Congratulations to all those in the New Year Honours List 2026, including some impressive library sector people such as John Vincent and Bobby Seagull

📊 #TidyTuesday – 2025 W28 | British Library Funding . 🔗: stevenponce.netlify.app/data_visuali... . #rstats | #r4ds | #dataviz | #ggplot2

In the final episode of this podcast series from Choice Reviews, Louis Coiffait-Gunn of CILIP and @camillegamboa.bsky.social of Sage discuss pushing for stronger public trust in librarians and science. Listen to the episode: https://ow.ly/H9C150XMJpe

Call to legally protect access to parks, youth clubs, libraries & community spaces after 'long-term thinning of the social infrastructure that help young people' nuffieldfoundation.cmail19.com/t/y-e-axsc-d... Nuffield Foundation, Eamon McCrory & Ritika Chokhani for Anna Freud Centre

The British Library Funding Crisis: A Three-Part Analysis – Steven Ponce

Neither Libraries Connected, CILIP nor any of the other library services & bodies we saw give evidence think this ACE Hodge Review recommendation is worth exploring ATM www.thebookseller.com/news/library... www.artsprofessional.co.uk/news/british...

Some writers research at libraries as a form of AI resistance or as a creative journey that shapes their books www.mctd.ac.uk/impact-of-ge... Dr Clementine Collett on the Impact of Generative AI on the Novel

Love this Research Database of significant UK and international studies about libraries and archives scottishlibraries.org/research-ove... one to bookmark from Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC)

Free webinar on New Skills for the Future Library Leader www.cilip.org.uk/events/Event...

Free training on information & media literacy and critical search skills, from Google & CILIP www.cilip.org.uk/events/Event... #SuperSearchers

Library services like volunteering, activities tackling loneliness, and arts & crafts sessions deliver £££s of benefits to people & society www.librariesconnected.org.uk/news/south-e... Nice (Treasury Green Book compliant) social value analysis by Shared Intelligence for Libraries Connected SE

Free public library services save each of their users nearly £1,500 a year, from hot-desking and wifi, newspapers and magazines, to ebooks, audio books and ... books. cravemag.co.uk/uk-library-s... Nice research from the Better Libraries team

Arts Council England does great work for public libraries, improvements could be tweaks to their systems & processes, or wider look at accountabilities/funding that's far bigger than ACE - reviewing moving their devt role to the BL isn't a priority now www.librariesconnected.org.uk/news/library...

The public support tax-funded R&D but don't understand it. Public Attitudes to R&D 2025 via Policy Commons

💬 @louiscoiffait-gunn.bsky.social reminds us that public-good curators give us more than just access to information: they give us the tools to work with it. Our guide with @sagepub.com champions the role of information curators #PublicGoodCuration Download the guide bit.ly/3Kemcqn

What’s shaping public trust in science today? @louiscoiffait-gunn.bsky.social from @cilip.bsky.social and Sage’s @camillegamboa.bsky.social unpack challenges like censorship, politics, and AI - and why curators matter now more than ever. Listen here: www.choice360.org/podcasts/epi...

China and now the EU overtake the USA in R&D. ASPI’s Critical Technology Tracker: 2025 updates and 10 new technologies via Policy Commons

Great to see dedicated resources starting to appear for how public and school librarians can support the National Year of Reading 2026 #GoAllIn goallin.org.uk/get-involved... Librarians are experts at spreading the magic of reading

Meet Jack Edwards, ‘the internet’s resident librarian’ www.thetimes.com/culture/book... 'parents encouraged him to participate in summer reading challenges at his local library. He became the first person in his family to go to university'

V. sad news. It's been lovely getting to know Paul, I was really looking forward to visiting him in his natural habitat at UCL Library soon. He's had a huge global & positive impact on open science & library profession. He leaves us better informed and connected. www.linkedin.com/search/resul...

"Time will explain” BBC News - Jane Austen school librarian in Reading discovers family link - BBC News www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... Love this

Meanwhile, North of the border they already have a national scheme for every child to claim their right to library membership from birth www.everychild.scot #ECALM

Govt update on AI & copyright consultation; they're digesting 11,512 responses (including ours) & 4 roundtables, and will publish a full economic impact assessment and final report by 18 March www.gov.uk/government/p...

If you care about book bans, censorship and everyone's right to access as wide a range of information and ideas as possible in order to make their own mind up - tomorrow 18 Dec is the last day to apply to join our new Intellectual Freedom Committee www.cilip.org.uk/news/713670/...

Fantastic that the [English public] libraries minister sees the power & potential of different types of librarians working together across sectors, for too long each sector has danced alone to the tune of different government departments #LibrariesAlliance librariesalliance.org.uk

Why isn't there a National Library for Northern Ireland? Should there be? Apparently it's not been discussed before questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-ques... Interesting query by Jim McMahon MP & answer by NI Secretar Hilary Benn MP. What's NI Exec Communities Minister Gordon Lyons' view?

Job vacancy - Chief Executive, Office for Students – £145k 12 Jan

Arts Council England - an independent review by Baroness Margaret Hodge & statement from the Culture Secretary www.gov.uk/government/p...

Great a think tank recognises libraries' transformative power & with costed proposals.As Louie Stowell says "the scheme would need to be paired with funding for libraries & fully trained librarians"

Great day in Oxford for all of us in the new #LibrariesAlliance hosting English public libraries minister Baroness Fiona Twycross, plus our initial website is live librariesalliance.org.uk

Visits up, loans up 14%, digital borrowing up, non-fiction up. Fascinating research on public library loans, from Libraries Connected www.librariesconnected.org.uk/news/librari...

Nominate your reading hero, recognising individuals who have championed reading, books, and literature in communities across the UK thequeensreadingroom.co.uk/the-queens-r...

Early bird open till 14 May 2026 for the World Library & Information Congress (WLIC) in Busan Aug 2026, CILIP members get a discount, volunteers and London 2027 National Committee members get free registration (details TBA) 2026.ifla.org/registration... #WLIC26

Great to see Barking & Dagenham Libraries, Libraries Connected, IDEA Foundation and others awarded Digital Inclusion Innovation Fund money to build on their vital #DigitalInclusion work www.gov.uk/government/n...

The next phase for universities as civic anchor institutions lpiphub.bham.ac.uk/civic-20/ different libraries are powerful local civic networks of professionals #CivicUniversities

Why your local [public] library might surprise you www.artscouncil.org.uk/blog/why-you... great piece from Luke Burton of The Arts Council

14 European case studies on the multi-faceted role of public libraries for; - including everybody - democracy & engagement - economic resilience cordis.europa.eu/article/id/4... CORDIS

Guidance for [English public] libraries and archives on Local Government Reorganisation www.local.gov.uk/our-support/... #LGR

'Books, which are seen as non-conformist, are banned and burned' - Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Media & information literacy is vital for our democracy. Today we joined a group of other organisations & experts urging the Govt to back curriculum reform with proper ongoing funding for teachers & librarians mila.org.uk/mil-car-stat... #MediaLiteracy #InformationLiteracy

Congrats to the first 20 English public library services in the Libraries Development Framework, from Arts Council England www.artscouncil.org.uk/supporting-a...

Fun, creative & engaging activities & ideas for school librarians & teachers to use with students to encourage reading for pleasure - 50 Library Lessons & Ideas by Lucas Maxwell for Facet Publishing #ReadingForPleasure #NationalYearOfReading facetpublishing.co.uk/page/detail/...

Teachers, librarians, parents, everyone is invited to bring the world’s best book club to young readers carnegies.co.uk/take-part/re... #ReadingForPleasure #NationalYearOfReading #TheCarnegies #Carnegies26

Academic publisher market share by country and the role of transformative agreements esac-initiative.org/market-watch/ fascinating analysis by ESAC & Max Planck Digital Library

Four National Council Members appointed to Arts Council England - GOV.UK share.google/b7DPnK9l8f0p... huge congratulations Jonathan Douglas!

Should higher education library staff also be more clearly identified in research contribution taxonomies such as CreDIT, including (but also going beyond) systematic reviews  e.g. europepmc.org/article/MED/...

Given UKRI's work on research culture www.ukri.org/what-we-do/s... do we need a HE Librarian Concordat (like for technicians concordatplatformofpractice.vitae.ac.uk/beneficiarie...) to better acknowledge their vital role in research teams and open science?

We're pleased to announce that Championing Your School Library by Barbara Band is out now! A comprehensive guide to advocating for your school library, this is a must-read for anyone committed to sustaining and growing their library services. Order now👇https://www.facetpublishing.co.uk/9781783307562

Impressive work by University of Exeter library colleagues on what the current US administration is doing to data sources such as PubMed, what it means for global research data, as well as backups & alternative sources libguides.exeter.ac.uk/c.php?g=7252...

Given current challenges to the reliability of the global research and data ecosystem, interesting to learn about this German initiative to build an open alternative to PubMed absolutelymaybe.plos.org/2025/05/14/g...