It feels sometimes like I can’t hear librarians mentioned without someone saying how they’re going to be replaced by robots/AI. Other than the obvious reasons why this won’t be a good replacement, there is an ethical question that I feel doesn’t get much discussion. What happens to AI’s rights?
With ethics on the mind from our early DITA classes when the concept of linked data was introduced, my first thought was on the problems and ethical issues that it could pose. The concept of linked data itself is a brilliant one, being able to take data from one research group so that other researchers can research further. However there are unintentional consequences to this collaborative concept.
While there is plenty to criticise about social media, from harvesting our private data to being linked to rising rates of depression and anxiety to doing nothing about harassment, little is said about the positives of social media. Friends and family find it easy to keep in contact and share what’s going on in their lives, people being able to connect with people in their local areas and beyond about shared interests to educational opportunities.
Today I’m going to focus on one of the more light-hearted and less intentional uses of social media, the sharing of animal pictures. Continue reading
How easily information is at our fingertips has changed our perceptions of what we know. I’ve found myself wondering out loud, ‘how did I not know this?’ when coming across new information that quite reasonably I wouldn’t expect myself to know.
There’s also that ‘need’ to look up the answer to questions we have. Watching a movie or a TV show, if someone I’m with wonders what an actor has been in before, or how old they are or whether they’re related to someone, I find myself reaching for my phone to find out, despite the fact I should be focusing on what I’m watching. Continue reading
Women’s Suffrage and the First World War
Winchester In the 19th Century
Black Representation in Marvel and DC Comics
When The Thames Came To A Standstill: Frost Fairs on the Thames
Les Miserables: A Historical Source?
A Brief Overview of Indian Migration and Diaspora in Africa
Incest and Royalty: The Reason And The Effects
Chocolate and the Quakers: Cadbury, Rowntree and Fry
The Angel Of Auschwitz: Gisella Perl
The Irish Potato Famine: Genocide?
Twice A Queen: Emma of Normandy
Spring of Water Rises: A History of Orpington Before 1900
Wade In Blood: Operation Anthropoid
When Politics Come To Sport: A History of Protest and Boycott At The Olympic and Paralympic Games
Hand In Hand: Theatre and Politics
The Welsh Prime Minister: David Lloyd George
Victims of Antisemitism: The Anne Frank Huis and Museum Otto Weidt’s Workshop for the Blind
Meet Me In The Library 