The total number of female MPs ever elected finally matches the current male number – and it only took 97 years! (not counting all the years women couldn’t even stand!!!). Let’s hope it doesn’t take that long again before achieving full parity.
191 women were elected as MPs in 2015 bringing the total to 455 female MPs since 1918. The same as the current number of male MPs.
Click the link below for the full article.
Cold War intelligence
Posted: 07 Oct 2014 02:14 AM PDT
Now available through the National Library of Scotland. A full-text collection of 2,360 formerly classified U.S. government documents (most of them classified Top Secret or higher) which provides readers with the declassified documentary record about the successes and failures of the U.S. intelligence community in its efforts to spy on the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Details on how to access this resource can be found on the NLS Website
The Smith Commission
Posted: 09 Oct 2014 01:57 AM PDT
You have an opportunity to have your say and respond to the Commission directly via their website from the 13th October 2014. The terms of reference for the Commission are: To convene cross-party talks and facilitate an inclusive engagement process across Scotland to produce, by 30 November 2014, Heads of Agreement with recommendations for further devolution of powers to the Scottish Parliament. This process will be informed by a Command Paper, to be published by 31 October and will result in the publication of draft clauses by 25 January. The recommendations will deliver more financial, welfare and taxation powers, strengthening the Scottish Parliament within the United Kingdom.
Official Publications in the National Library of Scotland
We are curators of the Official Publications collection in the National Library of Scotland (we have over 2 million government and government-related publications). You can find out more about who we are and what’s in our collections on our web pages.
A colleague was at the CILIPS conference the other day, where Iain Macwhirter spoke. Apparently he made the point that libraries are even more important today because the people of Scotland cannot trust the press. They need places to go and find answers for themselves. He feels so strongly about this that he brought it up at a librarianship conference!
Though I obviously agree about the importance of libraries, Scotland’s Referendum on Independence is only 100 days away. People need information now. We only have to open a newspaper or turn on the tv to see the latest pronouncements from Project Fear but where can we go for positive, hopeful arguments from the Yes campaign? Or, at the very least, un-biased coverage? Luckily we have the internet.
Hence, my decision to include some ‘Referendum links‘ on this blog. It is a short list but a good one. Some very important and vibrant sites there – mostly pro-indy – including a couple with links to various other sites. I especially point out the Scottish Parliament Information Centre‘s Referendum Hub: balanced, unbiased and crafted by librarians – what more could you wish for?
…incidentally, was very excited to find @librarians4yes on Twitter 🙂
The Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) launched their Referendum hub recently. The Hub is intended to help “those seeking information on the Referendum on Independence for Scotland, and on the debate around the Referendum”. It includes a link to the White Paper on Independence – launched today
More information and copies of the White Paper in various formats – can be found on the ScotGov site: Scotland’s Referendum 2014
I love training courses. Well, not all of them obviously. I’ve been to a few unmentionably heinous offerings where I learned nothing and was bored almost to the point of weeping – but good, well presented courses, I can’t get enough of them.
Courses, seminars, ‘breakout sessions’ – anywhere I can gather knowledge and new ideas. I often come away from them energised and buzzing with plans. Surprisingly, I very often act on them too. This blog, for example, was inspired (in a round about way) by a seminar at this year’s BIALL conference.
This morning I was at a fine little course down at Victoria Quay – presented by the ever knowledgeable Scottish Government Library & Information Service. The course was short but fun and useful. I’m already plotting to put some of what I learned into action.
A friend claims I’m just “in it for the biscuits” but that is just crazy talk…
A Very Fine Library 