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February 2015

Of course, it's about accounting. Getting expenditure off books in the present so it can be presented as future assets, despite write-offs.

Grim that a reduction of fees from £9k to £6k is now so resisted and contentious. Pre-1998: £0. 1998: £1k. 2004: £3k. £9k in 2012.

Mailbox's "ping emails back to inbox later" feature is helpful. It also gives a false sense of security in having "finished email" though.

Saw Cirque Eloize perform Cirkopolis this afternoon. A bit disappointing compared to iD in both narrative and novelty but fun nonetheless.

Was interesting, given debate re ed vs. ad distinctions, to see ad for international recruitment agency alongside damning THE editorial.

If we subscribe to Sociological Review but then can't afford other pubs students need, that sociology at Keele benefits is small consolation

That surplus came from library budgets worldwide & funds only there on the back of libraries who couldn't afford to pay it.

Prof. quoted in that article argues it should be used for intra-disciplinary building/subsidy. This is a poor way to build activities.

Had a great evening at #BLDigital. Thanks @j_w_baker, @ernestopriego, @Stephen_Curry, @Protohedgehog, @MedievalBex & many others.

Tonight @britishlibrary, I'll speak on free beer vs. free speech and what it now means to say that information "wants" to be free.

Admission: it was v. hard not to write "don't cross the streams, it would be bad" when discussing double-dipping & decoupled revenue streams

I think these all pertain to dual function of monograph: both dissemination & academic audit. The latter conditions supply. #alpspbook

Followed some of #alpspbook today. Saw lots of economic points re: "too many books?" / "Can people publish?" / "Why do people publish?"

Agree that PDF is problematic as per Guardian article circulating. Solution not a "new format" though. It's styling of existing open forms.

Academic DFW. Academics want DFW to be an academic! Tech/ethics/dialogue Southon basically schematises our conference prog #funthingsbbk

Literary/broadsheet DFW is nauseating hagiography says Southon. Lots of biography, always starting w/ suicide & his normality #funthingsbbk

Deep technological scepticism from Wallace, notes Sangster. Evidence in his own essays and in Max's biography. #funthingsbbk

More reception work from Matt Sangster: Wallace is specifically pre-internet. His reception is ultimately conditioned by it #funthingsbbk

Wallace & Pynchon attract invested fans in the way that others, like Franzen, don't. No Franzen listserv says @contemporaryfic #funthingsbbk

#funthingsbbk @contemporaryfic (Tony Venezia) up first, speaking on Wallace, pop culture & fan culture. Lots of history, Leavis to Adorno.

Today, I am taking a rare step away from @openlibhums to speak at a conference on David Foster Wallace. It is Saturday, after all!

Furthermore, if an expert staff member leaves, that course can't be taught. It's not just a generic module that anyone can teach.

If you're teaching the latest research and want expertise of academics, then courses have to change in the year after advertising.

Which? have some points - unfair to change student fees after start - but I'm not convinced they understand HE as anything but a commodity.

Today is the 90th anniversary of Russell Hoban's birth. Check out #sa4qe for the festivities in which others have been participating!