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Posts by Peter Barr

It's convincing the Uni, not just the library that this is a long term investment. so community OA wins in an argument for limited library resources against short term pain of cancelling something that directly supports teaching now. It's tough and I don't know where that impetus best comes from

1 month ago 2 0 0 0

It's true, I did

1 month ago 3 3 0 0

Worth saying that I believe this, but convincing the inst. that this should take preference over some other 'must have' is hard

That's the work at which many of us librarians struggle (and, for structural reasons, fail)

1 month ago 6 1 1 0
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The latest from #UKSGInsights Peter Barr (@tweeterbarr.bsky.social) re: @unisheffieldlib.bsky.social "The collections concept at the University of Sheffield: a varied approach to the role of research library collections" dub.sh/bKwiJWt

1 month ago 5 5 0 2

It's me, if you believe it, I actually wrote the most read article on the Impact Blog last year. It's like the spotify wrapped of academic publishing chat. I feel like Taylor Swift...

Alas, there will be much more to say about 'Transformative' Agreements this year as well

3 months ago 5 1 1 0
A powerpoint slide saying "An elephant in the room... I am aware how ridiculous it is for me to come here and lecture you about diversity"

A powerpoint slide saying "An elephant in the room... I am aware how ridiculous it is for me to come here and lecture you about diversity"

5 months ago 1 0 0 0
A manatee says to Art Garfunkel "Hello Art, I'm Hugh Manatee"

A manatee says to Art Garfunkel "Hello Art, I'm Hugh Manatee"

The old Arts & Humanities Librarian Twitter Header...

5 months ago 1 0 1 0
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⚡We are recruiting🌟

We are looking for a fixed-term Digitisation Officer and a fixed-term Digital Engagement Officer (with possibility to extend) to work in our Special Collections, Heritage and Archives team!

Find out more info here 👀👀➡️ tinyurl.com/4epkcfp2

5 months ago 8 6 0 0
A cartoon featuring a toy platypus being driven mad by a painting

A cartoon featuring a toy platypus being driven mad by a painting

#terrorinthelibrary all under the guise of 'engagement' with Sheffield Centre for the History of the Gothic

5 months ago 2 0 1 0
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Two novels (Fictions by Jose Luis Borges and The Atom Station by Halldor Laxness) lie on a fake football pitch overlooked by a stuffed turtle

Two novels (Fictions by Jose Luis Borges and The Atom Station by Halldor Laxness) lie on a fake football pitch overlooked by a stuffed turtle

Beginning with my abortive attempt to run a 2018 World Cup of Literature. Here is a group match between Argentina and Iceland refereed by the Biomed Central Turtle

(the competition never got out of the group stage cos I had made it far too complicated and it didn't get the hoped for twitter pop)

5 months ago 3 0 1 0

I leave the University of Sheffield 3 weeks today 😢. As such I am clearing out my google docs folders. So please allow this retrospective of the nonsense they have allowed me to get away with over the last ten years #libraries #skybrarians

5 months ago 1 0 1 0

Basically, what Beth said. It's dependent on your political capital within the inst. whether you can cancel and the disruption it causes against a backdrop of precarity and widespread funding cuts across the board. Depressingly, the financial imperative convinces more than the big idea

5 months ago 4 0 0 0
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Interlibrary loans, subscriptions and copyright in the UK academic library sector | Insights

Uk library peoples! Concerned about inter library loans and copyright in the light of potential journal cancellations? Well m’colleague and all round delightful chap, Andrew Johnson, has written all about it here so hopefully you can stop your panics doi.org/10.1629/uksg...

6 months ago 18 10 0 0
Weird Elsevier Schmaltz saying "to the Librarians of the world, thank you"

Weird Elsevier Schmaltz saying "to the Librarians of the world, thank you"

You're welcome

6 months ago 2 0 0 0
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How scholarly publishers wield soft power - Impact of Social Sciences Scientific publishers exercise 'soft power' through their role in managing and curating research, but how is this role changing in an open research landscape?

💥New: How scholarly publishers wield soft power

✍️Eleonora Colangelo

#AcademicPublishing #ScholComm #SciComm

6 months ago 7 6 0 1

📢 Come work with us! The Open Research Manager is a reformulated role in our team - it would suit someone with a strong research support background, but I'm happy to chat to anyone about the role and criteria.

6 months ago 0 4 0 0
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"An unreasonable expectation would be if that librarian felt the need to make sure that that patron, or any patron, never had a negative thing to say about the library. In my experience, it appears that librarians and libraries seem to have high expectations of influence."

6 months ago 5 3 0 0

Tbh, it would be simpler if they didn't divvy the money out and just bundled it at source and invested it.

Expecting individual libraries to act dilutes the effectiveness of their funding (as all sorts of local anxieties get in the way)

6 months ago 1 0 0 0

Yeah, wellcome could definitely be more explicit. You should, rather than you could, support OA.

UKRI are a bit more hamstrung by all the political lobbying from the big publishers that stop them taking a position

6 months ago 0 0 1 0

It's annoying because both that and UKRI money was originally meant to facilitate a transition - which OI, Diamond palpably is - not to be baked into fading inst. content budgets to subsidise stagnant TAs

6 months ago 1 0 1 0

Even if you do understand this, the issue is whether there is any 'spare' WT money to spend on Open Infrastructure?

If there isn't, could you prioritise this spend over APCs? (most libraries - as ever 🙄 - err on the side of caution, and meet the immediate user demand)

6 months ago 1 0 1 0

I mean, that quote seems to indicate that Clarivate has no agency in the embedding. These tools are being actively added to products by without the option of turning them off. Here's a thought. Maybe get the products right before releasing them like an untested virus into the scholarly environment?

6 months ago 10 2 1 0
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Doublethink on AI highlights tensions in peer review - Research Professional News Survey reveals publishers’ tricky task in balancing efficiency and integrity, says Laura Feetham-Walker

32% of researchers use AI tools to support peer review, yet 57% wouldn’t want AI reviewing their work. This is one of several insights from our latest global survey, explored by Laura Feetham-Walker in her Q&A with Research Professional News, marking #PeerReviewWeek.

🔗 ow.ly/BCbU50WXooV

7 months ago 2 2 0 0
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In a Tough Environment, How Should We Make—and Communicate—Collections Decisions? In this interview, Madeline Kelly discusses the Western Washington University Libraries’ annual collections evaluation process and what she’s learned about sharing news of subscription cancellations.

"Our job is to look at the big picture - across the university, across our consortia, across the publishing landscape—and make decisions based on that specialized knowledge...[stakeholder] input is critical... but that there’s not a straight line from their input to the final outcomes."

7 months ago 2 0 0 0
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More news from outside the the library bubble...

Did you know that Dora the Explorer is a significantly more popularly thing to search for than Dora the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment 🤯

7 months ago 1 1 0 0

steady on...

7 months ago 1 0 0 0

New OA Book by Lever Press one of the publishers that @sheffielduni.bsky.social Library supports via its Open Scholarship Fund 🔓📘

7 months ago 6 2 1 0
UKSG GREEN 2025 | Sonic Mania | Tails (No Emeralds Glitched) | jordiiee | 48:24
UKSG GREEN 2025 | Sonic Mania | Tails (No Emeralds Glitched) | jordiiee | 48:24 YouTube video by United Kingdom Speedrunner Gathering

www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7jA...

7 months ago 0 0 0 0

While looking for an old @uksg.bsky.social talk, I have stumbled across the other UKSG!! (UK Speedrunning Gathering) where people try and complete computer games quickly.

I expect a WWF style lawsuit...

(we can't have people playing sonic when they should be learning about OA policy)

7 months ago 3 0 3 0
Librarians in the AI Age: Established Skills, New Technologies A starting point for anyone interested in library technology in Higher Education

"more than 60% of librarians see themselves as key figures in AI guidance at their institution, more than academic staff, more than support staff... and far more than senior leadership"

www.helibtech.com/helibtech-vi...

7 months ago 1 0 0 0