small to
mid-sized institutions across North America. [...]

Re: Thanks! wos and openalex APIs

Eric Lease Morgan — Wed, 1 Jul 2026 13:58:59 -0400

On Jul 1, 2026, at 9:37 AM, Amy Schuler <000000088c12581f-dmarc-request@LISTS.CLIR.ORG> wrote:

> Thanks to Eric and Jason for the excellent advice on these two APIs. The C4L list members never disappoint!
>
> --
> Amy C. Schuler

I found my code and I started documenting things. It was working, but then it broke, and then I learned that OpenAlex now has some fees associated with it. Bummer. I guess information really does not want to be free. 'More later, when I can use OpenAlex again. --Eric Morgan

Thanks! wos and openalex APIs

Amy Schuler — Wed, 1 Jul 2026 09:37:00 -0400

Thanks to Eric and Jason for the excellent advice on these two APIs.
The C4L list members never disappoint!
Amy