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April 23, 2008
Roy Clare speaks about public libraries
Here is the Bookseller report on Roy Clare's speech this morning.
It's easy to agree with what he appears to be saying. But why the public have to wait while the library profession indulge themselves in yet another debate about what they should be doing, one cannot understand. It's time they were moved out of the way - as has been said so often here - or reinvented themselves quickly.
The trouble is that, in the hands of both librarians and local government officers, expressions like 'business leadership, innovation and customer service', can mean more or less anything. There is a need for someone in Roy's position to be much more specific about what is needed. (More books, longer opening hours and better designed buildings)
Posted by Perkins at 1:41 PM | Comments (1)
The British Library
The British Library has been the subject of articles in The Times and The Guardian in the past few days.
The British Library is a very special place and it is a national place- it does belong to us all.
However the under the management of Lynne Brindley it has lost the understanding of what its role is and the ability to play that role effectively. The board have wanted to appease the meanderings of the same idiotic ministers in the DCMS under whom public libraries have suffered.
It needs a new manager with academic understanding, a strong will and a clear sense of purpose.
Posted by Perkins at 9:07 AM | Comments (7)
April 14, 2008
Total Delight at the London International Book Fair
The London Book Fair has become a paradise of enjoyment.
3 years ago it was becoming a grey and tired event, although it always fascinating and a pleasure to attend. Then for two awful years it was sent to a gulag in the Docklands.
But last year and now this it has become a joy of books and a bonanza of wonderful things. Aisle after aisle, hall after hall, brightly lit stand after stand, all full of fantastic publications touching every subject, thronging with people from all over the country and the world. These books hold every view the world can hold, from ultra serious and academic to beyond the lunatic and lighthearted
I wish, I wish that every librarian, councillor and library official could spend time at the book fair seeing why they worry so wrongly about whether there is a future for books. The Library and Information show should be part of this event, and not some weedy miserable gathering of the inept in Birmingham. The librarians should hold their conferences here, not in some hotel of their own. This is the place for libraries to gain inspiration- in Earls Court at the London Book Fair.
Posted by Perkins at 8:50 PM | Comments (4)
April 12, 2008
From Andy-- a 'twenty something' librarian
Library staff badly paid or wrongly employed?
The advent of new technology, greater centralisation and better sharing between services mean there is a significantly reduced need for ‘cataloguing, information retrieval, classification and professional skills’. Therefore fewer professionals are required and yet public library services continue to restrict posts to professional staff that do not require any of the above skills. They end up paying over the odds for staff who are simply not equipped to do the jobs.
If libraries want to engage with the community, try hiring staff from it, not middle aged middle class bookish white community librarians. Open up these posts and find enthusiastic skilled staff from a variety of different sectors and without the need of ‘professional’ salaries. Even the much vaunted children’s librarians could easily be replaced by nursery workers, ex teacher etc. the love and knowledge of children’s books does not get taught in library school it is passion not a professional qualification.
Libraries are meant to promote equality of access and strengthen communities and yet they have for decades wasted valuable staff by providing no training or career path other than expecting staff to take a year out and invest £10k in a course that reflects very little the modern world of public libraries.
Councillors should look at the ‘professional posts’. Do they require library skills (some will i.e. reference librarian, cataloguer) many will not (community librarian) look at where and how these are advertised (chief librarians complain of always getting the same candidates, try advertising beyond CILIP and target the staff you want).
Having worked a year in a library I was then able to apply for and gain a senior role within a library managing resources, events etc. with no experience on the basis I had just achieved my library qualification and therefore 90% of existing staff or 99% of the rest of the population were not eligible.
A twenty something librarian about to achieve the Charter mark (well if you give a dog a treat he will jump through hoops).
Posted by Perkins at 5:12 PM | Comments (1)
April 10, 2008
Birmingham City Council should spend 20 million pounds on new books
The answer to the question posed below is that Birmingham City Council should spend 20 million pounds out of the 193 million it proposes to spend, of taxpayers' money, on new books for the new library. The track record of the council in keeping up to date with sufficient copies of new publications has been among the worst in the country. There is a substantial demand for literature in many languages. The amount needed is likely to be at least 20 million pounds.
The people of Birmingham should ask to see the budget for the new project to make sure this amount is shown clearly in the figures. I am pretty certain that in the whole discussion about whether or not to build this library and how to choose the architect and manage the programme, there has never been any discussion whatsoever about the current quality of the book collections and what would be needed to make them excellent. That work, too, requires a skilled architect, but of a different kind.
Posted by Perkins at 8:46 PM | Comments (1)
April 4, 2008
Design a library
Heartened by a comment below from James Christie (thank you James) - it might be worth making a serious point about library design. Readers may have seen the long and vitriolic comment from Demco, which merits an answer. (Demco, incidentally, are a library design company lost the bid to design Hillingdon libraries)
I have been involved in the design of a number of 'places to find books'. In the early 1980's when WH Smith was a well marketed operation, clearly at home with a certain customer base, I worked on the very detailed aspect of how to give those customers exactly what they understood and wanted from the brand name in terms of books. 'Market positioning' means exactly that and if you are using a brand name like WH Smith (or 'Public Library') you find that when you catch the mood of the customer correctly, the response is very fast and very large. In simple terms WH Smith customers expected a much more literary collection and impression than the shops were giving. When that was corrected sales increased dramatically. I could predict 50% increase simply by, for example, adding Picador titles, or more literary Penguins, than WHS were in the habit of stocking. In short, WH Smith had been talking down to their customers, wrongly.
The design of the store should then have matched that more educated range of stock, but events were overtaken by the foundation of much more serious book stores.
The first of these I worked on was Websters bookshops, which was an extremely good group of shops, with a much less known brand identity. Again, the temptation had been to try to increase sales by tempting customers who weren't really interested in books, with games and cards and so on. But that 'diversification' was exactly the opposite of what was needed to create a reputation of being serious about books.
Websters was turned into Sherratt and Hughes and this provided an opportunity to create the physical design of a shop which matched the bookish intention of the offering. This is where we learned not to be too 'modern' in the design. It was a time when the standard of retail design in all trades was changing and improving dramatically there were some wonderful fashion stores being created which set new standards. But bookish customers are not the same as customers for fashionable clothes. Nor can bookish retailers afford to be redsigning ever 2 or 3 years. There has to be a slightly old fashioned air- which will feel comfortable and smart for 15 years... If you try to design a bookshop for a fifteen year old, he or she won't like it in three years time and the rest of your customers will never like it.
So this led to Waterstone's of the early nineties, which was unashamedly aimed at serious customers who were serious about books. There was no attempt to seek out people who didn't read-- and by that method, it attracted masses of all kinds of people. If you like, everybody aspires to be a serious and educated person, whether they shout about it, or just believe it quietly. Waterstone's style (which was created by Tim W) was a simple personal statement of a belief in literature, which, it turned out, was almost universally popular.
I was also then involved in a creation called The Book Shed, in London. was intended to be a glorious emporium of all kinds of books and coincided with the end of price restrictions on book sellers
So when we discussed the style of libraries in Hillingdon, all these lessons were available to be studied. The first and most important one is that the design is essentially about making available the widest collection of collections of books.
The second is to make spaces within the area which are like rooms in which people feel comfortable and are happy to be solitary. You are not designing a 'community space' (despite what ministers keep saying) - you are designing personal space.
The single biggest difference between a book shop and a library is that a library needs and can afford to have a lot more personal space for reading and study (with computers available, nowadays, of course)
For the libraries of Hillingdon to be able to afford to refit all their libraries to a high standard what were needed were a set of 'design elements' which can be used in all kinds of buildings of different styles and ages, but convey the same feeling (Pizza Express are an example of a brand design which does this very effectively)
And the result is a calm pleasant place. For me the libraries still don't have enough books in them, but I believe the council are beginning to understand why I keep saying that. It has been a good first attempt. I wish we could do more.
As to the reasons why the first library has been successful, I have no doubt at all: The library is now more useful because the collections of books are so much better. If there are books about fishing, then it will be useful to a family which enjoys is fishing; if there are books on Brazil, then the library will be useful to someone going to Brazil. 'Collections' (plural) is exactly the right word. That is what people expect from a public library-- and that, too is why the brand name 'library' is so important and contributes to the increased use. It is also a pleasant and comfortable place in which to pass one's time and a place in which one feels agreeable and worthwhile. Anybody would.
Posted by Perkins at 10:16 AM | Comments (2)
April 3, 2008
The Department of Silly Ministers
This blog attempts to report cheerfully on the progress of the Department of Silly Ideas, its ludicrous civil servants and its even more idiotic ministers. But we have to acknowledge that there are other blogs that are even better at doing the same.
Posted by Perkins at 9:44 PM | Comments (0)
April 1, 2008
Responsible rowing
Rowing Boat Roy has a letter in The Times this morning
Translated into English it says " I am responsible for public libraries, but I am not responsible for them. Please put my name in the newspaper, I am a Sir and I need the publicity"
An April Fool if ever we saw one.
Sir Rowing Boat is the captain of DLA-- Delay- the Department of Libraries and Archives.
Posted by Perkins at 10:24 AM | Comments (0)
Apologies - comments slow to arrive
Apologies to a number of current commenters, the comments are being slow to arrive. There is a system problem.
A paws
Posted by Perkins at 9:23 AM | Comments (0)