The Good Library Blog

Possibly, but that isn't what I came into this profession to do. I came into it to help with the flow of knowledge, culture, ideas in society. That may occasionally require me to dirty my hands with administrative stuff, as is the case in every profession, but it is not why I do it; neither would a vet see filling in meat inspection forms as the pinnacle of his professional activity.

Tom, you are absolutely right. The cult of Management, not to mention Management-speak, is what has caused far too many problems everywhere - look at the NHS and the BBS to name but two. Of course large organisations with many staff have to be organised and there have to be some people doing the organising, not doing the job itself.. but what Tim asks for is a whole middle layer of new staff exclusively doing management - because this is what happens, the librarians themselves will not do it any more than the doctors and nurses do- and this will drain yet more money from the front line - we will see fewer books, shorter opening hours and more dilapidated buildings and fewer staff - but more and more managers. I am shocked by what Tim has proposed.

Susan, Tom

I'm not saying at all that there should be an extra layer of people who "do management". What I am saying is that councillors depend upon the library profession to advise them how to manage library services. They have nobody else to turn to. There is no other cadre of management in a council (and nor should there be). Therefore, I am saying, it must be part of the role of the senior library profession to manage the very large sums of money they handle, in a proper and professional manner. That means understanding budgets,measuring performance, preparing clear plans and communicating them properly, knowing how to understand and address the needs of the public in an organised way. These are the skills which I refer to as management - and my observation of the library service- is that it has been the absence of them that has caused, over many years, funds to be allocated to the wrong priorities. These may not be the things that Tom came into the profession to do- but it would be better, as you say, for those people who are professional librarians to have and be experienced in these skills, than to employ other managers who are not essentially librarians. Moreover, my own experience is that such issues need to be embraced by all who are in the service, otherwise they cannot understand what it is their managers are asking of them or why. They don't all have to know how one prepares the financial appraisal of a multi million pound library project- but they do need to know that such work is done in a methodical way- as do the public who are paying. Is that wrong?

My constant call is for far less management in the public library service, but that it be equipped to do this part of the job properly.

Please don't be shocked by what I propose- it is not at all shocking.

Tim