My books cartoon for this week’s @theguardian.com

Louise Moillon (c. 1610–1696) French painter in the Baroque era. One of the best still life painters of her time, she was trained by her father as she was unable to attend academies as a woman- who were thought to lack the ability required for artists #WomensArt

Check out what's on at #CILIP this week & sign up for one of our excellent CPD events. This week the spotlight is on events in partnership with CILIP Metadata & Discovery Group and CILIP North East Events are FREE or discounted for CILIP Members See our full listings: https://ow.ly/wiGJ50YgZK2

Blue Hyacinth, c. 1937 Oil painting by Tove Jansson #WomensArt

A romance cartoon for the @theguardian.com

The study points to using libraries and visiting museums as bringing these enormous brain health benefits ... who would have thought? Well, librarians and museum folk for a start ... www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

Fantastic, thanks for sharing. It's not officially out till next Thursday but from some reason Gardners (wholesalers) sent everything after the arse end of last week, not that me or @ortacpress.bsky.social are complaining about people being able to #GetKeshed early!

👀 @stuhennigan.bsky.social You were on the shelf at Bookseller Crow already! They said this is the second copy they’ve sold. (I think O picked up their last copy but they are ordering more).

One of the Lewis Chessmen - currently on display at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. Found in 1831 on a beach at Uig on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, the Chessmen dates to the late 12th or early 13th century. 📸 My own. #FindsFriday #LewisChessmen #NMS

Big up David for organising this. Dunno how many folk came but there looked to be bloody loads from where i was sitting. Cheers to all who came and to my dark soul sister @regretteruane.bsky.social for interviewing us.

Really proud of @fechtbuch.bsky.social ‘s latest professional achievement: he’s one of the reviewers for this year’s Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Award. It’s one of his favourite genres (nature writing and SFF being the others), so a real joy for him to see some of its very best new books 📚

Are you #Library and #Information Studies/Science student, or new to the Information Profession & interested in our #Conference & #RDA Day (11-13 March) in Bristol? We are pleased to offer a sponsorship opportunity/ #bursary - submission deadline 5pm 02/02/26 More at www.cilip.org.uk/members/grou...

Call for volunteers to join the National Committee for IFLA World Library & Information Congress in London 2027! Would you like to help organise the the sector's biggest global event & can spare 1-3 days per month? Check out our website: https://ow.ly/Wbhp50Y4Xic Deadline to apply: Midnight 13 Feb

Hannah Arendt did not mince words, did she? 'Totalitarianism replaces all first-rate talents with crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is still the best guarantee of their loyalty.' From "The Origins of Totalitarianism" (1951)

A recent cartoon for @theguardian.com

In case anyone was wondering how it’s going over on American Girl doll Instagram

Join us online for our Lent Reading Group. Full details and registration: julianofnorwich.org/blogs/news/l... #friendsofjulian #lent2026

You can register for a Day Ticket to the RDA Day or join us for the entire 3-Day Conference in Bristol (11-13 March 2026). www.cilip.org.uk/members/grou...

Attendees will consider: - What weight does your bridge need to carry? (resource types, levels of description, available resources/tools, time constraints, institutional support, etc.) - What materials will you use? (entities, elements, relationships, vocabularies, etc.)

There will be hands-on, interactive workshops to explore building RDA 'bridges' (application profiles), from the very basic upwards. Facilitators from UKCoR will provide the building blocks for each team to create their bridge from non-RDA/original RDA to official RDA.

The RDA Day will also include sessions on: - Official RDA implementation - worldwide case studies - The language of RDA - Using the Toolkit as a toolkit - Navigating the Toolkit - Which implementation method works for you?

This presentation aims to contextualise the following questions & invite discussion: - What does such a change mean? - What impact does it have on our work? - What is the current situation of libraries & other cultural institutions? - Why do we still need standards in a world dominated by AI?

#RDAday Keynote: "Countdown to Official RDA" -- Renate Behrens (RSC Chair) In May 2027, the Original RDA Toolkit will no longer be available. For all user communities, the new Official RDA Toolkit, which has been available for several years, will then become the working basis....

We are thrilled to have Chair of the RDA Steering Committee (RSC), Renate Behrens, as our Keynote speaker. Renate has been committed to the further development & dissemination of RDA at an international level for many years, with multilingualism & cultural diversity being of particular concern.

Spotlight on MDG Conference #MetaFutures Day 3: #RDAday on Friday 13th March 2026 (in Bristol) organised by the UKCoR Chair Anastasia Kerameos 🧵 The UK's RDA experts will provide practical activities & informative sessions to support those wishing to understand & implement the RDA content standard

'Dancing through it all' by contemporary artist Angela Smyth #WomensArt

The dresses of Frida Kahlo on display in Mexico City. The artist adopted a brightly coloured folk style reflecting her promotion of indigenous arts embraced by the Mexican Renaissance movement and symbolic of cultural identity #womensart

My books cartoon for this week’s @theguardian.com

Iris, circa 1630. Artist unknown, but from a Dutch series titled "Various New Tulips and other Flowers". Available as a print to buy in our online shop: https://publicdomainreview.org/product/iris

We're delighted to have acquired the archive of writer and essayist Ronald Blythe, best known for book Akenfield, which explores changing rural life in Suffolk during the 20th century. Discover more in this blog post by curator Helen Melody: link.bl.uk/86s

This is Winnie the Harris hawk. She comes to the British Library twice a week to scare away the pigeons.

Interested in further details about the programme for the CILIP MDG Conference & RDA Day #MetaFutures 11-13 March 2026 ? Check out this thread on Day 1 : bsky.app/profile/cili... Conference Website: www.cilip.org.uk/members/grou... #metadata #discovery #cataloguing #conference 📚🐈🧵

British Library acquires archive of rural life writer and essayist Ronald Blythe

Glasgow School artist Margaret MacDonald, Embroidered Panels, 1902, silk appliqué and bead decoration on linen, in her pioneering Art Nouveau style #WomensArt

‘In September​, a suitcase filled with sculptural odds and ends was discovered beneath a spiral staircase in Louise Bourgeois’s house in Chelsea, New York. Bourgeois died in 2010, aged 98, but the suitcase hadn’t been touched in more than forty years.’ Jo Applin: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

We are looking forward to being part of #CILIPMembersFest26 with an online session "To discovery and beyond! Making metadata practical" on Mon 2nd March at 1pm (GMT) Details and registration at: www.cilip.org.uk/event/member... #metadata #cataloguing #discovery

Over the next few weeks we will be posting further details on BlueSky about the programme for the MDG Conference & RDA Day #MetaFutures 11-13 March 2026 - so stay tuned! Book your place: www.cilip.org.uk/members/grou... #metadata #discovery #cataloguing #conference 📚🐈🧵

On the underimining of leading cultural heritage organisations under the Trump administration...

'I wanted to start a revolution, using art to build the sort of society I myself envisioned' -Yayoi Kusama

Still life of flowers, with peonies, carnations, variegated tulips and other assorted flowers ..., n.d., by #AnnaRuysch (Dutch, 1666-1741), who was buried #otd, Jan 7. Private collection? Sold in Dec 2022 by Sotheby’s for £327,600, exceeding the estimate range of £50K-70K #artherstory #womenartists

NEW: Commons women & equalities committee says it will stop using X. Chair Sarah Owen says given preventing violence against women and girls is among its key areas, “X is not an appropriate platform to be using for our communications”. Ministers next? www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

A 1944 Pastoral: Land Girls Pruning at East Malling' by painter Evelyn Dunbar who recorded UK women's work during the Second World War #WomensArt

For Epiphany, this glorious 1966 illustration of the Three Kings by the great Eyvind Earle (1916 - 2000), best remembered for his enormous contribution to Disney Animation's visual style during the 1950s, particularly Sleeping Beauty (1959).

🖼️ "Five a Day" by British children's book illustrator Alison Jay.

Sorry I haven't been in touch - I'm such a disorganised and lazy cow.

Oh well, I suppose it's almost... Pic: Pollokshields, by Martin Graham

A happy, healthy and blessed New Year to all. As Julian said, “All shall be well.”

⚡️

The snowdrop is a messenger of the seasons, the darkest moment of winter has passed. It is a messenger of hope. #January1st #NewYearsDay Mary Delany, Galanthus Nivalis, Single Snowdrop, 1777 #womensart

Happy New Year, everyone! This is a @theguardian.com books cartoon from a few years ago.