Btw my press funded a small study into best-practices for alt text for illustrations, especially of illustrations of art. The resulting guide is short and clear and available free to download.

@jofitz.bsky.social @rupertgatti.bsky.social

🍽️ What happens when parenting becomes an economic project? @joedeville.bsky.social @ninabandelj.bsky.social talk to @philiproscoe.bsky.social & @addiemcgowan.bsky.social about how parenting is shaped by markets, metrics, and digital platforms. youtu.be/otObwf4tStY?...

🎉 Aand, it's done! Thoth 1.0 is live! 🎉
🎉 And with it, our new website 🎉

(below a comparison of the old style (yellow)
vs. the new look - head over to
thoth.pub to see for yourself)

Huge congratulations to you all!

*visibly

I like the fact that baby yellow is so visible cheering along all our project successes

Simon Bowie stage right, with a large wide format slide behind him, which simply reads "No open access without open infrastructure", framed either side by two UKSG logos. Tasha Mellins-Cohen from Counter Metrics, sits stage left at a table.

Felt fitting to me that one of the last @copim.bsky.social plenary interventions at #UKSG2026 came via @simonxix.com's clear and direct call to remember that, as we have always argued, open access without open infrastructures -- e.g. in libraries, in research -- means little. Such a great talk.

The UKSG 49th Annual Conference and Exhibition: Glasgow - UKSG The UKSG Annual Conference is a major event in the scholarly communications calendar which attracts delegates each year from around the world - librarians, publishers, content providers, consultants a...

Our Managing Director, @joedeville.bsky.social, and Community Engagement Lead, @heroicendeavour.eurosky.social, will both be at #UKSG2026 tomorrow! Find them at the COPIM stand (#66) or roaming around talking about all things OA books, OBC, and collective funding!

V. pleased to announce this. We have been working together for some time, but the MoU helps formalise things. The divisions between books & journals in the scholarly system are ultimately arbitrary, so this kind of collaboration is vital to collectively argue for better ways of doing open publishing

😂🌿

Yes! And then there can be a parallel one with me and @jofitz.bsky.social

Yes fair point. I'm speaking mainly about what this means for libraries and their investment/acquisition decisions. To me, it is an important and necessary step along the road to institutionalising support for Diamond OA in UK HE. But absolutely, this will mean little, if anything, to academics

8/7 Addendum/correction: I guess we would not fully endorse this bit ("as well as innovative and sustainable schemes run by commercial publishers"), although in combination with the points about governance, it does put in place significant and likely challenging expectations for commercial models

7/7 Also likely of interest to @oapenbooks.bsky.social @doabooks.bsky.social and @thoth-metadata.eurosky.social and @ojcollective.bsky.social (yes it's about books, but hopefully in future libraries will be provided with similar recommendations around journals)

6/ We at @openbookcollective.bsky.social agree with all of this, and it aligns well with arguments @copim.bsky.social has been making throughout. Thanks to the CSN for its leadership and here's hoping that it helps further shift the needle towards a sustainable, fairer open publishing future

5/ "The governance of schemes should guard against the commercialisation of scholarly infrastructure to ensure equitable access and use in the long term"

4/ "Libraries should prioritise and champion schemes run by not-for-profit, community- owned or scholar-led initiatives (that are protected from commercial acquisition), as well as innovative and sustainable schemes run by commercial publishers"

3/ "Libraries should also use their resources (and their influence with academics) to go beyond local drivers in support of open access to support the transformation of academic publishing more widely"

2/ Some highlights: "We are committed to supporting open infrastructure for open access monographs, and the service providers that develop the platforms and software solutions that enable them to be found, read and engaged with. For example, DOAB, OAPEN, Open Book Collective and Thoth Open Metadata"

1/ This feels like a watershed moment to me. @rluk.ac.uk's Collections Strategy Network has posted new guidance on the criteria Research Libraries should use when making their investment decisions on #OpenAccess monographs, inc. recommending @openbookcollective.bsky.social as one model to consider

Tell Meta: Keep Encryption for Instagram Messages Meta has quietly said it will end support for encrypted messaging on Instagram in a matter of weeks. Encryption helps ensure that what your messages stay between you and the person with whom you're co...

Meta is dropping encrypted messages from Instagram DMs from 8 May.

This means that your all private conversations will be readable by Meta, shareable with advertisers, and subpoenable by courts.

Privacy should be a default. Sign our petition.
www.mozillafoundation.org/petitions/ke...

Copim Conference 2026 : Copim Community : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive On Feb 26 and 27, 2026, the two-day conference brought together the people and projects shaping the future of equitable, community-driven open access book...

For those that missed it - videos of all sessions at the @copim.bsky.social conference last week are now available on the Internet Archive.
Lots of enthusiasm and stimulating discussion around community-led publishing of #openaccessbooks ....
archive.org/details/copi...

Portrait of a Benedictine monk, seated on a red chair, holding up a hand and appearing to be speaking. He has tonsured black hair, a full beard, and a black cloak. Image is public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

Annual reminder to tag us if you or your child dress up as an AUP book character for World Book Day tomorrow. I would suggest going as a Scottish Benedictine monk in 17th century Germany, but Patrick Gordon or Sorely Maclean are always great option. Explore more here:
www.fulcrum.org/aberdeenunip...

The @copim.bsky.social conference last week was such an excellent conference. Copim and #OpenBookFutures have been such important projects for moving discussions and practices for #OpenAccess books forward 🙌

7/6 Oops. Tagged in the wrong Anna Hughes! This is the @anna-r-hughes.bsky.social I meant to mention and thank.. ! For all the absolutely amazing work on putting this conference together. Thanks again Anna! 😅

Sorry!!

Noooo. Argh

6/6 All images are free to reuse. Photography by Stuart Hollis www.hollisphotography.uk

5/ Thank you to our incredible conference organising team, including @annalchughes.bsky.social, @alittleroad.bsky.social, @clairemcgann.bsky.social, @scholtom.bsky.social, @kirahopkins.bsky.social, Sue Pell & Holly Turpin, as well as to the @lborouniversity.bsky.social conference team