That seems fair, but it’s also worth pointing out that the reason for releasing unfinished things in beta is to gather feeback and opinions.

That’s a little different from a final opinion, and people need to feedback within the context of an unfinished product, and what they see rather than don’t see. But it’s still worth commenting. A first release will naturally have limited functionality but the structure, design, and layout can give a good indication as to what is to come.

As a personal view, I like what I see in terms of engaging content, and I think the overall style works well. I’m interested in more information as to how people will find the site in the first place. I think that’s going to be the most important thing as it is providing an overview of what library services are and what they offer. How to put it in front of those people?

It’s a brave choice for a traditional library organisation to go down the route of iterative and public development, so I hope library services engage with that in a collaborative spirit.

Final point, thanks for linking to Library Map. It’s a project that LibraryOn are linking to for the time being, and I believe that will provide insight as to what people would expect from a library finder and where that kind of feature could fit into LibraryOn. Plus it provides insight into if it’s wanted at all – I don’t think that’s ever been fully proved!

I’ve been doing a bit of automated checking of the links to remove any that don’t work, and also receiving some useful feedback about those. But we all know the problems of library data, and I’m a firm believer that the sector, and each individual library service need to be responsible for publishing their own data in a standard format. This should be led by sector organisations, to help that process.

Hopefully this kind of development, developed openly and publicly will feed into the wider debate of how we get good maintained data, and good applications built from that data!

Your post today reminded me what I’ve missed so much about working in a library after spending the last 2 years largely desk bound planning a move into a new building.
As you can imagine, there’s been much discussion among the regulars to ‘why we would leave such a lovely old building’ to ‘I hope it’s not going to be too noisy all on one floor’.
Much to staff, regular’s and new visitor’s delight, we finally opened the new Neath Library on Wednesday 1st February 2023. It was incredible!
The feedback and reaction from everyone was overwhelming. From the ‘wow’s, to the ‘look at this!’ one message really touched my heart. A good luck card from a library couple I’ve known for years who are now able to visit together again because we have a lift and are fully wheelchair accessible.
“Good luck in your new home. Buildings are fine but it is the staff we value most. Thanks for everything over many years”.
And that is why I now love my job! Oh, and the amazing team I work with. Oh, and the wonderful people who come through the doors….

I’m also wondering how children are meant to read picture books in an ebook format or tactile books or books that have flaps you lift up or tabs to pull …
What an incredibly shortsighted suggestion.

I’ve been lucky to have been asked to come along and read in some of my local libraries in Surrey.

Keep up the good work. I love promoting using libraries.

Library staff were often redirected, because they were council assets, during lockdowns. Despite this, there was a major pivot towards digital resources. It’s hard to tell what else they could have done? Remember, libraries were literally prohibited from opening. As such, I’m not surprise locked libraries were at a lower level than when they were (ahem) open 20 years ago.

Obviously you call public libraries “a disastrous failure” is not attacking in any way. Um … what would you define as an attack by the way?

I would agree library data has to be significantly improved. As you know, Tim, you were basically the only private individual that could afford the ridiculously expensive CIPFA statistics beforehand. And CIPFA produce them late, without checking, and without any requirement for services to actually return them. In my opinion, this is not going to change until the Government forces change. But of course they are showing no sign of doing so.

Right, no more replies from me for your comments from now on, on this post but I will of course approve your, um, “pointings out of the truth” (hints of “Fake News” there, Tim, watch yourself) if you choose to continue.

Just because libraries aren’t ‘private companies’ doesn’t mean that they should not be able to organise themselves in order to provide the service that the public needs

I’m not attacking – I’m pointing out the truth, without which management will not face its problems

The figures that there are imply that use of public libraries is now 5% of what it was 20 years ago; the mechanism for producing data has stopped, because libraries would not comply with the requirements. There is no evidence of significantly rising use after the pandemic.

In England the public library service is a disastrous failure – and yet the public are paying a fortune for it. And a large part of that has come because no one will tell the truth about what has happened.

Tim, a lot of library staff were moved – as you know – to other council support services. I myself spent half my time phoning people shielding to make sure they were still OK. For once let’s admit the truth – instead of always attacking – and accept that public libraries are not private companies.

Ian – yes of course, but during the pandemic other book providers found ways of offering home delivery and collection to the extent that, as we know, book reading went up, not down. Both for pleasure and for education.

Libraries were not starved of funds.

The library websites and delivery services were and are very poor. Within library management there is no mechanism for change that brings improvement.

For once let’s admit the truth – instead of always defending – and set about making improvements.