NEWS
Primary literacy rates in top ten
PRIMARY school pupils reading ability in England and Northern Ireland is amongst the best in the world.
Latest research from the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (Pirls) put nine- and 10-year-olds’ reading ability at joint eighth for English pupils and seventh for those in Northern Ireland. Significantly, pupils included in this set of results are the first to have taken part who have been entirely schooled under the phonics screening check system, which was rolled out nationally in 2012. Fifty countries took part in the survey, with Russia coming top of the rankings, followed by Singapore and Hong Kong. l
http://bit.ly/2B72S98
Cook and Windrush
lead BL 2018 events THE British Library has revealed its progamme of events for 2018 – with major exhibitions on James Cook’s voyages, the Empire Windrush, and Anglo-Saxon King- doms. The first exhibition on James Cook will open at the end of April, to mark the 250th anniversary since he set sail from Plymouth on the first of three exploratory voyages. The library will also be putting on free displays of two new acquisitions to its col- lections – the archives of Michael Palin and Penelope Fitzgerald. l
http://bit.ly/2B6zhgo
Northamptonshire
closure threat MORE than two thirds of libraries in Northamptonshire could be closed after the county council issued plans to shut up to 28 of its library buildings. The proposal is part of library service consultation, which has been called as the council looks to save £115m from bud- gets over the next four years. Two other proposals would see 21 of the county’s 36 libraries close. The consultation closes on 13 January and a final decision will be taken by councillors on 22 February.
8 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL
Millions of libraries added to global map
MORE than two million libraries have been added to IFLA’s Library Map of the World.
A total of 99 countries around the world supplied data to the project during its initial phase, which ended on 31 October. India led the way with more than 1.5 million libraries – large- ly down to the fact that each of the 1.3 million schools in the country has one. The country also leads the way in terms of full-time library staff, with 324,366. The next highest number is the United States, where there are 278,749 staff working in 103,325 libraries. The UK is not included on the map, and there are large patches of incomplete or missing data. However the release of the interactive map is only the first step in creating a global view of the library sector.
IFLA General Secretary Gerald Leit- ner said: “Thanks to data contributors from around the world IFLA was able to count more than two million libraries in
99 countries. During this initial phase of the Library Map of the World project we have learned about the state of libraries in these countries and moved closer to our shared goal of having reliable global library statistics.” The project will continue as an annual event, helping to build up a more com- plete picture. The map includes data about libraries; staff; volunteers; inter- net access; registered users; physical visits, and loans – both downloads and physical.
Gerald said: “This is just the beginning and we are looking forward to the next year as the Library Map of the World becomes an annual activity, managed and maintained by IFLA. We are now analys- ing the results of the first phase to provide an annual summary report very soon.” The map and report will form part of IFLA’s advocacy toolkit, helping librar- ians and library services around the world to demonstrate their impact. l
https://librarymap.ifla.org/
Crowdsourcing call to unlock theatre bills
THE British Library (BL) is calling for help as it looks to unlock a vast collection of theatre playbills.
Around 100,000 historic playbills from
the 18th and 19th century make up the collection. The BL has now launched a crowdsourcing website encouraging people to transcribe information from the play- bills, as part of its In the Spotlight project. Volunteers can visit the website where they are asked to view playbills and tran- scribe specific information – such as dates, venues and titles of plays. The results are saved and will be used to improve cata- loguing information, helping to make the flyers more useful and easier to search. Digital Curator Dr Mia Ridge said: “Crowdsourcing projects like this are
an opportunity for people to enhance historical collections while getting a sense of everyday life in the past. There are hundreds of stories to uncover in these collections, and we’re excited to see what people find as they look through the play- bills. Designers might be interested in the fonts or illustrations, while theatre fans might enjoy the descriptions of scenery. We also hope In the Spotlight will inspire research questions and new uses of the data by academics, community historians and the public alike.” The website also offers a discussion board where contributors can raise issues, point out things of special interest, or dis- cuss the project with other volunteers. To take part visit
http://playbills.libcrowds.com.
December-January 2017/18
NEWS
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