Caroline Ball
@heroicendeavour.bsky.social
2.5K followers 800 following 13K posts
Academic Librarian, SFHEA, #ebookSOS campaigner, WikimediaUK trustee, NLISN committee member. UK Wikimedian of the Year 2020, JISC Community Champion 2025.
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heroicendeavour.bsky.social
Since Bluesky appears to be my new academic home (and Threads, I don't know what that is!), I'm just posting my publications in a pinned thread for easy reference...
heroicendeavour.bsky.social
#FinishedReading: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Exile: The Captive Years of Mary, Queen of Scots by Rosemary Goring

www.goodreads.com/book/show/23...
Goodreads
Discover and share books you love on Goodreads.
www.goodreads.com
heroicendeavour.bsky.social
Watching a movie where the main character has his elderly dog put to sleep, and - oh. Too soon. Way too soon. Had to stop the movie I was crying too hard. I miss my Bandit kitty.
heroicendeavour.bsky.social
I’m so sorry. I lost one of my furbabies last week, so I know what you’re going through. All the love and hugs.
Reposted by Caroline Ball
jackjenkins.me
Gonna be thinking about this lede for a minute.
(RNS) — Last month, the Rev. David Black stood in front of a Chicago-area U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility and spread his arms wide. Adorned in all black and wearing a clerical collar, the pastor looked up at a group of masked, heavily armed ICE agents on the roof and began to pray.

“I invited them to repentance,” Black, a minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA), said in an interview. “I basically offered an altar call. I invited them to come and receive that salvation, and be part of the kingdom that is coming.”

But when Black began to lower his arms a few seconds later, the agents responded to his spiritual plea by firing pepper balls, or chemical agents that cause eye irritation and respiratory distress, video footage shows. One struck Black in the head, exploding into a puff of white pepper smoke and forcing him to his knees. Fellow demonstrators rushed to his aid, and as the pastor rubbed his face in pain, the agents continued to fire.

“We could hear them laughing,” Black said.
Reposted by Caroline Ball
openbookcollective.bsky.social
🧵 The Open Book Collective is pleased to share our 2024–2025 Annual Report: A Year of Important Progress. We’ve made big strides toward sustainability, expanded our collective + strengthened global partnerships for OA books. Read the full report: openbookcollective.pubpub.org/pub/open-boo...
Open Book Collective 2024-2025 annual report: A year of important progress
The team provide an overview of the Open Book Collective's work, as well as the work of its Publisher and Publishing Service Provider Members
openbookcollective.pubpub.org
Reposted by Caroline Ball
govpritzker.illinois.gov
If you come for my people, you come through me.
heroicendeavour.bsky.social
I don’t, it’s called aphantasia. And I guess it’s impossible to describe - I just absorb the words and the meaning and the plot without visualising anything? But then I’ve never known any different!
heroicendeavour.bsky.social
But of course. Ideology always trumps evidence! 🙄
heroicendeavour.bsky.social
You Are Not the Main Character.

Also, Sleep On It. Whatever It Is, Sleep On It.
Reposted by Caroline Ball
tomesandtech.bsky.social
#aibeyond2025 - @heroicendeavour.bsky.social speaks to "Reclaiming agency in the new world of AI" and whether we as individuals are a passenger or a pilot in this space.
Discussion of AI Determinism and whether the encouraged adoption of a new tool fits our library requirements.
Reposted by Caroline Ball
openbookcollective.bsky.social
#NoOpenAccessWithoutOpenInfrastructure. OBC's @joedeville.bsky.social making the case for open, interoperable digital infrastructures for #OAbooks at the National Open Access Stakeholders
Summit in Nigeria. Presenting on 'Open access books: If not now, when'. Slides at doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
Joe Deville at a podium, in front of a slide with a banner reading 'No open access without open infrastructure'
Reposted by Caroline Ball
mikeachim.bsky.social
Damn. This is amazing. £325 per week, paid monthly, for 3 years - and the result was a profit for the Irish economy:
www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employmen...
Post from Threads user rodneyowl: "Ireland has declared the Basic Income for Artists scheme permanent. This will be officially announced in tomorrow’s budget. Details to follow. Congratulations to all who fought for it and the present and future artists of all sorts in Ireland. That includes me 👌We’re just comin to the end of a 3 year pilot scheme. It’s been a roaring success. For every €1 paid out to the 2000 participants, the government got €1.46 back. Can’t argue with that. Other countries are already taking note."
heroicendeavour.bsky.social
Settling in for my last day today. It's a strange feeling. The last time I moved jobs I had the Christmas break in-between finishing one and starting the other, which rather softened the transition. Tomorrow I will wake up and be (temporarily) a lady of leisure!
heroicendeavour.bsky.social
No, that’s swapping the beginnings of words - like par cark instead of car park. I do that too! This is like saying ‘amalliant’ because your brain trips up over whether to use ‘brilliant’ or ‘amazing’.
heroicendeavour.bsky.social
Is there a term for accidentally smushing two words together when speaking? Like your brain can’t decide which of two synonyms to use so it combines them on the fly? A portmanteau, but accidental, unintentional.

I do this all the time, and I don’t know if it’s an ADHD thing or just a ‘me’ thing?
heroicendeavour.bsky.social
Well, I've just delivered my last teaching session to students - for who knows how long? I have no doubt there'll be public speaking and conference presentations in my future, but that'll be the end to my info lit and research teaching for a while! 📚
Reposted by Caroline Ball
kojamf.bsky.social
Dr. Jane Goodall filmed an interview with Netflix in March 2025 that she understood would only be released after her death.
Reposted by Caroline Ball
dannykay68.bsky.social
LAST CALL: Beyond Certainty-What does 'Discovery' mean in an open & artificially intelligent world? #AIBeyond2025
Wed 8 Oct - www.deakin.edu.au/library/abou...
Keynote @mcintold.bsky.social
Videos from @aj-boston.bsky.social, @heroicendeavour.bsky.social @aarontay.bsky.social + live discussions!
Beyond Certainty
www.deakin.edu.au
Reposted by Caroline Ball
philippagrand.bsky.social
"Knowledge should not be locked behind paywalls. We owe it to our students, and to learners everywhere, to open the doors" 👏👏👏 Great article by @lsepress.bsky.social MD @niamhtumelty.bsky.social & @heroicendeavour.bsky.social on why OERs should be central to the public mission of universities.
heroicendeavour.bsky.social
Yep, that’s the one! I was at Abbotsholme.
heroicendeavour.bsky.social
I think I was taught by the same Martin Allison!