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May 13, 2010
CILIP
From James Christie, who, yesterday went to Newcastle give evidence to the CILIP review
"Well, pleased to say the Tyne is not running red with anyone's blood and no one can now say I wasn't willing to put my money where my mouth has been for the past four years and repeat in person what I wrote in private.
I am also willing to listen if Research by Design/Bob McKee/CILIP would like to contact me, and would point out that, although I am autistic, I enjoy public speaking and might be willing to go to bat on behalf of librarianship - but you've really got to hurry up and start being seen to do something, guys!
You absolutely must start to define yourselves clearly and simply, and you must do it yesterday. To make it easier, I am perfectly willing to get on a podium and do so on your behalf, but I will not hang around forever. So speak to me pronto or forever hold your peace! It's up to you".
Posted by Perkins at May 13, 2010 8:11 AM
Comments
How should they define themselves, James?
Posted by: perkins at May 13, 2010 8:45 AM
As librarians! With books and reading in pole position in libraries - exactly as stated in The Gordian Knot (my five-page letter four years ago), and if anyone starts saying that means restricting libraries only to stocking and issuing books, I'll thump them! I'm perfectly well aware of what else goes on in librarianship, but libraries=books=reading is our brand and the profession needs to stop acting like the People's Front of Judea (Life of Brian) and stand up for something! At the moment, and I quote from the focus group meeting I attended, the profession is "doing nothing particularly well." More and more focus groups, consultations, reports and airy-fairy argument will continue to achieve - you've guessed it - nothing. Imagine you're trying to define yourself to a not-very-bright, jet-lagged, slightly inebriated PR man who doesn't give a damn about you. You'd have to jettison all the big words PDQ and get down to simple, unequivocal concepts. The profession hasn't been doing this. They've been going on about different job titles, using too many big words and constructing too many long-winded arguments for far too long. This is nothing but woolly-minded drivel, no one's listening to them, and the profession is dead if they go on like this. If lawyers can generically call themselves lawyers, librarians can generically call themselves librarians. They must stop fiddling around and do so! They're librarians, end of, and if they don't know what that means, let them look it up in the bloody dictionary!
Posted by: James Christie at May 14, 2010 8:39 AM
No... Reading is in pole position! Books are just one of the ways to read in the 21st century
Posted by: Gary Marks at May 14, 2010 11:25 PM
Very good point about job titles!The same goes for naming the building which houses the books ....why make up a name - Idea Store - when there is a perfectly good name already in existence! Changing the terminology only confuses those who are already unclear about what librarians/libraries are for.
Posted by: Ex Librarian at May 15, 2010 6:38 AM
Gary. Books were only one of the ways to read in the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th Centuries. Are you saying that they should not be in the pole position? This is a serious point because the constant stress on the idea that 'books are not the only way' has been the reason why they have fallen down the list of priorities for funds and attention. You may not be able to see it, but I think what you have said is one of the reasons councils believe that books are not important in libraries. In my view we need to be a bit less academic and a bit more direct.
Posted by: perkins at May 17, 2010 8:46 AM
And the silence from CILIP is deafening! Not much more I can say, guys. The gauntlet has been thrown down fair and square. Reply or I will take your silence to mean that the "profession" is well and truly in terminal decline and you don't want to admit it! Funny, because a library worker did admit this to me this week, quite freely. I've also noted Shirley Burnham's comments about library workers being unable to express their opinions. That is Orwellian fascism.
Incidentally, nice rebuttal of Gary, Perkins. Books have always been one of the ways. No one disputes that, but they are equally as important as the other ways, and I am truly sick of their consistent denigration.
P.S. I'd have replied sooner but got felled by the 'flu.
Posted by: James Christie at May 22, 2010 8:20 PM