It’s here in the centre of Stockport:

www.stockrm.org/visit-us

Ha - fair enough!
Hope you get the chance to visit as a punter though - it’s a great new venue.

Always happy to highlight libraries!

I’m sure they would be very interested if you wanted to be part of the programme too - let me know if you’d like a contact.

The Stockroom (Stockport libraries) has Isherwood’s school trunk, and a collection of archives from his early life.
They’re doing readings and film showings in LGBTQ+ history month in Feb:
www.stockrm.org/lgbt-history...

I’ll find the source but about 15 years ago there was some academic research showing undergraduate essays in serif fonts got higher marks than sans serif.
The thought was that serif fonts conveyed the credibility of printed reference works which tend(ed?) to be in times new Roman or similar…

Worth noting library stock budgets have to cover a lot more channels now too - ebooks and e-audio - both significantly more costly than their physical counterpart - and e-magazines / papers too. So that reduction is even more than it appears.

Foundation - season 1 good but then gets better and better - by season 3 becomes an extraordinary epic.
Bad sisters - just brilliant.

there's a translated version here - but not sure of the provenance or accuracy!
thisrecording.squarespace.com/today/tag/cl...

💯
Oddly the best thing I’ve read on this is a brilliant and brutal 1930s novel about a woman bringing an orangutan up as a child.

Perfectly captures the disconnection between their interactions and the underlying motivation / understanding.

Without spoilers, it doesn’t end well for either of them

Obviously it’s not *about* AI and the author intended no such allegory, but it reads across so well (especially in the context of LLMs)
At the core of it though, it says much about how we can’t really know our own children, and interrogates what (if anything) makes us different from the other apes.

I also reckon the time thing lines up with short stories - I always feel a well crafted short story can be so much more impactful and complete than a 'whole book' and would love to see more people reading them.
Especially Angela Carter's which are just perfection.

Have you come across these guys? a great approach there, plus obviously libraries libraries libraries! www.thereader.org.uk

And Barking and Dagenham Libraries with a pioneering service of GP access within libraries - on a drop in basis to reach those who are less likely to feel able to go to a GP surgery.

Has opened out to much broader pop up services including massage / barbers etc

800 young people at one event

Now hearing about Wandsworth library’s dementia well-being service.

Really interesting that it developed from a staff member’s family experience of lack of support.

And this is why libraries can so powerfully reflect communities needs - they are run by people who are part of the community.