A bicycle cable lock cut in half lays forlornly on a cobble stone ground serving as a blunt reminder to the unwary to lock your bike properly.
Someone is having a bad day.
You're not exactly FDR.
I had the misfortune to work in this building for 10 years and luckily moved out last week. The building is rotten to its core!
'For example, in Edinburgh, the university sector's contribution is reckoned to be equivalent to ten Commonwealth Games as the University generates Β£7.52 billion per year to the UK economy compared with Β£740 million over seven years by the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth games'.
Five women authors by whom Iβve read (and loved) at least five books:
Anne Leckie
Martha Wells
Ursula Le Guin
Naomi Novak
Genevieve Cogman
(I found this more difficult than expected and must do better. My new reading challenge for 2026 is to read only women authors)
"For open infrastructure, the burden of AI harvesting is existential...a swarm of AI scrapers mirror entire collections, the cost of being open rises sharply...degraded performance for legitimate users, polluted metrics, staff time diverted to firefighting" www.digital-science.com/blog/2026/02...
Academics write research papers, then give them to publishers for free. They them expect Libraries to buy subscriptions to read the content, to pay article processing charges, to buy access to citation databases and now AI tools? Absolutely not indeed!
I read βcuriosity drivenβ as an attempt to pretend academic freedoms are not being impinged.
Iβve not looked at any online socials for a while but checked in today to see whatβs going on. First thing I see is someone mocking something I wrote online. No thanks, I think Iβll go back to watching the skiing.
Just this week, I had to crank up the bot protection on some of our journal platforms. "AI" bots are putting huge stress on open infrastructure in ways that organisations simply can not afford.
Thanks - I appreciate the solidarity. Itβs non-stop pressure with limited resources.
Sorry for the typos. I wrote this text in haste and will update when I get back in the office.
I normally use the ScotRail website/app for travel within Scotland as that has more reliable info. Even then rail travel is a mess when different companies are involved (LNER etc)!
This is me watching BingBot flood my #OpenAccess repository causing it to crash for the 1000th time in a few days.
π We are proud to announce the release of "Teaching for Digital Futures": our guides and resources to help educators teach digital, data, and AI literacies in the classroom, in one Edinburgh Diamond-published book series β¬οΈ
@edfuturesinstitute.bsky.social
@morayhouse.bsky.social
We are starting off 2026 with a brand new book series from @dataschools.bsky.social!
Teaching for Digital Futures provides practical resources to help educators confidently teach digital, data & AI literacies.
There are currently four books for you to read & share!
books.ed.ac.uk/edinburgh-di...
UoA 9 never fail to give me a ball ache!
Man doing a star jump on an empty beach
Orange bike propped on a kerb next to a road running through a green park with hills in the background
People say Hogmanay in Edinburgh is the best, but I tend to prefer New Years Day where I was able to cycle round a park with an extinct volcano in the morning and mess around on a near deserted beach in the afternoon.
That's a wrap!
Edinburgh Diamond is officially out of office until 5th January 2026.
We have had a wonderful year, working with incredible editors and authors from @edinburgh-uni.bsky.social and beyond!
Here's to 2026 β may Diamond Open Access continue to strengthen! π
A huge welcome to Simon Bowie (@simonxix.com) β the new technical developer working on Edinburgh Diamond & our External Open Hosting Service.
We are big fans of the work Simon has done with Copim & other open access & open source communities, and very much look forward to our next chapter together!
We're hiring! We have 2 jobs advertised: Library Engagement Lead and Operations Manager, deadline Tues 6 January 2026. Links:
openjournalscollective.org/static/engag...
openjournalscollective.org/static/opera...
Come work for a major new international organisation funding #openaccess publishing!
Well done! Thatβs a quality public service announcement.
Manchester skyline at night, with several tower blocks looming over the city partially lit up with white and red lights
Iβm having a pretty good week so far. Started off in Manchester meeting up with librarian colleagues from across the globe. Met the impressive @deradam.bsky.social in real life (who rescued me from a lift). Only more day at work then itβs a long weekend off.
Book cover that shows the Scott Monument in Edinburgh within an arch window shape, and a light green background.
Edinburgh is known for its stunning architecture and winding streets, but there's more to its history than meets the eye.
'Edinburgh Historic Walks: A Summary of Hidden Histories' provides self-led walking routes that enable the recovery and recognition of lost narratives in Edinburghβs history.
the call is now open for our next round of @iashedinburgh.bsky.social Heritage Collections Research Fellows! - find out more here:
www.iash.ed.ac.uk/heritage-col...
Karma in action π€
It is SUCH a pain to encounter pavement-parked vehicles when in my wheelchair. Drives me round the bend.
A lid of jam jar with black background and gold writing saying βStute- Bristol England, A family businessβ. An unfortunate crumb has landed on top of the U to make the handwritten text look like it is saying shite.
Apparently itβs not shite to be Scottish today, but the jam is. π΄σ §σ ’σ ³σ £σ ΄σ Ώ β½οΈ π©π°
I do love seeing your Tri adventures on Strava!
I love it! "Go to Funder Jail" π
