University of York Library

I collect perfume and have quite a number of library and librarian themed perfumes. Books are a very popular note.

My favorite is probably library ghost by Poesie, which is a nice twist on just straight up books smell.

What a missed opportunity!

Freshly sharpened pencil.
Well-worn leather bookmark.
Beeswax-polished carved wood bookshelf.

I love it. Cedar, leather, beeswax, old books, with a hint of ozone from a heated copier that's been going for a while.

I'd wear it.

If we DID make a library perfume (which, full disclosure, we're unlikely to prioritise at the current time) what should it smell of?

Obviously 'old books' would probably quite popular, but anything else?

A hand holding a bottle of 'UoYLibrary - for them; perfume. The tagline is Three Buildings, One Library, One Scent.

It's weird that this never really took off.

Academia.edu - Find Research Papers, Topics, Researchers Academia.edu is the platform to share, find, and explore 50 Million research papers. Join us to accelerate your research needs & academic interests.

FYI, Academia.edu has changed its terms of service to give an irrevocable worldwide license for anything uploaded to its site to be used for generative AI. I do not consent to this and have pulled all my papers.

Were you to make a Venn diagram of places which both the Uni of York Library, and Fibber's live music venue, have inhabited, Micklegate House would probably be the only place appearing in the overlapping circles...

Our collections began life here, while they awaited the building of the Morrell.

Honestly, this whole thing was dreadful and we feel unclean.

a woman with glasses says i 'm so sorry on peacock Alt: Liz Lemon saying 'I'm so sorry'

Roses are red
Violets are blue
But we're not working on Valentine's Day
(And neither should you)

But we understand Researchers don't work regular hours
Though you won't find weekend posts on accounts like ours
So we celebrate today, there's no need to worry
The gif below completes the couplet
⤵️

Welcome!

You're in!

Are YOU a member of staff / department / School / service at the Uni of York who doesn't appear in the Starter Pack below?

Just let us know via reply or DM and we'll add you - we have room for just over 30 more before it gets full!

Screenshot: Throughout this guide I’ve quoted various York academics, and it seems appropriate to start with this advice from Dr Richard Carter (School of ACT): Don’t be afraid of starting out again. If you have a sizeable following on Twitter-X, the prospect of shifting to a significantly smaller audience on BlueSky might appear very discouraging. Nevertheless… rebuilding on a fresher, far less toxic platform offers us a chance to reconnect with the core audience of professionals that we always intended to reach and be in dialogue with. Here, then, are ten top tips for those ready to rebuild.

And while we're on, many of the people in the Uni of York Starter Pack contributed to our Researcher's Guide to Bluesky, which you can read here:

blogs.york.ac.uk/library/2024...

We often get tagged in posts on here by people thinking this is the Uni of York account (whereas we are of course the Uni of York *Library* account) but the good news is, the Uni itself is now here!

>> @york.ac.uk

They are in our York starter pack along with 115 other ace people / departments. ⤵️

Many of us University staff love this water tower, near the library, and there's some lovely detail about it on the site below.

Sadly the the idea it was built as a decoy to lure the bombers away from @yorkminster.bsky.social in WWII is a myth, albeit an excellent one...

Such is the immutable marching on of time, what was once tomorrow is now TODAY - yes today, in the Morrell, 10am-1pm, drop in for all things digital accessibility.

Pomeranian dog wearing a massive pair of glasses, apparently working at an ipad at a desk

UoY teaching staff, join us for an online accessibility session tomorrow Tues 3 Feb, 11-12 noon. We'll be there with colleagues from the VLE and @uoylibrary.bsky.social reading lists teams to answer all your queries. Book a place via the DET training page vle-support.york.ac.uk/training/#si...

It's Open Research Awards time!

3️⃣ x £400 prizes for UGs / PGTs

3️⃣ x £400 prizes for submissions from PGRs

3️⃣ x £400 prizes for submissions from early career research staff, postdocs and staff in technical roles

3️⃣ x £400 prizes for submissions from mid-career and senior research staff

Here we go 👀

Hey Uni of York people, we're doing our annual audit of the library website.

We're not doing a formal consultation, as it's really just some tweaks and refinements - but if you have anything you'd like to see change about it please do reply here or DM us!

www.york.ac.uk/library/

"We reflect that the open source research repository market has remained largely static for some time and intend this as a provocation for institutions and platform developers to further engage in defining the requirements for future repositories and setting a course to get there."

⤵️

Photo of a slightly worried looking Guinea Pig sitting on a desk, it's front paws on a big open notebook, with an open laptop behind it.

Uni of York teaching folk: reminder that tomorrow (Tues 20th) afternoon we'll be with the @uoylibrary.bsky.social Reading Lists team in LFA 144, 1.30-3.30 for a drop in session to answer any and all things reading lists and accessible readings. Please drop in with any readings concerns or queries.

What a great post to log back in to find on a Monday!

The most ENORMO-congrats, Lucy. 🎉

In which we LAY BARE our social media numbers in 2025 to convince you to use Carousels to get key messages out on Instagram… all you Uni departments, libraries and cultural institutions out there, carousels are the way!

The library is open 24/7 until Sunday 1 February To support exam preparation and revision, we are now open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, from 8am on Monday 5 January until we close at midnight on 1 February.

We are very much BACK. We hope your Winter break was graded a starred First.

24/7 opening until the 1st of Feb for the exam period is also back: www.york.ac.uk/library/abou...

Key library dates over the Christmas 2025 Here’s an overview of what happens in the library over December and January, and how it affects you. The headlines are: the library is closed on December 25th, 26th and 31st but otherwise open as norm...

As this is our Last Social Media Day of 2025, here's a link to all the key info about vacation opening, 24/7 for the exams, etc etc.

The short version, though, is we're mostly open 8am - midnight as usual over the Christmas period!

www.york.ac.uk/library/abou...

Close up of the Heslington section of the map, below St Nicholas and Heworthe

You Are Here

Detail from a map showing York. Surrounding areas include Howorthe, Clyfton and other recongisable sections of the City.

What better way to celebrate Friday than with this pleasing detail from Saxton's 1590 Atlas of the Counties of England and Wales.

Find the whole thing via YorSearch, here:
yorsearch.york.ac.uk/permalink/44...

He's not wrong. Famously, the Spice Girls really really wanted to syzygy zig aaah.

The reason we say this is, we've observed amongst some researchers the idea that the production process might be different - that it might be somewhat DIY for #OA publications. This isn't the case.

Find out more about the @wrunipress.bsky.social production process here: