La battaglia sulla biblioteca di Niscemi riguarda tutti https://www.europesays.com/it/337046/ Da alcuni giorni gli scrittori siciliani si sono mobilitati per salvare la biblioteca e casa museo Angelo Marsiano,…

Great video. The homes are thoughtful, attractive and well designed. Khan is eloquent and considerate. Much more like this please.

The thread from Mandelson to Epstein, Thiel and Putin is one that needs pulling till the whole tapestry of lies comes undone.

Men saying *now* they have the women as their priority. No. It was a transaction - they knew #Mandelson friends with Epstein. They decided to risk a dodgy bloke who could swim with other dodgy blokes in the White House. Women weren’t the priority then. We rarely are unless it’s politically useful.

What was it about experienced diplomat Karen Pierce that disqualified her from the job of UK ambassador to the USA? What could it possibly be? 🤔

🔴NEW: Books are being removed or restricted in Scottish school libraries following complaints, creating a “chilling effect” that campaigners warn threatens both freedom of speech and inclusive education. Read the story: https://www.theferret.scot/books-scottish-schools-librarians/

Debris from a Russian drone fell near the building of the National Library of Ukraine for Children, causing damage to the library premises.

The brilliant Amelia Gentleman. Read it and seethe. @ameliagentleman.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

'On 5 February, the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) announced that staff had “overwhelmingly” voted to approve the branch’s acceptance of the latest pay offer from the British Library.' 1/2

Oh good God.

Feueralarmregenwetterversammlung

Anyone else feeling for Karen Pierce right now? A capable, experienced career diplomat who had been a very highly regarded UK Ambassador to the US, replaced by, well, we know who.

1981-2017 digitized from libraries catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/00053...

The CIA just stopped publishing their World Factbook and took every page, including the archived copies of previous versions! This sucks. It was public domain, so I recovered the 2020 edition (the last one published as a zip file) and shared it to GitHub simonwillison.net/2026/Feb/5/t...

It's true it seems, with no warning or explanation CIA simply discontinued and removed the World Factbook this week. I imagine they'd say we have wikipedia now wo who needs it, but check the footnotes and see how many wiki entries get their data from the CIA factbook. Lots.

Who needs facts? Seriously, tho - crucial lesson for students in my intro class: how do the data collected by the CIA (e.g. on GDP per cap) differ from data you will find in other sources? Why? Why does it matter? Perhaps they have simply decided to keep the facts to themselves.

Last known entry in the Internet Archive: web.archive.org/web/20260131...

Really gone.

I have used this 1000 times.

The State Department wiped out most of the resources on their "Countries and Areas" site, which I regularly used in my teaching. Now all you get is "Highlights" and press releases. If you look at archived info from previous admin, they still have relevant Dept reports and statements, econ data, etc.

An unfamiliar thumping sound from the front door, and it was post! Seven letters. The one with a postmark was dated 26th January - 10 days ago. Probably our third or fourth delivery this year. Really poor.

As usual at this time of year, my eyes are sore, but according to the Met Office we are out of hay fever season and pollen counts will resume in March. Thank goodness for Kleenex, who recognise pollen when they breathe it. www.kleenex.co.uk/pollen-count...

I make my librarians cake, they're so nice.

Someone in an FB group is wrong. Like the good librarian that I am, I have proved that she is wrong, complete with documentary evidence. Has it changed her mind? Of course not. As a profession we need to stop kidding ourselves that we can correct misinformation with facts.

Reading today’s Observer mag on paper as it’s no longer in the Guardian app, and there are two farewell columns. I shall miss Annalisa Barbieri writing about chocolate. She has had some great recommendations, and really boosted high quality small producers.

Great excitement locally, as a Gail’s has opened nearby. The only GF option they have is their tiny sourdough loaf. Tonight I brushed two slices with olive oil, griddled them, and served them with Jack Stein’s hake and chickpea stew. Not bad at all, although the bread cost more than the fish.

I am really disappointed that the new version of EThOS at the British Library (the service for getting PhD theses) will be metadata-only. I really think we should use such resources, even if they are not books. They are still contributions to knowledge. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/give-ph...

As per my quote in that article and also as I said yesterday, I do NOT want to dunk on BL workers; I know they have had a TRULY ROUGH ride though the reconstruction process after the hack. But this stuff is important and management needs to resource EThOS, and value it, properly.

Seeing rumours that Wordle is going to start repeating words. I hope so. It will give the two start words I use every day a new lease of life. I’m sure they have both been the answer at some point, but they work too well to abandon. Now they will have their moment again.

£42k for a lead (I.e. extensive experience) curatorial post - with management responsibilities - at a national library in one of the most expensive cities in the world? no wonder they’ve been on strike!

📣 Join our team! We're looking for an Events Coordinator to join us at CILIP ILIG. Find out more about this exciting voluntary role and how you can help out 👉 bit.ly/4aeaQwy 🚨 Deadline for expressions of interest: 28th February 2026 @cilip.bsky.social

Great to see the gluten free restaurant Fifteen Square Metres feature in today’s Observer piece on Broadstairs. Brilliant food from Tony Rodd, whether you are gluten free or not. I had my birthday meal there last year. Really special. www.fifteensquaremetres.co.uk

Interesting to see that Carney constructs his argument around Havel’s Power of the Powerless.

I moan about this occasionally, and it is time to do so again. I want to read a book published three years ago. I do not want to buy it for £55. The BL has it, but it isn’t available at present, for obvious reasons. It is in 30 academic libraries, of which I am lucky enough to have access to two.

Because this *will* disappear it's with sharing with alt text

One again begging everyone to go into settings (via 3 horizontal lines top left of app), and then "accessibility" and then switch on the "remind me to add alt-text" button. And then don't just write "image" or whatever, actually DESCRIBE the image. Please. At least try to keep bsky accessible.

One good tip I picked up from the tv recently that just helped me. If a website looks convincing, follow links on it to other pages. If it’s a scam they probably don’t work as they only replicate the page they need, not the whole website.

Just went as far as typing my details in reply to a scam text because it fitted my circumstances exactly. I paused just before hitting submit and double checked. These things are extremely convincing nowadays. Feeling quite shaken.

Really thought this was hopeless. Phew, as they say. Wordle 1,672 6/6 ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩 ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩 🟨⬜⬜🟩⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Reading an academic book on my kindle. There are notes at the end of every chapter, which is not unusual. At the end of every chapter I open at least one linked reference in a note instead of turning the page. I just want to turn the page. Please.

I cannot stress enough that you should not do this.

Hm. I love my fitbit, which I only use in my pocket for monitoring steps. I am really not comfortable about giving even that minimal data to Google, and there’s no opt out. Does anyone know of good alternatives?

Want to level up your library career this year? We’re looking for international mid-career library and archive professionals to join us this summer at our International Library Leaders Programme. Learn more link.bl.uk/ILLP2026

Biggest commitment to a 3 second joke I've ever seen

Home from a delightful but chilly stay in Penzance. I think I have identified a gap in the market for a lightweight but very warm dressing gown that folds up small for packing. Does such a thing exist? I need one for next time.

Zelensky lands in Miami. Not a single US official is on hand to greet him. In the language of diplomacy this send an unequivocal message of coldness and hostility. Compare it with the lavish pomp and red carpet shown to Putin when he landed in Alaska a few weeks ago.

The Embassy staff of Germany, France and the United Kingdom sing Schedryk in the Kyiv underground. Wonderful!

This Christmas Day join us for #JoinIn on Bluesky. Just use or look for the #JoinIn hashtag. Lovely people coming together for chat and cheer - especially for those who may be alone or troubled at Christmas, or just looking for a bit of fellowship. See you there! Please share

A wonderful example of an undigitised primary source in today’s Guardian. I was going to call it niche, but all primary sources are niche, and almost all are undigitised. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Evri have surpassed themselves, which can’t be easy. Meet our food waste bin.