📣The next NLISN coffee* catch up is today☕
An informal peer to peer get together, these online sessions are monthly & scheduled on different days/times.
Sign up to the JISC mail list to receive invites: www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/weba...
See you there!
*Tea drinkers welcome
Can't get to conferences but still want to know what's going on? Alice helpfully lets you know all the hashtags, so if people are posting (and if I'm there, I will be) you can see what they have to say.
Thank you!
I *think* there are cheap flights to Gdansk and I've never been to Poland - could possibly do that, then maybe even a train to Warsaw and fly home from there?
Or get a train somewhere afterwards (Sweden perhaps?) and fly home from there?
First thought was to go by train, but can't work out a cheap (or fast) enough route.
Closest airport is Billund, so maybe fly there a day early, spend a day at the Lego house, then a short flight to somewhere I haven't been before the day after Counterplay?
Off to Denmark in early May for Counterplay festival, but trying to work out if I can have a (cheap!) adventure on the way there or back!
A graphic of a piece of paper on a desk, with stationery surrounding it. "Reimagining Openness in Academic Libraries" is written in the centre, surrounded by phrases - "engagement with academic staff" "Physical openness of the library space" "OERs?" "Philosophy, Policy, Practice, Provocation?" "Open Access, open research" "Accessibility of resources" "Openness of collaboration" "Alternative formats" "Open communication?" "Removing barriers"
#ALN26 Call for Papers Closing!
We’re really excited about our conference theme and we hope you are too.
Our call for papers closes on 13th March (this Friday!) – so get thinking and get submitting!
Further details at www.academiclibrariesnorth.ac.uk/aln-conferen...
3 homemade biscuits on a plate.
Forced to make biscuits as none in the house. Now to go for my usual trick of eating the first few before they've cooled down...
Oh, fab! Any chance of adding #NLISN26 into the list when you get the chance? nlisn.org/conference/
Super article from an old friend and colleague, and others:
Inclusive Neurodiverse Campuses: A Participatory Approach to Understanding Neurodivergent Belonging in Higher Education, Hamilton, L. G., Williams, J., Neilson, D., & Petty, S. (2026)
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
Hi #EarlyModern Bluesky - did you know that someone brilliant has built working printing presses using Lego and they are trying to get enough supporters so that Lego will release it as a kit?
They look so cool!
beta.ideas.lego.com/product-idea...
Looks like it's only opened today!
Oh, just seen that the @poetrypharmacy.bsky.social has opened a shop in York! Will need to remember that the next time I visit there!
Spent a silly amount of hours this week (half!) writing an article on neurodivergence in library workers and currently trying to resist the temptation to pitch a "ND in library and info work" book! (Far too many "books to write" on my list already though!)
Beer in a bookshop, then if you're anything like me you'll feel sleepy after an afternoon beer and take a nap *in* the bookshop...
My librarian skills are flagging this afternoon...
Looking at neurodiversity in the workplace and there is a press release (e.g. www.lrd.org.uk/free-read/pe...) about research funded by Heston Blumenthal.
Was the actual research published anywhere?! I can only find the press release *everywhere*!
Booked my ticket for Counterplay!
Reasonable price for a 3 day event and *ridiculously* cheap for students, if any students fancy a play festival/conference.
Need to work out travel yet though... cm.dskd.dk/cplay26/signup
A screenshot from a step counter, showing 29,500 steps compared to a goal of 12,000 steps.
Well that's got me a decent step count today! Technically, if I'm over twice my daily goal, that means someone has to carry me everywhere tomorrow to get the average back down, right?
Ornate columns, forming the external wall of a ruined 12th Century abbey
Day out today! Parked in Helmsley, walked to Riveaux Abbey. Hardest decision I intend to make today is whether to have lunch here or back in Helmsley.
So if I wanted to do a Masters by Research or a doctorate based effectively on the social history/life of a historic Edinburgh building, who should I be sidling up to as a supervisor at Edinburgh Uni?
Phew! The most commonly reported figure for overall ND in the population is 15-20% (sometimes people quote one of these rather than include the range). As far as I can tell, this is just an estimate (a guess really, jumping from individual rates to a whole) in a 2020 article. doi.org/10.1093/bmb/...
I wonder if I've still got my DOS 6.1 disks somewhere, from before everything started to go wrong...
...and 3-6% for Dyscalculia now! Final individual one, I think, as they were the top 5 in our survey! Drops away massively before the next one. (Though could include Tic disorders maybe?)
Now onto "overall Neurodivergence in the population", otherwise known as "how long is a piece of string" <sigh>
Another "it depends, doesn't it?" for Dyspraxia / DCD (between 1.8% and 8%?), but best guess from a meta analysis seems to be around 5%! Extra complication for that one in that for other studies I've included adults, this one is *only* children as it doesn't really get diagnosed in adults...
FFS! Already dropped MS Office myself, I think I might be going back to Linux rather than Windows the next time I need to replace my laptop...
So far ended up with probably around 3% of population autistic, ~4% ADHD, 10-20% Dyslexic (depends on "severity" cut-off more than owt else), Dyspraxia / DCD and Dyscalculia is the job for this morning! All from multiple meta analyses (that disagree, but not by as much as individual studies).
Spent a big chunk of yesterday trying to dig out some neurodivergence stats for an article, *so hard*! Books, reports, etc have similar poorly sourced (made up?) stats. Too many serious articles spend 8,000 words saying "somewhere between 0% and practically everyone, it depends...", argh!
1908: the Lancet, one of the most respected scientific journals, calls for 18 age limit on reading in bed amidst a moral panic surrounding children becoming "addicted" to novels, which were "designed to keep kids hooked" and destroy their attention/mental health
Logo for Playful Learning conference showing a pacman ghost hiding in some trees. The conference theme is "Into the Woods".
#PlayLearn Conference 👀
Playful Learning 2026 will be held in Brighton, 1st-3rd July at the University of Sussex. The conference theme is "Into the Woods".
The call for sessions has closed but...
👉Registration will open on Weds 11th March.👈
#GBL #academicSky #HigherEd
