Caroline Ball

Update on CDF award: Empowering Ethiopian research universities: a multifaceted approach to overcome OA barriers in scholarly publishing - Open Book Collective Hosted at Haramaya University, this project tackles systemic barriers hindering open access scholarly publishing in Ethiopia, including cultural resistance, language disparities and infrastructure and...

With support from OBC's Collective Development Fund, Professor Tilahun Shiferaw and his team at Haramaya University is transforming how Ethiopian universities understand and adopt open book access, through efforts from policy to multilingual publishing. #OpenAccess #AcademicSky

Read his update 👇

This tends to be my experience with these LLMs. If it gets it right first time, great. But when it gets something wrong, it's like the more you try to fix it, the worse it gets - and it'll confidently tell you it's solved the issue when it's actually done nothing at all.

Once, technology solved problems. People liked having problems solved, so they liked technology.

Tech execs started to think of that sentiment as their due. So when they stopped solving problems, and people stopped liking them, they became outraged. "How dare you not love whatever we give you?"

In digital-first era, NJ librarians demand more affordable e-books • New Jersey Monitor Public libraries want states, including NJ, to limit the pricey restrictions publishers have placed on e-books and other digital content.

In digital-first era, NJ librarians demand more affordable e-books newjerseymonitor.com/2026/02/18/n...

Getting shown up in the arena of elite impunity by *the British monarchy* is an incredible “America at 250!” achievement

Cradle of Gold: The Story of Hiram Bingham, the Real In… In 1911, a young Peruvian boy led an American explorer …

#FinishedReading: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Cradle of Gold: The Story of Hiram Bingham, the Real Indiana Jones, and the Search of Machu Picchu by Christopher Heaney

If you don’t read old stuff you’ll never discover that people in the olden days had the same thoughts and feelings and dreams and anxieties you do, sometimes articulated differently, sometimes exactly the same way. You are never truly alone in anything and old writings are a neon sign telling you so

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office It comes after Thames Valley Police said they were assessing a complaint over the alleged sharing of confidential material by the former prince with Jeffrey Epstein.

Ooh, Andrew’s been arrested. 👀

And on his birthday too. Did the arresting officer jump out of a birthday cake?

If he goes to prison will he be serving ‘at His Majesty’s pleasure’? That’s surely got to sting more when said Majesty is your brother…

So, can I get my money back if I didn't enjoy a movie? Or if a book disappoints me? What if the view from a scenic spot is obscured by mist, can I get my entrance fee back? Or if I eat a meal at a restaurant and it wasn't bad, I still ate it all - it just wasn't what I expected?

Students begin Covid compensation claim against 36 more universities It comes after University College London settled a claim from students there over lost learning in the pandemic.

Perhaps the "learning which students claim they paid for but did not actually receive" was the bit that included Paulo Freire's critique of the banking model of education they apparently still adhere to.

I would advise all these students to go read Pedagogy of the Oppressed and then report back.

I feel for that cohort of students, I do. But they still got the education they were paying for, their degrees, benefited from staff skill & knowledge, uni resources & infrastructure. What they missed out on was the campus experience they'd expected, but I don't think that's enough to justify suing.

And yes, that is Funko Freddie Mercury and Inigo Montoya hanging out there in the foliage.

*Get your minds out of the gutter, people. 😂

I couldn’t remember the word ‘Lego’ last night (I was tired, leave me alone), so I suggested to my partner that we do the ‘stick-y put-y thing’ * and somehow he still knew what I meant.

If there's pizza I don't care.

My sympathies. Just the thought of it is making my shoulders jerk and my eyelids twitch.

Excellent post detailing the rationale that lay behind the creation of Open Book Collective and other similar collective funding initiatives.

We have to stop thinking of open access in terms of 'free' content & instead start viewing it as infrastructure and labour that needs systematic funding.

Who is coming to #CopimConference in person 🎫

Join us for #CopimCorner after Day One (Thurs. 26 Feb) to carry on the conversation ... or not (work chat entirely optional!)

⏲️ Anytime after 7pm (until late!)
📍 CRATE Pizzeria & Brewery
👉 buff.ly/AylE4Vg

👇

All in the name of the useless plagiarised information synthesis systems that no-one wants but are being shoved down our throats regardless. Well done, Big Tech, well done...

*slow clap*

We’ve been here before …. haven’t we 🤨

#Brexit
#DublinAgreement

Wow.

...not to mention research skills, time management and organisation abilities, collaboration and communication skills, independent learning and motivation, digital literacy skills, etc.

And you'll develop those skills regardless of the topics you choose to study or the career you intend to pursue.

Hot take - it doesn't matter what you study, the process of learning itself will always have value. Even if you chose to study the career of Suella Braverman, for example - you'd still be developing skills in critical thinking, writing, information synthesis, source comprehension & evaluation...

Less than 6 months after publishing, our 🪱 Introduction to Soil Science Second Edition 📙 textbook has hit...

3k downloads ⬇️
7k readers 📚
15k views 👀
🎉
#Soil #SoilScience #OpenAccess #OER

🙏 Thank you Amber Anderson and @openaccesselder.bsky.social

Check it out here 👇
doi.org/10.31274/isu...

Rev. Jesse Jackson's "I *am* somebody..." remains one of the all-time great pieces of 20th century rhetoric / agitprop

And he could deliver it at a Black separatist meeting, the Democratic National Convention, or on god-blessed Sesame Street (see below 🥹)

RIP to the Voice of the Voiceless

Who is coming to #CopimConference in person 🎫

If you'd like to continue the conversation into the evening, join us for #CopimCorner

📆 Thurs. 26 Feb
⏲️ Anytime after 7pm (until late)
📍 CRATE Pizzeria & Brewery

More info 👉 buff.ly/AylE4Vg

And this is how I realised today is Pancake Day... 🤦‍♀️

US civil rights leader Jesse Jackson dies aged 84 - live updates Jackson, who marched with Martin Luther King Jr in the 1960s and later ran for president twice, died peacefully on Tuesday morning surrounded by his family.

Rest in power, Jesse.

📚 #AcademicSky #DiamondOA #EduSky