Lesley Pitman
@lesleypitman.bsky.social
Librarian at large. Chair of CILIP ILIG. Used to be a Slavonic librarian. Posts a random mix of libraries, Russia, food (gluten free) and the joys of life in Tooting.
https://hcommons.org/members/lesleypitman/
https://hcommons.org/members/lesleypitman/
Seeing a lot of muddled reporting today. There is nothing illegal about seeking asylum. It is a human right.
November 17, 2025 at 2:42 PM
Seeing a lot of muddled reporting today. There is nothing illegal about seeking asylum. It is a human right.
Great to see this important piece from one of my favourite authors.
‘Why children's books matter’ – the keynote speech at the Booker Prize 2025 ceremony was given by Penelope Lively, the only author to have won both the Booker Prize and the Carnegie Medal for children's writing.
youtu.be/a8SdOg94uiQ
youtu.be/a8SdOg94uiQ
Penelope Lively on why children's books matter | The Booker Prize
YouTube video by The Booker Prizes
youtu.be
November 17, 2025 at 11:32 AM
Great to see this important piece from one of my favourite authors.
Reposted by Lesley Pitman
"Given that the UK needs more graduates with languages qualifications, the task of universities is not to accelerate the decline of language learning but to find ways to bolster their student intakes."
The universities of Nottingham and Leicester are taking a swing at language departments. But those proposing closures have taken their eye off the ball, say four linguists
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/latest-threat-uk-modern-languages-yet-another-faux-pas
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/latest-threat-uk-modern-languages-yet-another-faux-pas
November 14, 2025 at 9:58 AM
"Given that the UK needs more graduates with languages qualifications, the task of universities is not to accelerate the decline of language learning but to find ways to bolster their student intakes."
Reposted by Lesley Pitman
The universities of Nottingham and Leicester are taking a swing at language departments. But those proposing closures have taken their eye off the ball, say four linguists
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/latest-threat-uk-modern-languages-yet-another-faux-pas
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/latest-threat-uk-modern-languages-yet-another-faux-pas
November 14, 2025 at 7:05 AM
The universities of Nottingham and Leicester are taking a swing at language departments. But those proposing closures have taken their eye off the ball, say four linguists
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/latest-threat-uk-modern-languages-yet-another-faux-pas
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/latest-threat-uk-modern-languages-yet-another-faux-pas
Reposted by Lesley Pitman
🌍 42.5m refugees
Over 70% of them are hosted by low- and middle-income countries.
🇬🇧 548k refugees
= 0.78% of the UK population.
It is not refugees who tear our country apart, it is the mainstreaming of far right policies. And that’s a risk to all of us.
My letter to my MP.
#asylum #Mahmood
🧵
Over 70% of them are hosted by low- and middle-income countries.
🇬🇧 548k refugees
= 0.78% of the UK population.
It is not refugees who tear our country apart, it is the mainstreaming of far right policies. And that’s a risk to all of us.
My letter to my MP.
#asylum #Mahmood
🧵
![Dear [my MP’s name],
As the Home Secretary prepares to announce sweeping changes to the UK’s asylum system, I see it as both my duty as a citizen and responsibility as a migration expert to do all I can to urge policymakers to oppose the proposals—not only for what they will do to refugees, though that is the first concern, but also for what they will mean for all of us and the future society we live in.
That is why I am writing to you as my MP. This letter explains why I consider the need to oppose the Home Secretary’s proposals urgent and, at the most fundamental level, in the national and your constituents’ interest.
I was born in Germany, a country whose history taught me how quickly societies can go down dark paths; how quickly our leaders can fail in the choices they make. But the history of the displacement of people that the Nazi regime was responsible for also shaped my understanding of why refugee movements occur—and why our response to any of them can never compromise what are, and must always be, universal human rights.
Which is why what is happening in the UK now is so deeply alarming.
A manufactured crisis
As of June 2025, there were 42.5 million refugees globally. Over 70% of them are hosted by low- and middle-income countries; most of them immediate neighbours. Overall, five countries—Colombia, Germany, Türkiye, Iran and Uganda—host a third of the total number of refugees; Germany is the main host in the EU, hosting 2.7 million.
The UK hosts 548,000 refugees; that is 0.78% of the UK population. About 110,000 people are in receipt of asylum support; that is 0.15% of the UK population.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:bru4h6s37w4hfmwhetu7veye/bafkreidmewc5timbx7nh57qyq7lm7gmhvclzidmloqhwgckpnegnddoicq@jpeg)
November 16, 2025 at 9:25 PM
Reposted by Lesley Pitman
Hey Labour
Remember the majority of voters who believe in treating people decently and not stealing from those who've endured months and years of hardship fleeing war and persecution to seek a place of safety?
We're still over here 👋
Remember the majority of voters who believe in treating people decently and not stealing from those who've endured months and years of hardship fleeing war and persecution to seek a place of safety?
We're still over here 👋
November 17, 2025 at 7:49 AM
Hey Labour
Remember the majority of voters who believe in treating people decently and not stealing from those who've endured months and years of hardship fleeing war and persecution to seek a place of safety?
We're still over here 👋
Remember the majority of voters who believe in treating people decently and not stealing from those who've endured months and years of hardship fleeing war and persecution to seek a place of safety?
We're still over here 👋
A Sunday morning walk in Tooting, and who do I bump into but Dan Leno, the music hall star.
November 16, 2025 at 12:51 PM
A Sunday morning walk in Tooting, and who do I bump into but Dan Leno, the music hall star.
Reposted by Lesley Pitman
The only Legitimate Concerns about asylum seekers are concerns for their well being and safety. For a rich country like ours to incessantly whine about these people as if we are their victims is perhaps the single most pathetic spectacle in British politics over the past quarter century.
November 16, 2025 at 7:19 AM
The only Legitimate Concerns about asylum seekers are concerns for their well being and safety. For a rich country like ours to incessantly whine about these people as if we are their victims is perhaps the single most pathetic spectacle in British politics over the past quarter century.
Reposted by Lesley Pitman
Someone should ask Starmer and Mahmood whether they think the Kindertransport, for example, should have been a return ticket. Whether Alf Dubs, rather than becoming a Labour MP and now Lord, ought to have been sent back with his family to Czechoslovakia once it was liberated from German rule.
This contribution to the volume of human misery is yet another policy from Labour based on a false premise, in this case that refugees are overly attracted to Britain. It will increase bureaucratic limbo, thus making worse the problem of "cohesion" it purports to solve.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
UK set to limit refugees to temporary stays
Shabana Mahmood is expected to say the era of permanent protection for refugees is over, in major changes to the UK's asylum and immigration system.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 15, 2025 at 9:05 AM
Someone should ask Starmer and Mahmood whether they think the Kindertransport, for example, should have been a return ticket. Whether Alf Dubs, rather than becoming a Labour MP and now Lord, ought to have been sent back with his family to Czechoslovakia once it was liberated from German rule.
It must be me. I dislike and worry about the endurance challenges that are part of Children in Need and other big charity fundraising efforts. I really don’t want to watch someone harm themselves and I choose the charities I support by other criteria.
November 14, 2025 at 7:04 PM
It must be me. I dislike and worry about the endurance challenges that are part of Children in Need and other big charity fundraising efforts. I really don’t want to watch someone harm themselves and I choose the charities I support by other criteria.
Having a play with ChatGPT today, as I do occasionally, and it is complimenting me on subtle and insightful questions. Simultaneously pleasing and weird.
November 12, 2025 at 6:11 PM
Having a play with ChatGPT today, as I do occasionally, and it is complimenting me on subtle and insightful questions. Simultaneously pleasing and weird.
Reposted by Lesley Pitman
The Oxford University Press has begun a collective consultation process, which The Bookseller understands, if approved, would result in 113 redundancies 👇 #BookSky
Oxford University Press enters collective consultation 'proposing 113 redundancies'
ebx.sh
November 12, 2025 at 10:55 AM
The Oxford University Press has begun a collective consultation process, which The Bookseller understands, if approved, would result in 113 redundancies 👇 #BookSky
Reposted by Lesley Pitman
A post on keeping old blog posts alive, following the news that the British Library is having to come up with a solution for all of its past blogs, following the collapse of the Typepad platform lukemckernan.com/2025/11/11/k...
Keeping posts going
Pity the poor British Library, an institution which simultaneously does such great things, yet at the same time seems to have utterly lost its way. The cyberattack of 2023 has created damage not on…
lukemckernan.com
November 12, 2025 at 8:53 AM
A post on keeping old blog posts alive, following the news that the British Library is having to come up with a solution for all of its past blogs, following the collapse of the Typepad platform lukemckernan.com/2025/11/11/k...
Reposted by Lesley Pitman
We’re launching our new catalogue on Monday 8 December.
To keep our collections safe while we do this, access and ordering will be suspended for a week before launch and all requests for 8 December onwards must be made on the new system when it launches.
Find out more: bit.ly/CollectionSu...
To keep our collections safe while we do this, access and ordering will be suspended for a week before launch and all requests for 8 December onwards must be made on the new system when it launches.
Find out more: bit.ly/CollectionSu...
November 11, 2025 at 12:54 PM
We’re launching our new catalogue on Monday 8 December.
To keep our collections safe while we do this, access and ordering will be suspended for a week before launch and all requests for 8 December onwards must be made on the new system when it launches.
Find out more: bit.ly/CollectionSu...
To keep our collections safe while we do this, access and ordering will be suspended for a week before launch and all requests for 8 December onwards must be made on the new system when it launches.
Find out more: bit.ly/CollectionSu...
Reposted by Lesley Pitman
So anyway, Rosalind Franklin
November 7, 2025 at 8:59 PM
So anyway, Rosalind Franklin
Reposted by Lesley Pitman
Raising a glass for Rosalind Franklin tonight. James Watson absolutely did her dirty.
But beware...
But beware...
November 7, 2025 at 8:42 PM
Raising a glass for Rosalind Franklin tonight. James Watson absolutely did her dirty.
But beware...
But beware...
Apparently Academia’s AI has turned my paper into a shareable comic. Why would I want this?
November 8, 2025 at 11:45 AM
Apparently Academia’s AI has turned my paper into a shareable comic. Why would I want this?
Reposted by Lesley Pitman
Someone at a Russell Group university was moved to almost-poetry by their Faculty Meeting… Can anyone do better?
November 7, 2025 at 12:52 PM
Someone at a Russell Group university was moved to almost-poetry by their Faculty Meeting… Can anyone do better?
Reposted by Lesley Pitman
“The resource over which they hold custody is of great worth to the country …Would Karl Marx and Virginia Woolf, Mahatma Gandhi and George Orwell, all erstwhile users of the British Library, have produced their masterpieces without this resource?”
Imperilled culture - it really is.
Such negligence.
Imperilled culture - it really is.
Such negligence.
November 8, 2025 at 9:05 AM
“The resource over which they hold custody is of great worth to the country …Would Karl Marx and Virginia Woolf, Mahatma Gandhi and George Orwell, all erstwhile users of the British Library, have produced their masterpieces without this resource?”
Imperilled culture - it really is.
Such negligence.
Imperilled culture - it really is.
Such negligence.
Reposted by Lesley Pitman
Washington State Library and the Talking Book and Braille Library are closing to the public, 12 jobs getting axed 📚https://washingtonstatestandard.com/briefs/washington-state-library-closing-to-the-public-12-jobs-getting-axed/
Washington State Library closing to the public, 12 jobs getting axed • Washington State Standard
Two state-run libraries in Washington will close July 1 due to a lack of funding. Twelve jobs will be eliminated too.
washingtonstatestandard.com
November 6, 2025 at 11:49 PM
Washington State Library and the Talking Book and Braille Library are closing to the public, 12 jobs getting axed 📚https://washingtonstatestandard.com/briefs/washington-state-library-closing-to-the-public-12-jobs-getting-axed/
Reposted by Lesley Pitman
I am hearing that @uniofnottingham.bsky.social is suspending (i.e shutting down) *all modern language courses* in 2026-27. One of the largest departments in the UK. A shocking short sighted move that damages regional and national prospects @britishacademy.bsky.social @hetanshah.bsky.social
November 6, 2025 at 12:39 PM
I am hearing that @uniofnottingham.bsky.social is suspending (i.e shutting down) *all modern language courses* in 2026-27. One of the largest departments in the UK. A shocking short sighted move that damages regional and national prospects @britishacademy.bsky.social @hetanshah.bsky.social
Reposted by Lesley Pitman
There are at least four angles worthy of exploration:
- The nature and severity of the attack.
- The effects on arts and humanities research.
- The aged and patchwork nature of the BL's IT estate which has made it hard to recover from.
- The BL's commendable honesty in sharing lessons learned:
- The nature and severity of the attack.
- The effects on arts and humanities research.
- The aged and patchwork nature of the BL's IT estate which has made it hard to recover from.
- The BL's commendable honesty in sharing lessons learned:
Learning lessons from the cyber-attack
Today, we’ve published a paper about the cyber-attack that took place against the British Library last October.
www.bl.uk
November 4, 2025 at 4:10 PM
There are at least four angles worthy of exploration:
- The nature and severity of the attack.
- The effects on arts and humanities research.
- The aged and patchwork nature of the BL's IT estate which has made it hard to recover from.
- The BL's commendable honesty in sharing lessons learned:
- The nature and severity of the attack.
- The effects on arts and humanities research.
- The aged and patchwork nature of the BL's IT estate which has made it hard to recover from.
- The BL's commendable honesty in sharing lessons learned:
Hoping for better and calmer times for friends and colleagues at the British Library, who have had a very tough time.
The British Library’s chief executive has resigned with immediate effect midway through strike action over what has been called a “derisory” pay offer
#AcademicSky
#AcademicSky
British Library chief executive quits amid strike action over pay
National library chief Rebecca Lawrence will be replaced by interim head Jeremy Silver with immediate effect
www.timeshighereducation.com
November 4, 2025 at 7:19 PM
Hoping for better and calmer times for friends and colleagues at the British Library, who have had a very tough time.
Reposted by Lesley Pitman
British Library Board statement: www.bl.uk/about/press/...
November 4, 2025 at 2:56 PM
British Library Board statement: www.bl.uk/about/press/...
Reposted by Lesley Pitman
British Library chief executive, Rebecca Lawrence, quits midway through PCS strike. An interesting development.
November 3, 2025 at 3:54 PM
British Library chief executive, Rebecca Lawrence, quits midway through PCS strike. An interesting development.