Matthew Murray 🦇

@midnitelibrary

Data Librarian. Co-Host of Book Club for Masochists: A Readers' Advisory Podcast. Editor of Two-Fisted Library Stories. Spooky Librarian. Goth. Comics. Manga. Zines. Games. ScholComm. OA. RDM. Social Justice. He/They. "A known human friend" - Graham Stark

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Matthew Murray 🦇@midnitelibrary· 3d

Wow, every one of those is cropped terribly, hahaha.

Screenshot of Wikipedia page for Cordelia Gray featuring an image from the Detective Conan comic.

Matthew Murray 🦇@midnitelibrary· 3d

Like, no offense to Gosho Aoyama, but is this really the best picture of Cordelia Gray to have at the top of a Wikipedia article? (The images also appears in the articles for Nero Wolfe, Father Brown, C. Auguste Dupin, and Zenigata Heiji, but all of those are further down the page.)

Screenshot of the "comic books and graphic novels" section of Ellery Queen's Wikipedia page featuring an image from the Detective Conan comic.

Matthew Murray 🦇@midnitelibrary· 3d

"Huh," I think. "That's weird. That's the second fictional detective Wikipedia article I've seen recently that prominently features an image from Detective Conan. What's going on with this?" It's one person who edits Wikipedia _A LOT_ and has uploaded these images to other articles as well.

Screenshot of Wikipedia page for Lew Archer featuring an image from the Detective Conan comic.

Screenshot of Wikipedia page for Miss Marple featuring an image from the Detective Conan comic.

Matthew Murray 🦇@midnitelibrary· 5d

I finally finished it! (Next to do the poisonous plants one?) www.thewitchystitcher.com/product-page...

A cross stitch design showing 10 carnivorous plants on a black background.

Matthew Murray 🦇@midnitelibrary· 8d

Castle set used in the filming of Rupert of Hentzau

Director Noel Smith and the Hall Room Boys at work

Matthew Murray 🦇@midnitelibrary· 11d

100 downloads of So You've Been Told to Publish Your Data! It's free! midnitelibrary.itch.io/publish-your...

Screenshot of itch.io analytics page.
You are Reviewer 2: 3,218 views, 779 downloads
So You've Been Told to Publish Your Data: 308 views, 100 downloads

Matthew Murray 🦇@midnitelibrary· 16d

New librarian stereotype dropped. 📚 www.reddit.com/r/CuratedTum...

Reddit screenshot
This is quite different from the fine folks in my local serial killer club, who have the following jobs:

Comedy writer (and uber driver)

Former journalist, now drives uber

TV comedy writer and lyft driver

Sketch comedy writer and gig economy worker

Journalist and doordash driver

Improv comedian/waiter/doordash/uber/whatever

Psychiatrist/uber

[Highlighted] Librarian who only kills the uberwealthy

Dog walker/catburglar

[Highlighted] Another librarian who only kills the uberwealthy

Failed comedy writer; failed uber driver

Disneyland ride operator and uber operator

Dentist
77 upvotes

Matthew Murray 🦇@midnitelibrary· 19d

To the tune of "Viva Las Vegas." ♫Mecha Godzilla♫

Screenshot of Elvis singing "Viva Las Vegas" next to one showgirl and one Mechagodzilla. The subtitle reads "♫Mecha Godzilla♫"

Matthew Murray 🦇@midnitelibrary· 24d

I am infinity bad at actually promoting my stuff properly. This is what the zine looks like.

Where is your data currently stored?

1. lt is in a box at home. There are so many boxes.

2. | paste it all into ChatGPT then delete the original files.

3. It's on a bunch of floppy disks. Like, the actually floppy ones.

4. On the university's IT-approved secure servers.

5. On my last university's servers. They need it moved by the end of the week. There are 800 petabytes.

6. USB stick on my keychain. It's only gone through the laundry twice!

Where will you publish your data?

1. Our institutional repository or a subject-specific repository.

2. My old lab's GitHub repo. | think | still have access to it.

3. Have you heard of Kaggle? You can upload anything!

4. My Google Drive: exhaustedprof69@gmail.com

5. On my personal website. The free tier should be fine, right?

6. Publish my data? It's MY intellectual property! I'm only talking to you so you can tell me how | can avoid doing that!

Matthew Murray 🦇@midnitelibrary· 24d

The "sequel"(?) to "You Are Reviewer 2" is now available to download for free. "So You've Been Told to Publish Your Data" is a solo d6-based "game" to "learn" about Research Data Management and Data Publishing. midnitelibrary.itch.io/publish-your... 📚

A bunch of copies of So You've Been Told to Publish Your Data

Matthew Murray 🦇@midnitelibrary· Jul 3

With Placebo doing a 30th anniversary re-release of their first album I was thinking about this comment on YouTube about their performance of Nancy Boy on Top of the Pops in 1997. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByLC...

I was there at TOTP that night. I’m now 47 married with 2 kids. No nonsense straight guy, warehouse manager. But honestly when I saw this performance I had my first gay experience. I was in love 🥰 for that split second, it was the body language and mannerisms

Matthew Murray 🦇@midnitelibrary· Jun 30

International Zine Month! #IZM2026 Image included twice to allow full alt-text description. Link to larger version stolensharpierevolution.org/wp-content/u... prompts and layout by Alex Wrekk 📚

International Zine Month July 2026

There's a photograph of a typewriter in the upper right hand corner.

31 activities for you to celebrate
Events on specific days
11 Zine Meme Day - post or make a zine themed meme from an online template
14 ValenZINE Day - Write a love letter to zines
18 Zine Distro Appreciation Day - Order from your favourite or a new zine distro
21 Zine Library Day - Find a physical zine library or digital archive to visit or donate
25 Free Zine Day - leave copies of your zine in public or post a free PDF online.
31 HallowZINE Day - Remember zines or zinesters who are no longer with us.

Matthew Murray 🦇@midnitelibrary· May 22

This seems applicable to a lot of things going on right now. "They don't think they should have to [start a new skill at zero]. But they do." From "How to Write A Mystery: A Handbook From Mystery Writers of America."

KATE WHITE

An agent friend of mine, who once worked as an executive at a major
publishing house, says she’s always blown away by people who decide one
day that they want to become an author but think it’s just something you
do, rather than something you have to learn how to do. “People who've
had success in one field,” she explains, “like law, or medicine, or true
crime writing, often have a hard time accepting that if they're going to
write fiction, it means starting at zero again. They don't think they should
have to.” But they do.

Matthew Murray 🦇@midnitelibrary· May 10

I bought two enamel bat pins at a comic event today and was amused because one has one eye and the other has three eyes.

Two enamel bat pins on a cork board. One has one eye and the other has three eyes.

Matthew Murray 🦇@midnitelibrary· Apr 25

Anyone have a digital copy of this magazine? @graham.loadingreadyrun.com is looking for an article in it. GEE, Februar 2006 issue. @gamehistoryorg.bsky.social @gamingalexandria.bsky.social

Cover go GEE video game magazine. Text in German.

Matthew Murray 🦇@midnitelibrary· Apr 21

Finished this cross stitch this evening!

Spooky cross stitch of a tiered layer cake in black, orange, and grey. There's a crescent moon, a bat, skulls, pumpkins, and ghosts.
Next to the cross stitch is a gray and white cat.

Matthew Murray 🦇@midnitelibrary· Apr 19

The 1917 and 1932 versions of the Purity I found on archive.org both say that 3 teaspoons = 1 tablespoon. The 1932 one does have a waffle recipe.

648 WAFFLES

1 1/2 cups Purity Flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup sweet cream or 1 cup milk and 3 tablespoons melted butter
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs

Method:—1. Sift flour with baking powder and salt; add egg yolks and cream (or milk and butter). 2. Lastly, fold in beaten egg whites. 3. Heat both sides of waffle iron; put 1 tablespoon mixture in each compartment and brown on both sides. 4. Serve at once with powdered sugar, honey or maple syrup.

Matthew Murray 🦇@midnitelibrary· Apr 1

📚

Magus of the Library (green green)
Creature - Human Wizard
tap: add colourless mana
Tap: Draw a card. Activate only if you have exactly seven cards in hand.
1/1

Library of Leng (1)
Artifact
You have no maximum hand size.
If an effect cause you to discard a card, discard it, but you may put it on top of your library instead of into your graveyard.

Matthew Murray 🦇@midnitelibrary· Apr 1

A lot of academic libraries will let you renew books pretty much forever as long as it hasn't been requested by someone else. : )

Biblioplex Tomekeeper (4)
Artifact Creature - Construct
When this creature enters, choose up to one --
- Targe creature becomes prepared. (Only creatures with prepare spells can be prepared.)
- Target creature becomes unprepared.
"Due dates are firm, and will be enforced."

Matthew Murray 🦇@midnitelibrary· Apr 1

Sylvan Library 1 (green)
Enchantment
At the beginning of your draw step, you may draw two additional cards. If you do, choose two cards in your hand drawn this turn. For each of those cards, pay 4 life or put the card on top of your library.

Matthew Murray 🦇@midnitelibrary· Mar 31

I'm sorry, what? There isn't a Wikipedia article for "Wizard"?

Screenshot of Wikipedia article for "Magician (fantasy)"
"Redirected from Wizard (fantasy)"

Matthew Murray 🦇@midnitelibrary· Mar 24

@haul-pebert.bsky.social Didn't realize I could be told that I'd built a word wrong when every other word was done and this word fit in the grid!

Screenshot of Tiled Words puzzle with "SKY" as an answer that is said to be "built wrong" when every other word in the puzzle is already completed.

Matthew Murray 🦇@midnitelibrary· Mar 17

I realized I hadn't put my zines about video games online, so here are some links if you want to download them. They're free. midnitelibrary.itch.io/games-on-my-... midnitelibrary.itch.io/games-on-my-...

Games on My Shelf (I Have Not Played Yet)
[Image of The Game of the Goose, a very old board game from several hundred years ago.]
Issue #001

Games on My Shelf (I Have Not Finished Yet)
[17th century art called "A fatal fight between two men is caused by a game of cards." Features a skeleton brandishing a bone behind two men about to fight.]
Issue #003

Matthew Murray 🦇@midnitelibrary· Mar 16

I've been doing Book Club for Masochists: A Readers' Advisory Podcast for ten years???? bookclub4m.libsyn.com 📚

Episode 001 - Historical Romance Mar 16, 2016

Matthew Murray 🦇@midnitelibrary· Mar 15

@graham.loadingreadyrun.com Because bats are cool. People like bats. (Yes, I did buy bat handles to attach to pieces of furniture.) (Screenshot from "Never Imitate || Watch+Play (Feb 2026)")

Screenshot of Graham saying "First of all, why is everything bat themed?

Matthew Murray 🦇@midnitelibrary· Mar 14

“It was not there the previous day,” a city official said. "The incident comes after Osaka announced last month it had received an unusual donation of 21 kilogrammes of gold to pay for the maintenance of its ageing water system."

This shows a pipe, center, which was buried but suddenly emerged above ground at a sewer construction site in Osaka, western Japan Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (Yukie Nishizawa/Kyodo News via AP)

Matthew Murray 🦇@midnitelibrary· Mar 8

Still from black and white image of man hitting pierrot clown with comically oversized hammer.

Matthew Murray 🦇@midnitelibrary· Feb 28

They have at least one Shakespeare-related book in the 400s.

Screenshot of Hong Kong Public Libraries showing "Dictionary Urdu-English : based on Shakespear and the best modern authorities" with the call number 491.4332 DIC

Matthew Murray 🦇@midnitelibrary· Feb 28

Made this five years ago. Still good I think. "Acclaimed ska band lead singer turns out to be Pokémon named Pykitupp"

Screenshot of five squirtles. Four of them are wearing round sunglasses. The one in the middle is wearing pointy sunglasses. and has been photoshopped to be wearing a black suit and tie, white shirt, and a black hat to look like they're in a ska band.

Matthew Murray 🦇@midnitelibrary· Feb 22

Amused to find this in a comic from 2002. 📚