@iainmoore
Interested in libraries, charities and the social sector and how together they can fix everything. Once & future ultra runner. Macclesfield. Gay adopter. 🏳️🌈 Commercial Director, Libraries Connected www.librariesconnected.org.uk He/him
Awesome day with @whitewateractive.bsky.social gorge scrambling and leaping into waterfalls - bit hairy at times with the volume of water (and tbh it was bloody cold!) but a great day - 8 year old loved it too.
Would highly recommend if you’re in Llangollen - a town that’s definitely worth a visit.
Brilliant - really highlights the value of creating communities and connections.
Libraries do a lot of work in this area and if we measure it we can see big impacts:
"A 2.4-point increase in life satisfaction is worth around £39,000 per participant, assuming the improvement lasts for just one year"
An older boy reads to a younger one in a library.
Reading Well, developed by us, #Libraries and @readingagency.bsky.social, provides a cost-effective, preventative programme embedded in public #Libraries.
Reading Well for Children books are available to borrow for free from your local #Library.
www.local.gov.uk/case-studies...
#CMHW26
Awesome stuff - will transform how library services use data to shape and develop their services to most effectively meet community needs.
also has an AI research tool - for example cross linking Indices of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) with library use etc.
Shows in one test service there's a difference in correlation between IMD and borrowing between different age levels (IMD impacts borrowing in children but not older people)
The tool is brilliant - it's in alpha but for example showing for one library service:
• levels of membership and borrowing by residence by LSOA.
• distance people are traveling to borrow / access events etc to help understand where people are struggling to reach
yes - may be my clumsy language - more about where the priority sits.
In the interactive session interesting divergence of views among the sector on whether it's better to share raw messy data or cleaned/ standardised data.
But strong consensus that machine learning / AI can be used to clean up messy data - the question then is do we need to make both accessible?
key thing is bringing in:
• existing library data
• live data from LMSs
• broader data and insight around society and communities
Will be great to have all this together - but conscious it's a long road to getting it up and running - a lot of complexity and though.
Listening to @artscouncilengland.bsky.social and @biblioluke.bsky.social on work toward public library data / insight platform
Some great principles:
* data is messy - need to use new tech & AI to make sense
* libraries keen to share data but needs to be easy!
* needs to be live - not a snapshot
It’s more complicated than it should be for some libraries to accept stock!
We’re working to put libraries in touch with independent publishers, so getting in touch with the local authors’ publishers could be a way - will be launching over the next few weeks so watch this space!
William Bound These shuttles represent the story of Macclesfield weaver, William Bound. In 1877, when homosexuality was a crime in Britain, William was taken to court for his sexuality. He sank to his knees in relief when found not guilty for his first "offence". However, his prosecutor still planned to bring forward a second charge against him.
John Smith Born Sophia Locke, John lived as a man and married several women throughout their life. They raised 11 children with their last wife near Chestergate, where they died in 1848. This is roughly the date of the blue waistcoat on display. After their death, their birth gender was made known to the press by their doctor. This led to John being buried under their birth name.
Lovely to see Macclesfield Silk museum reminding us of gay & trans stories from the mid 1800s.
We went with our 8 year old’s class last year and they were fascinated by how sexuality was criminalised in the past.
Inclusive history so important in helping us learn from - and not repeat - the past.
Libraries aren’t a panacea for early years, but they form a core part of an integrated approach - and one that greatly extends the reach of support.
Great to see this from @local.gov.uk
This 👇
Authors get paid each time you borrow their books - so you’re still supporting your favourite authors directly by using the library.
For some this can be similar or even more than they get from sales.
So obviously do buy books but do borrow too and know that makes a difference for authors.
Tomorrow is Holocaust Memorial Day.
As guardians of truth and centres of their diverse communities, public #Libraries have a vital role to play in helping us continue to remember and learn from the atrocities of history.
Here is how libraries can get involved.
hmd.org.uk/resource/you...
Ha - fair enough!
Hope you get the chance to visit as a punter though - it’s a great new venue.
Always happy to highlight libraries!
I’m sure they would be very interested if you wanted to be part of the programme too - let me know if you’d like a contact.
Glass display case showing Christopher isherwood’s school trunk - it’s a solid looking dark wood trunk with white painted writing on it
The Stockroom (Stockport libraries) has Isherwood’s school trunk, and a collection of archives from his early life.
They’re doing readings and film showings in LGBTQ+ history month in Feb:
www.stockrm.org/lgbt-history...
They know what they say is untrue, they do not care it is untrue.
The media know that what they repeat is untrue, they do not care it is untrue.
Their supporters know what they are told is untrue, they do not care it is untrue.
Telling the truth is not enough, unless people care about the truth.
The New Year is a good time for making changes, and we’ve decided the time is right to use BlueSky and LinkedIn as our main social media platforms, and to no longer post on X.
Do give us a follow and please do share this post.
I’ll find the source but about 15 years ago there was some academic research showing undergraduate essays in serif fonts got higher marks than sans serif.
The thought was that serif fonts conveyed the credibility of printed reference works which tend(ed?) to be in times new Roman or similar…
Worth noting library stock budgets have to cover a lot more channels now too - ebooks and e-audio - both significantly more costly than their physical counterpart - and e-magazines / papers too. So that reduction is even more than it appears.
As a journalist you’re always looking for ways to sum up the now, but the story is really often more incremental. This is from a Derbyshire county council paper. I was, inevitably, looking for “library to close” or “doge identified £Xm”, but the starting point is at least as important
Foundation - season 1 good but then gets better and better - by season 3 becomes an extraordinary epic.
Bad sisters - just brilliant.
there's a translated version here - but not sure of the provenance or accuracy!
thisrecording.squarespace.com/today/tag/cl...
💯
Oddly the best thing I’ve read on this is a brilliant and brutal 1930s novel about a woman bringing an orangutan up as a child.
Perfectly captures the disconnection between their interactions and the underlying motivation / understanding.
Without spoilers, it doesn’t end well for either of them
Obviously it’s not *about* AI and the author intended no such allegory, but it reads across so well (especially in the context of LLMs)
At the core of it though, it says much about how we can’t really know our own children, and interrogates what (if anything) makes us different from the other apes.
Cover image of Appius and Virginia by G E Trevelyan. Shows the title text over an out of focus picture of an orang u tan swinging through the trees.
This is great - only 2/3 thru but this lost 93 yr old novel has more to say about AI than recent fiction.
A tale of an ape raised as human shows we just can’t translate meaning and motive across such different beings - even (especially) when outward expectations appear to align
@neglectedbooks.com
Big run done for the week! I'm running the Athens Marathon this year to raise money to support LGBTQIA+ youth.
If you can help, every pound can make a world of difference: www.justgiving.com/page/jack-sh...