CILIP Volunteer Policy & Job Substitution: Letter to CILIP Update

I’ve just written this letter to CILIP Update regarding the current CILIP volunteer policy and its tie-in with job substitution. I was hoping to also add it to the comments section of the CILIP Council blog ( http://communities.cilip.org.uk/blogs/council/archive/2012/04/09/cilip-council-26th-march-2012.aspx ), where I had originally posted some other comments on the situation, but the website will not let me add it, so I have posted it on CILIP forums and here instead.

__________________________________________________________________________________ 

 

Dear editor,

After seeing that the organisation’s current volunteer policy statement had been discussed at the March 2012 CILIP Council meeting, I read “CILIP’s Policy on the Use of Volunteers in Public Libraries: A Review”, which I believe informed the discussion on policy during the meeting.


This raised serious concerns in me about CILIP’s stance on job substitution, particularly when I read the following quotes:

“Job substitution – This goes to the heart of the problem. For many the use of volunteers should only ever be supplementary to the skills and expertise of paid staff and never in replacement. This is a traditional trade union view and is also reflected in the previous Library Association/CILIP statement on the use of volunteers. However Council agreed at its meeting in February 2010 that this policy was too rigid and failed to reflect present day realities where significant expenditure reductions had to be made.”

“The second paragraph of the current volunteers statement endeavours to ensure a continuing professional presence that is sufficient “to ensure the direction, development and quality of the service provided” but not to be constrained by a rigid no job substitution policy.”

“Whereas volunteers could be seen as extending and enriching the service in the past now they have become important in maintaining and sustaining a service that would be otherwise unfeasible.
18. However a return to the policy of no job substitution would be regarded by many as unrealistic and also risk excluding the Institute from meaningful debate and discussion over the future shape and delivery of the public library service in England especially.” 

However, after an email discussion with Mark Taylor (CILIP Director of External Relations) I now believe the organisation is opposed to job substitution. I say “believe” because the response I received did not actually say explicitly “CILIP is opposed to job substitution”, but it did imply that it was.

Based on this assumption, I would like to propose that the CILIP volunteer policy be updated to state that the organisation is against job substitution. It would clarify CILIP policy, leave it less open to misinterpretation and provide reassurance to members of the organisation.

I feel it really needs a statement like this in the policy, especially as the report I took the above quotes from had such a focus on the issues around job substitution. ie It:

(1) Highlights that job substitution is a major concern of its members.
(2) Mentions job substitution frequently.
(3) Was used to inform the current policy on volunteers.

As so much discussion was spent on the issue of job substitution as a precursor to agreeing the policy, surely it is worth including a short and simple statement in the final policy to clearly show that CILIP is against it.

Regards,

Gary Green

(Technical Librarian, Surrey)  
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by garygre on May 16, 2012  •  Permalink
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Radio 4: Start The Week: The Digital Future (7 May 2012)

In this episode of Andrew Marr’s “Start the week” radio programme, he spoke to a number of guests about how technology might impact on us in the future, raising issues such as:

  • How we can retain control of our interaction with the digital world.
  • Ethics of technology.
  • Inequality of digital access.
  • How technology has changed social interaction.
  • Augmented reality.
  • The changing value of games.
  • The idea that digital experiences may be more successful when presenting them as a “physical simple imminent experience” rather than a “complex informational one”.
  • Users seen as livestock – being coralled by those who control technology.
  • New technology developments.
  • The suggestion that most of society is not prepared for things that are just around the corner (some already here).
  • Who controls technology and what would happen if leadership changed in Microsoft, Apple or Google to a more traditional corporate style?

It’s well worth listening to, particularly with its focus upon the social impact of technology. One of the key things I picked up from it, was the idea that there are just as many opportunities for the individual to take control of their own experience in the digital world as there are opportunities for others to lead us down a path they want us to go.

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by garygre on May 9, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by garygre on May 9, 2012

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CILIP ILIG Informal: Library Aid To Developing Countries

CILIP’s International Library and Information Group ran an informal session a few weeks ago, in which Johanna Anderson discussed the research she had undertaken for her Library and Information Management MSc: ‘Library Aid to Developing Countries: A case study investigating how a Western literary library model is integrated into a Sub-Saharan African oral culture within the Malawian primary education system’.

The research was undertaken in situ at a primary school in Malawi and was based around a library set up by a UK charity in the school. Following on from the United Nations Millennium Development Goal of universal primary education, Malawi had already made primary education free to all children. The uptake of school places had increased so dramatically that it was felt libraries could be introduced as a way to ease the pressure on the education system. Donations of books from the UK were the main method of providing stock for the library and no experienced library staff were involved in the setting up or running of the library.

Johanna discussed the background to her research and the key areas she’d focused on:

  • The role reading had to play in Malawi culture (one with a predominantly oral tradition, rather than written).
  • How relevant the stock was to its users (level of readership, subject coverage, English language stock).
  • How the library stock was used and the impact it had on the community (people who could read shared information with others; it taught people about the world outside of Malawi; infrastructures needed to be put in place to support & develop the library).
  • How reader development was supported (focus was mainly on sharing information in books, with little focus on reader enjoyment).

It was really interesting to hear about library services from such a different angle, specifically one based in a non-western developing country with a culture that traditionally focused on oral communication, rather than the written word.

Books introduced a change in the way communication occurred in Malawi – information used to flow from the elders to the children, but now it also flows from from the literate (often school children) to the non-literate. It shows that resources people have access to change the way they interact and communicate with each other. This isn’t just the case for developing countries, but also for any community who has access to new methods of communication. For example, witness how the internet and, more recently, social media has changed the way people communicate, obtain and share information.

Johanna’s research and the discussion around it during the event highlighted the fact that a library is so much more than a room full of donated books. For a library to be successful it needs the infrastructure to support it – where the library is housed, systems used, trained library staff. The library discussed in Johanna’s case study didn’t seem to have this infrastructure in place. It made me wonder whether irrelevant donated books could instead be converted into a means of supporting the infrastructure of the library that was there? eg sell the books in the UK and help pay for training for the library assistant, a more suitable home for the library, put in place systems that ensures the best use is made of the resources. I also wondered if librarians on secondment/sabbatical from the UK to libraries in developing countries could be a good way to help develop the infrastructure around libraries? In some ways it might be of benefit to both the libraries in developing countries and UK librarians – it might get librarians to think about their core skills – get them back to basics – think about the purpose of libraries/librarians and make them re-evaluate their own role in UK libraries. Some critics suggest that public libraries in the UK have lost their way. By going back to grass roots and a situation where their core/basic skills need to be used might be a way for them to re-evaluate what their role is. For example, as a technical librarian a lot of my focus is aimed at the technology side of things. I wonder how much of the librarian focus I’ve lost whilst pursuing this particular technology path and how much of it I could regain if I had the opportunity to get back to focusing on the core skills and knowledge?

Johanna’s dissertation highlighted the fact that where, in the past, books/the written word might have been seen as alien to a culture founded on oral tradition, people in Malawi now associated books with knowledge, power, prestige and wealth. Many of these associations also tie in with the fight against poverty. The Malawi Government also acknowledged the importance of literacy and put strategies in place to encourage it – resulting in increased literacy levels. It seems ironic that a Government in a developing country can recognise the importance of literacy and put measures in place to ensure it’s supported, but at the same time our own Government is happy to encourage the whittling away of our public library service.

As I say, the event and discussion generated around it was really interesting. If you want to find out more about Johanna’s research her full dissertation can be found here.

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by garygre on May 1, 2012  •  Permalink
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#FutureSkills and The Body Of Professional Knowledge for Librarians

Following on from the “Defining Our Professional Future” report, CILIP have started working on a number of large projects. One of them is focused on the skills we use in the information and library profession, and part of this involves updating the Body of Professional Knowledge and Skills (BPKS). Put simply, it will identify all skills, competencies and knowledge relevant to the profession and present them in a way that can be measured.

CILIP have been asking members and non-members to feedback on the draft version of the document. So, I did. I thought it was worth making the effort to help ensure that the BPKS was as relevant as possible to the profession, and also ensure that it remained relevant in the future. I’m not an expert in every aspect of information/library based work, so I don’t feel I could respond in detail to every aspect of the questionnaire used for feeding back into the consultation, but I responded to what I could. Even those areas I was hazy about made me think about how they related to my role, roles I’ve had in the past, or even how they relate to colleagues roles. It was useful to go through the draft document, even just to remind myself of the range of skills and knowledge needed in the profession, aspects of which I’d forgotten about, or maybe wasn’t even aware of. Even though it’s still in draft format, it was also good to be able to identify areas that I may want to or need to improve my skills in the future.

Once it’s been updated I can see it being personally useful for:

  • Identifying my existing skills & knowledge – useful for clarifying to others what I do.
  • Identifying skills & knowledge gaps I would want to develop.
  • Show possible paths to career progression.
  • Use to show others what librarians do – employers, Government Ministers, those who hold the purse strings.

CILIP mention that they intend to link in their resources (eg resources on the CILIP website; specific CILIP special interest groups; Facet publications) with skills and knowledge listed in the body of professional knowledge . I think this is a really good idea, but as well as this, I wonder if there’s scope to develop this aspect further, such as:

  • Make an online version of the BPKS document editable, so that members can add other non-CILIP resources they think are relevant.
  • Job shadowing or events with individuals who possess skills/knowledge in an area you want to develop.
  • Small scale mentoring programmes, again focusing on specific skills sets, rather than the full chartership scheme.

A few skills/knowledge areas I thought needed to be specifically emphasised in the BPKS were:

  • Knowledge and understanding of existing legislation and central Government initiatives.
  • Advocacy skills.
  • Leadership – provide direction and lead by example.
I also wonder how we can use the BPKS to develop our roles so that we not only adapt to changes happening around us in society, but also play a part in guiding or influencing society?

As well as providing feedback on the BPKS, yesterday I also attended a talk by Bethan Ruddock about the Future Skills project hosted by CILIP London & South East Career Development Group. She ran through the various stages of the project, how it was developing and how it would impact upon other areas beyond the BPKS. The project will also include an examination of CILIP accreditation & seal of recognition, and the intention is for it to tie in closely with continuing professional development.

Bethan’s talk generated discussions around the need to emphasise specialist information skills over generic skills in the BPKS; how the terminology used to describe the skills/knowledge might not be relevant to some people in the profession and how this can be overcome; concerns over de-professionalisation of information/library services; who was involved in the Future Skills discussion?; the need to reach and involve people in the discussion who are not normally involved with CILIP, as it is just as much their profession too.

So, if you haven’t got involved yet, there are still a few days left to feedback on the Body of Professional Knowledge (it runs until midnight on Sunday 29th April), and if anyone on Twitter is interested in getting involved in the Future Skills discussion, there will be a CILIP #chartership #FutureSkills chat on 26 April from 6.30pm-8pm.

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by garygre on April 25, 2012  •  Permalink
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Research and Writing for Publication

A few weeks ago I attended a couple of “Writing for publication” workshops, which were organised by CILIP Library & Information Research Group (LIRG) and run by Alison Brettle  & Christine Irving.

The workshops focused on:

  • How to start writing and keep focused.
  • Different types of submissions.
  • How the submission/editorial process works.
  • Where to publish.
  • Peer review process.
  • Feedback on attendees ideas for articles.

I decided to sign up for the workshops because recently I’ve been thinking that I really want to develop my writing skills for a number of reasons:

  • I want to be able to put reports/pieces/blog posts together more quickly than I am doing at present – I’m not sure exactly how many drafts I go through before I’m happy with anything I write (blogs particularly), but I’d say 3 at least, plus a bit of post-publishing editing too.
  • I want to be able to focus my thoughts and decide on my purpose for writing about a particular subject before I even start typing.
  • I want to present my thoughts more clearly when they’re written down.
  • I’m considering writing beyond my own blogs and want to make sure that whatever I submit is as professional as it can be. I know editors might not be interested in what I’ve written, but at least I’ll know I’ve given them the best I can.
  • Through my involvement with Voices For The Library I’ve had the opportunity to undertake some informal research, which has given me a taste for it and, in the back of my mind, I was considering doing something more formal. I’d been looking around for courses to develop my research skills. I feel that improving my writing skills would also help in this area – or maybe they go hand in hand – clarity of presenting information, etc.
I found both workshops really useful and I came away having learnt plenty about the submission/publication process as well as tips and suggestions for improving my writing. As the workshops were organised via LIRG, I also got an insight into the research side of things and this has confirmed in my mind that I really do need to/want to fill this skills gap too, preferably with some kind of accreditation or qualification.
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by garygre on April 16, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by garygre on April 16, 2012

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Edinburgh Edge Conference 2012 #Edge2012

At the beginning of March I attended The Edge Conference, hosted by Edinburgh City Council. The conference speakers focused on innovation in library services within the broader context of the community, environment and current economic situation. Many of the speakers were from a library background, but the conference also heard from politicians, technology experts and partner organisations.

Mark Turley (Director of Services for Communities, City of Edinburgh Council) commented on statutory duties for library services and how it was easy to get sucked into focusing on saving money in libraries, rather than focusing on making best use of money available.  He also emphasised the benefits libraries have upon communities, economic development & education/learning, but he also highlighted the fact that libraries need to focus on gathering evidence to support these claims.

Amy Eschleman (Assistant Commissioner, Chicago Public Library) spoke about the Chicago Public Library service and how they used social capital as a method of developing communities.  As an example, she highlighted how the introduction of Near North/Cabrini Green Library in Chicago helped develop a run down area of the city.  They also developed a youth project that engaged middle and high school students (YOUmedia). The project wasn’t just about users consuming information. It was about them creating it too and the project embraced the idea that learning can happen anywhere. The Chicago One Book, One City project saw participants in the YOUmedia project respond to a specific single book in a creative way. They created written, musical, videos and fan-fiction responses to the book. The YOUmedia project shows youth a pathway through libraries that they never knew existed before.  More recently the project participants were asked to design a bus for Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation. Chicago is looking to expand the YOUmedia project to adults – including maker and hack spaces. Amy also recognised that libraries need to emphasise their worth beyond the circulation statistics, and Chicago Public Library Service will be releasing an online toolkit to help with this.

Riccardo Marini (Urbanist) focused on libraries as place making anchors and emphasised the importance of introducing design early on in the building process. He talked about how it is the places that we like that successfully engage the interest of people and allow human exchange to happen. He highlighted the fact that many people draw on their childhood experiences when asked what a library means to them. He saw the interest in Frederick Taylor’s theories of efficiency as the death of a lot of good things, because it moved the focus onto money and away from happiness.  We are often led by accountants focusing on efficiency (rather than creativity), not by the service providers or users. The way services are presented to potential users determines how people feel about those services. We need to present them in the right way- a positive and creative way. The positive effect will ripple out from great projects.

Judith St John (Head of Idea Stores, Tower Hamlets) spoke about the development of their Idea Stores. The council asked for public opinion on library services – 98% of respondents considered libraries important, but wanted more books and I.T. The council wanted to move away from the negative impression that the public had of their services. They wanted to rebrand them and so, Ideas Stores were born. There was more of an emphasis on the retail model in Ideas Stores, but staff felt this was destroying the traditional approach of libraries.  However, since opening Idea Stores use has gone up from 550,000 to 2,200,000 a year.

Peter Fleming (Leader of Seven Oaks Council) talked about the experience of localism in his area. At present, Kent County Council are responsible for providing library services, but with the emphasis on localism how much longer will this be the case? Seven Oaks has a mixed economy & is 93% green belt. He emphasised that the assets of local councils are insignificant when compared to those owned by NHS, MOD, SEEDA, etc. He felt that Councils needed to focus on what they’re good at and that partnership working should involve partners they would naturally expect to work with, but if a council is going to run with partnership working it needed to have clear visions and the passion to go with that idea.

Let There Be Light by 0olong

Let There Be Light (c) 0olong/Flickr

Alison Todd (Children 1st Charity) discussed the role that libraries have in protecting children. Libraries are recognised by children as safe places. Partnership working could be developed between children’s services and libraries, including information workshops for parents and carers. She saw a place for private sector involvement in the delivery of child protection services eg. Sponsorship of workshops. Criminal Record Bureau (C.R.B.) checks were necessary, but their implementation needs to be improved.

David Lee (Leader of Wokingham Council) talked about Wokingham’s plans for commissioning services from the private sector (including their public libraries), as a response to reduced funding from Central Government.

Annie Mauger (Chief Executive,  Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals) focused on the current situation regarding libraries in the UK and how librarians are developing their advocacy skills in these uncertain times. She highlighted that the emphasis in the media is still on library closures, but as Fiona McLeod (MSP) said, “Library closures are not the real threat – it’s the slow erosion of opening hours, staffing & resources…” In some cases cuts in library services are up to 37% and there is an increasing divide between those who “have” access to services provided through their own means and those who don’t. It is those who don’t have access who are being targetted by the current round of cuts. CILIP are currently revising the professional body of knowledge and this should help show where the librarians role is heading. CILIP’s Simon Edwards will also be visiting library schools to talk about future skills & curriculum that will be needed.

Derrick McCourt (Director Scotland, Wales and UK Local government at Microsoft) highlighted the digital gap among small and medium-sized Scottish enterprises. He also wondered if those who don’t read books might also not be digitally connected.

Christopher Platt (Director of Collections & Operations, New York Public Libraries) spoke about the current E-book/library situation and how libraries  have a role to play, despite the fact that many publishers feel we don’t. We need to highlight to publishers that libraries have a huge number of hits on our sites. For example, NYPL e-stock circulation is the 3rd highest issue branch. Users love the fact that NYPL are Kindle enabled and Amazon friendly, but publishers don’t. The library service wants the library site to be New Yorker’s intellectual home – the first place people come to look for a book, whether they borrow it or go on to buy it.

Lester Madden (Augmented Planet) demonstrated the use of augmented reality – a system that combines computer generated graphics with the real world. Common examples of augmented reality are enabled via geo-location; tag markers; and markerless technology. Uses of augmented reality include providing value-added information and promotional material. There are a number of services freely available that can help non-programmers develop augmented reality applications (for example Junaio).

Karen Reece (Capita) talked about providing library services in the cloud and reminded us that many library services are already in cloud. For example, Librarything, social networking, E-books, online catalogues.

Jim Thompson (Digital & Information Service Manager, Edinburgh) talked about virtual developments in Edinburgh’s library service. Their latest offering is “Our Town Stories“, a site that displays Edinburgh’s history on a map in stories and images. It takes on the idea of user generated content by allowing users to add their own stories to the site.

Thoughts about the conference

It was particularly interesting to hear about innovation in library services that didn’t focus solely on technology. There often seems to be an assumption that technology is the answer to most problems, but many of the speakers at the conference showed us that the physical space and the people involved are just as important. If Riccardo Marini is right when he says that people formulate their ideas about libraries based upon experiences they had during their childhood, then, to keep them interested, we also need to focus on ensuring that they have positive memories of libraries all through their lives. We need to ensure that our libraries develop with our users.

The conference also affirmed the idea that a library service is so much more than just providing a building with a sign over the door saying “Library”. It is just as much about the people involved and how they interact with services provided. The context you put any service in (whether it’s a library service or not) has an effect upon how people relate to it. As Judith St John said, “People make places, more than buildings & roads.”

Despite all of these great ideas about innovation and service development, we need to remember that innovation often comes at a price, and in the current climate of cuts to public library service budgets we need to ask how (and if) these innovations should be funded? Well, as Mark Turley said, public libraries benefit individuals, the community and economy, but we need to ensure we are able to measure their impact and have the evidence readily available to present to people who might question their value. Hopefully Chicago’s online toolkit will help us measure this impact. Riccardo Marini also highlighted that if we give the accountants the final say in funding our library services we may well end up with more efficient library services, but they will be so uninspiring that people won’t want to use them. So, we need to invest in providing inspiring services. During the conference Liz McGettigan (Edinburgh Libraries and Information Manager) also suggested that as public libraries have done so much for the UK over the years, isn’t it about time Central Government acknowledged this and did something for libraries in return? ie support public libraries and help them achieve their potential.

I really enjoyed attending the conference. Having heard from a wide range of speakers with perspectives outside of my own experience it’s given me a greater understanding of libraries’ role in a broader context and has also given me a few ideas that I hope I will have the chance to develop in my own library service.

Carry A Poem Launch by chrisdonia

Carry A Poem Launch (c) chrisdonia/Flickr

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by garygre on March 25, 2012  •  Permalink
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Education And Games = Unfun Games #DigitalSurrey

I attended an event organised by Digital Surrey last night. The speaker was one of the original programmers behind the game M.U.D., Richard Bartle.  His focus this evening was trying to predict what virtual massively multiplayer online (M.M.O.) game worlds might be like in 2022. He gave us various scenarios, some positive and others negative and it was all very interesting seeing how things might turn out, but the but one thing that really got me thinking was his comment that Edutainment doesn’t equal fun education, it equals unfun games

I can see what he’s saying. I remember receiving “French is fun” with my MSX computer back in the mid 1980s. LIES! It might have been fun if the game consisted of throwing onions at blocky images of The Eiffel Tower that exclaimed “Mon dieu” or “Zut alors” every time you hit it… but unfortunately all it did was try to give you French lessons… Which wasn’t fun at all, despite the fact that I wanted to learn French.

Edutainment! by Videocrab Flickr

Edutainment! (c) Videocrab/Flickr

After Richard’s Edutainment comment and with my “Libraries give information” hat on, I’ve got some thoughts going around my head – wondering if virtual games can/could successfully educate by providing information subtly as an integral part of the game? For example, if you’re playing a game set in a fantasy world based around ancient Egyptian mythology could you drop in facts about ancient Egypt as part of the narrative if it didn’t impinge on the game play? Or actually include those facts as part of the game play? Would the player think “Hang on a minute. Someone’s trying to teach me something here!”? If it’s true that serious M.M.O. game players get engrossed in the game, wouldn’t their immersion in the virtual world work in the educators favour? Wouldn’t the gamer take in those facts readily in a willingness to be enveloped in the story, or if they believed remembering the facts were essential to progress through the game? But then again, if you’re giving gamers facts and fantasy in the same world could they also equate the fantasy as fact too? Could the division between fantasy and reality be blurred and any value that the factual parts have be undone by the misinformation of the fantasy? I suppose if that was the case you could also say that “The Mummy” film was also giving out confusing information and messing with our heads… On one hand it talks about known Pharoah’s and other ancient Egyptian facts, and on the other it raises them from the dead to wreak chaos! I’m not sure many people believe The Mummy to be an accurate account of Egyptian history.

So, what information could you plonk in there and how could you do it so it was disguised as part of the fun? Could you do it so that it was genuinely part of the fun, not just disguised as it? How far could you take it before someone realised it was no fun any more and had become edutainment? And, if you were devising the game for edutainment purposes, would you already be involved in a losing battle, because games are for playing and your primary purpose in this instance is serving up the information, not playing the game?

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by garygre on March 23, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by garygre on March 23, 2012

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One Week In My Librarian Life #libday8

This is a blog post for the “Library Day In The Life” Project. This project is a semi-annual event where librarians, library staff and library students from all over the globe share a day (or week) in their life through blog posts, photos, video and Twitter updates.

As a bit of a background, I’m a Technical Librarian for a public library service in England and also a founder member of the Voices For The Library campaign.

Monday (30th Jan)

A day off work, but still I’m doing library based stuff. I’ve got a few things going on at the moment around Voices For The Library, so I’m trying to keep on top of them. This includes:

  • Preparing for a meeting on Wednesday about public library cuts with MP Ed Vaizey, the Government minister responsible for libraries. Julia Donaldson (Children’s Laureate) arranged this and, as a representative of Voices, I will be part of a delegation that includes Julia, Alan Gibbons (children’s author and Campaign For The Book founder) and John Holland (Friends of Gloucestershire Libraries campaigner). I’m currently trying to condense all that Voices For The Library want to put across into a 5 minute slot.
  • Helping plan the Parliamentary lobby/rally on 13th March – got to admit I’m not doing as much as I’d like to with this, as other much closer deadlines keeping popping up.

Activities I tend to do daily with Voices, includes:

  • Keeping an eye on the news, blogs, Government related sites and Twitter for anything of interest and posting it on Twitter. It seems like a bit of a slow news day today for libraries in the UK, but plenty of stories about libraries in Canada and USA! I tend to feed all my news into Google Reader, as I can share it in a variety of ways, but I also use Newsnow.co.uk as well, because that also picks up more news that Google news doesn’t.
  • Adding or writing the odd blog post for the site. (Added one today)
  • Responding to email discussions.
Tuesday (31st Jan)
August 20th 2008 - Inspiration pt3 by Stephen Poff

August 20th 2008 - Inspiration pt3 (c) Stephen Poff/Flickr

Not in the office again today. This time I’m on a half day “Writing for publication” course at CILIP, organised by the LIRG (Library and Information Research Group). I do a lot of library focused writing for this blog, the Voices for The Library blog and on rare occasions for other sites. However, I feel I want to improve/develop this side of myself  and I’ve also got a thought in the back of my mind that I want to do some formal research around public libraries – to put my efforts to wider use. So, this course seemed a good starting place. I was hoping that it would help me write more clearly, get focused and get those ideas written down more quickly, and, as my brain is sometimes like a sieve, I hope that it helps me remember what I’ve written too!

After the course I worked on a Prezi to promote an event for National Libraries Day. Hopefully it will get tweeted a few times by our library service Twitter accounts over the next few days.

I also tweeted a few relevant library news stories and finalised my thoughts for  the meeting around library cuts on Wednesday.

Voices For The Library were also given permission to publish our response to Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee’s inquiry into library closures on our website today.

Wednesday (1st Feb)

A day’s leave again, but still doing library related work.

Bit of a strange day really – as a representative for Voice For The Library, along with Children’s Laureate Julia Donaldson, author and Campaign For The Book founder Alan Gibbons, and Friends of Gloucestershire Libraries campaigner John Holland, I’m going to meet Minister with responsibility for libraries, Ed Vaizey to discuss the mess public libraries are in and if he or Jeremy Hunt ever intend doing anything to sort them out?

I posted two reactions from myself to this meeting.

Here’s my personal “:-O Is this really happening to me?” reaction.

Here’s my professional Voices For The Library blog post.

As I say in the Voices blog post, I hope the meeting made a step in the right direction to sort things out, even if it just seems like a tiny one.

The rest of the day/evening was spent finding/tweeting library related trying to catch up with Voices For The Library emails, etc.

Houses Of Parliament by wendyfairy

Houses Of Parliament (c) wendyfairy/Flickr

Thursday (2nd Feb)

I’m actually back in the office today and I spent the first part of it dealing with emails. These included:

  • Preparation for our library service conference
  • Tying up the loose ends so that we can implement our new public facing catalogue/circulation system. It’s nice a whizzy and I’m particularly excited that it will include RSS feeds for search results! I know that sounds sad, but I really want to mashup some of our catalogue data.
  • Got a thank you for putting together the National Libraries Day event Prezi. :-)

At lunch time I signed up for “Brighton Lib Teach Meet 2012“, which is “a fun and informal way for librarians and information professionals to share new ideas.” The focus of this event is ‘Outreach, marketing and promotion’. I’ve never been to one of these before, but it sounds a bit like a Library Camp or Mashed Libraries style informal event. It also sounds interesting and I thought I could share some ideas around its focus (especially as Voices stuff crosses over into that area), so I put myself down to give a 5 minute presentation too.

Today was my monthly one-to-one with my line manager. We covered what I’d been working on in the past month and what I need to focus on in the coming month. Mostly e-books; downloadable audio apps; the Arena project (the public catalogue I mentioned earlier); future business plans; and marketing/promoting the library service online in a new way (for us).

I also took the time to fill in the survey for stage 1 of the CILIP Body of Professional Knowledge consultation. When I joined CILIP I wanted to get involved with what was going on, because I feel that if I want the organisation and profession to develop I’ve got to make an effort to get involved. I’ve not had the time to do anything with CILIP groups, but at least I can get involved in other ways and this is one of them.

Friday (3rd Feb)

Before work I put together a short pre-National Libraries Day (Saturday 4th) blog post for the Voices site. It was really just to remind people that N.L.D. was happening, how it came about (a follow on from Save Our Libraries Day last year) and that even though it was a day of celebration of libraries, library services were still under threat.

I spent 99% of my “day-job” today in a meeting with representatives from our library system supplier and our local authority web team ironing out outstanding issues with our new public facing catalogue/circulation system. We got most things sorted out, but it isn’t yet ready to go live. I typed up the log to highlight the outstanding issues and circulated it to those who attended the meeting and the broader contract team.

For the rest of the day (about an hour) I dealt with some emails and was also given another project to think about – an assessment of wi-fi in libraries.

When I got home I had an email discussion about the oral evidence Voices’ Abby Barker will be giving to the Culture, Media & Sport Committee Inquiry into library closures at the beginning of next week.

Saturday (4th Feb)

National Libraries Day logo

National Libraries Day

National Libraries Day. This is what I got up to – a librarithon!

Whilst out and about, being with a couple of techy type librarians, we ended up discussing social media, websites and cuts in relation to libraries… as well as other things.

I tried to retweet what others were saying about National Libraries Day, but the sheer number of tweets made it difficult.

Came back after a couple of drinks in the pub and typed up a blog post about my day.

Sunday (5th Feb)

Retweeted quite a lot of post-National Libraries Day tweets and news. It was great to see so many people getting involved.

I also worked on an article I’m putting together about ifttt.com and how it can be used for information sharing and productivity.

The rest of the month

Other aspects of my role include dealing with cataloguing, classification and EDI issues; assisting in the running of social media workshops for staff; liaising with data suppliers; current awareness of technology and I.T. in libraries.

Even though it hasn’t been a typical week for me –  I generally spend more time in the office and have never had a meeting like the one on Wednesday before – it’s a good example of the variety of work I do.

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by garygre on February 5, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by garygre on February 5, 2012

http://informationtwist.wordpress.com/2012/02/05/one-week-in-my-librarian-life-libday8/

My National Libraries Day Out #NLD12 #Librarithon #LoveLibraries

Yesterday was National Libraries Day in the UK – a celebration of libraries – not just public, but also academic, specialist, business, health, schools, etc… all libraries!

I was hoping to celebrate in the week building up to today by taking part in my own librarithon – ie visit as many different interesting libraries as possible. This was inspired by Zoe Toft who, along with her children, took part in her own charity librarithon last year. In the end, due to the fact that I had to complete a major project in work and had a major meeting to prepare for and attend, the librarithon didn’t happen. :-( Oh well!

Instead I took part in a mini-librarithon today in London with a couple of other librarians - @usernametaken10 and @misshelved - who fancied exploring a few new places. The aim wasn’t to take in as many libraries as possible just for the sake of visiting them. We decided to visit the Dickens & the Supernatural exhibition at The British Library, two new libraries in Dalston and Canada Water and an ‘Idea store’ in Whitechapel, which was running an author event.

As we were in London, and as it’s a national library, The British Library seemed like a really good place to start. I’ve visited this library a few times. Every time I’ve been there it’s to visit an exhibition.  Exhibitions in a library are a great way to provide focus on information/resources held by the library that might have otherwise been hidden away – hidden away in terms of location, and in Dickens case, hidden away in his body of work. He’s probably more widely known for fiction that touches on social history, rather than the supernatural. Exhibitions such as this get  potential readers thinking about the author in a different way. It was quite a small exhibition – took us about 20 minutes to look at it – but it was interesting to find out about how his early childhood and the people in it influenced him. He was sceptical about ghosts and the paranormal, but that didn’t stop him from writing classic ghost stories, such as The Signalman.

Book sculpture at Dalston C.L.R. James Library

Book sculpture at Dalston C.L.R. James Library

Next, we took the bus over to Dalston and wandered around the newly built C.L.R. James Library. This public area was spread over one and a half floors, broken up into glass partitioned walls. The local archives and history service was situated above it. I thought the use of the foyer area was interesting – a place for those who just want to dash in and out, to make a quick choice from a limited set of popular books. Even though I couldn’t borrow them (as I not a member of that library service), I did spot a couple of graphic novels that interested me. It made me think, “I wish we had a national library card and I could borrow this book this book right now.” Hopefully my local library will stock them. *Goes off to check the catalogue* Yes, I’ve found one of them! (Mike Carey / God Save The Queen)

Then we took the train to Canada Water Library. Again, this is another brand new library and has great views overlooking Canada Water itself. The building itself is pretty funky – as @misshelved said, on the outside it looks like a Jawa Sand crawler.

Canada Water Library

Canada Water Library or Jawa Sand Crawler?

Inside Canada Water Library

Inside Canada Water Library (c) usernametaken10/Flickr

Inside the library there’s a coffee shop and quick choice section (like Dalston Library’s foyer). A set of stairs in the centre of the ground floor leads up to the main part of the library, housing the children’s library, computers and fiction. Up another set of stairs is the non-fiction section on a balcony area that over looks the rest of the library. It goes all the way around the library and up here they also have study spaces and meeting rooms. I’m not sure whether “a day in the life” of the library as shown here is actually how it is, but I could imagine spending a couple of hours a week in there just relaxing and browsing/thinking if I lived closer to it – it’s got a pretty relaxed positive feel to it.

Finally, @usernametaken10 and I headed to Whitechapel and visited the Idea Store there. It’s a few years old and is based over a number of floors (4, I think). Our aim was to go to a free author event (Austerity Writes Back) which was on for an hour and a half. We only managed to catch the end of the event (last 20 minutes or so), but what I saw/heard was really interesting, especially as some of its focus was the austerity cuts and protest. That’s sort of why National Libraries Day exists (on the back of Save Our Libraries protest day last year) and is also relevant to Voices For The Library activities. One of the authors (and publisher) Bobby Nayyar made a comment that made sense to me about the current state of affairs with the economy. It was along the lines that there’s nothing wrong with businesses making a profit, but some businesses seem focused on making an obscene amount of profit and do not understand the social impact this may have on the world around them. I also want to mention that while I was mooching around the Idea Store I spotted on the end of a shelf a biography of Andrew Carnegie. It made me smile to think that, as a philanthropist who funded so many libraries, he has a lot to be thanked for on National Libraries Day.

Andrew Carnegie book

I wonder how Andrew Carnegie would have felt today about library cuts?

I really enjoyed today’s little adventure as part of National Libraries Day. On top of visiting a handful of libraries (old and new), I had a laugh and mulled over a few library related ideas with @usernametaken10 and @misshelved. I also got to explore parts of London I’ve never been to before, and I listened to a few authors talk about their books and how they were inspired.

As I sit here writing this, I also wonder if anyone using any of those four libraries I visited today was struck by some great revolutionary or genius idea that will change the world forever? It would be great to say I was in THAT LIBRARY at THAT PRECISE MOMENT when it happened… and you may well laugh, but it could happen, because that’s the sort of thing that goes on inside the minds of people who use libraries. :-)

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by garygre on February 5, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by garygre on February 5, 2012

http://informationtwist.wordpress.com/2012/02/05/my-national-libraries-day-out-nld12-librarithon-lovelibraries/

Thoughts On Library Membership Charges

This article about the introduction of membership charges at Bexley Village Library caught my eye today.

The article states:

BVCL is planning to introduce three levels of membership to the library.

- Reader’s Ticket – Free membership and free loans of stock, with some limits to the numbers of items which can be borrowed. Due dates and fines will apply.

- Library Member – A £24 annual fee will see people join as full members of the wider charity. Benefits will include being able to borrow a higher number of books, keeping books for an unlimited time, a free period of use on the public computers, discounts in the cafe and priority booking for events.

- Gold Membership – Customers can join as a ‘patron’ for a £75 annual subscription. Members would be making a donation to the running costs of the library and attracting additional funds to the charity through Gift Aid. BVCL will reinvest income earned through membership in new library stock. 
Two things (Edit: Three things now) struck me about this membership scheme and membership schemes in general:
  1. I’d consider free access to online information as part of the core functions of a comprehensive public library service – a large proportion of reference material you would regard as trustworthy that was previously held by public libraries in hard copy and was accessible for free, has now been replaced by online  resources, some of which can’t really be accessed by casual users – due to high cost of subscriptions.
  2. Apart from  Central Government funding cuts, another reason local councils are having to save money is because Council Taxes were capped. This ensured local residents didn’t have to stick their hands in their pockets any deeper to pay for local services. Membership schemes like this mean that residents are still going to have that money taken out of their pockets anyway.
  3. (Edit) If you have more money you’ll receive more library services. This is at odds with the ethos behind public libraries, which provides services for free because it’s recognised that some people can’t afford or don’t have access to these services/resources via any other means.

I’m not pointing the finger at Bexley Village Community Library for doing this. At the end of the day they have stepped in to provide a service the council has a responsibility to provide free of charge.

4 Comments
by garygre on January 4, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by garygre on January 4, 2012

http://informationtwist.wordpress.com/2012/01/04/thoughts-on-library-membership-charges/

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