Following my appointment as academic services manager (coming after four months in the role on an interim basis), I’ve been reflecting on my career path and what got me here. This is something I’ve done throughout my time in libraries, not least because of where I was before I started…

It had been two years overdue, but finally we were doing it. We were driving up to Scotland to meet the “new” family. I had been just a year before the pandemic, and we had intended to go up as a family the following year but…well… First some background… Mum…

Ok, the title might give the impression I’m about to launch into a long, thought-through (lol, as if I’m one for thinking things through…) piece about library collections and the culture wars. If you want that, maybe don’t read further because I think, as I write, this is likely to…

I think right at the outset it’s important to note that this isn’t a long moan about the ongoing situation. I am in a very privileged position and have been in the fortunate position of being able to work from home throughout the pandemic. I’ve seen friends try to balance…

So here we are again, another lockdown. And after much reluctance (despite all the evidence available) of the government and the abject failings of the Opposition to support teacher unions and parents, schools are once more closed. No-one really wants the schools to close, it creates additional pressures and stresses…

Some of my Twitter followers, friends and family, will know that I am currently in Spain. I know, what am I like etc etc. What a time to have a holiday eh? Being here and observing reaction in the UK to the British government’s decision to reimpose quarantine on people…

As I am working from home due to my daughter having a cough, I thought I’d use this space to live blog some of my thoughts and experiences working from home, in the hope it might be useful for others. (There will be typos!|) Context: I am an academic services…

Well, that was grim. After the build-up and the hope comes the crushing disappointment of a Conservative government with a significantly increased majority. And after the crushing disappointment, comes the traditional Labour infighting led by a Labour Right that long ran out of ideas, stuck as it is with 20…

A couple of years ago I wrote a post explaining why I intended on voting Labour in the 2017 election. Prior to 2017 I’d voted for a mixture of parties (largely the party furthest left on the ballot — but never Labour), but in 2017 I chose to vote for…