Libraries, leadership, charity, society.
Commercial Director Libraries Connected.
Lapsed astrophysicist, then 17 years in charitable adoption sector development before coming to the library sector.
Once and future #ultrarunner. Toots my views. 🏳️🌈
I've set up a UK Public #Libraries group here - just follow @ukpubliclibraries and copy it into any tweets you make about UK Public libraries and we'll all be copied in.
| Pronouns | he/him |
| Town | Macclesfield |
Nottingham nearly lost 3 of its local libraries last year: the council proposed to close them to make its budget balance. A grassroots "Save Our Libraries" campaign protested about it (respect to the organisers!), & the council reversed the plan.
So I can really see the value of this research, & I hope it'll help with keeping libraries open in future!
(Not that I _don't_ blame the council for the foolish idea, but I more so blame the government for politics-driven cuts to council funding)
Researchers estimate the wonder of #libraries in financial terms!
"Libraries in England generate at least £3.4bn in value a year through services supporting children’s literacy, digital inclusion and health, a study has found.
"Researchers at the University of East Anglia discovered that the services that a typical branch provides in a year are worth £1m, and that libraries’ value could equate to six times their running costs."
Edited to update: BlackQueerLife instance now has a properly-set-up channel for receiving money contributions. If you wanted the Fediverse to be more welcoming to Black people, it's one practical way to help :-)
https://opencollective.com/blackqueerlife
=
New instance for Black queer people:
"My intention for BlackQueerLife is that when Black queers are searching for a place in the fediverse to call home, we are accessible to them."
- @tillshadeisgone
I'm planning on bringing together a small group of UK Library directors/Seniorish folks from small or specialist Research Libraries for networking & probs at least one in person get together.
The group will specifically be for folks who aren't already in RLUK so as to not duplicate that.
We've got ~4 people interested so far, but if this seems up your street - let me know!
What's interesting about the research is not just the financial value it shows for what we know libraries do well, but how it reinforces the fact that the impact of these different areas - digital inclusion, health and well being, children's literacy - are all connected in many ways.
Only Public Libraries can provide this integrated approach:
"Services & resources for living, and for living better" as one of the library users said
So excited that we can now share this brilliant piece of work - really does demonstrate the value that libraries bring to communities and to society.
In just the areas we looked at we found at least £3.4bn value across England from £0.6bn budget
We're looking for someone to help us engage publishers to improve the e-books offer for public libraries - do have a look if you're interested!
Note deadline 3rd Feb.
#libraries
#ebooks
Jennifer Moore 😷
Dr Beth
Love Your Inner Geek
John Spiers