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August 12, 2008
An offer that should not be refused
For the fourth day running the Lis-Pub-Libs site featured serious debate about library fines and what should be done about them.
Tonight the mood has turned to the question of how to move forward and includes these two comments below. The point is that not only are the collective of 'practitioners' or 'professionals' asking for someone to conduct the appropriate research, draw conclusions and help persuade councillors to take up their recommendations, but they are also implying that they will accept the leadership and cooperate in making the change. It seems to me that this is a first-- and is an offer not to be refused
---"I'd like to suggest that we draw a line under this debate and refer it to either CILIP or the MLA. Perhaps they should issue national recommendations on the use/non-use of fines and how best to encourage return visits to libraries. It is clear from the various emails on this topic that there is no national consensus but it would be useful to have guidance from our professional body that would carry weight with our employers, whether local councils, universities, NHS libraries or NGOs."
And
---"I do see many enquiries on this list about library related topics that keep cropping up over and over again without resolution. It’s often put forward as a point that local democracy is a good thing and that each library service (and also many other council services) “knows” its own community and is best placed to devise the rules and regulations but I think this often goes too far.
Quite basic decisions / guidelines could simplify many areas of library work and prevent time being wasted on reinventing the wheel. I am no longer a librarian but retain an interest – I worked for over 20 years in libraries and it was often frustrating to work on “guidelines” for basic procedures that were also (I knew) being worked on by adjoining library authorities. It seemed to be incredibly difficult to communicate and share the work being produced resulting in multiple teams of staff in different authorities working on PN Guidelines, membership procedures etc. etc.
I did a quick search on the CILIP site to see if there was a forum for this kind of discussion where contentious issues could be discussed and properly resolved at a UK level but didn’t find anything – if there is something there I apologise – but if there isn’t there should be.
An important point is also that more consistent guidelines would also help the customer – many may belong to more than one service and have to contend with inconsistencies re loan periods, fines etc etc
Of course all of this is made more important by budget restrictions and hard times ahead for many councils – think of the staff time saved if somehow, in an ideal world, library services could all agree. Then librarians would have the time get to grips with the really important issue of promoting their services and getting users in through their doors!"
Posted by Perkins at August 12, 2008 6:31 PM