Weeknote #5: Topography
A slightly curtailed week, with time spent getting back up to speed following my London trip and then being hit by a cold on Friday. The week-noting ritual is becoming easier as I jot down highlights, thoughts and insights each day.
What happened this week?
The main event this week was a deep dive into cyber security with Cyber and Fraud Centre Scotland. An intense workshop tested our current cyber response capability through five "injects" simulating a major ransomware attack. I was encouraged by the progress made over the last year, and how senior managers worked together. The paradox at the heart of cyber security is that more work you do, the less likely it is of being put into practice, but we continue with an attitude of when, not if. As Jude McCorry noted in the session:
“You won’t be critiqued on being the victim of a cyber-attack. You will be critiqued on how your respond and recover.”
It was good to join the Heritage Fund team as they outlined their second Delivery Plan under the ambitious ten-year strategy, Heritage 2033. I also had a positive intro-chat with the new Chair of the Scotland Committee, Heather Reid OBE.
The Digital team have been working on a detailed tender for a new CRM system. The data landscape is complex and it's tricky to fit the specific requirements of procurement frameworks. Clarity is emerging and I think everyone is keen to move into the delivery phase.
I generally work in the Library's other building on Fridays - helpfully, a 10 minutes walk from home. I really enjoyed popping into Map Fest, a cartographic celebration of Scottish map collections which attracted close to 500 people.
The week ended with the IT team responding to a network failure in the main Library building. As always, they found a solution and finished up just before midnight to ensure we could open the next day. A reminder that the Library runs on some creaking core infrastructure supported by committed, expert staff.
Interesting things
- The members of the advisory group for the National Data Library have been announced. As the programme is pitched as a data "Library" (rather than a lake/loch, hub or store ) I hope the group embed the values and stewardship principles of good librarianship.
- A couple of interesting summaries on the state of AI, including takeaways from the latest artificial intelligence safety report (Guardian) and the thoughts of eight leading thinkers (New York Times).
- A content crit of the AI Skills Hub website from Content Design London - they don't hold back.
- Some sensible AI principles from the National Library of Finland.
- A well-pitched ad from Anthropic attempt to mark out a new dividing line with other AI services (i.e. ad-free).
- A sobering look at the challenges of reforming Scotland's public services from Sean Duffy:
"The hardest truth is this: much of Scotland’s public sector architecture now appears better designed to protect itself than to solve the problems it exists to address."
Watching, listening, reading, doing
📖 I've started Glasgow Boys by Margaret Mcdonald.
📺 Industry continues, with some tortous plot machinations to set up the central rivalry. There's something compelling about watching a world where everyone is a terrible person. As a welcome contrast we rattled through the final season of Queer Eye. There were big feelings.
🏃 I loved going for a run with the girl on a dark and rainy evening. It's great to see her get into something and improve week-by-week. She then smashed her PB at Junior Park Run on Sunday 💪
