'March' from Eliot Hodgkin's 'The Months', 1951, with Spring in full bloom. There's pale pink bergenia in the centre; a beautiful mauve pasque flower; camellia and early iris just opening; cherry, pieris and ribes blossom; tooth-like blanched chicory and the first 'sticky bud'.

White Swan, Pimlico [Old London] Image from picturesofengland..com Operating on the same site on Vauxhall Bridge Road since 1759, the White Swan pub in Pimlico must certainly count as Old London. While its age is not particularly …

White Swan, Pimlico, since 1759 [Old London]. New blog post theoccasionalinformationist.com/2026/02/26/w...

Thinking just isn’t profitable.

40,000-year-old Stone Age symbols may have paved the way for writing, long before Mesopotamia Over 40,000 years ago, our early ancestors were already carving signs into tools and sculptures. According to a new analysis by linguist Christian Bentz at Saarland University and archaeologist Ewa Du...

Fascinating discovery - and a further reminder that people 40,000 years ago and more were just as smart, just as creative and innovative, as we are.

Lots to #Unlearn about the past

phys.org/news/2026-02...

Libraries and library studies I wrote this piece on libraries and possible educational responses as part of a longer contribution on the informational disciplines and the iSchool. A principal goal was to suggest that libraries…

Rereading my general observations about libraries in the context of overall discussion of library career preparation and research >> Libraries and library studies buff.ly/jPThnYq

Cafe Royal [Old London] You do not get more Old London than the Cafe Royal at the bottom of Regent Street, opened as a restaurant on the same spot in 1865, and recently revived as a luxury hotel after a period of closure …

Oscar Wilde, David Bowie, and afternoon tea. Cafe Royal [Old London] new blog post. theoccasionalinformationist.com/2026/02/07/c...

'Floral Hall, Covent Garden' (1965) by Edward Bawden

A cluster of white snowdrops in bloom amongst a green flowerbed.

Imbolc. The snowdrops return to the garden. With a dark and rainy day, folklore says that the Cailleach can't go out to collect firewood, and winter comes to an end.

The bibliographic elements of Marie Curie While reading Dava Sobel’s fascinating study of the life and work of Marie Curie, I was intrigued by a passing mention of something I had not known before: Curie’s involvement in the ea…

Marie Curie in the history of bibliographic control. New blog post theoccasionalinformationist.com/2026/01/20/t...

“Many academic leaders follow managerial paths rather than scholarly ones ..” (often with no competence, creativity or credibility)

This is a delightful instruction guide for librarians from 1926. Check out the questions posed after each summary and reading list.

Far from being past their shelf life, libraries are essen... These vital institutions can launch businesses and reduce the need for social care

"Responsibility for libraries is ambiguous." True that! Helpful article & suggestion @theobserveruk.bsky.social.

I worry that central Govt. overlooks that librarians are vital in All sectors: Business, Education & NHS as well as Public Libraries.
observer.co.uk/news/opinion...
@cilip.bsky.social

Libraries, alongside higher education, serve a curious, educated and literate populace. There seems to be little enthusiasm for enlightenment from current government, nor indeed much of society. Apparently, reading a whole book is rather too much these days.

Misty sunrise over a frost-covered meadow with silhouettes of leafless trees along a winding stream.

Happy Winter Solstice ❄️

Make sure to get outside today, make use of every bit of daylight we have and when the night comes, know that tomorrow will be that little bit lighter 🙌🏻

📸 Lesley Marshall

I am very sad to learn that Dr Paul Ayris has died. He was internal examiner for my PhD at UCL and offered sound support which underpinned my early academic career. www.leru.org/news/in-memo...

Lovely post on the impact on London of Sir Thomas Gresham. Highly recommend this blog for those interested in London - @alondoninheritance.bsky.social

Cartoon of the operation of Maxwell’s demon, by User:Htkym, via Wikimedia Commons.

Maxwell's Demon was born OTD in 1867 in a letter to Peter Guthrie Tait. M called it only a “finite being.”

Lord Kelvin named it a “demon,” presumably referring to its apparent unearthly power to (locally and temporarily) violate the second law of thermodynamics.

🦫🦋 #HistSTM #philsci 🧪

A graph of two probability distributions; one is high-entropy and therefore very informative (from a communication perspective), the other is low entropy and therefore rather uninformative.

Annual Thanksgiving blog post! This year we are giving thanks for "information."

www.preposterousuniverse.com/blog/2025/11...

Drawing particularly on the writings of @floridi.bsky.social,
@lorcand.bsky.social, @dixondom.bsky.social, and Niels Winfield Lund

A voice out of the dark of time; the once and future LIS discipline. New blog post by myself and @lynrobinson.bsky.social. theoccasionalinformationist.com/2025/11/25/a...

Lovely to see this nod from somebody whose work is central here.

Great reading for LIS folks - covers development of LIS related disciplines through to contemporary concerns for information professionals and LIS students.

Information re-reviewed The nature of information has been reviewed and analysed many times, and from different perspectives, as noted in a previous article by myself and Lyn Robinson. New reviews can always give new insi…

Information re-reviewed. A thorough and insightful review of concepts and theories of information by Luke Tredinnick ... new blog post theoccasionalinformationist.com/2025/09/27/i...

A Japanese colour woodblock print of a scene including river, mountain and autumnal maple leaves

The autumn equinox is here in the northern hemisphere, meaning that the new season has officially begun.

This woodblock print by Hiroshige captures the colours and feeling of autumn beautifully.

🍁 Maple Trees at Mama, Utagawa Hiroshige 1 (1797 - 1858) , 1857. EAX.4362

The term ‘hobbyist’ applied to unfunded research is derogatory. This would seem to be about allowing only academics with grants time to undertake research, and increasing those on teaching only contracts, in order to reduce overall staffing. The result is a much diminished uni sector.

Proceedings from our 5th FanLIS Symposium held earlier this year, 2025. Huge thanks to @ludiprice.bsky.social and Tim Gorichanaz 😎 ideaexchange.uakron.edu/docam/vol12/...

Dark matter and information revisited In a previous post, I described as “over excited” the idea that the mysterious “dark matter”, that hypothetical form of matter that does not interact with lig…

Dark matter and information revisited. Gravity and entropy. Einstein and railway timetables. New blog post. theoccasionalinformationist.com/2025/08/29/d...

Cover of Introduction to Documentation Studies with the ASIS&T logo and the text 'Best Information Science Book Award 2025'

🎉Amazing news! We are thrilled to announce that Introduction to Documentation Studies by Niels Windfeld Lund has won the ASIS&T Best Information Science Book Award 2025 🏆

Learn more about the book and the award 👇 www.asist.org/2025/08/13/i...

Why everything is complex A recent article in Quanta magazine reminds us of the on-going interest in a rather startling proposal regarding the status of information, its relation to complexity, in the physical and biologica…

Why everything is complex. The law of increasing functional information. New blog post. theoccasionalinformationist.com/2025/08/16/w...

Title page of a PhD thesis “Exploring the influence of information overload in the context of digital learning tools”.

Pleased to have spent time earlier today with colleagues from @unistrathclyde.bsky.social as external examiner for Salah Kashlot. “Exploring the influence of information overload in the context of digital learning tools. Congratulations to Salah and the supervisory and examination teams.