Libfocus Link-out for December 2025

Welcome to the December edition of the Libfocus link-out, an assemblage of library-related things we have found informative, educational, thought-provoking and insightful on the Web over the past while.

Images from this month's link-out article

Shine bright like a diamond: what can library hosting services offer in the academic publishing market?

Cathy Dishman and Rebecca Wojturska compare two diamond open access (OA) publishing services at University of Edinburgh and Liverpool John Moores University.

Why is knowledge getting so expensive?
In this TED talk Jeff Edmunds, Digital Access Coordinator at the Penn State University Libraries, explains why libraries have lost ownership of their digital collections and what can be done to fix that problem.

Face Value: How Living with an Appearance Difference Informs Library Customer Service.
Maeve Kerins, (TUD) explores how living with a visible difference shapes professional practice in a public-facing academic library role.

We Made FETCH Happen: A New Improved Inventory Management System.
Library of Congress’, Chief of the Collections Management Division, Matt Martin, discusses the process of designing and implementing a new inventory management system for offsite storage.

Why have so many people stopped posting on social media?
In this RTE Brainstorm article, Aoife Ryan Christensen examines why time spent on social media platforms has steadily declined since 2022.

The Librarian’s Call: Documenting Is Resistance.
This Common Dreams article by Rodney Freeman Jr. is a call to action for staff in libraries and archives who collect, preserve, and share facts. At a time when historical records are being deliberately erased it's important for us to 'document clearly, share responsibly, preserve redundantly, and hold the line until silence cannot take root.'

For Researchers in the Humanities, Is Open Really Fair?
Lai Ma and Claire Davin critically situate the socio-structural condition of humanities scholars in the open science and research movement, validly arguing that perceptions, practices, and experiences not only differ across disciplines but also pose significant challenges for the individual humanities scholar.

Text and Data Mining Literacy for Librarians.
Whitney Kramer and Iliana Burgos discuss on The Authority File the rationale for their book 'Text and Data Mining Literacy for Librarians' (co-edited with Evan Muzzall). The book is a must-get for any academic and research library out there.

Teaching AI as an anti-AI Librarian.
Interesting thoughts from Eleanor Ball on UNI that looks at how to teach AI as a Librarian when you don't particularly embrace it. 

What do College students lose when libraries are ignored?
Jane Jiang takes a look at the increasing pressures facing academic libraries in the US and what the implications for students in this Scholarly Kitchen article.