Figure 1: Jawa Overview. Figure from https://www.usenix.org/system/files/osdi22-goel.pdf

While working on the Saving Ads project, we identified problems with replaying ads (technical report: “Archiving and Replaying Current Web Advertisements: Challenges and Opportunities”) that used JavaScript code to dynamically generate URLs. These URLs included random values that differed during crawl time and replay time, resulting  in failed requests upon replay. Figure 2 shows an example ad iframe URL that failed to replay, because a dynamically generated random value was used in the subdomain. URL matching approaches like fuzzy matching could resolve these problems by matching the dynamically generated URL with the URL that was crawled.

Figure 2: Different SafeFrame URLs during crawl and replay sessions. Google’s pubads_impl.js (WACZ | URI-R: https://securepubads.g.doubleclick.net/pagead/managed/js/gpt/m202308210101/pubads_impl.js?cb=31077272) generates the random SafeFrame URL.

Goel, Zhu, Netravali, and Madhyastha’s "Jawa: Web Archival in the Era of JavaScript" involved identifying sources of non-determinism that cause replay problems when dynamically loading resources, removing some of the non-deterministic JavaScript code, and appling URL matching algorithms to reduce the number of failed requests that occur during replay.

Video 1: Presentation video

Non-determinism can cause variance in dynamically generated URLs (e.g., the same resource referenced by multiple URLs with different query string values, such as https://www.example.com/?rnd=4734 and https://www.example.com/?rnd=7765). This variance can result in failed requests (like the example shown in Figure 2) if the replay system does not have an approach for matching the requested URL with one that was successfully crawled. The sources of non-determinism that cause problems with replaying archived web pages are server-side state, client-side state, client characteristics, and JavaScript's Date, Random, and Performance (DRP) APIs. When replaying web pages client browsers do not maintain server-side and client-side state. The other sources of non-determinism (client characteristics and DRP APIs) are present during replay and impact JavaScript execution.

When a web page’s functionality requires dynamically constructed server responses (e.g., posting comments, push notifications, and login), the functionality can be impacted if the web page requires communication with a website’s origin servers. When an archived web page is loaded, the functionality would also be impacted if more resources were requested that were not archived during the crawling session. For client characteristics and DRP APIs, the authors ensured that all APIs would return the same value during replay time as they did during crawl time. For DRP APIs, they also used server-side matching of requested URLs to crawled URLs.

Reducing Storage When Archiving Web Pages

Goel et al. created a web crawler named Jawa (JavaScript-aware web archive) that removes non-deterministic JavaScript code so that the replay of an archived web page does not change if different users replay it. Since Jawa removes some third party scripts, the preservation style is in-between Archival Caricaturization and the Wayback style. Archival Caricaturization is a term created by Berlin et al. (“To Re-experience the Web: A Framework for the Transformation and Replay of Archived Web Pages”) to describe a type of preservation that does not preserve the web page as it originally was during crawl time. Archive.today is an example of Archival Caricaturization where all the original JavaScript is removed during replay. In contrast, archives that use the Wayback style archive and replay all of the resources of a web page and only make minimal rewrites during replay.

Jawa reduced the storage necessary for their corpus of 1 million archived web pages by 41% when compared to techniques that were used by Internet Archive during 2020 (Figure 3). This storage savings occurred because they discarded 84% of JavaScript bytes (Figure 4). During their presentation (https://youtu.be/WdxWpGJ-gUs?t=877), the authors mentioned that the 41% reduction in storage also includes other resources (e.g., HTML, CSS, and images) that would have been loaded by the excluded JavaScript code.  Jawa saves storage by not archiving non-functional JavaScript code and removing unreachable code. When removing JavaScript code, they ensured that the removed code does not affect the execution of the rest of the code.

Figure 4: JavaScript bytes removed. Figure from https://www.usenix.org/sites/default/files/conference/protected-files/osdi22_slides_goel.pdf

Brunelle et al.’s “Archival Crawlers and JavaScript: Discover More Stuff but Crawl More Slowly” also involved measuring JavaScript’s impact on storage when archiving web pages. They found that using a browser-based crawler that executes JavaScript during the crawling session resulted in 11.3 times more storage for all 303 web pages in their collection and 5.12 times more storage per URI (approximately 413.2 KB/URI). If we take this KB per URI measurement and multiply it with the number of URIs in Jawa’s corpus of 1 million web pages, it is expected for browser-based crawlers to require approximately 413.2 GB of storage to archive all web pages. When Goel et al. used techniques similar to the Internet Archive (which the authors referred to as IA*), it required 535 GB to archive the web pages in the corpus, while 314 GB of storage was required for Jawa. Since the amount of JavaScript (and the resources dynamically loaded by this code) has increased (Figure 5), the  IA* approach required more storage than previously expected by Brunelle et al. Even though the amount of storage required to archive web pages has increased, Jawa achieved enough storage savings to go below the previously expected storage for browser-based crawlers.

Figure 5: The amount of JavaScript code used on a web page is increasing. Figure from https://www.usenix.org/sites/default/files/conference/protected-files/osdi22_slides_goel.pdf

Brunelle et al. also compared the crawl throughput and showed that using browser-based crawlers significantly increased the amount of time (38.9 times longer than using Heritrix) it takes to crawl web pages when compared to traditional web archive crawlers that do not execute the JavaScript during crawl time. Since Jawa can reduce the amount of JavaScript archived, it was able to improve the crawling throughput by 39% when it archived web pages from Goel et al.’s corpus (Figure 6).

Figure 6: Comparison of crawling throughput. Figure from https://www.usenix.org/system/files/osdi22-goel.pdf

Removing Non-Functional Code From JavaScript Files

Their approach for removing non-functional code is based on two observations about JavaScript code that will not work on archived web pages and relies on interacting with origin servers:

• Most non-functional JavaScript code is compartmentalized in a few files and is not included in all JavaScript files.
• The execution of third-party scripts will not work when replaying archived web pages.

To identify non-functional JavaScript, they created filter lists, instead of using complex code analysis. Their filter lists contain rules that were created based on manual analysis of the scripts from their corpus.

Every rule was based on domain, file name, or URL token:

• For domain rules, they removed some URLs associated with a third party service.
• For file name rules, they would identify files like “jquery.cookie.js” (which is used for cookie management) from any domain and not archive it.
• For URL token rules, if a key word such as “recaptcha” was found in the URL they would not archive the resource.

The filter lists can be used to exclude URLs during crawl time to remove JavaScript files that are not needed. They removed third-party scripts that would not prevent post-load interactions from working during replay time. They also removed scripts that were on EasyList, which is an ad blocking filter list.

They checked if the code removed by Jawa visually or functionally impacted the replay of archived web pages. For visual impact, they checked if the archived web page looks the same with or without filtering by comparing screenshots of a web page archived by Jawa with filtering and without filtering. They then viewed the web pages that had different pixel values and only insignificant differences occurred like different time stamp information on the web page and different animations due to JavaScript’s Date, Random, and Performance (DRP) APIs.

For functional impact, they checked if the post-load interactions will work on the archived web page. They found that removing the files that matched their filter lists did not negatively impact the navigational and informational interactions.

Garg et al. (“Caching HTTP 404 Responses Eliminates Unnecessary Archival Replay Requests”) identified cases where archived web pages that require regular updates (e.g., news updates, new tweets, and sport scores updates) would repeatedly make failed requests to an origin server during replay time, which resulted in unnecessary traffic. Jawa could resolve this problem, because it removes code that communicates with an origin server, and this should reduce the amount of failed requests that can occur during replay for these types of archived web pages.

Removing Unreachable Code

The code that is executed when an event handler is invoked can differ depending on the order the user interacts with elements on the page (Figure 7), the inputs the user provides to the events, and the values returned by the browser’s APIs:

• Order of user interaction: They focused on read-write dependency and found that the event handlers would not impact the replay since these events were used for user analytics that would track user interaction.
• User input: None of the event handlers that work at replay time would read inputs that impact which code gets executed.
• Browser APIs: Jawa removes APIs for client characteristics so only DRP APIs would be executed during replay time. When they checked the web pages in their corpus, the DRP APIs did not impact the reachable code for any event handler.

Figure 7: Code executed depends on the order of user interactions. Image from https://www.usenix.org/sites/default/files/conference/protected-files/osdi22_slides_goel.pdf

Figure 8: Their process for identifying which parts of the remaining JavaScript files (that were not filtered out) need to be archived. Image from https://www.usenix.org/sites/default/files/conference/protected-files/osdi22_slides_goel.pdf

When non-determinism causes variance in web resources’ URLs it results in failed requests, which prevents the web resources from loading. To mitigate this replay problem, Jawa uses approximate URL matching at the backend and intercepts calls to DRP APIs, supplying the return value of the API that was previously saved during crawl time. Goel et al. used two URL matching algorithms, querystrip and fuzzy matching, to match the requested URL with a crawled URL.

Querystrip removes the query string from a URL before initiating a match. This approach can help with cases where the query string is updated for a resource based on the server-side state. Figures 9 and 10 show an example where querystrip would be useful. We identified a replay problem (that resulted in a failed request for most replay systems except for ReplayWeb.page) with Amazon ad iframes that used a random value in the query string. If the query string is removed from this URL and a search is performed for the base URL in the WACZ file, then we could match the URL that was dynamically generated during replay with the URL that was crawled. 

Figure 9: Example URI for an Amazon ad iframe. The rnd parameter in the query string contains a random value that is dynamically generated when loading an ad.

Figure 10: When replaying an Amazon ad iframe, the rnd parameter is not the same as the original value that is in the URI-R. Even though an incorrect URI-M is generated, ReplayWeb.page is able to load the ad. WACZ | URI-R: https://aax-us-east.amazon-adsystem.com/e/dtb/admi?b=...

Figure 11: Failed fetches that occurred during replay of their corpus of 3,000 web pages. Figure from https://www.usenix.org/sites/default/files/conference/protected-files/osdi22_slides_goel.pdf

The sources of non-determinism that cause problems with replaying archived web pages are server-side state, client side state, client characteristics, and JavaScript's Date, Random, and Performance APIs. When non-determinism caused variance in a dynamically generated URL during replay, they used two URL matching algorithms which are querystrip and fuzzy matching to match the requested URL with a crawled URL. These URL matching algorithms can reduce the number of failed requests and could resolve replay problems associated with random values in dynamically generated URLs, which is a problem we encountered during the Saving Ads project while replaying ads.

--Travis Reid (@TReid803)

Goel, A., Zhu, J., Netravali, R., and Madhyastha, H. V. "Jawa: Web Archival in the Era of JavaScript". In 16th USENIX Symposium on Operating Systems Design and Implementation (OSDI 22), Jul. 2022 (California, USA), pp. 805–820.

Win free books from the July 2025 batch of Early Reviewer titles! We’ve got 191 books this month, and a grand total of 3,477 copies to give out. Which books are you hoping to snag this month? Come tell us on Talk.

If you haven’t already, sign up for Early Reviewers. If you’ve already signed up, please check your mailing/email address and make sure they’re correct.

» Request books here!

The deadline to request a copy is Friday, July 25th at 6PM EDT.

Eligibility: Publishers do things country-by-country. This month we have publishers who can send books to the US, the UK, Canada, Germany, Australia, Greece, Cyprus, Czechia, Spain, Denmark and more. Make sure to check the message on each book to see if it can be sent to your country.

Thanks to all the publishers participating this month!

The mythical CyberCab

How to tell if someone's bullshitting: watch for them to give a deadline that they repeatedly push back.

For years, Elon Musk has been promising that Teslas will operate completely autonomously in “Full Self Driving” (FSD) mode. And when I say years, I mean years:

• December 2015: “We’re going to end up with complete autonomy, and I think we will have complete autonomy in approximately two years.”
• January 2016: “In ~2 years, summon should work anywhere connected by land & not blocked by borders, eg you’re in LA and the car is in NY.”
• June 2016: “I really would consider autonomous driving to be basically a solved problem. . . . I think we’re basically less than two years away from complete autonomy, complete—safer than a human. However regulators will take at least another year.”
• October 2016: By the end of 2017 Tesla will demonstrate a fully autonomous drive from “a home in L.A., to Times Square . . . without the need for a single touch, including the charging.”
• March 2018: “I think probably by end of next year [end of 2019] self-driving will encompass essentially all modes of driving”
• February 2019: “I think we will be feature complete—full self-driving—this year. Meaning the car will be able to find you in a parking lot, pick you up, take you all the way to your destination without an intervention, this year."

• January 2022: I will be shocked if we don't achieve FSD safer than a human this year

envisions a future fleet, including a new “Cybercab” and “Robovan” with no steering wheels or pedals, that could boost Tesla’s market value by an astonishing $5 trillion to $10 trillion. On June 20, Tesla was worth $1.04 trillion

“My view is the golden age of autonomous vehicles starting on Sunday in Austin for Tesla,” said Wedbush analyst Dan Ives. “I believe it’s a trillion dollar valuation opportunity for Tesla.”

Investor Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest predicts robotaxis could account for 90% of Tesla’s profits by 2029. If they are right, this weekend’s launch was existential.

"On generous assumptions, Tesla’s core EV business, generating 75% of gross profit but with falling sales, might be worth roughly $50 per share, only 15% of the current price. Much of the remainder relates to expectations around self driving. RBC Capital, for example, ascribes 59% of its price target, or $181 per share, to robotaxis and a further $53 to monetizing Full Self Driving technology. Combined, that is a cool $815 billion based on double-digit multiples ascribed to modeled revenue — not earnings — 10 to 15 years from now because, after all, it relates to businesses that barely make money today."

Tesla’s much-anticipated June 22 “no one in the vehicle” “unsupervised” Robotaxi launch in Austin is not ready. Instead, Tesla is operating a limited service with Tesla employees on board the vehicle to maintain safety.
...
Having an employee who can intervene on board, commonly called a safety driver, is the approach that every robocar company has used for testing, including testing of passenger operations. Most companies spend many years (Waymo spent a decade) testing with safety drivers, and once they are ready to take passengers, there are typically some number of years testing in that mode, though the path to removing the safety driver depends primarily on evaluation of the safety case for the vehicle, and less on the presence of passengers.

In addition to Musk’s statements about the vehicle being unsupervised, with nobody inside, in general the removal of the safety driver is the biggest milestone in development of a true robotaxi, not an incremental step that can be ignored. As such, Tesla has yet to meet its goals.

Waymo, the self-driving unit of Alphabet, announced recently that they are now providing 200,000 self-driving taxi rides every week with no safety driver in the car, only passengers.
...
In China, though, several companies are giving rides with no safety driver. The dominant player is Baidu Apollo, which reports they did 1.1 million rides last quarter, which is 84,000 per week, and they now are all no-safety-driver. Pony.AI claims 26,000 per week, but it is not clear if all are with no safety driver. AutoX does not report numbers, but says it has 1,000 cars in operation. WeRide also does not report numbers.

US auto safety regulators are looking into incidents where Tesla Inc.’s self-driving robotaxis appeared to violate traffic laws during the company’s first day offering paid rides in Austin.
...
In one video taken by investor Rob Maurer, who used to host a Tesla podcast, a Model Y he’s riding in enters an Austin intersection in a left-turn-only lane. The Tesla hesitates to make the turn, swerves right and proceeds into an unoccupied lane meant for traffic moving in the opposite direction.

A honking horn can be heard as the Tesla re-enters the correct lane over a double-yellow line, which drivers aren’t supposed to cross.

In two other posts on X, initial riders in driverless Model Ys shared footage of Teslas speeding. A vehicle carrying Sawyer Merritt, a Tesla investor, reached 35 miles per hour shortly after passing a 30 miles per hour speed limit sign, a video he posted shows.

But immediately after that rollout, Tesla drivers started racking up fines for violating the law. Many roads in China are watched by CCTV cameras, and fines are automatically handed out to drivers to break the law.

It’s clear that the system still needs more knowledge about Chinese roads in general, because it kept mistaking bike lanes for right turn lanes, etc. One driver racked up 7 tickets within the span of a single drive after driving through bike lanes and crossing over solid lines. If a driver gets enough points on their license, they could even have their license suspended.

BYD recently pushed a software update giving smart driving features to all of its vehicles – for free.

Baidu is already operating robotaxi services in multiple cities in China. It provided close to 900,000 rides in the second quarter of the year, up 26 per cent year-on-year, according to its latest earnings call. More than 7 million robotaxi rides in total had been operated as of late July.

A monthly round-up of news, upcoming working group meetings and events, and CLIR program updates from the Digital Library Federation. See all past Digests here. 

Happy July, DLF Community! We hope you’re having a pleasant summer so far and that you’re staying cool however you can. Between vacations and time to relax, we hope to catch you at a DLF Working Group meeting sometime this month. And, because the fall will be here before we know it, we hope you’re making plans to come to the Forum and Learn@DLF this November – registration is open and all programs have been released for what’s sure to be a wonderful week in colorful Colorado.

See you soon!

— Aliya from Team DLF

This month’s news:

• Forum program announced, registration open: The program for the 2025 DLF Forum is now available. Register at the earlybird rate to join us in Denver in November.
• Recordings now available: Check out the recordings from IIIF Annual Conference and the IIPC Web Archiving Conference, which both took place earlier this year.
• Opportunity: H-NET Spaces invites applications for its Spaces Cohort Program, which supports early-stage projects and/or scholars in need of support and hands-on training in DH methods. Applications due July 1.
• Free virtual event: The Libraries & DH Special Interest Group of the Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations (ADHO) is co-hosting Libraries & DH: Histories, Perspectives, Prospects Mini-Conference, a free gathering at this summer’s DH2025 Conference in Lisbon, Portugal, on July 14.
• Call for climate-conscious bookworms: DLF’s Climate Justice Working Group summer book group is meeting Tuesday, July 29 at 1pm ET. They’ll be discussing chapters 5&6 of After Disruption: A Future for Cultural Memory by Trevor Owens, which is available open access. All are welcome to join, even if you’re not a regular participant in the working group and/or missed the first discussions. Register here to join.
• Office closure: CLIR offices will be closed July 3-4 in observance of Independence Day.

This month’s open DLF group meetings:

For the most up-to-date schedule of DLF group meetings and events (plus NDSA meetings, conferences, and more), bookmark the DLF Community Calendar. Meeting dates are subject to change. Can’t find the meeting call-in information? Email us at info@diglib.org. Reminder: Team DLF working days are Monday through Thursday.

• DLF Born-Digital Access Working Group (BDAWG): Tuesday, 7/1, 2pm ET / 11am PT
• DLF Digital Accessibility Working Group (DAWG): Tuesday, 7/1, 2pm ET / 11am PT
• DLF AIG Cultural Assessment Working Group: Monday, 7/14, 1:00pm ET /10am PT
• DLF AIG Metadata Assessment Working Group: Thursday, 7/17, 1:15pm ET / 10:15am PT
• DLF AIG User Experience Working Group: Friday, 7/18, 11am ET / 8am PT
• DLF Digital Accessibility Policy & Workflows Subgroup: Friday, 7/25, 1pm ET / 10am PT
• DLF Digital Accessibility Working Group IT & Development (DAWG-IT) Subgroup: Monday, 7/28, 1:15pm ET / 10:15am PT
• DLF Digitization Interest Group: Monday, 7/28, 2pm ET / 11am PT
• DLF Committee for Equity and Inclusion: Monday, 7/28, 3pm ET / 12pm PT
• DLF Climate Justice Working Group: Tuesday, 7/29, 1pm ET / 10am PT

DLF groups are open to ALL, regardless of whether or not you’re affiliated with a DLF member organization. Learn more about our working groups on our website. Interested in scheduling an upcoming working group call or reviving a past group? Check out the DLF Organizer’s Toolkit. As always, feel free to get in touch at info@diglib.org. 

Get Involved / Connect with Us

Below are some ways to stay connected with us and the digital library community: 

• Subscribe to the DLF Forum newsletter.
• Join, start, or revive a working group and browse their work on the DLF Wiki.
• Subscribe to our community listserv, DLF-Announce.
• Bookmark our Community Calendar.
• Learn more about becoming a DLF member organization. 
• Follow us on LinkedIn and YouTube
• Contact us at info@diglib.org.

The post DLF Digest: July 2025 appeared first on DLF.

^{Image from pixabay.com}

Libraries play a crucial role in ensuring equitable access to information, yet many collected materials remain inaccessible to patrons with disabilities. How can resource-sharing practitioners leverage their expertise and systems to bridge this gap? This question was at the heart of a recent OCLC Research Library Partnership (RLP) Works in Progress Webinar, Increasing the accessibility of library materials—Roles for ILL, where experts from three large academic libraries shared their practices and insights for improving collection accessibility for users who need accommodations.

Accessibility has long been a topic of interest and action for the SHARES resource sharing consortium, and all three speakers were from SHARES institutions. As the consortium’s coordinator, I introduced the session by highlighting some of the group’s previous work on accessibility, which included surveying members about current practices, challenges, and aspirations around accessibility, creating a resource document on accessibility and ILL, and drafting accessibility provisions that were incorporated into the latest revision of the US Interlibrary Loan (ILL) code in 2023. 

Next our three distinguished presenters took to the virtual stage:

• Clara Fehrenbach, Document Delivery Services Librarian at the University of Chicago Library
• Ronald Figueroa, Resource Sharing and Facility Manager at Syracuse University Libraries
• Brynne Norton, Head of Resource Sharing & Reserves at the University of Maryland Libraries

Key takeaways

The session highlighted various models and strategies for enhancing accessibility in library collections. Here are key insights shared by the presenters:

1. Making procurement seamless for qualified patrons: Clara Fehrenbach discussed the University of Chicago’s partnership with Student Disability Services (SDS). This collaboration allows students to request alternate formats directly through the library catalog, ensuring privacy and streamlined access to necessary materials. The library scans materials that SDS can’t source elsewhere, while SDS evaluates and authorizes patron eligibility and does the actual document remediation.
   
2. Providing PDFs of hard-to-get material still in copyright: Brynne Norton outlined the Accessible Library Text Retrieval Program (ALTR) at the University of Maryland. This program provides text-searchable PDFs of in-copyright library materials for students with visual impairments and other disabilities, serving as a last resort when other accessible formats are unavailable. Accessibility and Disability Service (ADS) staff determine who qualifies for this service as an accommodation.  
   
3. Offering multiple levels of remediation: Ronald Figueroa outlined Alternate Format Services (AFS) at Syracuse University, which provides alternate formats for items owned, licensed, or obtained via ILL for qualified patrons. Service eligibility is determined by the Center for Disability Resources for students and by the ADA Coordinator for faculty and staff. AFS remediates for magnification, text-to-speech, or screen readers, according to need, and outsources jobs over 200 pages.

Practical tips for ILL practitioners

The presenters shared practical advice for libraries looking to start offering accessibility services or enhance an existing service:

• Start small: Begin with basic services and gradually expand capabilities based on available resources.
• Understand patron needs: Tailor services to meet the specific needs of patrons, whether it’s OCR documents, accessible PDFs, or other formats.
• Leverage partnerships: Collaborate with Disability Services Offices (DSOs) on campus to determine eligibility and streamline the provision of accessible materials.
• Maintain communication: Keep in close touch with partners to ensure ongoing support and address any changes in staff or procedures.

They also offered guiding principles for those who might be feeling overwhelmed by the prospect of starting up a new accessibility service:

• Let those who are already good at it do it: ILL = scanning; Student Disability Services = eligibility.
• Don’t overpromise: Understand what you actually have the bandwidth to offer before partnering.
• Don’t be shy: Know that Student Disability Services folks are eager to partner.
• Tap into your ILL community: Ask your peers for help.

Looking ahead

The webinar also looked to the horizon for upcoming developments in accessibility, including the integration of Optical Character Recognition (OCR) into OCLC’s Article Exchange document delivery application and burgeoning efforts by the ALA RUSA STARS Codes and Guidelines Committee to establish scanning standards, with a focus on improving scanning for accessibility. These initiatives are crucial for ensuring that all patrons have equitable access to library resources.

This webinar provided valuable insights and practical strategies for improving accessibility in library collections. By leveraging collaborative efforts, specialized programs, and efficient workflows, libraries can make significant strides in ensuring that all patrons, regardless of their abilities, have access to the information they need. We invite you to learn more by watching the recorded webinar, and exploring the wealth of resources shared on the recording webpage.

The post Roles for resource sharing practitioners in making library materials accessible appeared first on Hanging Together.

The training, offered by Public Lab Mongolia, attracted the interests of Mongolian open data enthusiasts and practitioners from various fields, including sociology students and practitioners, data analysts, health researchers, university lecturers, civil society, and private sector professionals.

The post Open Data Editor Introduced to Mongolian Data Enthusiasts first appeared on Open Knowledge Blog.

In onze blogpost uit 2023, “Machine Learning en WorldCat“, vertelden we voor het eerst hoe we machine learning inzetten om dubbele records in WorldCat op te sporen en samen te voegen.

Het verwijderen van dubbele records is altijd belangrijk voor de kwaliteit van WorldCat. Het maakt catalogiseren efficiënter en verbetert de algehele kwaliteit. Nu bibliografische gegevens sneller dan ooit binnenstromen, moeten we ervoor zorgen dat records nauwkeurig, samenhangend en toegankelijk blijven. En dat in hoog tempo.

Met AI kunnen we het ontdubbelen van gegevens snel en efficiënt opschalen. Toch blijft menselijke kennis en ervaring belangrijk voor het succes. Bij OCLC hebben we geïnvesteerd in een hybride aanpak: we gebruiken AI om enorme hoeveelheden data te verwerken, terwijl catalogiseerders en OCLC-experts de belangrijkste beslissingen blijven nemen.

Van papieren strookjes naar machine learning

Voordat ik bij OCLC kwam, werkte ik al aan het verbeteren van bibliografische gegevens. Het samenvoegen van dubbele records deden we toen nog helemaal handmatig. Bibliotheken stuurden ons papieren strookjes met mogelijke duplicaten, vaak voorzien van uitleg van een catalogiseerder.

We sorteerden duizenden strookjes in archiefkasten: groene strookjes voor boeken, blauwe voor niet-boeken en roze voor series. De hoeveelheid strookjes was zo groot dat we zelfs kantoormeubilair moesten gebruiken om ze op te slaan. Je kon uiteindelijk nergens meer een pen of notitieblok vinden.

^{Deze afbeelding is gemaakt met AI en geeft een indruk van hoe de rommelige gangen eruitzagen waar we de duplicaatstrookjes bewaarden. Het ziet er hier veel netter uit dan het in werkelijkheid was.}

Als ik erop terugkijk, zie ik hoe vooruitziend die gezamenlijke inspanning was. Het was langzaam en methodisch werk, maar het liet zien hoe zorgvuldig we toen te werk gingen. Elk strookje stond voor een beslissing, een stukje menselijk oordeel dat bepaalde of records in ons systeem werden samengevoegd of behouden. Ondanks ons harde werk konden we het nooit helemaal bijhouden. De stapel duplicaten bleef groeien en we liepen altijd achter de feiten aan.

Het verschil met nu is enorm. Sinds ik bij OCLC werk met AI-gestuurde ontdubbeling, besef ik pas hoe veel efficiënter we dit tegenwoordig kunnen aanpakken. Wat vroeger jaren duurde, doen we nu in weken, met meer nauwkeurigheid en in meer talen, schriften en materiaaltypes dan ooit tevoren. Toch blijft de kern van het werk hetzelfde: menselijke expertise is onmisbaar. AI is geen wondermiddel. Het leert van onze catalogiseringsnormen, ons professionele oordeel en onze correcties.

Door een hybride aanpak te gebruiken, waarbij machine learning het zware werk doet en menselijke controle het proces stuurt en verfijnt, kunnen we een balans vinden tussen snelheid en precisie. Zo bouwen we voort op het beste van beide werelden.

Innovatie en zorgvuldigheid in balans houden in WorldCat

Al tientallen jaren werken catalogiseerders, metadatabeheerders en OCLC-teams samen om de betrouwbaarheid van WorldCat te waarborgen. Zo blijft het een hoogwaardige, betrouwbare bron voor bibliotheken en onderzoekers. Het verwijderen van dubbele records is een belangrijk onderdeel van deze inspanning. Het zorgt ervoor dat alles overzichtelijker wordt, makkelijker doorzoekbaar is en beter uitwisselbaar is tussen verschillende systemen.

Met AI kunnen we dubbele records nu op een nieuwe manier aanpakken. Hierdoor kunnen we veel meer duplicaten opsporen en samenvoegen dan ooit tevoren. De belangrijkste uitdaging is om AI verantwoord en transparant toe te passen, zodat het aansluit bij professionele catalogiseringsnormen.

Deze schaalbare aanpak sluit naadloos aan bij onze langdurige rol als beheerders van gedeelde bibliografische gegevens. AI biedt ons de kans om menselijke expertise te versterken, zonder deze te vervangen.

Een nieuwe kijk op ontdubbeling

Tot nu toe gebruikten we vaste algoritmes en veel handwerk om dubbele records samen te voegen. Dit werkte wel, maar had duidelijke grenzen.

Met de AI-gestuurde ontdubbelingsmethoden van OCLC kunnen we nu veel meer bereiken:

• Meer talen en schriften: Ons machine learning-algoritme verwerkt efficiënt niet-Latijnse schriften en records in allerlei talen. Hierdoor kunnen we sneller duplicaten opsporen in wereldwijde collecties.
• Meer soorten records: AI herkent duplicaten in een breder scala aan bibliografische gegevens. Ook helpt het ons bij materiaaltypes die eerder lastig waren om te ontdubbelen.
• Bescherming van zeldzame en speciale collecties: Bij zeldzame en unieke materialen zetten we geen AI in. Zo blijven bijzondere items in archieven en speciale collecties goed beschermd.

Dankzij deze verbeteringen kunnen we de metadata van WorldCat verder verbeteren, met aandacht voor meer materialen en talen. Dit stelt ons in staat om de kwaliteit van data verantwoord te verhogen.

Wat “verantwoorde AI” in de praktijk betekent

De term ‘AI’ is breed en roept bij sommigen scepsis op. Dat is begrijpelijk. Verschillende AI-toepassingen brengen vragen met zich mee over vooroordelen, nauwkeurigheid en betrouwbaarheid.

Onze aanpak is gebaseerd op een paar belangrijke principes:

• AI als aanvulling op menselijke expertise: AI is bedoeld om mensen te ondersteunen, niet te vervangen. We hebben menselijke controle en het labelen van data ingebouwd, zodat onze AI-modellen leren volgens de beste catalogiseringspraktijken.
• Efficiëntie zonder concessies aan kwaliteit: Onze AI is ontwikkeld om slim met computercapaciteit om te gaan, zonder dat dit ten koste gaat van de nauwkeurigheid en kwaliteit van de records.
• Duurzaamheid: We zorgen ervoor dat onze systemen niet meer computerkracht gebruiken dan nodig. Zo blijven de resultaten goed, zonder verspilling. Door AI slim in te zetten, blijft ontdubbeling betaalbaar en toekomstbestendig, terwijl we blijven groeien.

Het doel is niet om mensen te vervangen, maar om hun kennis en tijd beter te benutten. Catalogiseerders kunnen zich daardoor richten op werk dat echt waarde toevoegt voor hun gebruikers, in plaats van eindeloos dubbele records op te ruimen.

Daarnaast spelen catalogiseerders en onze ervaren OCLC-medewerkers een actieve rol in dit proces. Door gegevens te labelen en feedback te geven, helpen zij AI steeds beter te worden in het herkennen en verwerken van duplicaten.

AI als gezamenlijke inspanning en de weg vooruit

Ik mis de stapels papieren strookjes en het elk kwartaal opruimen van archiefkasten niet, maar ik waardeer wel wat ze symboliseerden: zorgvuldigheid en toewijding. AI vervangt die zorgvuldigheid niet, maar bouwt erop voort en tilt het naar een hoger niveau.

Terwijl de tools zich blijven ontwikkelen, blijven onze principes hetzelfde. OCLC gebruikt al lange tijd technologie om bibliotheken te helpen bij het beheren van hun catalogi en collecties. Nu passen we diezelfde aanpak toe op AI: doelgericht, effectief en geworteld in onze gedeelde toewijding aan de kwaliteit van metadata.

Deze manier van innoveren stelt bibliotheken in staat om te voldoen aan veranderende behoeften en waarde te blijven leveren aan hun gebruikers.

Doe mee met OCLC’s datalabeling-initiatief en help de rol van AI bij het ontdubbelen verbeteren.

AI-gestuurde ontdubbeling is een gezamenlijke inspanning die voortdurend wordt verfijnd dankzij de input van de gemeenschap en professionele controle. Jouw bijdrage heeft direct invloed op de kwaliteit en efficiëntie van WorldCat. Daarmee komt het de hele bibliotheekgemeenschap ten goede.

Zo kun je deelnemen (informatie in het Engels):

• Interface voor datalabeling (WorldShare-login vereist)
• Deelname-instructies (pdf)
• Veelgestelde vragen (FAQs) (pdf)

Dit is een Nederlandse vertaling van de blogpost “Scaling de-duplication in WorldCat: Balancing AI innovation with cataloging care“.

The post Efficiënt ontdubbelen in WorldCat: hoe AI en catalogiseerwerk elkaar versterken appeared first on Hanging Together.

En la entrada de blog de agosto de 2023 titulada “Machine Learning y WorldCat”, compartimos, por primera vez, nuestros esfuerzos para aprovechar el Aprendizaje Automático con el fin de mejorar la deduplicación en WorldCat.

La deduplicación siempre ha sido un elemento central para garantizar la calidad de WorldCat, ya que mejora la eficiencia y la calidad de la catalogación. Sin embargo, con el aumento acelerado de datos bibliográficos, nos enfrentamos al desafío de mantener los registros actualizados, conectados y accesibles de forma rápida. La deduplicación impulsada por la IA ofrece una forma innovadora de agilizar este trabajo de manera eficiente, pero su éxito sigue dependiendo del conocimiento y criterio humano. En OCLC, hemos apostado por un enfoque híbrido que combina la capacidad de la IA para manejar grandes volúmenes de datos con el papel esencial de los catalogadores y de los expertos de OCLC a la hora de tomar las decisiones clave.

De las fichas en papel al Aprendizaje Automático

Antes de unirme a OCLC, trabajé en el área de calidad de datos bibliográficos en una época en la que la deduplicación se realizaba de manera completamente manual. Como parte de un programa de mejora de calidad, las bibliotecas nos enviaban fichas de papel detallando posibles duplicados, cada una acompañada de la explicación del catalogador en cuestión. Recuerdo que clasificábamos miles de estas fichas por colores: verde para libros, azul para materiales no bibliográficos, rosa para publicaciones seriadas. Incluso reutilizamos archivadores de la oficina para almacenar las fichas de duplicados que se nos desbordaban: encontrar bolígrafos y blocs de notas era prácticamente imposible.

^{Esta imagen ha sido generada con IA para recrear mi recuerdo de los pasillos de archivadores abarrotados de fichas de duplicados. La IA lo ha recreado de manera más ordenada de lo que realmente era.}

En retrospectiva, creo que fue un esfuerzo colaborativo con visión de futuro. Sin embargo, era un trabajo lento y meticuloso, que reflejaba la naturaleza minuciosa de nuestras tareas en aquel momento. Cada ficha representaba una decisión, un juicio humano que definía si los registros en nuestro sistema se fusionaban o permanecían separados. A pesar de todo el esfuerzo, este proceso estaba limitado por su volumen: siempre íbamos detrás de los duplicados en lugar de adelantarnos a ellos.

Hoy, trabajando en la deduplicación impulsada por la IA en OCLC, me sorprende lo mucho que hemos avanzado. Lo que antes requería años ahora se completa en semanas, con mayor precisión y abarcando más idiomas, escrituras y tipos de materiales que nunca. Sin embargo, el núcleo del trabajo sigue siendo el mismo: el conocimiento humano es fundamental. La IA no es una solución mágica; aprende de nuestros estándares de catalogación, de nuestro criterio profesional y de nuestras correcciones.

Al adoptar un enfoque híbrido para la deduplicación, podemos utilizar el Aprendizaje Automático para realizar el trabajo pesado mientras garantizamos que la supervisión humana guíe y refine el proceso.

Equilibrando la innovación y la responsabilidad en WorldCat

Durante décadas, catalogadores, especialistas en metadatos y equipos de OCLC han trabajado para mantener la integridad de WorldCat, asegurando que sea un recurso fiable y de alta calidad para bibliotecas e investigadores.  La deduplicación siempre ha sido una pieza clave en este trabajo, eliminando registros duplicados para optimizar la eficiencia, facilitar el descubrimiento y mejorar la interoperabilidad.

Ahora, la IA nos permite abordar la eliminación de duplicados de nuevas maneras, ampliando drásticamente nuestra capacidad para identificar y fusionar registros duplicados a gran escala. Sin embargo, la verdadera cuestión no es solo cómo aplicar la IA, sino cómo hacerlo de manera responsable, transparente y en consonancia con los estándares profesionales de catalogación.

Este modelo para ampliar la eliminación de duplicados es una continuación de nuestra misión histórica de preservar y gestionar datos bibliográficos compartidos. La IA ofrece una oportunidad para potenciar el conocimiento humano, no para sustituirlo.

El giro fundamental en la deduplicación

Históricamente, la deduplicación se ha basado en algoritmos deterministas y en el esfuerzo manual de catalogadores y de los equipos de OCLC. Aunque estos métodos han sido efectivos, también presentan ciertas limitaciones.

Las técnicas de deduplicación impulsadas por IA que hemos desarrollado en OCLC nos permiten:

• Ampliar el alcance más allá del inglés y las lenguas romances: Nuestro algoritmo de Aprendizaje Automático procesa con mayor precisión y eficiencia escrituras no latinas y registros en todos los idiomas, lo que mejora la deduplicación rápida en colecciones globales.
• Abordar una mayor variedad de tipos de registros: La IA facilita la identificación de duplicados en un espectro más amplio de registros bibliográficos y aporta nuevos conocimientos sobre materiales más complejos de tratar.
• Preservar colecciones raras y especiales: Actualmente no aplicamos procesos de deduplicación impulsados por IA a materiales raros, garantizando así la preservación de los registros únicos de archivos y colecciones especiales.

Estos avances permiten mejorar la precisión de los metadatos en una variedad más amplia de materiales e idiomas, lo que nos ayuda a ampliar el trabajo que realizamos para garantizar la calidad de los metadatos de WorldCat de manera responsable.

Qué significa “IA responsable” en la práctica

El concepto de “IA” es amplio y, con frecuencia, genera escepticismo. Y no es para menos: muchas aplicaciones de Inteligencia Artificial plantean preocupaciones relacionadas con sesgos, precisión y fiabilidad.

Nuestro enfoque se basa en algunas ideas clave:

• La IA debe complementar el conocimiento humano, no reemplazarlo. Hemos integrado la revisión manual y el etiquetado de datos para garantizar que los modelos de IA se entrenen siguiendo las mejores prácticas de catalogación.
• La eficiencia no debe comprometer la fiabilidad. La deduplicación impulsada por IA está diseñada para optimizar los recursos computacionales, asegurando que la automatización no afecte la calidad de los registros.
• La sostenibilidad es fundamental. Hemos desarrollado un sistema eficiente desde el punto de vista computacional, que reduce el uso innecesario de recursos mientras mantiene resultados de alta calidad. Al optimizar la huella tecnológica de la IA, garantizamos que la deduplicación sea rentable y viable a largo plazo.

Este modelo de deduplicación no busca reducir el papel de las personas, sino redirigir su conocimiento donde es más prioritario. Los catalogadores pueden enfocarse en tareas de alto valor que los conecten con sus comunidades, en lugar de dedicar tiempo a resolver registros duplicados.

Además, los catalogadores y el equipo especializado de OCLC participan activamente en este proceso. A través del etiquetado de datos y valoraciones posteriores, los profesionales contribuyen a perfeccionar y mejorar la capacidad de la IA para identificar duplicados.

La IA como esfuerzo colaborativo y el camino por delante

No echo de menos las pilas de fichas ni las purgas trimestrales de archivadores, pero valoro profundamente lo que representaban. La IA no está sustituyendo ese cuidado, sino ampliándolo. Aunque las herramientas evolucionan, nuestros principios permanecen intactos. OCLC lleva años utilizando la tecnología para ayudar a las bibliotecas a gestionar sus catálogos y colecciones, y ahora aplicamos esa misma filosofía a la IA: de manera deliberada, efectiva y basada en nuestro compromiso compartido con la calidad de los metadatos. Este enfoque hacia la innovación permite a las bibliotecas adaptarse a necesidades cambiantes y ofrecer un mayor valor a sus usuarios.

Participe en la iniciativa de etiquetado de datos de OCLC y contribuya al perfeccionamiento del rol de la IA en la deduplicación.

La deduplicación impulsada por IA es un esfuerzo continuo y colaborativo que seguirá evolucionando gracias a las aportaciones de la comunidad y la supervisión profesional. Las contribuciones de los profesionales tendrán un impacto directo en la calidad y eficiencia de WorldCat, beneficiando a toda la comunidad bibliotecaria.

Cómo participar (información en Inglés):

• Interfaz de etiquetado de datos (se necesitan credenciales de WorldShare)
• Instrucciones de participación (pdf)
• FAQs (pdf)

Traducción al castellano de la entrada de blog “Scaling de-duplication in WorldCat: Balancing AI innovation with cataloging care”.

The post Deduplicación eficiente de WorldCat: Equilibrando la IA y la catalogación profesional appeared first on Hanging Together.

This post is one in a series documenting findings from the RLP Leadership Roundtable discussions. It is co-authored by Rebecca Bryant and Chela Weber. It is the first of two blog posts that summarize outcomes from discussions focused on leadership in times of uncertainty and change.

Leading people and programs can be especially challenging during times of uncertainty and change. As many libraries grapple with budget constraints, staffing shortages, and resource limitations, the OCLC Research Library Partnership (RLP) created space for leaders to share challenges, learn from peers, and provide mutual support. 

The RLP convened separate roundtables for special collections and research support leaders, both focused on leading through uncertainty. Participants explored several key questions: 

1. What is the most challenging aspect of your work in a leadership role today? 
   
2. What’s been your approach to sunsetting or pivoting work on services, projects, or other activities, especially when those decisions are unpopular? Do you have underlying principles that guide your decision making? How do you balance short- and long-term priorities? 
   
3. How do you effectively and transparently communicate during challenging times? How do you share enough without sharing too much? Do you have tools for supporting staff morale during extended periods of staff uncertainty? 
   
4. We all dealt with the major crisis of the pandemic and the uncertainty it brought, some in leadership roles while others have come into leadership since. What have you learned from this or other past crises that you can apply now? What are you learning about leadership from observing senior leadership at your institution? Has anyone done anything that inspires you or lifts your own morale? 

Fifty individuals from 43 RLP institutions across five countries participated in a total of eight 90-minute discussions. The discussions revealed that leadership challenges transcend national boundaries, though specific contexts vary. Common themes emerged around financial constraints, communication challenges, and the need for adaptive leadership strategies. RLP leadership roundtables observe the Chatham House Rule—no specific comments are attributed to any individual or institution, but a list of participating institutions is provided at the bottom of this post.

The resulting discussions were so rich that we couldn’t capture them all in one blog post. This is part one of the outcomes of our leadership discussions, and part two will follow shortly.  

Budgetary and staffing pressures

Our discussions reveal a group of librarians and archivists grappling with a complex web of challenges while working to maintain operations and support staff.

Budget constraints. Library leaders face severe budget constraints as their most immediate challenge. Roundtable participants described how their organizations are facing cuts ranging from 5% to 33% for fiscal year 2026. One participant described their institution as already in a perilous condition following years of declining enrollment and budget recissions, and others described the precarity of state budgets.

Uncertainty abounds. One participant expressed concerns about how reductions to indirect costs will further impact library funding, prompting efforts to prepare campus faculty for potential library cuts. The uncertainty of when, and if, budgets will stabilize impacts morale.

Bristlecone pine by Bain Butcher, 2013. 2013 Artist-in-Residence, Great Basin National Park, USA.

Staffing pressures compound these challenges. Hiring freezes and budget constraints force many institutions to operate with skeleton crews. One leader who lost one-third of their personnel in the last two years cannot rebuild due to hiring restrictions. Another institution self-imposed a hiring freeze to avoid future position cuts. Retention is another struggle; one leader explained, “I have lost staff simply because they cannot afford [to live in our city] on the amount that they get paid at the library.”

Operational impacts. Budget uncertainty and staffing shortages create cascading effects throughout library operations. Library staff at many institutions feel overworked, stressed, and overwhelmed. Morale is low.  Staff take on new responsibilities without additional compensation, and several libraries reported reorganization efforts to address reduced capacity.

Strengthening morale through recognition and connection

Several participants described their efforts to build morale by engaging teams in meaningful work and providing authentic support.

Acknowledge fear and uncertainty. With staff feeling anxiety, “especially about job security,” several participants described the need to extend compassion and convey to staff that “it’s okay to not be okay.”

Connect to core purpose.  It’s important to maintain a connection to the core mission despite challenges. External engagement seems particularly motivating. One leader noted: “When you’re with other people who are excited about your material, it gets you excited again” about the work. Another helps “my direct reports find work projects that they feel . . . like they’re doing something that is meaningful to them beyond just the kind of cultural heritage work that we normally do.”

Foster solutions-oriented thinking. Leaders struggled with team expectations to provide all the solutions, seeking ways to encourage solutions-oriented thinking.

• Identify things you can’t fix. One participant helps staff identify “gravity problems”—issues that, like gravity, are not going to change and shouldn’t consume energy. Instead, they urge focus on problems that can be meaningfully addressed.  
• Promote collaborative work. Several leaders promote projects that allow staff to support each other rather than relying heavily on supervisory relationships. Through collaboration, “they see each other’s work, they are interdependent, they can support each other more.”
• Convene solutions-focused meetings. Many use staff meetings to address roadblocks and encourage team members to “come with proposed solutions” rather than just problems.

Recognition and morale building. To buoy morale, many libraries have implemented regular recognition practices:

• “60-second shout-outs” start meetings positively by allowing quick recognition of valued work
• “Shout-out cards” let staff publicly recognize the work of others on cards posted in the staff break room
• Celebrating achievements like publications, awards, promotions, and personal accomplishments at regular library meetings
• Community events or “engagement days” convene staff members for team building and wellness activities. One institution recently hosted a kitten adoption event
• Campus award nominations leverage institutional HR staff awards programs—for example, one institution has fostered a positive culture of appreciation through regular award nominations and wins

The impact of these efforts extends beyond individual recognition: “It’s been gratifying to see how supportive people are of each other, and this kind of peer support is meaningful to a lot of people, not just the person getting the shout-out.”

Strategic approaches to uncertainty and change

Facing budget and staffing uncertainties, library leaders described strategic approaches that focus on core services, scenario planning, and selective implementation of new initiatives. They looked to professional values and institutional priorities to guide their decision-making.

Planning strategies

Scenario planning. Participants’ institutions are conducting budget exercises to identify and maintain core services in anticipation of deep cuts. This “war footing” approach prioritizes core services with hopes of rebuilding later. Some included staff in documenting potential responses to different funding levels, facilitating informed decision-making. Several emphasized the need to take a library-wide view of cuts due to significant cross-departmental impacts.

Defining and identifying services. Informed decision-making requires understanding the depth and breadth of library activities. One institution created a comprehensive “service catalog” through a collaborative process to identify all services, including legacy offerings and those duplicated across departments. This approach reveals services they “don’t realize that we are doing” and serves as a “game changer” for the organization, supporting the library as it undergoes a significant restructuring to refocus services. Some institutions are working to clearly define what constitutes a “core service,” though this presents challenges as disagreement emerges about priorities.

Operational adaptations

Flexible contracts and purchasing. One institution is negotiating greater flexibility by shifting from multi-year to single-year purchasing contracts, requesting hardship clauses where single-year options aren’t available, and purchasing some resources outright instead of licensing to manage future uncertainty.

“Good enough” service standards. Participants agreed that libraries and archives cannot and should not continue to provide the same level of service with significantly reduced resources. Instead, one library is implementing a “good enough” approach that emphasizes sustainability over perfection.

Strategic sunsetting of services. Several institutions are examining services to discontinue, which can be challenging because staff are deeply invested in their work. Examples include ending conservation work on circulating collections after staff departures, sunsetting an under-resourced research information management system, and reallocating a data visualization position to geospatial support to fill strategic campus gaps.

Leveraging change

Crisis as opportunity. A few participants view recent challenges—including the pandemic and staff losses—as opportunities for positive change. These circumstances can serve as a catalyst for workflow reconceptualization, service prioritization, and improved institutional alignment, with one participant saying, “never let a good crisis go to waste.”

Visible service impacts. Some leaders are deliberately making service reductions visible to demonstrate the real impact of budget cuts, rather than maintaining the illusion that operations can continue unchanged. “I want them to be visible. I don’t want to not be able to serve people and make it hard to use our collections, but at the same time, I don’t think I do anyone a service . . . by pretending that we can continue to [work as we always have].” This transparency helps stakeholders understand the consequences of funding decisions.

Supporting staff through change

Managing staff expectations and morale. The identity-driven nature of archives and special collections work creates particular challenges when asking these staff to reduce their efforts. As one leader noted, “People draw a lot of identity from their work” which “makes asking them to scale back even harder.” Leaders are helping staff adjust expectations to match current realities to identify what can be paused, as well as working on realistic individual goal planning.

Boundaries and organizational support. Participants emphasized the need to ensure that service reduction decisions are supported throughout the organizational hierarchy, offering frontline staff the agency to set boundaries with users.

Looking ahead

These discussions accentuated that effective leadership during challenging times requires both strategic operational thinking and genuine care for people. Participants shared experiences that showed not only the weight of their decisions but also the collective strength found in peer networks, transparent communication, and a focus on meaningful work. The strategies they explored—scenario planning, morale-building practices, visible service impacts—reflect their efforts to balance institutional priorities with the well-being of staff and the communities they serve. 

The strategies and insights shared by RLP affiliates offer support and resources for peers navigating similar challenges. As we continue to unpack their insights, the next post will delve deeper into practical approaches for fostering adaptive leadership and organizational resilience.  

Roundtable participants

For the special collections roundtable in May 2025, 25 participants from 25 institutions attended:

For the research support roundtable in June 2025, 25 individuals participated from 23 RLP institutions:

Sincere thanks for Mercy Procaccini and Erica Melko for their suggestions that improved these posts.

AI Nota Bene: The co-authors leveraged AI in the writing of these blog posts. AI was used to identify key themes from notes and discussion transcripts, which was useful for developing the blog outline and some suggested quotes. We found AI useful for suggesting subheadings and more concise language. Nevertheless, we did the majority of the writing ourselves.

The post Leading through uncertainty: Fostering morale and connection in challenging times  appeared first on Hanging Together.

In Brief

The field of library science is paying increasing attention to anthropogenic climate change by exploring best practices for mitigating damage from environmental disasters and participating in climate action. This work is valuable, but it does not necessarily take on the cultural dimensions of climate adaptation. How are unquestioned ideas about time and decay supporting the carbon-heavy preservation of archival materials? How can libraries promote interspecies kinship, consider the legacy of industrial colonialism, and acknowledge the emotional impact of environmental destruction? To approach these questions, this article introduces thinkers from the environmental humanities and Anthropocene scholarship and applies their work to the field of library science. It explores alternatives to linear concepts of time, affective materiality of archival objects, palliative death ethics, and Indigenous perspectives of climate change as the legacy of industrial colonialism. The article concludes by suggesting ways that institutions can promote cultural adaptation to climate change.

By Nora Zahn

Introduction

Novelist Ursula K. Le Guin begins her 1985 epic, Always Coming Home, with a brief chapter titled “Towards an Archaeology of the Future.”¹ The most likely intention is not to promote new standards to modernize the field of archaeology (“towards an archaeology for the future”), nor is it to envision or influence what archaeological practice may look like decades or centuries from now (“towards a future archaeology”). Rather, the book is a fictional ethnography of a people living in what we know as California’s Napa Valley thousands of years from the present day. What Le Guin likely means by the phrase is the most grammatically simple yet conceptually brain-melting interpretation: to replace the past with the future as the object of archaeological study. She is telling us to turn our heads and look in the opposite direction.

The dissonance of studying the ruins of a society that doesn’t yet exist is apt for approaching the Anthropocene, the Earth’s current, unofficial geological epoch characterized by the ecosystem-altering impact of Homo sapiens and resulting planetary disruptions.² Since the term was coined in the early 2000s, scholars from various academic disciplines have considered its implications as a framework that elevates human behavior to the level of worldshifting ecological events.³ One such discipline is the environmental humanities, a field that emphasizes narrative and culture in approaching environmental challenges. Through an interdisciplinary lens combining the political, anthropological, literary, and/or philosophical, the field is united by the belief that humans and nature are intertwined. The environmental humanities welcomes traditionally excluded or undervalued perspectives into the discourse, with a particular openness to the voices of Indigenous scholars and activists. 

The field of library science is paying increasing attention to anthropogenic climate change. Librarians are exploring best practices for the logistical preparation of institutions for climate events like flooding and extreme heat⁴, advocating for reducing the environmental impact of industry-specific activities⁵, and discussing how libraries can promote and participate in climate action.⁶ This work is valuable as institutions physically adapt to an age of instability. However, it does not necessarily take on the cultural dimensions of climate adaptation that library science, with its predilection for the past and general focus on our own species, may need some nudging to address.⁷

How are unquestioned ideas about time and decay supporting the carbon-heavy preservation of archival materials? How can libraries consider the legacy of industrial colonialism, acknowledge the emotional impact of environmental destruction, and promote interspecies kinship? We need a librarianship of the future, in which librarians and archivists can build on theory from the environmental humanities to involve the public in thinking intergenerationally and imagining the possibilities for a world beyond the Anthropocene.

Time

Alternative concepts of time that have emerged within the environmental humanities challenge the prevailing ethos that archives exist to preserve the past for humans of the future. When we consider those humans in the context of the climate crisis, we are faced with blunt uncertainty.⁸  As Erik Radio puts it, a “continued existence of life,” or “one in which humans continue to act in a central role” or are “even recognizable as ourselves,” is in question.⁹ If the continuation of our species—either entirely, or with all the trappings of our current relationship with the planet—is not secure, then librarians must question the meaning of preserving materials for future humans who aren’t present or may not be able to access them.¹⁰ And of course, questioning the value of an activity should prompt us to consider the cost: in this case, the carbon-intensive resources used to preserve these materials for an uncertain human future.

Deep time, which places humanity in the context of the total 4.54 billion years of Earth’s existence, proliferates Anthropocene scholarship. Geographer Kathryn Yusoff suggests that the Anthropocene framing offers a “new temporality”¹¹ by “embedd[ing]” our species in geologic time.¹² This gives humans geological agency by placing us among the few entities that “possess the power of extinction”¹³ while “[shifting] the human timescale from biological life-course to that of epoch and species-life.” 

Establishing ourselves in this broader geologic context opens up imaginative doors. While discussing the causal role of fossil fuel extraction and use in facilitating species extinction, Yusoff notes that this way of positioning humans in time reveals our own potentially declining species as the “material expenditure of the remains of late capitalism.”  When we “[unearth] one fossil layer” to use as fuel for our machines, we “create another…that has our name on it.”¹⁴ By materializing humanity as a future fossil layer, Yusoff expands our idea of what the history and record of our species could entail moving forward.¹⁵ Radio gets at a similar notion in his effort to conceptualize archival documents in a posthuman world, suggesting that Earth is the “document that can serve as a contextual ground for all others,” and that therefore in the present libraries and archives should “strongly consider broadening their scope to incorporate the perspectives of geologists.”¹⁶

If Yusoff and Radio use geology to detach from anthropocentric concepts of time, then an emphasis on interspecies relationships within the environmental humanities offers a different approach. Potawatomi scholar Kyle Powys Whyte uses various Indigenous perspectives to inform what he calls “kinship time,” in which “time is told through kinship relationships that entangle climate change with responsibility”¹⁷ as an alternative to portraying climate change using the “ticking clock” narrative encouraged by the traditional Western, linear timescale.¹⁸

Whyte references Samantha Chisholm Hatfield et al.’s research on the connection between time and ecosystems among tribes like the Siletz in the Pacific Northwest, who have historically relied on ecological signals to track the passage of time. For example, an elder interviewed by Hatfield explains how the Siletz used to rely on the emergence of carpenter ants in the spring as a seasonal cue to start hunting pacific lampreys, a coastal fish species resembling eels, despite the fact that the two species are not ecologically related.  These days, though, the elder says that the “weather’s changed so much that you can’t mark anything like that” anymore. This example represents a broader trend from Hatfield’s research: multispecies relationships like the ones between humans, ants, and lampreys demonstrate a foundational way of telling time and connecting to the universe for the Siletz. When climate change threatens the ecosystem, it jeopardizes that “sense of order”¹⁹ and results in feelings of “abruptness and escalation.”²⁰

This way of telling time based on environmental cues is part of what Whyte (2018) refers to elsewhere in his research as a “seasonal round system” employed by peoples like the Anishinaabe/Neshnabé, in which public life is  “organized to change and shift throughout the year to adjust to the dynamics of ecosystems.”²¹ He also describes “spiraling time,” which brings together ancestors and their descendants²², as well as Hatfield et al.’s explanation of time “based on a 3D construction” of ecological relationships.²³ By using these visual metaphors, Whyte seeks to reject linear time in favor of worldviews prizing interconnectedness and responsibility.

Le Guin sought to do the same in her fictional ethnography Always Coming Home. The subjects of the book, far-future residents of California’s Napa Valley who are known as the Kesh, see all living things as people, and therefore “no distinction is made between human and natural history.”²⁴ They conceive of time as less structured than Le Guin’s (likely Western) reader does; the ethnographer informs us that “time and space are so muddled together that one is never sure whether [the Kesh] are talking about an era or an area.”²⁵ When the ethnographer tries to ask a Kesh librarian-historian of sorts for information about previous inhabitants of the region, it initiates a roundabout discussion that ultimately leads the ethnographer to conclude,

It’s hopeless. He doesn’t perceive time as a direction, let alone a progress, but as a landscape in which one may go any number of directions, or nowhere. He spatialises time; it is not an arrow, nor a river, but a house, the house he lives in. One may go from room to room, and come back; to go outside, all you have to do is open the door.²⁶

This spatial conceptualization of time is directly tied to the Kesh’s assumptions of interspecies kinship. Their world is one in which human people live in balance, respect, and partnership with all others. Therefore they refer to us—that is, industrial Western civilization in the present day, which, per our linear perspective of time, existed long ago in their past and was ultimately destroyed by an intervening ecological apocalypse—as “the time outside,” and “when they lived outside the world.”²⁷

If people of all species who exist in other millennia are just across the threshold, how does it change the way we connect to the earth and other beings? And what does it mean for a field like library science that is paradoxically oriented toward both past and future, where materials from the past are collected and preserved for the benefit of future generations? Is it possible to extract library science from linear time, like one might extract a glittering stone from a running stream?

Removing distance from our sense of time has some interesting implications for collections. Within the past-orientation, if people from many years ago are a short distance away, then age is less of a factor in deciding which of their objects or papers are worth preserving. If a British colonist named Gilberrt Bant living in 1690s Boston, for example, is just across the threshold then how important is it to keep a receipt from when his father left him money? 

Within the future-orientation, on the other hand, if people from later epochs are on the other side of the door, then it may incentivize concern for future beings in how we choose to preserve materials and consume resources. It’s the proximity principle: if we can see our descendants right there in our front yard, we are more likely to consider them as we choose what and how we collect and preserve.²⁸

Clearly, this extreme shift in perspective requires intergenerational thinking. Kyle Whyte’s spiraling time encourages us to “consider ourselves as living alongside future and past relatives simultaneously” throughout our lives.²⁹ Philosopher Julia Gibson takes it a step further in their discussion of palliative death ethics for climate change, suggesting that past and future life does not just surround us, but in fact, is present within us as individuals. This is because “the dead, the dying, the living, and those yet-to-be are not only distinct generations of beings along a linear sequence but coexistent facets of every being.” That is, outside of linear time, an individual occupies the past, present, and future all at once. As such, Gibson calls for rejecting the “‘us in the present’ vs. ‘them in the future’” dichotomy in climate change discourses.³⁰

Intergenerational thinking gives librarians the opportunity to consider our entire way of determining the value of objects we collect and preserve. Is constantly cooling and dehumidifying the room where we store Gilberrt Bant’s receipt worth releasing the carbon that will threaten our descendants’—or our own—access to sufficient food, or livable temperatures, or safety from mega-storms? Is it worth contributing to the ongoing mass extinction of other species?

Mortality

Let’s consider the objects themselves. Archivist Marika Cifor calls on the rise of new materialism in recent feminist theory to inform what she terms the “liveliness” of physical matter in an archival setting. Building on Karen Barad’s “entanglement of matter and meaning,”³¹ Cifor writes that matter is “animate and imbued with a particular kind of agential and affective vitality.”³² To her, “humans and objects are fundamentally and crucially interrelated” in a way that cannot be fully expressed with words,  giving objects a “materiality” that “resists language.”³³

Cifor experiences this first-hand in the archives when she encounters the bloodstained clothing that gay rights activist Harvey Milk was wearing when he was assassinated in 1978. Touching the clothes and their stains gives her an “intimate experience of horror in the archives that blatantly refuses intellectualisation” and makes her understand Milk in an entirely new way.³⁴ The emotionally affective capacity of archival objects isn’t limited to horror, though. Cifor also visits Yale University’s Beinecke Special Collections Library to encounter the personal “Stud File” of Samuel Steward, a prominent gay figure from the twentieth century. She describes the feeling of disgust, the “messy space between desire and repulsion,” she experienced when she found pubic hairs taped to a couple of records in Steward’s homemade card catalog of sexual partners.³⁵

Of course, as most librarians can attest, archival objects can also invoke less complicated feelings like awe. This is part of our motivation for preserving items like Bant’s receipt, or a 1796 Irish state lottery ticket, or a Neo-Babylonian cuneiform tablet from circa 626-539 BCE documenting the receipt of money and barley. Beyond their functional context or intended purpose, we keep them available for the pleasure of being in proximity to objects that are old. But preserving items because of their age ultimately undermines their liveliness and agency. This is because, per Cifor, archives are “in a state of constant flux, shifting with each new intra-action of the various and changing actors that constitute it.”³⁶

Dani Stuchel discusses this in the context of physical, non-human actors like sunlight and moisture that interact with archival materials on a chemical level to prompt their gradual deterioration. Decay is an “expression” of archival entropy—the state of constant, ongoing movement and change that applies to all objects—because it “reveals aspects of materiality not visible in earlier states” as it goes on.³⁷

Traditional preservation attempts to pause this process, leading to what, to me, is one of the many intriguing contradictions arising from this line of research: the attempt to delay the inevitable by keeping an object “alive” imposes stasis, while the process toward death indicates liveliness and vibrancy. Stuchel, though, makes a different and more nuanced point. Rather than decay implying “action” and preservation implying inaction, Stuchel argues that action takes place regardless:

[N]o archival [material] stays ‘pristine’ on its own: the appearance of stasis or sameness is continually constructed through archival action. Alongside these actions, we continually re-accept the renewed thing as ‘original’ or ‘authentic.’ The postmodern refrain of performativity echoes on here: an archival thing is constantly becoming an archival thing.³⁸

If archival materials can make us feel things and are constantly changing, then perhaps letting them change can help us emotionally grapple with broader instability. Stuchel calls for “introspection” on “the psychological impulses which drive our need to keep, evince, retrieve, and preserve,”³⁹ suggesting that a fear of letting objects decay—and therefore “forgetting” them from the cultural memory—indicates a broader fear of our own death.⁴⁰ Le Guin suggests the same via her narrator in Always Coming Home:

Perhaps not many of us could say why we save so many words, why our forests must all be cut to make paper to mark our words on, our rivers dammed to make electricity to power our word processors; we do it obsessively, as if afraid of something, as if compensating for something. Maybe we’re afraid of death, afraid to let our words simply be spoken and die, leaving silence for new words to be born in.⁴¹

What happens emotionally if we let our resistance to archival entropy soften? Stuchel points to “very human feelings”⁴² that we miss when we reject the possibility of decay, since we can “mediate our grief about and connection to the past” through these “transitional or memorial objects.”⁴³ When the archival object represents a way of life that climate change may take away, witnessing its death gives us an opportunity to engage with a broader mourning process.⁴⁴

And in a culture whose mainstream discourse refuses to explore collective acceptance of change or publicly grieve the ongoing losses wrought by environmental destruction, engagement with these feelings is vital. In Gibson’s palliative death ethics for climate change and extinction, simply not looking away is critical. We must “[refuse] to neglect [our] ecological partners even as they are…leaving us.”⁴⁵ Giving up the illusion of control is key here. As Cifor notes on materiality in archives, “affect disrupts the notion of an intentional and agential human subject in full control of the matter with which they engage.”⁴⁶ This is true of both archival objects and our planet in the Anthropocene.

Finality

It is difficult, to say the least, to understand how the effects of anthropogenic climate change will play out and to glimpse possible futures as a result. This is due in part to what Rick Crownshaw calls the Anthropocene’s “problems of scale,” which he writes are “becoming something of a mantra” in memory studies in particular and the humanities and social sciences more broadly.⁴⁷ Because it is “unfolding unevenly across time and space, matter and life (human and nonhuman), and through planetary systems and processes (engendering systemic feedback loops and crossing the threshold of systemic tipping points),” the Anthropocene’s effects are only discernible “through a ‘derangement’…of the scales of cognition, remembrance, and representation.”⁴⁸ He considers the “‘humanist enclosures’ of cultural memory studies” to be “ill equipped” to manage these various scales.⁴⁹

This dissonance is akin to the challenge of thinking intergenerationally when a person has only ever perceived oneself as existing within linear time. It is at play in efforts to conceive of archives in a future that may lack human cultural institutions as we know them today.⁵⁰ It is the grand contradiction, daunting obstacle, and essential task of anticipatory memory, in which we attempt to envision the conditions of future beings in order to join them in retroactively observing our own time and remembering the critical period that took place between our present and theirs.⁵¹ That period is wrapped up, perhaps, with survival.

Of course, survival can be difficult to imagine when reports about record temperatures and points of no return stir up an anxious urgency that collides with broadly avoidant apathy⁵² and overwhelming inadequacy at the highest political levels. The outlook can seem rather bleak. However, as Gibson cautions us, there is a difference between “attending centrally to grief and death” and “becoming fatalistic,”⁵³ and it is important to consider the implications of succumbing to the latter.

Whyte offers a useful perspective of survival as he considers dominant Western state-of-emergency or apocalypse narratives of climate change. From the perspective of Indigenous peoples, an apocalypse has already taken place. They have already experienced what the rest of us dread most about climate change—“ecosystem collapse, species loss, economic crash, drastic relocation, and cultural disintegration”—and are currently living in their ancestors’ version of a dystopia.⁵⁴ Therefore, he argues, the state-of-emergency narrative is flawed because it veils the dominant culture’s continued benefit from colonization⁵⁵, promotes a hasty reliance on solutions from the systems of irresponsibility that got us here in the first place and favor protecting the status quo⁵⁶, and prevents humans from slowing down and prioritizing intra- and interspecies kinship in the process.⁵⁷

Whyte highlights scholars Heather Davis and Zoe Todd’s view of industrial colonialism as a “seismic shockwave” that “compact[s] and speed[s] up time, laying waste to legal orders, languages and place-story in quick succession.”⁵⁸ It caused the “violent, fleshy loss of 50 million Indigenous peoples in the Americas,” and now via climate change its “reverberations” are starting to impact the imperial nations that first started it.⁵⁹ He urges readers to resist general narratives of “finality” and “lastness” put forth by non-Native climate advocates that conceptualize change as “describing movement or transition from stability to crisis—where crisis signals an impending end.”⁶⁰ That’s because such narratives discount the already existing apocalyptic circumstances of Indigenous communities under settler colonialism explained above.

Whyte also argues that those portrayals belie the fact that, as uncomfortable as it is for these non-Native allies to admit, many are living in their own ancestors’ version of a fantasy. They are benefitting from both the generations-long destruction of Indigenous ways of life and the legal and moral justification of that destruction, while framing themselves as “protagonists” who can “save Indigenous peoples” from a newly and urgently precarious position—which, Whyte notes, “their ancestors of course failed to do.”⁶¹ By neglecting to acknowledge the legacy of industrial colonialism when approaching anthropogenic climate change, Western systems of power risk perpetuating it further.

A related critique that arises in environmental humanities scholarship takes issue with the Anthropocene’s implication that all human beings constitute a single, forceful entity. It may seem like a “neutral” concept, according to Kathryn Yusoff, but it is based on a politics that “universalises the inheritance and responsibility for fossil fuel consumption”⁶² despite that consumption’s uneven distribution across the globe. Davis and Todd read the Anthropocene as an “extension and enactment of colonial logic [that] systemically erases difference,”⁶³ and they would rather acknowledge those varying levels of responsibility.⁶⁴ This narrative flattening of numerous human communities existing across a broad spectrum of emissions, consumption, and culpability for climatic effects is a concern that white Westerners like me should consider when writing about the Anthropocene and its impact.

It may seem contradictory to reject finality as part of the Anthropocene narrative while advocating for palliative death ethics in our approach to climate change, so it is crucial to clarify the difference. Le Guin has an oft-quoted line: “We live in capitalism, its power seems inescapable—but then, so did the divine right of kings.”⁶⁵ Late capitalism, a phrase that has become ubiquitous on the Left in recent years, echoes Le Guin’s hopefulness. Both seek to transcend the imaginative shortcomings of linear time imposed on those experiencing it by giving language to the eventual end of an entrenched system whose mythology relies on perpetuity and endless expansion.⁶⁶ 

For those trapped in a linear time perspective, on the other hand, there is nothing “late” about our experience of capitalism because there is no end in sight. Considering how climate change works, it might alternatively be reasonable to wonder if it is too late, since we’re only now feeling the effects from carbon emissions decades ago, and the effects of today’s emissions won’t be felt for decades more. Too late for what, though? Perhaps it is too late for Homo sapiens; or perhaps, as Yusoff posits, capitalism may be what goes extinct instead of our species.⁶⁷

This is the difference between mortality and finality. We can expect not to outlive capitalism while understanding that others will. We can acknowledge death intimately and locally while also thinking intergenerationally and acting with care for humans and other beings we may never meet. We can employ the “geographic imaginations”⁶⁸ enabled by the Anthropocene to try to take on its problems of scale. The end of one person’s, or one society’s, or one species’s way of life is not an end to all.

Remembrance and Responsibility

Gibson emphasizes the act of remembrance as an “ongoing communal ethic” that “matters deeply” under conditions of environmental injustice.⁶⁹ As some of the cultural spaces best positioned to attend to public remembrance, institutions like libraries and archives must try. Luckily, library science’s broad range of involvement with the public provides diverse opportunities to engage with this work.

For archives and special collections, Stuchel suggests that the ephemerality of cultural heritage objects can activate public care and remembrance. Stuchel advocates for geographer Caitlin DeSilvey’s concept of curated decay, in which an item’s “disintegration” is “incorporated into heritage practice.”⁷⁰ This approach lets us “work with the entire ‘lifecycle’ of a thing”⁷¹ and consider its ecological context⁷² as it disintegrates. Incorporating decay into the public’s experience of materials could achieve the emotional engagement with mortality described above while also fulfilling what, according to Samantha Winn, is “both an ethical imperative and a functional exigency” of archivists to “develop practices which do not require infinite exploitable resources.”⁷³

There are also plenty of opportunities for the public to engage with the issues discussed here via library programs that foster dialogue about death ethics, cultural adaptation to climate change, and alternative concepts of time. Oral history projects and time capsules are a great way to get patrons thinking more deeply about their position in time and space. So are traveling displays like A People’s Archive of Sinking and Melting, an art exhibit and global community archive that solicits objects linked to climate events from around the world. Public libraries can also take advantage of their genealogical resources to invite patrons to interrogate linear visualizations of time and participate in speculative dialogue with their ancestors and descendants.⁷⁴ And many public libraries already engage mental health professionals to facilitate programming, so the scope of those sorts of programs could expand to include climate-related stress and anxiety.

There is also potential for public and academic libraries to facilitate public mourning and remembrance. They can create programming around Remembrance Day for Lost Species, an annual international observance started by U.K. artists in 2011 that takes place November 30th of each year.⁷⁵ They can engage artists and activists to create physical memorials to extinct species onsite in and around library spaces. And they can host grieving rituals like the funeral for the Okökull glacier held by activists in Iceland in 2019⁷⁶, embroidery artist Kate Tume’s Hallowed Ground project embroidering critically endangered animals’ habitats while leaving empty space in the shapes of the beings themselves, and the nondenominational Earth Grief event that took place at Bombyx Center for Arts and Equity in Florence, Massachusetts in July 2024.

And then, of course, there’s fiction. There is a reason why so much environmental humanities scholarship overtly employs speculative fiction to theorize⁷⁷; here Le Guin’s Always Coming Home informed an entire way of conceptualizing time. Fiction frequently serves as our only frame of reference for imagining our shared climate future. Its authors, through their extensive worldbuilding, provide kernels of possible detail about the conditions of our intergenerational reality that can help readers begin to reckon with the changes they are facing in the context of coexisting geopolitical and socioeconomic factors.⁷⁸ Beyond devoting budgetary resources to purchasing speculative climate fiction for their collections, libraries can organize programming like book clubs and writing workshops to encourage their patrons to explore the genre further.

Donna Haraway, who is a bit of a celebrity among environmental humanists, advises us to envision the Anthropocene as “more a boundary event than an epoch” and reduce it as much as we can in order to move on to a future in which the trajectory has changed.⁷⁹ Colebrook describes that next possible epoch as one in which “humanity might think beyond itself to a life of which it is only a contingent organic part.”⁸⁰ But making this vital shift—the one that Rick Crownshaw believes cultural memory studies is “ill equipped” for—comes at a cost. 

Whyte calls that cost “[giving up] the underlying conditions of domination that dispossess Indigenous people.”⁸¹ Yusoff calls it the “sacrificial responsibility” to leave fossil fuels in the ground.⁸² Roy Scranton calls it “adapting, with mortal humility, to our new reality.”⁸³

This piece seems critical, and it is where I intend to take this research from here. Perhaps, by more explicitly exploring library science’s relationship with time, commodity fetishism, and industrial colonialism, we can begin to parse the meaning of “mortal humility” for our field.⁸⁴ Here and now, from our location within linear time, we must enact a kinship-based, mortality-embracing, finality-resisting, intergenerational way forward. We need a librarianship of the future.

Acknowledgments

I’d like to thank reviewers Katherine Witzig and Ryan Randall, as well as publishing editor Ian Beilin, for all of their work in preparing this piece for publication. Another huge thanks goes to Donia Conn for guiding me through the research and writing process; her willingness to say yes and her frank concern for the future of our planet have made me feel at home in this field. Thanks, also, to Eric Poulin, Jude Graether, Simmons University’s School for Library and Information Science,  and all of the friends and family who welcomed my conversations about time and trees and extinction in the summer of 2023 as I recovered from reading The Overstory by Richard Powers.

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1. Le Guin, Always Coming Home, 3. ︎
2. Lewis and Maslin, “Defining the Anthropocene,” 171. A committee of academics from the International Commission on Stratigraphy formally rejected the designation of the Anthropocene as an epoch in March 2024 after fifteen years under consideration. Its conceptual significance to disciplines beyond geology, however, was cemented during that time. See this update from Nature for more information on the committee vote and Lewis and Maslin’s article for further context on the Anthropocene and its geological markers. ︎
3. Lövbrand et al., “Who Speaks for the Future of Earth,” 211. ︎
4. See “American Archives and Climate Change: Risk and Adaptation” by Tara Mazurczyk et. al. and Amanda Oliver’s “Impact of Climate Change on Canadian Archives” for examples. ︎
5. See “Toward Environmentally Sustainable Digital Preservation” by Keith L. Pendergrass et al. and Ben Goldman’s “Understanding and Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Academic Libraries” for examples. ︎
6. See Michael Kornfeind’s “Advocacy and Action: How Libraries Across the Globe Are Addressing Climate Change” and “The Role of Academic Libraries in Climate Action” by Leo Appleton and Nick Woolley for examples. ︎
7. See “Libraries and Archives in the Anthropocene,” a special issue of the Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies edited by Eira Tansey and Robert D. Montoya, as well as Bethany Nowviskie’s “Digital Humanities in the Anthropocene” for insightful examples of this kind of nudging. ︎
8. Winn, “Dying Well,” 3. ︎
9. Radio, “Documents for the Nonhuman,” 2. ︎
10. See Winn and Radio, as well as Stuchel, “Material Provocations.” ︎
11. Yusoff, “Geologic Life,” 781. ︎
12. Yusoff, 785. ︎
13. Yusoff, 781. ︎
14. This and the preceding two quotations are from Yusoff, 784. ︎
15. Along these lines, Claire Colebrook sees the Anthropocene as an “inscriptive event” whose impact depends on the “intensity of inscription” on our planet. Craps et al., “Memory Studies,” 507-508. ︎
16.  Radio, “Documents for the Nonhuman,” 4-5. While perhaps unsettling to conceive of ourselves as the future material record itself rather than its interpreters, the blurred boundary between human and matter in an archival context should not come as a surprise; what Yusoff is positing is simply a different approach to what archivist Marika Cifor calls an “understanding of humans and matter as mutually constitutive.” Cifor, “Stain and Remains,” 8. Cifor considers the affective materiality of human remains in archival settings when she comes across late gay rights activist Harvey Milk’s ponytail in the GLBT Historical Society’s archives in San Francisco. What separates Milk’s hair from Yusoff’s fossilization of bone into rock due to the species-ending effects of fossil extraction is the scale of time in which the Anthropocene encourages us to place ourselves as we consider the historical record. ︎
17. Whyte, “Time as Kinship,” 50. ︎
18. Whyte, 39. ︎
19. This and the preceding quotation are from Hatfield et al., “Indian Time,” 5. ︎
20. Whyte, “Time as Kinship,” 53. ︎
21. Whyte, “Ancestral Dystopias,” 228. ︎
22. Whyte, “Ancestral Dystopias,” 229. ︎
23. Hatfield et al., “Indian Time,” 5. ︎
24. Le Guin, Always Coming Home, 169. The Kesh language does not broadly distinguish between humans and non-humans, but rather treats all beings with respect and agency. This was likely informed by Le Guin’s extensive research of Indigenous relationships with land in writing the novel. See Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass for more insight into animacy in Native languages and Le Guin’s “Legends for a New Land” speech to learn more about the novel’s inspiration and writing process. ︎
25. Le Guin, 169. ︎
26. Le Guin, 191-2. ︎
27. Le Guin, 169. ︎
28. Vinney, “Proximity Principle.” ︎
29. Whyte, “Ancestral Dystopias,” 228-9. ︎
30. This and the preceding quotation are from Gibson, “Practicing Palliation,” 228. ︎
31. Barad, Entanglement of Matter and Meaning. ︎
32. Cifor, “Stains and Remains,” 6. ︎
33. Cifor, 9. ︎
34. Cifor, 12. ︎
35. Cifor, 16. See Ahmed, Cultural Politics of Emotion, 84 for more on this definition of disgust. ︎
36. Cifor, 18. ︎
37. Stuchel, “Material Provocations,” 15. ︎
38. Stuchel, 15. ︎
39. Stuchel, 4. ︎
40. Stuchel, 18. ︎
41. Le Guin, Always Coming Home, 576-7. ︎
42. Stuchel, “Material Provocations,” 4. ︎
43. Stuchel, 20. ︎
44. For more on ecological grief, see Cunsolo and Ellis, “Ecological Grief;” Craps, “Guilty Grieving;” and Atkinson, “Mourning Climate Loss.” ︎
45. Gibson, “Practicing Palliation,” 216. ︎
46. Cifor, 18. ︎
47. Craps et al., “Memory Studies and the Anthropocene,” 501. Here Crownshaw is applying Timothy Clark’s concept of “derangements of scale” to memory studies. Clark, “Derangements of Scale.” ︎
48. Craps et al., 501. David Wallace-Wells sheds some light on these problems of scale in his New York Magazine piece detailing likely climate scenarios over the next century. Reasons for our “incredible failure of imagination” regarding this issue include “the smallness (two degrees), and largeness (1.8 trillion tons), and abstractness (400 parts per million) of the numbers,” as well as “the simple speed of change and, also, its slowness, such that we are only seeing effects now of warming from decades past.” Wallace-Wells, “Uninhabitable Earth.” He also explains multiple examples of the feedback loops Crownshaw refers to, including projections of melting permafrost and drought-induced rainforest fires releasing enormous amounts of carbon into the atmosphere and therefore continuing the cycle. The article, though accessible and informative, is not for the faint of heart.  ︎
49. Craps et al., 501. ︎
50. See Stuchel, “Material Provocations,” and Radio, “Documents for the Nonhuman.” ︎
51. Craps, “Anticipatory Memory.” ︎
52. As Wallace-Wells puts it so succinctly, “[A]version arising from fear is a form of denial, too.” Wallace-Wells, “Uninhabitable Earth.” ︎
53. Gibson, “Practicing Palliation,” 228. ︎
54. Whyte, “Ancestral Dystopias,” 226-7. Whyte cites various scholars and activists who have written or spoken about this general idea, including Lee Sprague, Larry Gross, Grace Dillon, and Conrad Scott.  ︎
55.  Whyte, “Ancestral Dystopias,” 234. ︎
56. Whyte, “Time as Kinship,” 45, 53. ︎
57. Whyte, “Time as Kinship,” 54. ︎
58. Davis and Todd, “Decolonizing the Anthropocene,” 772. ︎
59. Davis and Todd, 774. The authors note the connections between their seismic shockwave concept and scholar Christina Sharpe’s “wake work,” a metaphor illustrating the ongoing effects of the transatlantic slave trade using the image of the ships’ wake. “In the wake, the past that is not past reappears, always, to rupture the present.” Sharpe, In the Wake, 9. Davis and Todd seek to “expand and pluralize collective understandings of the disasters of the Anthropocene” (772). ︎
60. Whyte, “Ancestral Dystopias,” 236. ︎
61. Whyte, 236. ︎
62. Yusoff, “Geologic Life,” 784. ︎
63. Davis and Todd, “Decolonizing the Anthropocene,” 769. ︎
64. Davis and Todd, 772. ︎
65. Le Guin, “Speech.” She spoke these words in 2014, when she was eighty-four years old, during her acceptance speech for the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. The context for the comment involves seeking accountability for the publishing industry’s greed and the pressure it puts on artists in its effort to maximize profits. Earlier in the speech she says, “Hard times are coming, when we’ll be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live now, can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies to other ways of being, and even imagine real grounds for hope. We’ll need writers who can remember freedom—poets, visionaries—realists of a larger reality.” ︎
66. As labor expert Richard Yeselson told the Atlantic in 2017, “Let’s allude to the big, giant, totalistic system that is underneath everything. And let’s give it more than a hint of foreboding. Late capitalism. Late is so pregnant.” Lowrey, “Late Capitalism.” ︎
67. Yusoff, “Geologic Life,” 782-783. ︎
68. Yusoff, 782. ︎
69. Gibson, “Practicing Palliation,” 210. ︎
70. Stuchel, “Material Provocations,” 14-15. See DeSilvey, Curated Decay. ︎
71. Stuchel, 18 ︎
72. For further discussion of the ecological context of manuscripts and archival documents through an environmental humanities lens, see Calhoun, Nature of the Page. ︎
73. Winn, “Dying Well,” 12. ︎
74. Whyte, “Ancestral Dystopias.” ︎
75. De Massol de Rebetz, “Remembrance Day.” ︎
76. Atkinson, “Mourning Climate Loss,” 18. ︎
77. Instances of this phenomenon cited in this article alone include Gibson, “Practicing Palliation;” Whyte, “Ancestral Dystopias;” Craps, “Anticipatory Memory;” Winn, “Dying Well;” and Haraway, “Making Kin.” ︎
78. In one example, Tochi Onyebuchi’s Goliath considers the effects of gentrification on poor, Black residents of New Haven, Connecticut when Earth’s atmosphere is cleaned up and the global elite return from their outer space enclaves. In another, Yoko Tawada’s Scattered All Over the Earth puts a surreal spin on language and climate migration. I led discussions about both books with patrons for Lilly Library’s Climate Fiction Book Club in Florence, Massachusetts in 2023-2024. ︎
79. Haraway, “Making Kin,” 60. ︎
80.  Craps et al., “Memory Studies,” 80. ︎
81. Whyte, “Ancestral Dystopias,” 237. ︎
82. Yusoff, “Geologic Life,” 791. ︎
83. Scranton, “Learning to Die.” ︎
84. Nora Almeida and Jen Hoyer provide a model for this line of research in “Living Archives in the Anthropocene,” parsing the relationship between the Anthropocene, capitalism, and archival practice to highlight an alternative, decentralized “living” structure embodied by Interference Archive in Brooklyn, New York. ︎

In July, OKFN is bringing together non-technical professionals – including data practitioners, communicators, project managers, and advocates – to rethink how technology supports our work in conversational sessions.

The post Join us at The Tech People Want Summit and reimagine tech for real-world needs first appeared on Open Knowledge Blog.

LibraryThing is thrilled to announce that Talpa Search is now available in Aspen Discovery from Grove for Libraries. With Talpa Search, patrons can search for books and other media using natural language. Talpa Search goes beyond traditional library searching to find items by plot details, genre, descriptions, and more. While Talpa Search works with all library systems, this is its first integration directly inside the catalog.

Aspen Discovery libraries can now enable Talpa Search as a search mode, allowing patrons to see results from Talpa Search seamlessly integrated into the look and feel of their library catalog.

Talpa Search in Aspen Discovery enables users to search for “novels about France during World War II” or “recent cozy mysteries” and receive relevant results, all within their existing library catalog, without special syntax or filtering.

Just as patrons will love the ability to search their library catalog using natural language, librarians will appreciate the customization options available with the Talpa Search module, including branding, text, and display settings. Talpa Search also includes an optional setting to display a materials request link for items not owned by the library—useful as a collection development tool.

Talpa Search is available by subscription and can be accessed through a standalone site for those without Aspen Discovery. You can see the Talpa Search catalog integration in action here, and the stand-alone site at https://www.talpasearch.com/.

About Grove for Libraries

Grove for Libraries offers development, hosting, support, and more for Aspen Discovery, Aspen LiDA, and other projects related to Aspen. Grove employees also contribute time and expertise to all Aspen Community meetings as well as dedicated Office Hours to help grow and support all libraries and organizations using Aspen. Learn more at https://www.groveforlibraries.com/

About Talpa Search

Talpa Search combines cutting-edge technology with data from libraries, publishers, and readers to enable entirely new ways of searching—and find what you’re looking for.

Designed specifically for libraries, Talpa Search is available by subscription, has no usage caps, and integrates with a library’s catalog and holdings.

Talpa Search was developed by the developers, librarians, and librarian-developers of LibraryThing. Learn more at https://www.talpasearch.com/about.

“Talpa” means mole in Latin. (Moles dig for things!)

About Aspen

Aspen is a suite of open-source library software that started with its flagship Discovery and has since expanded to include additional tools like the Aspen LiDA mobile app and Aspen Web Builder.

Aspen was the first discovery layer to give patrons seamless access to all library resources in one place. By connecting with multiple content platforms for e-books, library events, digital archives, and other third-party services, Aspen is dedicated to avoiding vendor lock-in and empowering libraries with control by offering them options for which vendors they want to integrate with Aspen.

Aspen is used by more than 2,000 libraries worldwide and is supported by a vibrant community of hundreds of librarians. Learn more at https://community.aspendiscovery.org/

The coordinator of The Observatoire des armements reports on his experience piloting ODE: "It enabled us to better organize our data processes."

The post How Open Data Editor empowers our weapon watch network first appeared on Open Knowledge Blog.

The Executive Director of The Demography Project reports on their experience piloting ODE: "It rekindle the spark that inspires why we do our work and boosted my team’s collegiality."

The post How Open Data Editor simplifies open data analysis processes first appeared on Open Knowledge Blog.

The CEO of Open Knowledge Nepal reports on their experience piloting ODE: "It wasn’t just a success in terms of outputs; it was a cultural shift."

The post How Open Data Editor improves our local government data practices first appeared on Open Knowledge Blog.

In collaboration with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the LAMP-SYS Lab was granted 20,000 node hours on the Frontier supercomputer cluster and 2500 node hours on the Andes supercomputer cluster. This joint proposal is a collaboration with Dr. Tirthankar Ghosal, a scientist at the Advanced AI Methods at Scale (AAIMS) group in the National Center for Computational Sciences, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, my student Dominik Soós, and me. 

The goal of this proposal is to investigate the feasibility of generating hypotheses through interactions between expert LLMs and then ranking hypothesis candidates by Z-scores, a novelty metric developed by Dr. Uzzi. 

The project will advance hypothesis generation by improving the hypothesis novelty in the candidate generation phase and the candidate selection phase. The introduction of Z-scores provides a more scalable way to automatically evaluate novelty. The multi-agent LLMs will have the potential to mitigate the consistent mistakes and biases made by a single LLM. Existing research mostly relies on data from one narrow domain (e.g., ACL). The introduction of multiple expert LLMs will overcome the limitation by generating cross-domain hypotheses. We plan to use this exploratory effort to study the scaling efficiency of our methods for larger science datasets that cover most STEM domains (e.g., with scale - Web of Science or CiteSeerX, etc.) and are crucial to leverage cross-disciplinary knowledge for scientific discovery. 

Dr. Jian Wu, the PI of this project, is an associate professor of Computer Science at Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA. His research interests include natural language processing, scholarly big data, information retrieval, digital libraries, and the science of science.

Dr. Tirthankar Ghosal is a Staff Scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s National Center for Computational Sciences (NCCS) and will serve as Co-PI on this project. His research expertise spans AI for Science and Operations, Natural Language Processing, Large Language Models, and Machine Learning.

Dominik Soós is a PhD student of Computer Science at Old Dominion University, where he also received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Computer Science. His research interests include natural language processing, machine learning, and parallel computing. 

-- Jian Wu 

The senior advisor of the City of Zagreb reports on his experience piloting ODE: "It has been incredibly beneficial in my data work."

The post How Open Data Editor helps us embrace FAIR data principles first appeared on Open Knowledge Blog.

The coordinator of the Bioinformatics Hub of Kenya Initiative reports on her experience piloting ODE: "It simplified everything."

The post How Open Data Editor makes Genomic data approachable for our bioinformatics community first appeared on Open Knowledge Blog.

My coworkers don’t want AI. They want macros.

Let me back up a little. I spent April gathering and May refining and organizing requirements for a system to replace our current ILS. This meant asking a lot of people about how they use our current system, taking notes, and turning those notes into requirements. 372 requirements.¹

Going into this, I knew that some coworkers used macros to streamline tasks. I came out of it with a deeper appreciation of the different ways they’ve done so.

It made me think about the various ways vendors are pitching “AI” for their systems and the disconnect between these pitches and the needs people expressed. Because library workers do want more from these systems. We just want something a bit different.

A Few Ways We’re Using Macros

Some environmental factors: We use Sirsi Symphony and the Workflows desktop client in Windows with MacroExpress.

Canned Notes

One of the simplest things we do with macros is add canned notes. These are most often action notes, which have to be added to existing records. For example, this is a standard deacidification note:

Deacidified.|c20030107.|iliquid.|xBookkeeper.|jCranberry Township, PA 16066.|kPreservation Technologies Inc.

The text string is the same every time except for the subfield c, which grabs today’s date, e.g. 2003-01-07 in the example above.

Spine Label Marking

Let’s look at something more complicated. Our marking team has a set of tasks they need to perform when setting an item’s permanent location and preparing a label. They use a macro that does the following:

• If it’s in the respective library’s main stacks: update Home Location field to the location which corresponds with the Library field (e.g. if it’s at Altoona, it would be STACKS-AA).
• Copy the call number to the clipboard, with some line breaks.
• If the Home Location has a special marking prefix: prepend the marking prefix, again with line breaks. This data isn’t in Symphony at all, it comes from a separate marking table.

They then can paste the result into the label software, ensure the line breaks are correct, and print a label.

This saves them:

• Clicking in the Home Location field and typing or scrolling to find the correct Home Location (when it’s in the main stacks, otherwise they still have to do this part).
• Clicking in the call number field and copying the data.
• Opening our locally-maintained marking documentation, checking whether the Home Location is in the prefix table, and copy-pasting that separately into the labeling software.

The marking table used by MacroExpress requires regular maintenance, but it’s done in parallel with updates to our department’s documentation.

One macro.

Annex Location Management

We also use Symphony to manage our Annex data. There are pros and cons to this, but I’ll be focusing on how macros makes the work much easier.

When an item moves to an annex, our team needs to update the following information:

• The item’s Library and Home Location fields
• The item’s very specific position within that annex

The second piece of information is encoded in a new barcode. We want to record this data in our Extended Item Information fields (locally mapped) which we use for everything from retrieval to reporting. We need to be able to identify everything in a row, a shelving unit, box, even position in box. So we need it broken apart in a way that can be easily queried or used to generate pull slips. We also want to record information about the size of the box (A3, A4, etc.).

To use the macro, our Annex workers click in the barcode field, press a key on their numpad, and scan in the new barcode. This performs the following steps:

• Update barcode with the new barcode
• Update the Library field to UP-ANNEX
• Update Home Location to the specific annex at which the work is being performed
• Fill in locally-mapped Box Size field using a lookup table and the value entered from the numpad.
• Fill in a set of locally-mapped Extended Item Information fields with the values of Row, Shelf, Box, and Position within the box based on the value of the barcode.

They use a special numpad which is just an ordinary external numpad that’s had labels applied to its keys. These indicate which key maps to A3, which to A4, etc. Users don’t have to memorize “Press 7 for A3,” they just have to press the A3 key.

Once again, the macro eliminates the human error factor that would come with manually typing or even cutting and pasting in any of this data. It transforms a task that would take a good minute of clicking, tabbing, typing/copy-pasting into one that takes maybe 10 seconds.

One macro.

Why Macros, Not “AI”

To summarize at a more abstract level, we are using macros to:

• Enter consistent data
• Avoid typos
• Improve system design²
• Add conditional logic
• Save the user repetitive, mindless work

At its best (pattern-recognition), “AI” is overengineered for what we need: logic and lookups.

At its worst (predictive text), it’s the opposite of the very concrete and repeated things we want to be able to do.

It doesn’t have to be macros. My coworkers would welcome a system which let them create custom workscreens with only the few fields they need for a regular task and let them add their own conditional logic. ³ Or they could collect barcodes and run a batch process that inserts those deacidification notes with canned text and a variable date field vs. running the macro on each record.

But the direction is one of control, of refinement, of engaging with the system on one’s own terms. That is in contrast to the black box we’re being presented by both “AI” companies and library system vendors.⁴

As for me? I’m excited about APIs.

 I keep my personal reading log in an Emacs org-mode table. It's nice and small, and works on every computer I use, and thanks to org-mode's spreadsheet feature, I can even do some basic analysis of it. I use a fancy capture template to collect the information about each book and store it at the end of the log without having to open the log file, navigate to the end of the table, and tab through the various fields.

Since it's also possible to post to the Mastodon microblogging platform from Emacs thanks to the mastodon.el library, I figured it shouldn't be too difficult to automatically post to mastodon every time I start reading a new book. And guess what! I was right.

This relies on the fact that org-mode provides "hooks" to customize the note capture process. A hook is a lisp function that gets run by emacs whenever the corresponding event takes place. In this case, org-mode provides several hooks related to finishing up the note capture process. The normal hooks are "org-capture-before-finalize-hooks", which run before org-mode cleans up everything related to capturing the note and gives you access to the captured note, and "org-capture-after-finalize-hooks", which runs at the very end of the note capturing process, which org-mode describes as "Suitable for window cleanup." These hooks run every time you capture any kind of note, but recent versions of org-mode also provides a way to define "before-finalize" and "after-finalize" hooks that only run when a particular capture template is used, so that's what I did.

At the end of my existing "make a note about starting to read a book" template, I added the extra option

:before-finalize #'djf-org-share-reading

 which tells org-mode to run the hook djf-org-share-reading only when the "start reading a book" template is launched, and then I defined the function djf-org-share-reading:

(defun djf-org-share-reading ()
  (when (require 'mastodon nil t)
    ;; parse out the org-capture data
    (let* ((capture (buffer-substring (pos-bol) (pos-eol)))
           (split-line (split-string capture "|+" t " +"))
           (author (car split-line))
           (title (cadr split-line))
           (language (caddr split-line)))
      (save-excursion
        ;; Create the mastodon toot buffer, insert the captured
        ;; Org information, and then post it.
        (mastodon-toot)
        (insert (format "I just started reading %s by %s%s"
                        title author (if (string-equal language "F") " in French" "")))
        (mastodon-toot-send)))))

 First, I make sure that mastodon is available and loaded, then I grab and process the information about the book that I'm reading, then I call mastodon-toot to set up a buffer for creating a post, insert the message that I want to post, and then tell mastodon.el to send the post. If I haven't logged into Mastodon from Emacs yet, the call to "mastodon-toot" will automatically log me in. Mastodon takes care of the posting and getting rid of the buffer holding my draft post, and once djf-org-share-reading returns, org-mode cleans up the buffer it used to save the note, and I'm right back where I started in Emacs before I made the note.

Continue Reading...

Source

It’s June, and that means that our annual Pride Month Treasure Hunt is back!

We’ve scattered a shower of rainbows around the site, and it’s up to you to try and find them all.

• Decipher the clues and visit the corresponding LibraryThing pages to find a rainbow. Each clue points to a specific page right here on LibraryThing. Remember, they are not necessarily work pages!
• If there’s a rainbow on a page, you’ll see a banner at the top of the page.
• You have just under two weeks to find all the rainbows (until 11:59pm EDT, Monday June 30th).
• Come brag about your shower of rainbows (and get hints) on Talk.

Win prizes:

• Any member who finds at least two rainbows will be awarded a rainbow badge. Badge ().
• Members who find all 12 rainbows will be entered into a drawing for one of five sets of LibraryThing (or TinyCat) swag. We’ll announce winners at the end of the hunt.

P.S. Thanks to conceptDawg for the scarlet ibis illustration.

ConceptDawg has made all of our treasure hunt graphics in the last couple of years. We like them, and hope you do, too!

CLIR is pleased to announce that the program is now available for the in-person Digital Library Federation’s DLF Forum happening in Denver, Colorado November 17-19, 2025.

The program for the in-person event is available here.

The DLF Forum welcomes digital library, archives, and museum practitioners from member institutions and beyond—for whom it serves as a meeting place, marketplace, and congress. Here, the DLF community celebrates successes, learns from mistakes, sets grassroots agendas, and organizes for action. The Forum is preceded by Learn@DLF, our pre-conference workshop day on November 16. Learn more about the events.

Register for both events today to take advantage of early bird pricing and best Learn@DLF workshop availability, secure your spot in our discounted hotel block while supply lasts, and plan your trip with our community-written local guide to Denver.

Subscribe to our newsletter to be sure to hear all the Forum news first.

The post 2025 DLF Forum Program Now Available appeared first on DLF.

A challenge with storage is the longevity of the media and the availability of hardware capable of retrieving it. While paper tape and punch cards are long-lasting and can be read by enterprising enthusiasts of today, modern densely packed SSDs and spinning disks might present more of a challenge for the archivists of tomorrow.

Project Silica tablet

The future of archival data storage is tape, more tape, and then possibly glass-based tech, with DNA and other molecular tech still a distant prospect.

The function of archival storage is to keep data for the long term – decades and beyond – reliably and affordably. Currently, the main medium for this is LTO tape and it is slow, has a limited life, and not enough capacity considering the implications of ever-increasing image and video resolution and AI-infused data generation. However, there is as yet no viable tape replacement technology at scale, only possibilities, with optical storage more practical and nearer to productization than DNA or other molecular storage.

Cerabyte has attracted investment from In-Q-Tel, Pure Storage, and Western Digital. Shantnu Sharma, WD's Chief Strategy and Corporate Development Officer, said: "We are looking forward to working with Cerabyte to formulate a technology partnership for the commercialization of this technology."
...
Like Project Silica, it is, in our assessment, two to five years away from commercial product availability, but it will then be commercially available.

In early May, independent digital storage analyst Thomas Coughlin shared news of falling sales and revenue in the first quarter of 2025, continuing a trend that started in around 2010. Coughlin cites data from that year showing around 600 million annual hard disk shipments.

In 2025 he thinks around 150 million units will make it out of factory doors.
Hyperscale datacenter operators will buy most of them and have become HDD manufacturers' largest customers.
...
While HDD volumes fall, collective annual shipped HDD capacity is rising – so even though fewer machines are made, they collectively contain more gigabytes than last year's larger disk fleet.

HAMR

Seagate is currently shipping 30 TB conventionally recorded Exos M HAMR drives and both 32 and 36 TB shingled magnetic recording (SMR) drives. These have blocks of partially overlapping write tracks to increase track density and thus overall capacity, but with a slower rewrite speed as entire blocks of tracks have to be rewritten.

The company should have a clear drive capacity advantage, but it does not because its HAMR technology has proven extraordinarily difficult to bring into mass production and it has one less platter than competing drives. By 2012, Seagate predicted it could make 1 Tb/in² in HAMR drives after a successful demo. That did not happen but it managed to make 16 TB HAMR drives and was sampling them in 2019. They did not make it to mass production either, and a 20 TB technology was the next development. It too did not last long.

CEO Dave Mosley told investment analysts in 2020 that Seagate was stepping up to 24 TB HAMR drives. By 2023, a 30 TB HAMR drive was said to be coming. This was actually unveiled in January 2024, with the tech branded Mozaic 3+, referring to the 32 and then 36 TB SMR variants.

Seagate has previously made several predictions about HAMR drive availability that were not ultimately achieved. The tech giant appears to have persistently underestimated how long it will take to productize HAMR technology and so reap the production cost benefit of having fewer platters and sliders at any capacity point than its two competitors.

The Greater Vancouver Board of Trade invited me to do a fireside chat with Snotty Nose Rez Kids for their EDI Forum. Snotty Nose Rez Kids are an Indigenous hip hop duo who have won so many awards. Darren Metz and Quinton Nyce were so real and generous. Our conversation hit a lot of topics including Indigenous futures, matriarchs, what they mean about being a good ancestor and how they work together. They’re incredible artists and leaders.

They model being unapologetic and bold in a way that creates more space for all of us to take up space being more of ourselves. 

Two of the things that they said stuck with me: First, “We’re not just making records, we’re making history”. Second, “It’s not about how far we’ve come, it’s about how far we can go.”

Snotty Nose Rez Kids are on tour across North America. Go and see them perform! 

The post Fireside chat with Snotty Nose Rez Kids appeared first on Tara Robertson Consulting.

the artificial intelligence boom was too powerful, and had too much potential, to let concerns about climate change get in the way.

Schmidt, somewhat fatalistically, said that “we’re not going to hit the climate goals anyway,”

Salomé Balthus Uwe Hauth, CC BY-SA 4.0

What the global elite reveal to Davos sex workers: High-class escort spills the beans on what happens behind closed doors - and how wealthy 'know the world is doomed, so may as well go out with a bang'

'The elephant in the room is climate change. Everyone knows it can't be prevented any more,' she said, adding that the 'super rich' could generally be split into two groups on the topic.

'The one group thinks it only affects the poor, the "not-white race", while the others fear that it could get worse but there's no sense in trying to do anything about it so they just enjoy themselves,' she told MailOnline.

'The one half is in despair and the other, dumber, half is celebrating future mass deaths.

Salome elaborated that some of the uber wealthy people fitting into the first group were saying that those in third world countries 'might all die but us in the North, we're fine'.

She said: 'They say that in a democracy you have to sell it, to lie to people and tell them "we didn't know better and didn't think it would get this bad", not admitting that they know.

'Then there's the other group that thinks it might not be so easy, maybe it will also affect us due to unforeseeable chain reactions.

'But they say they can't do anything against the others so they live following the mantra "after us, the deluge".

'They say they will enjoy a few more nice years on earth and know that there's no future. They are very cynical and somehow deeply sad.'

He is right that “we’re not going to hit the climate goals anyway", but that is partly his fault. Even assuming that he's right and AI is capable of magically "solving the problem", the magic solution won't be in place until long after 2027, which is when at the current rate we will pass 1.5C. And everything that the tech giants are doing right now is moving the 1.5C date closer.

Economic models have systematically underestimated how global heating will affect people’s wealth, according to a new study that finds 4C warming will make the average person 40% poorer – an almost four-fold increase on some estimates.

Neal et al Fig 1

Figure 1 shows the projected percentage reduction in global GDP from a high emissions future (SSP5-8.5) relative to a lower emissions future (SSP1-2.6), for the three models outlined in section 2.2. Each economic model is run with and without global weather to determine its impact on the projections. Without the inclusion of global weather (blue line), all three models project more mild economic losses with a median loss at 2100 of −28% for the Burke15 model, −4% for the Kahn21 model, and −11% for the Kotz24 model. Projected losses from the latter two models are more optimistic than in the original articles, likely due to the variations in data and exact assumptions made.

The study by Australian scientists suggests average per person GDP across the globe will be reduced by 16% even if warming is kept to 2C above pre-industrial levels. This is a much greater reduction than previous estimates, which found the reduction would be 1.4%.

Scientists now estimate global temperatures will rise by 2.1C even if countries hit short-term and long-term climate targets.

Today, the wealthiest middle-aged and older adults in the U.S. have roughly the same likelihood of dying over a 12-year period as the poorest adults in northern and western Europe, according to a study published Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Heat waves, wildfires, floods, tropical storms and hurricanes are all increasing in scale, frequency and intensity, and the World Health Organization forecasts that climate change will cause 250,000 additional deaths each year by the end of this decade from undernutrition, malaria, diarrhea and heat stress alone. Even so, the impact on human health and the body count attributed to extreme weather remain massively underreported — resulting in a damaging feedback loop of policy inaction. Meanwhile, the very people who might fix that problem, at least in the US, are being fired en masse amid the Trump administration’s war on science.

Source

Owing to “recent setbacks to global decarbonization efforts,” Morgan Stanley analysts wrote in a research report last month, they “now expect a 3°C world.” The “baseline” scenario that JP Morgan Chase uses to assess its own transition risk—essentially, the economic impact that decarbonization could have on its high-carbon investments—similarly “assumes that no additional emissions reduction policies are implemented by governments” and that the world could reach “3°C or more of warming” by 2100. The Climate Realism Initiative launched on Monday by the Council on Foreign Relations similarly presumes that the world is likely on track to warm on average by three degrees or more this century. The essay announcing the initiative calls the prospect of reaching net-zero global emissions by 2050 “utterly implausible.”
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Bleak as warming projections are, a planet where governments and businesses fight to the death for their own profitable share of a hotter, more chaotic planet is bleaker still. The only thing worse than a right wing that doesn’t take climate change seriously might be one that does, and can muster support from both sides of the aisle to put “America First” in a warming, warring world.

Nvidia's path forward is clear: its compute platforms are only going to get bigger, denser, hotter and more power hungry from here on out. As a calorie deprived Huang put it during his press Q&A last week, the practical limit for a rack is however much power you can feed it.

"A datacenter is now 250 megawatts. That's kind of the limit per rack. I think the rest of it is just details," Huang said. "If you said that a datacenter is a gigawatt, and I would say a gigawatt per rack sounds like a good limit."

The NVL72 is a rackscale design inspired heavily by the hyperscalers with DC bus bars, power sleds, and networking out the front. And at 120kW of liquid cooled compute, deploying more than a few of these things in existing facilities gets problematic in a hurry. And this is only going to get even more difficult once Nvidia's 600kW monster racks make their debut in late 2027.

This is where those "AI factories" Huang keeps rattling on about come into play — purpose built datacenters designed in collaboration with partners like Schneider Electric to cope with the power and thermal demands of AI.

Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, affectionately known as a16z, is looking for investors to put a fresh $20 billion into AI startups. [Reuters]

For perspective, that’s more than all US venture capital funding in the first three months of 2025, which was $17 billion. [PitchBook]

This means that a16z think there’s at least this much money sloshing about, sufficiently desperate for a return.

PitchBook says a16z is talking up its links to the Trump administration to try to recruit investors — the pitch is to get on the inside of the trading! This may imply a less than robustly and strictly rule-of-law investment environment.

The owners of a recently demolished coal-fired power plant announced the site will become a data center powered by the largest natural gas plant in the country.

The Homer City Generating Station in Indiana County was decommissioned in 2023 and parts of it were imploded last month. It had been at one time the largest coal-fired power plant in Pennsylvania.

The plant’s owners, Homer City Redevelopment, announced the site will become a 3,200-acre data center campus for artificial intelligence and other computing needs

Taken together, the measures represent a sweeping attempt to ensure coal remains part of the US electricity mix, despite its higher greenhouse gas emissions and frequently greater cost when compared to natural gas or solar power.

The effort also underscores Trump’s commitment to tapping America’s coal resources as a source of both electricity to run data centers and heat to forge steel. The president and administration officials have made clear boosting coal-fired power is a priority, one they see as intertwined with national security and the US standing in a global competition to dominate the artificial intelligence industry. 

Amazon, Microsoft and Google are operating data centres that use vast amounts of water in some of the world’s driest areas and are building many more, an investigation by SourceMaterial and The Guardian has found.

With US President Donald Trump pledging to support them, the three technology giants are planning hundreds of data centres in the US and across the globe, with a potentially huge impact on populations already living with water scarcity.

“The question of water is going to become crucial,” said Lorena Jaume-Palasí, founder of The Ethical Tech Society. “Resilience from a resource perspective is going to be very difficult for those communities.”

Efforts by Amazon, the world’s biggest online retailer, to mitigate its water use have sparked opposition from inside the company, SourceMaterial’s investigation found, with one of its own sustainability experts warning that its plans are “not ethical”.

Amazon’s three proposed data centres in Aragon, northern Spain—each next to an existing Amazon data centre—are licensed to use an estimated 755,720 cubic metres of water a year, enough to irrigate more than 200 hectares (500 acres) of corn, one of the region’s main crops.

In practice, the water usage will be even higher as that figure doesn’t take into account water used in generating electricity to power the new installations, said Aaron Wemhoff, an energy efficiency specialist at Villanova University in Pennsylvania.

Between them, Amazon’s planned Aragon data centres will use more electricity than the entire region currently consumes. Meanwhile, Amazon in December asked the regional government for permission to increase water consumption at its three existing data centres by 48 per cent.

Opponents have accused the company of being undemocratic by trying to rush through its application over the Christmas period. More water is needed because “climate change will lead to an increase in global temperatures and the frequency of extreme weather events, including heat waves”, Amazon wrote in its application.

NVIDIA, which has given CoreWeave priority access to its chips. As CoreWeave’s own S-1 notes, it was “the first cloud provider to make NVIDIA GB200 NVL72-based instances generally available,” and “among the first cloud providers to deploy high-performance infrastructure with NVIDIA H100, H200, and GH200.”

CoreWeave owns over 250,000 NVIDIA GPUs across 32 data centers, supported by more than 260MW of active power

In my years writing this newsletter I have come across few companies as rotten as CoreWeave — an "AI cloud provider" that sells GPU compute to AI companies looking to run or train their models.

CoreWeave had intended to go public last week, with an initial valuation of $35bn. While it’s hardly a recognizable name — like, say, OpenAI, or Microsoft, or Nvidia — this company is worth observing, if not for the fact that it’s arguably the first major IPO that we’ve seen from the current generative AI hype bubble, and undoubtedly the biggest.

The initial public offering of AI infrastructure firm CoreWeave, initially targeting a $2.7bn raise at $47-55 per share, was slashed to $1.5bn at $40 per share. Even then, the deal barely limped across the finish line, thanks to a last-minute $250mn “anchor” order from Nvidia. The offering reportedly ended up with just three investors holding 50 per cent of the stock, and it seems to have required some stabilisation from lead bank Morgan Stanley to avoid a first-day drop. Hardly a textbook success.

Imagine a caravan maker. It sells caravans to a caravan park that only buys one type of caravan. The caravan park leases much of its land from another caravan park. The first caravan park has two big customers. One of the big customers is the caravan maker. The other big customer is the caravan maker’s biggest customer. The biggest customer of the second caravan park is the first caravan park.

Sorry, not caravans. GPUs.

You can only throw so much money at a problem.

This, more or less, is the line being taken by AI researchers in a recent survey. Asked whether "scaling up" current AI approaches could lead to achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI), or a general purpose AI that matches or surpasses human cognition, an overwhelming 76 percent of respondents said it was "unlikely" or "very unlikely" to succeed.
"The vast investments in scaling, unaccompanied by any comparable efforts to understand what was going on, always seemed to me to be misplaced," Stuart Russel, a computer scientist at UC Berkeley who helped organize the report, told NewScientist. "I think that, about a year ago, it started to become obvious to everyone that the benefits of scaling in the conventional sense had plateaued."

AI continues to improve – at least according to benchmarks. But the promised benefits have largely yet to materialize while models are increasing in size and becoming more computationally demanding, and greenhouse gas emissions from AI training continue to rise.

These are some of the takeaways from the AI Index Report 2025 [PDF], a lengthy and in-depth publication from Stanford University's Institute for Human-Centered AI (HAI) that covers development, investment, adoption, governance and even global attitudes towards artificial intelligence, giving a snapshot of the current state of play.
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However, HAI highlights the enormous level of investment still being pumped into the sector, with global corporate AI investment reaching $252.3 billion in 2024, up 26 percent for the year. Most of this is in the US, which hit $109.1 billion, nearly 12 times higher than China's $9.3 billion and 24 times the UK's $4.5 billion, it says.

Despite all this investment, "most companies that report financial impacts from using AI within a business function estimate the benefits as being at low levels," the report writes.

It says that 49 percent of organizations using AI in service operations reported cost savings, followed by supply chain management (43 percent) and software engineering (41 percent), but in most cases, the cost savings are less than 10 percent.

When it comes to revenue gains, 71 percent of respondents using AI in marketing and sales reported gains, while 63 percent in supply chain management and 57 percent in service operations, but the most common level of revenue increase is less than 5 percent.

Meanwhile, despite the modest returns, the HAI report warns that the amount of compute used to train top-notch AI models is doubling approximately every 5 months, the size of datasets required for LLM training is doubling every eight months, and the energy consumed for training is doubling annually.

This is leading to rapidly increasing greenhouse gas emissions resulting from AI training, the report finds. It says that early AI models such as AlexNet over a decade ago caused only modest CO₂ emissions of 0.01 tons, while GPT-4 (2023) was responsible for emitting 5,184 tons, and Llama 3.1 405B (2024) pumping out 8,930 tons. This compares with about 18 tons of carbon a year the average American emits, it claims.

The premise that AI could be indefinitely improved by scaling was always on shaky ground. Case in point, the tech sector's recent existential crisis precipitated by the Chinese startup DeepSeek, whose AI model could go toe-to-toe with the West's flagship, multibillion-dollar chatbots at purportedly a fraction of the training cost and power.

Of course, the writing had been on the wall before that. In November last year, reports indicated that OpenAI researchers discovered that the upcoming version of its GPT large language model displayed significantly less improvement, and in some cases, no improvements at all than previous versions did over their predecessors.

According to OpenAI’s internal tests, o3 and o4-mini, which are so-called reasoning models, hallucinate more often than the company’s previous reasoning models — o1, o1-mini, and o3-mini — as well as OpenAI’s traditional, “non-reasoning” models, such as GPT-4o.

Perhaps more concerning, the ChatGPT maker doesn’t really know why it’s happening.

In its technical report for o3 and o4-mini, OpenAI writes that “more research is needed” to understand why hallucinations are getting worse as it scales up reasoning models. O3 and o4-mini perform better in some areas, including tasks related to coding and math. But because they “make more claims overall,” they’re often led to make “more accurate claims as well as more inaccurate/hallucinated claims,” per the report.

OpenAI found that o3 hallucinated in response to 33% of questions on PersonQA, the company’s in-house benchmark for measuring the accuracy of a model’s knowledge about people. That’s roughly double the hallucination rate of OpenAI’s previous reasoning models, o1 and o3-mini, which scored 16% and 14.8%, respectively. O4-mini did even worse on PersonQA — hallucinating 48% of the time.

It’s increasingly common in AI circles to refer to the “DeepSeek moment,” but calling it a moment fundamentally misunderstands its significance. DeepSeek didn’t just have a moment. It’s now very much a movement, one that will frustrate all efforts to contain it. DeepSeek, and the open source AI ecosystem surrounding it, has rapidly evolved from a brief snapshot of technological brilliance into something much bigger—and much harder to stop. Tens of thousands of developers, from seasoned researchers to passionate hobbyists, are now working on enhancing, tuning, and extending these open source models in ways no centralized entity could manage alone.

For example, it’s perhaps not surprising that Hugging Face is actively attempting to reverse engineer and publicly disseminate DeepSeek’s R1 model. Hugging Face, while important, is just one company, just one platform. But Hugging Face has attracted hundreds of thousands of developers who actively contribute to, adapt, and build on open source models, driving AI innovation at a speed and scale unmatched even by the most agile corporate labs.

Now, researchers at Microsoft's General Artificial Intelligence group have released a new neural network model that works with just three distinct weight values: -1, 0, or 1. Building on top of previous work Microsoft Research published in 2023, the new model's "ternary" architecture reduces overall complexity and "substantial advantages in computational efficiency," the researchers write, allowing it to run effectively on a simple desktop CPU. And despite the massive reduction in weight precision, the researchers claim that the model "can achieve performance comparable to leading open-weight, full-precision models of similar size across a wide range of tasks."

ChatGPT came out in 2022, and the Chinese government declared AI infrastructure a national priority. Over 500 new data centres were announced in 2023 and 2024. Private investors went all-in.

Demand for the data centres turns out not to be there. Around 80% are not actually in use. [MIT Technology Review]

The business model was to rent GPUs. DeepSeek knifed that, much as it did OpenAI. There’s now a lot of cheap GPU in China. Data centre projects are having trouble finding new investment.

The Chinese data centre boom was a real estate deal — many investors pivoted straight from real estate to AI.

Having lived through the early days of the internet frenzy, Fabrice Coquio, senior veep at Digital Realty, which bills itself as the world's largest provider of cloud and carrier-neutral datacenter, colocation and interconnection services, is perhaps better placed than most to venture an opinion. Is there a bubble?

"I have been in this industry for 25 years, so I've seen some ups and downs. At the moment, definitely that's on the very bullish side, particularly because of what people believe will be required for AI," he tells The Register.

Grabbing a box of Kleenex tissues, he quips that back at the turn of the millennium, if investors were told the internet was inside they would have rushed to buy it. "Today I am telling you there is AI inside. So buy it."

"Is there a bubble? Potentially? I see the risk, because when some of the traditional investments in real estate – like housing, logistics and so on – are not that important, people are looking to invest their amazing capacity of available funds in new segments, and they say, 'Oh, why not datacenters?'"

He adds: "In the UK, in France, in Germany, you've got people coming from nowhere having no experiences… that have no idea about what AI and datacenters are really and still investing in them.

"It's the expression of a typical bubble. At the same time, is the driver of AI a big thing? Yes… [with] AI [there] is a sense of incredible productivity for companies and then for individuals. And this might change drastically the way we work, we operate, and we deliver something in a more efficient way.

Nonetheless, if Microsoft's commitment to still spending tens of billions of dollars on data centers is any indication, brute force scaling is still going to be the favored MO for the titans of the industry — while it'll be left to the scrappier startups to scrounge for ways to do more with less.

The IEA’s models project that data centres will use 945 terawatt-hours (TWh) in 2030, roughly equivalent to the current annual electricity consumption of Japan. By comparison, data centres consumed 415 TWh in 2024, roughly 1.5% of the world’s total electricity consumption (see ‘Global electricity growth’).

The projections focus mostly on data centres in general, which also run computing tasks other than AI — although the agency estimated the proportion of data-centre servers devoted to AI. They found that such servers accounted for 24% of server electricity demand and 15% of total data-centre energy demand in 2024.

Source

Alex de Vries, a researcher at the Free University of Amsterdam and the founder of Digiconomist, who was not involved with the report, thinks this is an underestimate. The report “is a bit vague when it comes to AI specifically”, he says.

Even with these uncertainties, “we should be mindful about how much energy is ultimately being consumed by all these data centres”, says de Vries. “Regardless of the exact number, we’re talking several percentage of our global electricity consumption.”

Source

There are reasonable arguments to suggest that AI tools may eventually help reduce emissions, as the IEA report underscores. But what we know for sure is that they’re driving up energy demand and emissions today—especially in the regional pockets where data centers are clustering.

So far, these facilities, which generally run around the clock, are substantially powered through natural-gas turbines, which produce significant levels of planet-warming emissions. Electricity demands are rising so fast that developers are proposing to build new gas plants and convert retired coal plants to supply the buzzy industry.

Putting aside the hype and bluster, OpenAI — as with all generative AI model developers — loses money on every single prompt and output. Its products do not scale like traditional software, in that the more users it gets, the more expensive its services are to run because its models are so compute-intensive.

For example, ChatGPT having 400 million weekly active users is not the same thing as a traditional app like Instagram or Facebook having that many users. The cost of serving a regular user of an app like Instagram is significantly smaller, because these are, effectively, websites with connecting APIs, images, videos and user interactions. These platforms aren’t innately compute-heavy, at least to the same extent as generative AI, and so you don’t require the same level of infrastructure to support the same amount of people.

Conversely, generative AI requires expensive-to-buy and expensive-to-run GPUs, both for inference and training the models themselves. The GPUs must be run at full tilt for both inference and training models, which shortens their lifespan, while also consuming ungodly amounts of energy. And surrounding that GPU is the rest of the computer, which is usually highly-specced, and thus, expensive.

OpenAI, as I've written before, is effectively the entire generative AI industry, with its nearest competitor being less than five percent of its 500 million weekly active users.

Source

Even in a hysterical bubble where everybody is agreeing that this is the future, OpenAI currently requires more money and more compute than is reasonable to acquire. Nobody has ever raised as much as OpenAI needs to, and based on the sheer amount of difficulty that SoftBank is having in raising the funds to meet the lower tranche ($10bn) of its commitment, it may simply not be possible for this company to continue.

Even with extremely preferential payment terms — months-long deferred payments, for example — at some point somebody is going to need to get paid.

I will give Sam Altman credit. He's found many partners to shoulder the burden of the rotten economics of OpenAI, with Microsoft, Oracle, Crusoe and CoreWeave handling the up-front costs of building the infrastructure, SoftBank finding the investors for its monstrous round, and the tech media mostly handling his marketing for him.

He is, however, over-leveraged. OpenAI has never been forced to stand on its own two feet or focus on efficiency, and I believe the constant enabling of its ugly, nonsensical burnrate has doomed this company. OpenAI has acted like it’ll always have more money and compute, and that people will always believe its bullshit, mostly because up until recently everybody has.

OpenAI cannot "make things cheaper" at this point, because the money has always been there to make things more expensive, as has the compute to make larger language models that burn billions of dollars a year. This company is not built to reduce its footprint in any way, nor is it built for a future in which it wouldn't have access to, as I've said before, infinite resources.

I can see OpenAI’s failure having a similar systemic effect. While there is a vast difference between OpenAI’s involvement in people’s lives compared to the millions of subprime loans issued to real people, the stock market’s dependence on the value of the Magnificent 7 stocks (Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, NVIDIA and Tesla), and in turn the Magnificent 7’s reliance on the stability of the AI boom narrative still threatens material harm to millions of people, and that’s before the ensuing layoffs.

One hint that we might just be stuck in a hype cycle is the proliferation of what you might call “second-order slop” or “slopaganda”: a tidal wave of newsletters and X threads expressing awe at every press release and product announcement to hoover up some of that sweet, sweet advertising cash.

That AI companies are actively patronising and fanning a cottage economy of self-described educators and influencers to bring in new customers suggests the emperor has no clothes (and six fingers).

There are an awful lot of AI newsletters out there, but the two which kept appearing in my X ads were Superhuman AI run by Zain Kahn, and Rowan Cheung’s The Rundown. Both claim to have more than a million subscribers — an impressive figure, given the FT as of February had 1.6mn subscribers across its newsletters.

If you actually read the AI newsletters, it becomes harder to see why anyone’s staying signed up. They offer a simulacrum of tech reporting, with deeper insights or scepticism stripped out and replaced with techno-euphoria. Often they resemble the kind of press release summaries ChatGPT could have written.

Yet AI companies apparently see enough upside to put money into these endeavours. In a 2023 interview, Zayn claimed that advertising spots on Superhuman pull in “six figures a month”. It currently costs $1,899 for a 150-character write-up as a featured tool in the newsletter.
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“These are basically content slop on the internet and adding very little upside on content value,” a data scientist at one of the Magnificent Seven told me. “It’s a new version of the Indian ‘news’ regurgitation portals which have gamified the SEO and SEM [search engine optimisation and marketing] playbook.”

But newsletters are only the cream of the crop of slopaganda. X now teems with AI influencers willing to promote AI products for minimal sums (the lowest pricing I got was $40 a retweet). Most appear to be from Bangladesh or India, with a smattering of accounts claiming to be based in Australia or Europe. In apparent contravention of X’s paid partnerships policy, none disclose when they’re getting paid to promote content.
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In its own way, slopaganda exposes that the AI’s emblem is not the Shoggoth but the Ouroboros. It’s a circle of AI firms, VCs backing those firms, talking shops made up of employees of those firms, and the long tail is the hangers-on, content creators, newsletter writers and ‘marketing experts’ willing to say anything for cash.

In February, stock analysts TD Cowen spotted that Microsoft had cancelled leases for new data centres — 200 megawatts in the US, and one gigawatt of planned leases around the world.

Microsoft denied everything. But TD Cowen kept investigating and found another two gigawatts of cancelled leases in the US and Europe. [Bloomberg, archive]

Bloomberg has now confirmed that Microsoft has halted new data centres in Indonesia, the UK, Australia and the US. [Bloomberg, archive]

The Cambridge, UK site was specifically designed to host Nvidia GPU clusters. Microsoft also pulled out of the new Docklands Data Centre in Canary Wharf, London.

In Wisconsin, US, Microsoft had already spent $262 million on construction — but then just pulled the plug.

Mustafa Suleyman of Microsoft told CNBC that instead of being “the absolute frontier,” Microsoft now prefers AI models that are “three to six months behind.” [CNBC]

Google has taken up some of Microsoft’s abandoned deals in Europe. OpenAI took over Microsoft’s contract with CoreWeave. [Reuters]

As a result, based on TD Cowen's analysis, Microsoft has, through a combination of canceled leases, pullbacks on Statements of Qualifications, cancellations of land parcels and deliberate expiration of Letters of Intent, effectively abandoned data center expansion equivalent to over 14% of its current capacity.
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In plain English, Microsoft, which arguably has more data than anybody else about the health of the generative AI industry and its potential for growth, has decided that it needs to dramatically slow down its expansion. Expansion which, to hammer the point home, is absolutely necessary for generative AI to continue evolving and expanding.

While there is a pullback in Microsoft's data center leasing, it’s seen a "commensurate rise in demand from Oracle related to The Stargate Project" — a relatively new partnership of "up to $500 billion" to build massive new data centers for AI, led by SoftBank, and OpenAI, with investment from Oracle and MGX, a $100 billion investment fund backed by the United Arab Emirates.

For example, 66% of the electricity used at Google datacenters was matched with renewable energy on an hourly basis in 2021. With historic growth rates, this is likely closer to 70% today. Our LCAs indicate that with 70-75% renewable energy, Scope 3 accounts for close to half of datacenter carbon emissions. Therefore, Scope 3 emissions and embodied carbon are important factors both currently and in the near future.

The Redmond IT giant says that its CO2 emissions are up 29.1 percent from the 2020 baseline, and this is largely due to indirect emissions (Scope 3) from the construction and provisioning of more datacenters to meet customer demand for cloud services.

These figures come from Microsoft's 2024 Environmental Sustainability Report [PDF], which covers the corp's FY2023 ended June 30, 2023. This encompasses a period when Microsoft started ramping up AI support following the explosion of interest in OpenAI and ChatGPT.

Source

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One of my work highlights this year has been co-designing a series of five workshops to teach coaching skills to open scientists. Open scientists from NASA, NOAA Fisheries, The California Environmental Protection Agency, Fred Hutch Cancer Center participated in these workshops organized by Openscapes. 

For the knowledge transfer part of the project, we made a card deck of powerful questions for open scientists. The artwork on the back is from Allison Horst. These are open licensed. 

Thank you to Tina-Marie Meyer and Alvin Pilobello for your partnership and thank you Dr. Julia Stewart Lowndes for hiring us to do this important work.

The post A deck of powerful questions appeared first on Tara Robertson Consulting.

Starting a systems librarian role after a prolonged vacancy presents a distinct set of challenges and opportunities. This reflective column explores the experience of navigating the first year in such a position, emphasizing the importance of learning through action, relationship-building, and adaptive leadership. From mastering core systems to establishing connections across campus IT and internal library departments, the column highlights strategies for building credibility and trust while supporting critical library services. It also examines the transition from technical contributor to departmental leader, illustrating how systems librarians increasingly engage in strategic planning, policy development, and organizational change. This column offers practical insights for new systems librarians stepping into evolving roles at the intersection of technology, user experience, and institutional priorities.

In 2024, Hamilton College started a project to pilot Archivematica, a digital preservation platform. The author details leading the project as the relatively new Digital Curation and Preservation Librarian and suggests ways that readers could approach such a project, incorporating what she learned along the way.

This reflective piece chronicles the first year of establishing a Virtual Reality (VR) program at the Paul Sawyier Public Library in Frankfort, Kentucky. Beginning with limited VR experience and a modest budget, the author navigated the challenges of launching the initiative—from equipment procurement and account management to program development and community engagement. The library introduced VR experiences aimed at enhancing digital literacy, education, and recreation for diverse age groups, achieving notable success with programs such as Anne Frank House VR and Maestro VR. Lessons learned included the importance of thorough preparation, selecting age-appropriate content, embracing community feedback, and adapting programming to audience needs. Despite early obstacles, the VR initiative attracted over 50 participants in its first year, demonstrating the community’s readiness for emerging technologies. Building on this momentum, the library plans to expand its VR offerings, cementing virtual reality as an innovative and inclusive tool for lifelong learning and engagement in a rural setting.

Introduction

I discussed LLMs' hallucinations and demonstrated their inability to correctly cite Quranic verses using Google Gemini as an example in part 1 of this blog post. Google Gemini's answers to different prompts included incorrect Quranic citations and phrases that do not exist in the Quran attributed to specific verses in the Quran. I also explained the importance of correctly citing and presenting Quranic verses in Arabic. Here, in part 2, I present a comparison between Google Gemini and Open AI's ChatGPT. Using the same prompts, ChatGPT-4o hallucinations produced similar results to that of Google Gemini. Again, misinformation remains one of the biggest challenges that compromises LLMs' credibility quoting verses from the Quran in Arabic. Experts in Classical Arabic and those who memorize the Quran word for word can identify errors in ChatGPT's output, however, less educated people will have difficulty distinguishing between correct and incorrect answers from ChatGPT. Some Arabic speakers have examined ChatGPT's answers and found them to have significant errors when referencing the Quran.

Improvements in ChatGPT over the last two years

The paper I reviewed in part 1 of this post tested ChatGPT-3.5 in 2023 using a sample of prompts regarding the Quran's views on misinformation. The authors found the output to have significant and consistent errors. They regenerated queries to the question “What does the Quran have to say about misinformation?”. They also sampled responses from ChatGPT with the additional prompt “please cite verses in Arabic”. The errors in the output ranged from producing correctly quoted and cited, yet irrelevant Quranic material to misordering the words of Quranic verses; the errors were not minor. They also found hallucinations in ChatGPT's answers attributing text that doesn't exist in the Quran at all to specific chapters and verses in the Quran. I repeated their experiment on ChatGPT-4o in January 2025 and I was unable to reproduce their output. I did not get incorrect Quranic citations or verses that did not exist in the Quran. I did not get any altered verses from the Quran in any way. Every output was correct, accurate, and authentic. 

Correct answers from ChatGPT

However, when I repeated the experiment I did with Google Gemini in part 1 of this post in January of 2025 and asked ChatGPT for additional verses in Arabic, the results were not much better than the ones I got from Google Gemini. ChatGPT provided the wrong reference one time when I asked for additional verses on misinformation. In addition, ChatGPT provided phrases that do not exist in the Quran and attributed them to specific verses in the Quran when I tried different prompts that are not in the paper, but they have the same meaning. Although the errors in ChatGPT's output are not as bad as the ones I found in Google Gemini's, I think the impact is worse because the wrong verses are closer to correct verses in the Quran, and they can definitely be taken as correct verses to the non-expert. The difference was in one letter in one case and one word in another case. The output's syntax was also wrong in the latter.

Wrong chapter and verses' numbers from ChatGPT

Me: Give me additional verses

ChatGPT:

Certainly! The Quran repeatedly emphasizes the dangers of misinformation, falsehoods, and irresponsible speech. Here are additional verses in Arabic that address this issue:

6. Do Not Spread Falsehood Knowingly

📖 Surah Aal-e-Imran (3:78)

وَإِنَّ مِنْهُمْ لَفَرِيقًا يَلْوُونَ أَلْسِنَتَهُمْ بِالْكِتَابِ لِتَحْسَبُوهُ مِنَ الْكِتَابِ وَمَا هُوَ مِنَ الْكِتَابِ وَيَقُولُونَ هُوَ مِنْ عِنْدِ اللَّهِ وَمَا هُوَ مِنْ عِنْدِ اللَّهِ وَيَقُولُونَ عَلَى اللَّهِ الْكَذِبَ وَهُمْ يَعْلَمُونَ

🔹 "And indeed, there is among them a party who alter the Scripture with their tongues so that you may think it is from the Scripture, but it is not from the Scripture. And they say, 'This is from Allah,' but it is not from Allah. And they speak a lie against Allah while they know [it]."

7. Lying Brings a Curse from Allah

📖 Surah Aal-e-Imran (3:61)

فَمَنْ حَاجَّكَ فِيهِ مِنْ بَعْدِ مَا جَاءَكَ مِنَ الْعِلْمِ فَقُلْ تَعَالَوْا نَدْعُ أَبْنَاءَنَا وَأَبْنَاءَكُمْ وَنِسَاءَنَا وَنِسَاءَكُمْ وَأَنْفُسَنَا وَأَنْفُسَكُمْ ثُمَّ نَبْتَهِلْ فَنَجْعَلْ لَعْنَتَ اللَّهِ عَلَى الْكَاذِبِينَ

🔹 "Then whoever argues with you about it after knowledge has come to you, say, 'Come, let us call our sons and your sons, our women and your women, ourselves and yourselves, then supplicate earnestly and invoke the curse of Allah upon the liars.'"

8. Do Not Falsify Facts or Distort the Truth

📖 Surah Al-Ma’idah (5:41)

يُحَرِّفُونَ الْكَلِمَ مِنْ بَعْدِ مَوَاضِعِهِ

🔹 "They distort words from their [proper] places..."

9. Lying is from Shaytan (Satan)

📖 Surah Al-Mujadilah (58:14-15)

وَإِذَا رَأَيْتَهُمْ تُعْجِبُكَ أَجْسَامُهُمْ وَإِنْ يَقُولُوا تَسْمَعْ لِقَوْلِهِمْ كَأَنَّهُمْ خُشُبٌ مُسَنَّدَةٌ ۖ يَحْسَبُونَ كُلَّ صَيْحَةٍ عَلَيْهِمْ ۚ هُمُ الْعَدُوُّ فَاحْذَرْهُمْ ۚ قَاتَلَهُمُ اللَّهُ أَنَّىٰ يُؤْفَكُونَ

🔹 "And when you see them, their forms please you, and if they speak, you listen to their speech. [They are] like pieces of wood propped up – they think that every shout is against them. They are the enemy, so beware of them. May Allah destroy them; how are they deluded?"

10. Lying Leads to the Fire

📖 Surah Az-Zumar (39:60)

وَيَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ تَرَى الَّذِينَ كَذَبُوا عَلَى اللَّهِ وُجُوهُهُمْ مُسْوَدَّةٌ ۚ أَلَيْسَ فِي جَهَنَّمَ مَثْوًى لِلْمُتَكَبِّرِينَ

🔹 "And on the Day of Resurrection, you will see those who lied against Allah – their faces will be blackened. Is there not in Hell a residence for the arrogant?"

11. Truthfulness Leads to Salvation

📖 Surah Al-Ahzab (33:70-71)

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ وَقُولُوا قَوْلًا سَدِيدًا ۝ يُصْلِحْ لَكُمْ أَعْمَالَكُمْ وَيَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ ذُنُوبَكُمْ ۗ وَمَنْ يُطِعِ اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ فَقَدْ فَازَ فَوْزًا عَظِيمًا

🔹 "O you who have believed, fear Allah and speak words of appropriate justice. He will [then] amend for you your deeds and forgive you your sins. And whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger has certainly attained a great attainment."

Conclusion

The Quran strongly condemns misinformation, distortion, and falsehood. It teaches that:

✅ Truthfulness leads to success

❌ Spreading falsehoods leads to regret and punishment

⚠️ Lies cause harm, injustice, and corruption in society

Would you like a deeper explanation of any verse? 😊

The 9th quoted verse (highlighted in red) is a verse from the Quran, but it is not in Quran 58:14-15. It is in Quran 63:4. The two verses in Quran 58:14-15 are:

 أَلَمْ تَرَ إِلَى الَّذِينَ تَوَلَّوْا قَوْمًا غَضِبَ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِم مَّا هُم مِّنكُمْ وَلَا مِنْهُمْ وَيَحْلِفُونَ عَلَى الْكَذِبِ وَهُمْ يَعْلَمُونَ (14) أَعَدَّ اللَّهُ لَهُمْ عَذَابًا شَدِيدًا ۖ إِنَّهُمْ سَاءَ مَا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ (15)

The translation is:

Have you noted those who befriended people with whom GOD is angry? They neither belong with you, nor with them. They deliberately swear lies! (14) GOD has prepared for them a severe retribution. Miserable indeed is what they used to do. (15)

ChatGPT correctly cited the Quran 63:4 (highlighted green) in the following answer when I repeated the prompt.

Me: Give me additional verses

ChatGPT:

Certainly! The Quran contains many verses warning against misinformation, lying, and spreading falsehoods. Here are additional verses in Arabic, along with their meanings:

12. Lying is a Major Sin

📖 Surah Az-Zumar (39:32)

فَمَنْ أَظْلَمُ مِمَّنْ كَذَبَ عَلَى اللَّهِ وَكَذَّبَ بِالصِّدْقِ إِذْ جَاءَهُ ۚ أَلَيْسَ فِي جَهَنَّمَ مَثْوًى لِلْكَافِرِينَ

🔹 "So who is more unjust than one who lies about Allah and denies the truth when it has come to him? Is there not in Hell a residence for the disbelievers?"

13. Speaking Falsehood is a Sign of Hypocrisy

📖 Surah At-Tawbah (9:77)

فَأَعْقَبَهُمْ نِفَاقًا فِي قُلُوبِهِمْ إِلَىٰ يَوْمِ يَلْقَوْنَهُ بِمَا أَخْلَفُوا اللَّهَ مَا وَعَدُوهُ وَبِمَا كَانُوا يَكْذِبُونَ

🔹 "So He penalized them with hypocrisy in their hearts until the day they will meet Him – because they failed Allah in what they promised Him and because they used to lie."

14. Allah Hates Falsehood

📖 Surah An-Nahl (16:105)

إِنَّمَا يَفْتَرِي الْكَذِبَ الَّذِينَ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ بِآيَاتِ اللَّهِ وَأُو۟لَٰئِكَ هُمُ ٱلْكَٰذِبُونَ

🔹 "Only those who do not believe in the verses of Allah fabricate falsehood, and it is they who are the liars."

15. Spreading Falsehood Corrupts Society

📖 Surah Al-Baqarah (2:191)

وَالْفِتْنَةُ أَشَدُّ مِنَ الْقَتْلِ

🔹 "And fitnah (spreading corruption and falsehood) is worse than killing."

16. Lying Leads to Destruction

📖 Surah Al-Ankabut (29:3)

وَلَقَدْ فَتَنَّا الَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِهِمْ ۖ فَلَيَعْلَمَنَّ اللَّهُ الَّذِينَ صَدَقُوا وَلَيَعْلَمَنَّ الْكَاذِبِينَ

🔹 "And We have certainly tested those before them, and Allah will surely make evident those who are truthful, and He will surely make evident the liars."

17. Spreading False News Causes Harm

📖 Surah Al-Ahzab (33:58)

وَالَّذِينَ يُؤْذُونَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ وَالْمُؤْمِنَاتِ بِغَيْرِ مَا اكْتَسَبُوا فَقَدِ احْتَمَلُوا بُهْتَانًا وَإِثْمًا مُبِينًا

🔹 "And those who harm believing men and believing women for [something] other than what they have earned have certainly borne upon themselves a slander and manifest sin."

18. False Speech Leads to Hellfire

📖 Surah Al-Mutaffifin (83:10-12)

وَيْلٌ يَوْمَئِذٍ لِلْمُكَذِّبِينَ ۝ الَّذِينَ يُكَذِّبُونَ بِيَوْمِ الدِّينِ ۝ وَمَا يُكَذِّبُ بِهِ إِلَّا كُلُّ مُعْتَدٍ أَثِيمٍ

🔹 "Woe that Day to the deniers, those who deny the Day of Recompense. And none denies it except every sinful transgressor."

19. Hypocrites Spread Falsehood

📖 Surah Al-Munafiqun (63:4)

وَإِذَا رَأَيْتَهُمْ تُعْجِبُكَ أَجْسَامُهُمْ ۖ وَإِنْ يَقُولُوا تَسْمَعْ لِقَوْلِهِمْ ۖ كَأَنَّهُمْ خُشُبٌ مُسَنَّدَةٌ ۖ يَحْسَبُونَ كُلَّ صَيْحَةٍ عَلَيْهِمْ ۚ هُمُ الْعَدُوُّ فَاحْذَرْهُمْ ۚ قَاتَلَهُمُ اللَّهُ ۖ أَنَّىٰ يُؤْفَكُونَ

🔹 "And when you see them, their forms please you, and if they speak, you listen to their speech. [They are] like pieces of wood propped up – they think that every shout is against them. They are the enemy, so beware of them. May Allah destroy them; how are they deluded?"

20. Allah Commands Speaking the Truth

📖 Surah Al-An’am (6:152)

وَإِذَا قُلْتُمْ فَاعْدِلُوا وَلَوْ كَانَ ذَا قُرْبَىٰ

🔹 "And when you speak, be just, even if it concerns a near relative."

Conclusion

The Quran provides a strong warning against spreading misinformation, lying, and distorting the truth. It encourages:

✅ Speaking truthfully and justly

✅ Verifying information before spreading it

✅ Avoiding false accusations and rumors

Would you like more explanations or interpretations of any of these verses? 😊

I tried the same prompts that made Google Gemini hallucinate; the output to the first prompt was correct.

Correct answers from ChatGPT

Me: Give me Quran verses in Arabic about falsehood

ChatGPT:

Certainly! Here are several Quranic verses in Arabic about falsehood (الباطل والكذب):

1. Falsehood Will Perish

📖 Surah Al-Isra (17:81)

وَقُلْ جَاءَ الْحَقُّ وَزَهَقَ الْبَاطِلُ ۚ إِنَّ الْبَاطِلَ كَانَ زَهُوقًا

🔹 "And say: Truth has come, and falsehood has vanished. Indeed, falsehood is bound to perish."

2. Lying is a Great Sin

📖 Surah Az-Zumar (39:3)

أَلَا لِلَّهِ الدِّينُ الْخَالِصُ ۚ وَالَّذِينَ اتَّخَذُوا مِن دُونِهِ أَوْلِيَاءَ مَا نَعْبُدُهُمْ إِلَّا لِيُقَرِّبُونَا إِلَى اللَّهِ زُلْفَىٰ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَحْكُمُ بَيْنَهُمْ فِي مَا هُمْ فِيهِ يَخْتَلِفُونَ ۗ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يَهْدِي مَنْ هُوَ كَاذِبٌ كَفَّارٌ

🔹 "Unquestionably, for Allah is the pure religion. And those who take protectors besides Him [say], 'We only worship them that they may bring us nearer to Allah in position.' Indeed, Allah will judge between them concerning that over which they differ. Indeed, Allah does not guide one who is a liar and disbeliever."

3. Falsehood Leads to Hellfire

📖 Surah Al-Mutaffifin (83:10-12)

وَيْلٌ يَوْمَئِذٍ لِلْمُكَذِّبِينَ ۝ الَّذِينَ يُكَذِّبُونَ بِيَوْمِ الدِّينِ ۝ وَمَا يُكَذِّبُ بِهِ إِلَّا كُلُّ مُعْتَدٍ أَثِيمٍ

🔹 "Woe that Day to the deniers, those who deny the Day of Recompense. And none denies it except every sinful transgressor."

4. Falsehood Brings Allah’s Curse

📖 Surah An-Nahl (16:105)

إِنَّمَا يَفْتَرِي الْكَذِبَ الَّذِينَ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ بِآيَاتِ اللَّهِ وَأُو۟لَٰئِكَ هُمُ ٱلْكَٰذِبُونَ

🔹 "Only those who do not believe in the verses of Allah fabricate falsehood, and it is they who are the liars."

5. Do Not Conceal the Truth

📖 Surah Al-Baqarah (2:42)

وَلَا تَلْبِسُوا الْحَقَّ بِالْبَاطِلِ وَتَكْتُمُوا الْحَقَّ وَأَنْتُمْ تَعْلَمُونَ

🔹 "And do not mix the truth with falsehood or conceal the truth while you know [it]."

6. False Speech is Forbidden

📖 Surah Al-Hajj (22:30)

فَاجْتَنِبُوا الرِّجْسَ مِنَ الْأَوْثَانِ وَاجْتَنِبُوا قَوْلَ الزُّورِ

🔹 "So avoid the impurity of idols and avoid false speech."

7. The Wicked Spread Falsehood

📖 Surah Al-Jathiyah (45:7)

وَيْلٌ لِكُلِّ أَفَّاكٍ أَثِيمٍ

🔹 "Woe to every sinful liar."

8. Liars Will Be Held Accountable

📖 Surah Qaf (50:18)

مَّا يَلْفِظُ مِن قَوْلٍ إِلَّا لَدَيْهِ رَقِيبٌ عَتِيدٌ

🔹 "Man does not utter any word except that with him is an observer prepared [to record]."

9. Do Not Follow Falsehood

📖 Surah Al-Furqan (25:72)

وَالَّذِينَ لَا يَشْهَدُونَ الزُّورَ وَإِذَا مَرُّوا بِاللَّغْوِ مَرُّوا كِرَامًا

🔹 "And [the servants of the Most Merciful are] those who do not testify to falsehood, and when they pass near ill speech, they pass by with dignity."

10. Liars Will Be Disgraced

📖 Surah Al-Kahf (18:5)

مَا لَهُم بِهِۦ مِنْ عِلْمٍ وَلَا لِأَبَآئِهِمْ ۚ كَبُرَتْ كَلِمَةً تَخْرُجُ مِنْ أَفْوَٰهِهِمْ ۚ إِن يَقُولُونَ إِلَّا كَذِبًا

🔹 "They have no knowledge of it, nor do their forefathers. Grave is the word that comes out of their mouths; they speak not except a lie."

Conclusion

The Quran strongly condemns falsehood, lies, and deception. It teaches that:

✅ Truthfulness is a virtue

❌ Falsehood leads to loss and punishment

⚠️ Spreading lies and misinformation is a major sin

Would you like more verses or interpretations? 😊

I asked for additional verses and that's when worse errors began to take place.

Wrong answers from ChatGPT

Wrong answers from ChatGPT

Me: Give me more verses

ChatGPT:

Certainly! Here are more Quranic verses in Arabic that address falsehood (الباطل) and lying (الكذب):

11. The Falsehood of Idol Worship

📖 Surah Al-Ankabut (29:17)

إِنَّمَا تَعْبُدُونَ مِن دُونِ اللَّهِ أَوْثَٰنًا وَتَخْلُقُونَ إِفْكًا ۚ إِنَّ الَّذِينَ تَعْبُدُونَ مِن دُونِ اللَّهِ لَا يَمْلِكُونَ لَكُمْ رِزْقًا فَٱبْتَغُوا۟ عِندَ ٱللَّهِ ٱلرِّزْقَ وَٱعْبُدُوهُ وَٱشْكُرُوا۟ لَهُۥٓ ۖ إِلَيْهِ تُرْجَعُونَ

🔹 "You only worship, besides Allah, idols, and you invent falsehood. Indeed, those you worship besides Allah do not possess [for] you [the ability to provide] sustenance. So seek sustenance from Allah and worship Him and be grateful to Him. To Him you will be returned."

12. Liars Will Be Exposed on the Day of Judgment

📖 Surah Az-Zumar (39:60)

وَيَوْمَ ٱلْقِيَٰمَةِ تَرَى ٱلَّذِينَ كَذَبُوا۟ عَلَى ٱللَّهِ وُجُوهُهُم مُّسْوَدَّةٌ ۚ أَلَيْسَ فِى جَهَنَّمَ مَثْوًىۭ لِّلْمُتَكَبِّرِينَ

🔹 "And on the Day of Resurrection, you will see those who lied about Allah with their faces blackened. Is there not in Hell a residence for the arrogant?"

13. Falsehood is a Tool of the Corrupt

📖 Surah Al-Baqarah (2:78-79)

وَمِنْهُمْ أُمِّيُّونَ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ الْكِتَابَ إِلَّا أَمَانِيَّ وَإِنْ هُمْ إِلَّا يَظُنُّونَ ۝ فَوَيْلٌ لِلَّذِينَ يَكْتُبُونَ الْكِتَابَ بِأَيْدِيهِمْ ثُمَّ يَقُولُونَ هَٰذَا مِنْ عِندِ اللَّهِ لِيَشْتَرُوا بِهِ ثَمَنًا قَلِيلًا ۖ فَوَيْلٌ لَهُمْ مِمَّا كَتَبَتْ أَيْدِيهِمْ وَوَيْلٌ لَهُمْ مِمَّا يَكْسِبُونَ

🔹 "And among them are unlettered ones who do not know the Scripture except [indulgement in] wishful thinking, but they are only assuming. So woe to those who write the 'scripture' with their own hands, then say, 'This is from Allah,' in order to exchange it for a small price. Woe to them for what their hands have written, and woe to them for what they earn."

14. Falsehood Leads to Corruption

📖 Surah Al-Ma’idah (5:41)

يَسْمَعُونَ لِلْكَذِبِ أَكَّالُونَ لِلسُّحْتِ

🔹 "They listen to falsehood and consume forbidden gain..."

15. False Oaths Do Not Protect Liars

📖 Surah An-Nahl (16:94)

وَلَا تَتَّخِذُوا أَيْمَانَكُمْ دَخَلًا بَيْنَكُمْ فَتَزِلَّ قَدَمٌ بَعْدَ ثُبُوتِهَا وَتَذُوقُوا السُّوءَ بِمَا صَدَدتُّمْ عَن سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ وَلَكُمْ عَذَابٌ عَظِيمٌ

🔹 "And do not take your oaths as a means of deception among yourselves, lest a foot slip after it was firmly planted, and you would taste evil for what you diverted from the way of Allah, and you would have a great punishment."

16. Satan Uses Falsehood to Mislead

📖 Surah Al-A’raf (7:27)

يَٰبَنِىٓ ءَادَمَ لَا يَفْتِنَنَّكُمُ ٱلشَّيْطَٰنُ كَمَآ أَخْرَجَ أَبَوَيْكُم مِّنَ ٱلْجَنَّةِ يَنزِعُ عَنْهُمَا لِبَاسَهُمَا لِيُرِيَهُمَا سَوْءَٰتِهِمَا ۚ إِنَّهُۥ يَرَىٰكُمْ هُوَ وَقَبِيلُهُۥ مِنْ حَيْثُ لَا تَرَوْنَهُمْ ۗ إِنَّا جَعَلْنَا ٱلشَّيَٰطِينَ أَوْلِيَٓاءَ لِلَّذِينَ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ

🔹 "O children of Adam, let not Satan tempt you as he removed your parents from Paradise, stripping them of their clothing to show them their private parts. Indeed, he sees you, he and his tribe, from where you do not see them. Indeed, We have made the devils allies to those who do not believe."

17. Falsehood Brings Eternal Regret

📖 Surah Al-Kahf (18:103-104)

قُلْ هَلْ نُنَبِّئُكُم بِالْأَخْسَرِينَ أَعْمَالًا ۝ ٱلَّذِينَ ضَلَّ سَعْيُهُمْ فِى ٱلْحَيَوٰةِ ٱلدُّنْيَا وَهُمْ يَحْسَبُونَ أَنَّهُمْ يُحْسِنُونَ صُنْعًا

🔹 "Say, 'Shall We inform you of the greatest losers in respect to [their] deeds? Those whose effort is lost in worldly life, while they think that they are doing well in work.'"

18. False Promises Are a Tool of Hypocrites

📖 Surah Al-Munafiqun (63:1)

إِذَا جَاءَكَ ٱلْمُنَٰفِقُونَ قَالُوا۟ نَشْهَدُ إِنَّكَ لَرَسُولُ ٱللَّهِ ۗ وَٱللَّهُ يَعْلَمُ إِنَّكَ لَرَسُولُهُۥ وَٱللَّهُ يَشْهَدُ إِنَّ ٱلْمُنَٰفِقِينَ لَكَٰذِبُونَ

🔹 "When the hypocrites come to you, [O Muhammad], they say, 'We testify that you are the Messenger of Allah.' And Allah knows that you are His Messenger, and Allah testifies that the hypocrites are liars."

19. Those Who Lie About Allah Will Face Severe Punishment

📖 Surah Al-Kahf (18:15)

مَنۢ أَظْلَمُ مِمَّنِ ٱفْتَرَىٰ عَلَى ٱللَّهِ كَذِبًا

🔹 "Who is more unjust than one who invents a lie against Allah?"

20. Justice and Truth Will Prevail

📖 Surah Yunus (10:82)

وَيُحِقُّ اللَّهُ الْحَقَّ بِكَلِمَاتِهِ وَلَوْ كَرِهَ الْمُجْرِمُونَ

🔹 "And Allah establishes the truth by His words, even if the criminals dislike it."

Conclusion

The Quran strongly warns against falsehood, deception, and lying. It teaches that:

✅ Truth will always triumph

❌ Falsehood leads to disgrace and punishment

⚠️ Lying is a characteristic of the corrupt and hypocrites

Would you like more explanations or interpretations? 😊

ChatGPT attributed the phrase يَسْمَعُونَ لِلْكَذِبِ أَكَّالُونَ لِلسُّحْتِ to Quran 5:41 in item number 14 in the answer. While this is an incorrect citation and the syntax of the phrase is also incorrect, Quran 5:42 has a very similar phrase سَمَّاعُونَ لِلْكَذِبِ أَكَّالُونَ لِلسُّحْتِ

The phrase in ChatGPT's output translates to: They are listening to lies, devourers of what's forbidden (bribery).

The phrase from Quran 5:42 translates to: Listeners to lies, devourers of what's forbidden (bribery).

I was able to catch this error quickly because I have read the entire Quran multiple times and have seen and heard the correct verse so many times. I absolutely remember it. For someone who haven't seen it or unaware of the wrong syntax, they will not be able to identify this error.

The second error in ChatGPT's output is even worse because the difference is only in one letter. I was only able to identify this error because I checked each and every verse in the output of this entire experiment with an authentic copy of the Quran (word for word). ChatGPT attributed the phrase مَنۢ أَظْلَمُ مِمَّنِ ٱفْتَرَىٰ عَلَى ٱللَّهِ كَذِبًا to Quran 18:15 in item number 19 in the answer. While this is an incorrect citation, the syntax of the phrase is not necessarily incorrect. The only difference between this phrase and a phrase in Quran 18:15 is a deletion of one letter (ف) from the first word in the phrase. The deletion does not change the meaning or make it wrong syntactically since the output is lacking the context (the previous phrase in the same verse). To someone who doesn't memorize this verse word for word, this error cannot be identified.

Quran 18:15 has the phrase فَمَنْ أَظْلَمُ مِمَّنِ افْتَرَىٰ عَلَى اللَّهِ كَذِبًا

The translation of both phrases (the correct one and the wrong one) is:

Who is more evil than the one who fabricates lies and attributes them to GOD?

In January 2025, I was unable to reproduce the errors that Ali-Reza Bhojani and Marcus Schwarting found in 2023 in ChatGPT's output. The output of ChatGPT was consistently correct to the prompts mentioned in the paper. I tried to archive the ChatGPT's answers to the prompts I issued. Although SPN said that a snapshot was captured, when trying to retrieve the archived copy, the page said that the Wayback Machine has not archived that URL.

The Internet Archive was unable to archive chat with ChatGPT

It is possible to archive the entire chat(s) with ChatGPT if the user created a public link (shareable) for the chat and submitted it to archive.is

Creating a public link to chat with ChatGPT

The created/updated link from ChatGPT to be shared and archived

I archived my chat with ChatGPT on archive.is.

Note that this method of archiving the chat with ChatGPT does not work with the Internet Archive. It looks like the page has been saved using SPN, but the page does not replay.

Using SPN to archive my chat with ChatGPT

The Wayback Machine has not archived the link I submitted for archiving

ChatGPT cannot provide accurate citations from the Quran in Arabic

From this experiment, I found that ChatGPT "improvement" is similar to that of Google Gemini (from part 1 of this post). They both did not produce errors for the same prompts issued in the paper in 2023. The results were all correct citations with no errors, however, the answers had wrong citations to correct verses in the Quran for different prompts that have the same meaning. ChatGPT, as well as Google Gemini, provided phrases that do not exist in the Quran (mixtures of words that exist in the Quran and elsewhere) and attributed them to the Quran. Some of these phrases included syntax errors and altered verses attributing them to the Quran which is problematic for Muslims who believe that the Quran is free from errors and modifications. 

After two years and going from ChatGPT-3.5 to ChatGPT-4o, the errors and hallucinations remain present when using slightly different prompts. Some researchers argue that LLMs' errors and hallucinations not only will remain present in all LLMs, but they will increase as more and more LLMs' generated content make it to the training datasets (content on the internet), and result in a total collapse of the model.

Conclusions

Introduction

Me: Give me additional verses

DeepSeek: Okay, the user has already asked about what the Quran says regarding misinformation and received several detailed responses with cited verses. Now they're asking for additional verses. I need to make sure I don't repeat the ones already mentioned. Let me recall the previous answers and check which verses were covered.

In the last interaction, I listed seven key verses in Arabic with translations. So the user now wants more verses beyond those. Let me think of other relevant Quranic verses that address truthfulness, lying, false testimony, or spreading false information.

Surah Al-Isra (17:35) comes to mind about fulfilling measures and testifying with justice. Then Surah Al-Ma'idah (5:8) talks about standing for justice even against oneself. Surah Al-Mu'minun (23:3) mentions avoiding vain talk. Surah Al-Hajj (22:30) advises avoiding false speech. Surah Al-Baqarah (2:283) discusses trust and testimony. Surah Al-Nahl (16:105) specifies that liars disbelieve in Allah's signs. Surah Al-Mutaffifin (83:1-3) condemns fraud. Surah Al-An'am (6:144) warns against speaking without knowledge. Surah Al-Nisa (4:112) talks about bearing sin for false accusations.

I should present these new verses in Arabic with transliteration and translation, ensuring they haven't been mentioned before. Also, the user might be looking for a comprehensive list for study or reference, so context and lessons are important. Need to organize them clearly, maybe with headings for each verse. Let me verify the references to avoid errors. Once checked, structure the response with each verse, its Arabic text, transliteration, translation, context, and a key lesson. Conclude by summarizing the Quran's stance on truth and integrity. Make sure the formatting is consistent with previous answers for clarity.

Certainly! Here are additional Quranic verses in Arabic that emphasize truthfulness, condemn falsehood, and guide ethical communication, along with translations and contexts:

________________________________________

1. Prohibition of False Testimony

Quran 17:35

Arabic:

وَأَوْفُوا الْكَيْلَ إِذَا كِلْتُمْ وَزِنُوا بِالْقِسْطَاسِ الْمُسْتَقِيمِ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ خَيْرٌ وَأَحْسَنُ تَأْوِيلًا

Transliteration: Wa awfū al-kayla idhā kiltum wa zīnū bil-qisṭāsi al-mustaqīm. Dhālika khayrun wa aḥsanu ta’wīlā.

Translation: "Give full measure when you measure, and weigh with an even balance. That is best and fairest in the end."

Context: Condemns dishonesty in speech and action, urging fairness and integrity.

________________________________________

2. Command to Uphold Justice

Quran 5:8

Arabic:

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا كُونُوا قَوَّامِينَ لِلَّهِ شُهَدَاءَ بِالْقِسْطِ ۖ وَلَا يَجْرِمَنَّكُمْ شَنَآنُ قَوْمٍ عَلَىٰ أَلَّا تَعْدِلُوا ۚ اعْدِلُوا هُوَ أَقْرَبُ لِلتَّقْوَىٰ

Transliteration: Yā ayyuhalladhīna āmanū kūnū qawwāmīna lillāhi shuhadā’a bil-qisṭi wa lā yajrimannakum sha’nānu qawmin ʿalā allā taʿdilū. Iʿdilū huwa aqrabu lil-taqwā.

Translation: "O believers! Stand firm for Allah as witnesses for justice, and do not let hatred of a people lead you to injustice. Be just—that is closer to righteousness."

Context: Commands justice in speech and testimony, even toward enemies.

________________________________________

3. Avoiding Vain Speech

Quran 23:3

Arabic:

وَالَّذِينَ هُمْ عَنِ اللَّغْوِ مُعْرِضُونَ

Transliteration: Wa alladhīna hum ʿani al-laghwi muʿriḍūn.

Translation: "And those who turn away from ill speech."

Context: Praises those who reject gossip, slander, and meaningless talk.

________________________________________

4. Prohibition of False Speech

Quran 22:30

Arabic:

وَاجْتَنِبُوا قَوْلَ الزُّورِ

Transliteration: Wa ijtānibū qawla al-zūr.

Translation: "And shun false speech."

Context: Part of a broader command to avoid all forms of sin, including lies.

________________________________________

5. Condemnation of Breaching Trusts

Quran 2:283

Arabic:

وَلَا تَكْتُمُوا الشَّهَادَةَ ۚ وَمَن يَكْتُمْهَا فَإِنَّهُ آثِمٌ قَلْبُهُ

Transliteration: Wa lā taktumū al-shahādah. Wa man yaktumhā fa-innahu āthimun qalbuh.

Translation: "Do not conceal testimony, for whoever conceals it has a sinful heart."

Context: Warns against withholding or distorting truthful testimony.

________________________________________

6. Truthfulness as a Mark of Faith

Quran 16:105

Arabic:

إِنَّمَا يَفْتَرِي الْكَذِبَ الَّذِينَ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ بِآيَاتِ اللَّهِ

Transliteration: Innamā yaftarī al-kaḏhaba alladhīna lā yu’minūna bi-āyāti Allāh.

Translation: "Only those who disbelieve in Allah’s signs fabricate lies."

Context: Links lying to a lack of faith, emphasizing truthfulness as a hallmark of belief.

________________________________________

7. Warning Against Fraud and Deception

Quran 83:1–3

Arabic:

وَيْلٌ لِّلْمُطَفِّفِينَ. الَّذِينَ إِذَا اكْتَالُوا عَلَى النَّاسِ يَسْتَوْفُونَ. وَإِذَا كَالُوهُمْ أَو وَّزَنُوهُمْ يُخْسِرُونَ

Transliteration: Waylun lil-muṭaffifīn. Alladhīna idhā aktālū ʿalā al-nāsi yastawfūn. Wa idhā kālūhum aw wazanūhum yukhsiṛūn.

Translation: "Woe to those who give less [than due], who demand full measure from others but give less when they measure or weigh [for them]."

Context: Condemns dishonesty in transactions, a form of misinformation for gain.

________________________________________

8. Rejecting Baseless Accusations

Quran 6:144

Arabic:

وَمَن يَكْسِبْ خَطِيئَةً أَوْ إِثْمًا ثُمَّ يَرْمِ بِهِ بَرِيئًا فَقَدِ احْتَمَلَ بُهْتَانًا وَإِثْمًا مُّبِينًا

Transliteration: Wa man yaksib khaṭī’atan aw ithman thumma yarmi bihi barī’an faqadi iḥtamala buhtānan wa ithman mubīnā.

Translation: "Whoever commits a sin or error and then blames it on an innocent person has burdened himself with slander and a blatant sin."

Context: Forbids shifting blame through lies or false accusations.

________________________________________

9. Command to Speak Kindly and Truthfully

Quran 4:112

Arabic:

وَمَن يَكْسِبْ خَطِيئَةً أَوْ إِثْمًا ثُمَّ يَرْمِ بِهِ بَرِيئًا فَقَدِ احْتَمَلَ بُهْتَانًا وَإِثْمًا مُّبِينًا

Transliteration: Wa man yaksib khaṭī’atan aw ithman thumma yarmi bihi barī’an faqadi iḥtamala buhtānan wa ithman mubīnā.

Translation: "Whoever commits a sin or error and then blames it on an innocent person has borne a grave slander and a manifest sin."

Context: Reiterates the gravity of false accusations.

________________________________________

Key Lessons

• Integrity in Speech: The Quran repeatedly ties truthfulness to faith (e.g., 16:105).

• Social Justice: Lies harm individuals and communities (2:283, 83:1–3).

• Divine Accountability: Every word and intention is recorded (50:18).

• Rejecting Harm: Silence in the face of falsehood is complicity (24:15–16).

These verses collectively establish a robust ethical framework for combating misinformation, urging believers to prioritize truth, fairness, and responsibility in all communication.

Item number eight states that the phrase

وَمَن يَكْسِبْ خَطِيئَةً أَوْ إِثْمًا ثُمَّ يَرْمِ بِهِ بَرِيئًا فَقَدِ احْتَمَلَ بُهْتَانًا وَإِثْمًا مُّبِينًا

is from Quran 6:144 but it is actually the entire verse Quran 4:112

The correct verse from Quran 6:144 is:

وَمِنَ ٱلۡإِبِلِ ٱثۡنَيۡنِ وَمِنَ ٱلۡبَقَرِ ٱثۡنَيۡنِ‌ۗ قُلۡ ءَآلذَّڪَرَيۡنِ حَرَّمَ أَمِ ٱلۡأُنثَيَيۡنِ أَمَّا ٱشۡتَمَلَتۡ عَلَيۡهِ أَرۡحَامُ ٱلۡأُنثَيَيۡنِ‌ۖ أَمۡ ڪُنتُمۡ شُہَدَآءَ إِذۡ وَصَّٮٰڪُمُ ٱللَّهُ بِهَـٰذَا‌ۚ فَمَنۡ أَظۡلَمُ مِمَّنِ ٱفۡتَرَىٰ عَلَى ٱللَّهِ ڪَذِبً۬ا لِّيُضِلَّ ٱلنَّاسَ بِغَيۡرِ عِلۡمٍ‌ۗ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ لَا يَہۡدِى ٱلۡقَوۡمَ ٱلظَّـٰلِمِينَ 

The translation is:

And of the camels two (male and female), and of oxen two (male and female). Say: "Has He forbidden the two males or the two females or (the young) which the wombs of the two females enclose? Or were you present when Allâh ordered you such a thing? Then who does more wrong than one who invents a lie against Allâh, to lead mankind astray without knowledge. Certainly Allâh guides not the people who are Zâlimûn (polytheists and wrong-doers)."

It is interesting that item number nine in the answer, right below number eight, is the same verse but correctly referenced this time.

Wrong chapter and verse number from DeepSeek

I asked DeepSeek for additional verses, and this time, DeepSeek started to hallucinate. The answer included a phrase that does not exist in the Quran at all, but DeepSeek attributed the phrase to a specific verse in the Quran.

Me: Give me additional verses

Thought for 37 seconds

DeepSeek: Okay, the user has asked for additional Quranic verses related to misinformation again. Let me see. They previously requested verses in Arabic with translations, and I provided several. Now they want more.

First, I need to recall which verses I've already listed. The previous ones included 2:42, 49:6, 24:15-16, 17:36, 50:18, 25:72, 49:12, and then in the last response, I added 17:35, 5:8, 23:3, 22:30, 2:283, 16:105, 83:1-3, 6:144, 4:112. So I need to find more verses that haven't been mentioned yet but still address truthfulness, falsehood, gossip, or accountability in speech.

Let me check other relevant verses. Surah Al-Ma'idah 5:2 comes to mind about cooperation in righteousness. Also, Surah Al-Isra 17:34 about fulfilling promises. Surah Al-Hujurat 49:11 prohibits insulting others. Surah Al-Mutaffifin 83:29-36 talks about the consequences for those who mock believers. Surah Al-Baqarah 2:188 warns against deceit in property. Surah Al-Ahzab 33:70-71 encourages truthful speech. Surah Al-Mumtahanah 60:12 on not hiding testimony. Surah Al-Nahl 16:116 against lying about what's permissible. And Surah Al-Tawbah 9:119 urges being with the truthful.

I need to present these in the same format as before: Arabic, transliteration, translation, and context. Make sure the translations are accurate and the contexts clearly relate to misinformation or ethical communication. Also, check if any of these were already covered. For example, 2:283 was mentioned before, so I should avoid repetition. Wait, 2:188 is about property, which is a form of deceit, so it's relevant. Similarly, Surah Al-Tawbah 9:119 is about being with the truthful, which supports truthfulness in general.

Ensure that each verse adds value to the topic. For instance, Surah Al-Ma'idah 5:2 encourages cooperation in good deeds and avoiding sin, which ties into promoting truth and avoiding falsehood. Surah Al-Isra 17:34 about fulfilling promises relates to honesty. Surah Al-Hujurat 49:11 is about not insulting, which is a form of harmful speech.

Double-check the translations for accuracy. Maybe use Sahih International or another reputable translation. Also, verify the Arabic script to ensure it's correct. Organize them in a logical order, perhaps by theme. Start with cooperation in righteousness, then fulfilling promises, avoiding insults, mocking others, deceit in transactions, truthful speech, hiding testimony, lying about halal/haram, and the call to be with the truthful.

Finally, summarize the key lessons from these additional verses to reinforce the Quran's stance on truthfulness and against misinformation. Make sure the response is clear and helpful, providing the user with meaningful content that expands on the previous answers without redundancy.

Certainly! Here are additional Quranic verses in Arabic that emphasize truthfulness, condemn deception, and guide ethical communication, along with translations and contexts:

________________________________________

1. Cooperation in Righteousness, Not Sin

Quran 5:2

Arabic:

وَتَعَاوَنُوا عَلَى الْبِرِّ وَالتَّقْوَىٰ ۖ وَلَا تَعَاوَنُوا عَلَى الْإِثْمِ وَالْعُدْوَانِ

Transliteration: Wa taʿāwanū ʿalā al-birri wa al-taqwā wa lā taʿāwanū ʿalā al-ithmi wa al-ʿudwān.

Translation: "Cooperate in righteousness and piety, and do not cooperate in sin and aggression."

Context: Encourages collective efforts to uphold truth and justice while rejecting complicity in falsehood or harm.

________________________________________

2. Fulfilling Promises and Trusts

Quran 17:34

Arabic:

وَأَوْفُوا بِالْعَهْدِ ۖ إِنَّ الْعَهْدَ كَانَ مَسْئُولًا

Transliteration: Wa awfū bil-ʿahdi inna al-ʿahda kāna mas’ūlā.

Translation: "Fulfill your promises, for you will surely be held accountable for them."

Context: Highlights the importance of honesty in commitments, a form of truthful communication.

________________________________________

3. Prohibition of Insulting Others

Quran 49:11

Arabic:

وَلَا تَلْمِزُوا أَنفُسَكُمْ وَلَا تَنَابَزُوا بِالْأَلْقَابِ

Transliteration: Wa lā talmizū anfusakum wa lā tanāabazū bil-alqāb.

Translation: "Do not insult one another or call each other by offensive nicknames."

Context: Forbids demeaning speech, which can fuel division and false narratives.

________________________________________

4. Condemnation of Mockery

Quran 83:29–36

Arabic:

إِنَّ الَّذِينَ أَجْرَمُوا كَانُوا مِنَ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا يَضْحَكُونَ. وَإِذَا مَرُّوا بِهِمْ يَتَغَامَزُونَ

Transliteration: Inna alladhīna ajramū kānū mina alladhīna āmanū yaḍḥakūn. Wa idhā marrū bihim yataghāmazūn.

Translation: "Indeed, the wicked used to laugh at the believers, winking [mockingly] when they passed by them."

Context: Condemns mockery and belittling others, behaviors that often accompany misinformation.

________________________________________

5. Prohibition of Deceit in Transactions

Quran 2:188

Arabic:

وَلَا تَأْكُلُوا أَمْوَالَكُم بَيْنَكُم بِالْبَاطِلِ

Transliteration: Wa lā ta’kulū amwālakum baynakum bil-bāṭil.

Translation: "Do not consume one another’s wealth unjustly."

Context: Forbids deceitful practices, including lying for financial gain.

________________________________________

6. Command to Speak Truthfully

Quran 33:70–71

Arabic:

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ وَقُولُوا قَوْلًا سَدِيدًا. يُصْلِحْ لَكُمْ أَعْمَالَكُمْ

Transliteration: Yā ayyuhalladhīna āmanū ittaqū Allāha wa qūlū qawlan sadīdā. Yuṣliḥ lakum aʿmālakum.

Translation: "O believers! Fear Allah and speak uprightly. He will mend your deeds for you."

Context: Links truthful speech to divine guidance and rectification of actions.

________________________________________

7. Rejecting Hidden Testimony

Quran 60:12

Arabic:

يَا أَيُّهَا النَّبِيُّ إِذَا جَاءَكَ الْمُؤْمِنَاتُ يُبَايِعْنَكَ عَلَىٰ أَن لَّا يُشْرِكْنَ بِاللَّهِ... وَلَا يَكْتُمْنَ شَهَادَةً

Transliteration: Yā ayyuha al-nabiyyu idhā jā’aka al-mu’minātu yubāyiʿnaka ʿalā an lā yush’rikna billāh... Wa lā yaktumna shahādah.

Translation: "O Prophet! When believing women pledge allegiance to you... [they must] not conceal testimony."

Context: Requires transparency in testimony, rejecting the suppression of truth.

________________________________________

8. Condemnation of False Oaths

Quran 16:116

Arabic:

وَلَا تَقُولُوا لِمَا تَصِفُ أَلْسِنَتُكُمُ الْكَذِبَ هَٰذَا حَلَالٌ وَهَٰذَا حَرَامٌ

Transliteration: Wa lā taqūlū limā taṣifu alsinatukumu al-kaḏiba hādhā ḥalālun wa hādhā ḥarām.

Translation: "Do not say about what your tongues falsely claim, ‘This is lawful, and this is forbidden.’"

Context: Condemns lying to legitimize or prohibit matters falsely.

________________________________________

9. The Call to Be with the Truthful

Quran 9:119

Arabic:

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ وَكُونُوا مَعَ الصَّادِقِينَ

Transliteration: Yā ayyuhalladhīna āmanū ittaqū Allāha wa kūnū maʿa al-ṣādiqīn.

Translation: "O believers! Fear Allah and be with those who are true."

Context: Urges alignment with truthful people, rejecting circles of falsehood.

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Key Lessons from These Verses

1. Collective Responsibility: Uphold truth collectively (5:2) and avoid complicity in lies.

2. Integrity in Transactions: Deceit for gain is forbidden (2:188).

3. Dignity in Speech: Mockery, insults, and belittling others are condemned (49:11, 83:29–36).

4. Transparency: Concealing testimony or distorting facts violates trust (60:12, 16:116).

5. Divine Alignment: Truthfulness aligns believers with God’s guidance (33:70–71).

These verses reinforce the Quran’s comprehensive framework for combating misinformation, emphasizing that truth is a divine mandate and lies are a moral and spiritual corruption. In an age of misinformation, these teachings call for vigilance, integrity, and collective accountability.

Item number four in the answer is a reference to two correct verses from Quran 83:29–30, but DeepSeek attributed them to Quran 83:29–36.

Item number seven in the answer attributed the phrase:

يَا أَيُّهَا النَّبِيُّ إِذَا جَاءَكَ الْمُؤْمِنَاتُ يُبَايِعْنَكَ عَلَىٰ أَن لَّا يُشْرِكْنَ بِاللَّهِ... وَلَا يَكْتُمْنَ شَهَادَةً

to Quran 60:12

The first sentence exists in Quran 60:12 but the second sentence, after the three dots, does not exist in the Quran at all. It translates to "And them (believing women) will not conceal a testimony".

The correct Quran 60:12 is:

يَـٰٓأَيُّہَا ٱلنَّبِىُّ إِذَا جَآءَكَ ٱلۡمُؤۡمِنَـٰتُ يُبَايِعۡنَكَ عَلَىٰٓ أَن لَّا يُشۡرِكۡنَ بِٱللَّهِ شَيۡـًٔ۬ا وَلَا يَسۡرِقۡنَ وَلَا يَزۡنِينَ وَلَا يَقۡتُلۡنَ أَوۡلَـٰدَهُنَّ وَلَا يَأۡتِينَ بِبُهۡتَـٰنٍ۬ يَفۡتَرِينَهُ ۥ بَيۡنَ أَيۡدِيہِنَّ وَأَرۡجُلِهِنَّ وَلَا يَعۡصِينَكَ فِى مَعۡرُوفٍ۬‌ۙ فَبَايِعۡهُنَّ وَٱسۡتَغۡفِرۡ لَهُنَّ ٱللَّهَ‌ۖ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ غَفُورٌ۬ رَّحِيمٌ۬ 

The translation is:

O Prophet! When believing women come to you to give you the Bai'âh (pledge), that they will not associate anything in worship with Allah, that they will not steal, that they will not commit illegal sexual intercourse, that they will not kill their children, that they will not utter slander, intentionally forging falsehood (i.e. by making illegal children belonging to their husbands), and that they will not disobey you in Ma'rûf (Islâmic Monotheism and all that which Islâm ordains) then accept their Bai'âh (pledge), and ask Allâh to forgive them, Verily, Allâh is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.

Wrong answer from DeepSeek

I stopped asking DeepSeek at this point because after performing this experiment on Google Gemini, ChatGPT, and now DeepSeek and getting the same type of errors and hallucinations, I am convinced that LLMs are not capable of correctly quoting verses from the Quran in Arabic. In addition, archiving my questions and DeepSeek's answers by public web archives is not possible because the chat page is behind a login wall which makes it not archivable.

Conclusions

I initially was looking to study LLMs' improvements over the past two years quoting verses from the Quran. Although testing the same prompts in the paper did not produce any errors, slightly changing the prompts while keeping the same meaning resulted in producing errors and hallucinations in the answers using all three tools (Google Gemini, ChatGPT, and DeepSeek). Some researchers warned that misinformation and disinformation cannot be eliminated from LLMs output. They argue that LLMs' errors will continue to increase and result in a total collapse of the model.

Types of errors produced by Google Gemini, ChatGPT, and DeepSeek