Public service announcement.

(Created by https://bsky.app/profile/campfireharve.st )

I built this tool a year ago but I feel like Mastodon folks would like it

The "Weird Old Book Finder"

Type in a search query, and it'll find one randomly-chosen public-domain book that matches the query -- and present it for immediate reading: https://www.weirdoldbookfinder.net/

Why only one book? To prevent the paradox of choice! Just *start readin'*

Can't promise every book will be weird, but most are

A longer essay on how/why I developed it: https://debugger.medium.com/a-search-engine-that-finds-you-weird-old-books-3a74fbb5f3d4

This was a search for "mastodon"

My village only posts important information on Facebook. I don't have a Facebook account.

Many US government offices and departments, esp on the local level, only post official messages on proprietary social media platforms like Twitter X and esp, Facebook. That is the only place they post, not even on their websites.

In times of emergencies or critical events, this means people not on those platforms miss out.

We need a strong law in the US that says if a gov office, federal, state or local, posts info to the public primarily online, they must do so in an open fashion. Alternatives could be adding RSS, cross-posting to their website, etc.

Locking citizens out because they choose not to use a platform is bad.

At the SURF Research Day 2025 Conference, we hosted a session on researchers and supporters: supply and demand. Our session brought together researchers and supporters to discuss the needs of researchers and the services offered by supporters.

We are excited to share the full session report now published on Zenodo:

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15753764

#srd25 #research #openscience