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Dr Beth

@drbeth

The librarian formerly known (on twitter) as @Phdgeek. Into nerdy stuff, open research, EDI campaigning, powerlifting and climbing. πŸ³οΈβ€πŸŒˆ

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Latest posts by Dr Beth @drbeth

As I get older I'm coming to increasingly radical views like "you have to do things to get good at them" and "you have to think about problems to solve them"

06.03.2026 12:23 πŸ‘ 882 πŸ” 202 πŸ’¬ 12 πŸ“Œ 10

this is such a terrible idea

it violates every decent programming principle (like DRY)

it wastes massive resources by design

it fractures all the good things about shared libraries, & isolates users bc nobody’s code will be identical

this is basically juicero for code on steroids

05.03.2026 16:31 πŸ‘ 48 πŸ” 12 πŸ’¬ 8 πŸ“Œ 0

The Crick is hosting a full in-person day of workshop and panels about open research policy - useful for librarians, data stewards, research managers etc. Tues 21st April.

We'd love to see you there!

05.03.2026 13:01 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

We're looking for a pro-active HE/research librarian, keen for responsibility, who likes being involved with a range of different tasks and is able to see the library service as an interconnected whole.

If this sounds like you - why not apply? (must be able to work in London for some of the week).

03.03.2026 09:55 πŸ‘ 9 πŸ” 11 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1

The problem with wearing a suit to work and never remembering to take off your lanyard is no matter where you are people think you work there!

This public service announcement is brought to you by me helping someone find their train πŸ˜‚

27.02.2026 15:39 πŸ‘ 14 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 4 πŸ“Œ 0
Specific details about PLOS Biology's mandatory code-sharing policy

Specific details about PLOS Biology's mandatory code-sharing policy

In support of #OpenScience, we routinely ask authors to openly share their #research #code before publication.

We are now formalizing this practice with a mandatory #code-sharing policy and clarifying what we mean by code sharing.

May be nice to cut-out the box for reference

plos.io/47dPeOW
πŸ§ͺ

27.02.2026 15:13 πŸ‘ 23 πŸ” 9 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 4

New version of our preprint on bioRxiv about bioRxiv up. Now that’s what I call a revision – 6 years after the first version!
It has new data about our progress and highlights from a massive user survey. 1/n
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

26.02.2026 16:05 πŸ‘ 78 πŸ” 43 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 4

Would you like to come and work in my team? Feel free to get in touch to chat about the role.

26.02.2026 09:26 πŸ‘ 12 πŸ” 8 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 2
The good cup, a cardboard cup that folds over to create a lid.

The good cup, a cardboard cup that folds over to create a lid.

We have these at work - they don't even properly have lids. Lovely easily recyclable idea that is very difficult to use in practice!

25.02.2026 15:54 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

In any other sector this would be front page news along with government funding announcements.

The UK just seems to not value higher education.

25.02.2026 08:10 πŸ‘ 43 πŸ” 25 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1
New Features and Usage-Based Pricing - OpenAlex blog Today we’re adding some features to the OpenAlex API: better search, content download, and new docs. Most importantly, we’re also introducing usage-based pricing. New features Advanced search at last ...

The OpenAlex blog about pricing makes a Bridgerton joke and I am all for it πŸ˜‚ blog.openalex.org/openalex-api...

25.02.2026 09:57 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

That is true.

23.02.2026 22:02 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Awww, this is nice on the importance of librarians to scientists. It's not always easy to feel valued in the role.

23.02.2026 21:31 πŸ‘ 18 πŸ” 3 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

I hate oranges and uncooked apples are the most boring thing imaginable.

23.02.2026 20:08 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 0
I know I buy far too many books but I like to think that lining the walls of my house with them wards off evil in some deeply important way.

I know I buy far too many books but I like to think that lining the walls of my house with them wards off evil in some deeply important way.

Note from my notebook (2016). Nothing has changed.

22.02.2026 17:22 πŸ‘ 724 πŸ” 180 πŸ’¬ 20 πŸ“Œ 24
HOT FUZZ scene. Pegg as a cop talking to some underage kids in a pub

When’s your birthday?
22nd of February. 
What year?
Every year.

HOT FUZZ scene. Pegg as a cop talking to some underage kids in a pub When’s your birthday? 22nd of February. What year? Every year.

Happy birthday to this young man, and really to us all

22.02.2026 06:04 πŸ‘ 5460 πŸ” 1229 πŸ’¬ 30 πŸ“Œ 34

Awww, Bruce looks heart broken. Great for Britain to get a silver regardless, but feel sorry for the team.

21.02.2026 20:53 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
The students claiming uni Covid compensation 'for the principle' Dozens of universities have received legal letters over what students say they missed out on during Covid.

This is causing despair in academe. (1) We were forced to close during Covid. We had no choice! (2) We're not service providers like a restaurant, we are institutions of state. (3) We did everything we could. (4) This will cripple current students' education.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

21.02.2026 17:34 πŸ‘ 456 πŸ” 138 πŸ’¬ 64 πŸ“Œ 74

Fair, a true story would be far more useful than one that's made up.

21.02.2026 18:18 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

I'm not sure it matters. There are supervisors out there who say things like this & the story clearly chimes with lots of people. If this particular version is a story, okay, but its also an archetype.

21.02.2026 16:46 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Ridiculous, if the boyfriend supported her (emotionally, financially, any other way) during the degree then it seems a very fine gesture to dedicated it to him.

It's a masters not a nobel prize (although same applies). These supervisors are pathetic πŸ˜‚

21.02.2026 12:27 πŸ‘ 23 πŸ” 3 πŸ’¬ 11 πŸ“Œ 1

This web course I've signed up to just said that LLMs can think. So I can tell me & the course are going to get on well 🀬

20.02.2026 06:56 πŸ‘ 15 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

I'm enjoying seeing people becoming educated about who the Luddites actually were in response to AI discourse.

Not anti-tech, anti powerful folks making others lives worse through tech.

Which seems like a pretty good position.

19.02.2026 17:52 πŸ‘ 30 πŸ” 13 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Once, technology solved problems. People liked having problems solved, so they liked technology.

Tech execs started to think of that sentiment as their due. So when they stopped solving problems, and people stopped liking them, they became outraged. "How dare you not love whatever we give you?"

19.02.2026 16:22 πŸ‘ 1370 πŸ” 376 πŸ’¬ 19 πŸ“Œ 21

I saw that too. So interesting (although not surprising from personal experience).

19.02.2026 11:57 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Well, I've got a sword, so I'm prepared if the opportunity arises (maybe just a duel to first blood...)

19.02.2026 09:59 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

One day someone will give me an office of my own and they will have my undying loyalty.

19.02.2026 09:17 πŸ‘ 9 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 0

Ah, the wonder of an open plan office! I have a morning of meetings and webinar delivery, so I've nabbed a tiny booth and am going to spend several hours sitting in there.

19.02.2026 09:16 πŸ‘ 11 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0

THEY HAD THE β€œNO TAKE ONLY THROW” DOG MEME SIX THOUSAND YEARS AGO

18.02.2026 21:20 πŸ‘ 2324 πŸ” 620 πŸ’¬ 15 πŸ“Œ 8

This is a solid hypothesis. I'd even say that the prompt that produced good AI writing would almost definitionally have to be longer than the output. Making it shorter and more precise is what "writing energy" gets spent on.

19.02.2026 05:37 πŸ‘ 57 πŸ” 7 πŸ’¬ 10 πŸ“Œ 4