Weeknotes #4: Returning light
It felt good to see some morning light returning this week as I walked across the Meadows to work. January has been very long and it was good to end the month with a trip to London combining work, friends and family.
What happened this week?
- A thoughtful discussion with IT managers about the value and usefulness of a comprehensive Systems Catalogue. We need visibility over the digital estate and clarity around role and ownership but… including every tool, software or service could make things less useful and add another admin burden.
- Looking ahead to large-scale procurements on the horizon for digital preservation storage and the main library management system. As ever, we’ll seek to balance ambition (what do we want to do?) with practicality (what can we do? How much can we change?).
- Good progress is being made planning for an updated preservation copy of the UK Web archive and there was valuable discussion at the Legal Deposit Integration Group (LDIG) on a shared Digital Preservation model across the six Libraries.
- Wrapping up some HR processes hanging over from last year and untangling a few new ones.
- Feeding back on a draft version of SCVO’s fourth version of their Digital Call to Action. As ever, John Fitzgerald has set out a manifesto for the voluntary sector combining super clear language with helpful guidance on positive digital change.
Mixing it up
On Friday I headed to London for the Remix Summit at the National Gallery. It felt good to be a different space both physically and mentally. Highlights included:
- John Stack reminding us that “to work in digital media is to be perpetually at the beginning.”
- Sameer Padania’s warning that the information environment is being weaponised and memory is under attack. Libraries have an essential role to play at the local level.
- Artist Stuart Semple urging us to commit to ideas and take risks – “be buskers”.
- Designer Jason Bruges on the value of prototyping, building real things to see what they will look like, and moving from “think” to “do”.
- Lawrence Chiles on reimagining the digital experience at the National Gallery. 30ft screens don’t come cheap, but a “wow-show-flow” philosophy and foregrounding of the collections have resulted in a range of beautiful screen-based displays. (The gentle panning on the main display reminded me of CogApp’s Slow Looking IIIF experience for the Clifford Still Museum.)
- I’m still processing the “scratch-and-sniff” karaoke at the closing reception 🎤
Overall, the pace was intense but the ‘follow the speaker’ format allowed more exploration and removed the “comment-not-a-question” monotony from the main room. I didn’t mind the no catering decision, but water is an absolute must for an all-day event. As a side note, the slide-decks were all super strong: image-led, integrated media, big bold text.
Interesting things
Ross Ferguson, a champion for open roadmaps/routemaps, has provided a useful first-take review of the Gov.UK Roadmap for modern digital government. Lots to reflect on here as we start to communicate the Library’s Digital Routemap, including:
- Avoid viewing everything through a team-lens, especially when digital and service teams work horizontally across the organisation.
- Balance a strategic overview (selling a vision) with practical plans (what we will do).
- Don't silo AI into a separate sphere, but weave into other workstreams.
- Surface resource needs and dependencies and be clear on how/when plans will be reviewed.
Other useful things I spotted:
- A good overview of testing your website for accessibility from Doug Belshaw: The purpose of your website is what it does.
- Mia Ridge's summary of the Fantastic Futures Conference at the British Library back in December.
- Rachel Coldicutt's initial reactions to the Government’s AI Skills for Life and Work programme.
- Tim Berner’s Lee on the battle for the soul of the internet.
- OpenClaw is sparking a lot of excitment but also words of caution: "If you don’t understand the security implications of AI agents like Clawdbot, you shouldn’t use them.”
Watching, listening, reading, doing
🔨Our heating broke on Monday. With some telephone guidance from Chris the engineer I managed to wire up a temporary fix. I did an actual thing.
🎥 Frankenstien⭐⭐⭐ Interesting to see the Edinburgh scenes filmed down the road from the office. Some great set-piece staging but we can recognise that Victor might be the “real monster”, without a character telling us directly.
⚽The Champions League mantra that “more = better” was tested on Wednesday as I tried to follow 18 games simultaneously. In proper football news, Cambridge United (unbelievably) continue to maintain the Football League's longest unbeaten run. Up to second. 🫎
🏃 Hackney Park Run was completed with my brother. The countdown to the Hackney Half in May begins…
