@theblochian.bsky.social
Professor of Contemporary Literature & Culture at Birkbeck, University of London. Executive Director of @openlibhums.org & @ojcollective.bsky.social. Utopia, mushrooms, trees, sci-fi, weird stuff, open access, higher ed.
Innovation in academic publishing! 🌅
At #ILOInnovationDay, we presented our new diamond #OA model via @openlibhums.org / @ojcollective.bsky.social & the growing movement toward community-led, non-commercial academic publishing that expands access to research beyond paywalls🚫🪙
🔗 ilo.org/ilr
#acasky
New in Architectural Histories 👇
1) "Of Light and Coal: Resources, Materials and the Definition of 'Nature' at the Crystal Palace, c.1851–1854" by Hugo Betting: doi.org/10.16995/ah....
New in Comics Grid / @comicsgrid.com: Bryant Louis Scott interviews Palestinian American comics artist Leila Abdelrazaq about her graphic novel Baddawi (2015) and her broader creative practice as a visual storyteller of diasporic and intergenerational memory: doi.org/10.16995/cg....
Admin complicity has been kind of heartbreaking
> Many universities’ administrations are embracing AI for instruction, research, and evaluation. In some cases, AI has guided decisions about which programs to cut at times of austerity in the education sector.
www.theguardian.com/technology/n...
![Photo of a little bowl of yoghurt with almonds in it and a child’s handwritten note that reads “Dear Cai, you have worked so hard on bringing my mum so here a treat [sic] to say thank you, by Aeli.”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:pr7jag7dwlln2tfywx52bkiu/bafkreiftihiw764h62wyhkelssex7gd3snishsdy44izdzsjktj5suwjyi)
My 7yo had a sick day today. Mid-morning I turned around to find this on the floor behind the desk in my home office. She’d snuck in whilst I was busy working 🥰
Monday, March 9 at 12:00 pm ET: a community call introducing the Open Journals Collective (OJC), a new international initiative supporting diamond open access publishing, where journals are at no cost to both authors and readers. To register:
#OpenAccess
www.carl-abrc.ca/event/introd...
And that’s a wrap!
We thoroughly enjoyed the @copim.bsky.social conference.
Being among like-minded colleagues and friends – all working on incredible projects – makes us feel even more strongly that together we can shake up academic publishing.
Chaos is coming!
#CopimConference
The momentum behind collective, non‑profit #OpenAccess book publishing is clear at #CopimConference. University & institutional presses have an opportunity to lead by example & support infrastructures built for the public good. Community‑governed systems help ensure OA remains equitable & resilient.
Julien McHardy emphasising the importance of generosity and care in the scholar-led open access space. Julien wrote a wonderful piece on the value of love in publishing that I often return to. doi.org/10.17351/est... #CopimConference
Niki: For scholar led presses to emerge it is necessary for scholars to have secure positions and therefore the stability to set them up - increasing precarity in HE is an inhibitor to innovation #CopimConference
Hearing so much about how valuable it is to bring open access, small, scholar led publishers and presses into the same rooms as librarians to challenge the perception that "all publishers are the same" &that they all only care about the marketplace #CopimConference
... closer connections between #openinfrastructures to enable uptake of good #OAbooks #metadata practice across platforms, based on the use case of ISU Digital Press.
Collaboration in action at #CopimConference ❤ Getting together with Harrison Inefuku (Iowa State U Digital Press), Steel Wagstaff ( @pressbooks.bsky.social ), Joe Muller ( @janewayolh.bsky.social ), and Javier Arias (Thoth Open Metadata) to establish ...
I’ve moved smoothly from #R2RConf over the last two days to #CopimConference today and tomorrow. I’m fascinated to know if anyone else is attending both events. Very, very similar in theme, but it feels like two different communities.
Day 2 of the #CopimConference has kicked off with more discussion about #metadata, including this great slide from @emmabooth.bsky.social showing the complexities of the metadata pipeline which can reduce the discoverability of #OpenAccess books.
Similarly maddening to me that Emma Booth discusses how library workers have to constantly badger Ex Libris to improve metadata in Ex Libris Alma. We are paying for this product! Why isn't there more pressure exerted on Ex Libris to keep us as customers?! #CopimConference
It's true, I did
Feeling energised by yesterday’s #CopimConference and excited for today! Values-driven, community‑owned, scholar‑led infrastructures aren’t just ideals, they’re becoming part of the reality of sustainable #OpenAccess book publishing.
Hearing from @emmabooth.bsky.social on that great irony that open access books are hard for libraries to make discoverable #CopimConference
Hello from the Janeway & OLH team at the COPIM conference! 👋
Great to catch up with colleagues across the diamond OA community.
So many important conversations: librarians supporting diamond OA, collective funding for OA books, accessibility, Thoth open metadata & more!
#CopimConference
So worth it! Great to meet you 😁
Is there a Thoth plugin for allowing its female team members to talk on a group panel? 😬
Lovely phrase from Tobias Steiner at Thoth about how we need “open infrastructures talking to each other.” Thoth’s next task is to ingest book metadata automatically via open APIs rather than publishers having to manually input themselves #CopimCommunity
So nice to see so many @oipassoc.bsky.social members in real life at the #copimconference!
The discussions at the @copim.bsky.social event are so relevant to university-based publishers pursuing open access publishing in all shapes and sizes 🙌
What a great conference so far! So glad to see the OLH logo featured alongside all the other OIPA members at the #CopimConference!
@bodleian.ox.ac.uk is proud to support @copim.bsky.social and the Open Book Collective, as elegantly demonstrated by our Head of the Office of Open Research @ruthmacmullen.bsky.social. #CopimConference
Another good point from Pete Barr. Librarians aren’t the ultimate decision makers in their universities; lots of factors in play. No one who knows me would accuse me of supporting the status quo, but Aberdeen hasn’t left any of the deals. I’d be delighted to talk about that. #CopimConference
Lovely to see information about us - and logos for all of our current members - on display at the #CopimConference. Find out more at our website oipauk.org!
#COPIMConference #OABooks | As well as having many OPERAS members participating both in person and online, we are also displaying our slide of the Open Access Books activities of OPERAS during this great event!
Amazing to participate in the Copim community conference discussions and interactions!
Super helpful panel!