The Good Library Blog

Am I the only person to suspect that you are simply a Grumpy Old Man who simply wants to complain restraints and complain. Someone wthh a driving fixed idea that 'they are out to get me!". As far as you are concerned everything is black and white....professional librarians are bad .. Tim Coates is good.... Obviously, public librarians work within the constraints of local authority rules and tired old negat- with all the drawbacks that involves. |But, and it is a bi but, you give the imprsssion of someone so exasperated that they are not being treated seriously, that they are going to shout and shout until they are heard. You have got yourself into a 'us and them' situation. Anything which helps your cause is given inordinate and dsproprtionate emphasis. te good news is , reluctantly, acknowledged.

Please give credit where creit is due. Which council

Bill, I think your a bit o.t.t. in your criticism of Tim (though I'll leave him to defend his corner). If someone is passionate about libraries being open at reasonable hours, having a good selection of books and trying to bring to peoples' attention to rural closures, thats a good thing. I don't think Tim does look at the bad side disproportionately, its just with low investment in libraries there is a disproportionate amount of bad news. Therefore Bill, if, like the tv news you feel everything in the world is unfair, just turn off the button.

Bill

I take the stories as they come to me- I search the press for library stories and often just copy them here. I also receive messages, as you can see, from many people who work in the library service, but for obvious reasons don't want to reveal their names or where they work. I have also learned, as journalists must have to do, to distinguish between what a press release says and what actually happens.

I often deliberately don't name the councils I talk about: sometimes I have been involved in what they do and either have a formal duty of confidentiality or a personal obligation not to spoil an effort which is being made. Sometimes I would be criticising a person who would not be able to defend themselves. When I can give names, I do.

In the case of the council I mentioned this week where there is a plan to buy more books, their will be revealed- but at a time of the council's choosing, not mine. As you are often telling me, operating within a council has its protocols, but believe me they are not that different from those which operate in many large organisations.

I don't accept that the public library service cannot improve because of the "constraints of local government". How can that be right? Would a council chief executive concede that? Of course it is not an adequate excuse. I understand that local councils need managers adept at operating within their culture- but that is true of all organisations and I have seen perfect examples of how it can be done.

My persistent comment is having the effect that I want it to. People are listening; my criticism is constructive. I always explain what I believe needs to be done.It is irritating that this comes from outside the profession, I know that, but councils are being forced to take action to respond, which is what is intended.

Re the suggested strand on recruitment, I've just been turned down for any job at all in Glasgow City Council's recruitment drive for f/t & p/t library assistants. There may be a perfectly good reason for this, but as I'm a Chartered Librarian I'm more than a little exasperated and suspicious. On the one hand I meet nice and supportive people in the library service, on the other I can't get a job in a public library for love nor money so there's naught else to do except shout about it! Anyone from Glasgow willing to answer in confidence?

Not sure what your point is with this posting, Tim. I expect the legal libraries in question are just tired of recruits who sign up for a job which is honestly described as including a lot of routine admin (and which will be much better-paid than in other sectors), and then after a month decide that shelving books and photocopying is beneath them and they want to do the 'interesting' stuff instead. I don't think legal libraries expect people to stay in these admin jobs forever but I expect they'd like recruits to stay for a year or two and therefore justify the time and effort spent on their initial training.

There are lots of jobs for which one does not want to recruit ambitious career seeking people- but one does not then characterise these people by calling them "old" or "ladies" - that is the kind of thing for which participants on a Channel 4 programme would be expelled.

If these kinds of remarks are made smirkingly behind hands, then they shouldn't. They are shameful and those who say them are being paid with public finds.

My point is that many of us, in our turn who are not public employees, are often described as not paying sufficient attention to matters of social inclusion-- and those labels come from the very library professionals who behave- or condone behaviour of this kind. There is humbug in the air.

Another anonymous correspondent. Fair enough. But this is the view of one legal recruitment firm, indeed one recruiter. And there is nothing to say that the 'old ladies' line was the recruiter's interpretation.

I could say, openly, that I have heard that to be a librarian in a law firm is a thankless task. That it is to be treated as a skivvy, to be surrounded by people who have no idea what you do or why. But that's a view from just a few people, so I wouldn't use it as a plank for an argument on the weaselliness of lawyers.

A reply for James from a Glasgow librarian:
I too applied for those library 'pool' jobs back when I was an LIS student. Although recently qualified, I was not called for interview. I put this down to being *overqualified* for the job, and not having any experience as a public library assistant. Wrote it off and moved on.

There are very few qualified jobs in Glasgow, and I've rarely seen any in public libraries. From what I understand from friends, most libraries are solely staffed by library assistants, and qualified staff work 'centrally', perhaps visiting branches on a rotational basis. Presumably this means that they need fewer qualified staff, and I'm guessing that those they do have are happy in post and stay there long-term instead of job-hopping. Where I work, we have the expectation that qualified applicants to assistant posts are unlikely to be satisfied with the mundanities of desk work and will want to move on soon.

On the main post subject, I worked in a law library for 5 weeks during my postgraduate course. The librarian was super-effective and her job-title was Head of Knowledge Management. A lot of the horrendously boring tasks like loose-leaf updating were left for me (understandably) because there were more pressing tasks to do. Her ambition was encouraged and rewarded, which I suppose goes to show that you can't really use anecdotes to prove particular points, since there is always the chance that someone out there has a completely different story to tell.

Not to justify it, but the alleged comments are being made by librarians (although it is not made clear that the librarians are making the 'old'comments as opposed to that being the interpretation placed by the recruiters) engaging recruiters (private) for legal firms (also private.) No public money is involved. Client money yes, but not taxes.

Deargreenplace,

absolutely. I've heard bad things, down the grapevine; you've had direct good experience. Anecdotal evidence is useful, but you need a lot of it to base a point on; and a corresponding lack of countervailing evidence.

Dear Deargreenplace

Thanks very much for your reply re my query on Glaswegian recruitment. The tragedy of the matter is that I was diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome five years ago, and despite all my qualifications have come to realise that I was best suited to being a library asistant all along. One interesting aspect of my disability was the fact that I actually enjoyed all the boring, mundane tasks that anyone reading my CV would naturally - and mistakenly - assume would lead me to move on through boredom. Nothing could be further from the truth, I'm afraid, and I feel like the victim of well-meaning but ultimately harmful discrimination. A job at Hillhead public library would have been a godsend for me, but I don't think I'll ever get there now.
An example of my ability to thrive on mundanity: when employed as a law librarian, I loved loose-leaf filing. I even became a self-employed loose-leaf filer for a couple of years, and I enjoyed every minute of it! What else can I say, I've got an old post on here called The Gordian Knot which explains things in more detail, but please, ask your colleagues not to just assume qualified people like me will inevitably get bored in lower-grade jobs. We're all funny combinations of abilities and deficits, and I wouldn't have gone for a library assistant's post if I hadn't genuinely wanted to hold and stay in it. Thanks again for your help. I've got an interview for another basic job shortly and I'll be sure to stress the fact that it will genuinely satisfy me.

Best wishes

James

I've just moved to Glasgow and am looking for a library job. It all seems incredibly daunting. Although I'm qualified, ( 18 years ago from Strathclyde ) even an assistant post seems impossible as I've taken the last 15 years out for my children, living somewhere remote. Is it time to re-train entirely? Am feeling a bit demoralised.

Dear Catherine

Sorry but unsurprised to hear you're having so much trouble finding a post (please see Deargreenplace's reply to my similiar query to find out why). I've been cheerfully blowing my top over the last year or two re problems in the library service (see The Gordian Knot) and I'm in fact extremely sceptical about training, training and re-training. I didn't like the idea of revalidation which came out a couple of years back and I'm sick to death of all the pretentious jargon I read in the library journals while the profession seems to be dying on its feet. I'd like to be a bit more optimistic and helpful to you, but I can't help feeling that retraining in another profession entirely might be your best option. I'm sorry, Catherine. I wish I could be of more help.

I think there is a big future for online libraries like this one on Charles Dickens.