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Really Useful Keyboard Shortcuts

Lauren — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 17:00:12 +0000

As requested by twitterers! Here’s a little list of some really useful keyboard shortcuts that can save your time/life:

Ctrl + T = New tab
Ctrl + Shift + T = Opens the last tab you closed
Ctrl + W = Closes the tab you’re on
Ctrl + F = Opens a find bar for you to search text in whatever window you’ve got open (not just internet browsers – works for word documents, PDFs etc.)
Ctrl + D = Bookmarks a page

Ooh, the Swiss Army Librarian already wrote about this here (thanks Annie!) – there’s even a downloadable document for people to use and adapt if they want to too.

And here’s a bunch more (thanks Hazel!)

: Mouse Schmouse. (CC afu007 on Flickr)

Any other favourites? Leave a comment!

2011 in Perspective

Lauren — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 11:35:39 +0000

I hadn’t intended to write a post summing up what had happened this year or making resolutions for the future (and still don’t!) but then I saw this story in the Independent and thought it was too good a springboard to not use for a little bit of end of year reflection.

A comment that’s sometimes thrown my way when I talk about fighting library cuts and closures is that perhaps I need to get a sense of perspective. It’s only a few books, what am I getting so het up about? Shouldn’t I take my incandescence and direct it at something worthier, bigger, more ‘important’? In our crazy, messed up world, what’s the point of someone like me spending so much time and energy on library advocacy and activism?

Unsurprisingly, I don’t struggle to construct a fairly comprehensive response about the utter wrongheadedness of that kind of suggestion, which I won’t bore the already converted with here! But now I have this to add to my arsenal. The Independent have named library closures as one of the 12 biggest news stories of 2011:

Library closures: Colin Dexter, 71, author

Libraries became the unexpected social flashpoint of 2011 when the Government cut funding to local authorities and councils responded by proposing library closures.

Local communities, allied with a host of literary stars including Colin Dexter, the creator of Inspector Morse, rapidly mobilised to defend them. Judicial reviews challenging the closures were launched across England and Wales. In Scotland, MSPs were petitioned. Private US library service providers moved in for the kill, and many battles are still being fought up and down the land.

“As an older person who has seen libraries through the years, the events of this year are deeply depressing. What has worried me most about the calls for a ‘big society’ solution to the library problem in the past 12 months is the idea that you can cut library services and employ amateurs instead. Librarians have taken years to train up and can tell you what you should and shouldn’t read. Some of the processes are very complicated indeed.

“I think the Government has been surprised by the scale of the response; their actions were taken on the assumption that people would just sit back and let the consultations pave the way for closure. Instead, you saw the people gather and revolt and take their case to the courts instead.

“I would rather turn off every light on the motorway than close our libraries. What we have seen this year will invariably lead to further cultural deprivation.”

I rarely get the sense that what I do is a waste of time. In the darker moments when I get the feeling that everything sucks and The Man is just too big and how can little me and the people I work alongside possibly win this, I always come to the conclusion that I’ve got to do it anyway and try my best and that’s all there is to be done. But knowing that the work that’s been done to get the media aware of the situation and the social and cultural implications of public library cuts has actually had an impact and is listed alongside stories like the fall of Gaddafi, the death of Bin Laden, the NHS reforms and the riots, proves to me that this is the big deal I think it is and that over the last year and a bit, we’ve really managed to get out of the echo chamber and show the world that too. I’m very happy to be part of it and am incredibly proud of the people I work with for everything they’ve achieved.

Edit: It was also announced today that Voices for the Library has been named an Independent voice of 2011. You can see the full Peer Index rankings here. Another achievement for the team to be proud of!

CC tomroper on Flickr

I’m also happy about the fact that issues about power (and abuses thereof), democracy, access to knowledge and freedom of information are being put together and are starting to have a more prominent position in public discussion. More of this please (not least because it’ll really help with my PhD research…)!

via interoccupy.org

When I think about the things that have happened this year I get a bit dizzy. It’s certainly been a big year and it’s had its fair share of bad as well as good. As for 2012…I can’t even begin to think about that without getting a little bit overwhelmed. I can’t wait to get started on my PhD. I’m looking forward to becoming CILIP VP and doing a lot of work to support the organisation and its members as well as help to make it a stronger and louder advocate for the profession. I’m anxious about what’s going to happen with the local and national public library situation and will be doing everything I can to try and get it to go it in the right direction. It’s National Libraries Day on 4th February, so that’s the first big milestone to work towards next year.

I owe a huge thank you to the people who’ve helped me get through this year without being (too much of) a wreck. Thanks guys, you’re awesome, I’m incredibly fortunate to know you and without the support I’ve had this year I’m pretty sure I’d not be coming back for round two in 2012. As it stands though…

via catmacros.wordpress.com

Online Information 2011 – Day One

Lauren — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 10:10:08 +0000

What an overwhelming day! I was asked to be an official twitter moderator at the conference, so led on one of the sessions and acted as backup for another – and, inevitably, tweeted heavily throughout!

The conference lasts three days but I could unfortunately only make it to today because of work commitments. The full programme is here. I attended:

Opening Keynote Address: Effective Social Media: Past, Present and Future
Speaker: Craig Newmark, Founder, craigslist and craigconnects, USA

Morning Session: Google+

Google+: Is it a plus or a minus for librarians?

Speaker: Phil Bradley, Internet Consultant, UK

Google+: What is it? Who needs it?

Speaker: Brit Stakston, Author and Social Media Strategist, JMW, Sweden

Afternoon Session: Social Media Strategies

How Westminster Abbey created world-wide audience engagement around the Royal Wedding with online and social media

Speaker: Imogen Levy, Online Editor, Westminster Abbey, UK

The European Union’s Regional Policy, Social Media and Online Collaboration

Speaker: Tony Lockett, Head of Web Communication, DG for Regional Policy, European Commission, Belgium

If you want to read the tweets for all the sessions have a look at the #online11 tweets. They’re separated by the rooms the events took place in (#aud, #cfrm1 and #cfrm2). I just wanted to note down here some recurring themes and important points made by speakers today:

We need to go to where our users/audience want to be and take our content to them (and it’s not that much of an effort to do so using a few different platforms);
We need to be brave and take risks with social media and communicating with our users online;
It can be very worthwhile to set something up and then ask for permission and forgiveness later! (Heck, if Westminster Abbey and the EU are going to take this kind of risk, then surely libraries can too);
It might be worth spending less time being concerned about a ‘brand image’ and more worthwhile focus limited energy and resources on being useful for our users;
Social media is a legitimate and effective method of communicating with users and getting them engaged in learning/discussion/debate/collaboration
We need to make sure that our social media presences are interactive – more than just something used to pump out information and updates
It’s a good thing for social media accounts to have personality and be fun;
This of course needs to be balanced with whatever requirements are placed on the organisation;
Responsive Design is the way to go to save a bunch of time and effort rewriting code for different devices;
If you’re doing something new and exciting, be prepared for regular tweaks;
If you’re doing something new and exciting, don’t muck it up too badly when you launch because you risk losing users;
Librarians/Information Professionals have the opportunity to position ourselves as experts in the field of information retrieval, fact-checking and democratisation of information. We need to make ourselves useful, sell ourselves and gain recognition for this.

And the final thing to take home from the day was the reaffirmation that librarians are awesome, knowledgeable and keen to learn how they can improve their services. I have the pleasure of working with some particularly fantastic ones – huge congratulations to my Voices colleague Ian Anstice for winning the IWR Information Professional of the Year Award for his work on Public Libraries News. It’s great to see people who work so hard to protect library services being recognised for the work they do, and Ian certainly puts in the hours!

CC Phil Bradley on Flickr

LIS DREaM Workshop 1: Edinburgh

Lauren — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 14:45:30 +0000

I was fortunate enough to be granted an AHRC-funded travel bursary to attend three workshops as part of the DREaM Project (Developing Research Excellence and Methods). The first workshop was held in Edinburgh on 25th October. It was a really interesting and informative day, and in terms of timing the whole programme works perfectly for me – I will be starting my PhD in January so haven’t yet developed a methodology.The DREaM project aims to encourage researchers to make better use of well-established social science research approaches, thereby improving the quality of LIS research in the UK and adding variety to the range of research methodologies used by LIS researchers. I’m very much hoping that my research into the role of public libraries in supporting and encouraging democratic engagement will be a meaningful and valuable contribution to LIS research which can be applied in practice.

All three workshops will follow the same format with different content:

a broad research approach;
a specific quantitative research technique;
a specific qualitative research technique;
a research “practicality” (e.g. ethics, improving research impact, influencing policy).

Workshop 1 looked at ethnography, social network analysis, discourse analysis, research ethics and legal issues. All the sessions were led by interesting, enthusiastic and incredibly knowledgeable researchers and even if I don’t apply the methods we explored, I certainly feel like I’ve gained valuable knowledge about the range of approaches that can be used to produce high-quality research.

Session notes and all the slides and videos used have been put up on the DREaM website, so I won’t duplicate content, but highly recommend them as useful resources.

Thank you to Professor Hazel Hall, Professor Charles Oppenheim and everyone involved in the DREaM project for the opportunity to take part in the workshops and for making the day such a success. I can’t wait for the next one.

National Library Campaign Conference

Lauren — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 14:15:27 +0000

On Saturday I attended the Library Campaign conference in London, organised by The Library Campaign and Voices for the Library. The roundup of the day by Voices is here, along with the full text of the speech that Philip Pullman gave.

At the Library Campaign Conference with a teeny bit of Johanna, Demelza and Philip Pullman (Image c/o Benedicte Page)

This was a really important event, not only because it allowed campaigners to share their experiences and offer support and advice, but also to get a sense of how groups around the country feel about hot topics such as volunteer-run libraries, the likelihood of success in legal challenges and what to do about national campaign activities. I think it helped to put campaigners in touch with information and resources they can benefit from. It’s hard to get the message out to everyone about what we do in Voices for the Library, the resources we have on the site that might be of use, and the network of people with experience of library campaigning that we can put in touch with each other, so the event and subsequent publicity has helped. At the same time, it can be hard to be obvious about our limits to manage expectations – we’re all volunteers working full time jobs, and Voices isn’t a funded organisation. We can’t save libraries all on our own and we need a national network – which is why the day was organised in the first place!

A lot of action points came out of the day, a couple of which are particularly important and pressing:

The need for a wiki where people can update everyone about local situations and discuss plans of action etc. Voices, The Library Campaign and some others are going to get cracking on this immediately;
The need for a large-scale, national event such as a march or rally to put pressure on the DCMS to intervene in library cuts around the country – Voices have been discussing this for a couple of weeks and it was seen as an important activity to get going. Plans are in the pipeline to make sure that the timing, location and scale of this are as effective as possible – let us know if you can help.

I’m very hopeful that the delegates went away with useful information, and will be able to strengthen their own campaigns as well as contribute to the national network. Working alongside organisations like Voices for the Library, CILIP and Campaign for the Book will make events like National Libraries Day even more successful.

Alan Gibbons’ address to the campaign conference

Just Another Liberal Whinger?

Lauren — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 10:29:03 +0000

I was disappointed to read this article this morning (warning: Telegraph). It might be because it was before my first cup of tea, but it made me really very cross. Which is, of course, what it was supposed to do. Instead of getting madder and madder about it, here’s why John McTernan is completely and utterly wrong. Same as with The Mail Redwood Monstrosity, the article’s in green and my responses are in black. It should be fairly obvious which is which…

When did you last go to a public library? No, really, when? It’s probably a good few years – and if so, you’re not alone. From one year to the next, nearly 60 per cent of us don’t go to libraries at all. In fact, fewer than one in five adults in England go more than once a month.

A couple of weeks ago, since you ask. Far less often than when I was a child and went on a weekly basis. I relied on the library for books that were more challenging than the ones available to me at primary school and to allow me to read wider than my secondary school library allowed me to – they only had one Gabriel García Márquez book, for example – the library had far more. But children still need libraries. Far less than when I wasn’t a student or working in a university and was fortunate enough to have access to academic libraries. People who can’t access academic libraries can benefit from public libraries – and far fewer people will be able to go to university now. And far less than my grandparents and the elderly people I know, who rely on them for large print books that they can’t buy at the supermarket, and can’t afford in the numbers they get through. The elderly rely on services like libraries to keep them engaged and active. We’ve got an ageing population.

Nearly 60% of us don’t go to public libraries? 40% seems to a pretty good proportion of the population to make a service valid. I wonder what proportion of the population uses schools each year? And the emergency services? I think more people should be using libraries, absolutely – but because there is a very real need for them. People who aren’t using them now could benefit from them – the children whose parents don’t encourage them to read, the old people who can’t get out and about enough to get to the library and might not have access to a home delivery service, the unemployed young people who can’t go to university or college but want to train and can use the books and online resources available through the library. Heck, the middle class white males who might be able to save a few quid now that they’ve been made redundant but still want to be able to go for a hike using the OS maps they can borrow, or use the car manuals, or some other terribly gender-stereotyped example I could provide.

The news that councils are closing libraries has prompted sickly and sentimental pleas from all corners of the nation: a long and star-studded campaign to stop Brent Council closing six of them is now set to go to the Court of Appeal. No less a figure than Brian Blessed recently described such closures as the “act of Philistines… atavistic nonsense… the nemesis of our country”.

John, you’re right. Some of the responses from celebrities have been horribly sentimental. Many very dramatic. Is this surprising? It’s what they do for a living. Librarians and information professionals are providing less dramatic and more evidence-based reasons that library cuts are stupid. You can’t just dismiss celebrity condemnation because it’s dramatic, or because they themselves might not use libraries. In with all the hyperbole they also make important points, that you seem to be ignoring: “Not every family has a computer. Many of them are quite poor. The only way they can keep up with their classmates and have access to a computer and books as well is at the library.” These things are true, there is statistical evidence.

In one sense, this is a phenomenon familiar to anyone who’s ever had to cut public services: people will fight to the death to protect things they never use. But there’s something bigger going on here. This is a fight by middle-class liberals to keep libraries open not for themselves, but for the less fortunate. This is partly out of condescension, and partly guilt – because the protesters don’t use libraries either, and feel they may have precipitated the closures by their neglect.

People will also fight to the death to protect things they appreciate are of real value to society. I haven’t had to use the NHS for a year or so. But I’m glad it’s there. It’s such a specious argument to claim that if you don’t use a service you have no right to defend it. This is aside from the fact that it categorically isn’t just middle class liberals defending library services, and across the country people from all walks of life and all political persuasion are up in arms about disproportionate and counter-productive cuts to a service which is seen by politicians as anachronistic, complicated and not worth their time or (our) money.

What this debate needs is some honesty. Yes, public libraries have been of huge benefit in helping us educate ourselves over the past 150 years. It’s an honourable tradition – but it’s over. Their defence depends on a deficit model, the argument that they fill a unique gap. But that’s simply no longer true.

Thing is, John, it is still true. I know it’d be nice to think that everyone has access to all the education they need through schools and universities, but they don’t. Many children go to schools without libraries, because they aren’t statutory (but absolutely should be). Many people didn’t succeed at school but want to improve their level of education and standard of life now. Many adult learners rely on public library services. And society as a whole benefits from full participation in a democratic society, access to excellent writing and trusted and accurate information. Tell me modern society doesn’t need those things, I dare you. Oh, you’re about to? Sugar.

Take reference services, once the core of the public library’s educational role. Access to information has been transformed by the internet. Google a subject and you can become ridiculously well-informed ridiculously quickly. Engrossing lectures from the planet’s best minds are freely available on university websites, from the TED conference series, or on BBC iPlayer. Channels such as BBC Four or Sky Arts provide a wide range of high-quality documentaries across a multitude of subjects. We live in an information-rich society – so we should celebrate its availability, not yearn for a time when you had to go to the central library for it.

Where to start?

Google a subject and you can be come ridiculously well-informed ridiculously quickly, if you have an appropriate level of information literacy and the skills to find what you need and work out what’s reliable and what isn’t. Maybe that Masters in Librarianship helps you find what you need to ridiculously quickly. Other people need a bit more help. Without the level of ability, it’s easy to Google a subject and become ridiculously mis-informed ridiculously quickly.
Not everything is available on the internet. Honest.
Not everything is televised. Sorry.
Not everyone can afford a tv and/or satellite tv – no, seriously. And not everyone wants one either.
We live in an information-rich society – so we should ensure that everyone has access to information and make it more available, not yearn for a time when there were places people could access information, in the good old days when people gave a toss about other people and wanted a successful society with good levels of literacy, employment and engagement.

In recent years, libraries sought to reinvent themselves as information hubs. Hundreds of millions were spent to provide them with computers. What happened? Technology advanced, and soon the library computers were too old and too slow. That led to a demand for more investment. But why? Fast, cheap computing had spread to most homes, and to our whizzy new mobile phones. Where on earth is the gap that libraries are meant to plug?

Yep, libraries got computers. And rightly so – after all, libraries provide information, and as you rightly say, a lot of information is available on the internet. This was probably around the time you stopped working in libraries, John, so I can forgive your ignorance about anything that’s happened since. But it might have been a good idea for you to keep schtum about stuff you have no idea about. Or done some research for your piece on your whizzy new mobile phone.

Here is where we’re at: there is a problem with the standards of library computers, and issues with blocked sites on council networks. They aren’t as up to scratch as they desperately need to be – yes, desperately need to be – because guess what? They’ve never been in such high demand. Up and down the UK, people who don’t have a computer, or a smartphone, are using libraries to access PCs and the internet. Here are some figures:

More than 3 million children have no internet access at home
5.7 million households do not have an internet connection - that’s nearly 25% of households without an internet connection
8.7 million people in the UK have never used the internet

This is a big social problem, and it’s known as the digital divide. There’s even a national campaign.

Then there’s the argument that your local library is the gateway to a national and international network of literature and education. So it is – but so is your computer. Time was, to get hold of a particular book, you would have to go to a library and ask. Now, with Abebooks and Alibris, almost all the second-hand bookshops in the world are available to search. This is as true for new books as for old: more than 130,000 titles were published in the UK in 2009, and 330 million new books were purchased.

I think I covered this bit with the whole “this only works if you’ve got a computer and millions of people haven’t” argument. Time still is, to get hold of a particular book, you have to go to a library and ask. This is also ignoring all the other things that libraries do – help people get hold of books they didn’t know how to ask for other than “it’s got a red cover and the story goes a bit like this”; help people learn how to use computers and new technologies; help people find information about their local area and how to get involved in local and national democracy; a million other things. Online book stores are brilliant, but they don’t meet every information need, and a lot of people can’t use them. A significant number of people don’t even have a bank account, so that’s online transactions out the window.

The final defence of the public library is that it is a place for the pupil who has nowhere else to study and revise. Once again, this is the 21st century. Virtually every kid has a desk at home – even if it often has a games console on it. And libraries at secondary schools are, in my experience, uniformly good and open places for young people.

Spend some time in a public library near a school or residential area after school hours, or in the holidays. You’ll soon realise this point is completely inaccurate. Recent research suggests that 52% of young people use libraries. Although public libraries do not disproportionately attract young people from more or less affluent backgrounds, 47.8% of the children in the National Literacy Trust study received free school meals, which is a crude indicator of socio-economic background. Of the children who receive free school meals (and a lot of those entitled to do not), a lot of them will be living in poverty. Newsflash, John: the UK has one of the worst rates of child poverty in the industrialised world. Nearly 4 million children are living in poverty in the UK. So forgive me when I continue to argue that libraries are needed by children who don’t have a desk at home, or a space in which they can work without fear, in peace and quiet, somewhere that they feel valued, and worth something, and like there might be a way out of the situation they’re in.

Edit: Lizzie Poulton has done some digging and has this information from The National Literacy Trust. In 2010 they asked over 18,000 children whether they had a desk of their own. “The statistic from the 2010 omnibus survey is that only 52.8% of young kids say that they have a desk of their own, which is down considerably from 2005 (72.3%). Particularly children who get FSM are less likely to say that they have a desk of their own compared to their more privileged peers (43.2% vs 55.2%)”

By daveograve on flickr

Libraries at secondary schools are often great places, but as I’ve mentioned, a lot of schools don’t have a library. A lot of pupils also refuse to use school libraries but will use public libraries instead, for a number of reasons, including stigma, or practical reasons such as having to go home straight away after school because of travel arrangements.

Few institutions are timeless. Most reflect the period when they were created, and have to change as society changes if they are to survive. The crisis in our libraries is not because of the “cuts” – it’s because they are needed less.

Libraries do have to change as society changes – and in many ways have (see: online catalogues, electronic resources, computers and so on). The crisis in our libraries is only partly because of the cuts (though why you felt the need to put cuts in speech marks is beyond me – they’re very real), and partly because councils have failed for a number of years to adequately invest in and promote their library services. There’s been a lack of leadership and a lot of mismanagement. But that does not mean that libraries are no longer needed. They’re needed now more than ever.

Keith Michael Fiels from the American Library Association sums it up brilliantly:

“Sure, the library is an old fashioned concept. So is democracy. So is equal opportunity. So is getting your facts right.”

Libraries and Vinyl

Lauren — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 10:09:03 +0000

I’m giving a talk on public library cuts and closures at an art exhibition held by Golau Glau on Saturday 12th November at Test Space in Leeds.

“Golau Glau are an anonymous collective of artists, photographers and musicians, with particular interests in social history, not-silences & environments under threat – both urban and natural. Their body of work to date has examined themes of domestic, social and sexual politics; popular culture; scandal; folk history and Anglican and pagan rituals.

Thursday 10th – Exhibition launch with live sounds from Hookworms and DJ sets from Runners and A Negative Narrative

Saturday 12th – Vinyl only DJ set from Sonic Router and Lauren Smith from Voices for the Library giving a talk about public library cuts and closures”

It’s a bit of a departure from what I’m used to, which is scary and exciting at the same time. I’m planning on connecting what’s happening to the public library service to some of the themes that the collective deal with – for example the politics of knowledge, and public libraries as some of the last remaining non-commercial spaces we have. I’m hoping to reach a wider audience than I would at a library-specific event, and hopefully get people thinking about the value of libraries in ways they might not have before.

What Do Public Librarians and Library Staff Do?

Lauren — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 18:14:49 +0000

I wrote a blog post for the Save Doncaster Libraries blog yesterday, in response to the Mayor’s unfortunate comment that was along the lines of “oh come on, there are plenty of jobs you need training and qualifications for, but stamping a few books out in a library isn’t one of them”. This is why he thinks it’d be really easy to replace paid staff with volunteers. It’s important to note that in Doncaster, there aren’t any librarians who could train volunteers out of the goodness of their hearts because they were all made redundant years ago. Doncaster’s also a place lacking in qualified/professional people with time on their hands, the likes of whom are needed in places like Chalfont St. Giles: ”Trying to follow the same model in a busy town library in a deprived area would I think be unlikely to succeed”, says the chairman of the small community library being used as the shining example for volunteer-run libraries across the country.

It’s apparent that council leaders don’t have a clear idea about what paid library workers do on a day-to-day basis, or if they do, they’re not telling people who are considering volunteering to run libraries for councils. I wanted to come up with a list of things that I could present to people who are considering volunteering, so that they’re fully informed about the tasks that might be expected of them, or at least what library staff do that make libraries successful and useful to people. I asked people on twitter help me write a list of things paid staff are able to do that volunteers might struggle with, need training for or be unwilling to do (for reasons like it’s against their beliefs, or simply because they’re working for nothing). It’s a big list, and people asked me to share it, so as well as putting it on the SDL blog I’m reproducing it here. Thanks to everyone who helped me.

Dealing With Library Users:
- Suggesting a book for anyone from an 8 year old boy who never reads to a 70 year old woman who has read everything;
- Being unfazed by complex enquiries which could be of a sensitive nature;
- Understanding how to help people with computers who have zero confidence/experience and believe they can’t use them;
- Dealing with abusive visitors;
- Dealing with young people behaving badly – police have been called to library branches when young people have been climbing on bookshelves, causing problems, refusing to leave premises etc;
- Dealing sensitively with people who have mental health problems or learning disabilities and may be challenging to help properly;
- Keeping user information confidential;
- Huge training requirement around legal/ethical issues;
- Understanding the issues around safeguarding children and the elderly;
- Providing a safe, friendly space that welcomes everyone;
- Directing homeless people to the nearest shelter;
- Helping people with little or no English to use the library service by translating, using translation services or taking special care and attention to ensure people understand information;
- Collecting knives and guns;
Helping People Find Information:
- Information literacy i.e. teaching people how to research, study and helping people develop lifelong learning skills essential for an informed citizenship;
- Understanding what users need and how they go about finding it (and working out where the problems are);
- Teaching people how to search effectively;
- Helping people organise information effectively;
- Helping people assess which information is reliable, for example the NHS expect patients to use online sources to find out about healthcare, but a lot of information on the internet is not reliable and can misinform people;
- Showing people how to find information about legal issues;
- Helping businesses find business information;
- Helping people research their family history or local history;
- Unearthing the needed information from the mounded heaps of print and electronic, free and subscription services, efficiently and accurately;
- Ensuring that less easy-to-find materials are available for particular groups – community langs, LGBT, people with/ disabilities etc;
- Being able to interpret research requests – working out what people want when they’re not sure how to explain
- Providing pointers on free and paid resources;
- Knowing how to do proper subject searches and suggest unthought of sources of information;
- Signposting to a huge range of services &say what they can offer: advice/help on immigration, debt, tax, legal, benefits, housing;
- Providing specialist information i.e. market research/patents/EU/law/health;
- Helping people if the library doesn’t have what they need;
- Understanding the need for access and negotiating access to information that may be blocked by council filters;
Research Help:
- Teaching people how to research properly;
- Current awareness services, all types of research;
- Personal training sessions on resources;
- Filtering materials for relevance;
Internet/Technology Support:
- Teaching people to use the internet;
- Helping people set up email accounts;
- Showing people how to use online job boards;
- Showing people how to use online council & government services;
- Teaching people to use online resources e.g. e-books, e-journals;
- Giving people login details for library computers and helping them when they have problems/forget passwords etc.;
- Providing technical support on systems and tools (i.e. loading ebooks from something like Overdrive on to a ereader);
- Helping people use the photocopier/printer/fax machine;
- Showing people how to Integrate emerging technologies into their daily lives;
- Helping people with online council housing lists;
- Explaining how wifi works;
Organising and Running Events and Activities:
- Organising/promoting events for kids/teens/adults that promote a love of reading;
- Rhyme time and story time sessions, increasing childhood literacy and promoting reading;
- Children’s activities;
- Visiting authors and poets;
- Book festivals;
- Gigs (Get It Loud In Libraries);
- Helping with homework and school projects;
- Book groups;
- IT classes;
- Doing the risk assessments needed to make sure everyone is safe and secure at events;
- Dressing the library for events, making it look attractive and impressive (professional);
- Organising school visits
Partnership Work with Schools and Other Organisations:
- A working and up to date knowledge and understanding of the curriculum and the way schools function (see this comment for much more detail);
- Working with teachers to improve reading skills;
- Working with schools & other community groups to promote the library and showcase all it has to offer;
- Visiting schools, talking to parents to promoting a lifelong love of reading with parents and children;
Giving talks on request from teachers on referencing and the importance of bibliographies for GCSEs/A levels;
- Working with U3A and other community groups to help public with online information;
Library Management:
- Understanding how libraries work together, dealing with interlibrary loans and the British Library;
- Data protection;
- Reporting on library use and user needs;
- Using statistics to identify trends and assess levels of use;
- Managing electronic resources;
- Ordering databases;
- Paying invoices;
- Getting value for money via professional management, organization and promotion of resources;
- Promoting and marketing the libraries, including using social media to promote the library service;
- Attending training and events to make sure that the library service is keeping up with developments;
- Dealing with legislation including reproduction and attendant copyright law: photocopying/scanning for personal use, hi-res resources for publication/TV;
- Maintaining and building technical solutions for users’ needs;
- Maintaining a safe, interesting quiet environment;
- Being a premises controller: be responsible for a large public bldg, know what to do when heating breaks down, roof leaks etc;
- Training for fire marshals etc;
- Reporting to local Councillors, showing how libraries meet the wider council aims;
- Managing budgets and staffing, liaising with those who provide the funds;
Collection management:
- Promoting/displaying/ weeding/ordering stock;
- Making sure the books and other items in the library are ones that users want/need/will benefit from;
- Reader and community development – encouraging people to read more widely and helping communities build knowledge and skills – matching resources to people’s needs;
- Describing/cataloguing/arranging physical or digital material in useful ways so that people can find it;
- Chasing and collecting books back and enforcing fines;
- Matching stock held with local community group(s) needs;
- Dealing with stock management / complaints etc. in accordance with international agreements on intellectual freedom;
Archives and Special Collections:
- Digitisation and digital preservation, making sure information will be accessible in future;
- Storing and conserving media (including old/rare books);
Other Council Services Provided Through Libraries:
- Dealing with people paying council tax and parking fines;
- Giving out condoms and bin bags;
- Issuing firearms certificates;
- Selling charity xmas cards;
- Issuing blue badges;
- Issuing over 60s bus passes.

Thanks to Abby Barker for making a wordle out of this post

CILIP Vice President 2012

Lauren — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 20:37:12 +0000

Some big news much earlier than I was anticipating: I’ve been elected unopposed as Vice President of CILIP for 2012, and will be President in 2013. For many reasons I wish there had been the opportunity for hustings and an election, not least so that I could discuss issues with members and hear about what people think CILIP should be doing, so please, talk to me, let me know your opinions. It’s really, incredibly important for people to be active and vocal, let CILIP know what it can do for you (and what you can do for it). I can’t wait until January to get cracking and am really looking forward to joining President Phil Bradley and the rest of the CILIP team.

Thank you very much to Liz Chapman, Mick Fortune, Alan Gibbons, Ned Potter and Laura Woods for nominating me. You can read their statements here. My manifesto is below:

The library and information profession has seen considerable changes over recent years. CILIP is seeking to better meet the needs of its members, with support for new professionals, an increased emphasis on advocacy and the provision of a significant voice for the profession, to inform policy and legislation. In Defining our professional future, members said that they “want CILIP to become, above all, a visible campaigning body. This means pro-actively advocating the profession to government, opinion leaders, employers and society as a whole, to ensure the professional function and skills are fully understood, appreciated and resourced.”

I can help CILIP and its members achieve these goals. I want to increase CILIP’s ability to support its members through effective advocacy alongside the provision of advice, guidance and mentoring for members at all stages of their career. I have a strong media profile, built through significant experience of acting as a media spokesperson about a wide range of library and information issues , for which I have received international recognition . I have lobbied local councils and national government, and supported staff and users to advocate for their services. I promote the value of all kinds of library services, the variety of resources available through them and the need for professionally staffed libraries.

The profession needs a strong ethical framework to provide a clear sense of our core principles and articulate the enduring value and relevance of the profession. I want to see CILIP better define and promote the importance of professional ethical responsibilities, for the benefit of its membership, library users and wider society. These are an integral part of the library and information profession – something which we should be proud to call attention to.

Soft Kitty, Warm Kitty, Little Ball of Fur…

Lauren — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 09:51:37 +0000

Last week, Dave and Bryony found a cat and her three kittens in their garden…

Dave blogged about it and took a lot of very adorable photos.

My heart melted and I decided that if possible, I’d bump forward my plans to adopt another cat to keep Dragon company.

I went to visit on Sunday and fell in love with all of them.

Sadly Dave and Bryony couldn’t keep them, so they arranged for Cats Protection to collect them and try to rehome them.

I arranged for a home visit from Cats Protection so they can make sure they knew that the cat would be happy and safe. Last night the man from CP who’s currently fostering them came to visit and gave me the go-ahead. The kittens aren’t quite ready to be separated from their mum yet, and need their first vaccinations…

…so next Sunday I am going to collect this little one from its foster home!

This means that these two and their gorgeous mum are still in need of loving homes. They’re near Huddersfield at the moment and are being cared for by the Halifax, Queensbury and Brighouse Branch of Cats Protection. They could do with being rehomed in that area because they’ve got to go back for vaccinations, neutering and microchipping at the vets in Halifax.

If you know of anyone who might be able to take care of them, please let me know (and please feel free to make a small donation to Cats Protection if you’re able to).

All photos (except Dragon) by Dave & Bry on Flickr