Happy to share that I’m starting a new exciting position as Interim Head of Humanities Libraries @bodleian.ox.ac.uk.
Supporting students and researchers across @oxhumanities.bsky.social is both an honour and a challenge which I am hugely looking forward to. 😃
A topical recommended read:
Anderson, Noel. Wars without End : Competitive Intervention, Escalation Control, and Protracted Conflict. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2025. solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/permalink/44...
Image of a young lady wearing a bright red long coat, with a dog on the lead, while walking down a snowy Bath Place, nr Turf Tavern, Oxford.
If any #Oxford folk are interested in a limited print of a lovely wintery scene Bath Place near the Turf Tavern, then get in touch with my dearest friend ophelia@opheliaredpath.com.
Dear everyone,
As per the post from the Bodleian librarian below, AI bots and scrapers are putting just about every website under great pressure, British History Online included.
A lot of excellent tech staff are working hard to keep everything working, but outages and siruptions are inevitable.
A miniature of the construction of the Tower of Babel, from Boccaccio's Des cas de nobles hommes et femmes (Add MS 35321).
The British Library’s Medieval MSS team now have a presence on Bluesky @blmedieval.bsky.social
Follow for updates as we restore more of our digitised content online!
In this blog post, @rachelpeacock.bsky.social and Jenny Lelkes-Rarugal discuss how the Bibliography of British and Irish History (BBIH) can be used to research and teach the histories of medicine and health
It’s the result of massive bot activity, downloading data at a scale which our infrastructure has found challenging. We have been finding this across all our metadata resources in recent months.
The son is younger and very cross atm. Well done, everybody. 🙄
Developing Inclusive collections information card, white RLUK logo and text against a yellow background.
RLUK is delighted to publish the Developing Inclusive Collections guide on reflective practice, providing a framework for colleagues at all career stages
This guide is useful to those working or aiming to work in collection-based decolonisation + build on existing knowledge+skills
bit.ly/INC-COLL
Today is a good moment to share some readings on the rise of the Green Party in Germany.
Langguth: The Green Factor in German Politics : From Protest Movement to Political Party. 2019.
Müller-Rommel: New Politics in Western Europe : The Rise and Success of Green Parties and Alternative Lists.
😃
#CopimConference session on experimental publishing: Emma Gallon @uolpress.bsky.social: outside Digital Humanities, many not aware of opportunities. Hums subjects where audio (music, literature) or visuals (art, etc) would really benefit. But: copyright & digital preservation issues even harder!
'It is a trust universally acknowledged that doctoral supervisors in want of training are the ones who never turn up.' Paraphrasing Zoe Stockdale, with apologies to Jane Austen. #CopimConference
This is certainly what @hlaehnemann.bsky.social and I have been doing with Taylor Editions! @tayoxford.bsky.social The model is appreciated by reviewers, e.g. muse.jhu.edu/article/965571
Ruth Mallalieu standing next to a large blue display screen with text which reads: Make it Open, Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford 'Proud supporters of COPIM and the Open Book Collection.'
@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
I just asked ChatGPT "Hey ChatGPT, do you know how to redesign text in a document to make it fully accessible?" It says 'yes' and gives good list of 12 areas it would work on. Not bad but would be good to test. #CopimConference
@anicazeyen.bsky.social outlining the many everyday barriers with reading online content as a blind person. What an eye-opener* and useful to get a reminder of what any content creators should be doing. #CopimConference
*sorry.
Anybody interested at #CopimConference in the OU's free gift 'Digital Accessibility for Academic Libraries: Optimising Primo VE', here is the link: www.open.edu/openlearncre...
Am struck how often we keep coming back to scholars being ultimately key in the transition to sustainable OA publishing. Sounds so obvious but I'm only really now fully digesting this. 🙄 #CopimConference
Agree with Tom Grady that surprisingly few are talking about REF-mandated OA monos from 1 January 2029. This is going to come round very quickly & the OA book market is not shifting quickly enough for next REF. #CopimConference
Having fun at #CopimConference. 🥳 with the delightful @ruthmacmullen.bsky.social.
May not get a chance to ask my Q at #copimconference in session 'Librarians as Diamond Open Access changemakers' so will ask here: have any librarians been successful in recruiting an OA Champion from the academic community? Scholars listen more to their peers than their librarian [🙄 *cough*]
Less than 2 hrs into #copimconference & my mind is buzzing with questions & ideas: how adjust library materials budgets frameworks to free up seed funding? how do you measure success of a scheme? how make a case when content of a scheme doesn't fit?
#CopimConference Loving the scholar-led publishing love-fest. Are we, in a way, going back to the original roots of early university presses which were originally scholar-led before they morphed in professional money-making enterprises?
And we have kick off at #CopimConference! Exciting to have space, time & opportunities to discuss, explore & progress community-led #OABooks.
Image with text at the top that reads: "Wayback Machine Then and Now" and "SEAHAWKS.COM". Below is a Wayback Machine capture of the Seattle Seahawks website from October 31, 2001, alongside one from February 9, 2026.
🏈🏆 The champions change. So do their websites.
From early HTML to modern redesigns, the #WaybackMachine preserves the digital playbook of #NFL champs, decades of archived team sites, including the Seattle Seahawks 🏟️
Run the archive ➡️ web.archive.org
#webpreservation #Football #Seahawks #superbowl
A screenshot from the database LGBTQ+ Life in America, showing photographs of people (mostly smiling) behind a search box.
A screenshot from the database Sex & Sexuality, which includes an artistic rendering of of two people looking at each other below search menus
The Bodleian Libraries are trialling access to two new databases! #LGBTplusHM
🏳️🌈 LGBTQ+ Life in America
❤️ Sex & Sexuality
Both databases can be found through Databases A-Z: libguides.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/az.php
Both trials run until 28/02/2025. Want to give feedback? Read on! 👇
I wonder how long it will be before people will remember that it's far quicker to type keywords into a search box than write out your search query in natural language. Or you move to dictation.
Photo of two people walking in a misty slightly sunlit Christ Church meadows.
A different photo of two people walking in a misty slightly sunlit Christ Church path lined with trees.
I’m grateful to Oxford Bus Company chucking passengers off for a ‘change of bus’. I would otherwise have missed the atmospheric Christ Church #Oxford meadows. 😍
Photo of a sign: the system will only operate if the lift doors will not open.
This is scrambling my brain…
