Social, science sites of the week 24th April 2020


23rd April was World Book day

Read the 
UN statement and links to resources it has created for the lockdown period
according to the 
Reading Agency's most recent survey more people are reading in self isolation

How much do people normally read in the UK?
in 2014 the 
Book Trusts survey of 1500 adults found

Nearly a fifth (18%) never read physical books, and 71% never read e-books.

How does this compare with elsewhere?


In the USA the 
Pew Center conducts a regular annual survey on who doesnt read.

27% recorded not reading a book in the last year. Higher figures recorded for poorer and hispanic adults.
On a global scale 
UNESCO records literacy statistics

However reading does have the power to change lives. in 2018 Demos published a report called a 
society of readers. which summarised research on a variety of factors including well being and social mobility.
The National Literacy Trust has conducted a number of surveys on the link between reading and positive mental well-being
Children who are the most engaged with literacy are three times more likely to have higher levels of mental wellbeing than children who are the least engaged (39.4% vs 11.8%) 
The Reading Agency also conducted a 2015 literature review on reading for empowerment and wellbeing

Covid resources

We are updating links to  individual government documents and key papers on our blog.

Social data during the COVID-19 pandemic
Useful crowd sources Google Docs being coordinated by Ben Geiger University of Kent and the National Centre for Social Methods .It lists sources of existing government surveys  on subjects including employment, income, poverty & deprivation, loneliness & mental health as well as new COVID-19 polls, qualitative research, and priority topics for future research. 

This recent new working paper gives insight into the sheer amount of new research being produced
“it states The global growth rate is 500 publications and the production doubles every 15 days. In the case of Pubmed the weekly growth is around 1000 publications.”
Read on more for the indepth methodology and  data sources.

BIP! Finder for COVID-19
Aims to help researchers navigate this wealth of literature by locating the most highly cited articles.
This working paper from those involved explains how they are getting the metrics data


A group of Uk academic staff and researchers blogging and writing on political behaviour, crisis management theory, international relations and political psychology to consider public attitudes to policy such as social distancing

Covid-19 and Labour statistics.

It is considering employment and unemployment. Mention is also made on the impact and ability of national suppliers to collect statistics.

Edible Plants from the Americas a new Europeana online exhibition

A great new resource from Europeana drawing upon the collections from Europe’s major national libraries and research institutes. It explores the introduction of new edible foodstuffs and their impact on the cuisine and cultural life of Europe. It includes spices, potatoes and chocolate! The text includes extracts from historic texts and includes prints and ilustrations . see these for cocoa



A digital archive of text multimedia and images curated by staff at the University of Warwick.it focuses upon popular culture, music , graffiti, cartoons and art and its link with the revolution and democracy. The site also contains timelines, essays and teachers guides.


Finally a museum from home to inspire
This week via Google  and Culture
The great anthropology museum in Mexico City .  choose the explore option
To see the stunning layout.
the images really show the sunny galleries that I remember and the outdoor garden



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