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March 14, 2010
Whatever happened to SYRUP?
Searching back through this blog I came across this entry from 2006. It occurred to me that SYRUP is totally silent on all fronts at the moment. There is a lot of uffle going on about what a new government should do, what an old government should do, what a libraries agency should do, and the normal endless stuff about closures, falling stocks, community libraries. London libraries etc. Yet SYRUP is totally silent. That's what Chris Armstrong was saying four years ago. Ah well.
I'm sure Richard Charkin and I were only quoting from the evidence used first by the Audit Commission, then by the Culture Select Committee and then by the MLA. Apart from CIPFA there are no other sources. It is hard to understand what role the public library group of SYRUP see themselves playing. Perhaps someone else can explain it here. Or they could just stay silent as ever. What I have often asked is 'who pays for them to have offices and conferences?' As long as there is no taxpayers money, one can't gripe. But nor does one have to listen to them when they claim to be playing some important role.
The truth is that they are in a good position to do things, but apart from talking to each other they just seem not to bother. I am not saying that professional librarians aren't important in public libraries. I am saying that SYRUP have lost the spoon. I suppose Bob McKee will get cross again, but honestly, why doesn't he talk?
But then while the rest of us work all hours to try and find out what councils are doing and are concerned to fight closures and reductions in the service he says himself he is
"just too knackered to fire up my blog and engage my brain when I get home in the evenings, preferring instead to slump in front of the footy on the telly with a glass of something refreshing...
Well there you go.
Posted by Perkins at March 14, 2010 11:07 PM
Comments
Does Bob McKee do cross? Would anyone notice or care if he did? And what is it that he's actually doing at the expense of the profession - his members - that leaves him knackered in the evenings? Perhaps it's time for someone new, with the spark, passion and energy to fight for libraries and those who actually work in them.
Posted by: Apollo at March 18, 2010 11:14 PM