Last week (1 November) an international group of information specialists came together at the House of Lords to mark the launch of a report on the importance of reliable data and statistics in international development, and the challenges and opportunities posed by digital records.

Gay J McDougall (left), a leading international human rights activist, scholar and lawyer is to receive an honorary doctorate from the University of London in this year’s School of Advanced Study’s graduation ceremony. Currently vice-chair and member of the UN treaty body that oversees compliance with the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and Distinguished Scholar in Residence at Fordham University School of Law in New York, she will receive a Doctor of Laws honoris causa at Senate House on 7 December.  

The missing score of a string quartet by the suffrage composer Dorothy Howell (1898–1982) dubbed ‘the English Strauss’ – last performed at the Wigmore Hall in 1920, and thought lost for nearly 100 years – has recently been discovered and will be played at a special concert on 1 November.

Does technology help us to be human? With the intensive coverage of all things digital in the media and on social media, we could be forgiven for forgetting a basic tenet of education – that technology is just a tool. However, it seems that our digital tools are quickly outstripping the ability of most of us to exploit them fully.