Thoth Archiving Network Pilot at Cambridge
Cambridge University Library (CUL) is piloting participation in the Thoth Archiving Network, which will allow small presses to use a simple deposit option to archive their publications in multiple repository locations, creating the opportunity to safeguard against the complete loss of their open books catalogue, should they cease to operate.
This is a pilot repository site hosting open access books by a range of publishers depositing content in Thoth. This site is maintained and managed by the Open Research Systems Team at Cambridge University Library (CUL).
More information about this pilot and the Open Book Futures Project is available at this page.
Open Book Futures
Recent Submissions
Surveillance and Control of Dengue Vectors in the United States and Territories
(Open Book Publishers, 2025-07-04) Barrera, Roberto
'Surveillance and Control of Dengue Vectors in the United States and Territories' offers a comprehensive exploration of the challenges and strategies involved in managing dengue vectors, particularly Aedes mosquitoes, in the US and its territories. With over 13 million dengue cases reported in the Americas in 2024 alone, this timely book synthesizes critical information on vector species, transmission cycles, and effective surveillance and control methods.
Dr. Roberto Barrera, a seasoned expert in mosquito ecology and Vector-Borne diseases, presents evidence-based recommendations for public health officials, researchers, and community stakeholders.
This essential guide not only addresses the complexities of dengue transmission but also emphasizes the importance of integrated vector management and community engagement in preventing outbreaks.
Whether you are a public health professional, a student, or simply interested in vector ecology, this book serves as a vital resource for understanding and combating dengue in an ever-evolving landscape.
Characters in Film and Other Media: Theory, Analysis, Interpretation
(Open Book Publishers, 2025-07-29) Eder, Jens
Characters are central to the creation and experience of films and other media. Their cultural significance is profound, but they also raise a wide range of questions.
This book provides a comprehensive theory that guides the analysis and interpretation of characters across four dimensions: as represented beings with physical, psychological, and social characteristics; as artefacts with aesthetic structures; as meaningful symbols; and as symptoms of socio-cultural origins and effects. Integrating insights from film, media, and literary studies as well as philosophy, psychology and sociology, the book offers a broad range of approaches for understanding characters and the emotional responses they evoke.
Richly illustrated and offering practical tools, along with case studies of numerous characters from different genres of films, this book will be invaluable to scholars and students of film and media studies and related disciplines, as well as artistic practitioners.
Historiographies of Game Studies: What It Has Been, What It Could Be
(punctum books, 2025-07-25) Vossen, Emma; Karabinus, Alisha; Kocurek, Carly A.; Mejeur, Cody
Historiographies of Game Studies offers a first-of-its-kind reflection on how game studies as an academic field has been shaped and sustained. Today, game studies is a thriving field with many dedicated national and international conferences, journals, professional societies, and a strong presence at conferences in disciplines like computer science, communication, media studies, theater, visual arts, popular culture, and others. But, when did game studies start? And what (and who) is at the core or center of game studies? Fields are defined as much by what they are not as by what they are, and their borderlands can be hotly contested spaces.
In this anthology, scholars from across the field consider how the boundaries of game studies have been established, codified, contested, and protected, raising critical questions about who and what gets left out of the field. Over more than two dozen chapters and interviews with leading figures, including Espen Aarseth, Kishonna Gray, Henry Jenkins, Lisa Nakamura, Kentaro Matsumoto, Ken McAllister, and Janet Murray, the contributors offer a dazzling array of insightful provocations that address the formation, propagation, and cultivation of game studies, interrogating not only the field’s pasts but its potential futures and asking us to think deliberately about how academic fields are collectively built.
'Wisdom and Greatness in one Place': The Alexandrian Trader Moses ben Judah and his Circle
(Open Book Publishers, 2025-07-22) Wagner, Esther-Miriam; Arad, Dotan
The manuscript collections of the Bodleian Library contain a corpus of dozens of documents from the archive of Moses ben Judah. A leader of the Jewish community in Alexandria, he was also a prominent businessman and in contact with individuals from Cairo to Sicily. This collection of documents at the Bodleian likely did not emerge from the Cairo Genizah, but from another depository, and appears to have been buried at some point.
The documents, which include letters and deeds, shed light on the world of the Jewish elite of a Mediterranean city at the end of the Middle Ages, their communal and business life, connections between Jewish communities, and intellectual trends and tastes among educated Jews. They improve our understanding of the lives of Alexandrian Jews in the late Middle Ages and provide new data about the local leadership and its relations with the Nagidate (the central Jewish leadership) in Cairo, the cantors, the poll tax and its effects, and more.
We hear about tensions within this society and the growing presence of European (Italian, Greek, Iberian, and conversos) Jews within the complex social mosaic of Egyptian Jewry in the late Mamluk period. The documents inform us about Alexandria’s Jewish community and the commercial networks of the Mediterranean world, in which Jews traded alongside Christians and Muslims.
This volume makes an important contribution to the study of Judaeo-Arabic at a watershed moment. Sources from the late Mamluk period show Judaeo-Arabic at a linguistic border between Classical and Late Judaeo-Arabic. The volume will therefore further readers’ knowledge of historical linguistics of Arabic in general, and Judaeo-Arabic in particular.
The phrase ‘Wisdom and Greatness in One Place’ in the title of the book is a quotation from the Babylonian Talmud (Giṭṭin 59a), the meaning of which is that it is rare to find combined in one man political leadership and intellectual pre-eminence.
Stories of Hope: Reimagining Education
(Open Book Publishers, 2025-07-02) Madhok, Rajan; Heller, Richard F.; Abegglen, Sandra; Burns, Tom; Neuhaus, Fabian; Sandars, John; Sinfield, Sandra; Gitanjali Singh, Upasana
Higher education is in crisis. Students are disengaged, lecturers are burned out, and universities seem more preoccupied with rankings and revenue than with knowledge and wellbeing. But rather than dwell on the problems, this book focuses on solutions—on hope.
Bringing together a diverse range of educators and practitioners, this collection showcases real-world innovations that challenge the status quo and offer glimpses of a more humane and inspiring educational future. From rethinking systems and curriculum design to fostering imaginative collaboration and exploring the role of technology, the book highlights practical, hopeful interventions that are already making a difference.
This is not a manifesto of complaints but an invitation to reimagine education. The contributors offer fresh perspectives from around the world, illustrating how small but meaningful changes can transform learning spaces, empower educators, and inspire students. For academics, teachers, administrators, and anyone invested in the future of education, this book serves as both a source of inspiration and a call to action. It is an evolving ecosystem of ideas—grounded in practice, rich with possibility, and rooted in radical hope. Now is the time to create the change we wish to see.
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