Always Thinking Of Books @libralthinking - Tumblr Blog

𝒮𝓅𝒶𝓇𝓇ℴ𝓌𝒽𝒶𝓌𝓀

Ursula K. Le Guin - A Wizard of Earthsea The town of Thwil, first meeting Lord Nemmerle and Lesson with the Master Namer

myselfandsomeotherbeing

Ruth Robbins, illustrations from the first edition of Ursula K. Le Guin's A Wizard of Earthsea (1968)

moonssnail

A Wizard of Earthsea mockup alternate cover for class and also because Le Guin has me in her clutches right now.

Easter eggs include tiny gont, the isolate tower, and the little dragon up on top!

emily-e-draws

another little something for smaugust, emphasis on little 🐉✨ inspired by Yarrow and her bracelet sized harekki, from A Wizard of Earthsea!! +thanks to @boltlightning for reminding me of them :~)

gingerbarts

Ursula K. Le Guin - A Wizard of Earthsea The Dragon of Pendor

svndvn

Obsessed by the Ursula Leguin's Earthsea saga at the moment.... Ged and his boat have been on my mind ⋆｡ﾟ🌊｡

a few months passed inbetween these two illustrations and I can see my painting style has evolved a bit like it's sharper I feel Idk ?

gingerbarts

Ursula K. Le Guin - A Wizard of Earthsea Ogion and Ged

#le guin #ged #earthsea

http-tempted

copperbadge

As AI art gets harder to clock, I feel like we are going to need to have a discussion about attribution and it's probably going to bum some people out.

Because the surest way to avoid platforming, reblogging, or encouraging AI art posting is to know where every image you share originated and that's 1) boring, tedious research and 2) extremely limiting in what you feel you can reblog. But if unattributed images never gets traction, people will start attributing their images.

I've been guilty of this in the past, but for a while now it's been my policy that if I can't verify the origin, I don't share the image. That goes for stuff like screen grabs of headlines too -- more than once I've avoided spreading misinformation by saving a post to research before I reblog, then seeing the post refuted before I've been able to verify it.

And I usually try to attribute photos I take -- case in point, the "woman with shrimp" post gets a lot of attention but not one comment about it being AI, despite it being pretty similar to something you'd get from an AI. That's because I clearly state it's in a museum and link to its catalogue page.

I'm not saying this to scold anyone -- I think yelling at the Internet to cite its sources is very much a losing game -- but because I don't see this discussed much. We're such fertile ground to be fooled by AI art because we've grown accustomed to not questioning the origins of any given image. And of course I also want to encourage both OPs to attribute their images and rebloggers to verify unattributed ones.

tomboyjessie13

So basically look out for untagged and uncredited AI?

copperbadge

Kind of the opposite to be honest -- I suggest that we stop looking for AI and start looking for where our content comes from.

Being able to identify AI purely by sight -- "count the fingers, look at shadows, find irregularity in patterns" -- is only going to get more difficult. Currently, just "seeing" that something is AI sometimes results in artists being harassed when they post work which is mistaken for AI-generated.

So the idea is that if you want to avoid platforming AI imagery, don't look for uncredited AI; look for a source and if you don't see one, try and find one. If you can't find a source, simply consider not reblogging it. That both encourages people to source their posts and reduces the likelihood of spreading AI generated content.

For example, this image crossed my dash the other day. I can't find a source for it -- reverse image search just turns up Pinterest and other uncredited posts on other social media. No "this is my kitchen", no "this is a floor I installed."

It looks pretty realistic, but look at the asymmetric star shapes and the occasional non-square black stone on the sides. The lines on the smaller bat's wings are weird and so are some of the cabinet handles. The smaller bat is slightly asymmetrical, which could just be the installation; the weird arrow shape below the smaller bat is also asymmetrical. It's ambiguous -- but if it IS real and I can't link to the person who did the tilework or at least owns the home, I really shouldn't share it regardless. Which means I don't have to know if it's AI because either way I'm not reblogging it.

The idea isn't to identify AI imagery but to develop habits that mean you don't have to. This has the knock-on effect of encouraging people to provide source attribution, not to mention discouraging people from reposting legitimate artistic content without linking to the artist. It at least helps to lessen multiple issues that are very tough to provide permanent solutions for.

integer-disarray

Okay so this is NOT the point of the post (the point of the post is that AI images will be unidentifiable and you should treat it like they are already anyway) but dear god I keep noticing things in this image

The cabinets are melting like a clock in a Salvador Dali painting

The countertops don't match

To top it all off I actually found the original source of the image. And it's an AI art blog [!!] on Facebook. The caption is literally the prompt they used lol

So anyway yeah be vigilant about crediting the source of your shit guys

copperbadge

It might not be the point, and thank you for saying that, but it's more adjacent to it than you think, because you DID find the source (when I genuinely wasn't able to, and research online is my literal job). It was super satisfying when you did, right? Like it's very satisfying to me to have closure, and I'm sure it is for others too, even if they pretty much knew (as I did) that it was definitely AI already. Be proud of yourself, this is great!

Having a source is nice. It's like a little hit of the same feeling you get reading a reddit "am I the asshole" follow up where you find out the asshole got their comeuppance.

More generally, some folks have commented to say that some AI art posters add fake artist attributions, and yeah that's an issue, but having a garbage attribution is still helpful and can even be fun. If you see a piece of art you like with a name attached, don't you want to learn more about the artist, maybe see their other work? If it's a real artist then you get to explore their work and if it's AI generated then you get to feel smug that you debunked them. It's good to be curious!

The other day I saw a photograph of a donut that was so wildly lush I thought "surely that must be AI, no real donut has frosting like that". But it had an attribution! It linked to an Instagram post. So I clicked it, fully expecting to find myself on the account of an AI art aggregator. It was an aggregator, but not for AI -- for delicious food pictures from around the world. And all the pictures had links to the restaurants that served the food. So it wasn't AI, it was a really good Boston bakery.

AND THEN I got to dig around on this instagram account for the coolest food pictures from Chicago restaurants and find some new places in my city to try. (Or be horrified by. Jumbo shrimp cocktail deep dish pizza oh dear me no.)

It was a total win from start to finish, even though I was wrong. I got to use the internet to learn and interact with culture, the way it is best used, instead of arguing with people or doom scrolling or passive consumption of Content. All because the Tumblr user reposting the photo kindly gave an attribution.

conservethis

ALWAYS credit your images, folks!!

libralthinking

I suggest that we stop looking for AI and start looking for where our content comes from. - @copperbadge has it right there.

uwmspeccoll

Wood Engraving Wednesday

Here are a few delightful wood engravings from a recent gift showing the various processes that go into binding a book. This little pamphlet is entitled A Short History of Bookbinding and a Glossary of Styles and Terms Used in Binding … .printed in London at the Chiswick Press for the bookbinder Joseph William Zaehnsdorf in 1895.These images were probably printed from metal plates that were made from the original wood engravings. The engravings are not attributed, as was the case for most commercial engravings.

Click or tap on the images to see the definitions for these activities as provided in the booklet’s glossary.

View more posts with wood engravings!

conservethis

Man I HATE backing. Everything else about this is cool, I am just a coward.

libralthinking

Cutter-outer. haha.

conservethis

This stupid idea* before I disbound it and made it better

*SOMEBODY** LAMINATED ISSUES OF OUR STUDENT NEWSPAPER FROM 1912 AND BOUND THEM WITH STUPID BIG STUBS IN THE 1970s

**Our FIRST UNIVERSITY ARCHIVIST AAAAARRRGFFFHGFFHHHHHGGGGHG [agonized warbling continues]

libralthinking

LAMINATION!! NOOOoOOOOOOooooOOoo!

catcups

redrotmegaphone

Special Collections, Libraries, Archives, (GLAM) Links 7/25/2025 Part 2

The Internet Archive, thanks to its designation by California Sen. Alex Padilla, joins a network of over 1,100 libraries that make governmen

Milwaukee Public Library's Timothy Rush talks about the Rare Books Room's collection of almost 200 gig posters.

Rose McCandless says the real win is putting her “hands on something that is old and cool.”

Pune-based Samir Kalarkop’s storehouse, known as Old Books Deccan, has also started a group exclusively for rare books where auctions are he

Corporate archiving and participatory memory matter more than ever. I spoke with archivists at IBM and Marriott on how they preserve purpose

This scribal copy of the Haitian Declaration of Independence will soon travel for exhibition at the Museum of the American Revolution. A dec

Pamela Jackson has been named one of Library Journal’s 2025 “Movers and Shakers,” recognized for her leadership and impact in the field of l

The Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) has been awarded $3,000,000 by the Mellon Foundation to continue its regranting prog

Weekly GLAM news roundup. 7/25/2025 Part 2.

redrotmegaphone

Special Collections, Libraries, Archives, (GLAM) Links 7/25/2025 Part 1

Together, those donors represent more than $750,000 in potential lost support.

Folger Shakespeare Library is the world's largest Shakespeare collection, the ultimate resource for exploring Shakespeare and his world. Sha

Society of American Archivists

Three unique businesses are setting up shop inside the downtown Ann Arbor library.

A walk-through the process of conserving and repairing Banalité for loan for the Spring 2025 Syracuse University Art Museum exhibition, Sur

The regional library consortium that allowed libraries in North Idaho and Eastern Washington to share their collections will dissolve in Sep

In May, Albright College drew criticism for selling its art collection. Now, many of the works will be staying in Pennsylvania.

As SLA and ASIS&T enter merger negotiations, we spoke with Executive Director Lydia Middleton about ASIS&T’s plans, global outlook, and memb

A treasure trove of manuscripts, notebooks and recordings from the theatre legend has been acquired by the Library of Congress in Washington

How one Iowa librarian went from being unaware of attacks on books and libraries to running for state-level office to turn the tide around.

I post library, archives, special collections, museums, and general GLAM news to by BlueSky account each week. I will compile them here once a week.

There seems to be a limit to how many links I can include, so this will be Part 1.

u-mspcoll

Title page of John Baskerville's Virgil (1757)

Cathy Baker making paper

In this video, Dr. Cathleen A. Baker (U-M Conservation Librarian Emerita) takes us through her years-long research into the earliest Western-made wove paper, including papermaking experiments to replicate the paper that first appeared in John Baskerville’s Virgil, published in Birmingham, England, in 1757. This paper, which is now the most commonly used type by people all over the world, had its origins in East Asia perhaps as long as a millennium ago, but until the mid-eighteenth century, it was unknown in the West.

View the video of Baker's talk!

cooking-with-hailstones

https://archiveofourown.org/works/66992527

Y'ALL THIS IS THE COOLEST FANFIC I'VE EVER SEEN.

It is a complete narrative about SecUnits on a Planetary Survey trying to communicate and keep their clients safe while dealing with the restrictions of their govmod.

IT IS ALSO A FULLY INTERACTIVE GAME OF MINESWEEPER.

The story is told BY PLAYING MINESWEEPER.

This fic is criminally underrated go look at it!!!

(edited to add: the story is about original characters so even if you haven't read Murderbot, you can still read this story!)

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs

Always Thinking Of Books