Editorial This week saw the CILIP Conference which was, of course, delivered digitally for the first time ever. Having it online was remarkably painless, with an excellent system in place and a lot of very good behind-the-scenes admin work to make it all run smoothly. It felt a lot smaller than normal in turns of…

Editorial Sad news from Calderdale as the council, which has cut a fair bit before, is aiming for more budget reductions to its libraries. This is in the same week as Conservative council leaders warn that a third of them (of which Calderdale isn’t one – it’s Labour) are considering cuts to libraries. Just when…

Editorial Well, that was nail-biting. Libraries finally knew what they were doing late on Tuesday for what they had to implement less than two days later, on Thursday. It turned out eventually that, like many things in this semi second lockdown, libraries will be far less closed this time than before. They will be able…

Editorial So, it’s lockdown in England again. Let’s take a moment to reflect on that and how ironic some of the news below about library re-openings look now. Hear that screaming sound? No, not that one, that’s you. I mean the other one. That’s the sound of a whole sector desperately going into reverse gear.…

Editorial Great to see Public Library Apparel, featured in this blog a few weeks ago, reach their crowdfunding target. This will mean that an online shop, selling library-themed clothes, with some of the profits going to libraries, will open soon. Crowdfunding for more normal library things, though, is more challenging, as I suspect Libraries Unlimited…

I studied History at university and was taught the importance of various forms of evidence and differing points of view. It so taught me the need for the long view that I tend to think judging the impact of anything later than the Romans as premature. So, it’s perhaps pointless to try to give a…

Editorial There were several librarians named in the Queen’s Birthday Honours this year. The name that stood out to me was Isobel Hunter, the current and first CEO of Libraries Connected, who despite only being in post two years has not put a foot wrong in what could have been quite a difficult time, ensuring…

Editorial There’s quite a lot of special Days and Months at the start of October – Black History Month, National Poetry Day, Fun Palaces and Libraries Week all on at the same time. The one with the hardest time in these Covid days is Fun Palaces which normally relies on face-to-face demonstrations and crafts. The…

Editorial The BookSeller have published an interesting article on library usage, pointing out that it is only at one-fifth to one-third of pre-covid levels. There are many reasons for this situation, some of which are listed below, but it’s still a worrying statistic to be made public at a time when councils are looking for…

Editorial Sorry to see that Hay on Wye, a place synonymous with books, will now have a library run by volunteers. Wales is notably less reliant on the unpaid than English libraries and so this represents a worrying development. Otherwise, the news continues to show a return to normal, although with one service amusingly reintroducing…