Amid rising threats against Jews in the UK we were pleased to be able to contribute to the latest BBC Panorama.
Lord Daniel Finkelstein spoke from our Reading Room, in the institution founded by his grandfather, about a torrent of antisemitic abuse he has faced recently from far right trolls.
The study divided 54 subjects—18 to 39 year-olds from the Boston area—into three groups, and asked them to write several SAT essays using OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s search engine, and nothing at all, respectively. Researchers used an EEG to record the writers’ brain activity across 32 regions, and found that of the three groups, ChatGPT users had the lowest brain engagement and “consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioral levels.” Over the course of several months, ChatGPT users got lazier with each subsequent essay, often resorting to copy-and-paste by the end of the study.
So what do we know about GenAI?
1) It erodes cognitive functions, including problem-solving, criticality, and memory. There's an MIT study (summarised at time.com/7295195/ai-c...) among many articles documenting 'cognitive offloading'.
(We'd lose fitness too, if we got a bot to exercise for us)
🧵
*chants* clean, bare hands!
Faculty are right that AI output is mediocre. They’re wrong about why, writes Nicholas Creel
https://ow.ly/pxN350Yxu3I
We were honoured to gather to celebrate the life and work of Dr Paul Ayris, Pro-Vice Provost, @ucllccos.bsky.social, and UCL Press founder, and to mark the launch of his book Thomas Cranmer’s Register.
Read more about the event and Paul’s extraordinary contributions: uclpress.co.uk/celebrating-...
Have you caught up on our latest Archivist in the Spotlight blog yet?
Join Cassy Sacher, Senior Librarian @leobaeckcollege.bsky.social on the journey of creating their new reading room.
Read it here: celebratingjewisharchives.org/blog/archivi...
#ICYMI #Archives #JewishCulture #Libraries #Blog
On the heels of the Ephemera Society of America conference, it’s ✨a new episode of Bite Sized Book History✨ all about ephemera! youtu.be/vHHTP36GUzc?...
Bless the librarians of Aberystwyth University for sending this blog out to their students: "Wait a Minute…What If I Don’t Want to Use AI?"
#LibrarySky
A lovely evening at UCL celebrating the life of Paul Ayris and the publication of his new book. Tinged with sadness as we know how much he would have loved the party
uclpress.co.uk/book/thomas-...
A really interesting post on libraries and archives’ responses to AI.
Yep, if you’re Scottish
Though Scotland should be on there at the bottom, surely
The University of Cambridge unsealed the papers of Anglo-Jewish author Amy Levy, who was a trailblazer for writing about Jewish identity during the Victorian era.
Who owns a woman’s story once she is gone? And who should be allowed to read her personal writings? Zia Saylor for JWA: buff.ly/kIj1bZi
At the opposite extreme I typed ‘Cyrano’ and got ‘a train’ yesterday!
This would be easier to follow if you had a separate thread for each speaker
Thread ⬇️
Our first #MetaFutures session is on "From Questions to Queries: Using AI to surface metadata in library search" with Lucy Campbell & Keven Jeffery of San Diego State University (SDSU) Library @sdsulibrary.bsky.social
I spent 4 months trying to answer a simple question: has this book been translated into my language?
Turns out no one tracks this. Not ISBN registries. Not Amazon. Not Google. Not libraries.
So I built a tool that crosses four databases to piece it together.
zenodot.app
The Perils of Using Generative AI to Perform Research Tasks: Editors’ and Publishers’ Viewpoints, via @scholarlykitchen.bsky.social
scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2026/03/09/g...
#AI #AI4researchers #IA
Logo with the words 'Information Professional Jobs' on a dark blue background, highlighting career opportunities in information professions.
The British Library is seeking an exceptional individual to become the next Chief Executive. This is a rare opportunity to lead a national institution of global significance and shape its future #Libraries #LISjobs https://ow.ly/Htex50YrIL8
Looking forward to speaking on a Yiddish theatre panel (w/ Isaac Bashevis Singer’s granddaughter) hosted by Jewish Renaissance prior to the 15 March performance of ‘Yentl’ by the Kadimah Yiddish Theatre at the Marylebone Theatre.
@artshumsucl.bsky.social
www.jewishrenaissance.org.uk/events/the-y...
Consider applying to the Conference Grant Programme of the European Association of Jewish Studies - details below.
Deadline 26 March 2026
For the "everything is online" crowd in the back:
Important to consider that "everything" cultural heritage related that is accessible online represents only 1% (one percent) of archives, libraries, and museum collections worldwide.
"As we have set out to publish our annual Purim issue, I've found it necessary to preface the issue with an apology for our frivolity in light of the state of the world..." (1/3)
ingeveb.org/blog/templat...
Behind the Scenes of Sefaria’s First AI-Assisted Translation: Q&A with Editor Francis Nataf voices.sefaria.org/sheets/70843...
#DH | The EAJS Digital Forum promotes productive links between the dynamic field of Jewish Studies in Europe and the Digital Humanities
#EAJS #DH #JewishStudies
NEW in Pedagogy:
"How to Read Without Text: A Book History Perspective on Tkhines" by Nora Cornell
ingeveb.org/pedagogy/how...
