The Distant Librarian

Fire Weather - links

I just finished reading Fire Weather: The Making of a Beast by John Vaillant, and wanted a place to keep the links mentioned in the epilogue.

This is not a review, but this really is a book you should put on your to-read list, especially if you live in Alberta. It tells the story of the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire, which is currently the costliest natural disaster in Canadian history. Lots of history of the area, of the science behind our current reality, and of the petroleum industry that wags the Canadian dog.

The links:

• Koch Docs: Hard to find documents about Charles Koch and his agenda all in one place.
• Canadian Energy Centre - oh, it's actually still alive and online?!
• The Climate Investigations Center
• DeSmog
• Smoke & Fumes
• The Discovery of Global Warming
• Inside Climate News
• Climate Files
• Some terrifying video from YouTube, in case you've forgotten all about that wildfire

One of the best uses of GenAI I've seen yet - CanLII the Canadian Legal Information Institute

A colleague alerted me to the existence of this project, which had flown under my radar. The Canadian Legal Information Institute (CanLII) has used "a commercially available Large Language Model (LLM)" to generate summaries of primary case law, and legislative documents for Alberta, Manitoba, Prince Edward Island, and Saskatchewan.

It's the summaries of legislative documents that excites me. Legalese doesn't seem very approachable to the layperson, yet some of this stuff can be pretty important to at least know about. Here's the Alberta Libraries Act: https://www.canlii.org/en/ab/laws/stat/rsa-2000-c-l-11/latest/rsa-2000-c-l-11.html As soon as I start scrolling I want to quit. But now I can click on the AI analysis tab and have a summary that even I can understand! Yeah, if it turns out to be something that should involve a lawyer, that's not going to change, but at least this summary gives me a decent chance of understanding what's going on with any given legislative document.

If it's worth sharing, it's worth saving - Wayback to Facebook

I don't know why this particular solution didn't initially resonate with me, other than my doggedly wanting to link to THE ORIGINAL source, but with the recent demise of my locally-hosted instance of ShareNews, I've been searching for other ways to circumvent Facebook's ban on sharing news sites.

I discovered a couple of solid commercial options in ShareKit and Rebrandly that I'll keep in my back pocket, but I prefer not to pay if I don't have to. (side note: news links shared through Bit.ly and any customized rebrands of it are also blocked by FB) Next up was a locally-hosted version of YOURLs, but just as I was about to deploy that I realized the solution had been there all along, even as already noted by me:

Send the link to the Internet Archive using the Wayback Machine browser extension, then paste the resulting URL into Facebook. This method has the advantage of ensuring your newsworthy article is saved for others to view in perpetuity, should it disappear from the original location for any reason.

The extension is available for FF, Safari, Chrome and Edge, and also as an app for iOS and Android, so this should cover pretty much any platform on which you prefer to work.

Here's a quick screencast showing it in action. It's actually faster than my previous solution. The only potential drawback is that FB bans all links from the Internet Archive, but I'm sure lots of folks have been using this option since the ban began, and they haven't yet, so fingers crossed!

Oh, and other options include posting a news link to a social media site such as Mastodon or Twitter, then posting the link to that post into FB, but then you lose the open graph data that makes the post so much more fulsome. Metadata FTW!

Generative AI courses for your mom

I know it's cliché, but I AM actually trying to help my mom understand Generative AI a little more (hi, mom!).

I just completed this free course, and recommend it as a gentle introduction to generative AI: Destination AI: Introduction to Artificial Intelligence. It will require an investment of time, though maybe not quite the 6 hours it claims. The only big drawback is that if you fail a quiz, you'll have to wait a full 24 hours before you can re-take it. That said, you CAN move on to another module even if you don't pass the quiz, so not that big a deal.

What will you learn?

• What AI really is (and what it’s not!).
• The impact of artificial intelligence on the workplace and on society as a whole.
• Go behind the scenes of an artificial intelligence project and get familiar with concepts like deep learning and machine learning.

What if your mom's a teacher? I haven't actually taken this course, but Google offers Generative AI for Educators, which is shorter, at only 2 suggested hours.

You’ll learn how to use generative AI tools to:

• Save time on everyday tasks like drafting emails and other correspondence
• Personalize instruction for different learning styles and abilities
• Enhance lessons and activities in creative ways

Launching ChatGPT Voice Chat on an iPhone 12 with back-tap

In today's issue of Ethan Mollick's One Useful Thing, I learned that the iPhone 15 has a unique button I hadn't paid any attention to - the action button. He mentioned how the action button can be used to launch a voice chat with ChatGPT, and I found instructions at TechCrunch. But I only have an iPhone 12!

I knew the iPhone has a feature called Shortcuts, but I'd never really found a use for them. I also recalled that there are a couple of accessibility features on the iPhone that allow actions to be performed by, for instance, double-tapping the back of the phone. I asked Perplexity how to recreate the action button thing on my older phone, and got the following excellent instructions:

Based on the search results provided, here's what you can do with the Back Tap feature on your iPhone 12 to launch a voice chat with ChatGPT:

## Using Back Tap to Launch a ChatGPT Voice Shortcut

The search results indicate that the Accessibility > Touch > Back Tap feature on iPhone allows you to assign various actions to a double or triple tap on the back of your device. [3]

You can use this to launch a custom Shortcut that starts a voice conversation with ChatGPT, without having to unlock your iPhone or use Siri. Here's how:

1. Create a new Shortcut in the Shortcuts app called "ChatGPT Voice" that includes the "Start Voice Conversation" action from the ChatGPT section. [1][2][3]

2. Go to Settings > Accessibility > Touch > Back Tap. [3]

3. Select either "Double Tap" or "Triple Tap" and choose the "ChatGPT Voice" shortcut you just created. [3]

Now, whenever you double or triple tap the back of your iPhone 12, it will automatically launch the ChatGPT voice conversation mode, allowing you to speak your questions and get responses from ChatGPT without having to unlock your device or use Siri. [1][3]

This provides a quick and hands-free way to access ChatGPT's voice capabilities directly from your iPhone 12, using the built-in Back Tap accessibility feature. [3] The search results provide detailed steps on how to set this up.

Citations:
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3fOIE_CJXI
[2] https://www.reddit.com/r/shortcuts/comments/181uy7r/chatgpt_voice_shortcut/
[3] https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/how-to-replace-siri-with-chatgpt-iphone/
[4] https://www.reddit.com/r/iphone/comments/1702w4p/how_to_replace_siri_with_chatgpt_as_your_voice/

Works like a charm! (though as I read that response, I do have to admit it's not actually a hands-free way to access ChatGPT's voice capabilities, but I'm just fine with that.)

Google Scholar PDF Reader

I use Firefox these days, so this wasn't a priority. I've had this tucked away since it was announced about a month ago, but only now got around to trying it out, and I like it! Last month, Google introduced the Google Scholar PDF Reader. I thought about making a quick screencast, but of course someone else has already done a nice job, so here you go. I had a little trouble getting it to read local PDFs until I realized I could just drag them on to the browser.

With whom did Danielle Smith actually consult on her transgender rights policy?

In January 2024, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced "sweeping changes to Alberta's student gender identity, sports and surgery policies" aimed at the province's transgender community. According to news reports, "Alberta’s premier says she’s had many conversations with members of the trans community before and since drafting a suite of policy proposals dealing with transgender rights." I could find no mentions from members of the transgender community of such consultations, so I submitted a FOIP request to the government. My first request was, apparently, too narrow, so upon advice from several readers I resubmitted the following request, which yielded a result:

Several news sites, but specifically CTV at https://globalnews.ca/news/10281751/alberta-says-it-consulted-widely-in-drafting-controversial-transgender-rights-policy/ have reported that Premier Danielle Smith "consulted widely" before announcing policy changes affecting transgender and non-binary youth and adults on January 31, 2024.

I am seeking all documents, including correspondence, that describe or make reference to the planning of that consultation, including but not limited to references to parties, organizations and individuals with whom the Premier met on this issue, including dates, locations and how long each meeting lasted.

Timeframe: May 29, 2023 to Feb 16, 2024

Attached is the response, which shows a single, 30-minute meeting, with one person whose name has been redacted.

EC000-2024-G-12 Applicant Copy (PDF)

As mentioned in that CTV report, Premier Smith also said,

“It’s not a single voice and it’s not a single perspective.” Danielle Smith said during a Feb. 5 press conference in Ottawa. But it was one individual’s experience in particular, Smith says, that prompted the province to take action.

Yet my FOIP request suggests it was, in fact, a single voice that persuaded Danielle Smith to announce this ideological policy.

Can anyone shed light on that Organizer: MDS Final line? Is that an Outlook thing, or is it possibly related to the meeting? It looks like the former, but Google doesn't seem to think so...

#TRAHR

Competencies for Generative AI in Libraries

I recently had the pleasure of speaking at the online conference, AI and Libraries: Applications, Implications, and Possibilities. It was a quick talk, but mine was initially titled, A Framework for AI Literacy in Libraries. In the middle of the talk I changed the title to the more accurate, Competencies for Generative AI in Libraries :-) There are recordings of each of the sessions at that URL, but if you want to see my slides, which include some solid links, IMHO, they can be accessed at https://piv.al/AI_Framework.

Do take a look at all the recordings - I'm sure there's something of interest for most of you in there. Note that the chat logs for each session are included, and that's where you'll find lots of great links that participants were tossing in to support whatever the speaker was talking about. If you watch nothing else, watch the closing conversation with Dr. Maggie Melo, and then the Opening Keynote.

And finally, there will be another round of presentations coming up on April 18th, so sign up if you want to be in the loop to attend live, or to receive recordings after the fact. It's free. (if you were involved in the first round, you don't need to sign up again).

Seeking Alberta FOIP advice

I recently put in a FOIP request to the Alberta Executive Council and got a pretty quick response that no records exist (EC000-2024-G-10 closure letter).

I asked for clarification, and received,

"Based on your very specific request for a list, a thorough search was undertaken to locate the records, and it was discovered that no such list (record) exists with Executive Council. FOIP is unable to interpret results of a search other than convey the results."

That wording makes me think something does exist, but I have to re-word, or ask a different department. Anyone have any advice?

My original request was,

Several news sites, but specifically CTV at https://globalnews.ca/news/10281751/alberta-says-it-consulted-widely-in-drafting-controversial-transgender-rights-policy/ have reported that Premier Danielle Smith "consulted widely" before announcing policy changes affecting transgender and non-binary youth and adults on January 31, 2024.

I am requesting a list of all parties, organizations and individuals with whom the Premier met on this issue, including dates, locations and how long each meeting lasted.

Timeframe: May 29, 2023 to Feb 16, 2024
Eliminations: duplicate records, draft records, email records which are duplicated in the final longest string, records subject to solicitor/client or litigation privilege, records containing third party business information, and records containing third party personal information.

Should I not have asked for a "list"?

Qualitative Data in the News

It seems a rarity, but I have two really interesting sites open in my browser talking about qualitative data in the relatively current environment. The first, Pandemic Journaling Project Archive Opens for Research, is notable because it fills a big gap. As the article notes,

“There are several large quantitative surveys in the social sciences that are broadly used,” says Karcher, “but qualitative datasets that are large enough to be analyzed from so many different angles are very, very rare. The PJP data are going to be a treasure for social scientists for years to come, and we at QDR couldn’t be more excited to be the permanent home for them.”

That does remind me of another tab I have open that I wanted to explore - A listing of qualitative data results from the lunaris data repository here in Canada...

The second is timely in that it talks about the problems of using AI to try to perform qualitative data analysis. How not to: We failed at analyzing public discourse on AI with ChatGPT. A couple of weeks ago, I was able to help a researcher successfully use NVivo's automatic coding using existing coding patterns feature, and wonder if it would've helped in this case.

Related to the above, I know folks are exploring the use of ChatGPT and other AI tools to assist with qualitative data analysis, but I sure haven't yet seen anything that makes me think we're very close yet. And that leaves aside the questions around confidentiality in letting any online tool churn through qualitative data. Though I do still have to delve more deeply into CoLoop and Qeludra.

2023 Access Conference Recordings

There's not (yet?) a link to each recording in the original schedule, but the recordings from the 2023 Access Library Conference, held in Halifax on October 23-25, 2023, are now live on YouTube. Definitely some good stuff worth checking out!

Some personal 2023 statistics

Not quite as intimate as Brian's, but according to the sites with whom I share my info, I read 37 books with 13,262 pages last year, and I cycled and ran 5,689 kms (3,535 miles), not including my e-bike commutes. I plan for 2024 to be significantly bigger on the cycling front, so stay tuned. I know you don't care, but I still use this site as an auxiliary brain :-) You should be able to click to embiggen either of these infographics.

 

llamafile is the new best way to run a LLM on your own computer

I lifted the title directly from Simon Willison's post: llamafile is the new best way to run a LLM on your own computer, even though I don't have the expertise to know if it's the BEST way. I can tell you it's a damn easy way, even on Windows! Simon's explanation works on a mac, but you can also run this on Windows with the following miniscule changes.

1. Download the 4.26GB llamafile-server-0.1-llava-v1.5-7b-q4 file from Justine’s repository on Hugging Face.
2. Open Command Prompt and navigate to the location of your downloaded file.
3. Simply type the filename and wait for your default browser to display http://127.0.0.1:8080/

Simon reports that on his M2 Mac he's seeing 55 tokens per second. On my brand-spanking new Dell office machine running Windows 10, I get 5.5 tokens per second :-( I was getting ready to grump all over Windows, here, but on my 2-year-old M1 MacBook Air it barely runs at all, clocking in with 0.35 tokens per second. And now my MacBook Air has crashed - maybe don't try running it on yours, or do, and tell me why mine sucked so hard! :-)

AI Linkdump

I just came out of a webinar that generated a slew of good-looking links, and was off on Friday, so have a handful of newsletters, also with tasty-looking links. The rest of the day is full, and I fear I may not get to these for some time, so here, maybe you have time:

In no particular order:

• Reflections on Information Literacy in the ChatGPT Era
• Looking towards a brighter future: A new research report examines the potential and the practicalities of using AI in library spaces.
• AI Observatory (a collection of policies and guidelines around AI)
• Gen AI Annotated bibliography
• https://theresanaiforthat.com/
• Generative AI Tools: A Petting Zoo
• Custom instructions for ChatGPT *** I did not know about this!
• Artificial Intelligence in the Classroom
• APA on How to cite ChatGPT (I think this one is a dupe for me!)
• UTK LibGuide on Using Generative AI
• https://www.explainpaper.com/
• AI: The Future Favours the Prepared Instructor (UofA)
• Generative AI & Your Course (MIT)

 

Two simple ways to share news to Facebook in Canada

Update 05/24/24: my hosted version of sharenews was blocked by FB a couple of weeks ago. See option #1 below, or this post for a little more about it.

Update 10/3/23: both of those Sharenews URLs have been blocked by Facebook, but the developer released his code as open source, so you can now run the service from https://sharenews.pival.me/. Bookmarklet links below have been updated to point to that new location.

If you're in Canada and unable to post news articles to Facebook due to Bill C-18, here are two simple options for you.

1. Send the link to the Internet Archive using the Wayback Machine browser extension, then paste the resulting URL into Facebook. Firefox link Chrome link. This method has the advantage of ensuring your newsworthy article is saved for others to view in perpetuity, should it disappear from the original location for any reason.
2. Someone has built a page called ShareNews.ca (now ShareMyLink.ca) specifically to work around this. All it does is ask you to past your URL, then prepends the URL https://www.sharemylink.ca/ to the front of the URL of the page that you're trying to share, and, for now at least, Facebook is allowing that URL to be included in a post. If you'd like to streamline the process a bit, I built a bookmarklet that allows you to perform that same process w/o having to visit the ShareNews.ca website first. Hit the bookmarklet while on the page you want to share, and it'll prepend the sharenews.ca URL to it and place the whole thing in your clipboard, ready to share to FB. Here it is - just drag this to your shortcuts bar: ShareNews

(if that bookmarklet link gets stripped, here's the actual code:

javascript: (function () { var currentUrl = location.href; var newUrl = "https://sharenews.pival.me/" + currentUrl; navigator.clipboard.writeText(newUrl); alert("The new URL is in your clipboard and ready to post to FB"); })();

Thanks for the pointer to ShareNews.ca, Heather!

Update 9/18/23: updated link and bookmarklet to point to https://www.sharemylink.ca

New to bookmarklets?