Lauren Smith

I thought I’d pass this on as it maybe of interest! I got a response today 15th feb, regarding the Library Service Review.

Initially I sent this to Kieren Quinn Head of Council and the other 8 members of the cabinet. They just sent a link back to the Tameside Council website. But he also put me in contact with the report writer Adam Allan. (See below please) he was very helpful.

Here are 3 questions 11 sent.

Further to your message of 7th February 2012, I am pleased to make the following responses to the points you raise.

7) Will you have full awareness of the issues and impact on the many community groups within the Tameside district before any proposed decision? Response: We are aiming to bring the widest range of relevant evidence to the review process. Community groups and individual members of those groups have had, and will have, every opportunity to alert us to issues and impacts of the key principles set out in the consultations.

It’s said that “All returns will then be considered along with existing information that is available to form firm recommendations for the Council’s Executive Cabinet”. What is the existing information? Response: The existing information consists of usage data, previous surveys, building survey reports, cost analyses, and other relevant statistical and management data which informs our understanding of the service. Me: That’s where the evidence is gathered, nothing to do with the review, I’m thinking?

9) The Library Service Review is a “standard questionnaire”. Would you agree with the statement? Response: The Big Conversation questionnaire relating to the library service has been specifically designed for this consultation exercise. The present questionnaire is not the service review. Me: So why is it called the Library Service Review, as they say it is a “consultation exercise”? I’m thinking now that maybe this it is publicity stunt/exercising spin making they appear that they are consulting with the public with no intention in using the evidence from the Library Service Review?

Hi Steve.

Thank you for your comment. I think the point is that the SCL were one of the organisations who supported the event. This presumably had the support of the committee in order for them to announce their support for the event. It therefore seems a little odd that the Secretary of the SCL (who would surely have been involved in the discussions) decided not to support the event in her own authority.

It is also worth noting, if you had read the documents provided above (which it appears you have not) you would notice that a march was mentioned that they felt might compromise the events on the day and make it appear as though the staff were engaging in a ‘political’ event. Of course, no march took place and the day itself was the national celebration that was intended.

As for the question of voting, that doesn’t really apply in this case. Heads of Libraries aren’t voted in by library users so that will have no effect.

Perhaps Alan could tell us how SCL is supposed to “pull its members into line”?

Its members are employed by their local authorities, not SCL. SCL has no power to compel its members to do anything, or to discipline them if they do not.

Which is actually as it should be.

If you have a problem with the behaviour of Kent County Council and you live in Kent, you have a vote, and I suggest you use it. If the policies of the candidates do not represent your view then stand yourself.

This was the reply I received from Worcestershire County Council’s Library Service when I asked what they had planned for NLD:

Thank you for your enquiry about National Libraries Day; as you may know this is usually the focus of our annual membership campaign when we have many events going on in libraries. Unfortunately however, due to capacity issues, this year only we decided that we would concentrate on maintaining our service’s positive presence in the public eye. For example, you may have last week seen Droitwich Library’s Space Day in the media when over 1500 people attended the library last Saturday? This week will see the start of the main promotional work for The Hive with both the BBC and Central News hoping to film next week, and viewings by all local and regional media.

On the 23rd April we are participating in World Book Night (and Day) when we will be on the streets throughout the county and in other places distributing free books and promoting libraries.

In addition, each library will also, this week, be receiving a Betterworld Books Recycling Bin. This is part of our Eco-Centres work and enables members of the public to donate their old books into the bin. Betterworld have collected discarded library books from us for some time, they then either sell them and our service gets a percentage of the profits from the sales or failing that they recycle them. Customers often wish to us to take their old discarded books and in this way we can do so in an environmentally friendly way, and may even make a little income from doing so. We do, of course, make it extremely clear to customers what will happen to their old books and they are in no way forced to put them in the bin. It is simply offering a discard service for those people who wish to use it.

I am sorry that there isn’t anything specific to offer as part of this campaign this year. We will continue to be involved in other campaigns through the year, for example the Adult Six Book Challenge, the Summer Reading Challenge and of course just last Friday the final of the Young Poet Laureate competition.

Well, things are getting interesting here at SDL towers.  Perhaps the most important news is that we are considering and consulting regarding legal action.  The Council, led by the Mayor and his Cabinet, have proven so inept and unable to consult regarding changes in a proper, fit and statutorily required manner that it seems we may have a very good case for a judicial review.  Watch this space.

Speaking of the Mayor – there will be a referendum regarding the Mayoral position as it stands in Doncaster, on May 3rd, within the local elections process (to save costs).  Despite his manifesto promise to hold such a referendum he is now saying he believes this to be a waste of money and that the residents of Doncaster clearly want him in post.  Newsflash Mr D, no, the majority do NOT want you.  His mis-leading of the entire Libraries debacle is only one example of his ineptness, and in the interests of fairness we have tried very hard to find a positive outcome from any of the Mayor’s ideas and initiatives but have failed, and we can only encourage Doncaster voters to remember this come the May 3rd vote – and kick the man and any potential future Dictator Mayor out of consideration.

The DCMS Library Closures Commission is now well underway and the content of all submissions is available for viewing (herein linked). Three individual members of SDL past and present submitted, all prior to the council itself submitting.  We thank Gill Johnson, Lauren Smith and Lynne Coppendale for taking the time and effort to do so, and view the DMBC effort with wry interest.  The result of the commission, which is currently listening to evidence from select persons and groups, will be one to watch and will hopefully have a positive outcome for Public Libraries nationally.

Finally, with some regret but with a genuine desire to assist all of Doncaster’s Libraries in remaining open, we publish the website of the Sprotborough Community Library.  Whilst no-one is happy, and all are concerned, at DMBC’s forcing of Doncaster residents to take over libraries as volunteers (with minimal support or funding) or see them close, we publish this as we are fully aware that if sufficient volunteers are not found, the libraries forced into this position will close, and then when the Council see the folly and error of their ways there will be no way back to a full, ‘comprehensive and efficient’service.

Such is the lack of foresight still being shown by Doncaster Council regarding it’s library service that we have the honour of being named and shamed in Private Eye.

Whilst the issue in question is not yet available online, we are delighted to be able to reproduce the relevant section thanks to Alan Gibbons uncompromising and leading Campaign for the Book articles.  Together with other libraries being systematically destroyed, Doncaster is included in an article entitled ‘On Borrowed Time? A Library News Special’which appears in Issue No. 1305 dated 13-26 Jan 2012.

In Doncaster, 14 of the borough’s 26 libraries either shut down or were handed over to volunteer groups in November. But that’s all right because last week the authority announced it has now “improved and modernised” its service with the launch of a new “digital library” with ebooks to download at home.
So, good news at least for library users who can afford fast internet and e-reading devices? Er, the digital library contains a grand total of 456 titles and, thanks to Amazon’s restrictive rights management, doesn’t currently work with Kindles.

Whilst we applaud Doncaster Libraries in moving forward and implementing e-book lending (albeit somewhat later than most, and with little research and no promotion), the intent to engage and enable Doncaster residents to access information technologies and reading material of all formats is a great step forward, we can’t help thinking this is yet another example of knee-jerk, ill-thought out and badly executed actions.  Yes Libraries can work ‘without walls’, but please let the people now in post manage projects in a timely fashion and do not set them up to fail.  This is a project that will work and will grow, but you need to know your demographic and let them know how they can use the facility.  At present only those with Internet access at home or the ability to reach a library will be able to manage. The more internet savvy of Doncaster’s Library users are already surfing the social networks with negative comments which will damage the first innovation the Libraries have seen in months, nay years (Discussion within Save Doncaster Libraries Facebook group). This exactly the demographic which the Library service needs on side, to expand and promote the service through satisfied customer promotion.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking our being quiet means we’ve given up and gone away. We have not. We will always push for proactive, current and expanding library services and fight unnecessary, destructive and unfair cuts.

Save Doncaster Libraries is proud to add its signature to the Open Letter to Ed Vaizey, MP, Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries. We (and thousands around the country) believe he is neglecting his responsibility to superintend the UK’s library service.  Friends of Gloucestershire Libraries provide a comprehensive report of his failings here, including detail about the role of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, and equalities issues.

5. DCMS monitoring of Gloucestershire County Council’s library strategy

Over the last year Mr Vaizey, you sent letters to library authorities (including Gloucestershire County Council) with the following advice which specifically highlighted factors for consideration from the Wirral report.

In your letter dated 3 December 2010, you recommended that authorities should:

“Provide a thorough analysis of local needs, including the general and specific needs of adults and children who live, work and study in Gloucestershire.”

“Provide a detailed description of how the service will be delivered and how the plans will take fully into account both the demography and the different needs of adults and children in different areas (both in general and specific terms)”

You also quoted the Charteris report to DCMS on the breach of statutory responsibilities by the council in the Wirral. This included the following-

“The Secretary of State (should) require the Council to evidence how it will meet the needs of all groups and communities (in all cases).”

“The Council (should give) due regard to the general requirements of children.”

The council should demonstrate “a clear understanding of the extent and range of services currently being provided in the libraries, including those which are ‘core’ to the service and those which are ancillary.”

The Council should demonstrate “an adequate plan for and commitment to a comprehensive outreach service.”

The council should demonstrate its commitment “to adults and children with specific needs in line with the most recent equalities legislation e.g. older people, children, people with disabilities, unemployed people, people in residential homes, and housebound people.”

Save Doncaster Libraries must once again point out that DMBC cannot ignore the findings of the Equalities Impact Assessment they conducted regarding the impact on the 12 threatened branches. In the Judicial Review recently conducted into Gloucestershire County Council’s plans to cut libraries and give a number to volunteers to run, Judge McKenna ruled:

“the decisions under challenge failed to give effect to the public sector equality duties and were not merely unlawful decisions but were, in substance, as Ms Mountfield submits, amounted to bad government.  It is important to the rule of law to give due respect to these issues of equality.  The breach of the equality duties is a substantive and not merely a technical or procedural defect.”

Furthermore, there is no renewed timetable informing Doncaster residents of the anticipated closure dates or dates libraries will become community-run, other than the news that Carcroft Library will close at 6pm on 20^th December, to be replaced by a Mobile/Outreach service, with Denaby following the next day at 5pm – news that reached residents through an article in the Doncaster Free Press.

Carcroft and Denaby, two of Doncaster’s most deprived areas, are to lose the only free access to information, professional reading support, advice, learning materials, and their only opportunity to engage with local democracy and their communities, without the council having due regard to the impact this will have on individuals within the community. Consultation on this issue has been woefully inadequate and misleading. These decisions were made before consultation even occurred. The council have paid no attention to local people’s needs, or recommendations from national government.

We have repeatedly warned DMBC about the dangers of their plans.  We have provided a petition of over 16,000 signatures against the council’s plans.  We have protested at individual libraries and within each and every relevant March in Doncaster since June 2010.  We have written to the Mayor, his Cabinet and Councillors requesting information and sharing concerns and requests for proper conduct.  We have warned of potential consequences to their actions.  We have supported two call-ins to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee regarding the flaws and potentially disastrous consequences of the Cabinet’s plans.  We have tried to find evidence of the consultations they state have been completed with local groups, to no avail.  We have tried to find out who the much fêted community groups are, which the Mayor states are poised ready to take over.  We can find nothing other than yet more lack of information provision.

It would seem the 12 Libraries set to become community-run are, in fact, being set up to fail.

The Mayor and his Cabinet have not budged an inch. They have remained firmly glued to their wholesale destruction of Doncaster’s Libraries for more than a year (talks were occurring with Intake Community Enterprise as far back as October 2010 according to the minutes of the 10/11/11 Second Overview and Scrutiny committee meeting, yet they were not added to the list of 14 until January 2011).

One can only imagine the Mayor and his Cabinet sitting in their offices with their eyes shut, hands over their ears, just hoping we will give up and go away. We won’t, and aren’t.  The situation is currently in the hands of legal advisors and we are investigating potential action.  Whilst we still hope this will not become necessary and that the Council will finally engage with us, discuss realistic non-destructive options, and Save Doncaster Libraries. However, past history gives us little faith in the abilities of the Mayor and his Cabinet. They have led the council perilously close to costly legal action, largely because of the ignorance and close-mindedness of their leader. It’s time to listen your citizens, Mayor Davies.

Yesterday DMBC Cabinet confirmed that despite being aware of the inequalities to vulnerable and marginalised groups its strategy involves, and admitting (at the Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee meeting last week) that it will result in a reduced standard of service for over half the population of Doncaster, it will be forging ahead with is plan to close two libraries and make a further 12 volunteer-run. The council roundly ignored the outcome of the Judicial Review into Gloucestershire County Council and Somerset County Council’s library cuts plans, which found the councils to be in breach of equalities legislation and, in the case of GCC, that “the decisions under challenge were not just unlawful but bad government”.

We’re not giving up – we know that the review of Doncaster’s libraries was flawed, that the views of the thousands of people who have signed petitions and told the council during consultation that they do not want their libraries to be closed or volunteer-run have been ignored, and that the plans to make libraries volunteer-run are unsustainable, damaging to the service and contrary to the public interest. We are speaking to lawyers about taking the issue to the High Court.

It was also announced yesterday that the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee is to conduct an inquiry into library closures. The Committee is inviting written submissions and requesting views on the following issues:

• what constitutes a comprehensive and efficient library service for the 21^st century;
• the extent to which planned library closures are compatible with the requirements of the Libraries & Museums Act 1964 and the Charteris Report;
• the impact library closures have on local communities;
• the effectiveness of the Secretary of State’s powers of intervention under the Public Libraries & Museums Act 1964.

Given that national government’s gaze is now upon the issue of library closures and is evidently concerned about the impact cuts to libraries will have, we strongly urge DMBC to put a moratorium on its plans.

Many congratulations to our fellow campaigners in Somerset and Gloucestershire, who have won their Judicial Reviews. Voices for the Library report:

Gloucestershire and Somerset library campaigners heard today that they have won their claim over library cuts and closures. The judge ruled in favour of their claims regarding the councils’neglect to consider or address the findings of the Equality Impact Assessments that had been conducted. A quashing order means that the campaigners have put a halt to the council’s current plans for libraries – both local authorities’plans will have to be rethought.

Regarding the councils’ failures to comply with the public sector equality duties, His Honour Judge McKenna ruled:

Many thanks to Gill Johnson for writing up her notes of last week’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting. (A shorter version is available here)

The tone of the Overview and Scrutiny (O & S) Committee on 10^th November to consider the Cabinet decision to implement the Library Review was set when, despite the good turnout of elected councillors and members of the public, the Chair was informed that both Mayor Davies and his portfolio holder with responsibility for libraries, Cllr. Cynthia Ransome, had both sent their apologies offering other commitments as their excuse; accordingly the Executive would be represented by Cllr. Mark Thompson. The Chair, Cllr. Sue Phillips, expressed her displeasure noting that at the date and time of the O & S meeting had been arranged to coincide with a space in the mayor’s diary.

Cllr. Kevin Rodgers introduced the item giving the reason for calling in this item as follows:

• Recent information about the high level of young people not in education, employment or training in Doncaster (25%) which underlined the deprivation in many of Doncaster’s communities;
• The perceived inadequacy of the Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) submitted as part of the Review;
• The Executive’s claim that there were groups of volunteers ready and waiting to take over the running of libraries in their communities;
• The opinion that the consultation on which the Review’s proposals were based did not adequately reflect community views.

Cllr. Rodgers evidenced these points stating that he had been contacted by a number of voluntary groups expressing their concern about the statutory obligations they were being asked to take on. He said that the EIA was supposed to reduce the impact of the proposals on the most vulnerable sections of the community but this clearly had not happened because the 2 libraries most immediately at threat from losing their council-run library, Carcroft and Denaby, had been identified in the Borough Strategy as wards where the quality of life needed to rise the most. He added that the tick-box format of the consultation questionnaire did not take sufficient recognition of the freeform replies given by respondents.

He concluded that many of the 14 communities affected by the proposals had no expertise or appetite to run their local library and that the Executive had offered no Plan B should this large scale transfer of so much of the library service to volunteers fail. Rather the Review should have looked across the whole service in more detail.

The officer from Legal & Democratic Services was asked for his advice and stated that the Borough Strategy was designed to show the ‘big picture’ but was not a detailed delivery plan. Doncaster had to respond to significant economic challenges and Cabinet had sought to focus resources because no change was not an option. Therefore he did not consider the Cabinet’s proposals to be outside the Borough Strategy framework. He also referred to the recent decision in the London Borough of Brent confirming the legality of their proposals to reduce their library service although he noted this decision was under appeal.

On behalf of the Executive Cllr. Thompson offered the meetings that had taken place between officers, community groups, organisations, elected members and at public meetings as evidence that community views had been sought. He stated that many authorities in different parts of the country were considering similar proposals re their libraries – some 3 dozen in all. He referred to a recent report from the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council on community-run libraries and said that although some local authorities were simply closing some of their libraries Doncaster was recommending this alternative to such action. He went on the restate some of the statistics from the consultation concluding that only 12% of the Borough’s population actually used libraries and that what was proposed was the best that could be achieved in difficult circumstances.

The meeting was then opened to questions from other elected members.

Q. How did the Executive view the dramatic negative impact arising from the proposals.

A. From a personal point of view the preferred option would be a volunteer –run service from the current library building. If that proved impossible then hopefully a service could be provided from an alternative venue/location. Believed this amounted to a ‘transformed’ service – change is inevitable.

Q. ‘Volunteers’ are not free. There is a cost arising from the necessary support, training, practical issues such as CRB checks etc. What professional support, budget, safeguarding measures was available?

A. Legal obligations for CRB checks would be met. Training would be given some of which might result in a qualification. Self-service provision would also be used more. This is the best that could be achieved under the circumstances.

Q. These proposals amounted not just to closure but to a death sentence. Of the individual examples of other authorities quoted how many libraries had been sacrificed?

A. Time and effort needed to answer that question would be unreasonable. Some authorities had simply closed libraries. Doncaster is trying a damage limitation exercise within available resources.

Q. Were the proposals based on whether a community could find volunteers or not? It appears none could be found in Carcroft or Denaby hence the proposal to close them.

A. Comprehensive meetings were held in Carcroft. Current building unsatisfactory regarding location/lack of parking. It is believed that a mobile library along with enhanced outreach would deliver a better service. In Denaby there were other council services with a better take-up where some co-location might be feasible.

Q. Re sustainability the anticipated community-led provision is uncertain. What volunteers are there for each community; what commitment do they have and what is the timescale for the hand-over?

A. A ‘comprehensive’ number of volunteers have been identified in Warmsworth, Bawtry, Intake and Wheatley but there are also others in many of the other communities.

Q. Wasn’t the consultation flawed because in effect only 2 options were given, i.e. community-led or closure?

A. A number of creative solutions were proposed and communities were listened to hence the different solutions suggested for different areas.

Q. In Denaby there would be a continuing cost from the space in the LIFT building therefore how could a saving be achieved?

A. Another council service has been identified that could make use of that space.

Q. Re Intake nothing has been finalised yet the community (ICE) is supposed to be taking over in January. There has been no discussion of costs re rents, rates etc. outside one meeting with DMBC Lettings department that had suggested ongoing costs in the region of £6500pa for rent and £22,000 for rates. ICE still had many unanswered questions.

A. The policy re building leases etc. is being examined – peppercorn rents might be a possibility because the Council is not in the business of profiteering. Charities can obtain rate relief of up to 80%. Recognised there would be many other costs but it is hoped to keep these to a minimum. Meetings had been held with ICE since 2010 but the timetable had slipped because of delays arising from the need to repeat the consultation, reconsider the proposals at a second Cabinet meeting and now a further delay from this O & S meeting. Some community groups had misled DMBC about their intentions. The current cost of running the library will not necessarily be the future cost. In Intake the possibility of leasing some space to a commercial enterprise is being looked at. All options are being considered and no final decisions can be made until legal agreements ready for signing.

Q. IN Bawtry there is a strong sense of looking forward rather than backwards but the community wanted support from DMBC, e.g. how would the question of CRB check costs be handled?

A. All these details will have to be set out in the business case for each location with the funding required from the community and the Council contribution specified in a legal agreement. However there is no massive pot of Council money available but there might be some small element of support. Re CRB checks this is not currently a requirement for library assistants.

Q. The whole exercise is about financial savings yet there will be some long-term costs e.g. training of volunteers. How much might this impact on the saving achieved? E.g. if another council service is to move into the LIFT building space in Denaby will this not simply transfer that cost to another DMBC budget head? Maybe what is required at Denaby is more input to encourage/increase use.

A. There will be some ongoing costs involved in training, rates relief etc. but staff and building costs are long-term savings. Outreach is the key to success but in the past there has been no investment. 8 literacy engagement assistants are proposed for the new structure. The leasing cost of the Denaby space has not been included in the savings calculation because it was known that this would be an ongoing cost.

Q. In Rossington the proposal is to relocate to another community building. The consultation supposedly revealed 25 volunteers. The task of implementing this has been delegated to the Neighbourhood Manager who tried to set up a meeting for prospective volunteers. No one turned up. The offer under discussion at present is 2 x 2 hour library sessions per week . In reality this is no use to anybody especially when the suggested times do not take into account school hours. In essence this equals closure of the service in this community.

There was no response to this from the Executive.

Q. Re management of the volunteers – how and by whom would this be done?

A. A combination of management solutions. Where communities set up Companies Limited by Guarantee (CLGs) to run their libraries this organisation could provide some overall management. In places where co-location was the preferred solution management would be provided by other agencies.

Q. If this Library review is not implemented those opposing the proposals must produce  practical suggestions as to how else  the £1.37 million saving be found.

Q. Re co-locations in schools what would be the provision out of term-time?

A. These discussions still to be held. The delayed decision meant a lot still to be decided.

Q. Re Wheatley – if there is no community-led solution what is the Plan B?

A. Closure could be a possibility in some areas. Again the call-in process meant decisions further delayed.

Q. Does not accept the propaganda from the Executive. The Review has not considered the Library Service in its entirety. There is a disproportionate effect on deprived communities e.g. Scawthorpe. Have the costs or securing/disposing of empty buildings been assessed?

A. It is believed that there is option for a chemist to take over providing a library service in Scawthorpe in the current library building.

Q. Can assurance be given that Intake Library will not close in January?

A. The implementation timetable will be revised as a result of the time needed for the O & S call-in.

The Chair then invited contributions from members of the public.

Q. Re Stainforth DMBC claims has held meetings with Town Council but this disputed. Suggested relocation to Youth Centre is not practical. Believes effects of relocation of groups/societies using current library not adequately considered. No discussion about the stock. The questions in the consultation questionnaire were loaded.

A. A meeting was held with a representative of Stainforth Town Council on 8^th November. Relocation to the Youth Service was discussed but DMBC would be happy to support continued service in current possible if this was achievable. Again mentioned the effect of delays.

Q. Why was the Mayor apparently not aware of the advice being given by a Doncaster CVS trainer at a seminar held for prospective volunteers re the range of responsibilities they might be expected to undertake. Via the media he had asked for further information about this which had been provided but no acknowledgement/response yet received.

A. If resubmitted an officer would respond. Essentially 2 levels of volunteering of which the Mayor referred to the first of issuing and receiving books. Accepted there was another level involving management tasks that may be a role for different volunteers. DMBC wants to try to ensure sustainability. Accepted that perhaps some communities did have unrealistic ideas – this is being addressed.

Q. Re Sprotbrough people living in outlying villages who used the library did not receive the posted questionnaires.

A. The questionnaire was available on-line to everybody in the Borough. Paper copies also available in Sprotbrough Library.

Q. Re Sprotbrough  a recent visit to the library had demonstrated 2 or 3 groups likely to be affected because of the difficulties of travelling to the alternative of the Central Library suggested by DMBC including mothers with young children and the frail elderly or people with disabilities. One has to ask where are we going in this community – the residents don’t know and it appears DMBC doesn’t either.

A. Every budget head is being examined. A large organisation has approached DMBC and expressed extreme interest in Sprotbrough but has asked not to be named. Information will be released in due course.

Q. Point of information – the second consultation questionnaire was not available on-line because it was targeted specifically only at residents of the particular communities. Did not recognise others who may work/be educated and be valid users of those libraries. If this is the best way to deliver community library services why not do it everywhere. A 2-tier service is not the way to go.

A. Apologised that previous answer incorrect – this consultation was not available on-line. However the savings proposed by the Review had been agreed by full Council at its 2011/2012 Budget Meeting. If these proposals did not proceed where else would the savings be made?

A statement from the trade union Unison was read out.

Summary.

Cllr. Rodgers continued to disagree with how need had been defined in the EIA and said significant socio-economic factors had been ignored. He repeated his request for a Plan B.

The Executive stated the meeting had been a fair example of a mature debate which aided the transparency of local government and added that it would consider the recommendation of O & S. Everything possible was being done to avoid the closure of libraries.

Cllr. Kidd queried the number of times officers had referred to decisions being delayed because the Cabinet’s decision had been called in by O & S. This was part of the legitimate democratic process and needed to be allowed for when timetables were being proposed.

The officer stated that she had not intended to appear to question the legitimacy of O & S. However there was frustration around groups not wanting to make decisions and not being able to move forward.

Conclusion.

The Chair summarised the Committee’s concerns especially:

• The cost of training/supporting volunteers
• Access to a consistent level of service across the Borough and the impact of a 2 tier service
• The safety of volunteers and issues regarding the safeguarding of children and young people.
• What happens to disused buildings.
• The Equality Impact Assessment and the Borough’s overall policy framework.
• More specific information required about alternative provision solutions.
• Acceptance that the consultation had been flawed.
• Is there a Plan B and if so what is it?

Recommended:

• To refer the Cabinet decision of 12^th October back to the Executive with a request for specific answers to the concerns as expressed and some more detailed examples, especially regarding how community-led library solutions had worked out over a period in other authorities with a view to assessing the medium/long term sustainability of the proposals.

The BBC has today reported that nearly a quarter of all 16-24 year-olds in Doncaster are not in education, employment or training. You can read the report by The Work Foundation here.

Report author Neil Lee said high Neet levels were one of the UK’s most serious social problems:

“For a young person, being out of education, employment or training can have major ramifications, including long-term reductions in wages and increased chances of unemployment later in life, as well as social or psychological problems arising as a result of sustained unemployment.”

The situation is likely to worsen, and is not remedied instantly by employment:

“For an individual, a period being NEET can lead to wage scarring; lowering earnings long after they find employment. It also represents a significant drag on the economy through lost output, higher welfare payments and lower tax contributions.

Yet there are important concerns that the NEET problem may worsen. Rapidly rising unemployment has reduced the number of entry-level jobs available for those leaving education.

And public sector cuts are restricting both youth services and the capacity of government to help people to enter the labour market. This squeeze will be worst in cities with weak economies and which are already facing the challenge of public sector cuts. Given these trends, we expect the NEET rate for 16-24 year olds to continue to increase (accounting for cyclical variations).” (Off the Map? p.3)

This is particularly problematic in Doncaster:

“Towns such as Doncaster and Grimsby are NEET blackspots: between one in five and one in four young people are NEET. Without targeted action to address the problem of NEETs in these places there is a real danger that a generation of young people, often those living in towns and cities which are already less economically successful, will face long-term problems in the labour market. Both national and local government needs to focus their efforts on young people in these cities (emphasis mine).“

What can be done to address these issues?

A co-ordinated strategy is crucial and must include areas of the council and external bodies who support education, employment and training. They must work in partnership to alleviate the social problems associated with high Neet levels. Libraries must play a central role; they help people find employment, provide access to education for children and adults, and make a significant contribution to careers information, advice and guidance for employability – Doncaster council simply cannot afford to ignore this any longer.

Edit: Research from Glasgow University has found that young people from deprived areas have higher levels of ambition than tends to be expected. What they lack is information about how to achieve what they want to. Schools careers offices, careers advice centres, FE and HE institutions and public libraries give young people access to information about jobs and careers. Public libraries offer people a place to study, access learning resources and careers advice on their doorsteps. They’re the natural place for people to access information and an incredibly good value way for councils to achieve their aims to reduce NEET levels.

The decision to close two branches and give 12 others to community groups or close them has been called into Overview and Scrutiny because it is believed that the cuts to the library service conflict with the borough strategies, which include improving educational achievements and qualification levels, and offering “the same opportunities in life for all residents, leading to improvements in their quality of life”. The £1.2 million the council wants to cut from the libraries is a drop in their budgetary ocean (the library service cost £5.7 million in 2010/11, which is less than 1% of the overall council budget).

We know how crucial good library services are to successful societies, and how much of a difference they make to the skills, development and employability of young people. We’ve already written in depth about how investing in the library service, providing trained and qualified staff in 26 fully-funded, well-resourced, local branches offering the same standard of provision across the borough, would help with Doncaster’s strategic priorities. We hope that the Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 10th November pays particular attention to the signs of success that the council identified as desirable in the Borough Strategy:

• Educational standards will rise for all
• Children and young people will have the opportunity to engage in positive activities
• There will be more young people in education, employment or training
• There will be more people qualified with the relevant skills to meet the needs of the local economy
• The same opportunities in life for all residents, leading to improvements in their quality of life
• Raised aspirations, particularly amongst young people, and better skills

It is time for the Cabinet and the Mayor to reverse its decision on the library service and instead invest in library resources for young people. The Labour group say they could find the money within council budgets so that they would not have to cut the library budget – now is the time for the Mayor to consider this. If money is still short, national government should support the council financially in order to focus efforts on young people as recommended by the report.

An article in the Doncaster Free Press today reports the situation with Denaby and Carcroft libraries, which were scheduled for permanent closure on 1st November:

Eleventh-hour bid to prevent library cuts
Carcroft and Denaby remain open due to fairness concerns

The two Doncaster libraries that were due to close this week have won a last-minute stay of execution.
Carcroft and Denaby libraries had been expected to shut on Tuesday as part of the council’s moves to withdraw funding from 14 of its libraries.
But the entire scheme is now on hold after the opposition Labour group ‘called in’the plans for further scrutiny.
The cuts – already approved by the Cabinet last month – will be reviewed by the Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee next Thursday.
Lauren Smith, from Save Doncaster Libraries, said campaigners were holding their breath.
“We will be outside the Mansion House from 9am and then go into the meeting to hear what is said,” she said.
“We hope the mayor will be more willing to listen than he was last time.
“Realistically, the chances of a complete turnaround are slim because of the politics of the situation.”
Labour councillors say the cuts conflict with social strategy and have an unfair impact on the borough’s poorest.
It has therefore asked the scrutiny committee to consider whether the cabinet’s decision has been made fairly and in line with council strategy.
Committee members will then present their recommendations to the cabinet and mayor for a decision.
A spokesman for the council was unable to say how long this process might take, but in the meantime libraries at Carcroft and Denaby – which were to have been replaced with a mobile service – will continue as normal.
If the committee does not find fault with the plans, a further 12 libraries will lose funding and be run by community groups by early next year.
They are Moorends, Rossington, Stainforth and Scawthorpe (from January 1); Bessacarr, Edenthorpe, Sprotbrough, Balby and Wheatley (from March 1 in new locations); and Bawtry, Intake and Warmsworth (which will continue to be volunteer-run in their current sites).
The cabinet hopes this will save £1.2m a year, helping it meet the goal of making £80m worth of cuts over four years to meet central government requirements.
Save Doncaster Libraries say it’s a tiny saving at a big cost to the community in terms of literacy and employability.
“Everybody in Doncaster has the right to the same standard of library service,” said Lauren Smith.
“To have one library in one area that’s council run, and then to have next door one that’s run by volunteers with reduced book stocks and reduced access to services, you are unfairly depriving people in that area.”
“You also can’t guarantee that when the funding stops there will be anything in place to keep the libraries running.”
She urged people to use their libraries this week, which she says have been badly marketed and run-down for decades.
Doncaster Council’s assistant director of customer service, Julie Grant, issued a brief statement this week.
“All libraries in Doncaster continue to be open for business as usual,” she said.
“Future changes will be discussed again by members of the council’s Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee next Thursday, November 10, before recommendations are presented at a future cabinet meeting.”

We have a lot of news this week:

• The library review consultation outcome and plan has been called into Overview and Scrutiny by the Labour group for a second time. The committee will meet on 1oth November (documents will be uploaded to here). It is believed that the Labour group do not believe the Equalities Impact Assessment was conducted appropriately and the review does not consider aspects such as deprivation in areas such as Carcroft and Denaby – the two areas which would be the first to lose their libraries (the closure date for these was set for 1st November – the call-in has delayed the closure). Supporters of the campaign to save our libraries are invited to meet at 9am outside the Mansion House. The Mayor, Cabinet and Julie Grant (Assistant Director of Customer Services and ICT) are keen to press ahead with these half-planned proposals, despite the availability of alternatives and the risk that failed community-run libraries will lead to the council being in breach of the Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964.
• Local residents in Sprotbrough fear that the future for their library is bleak. They have sent the following email to library managers, the Mayor and his Cabinet:
  “We, Sprotbrough Library Action Group, are concerned that the press release and resulting newspaper articles on Doncaster Council’s intentions for the future of Sprotbrough Library do not appear to correctly reflect the situation in regard to Sprotbrough Library.  They gave the impression that a community group is ready to provide a library service from an alternative venue, and to recruit and manage volunteers to staff the library.   We, S.L.A.G., have never had any intention of providing a library service from any other venue than the present library building – we are not aware of any suitable alternative sites, and certainly feel that neither St Edmund’s Community Hall nor St Mary’s Stable is a suitable alternative.    Our focus has been throughout on the retention and enhancement of the present purpose-built Sprotbrough Library.   We made this clear to DMBC Head of Libraries before the Cabinet Meeting, and had been led to understand that the report going to the Cabinet would be altered accordingly, which it wasn’t.   Furthermore we are not in a position to recruit and manage volunteers.   Nor are we aware of any other community group inSprotbrough ready to provide a library service from an alternative venue.   We are concerned that the Cabinet decision as its stands means thatSprotbrough Library is now likely to close.  The Library is the only DMBC leisure facility within the Sprotbrough Ward and serves not justSprotbrough but also the outlying villages beyond. We hope that this will be taken into account during the Overview and Scrutiny.”

• Similarly, the future of Bessacarr Library is shaky too – the editor of The Bessacarr and Cantley Journal, Geoff Bennett, stated: “Nobody seems to have much idea what they (DMBC) are proposing, but the suggestion seems to be that the library should be housed somewhere else, and run by volunteers. We have yet to find anyone who thinks that moving the library makes any sense. We’ll let you know what is happening if anyone ever gets round to telling the general public.” Save Doncaster Libraries wonder how many of the stated community run groups that the Library Report refers to actually exist. When the public read the DMBC report or read the account in the local papers they assume that these groups are already in place. From our experience this is not the case. We are not convinced that any groups have expressed an interest in running libraries – this is not because libraries are not wanted or needed – the outcome of consultations has already shown that people think libraries are important – but because, as we have repeatedly stated, Doncaster communities are in no position to run libraries. It is grossly unfair to demand that they do so and will result in the silent death of our library service.
• Cantley residents are concerned that plans are being discussed to close down the borough’s busiest and most successful library and relocate it within the old Sycamore School building, as part of a larger community centre. This is not part of the present library review and may be a worrying sign of future cuts to the service.
• Delegates from the Doncaster campaign went to London last weekend to share their experiences and learn from library campaigners around the country. We are helping to co-ordinate a march in London to take place in February 2012 – if you’d like to help with planning, please let The Library Campaign know. There are several blog posts about the campaign conference available here.

Unsurprisingly, the proposals to close two libraries on 1st November and make 12 more community-run have been passed by the Cabinet.

Save Doncaster Libraries continue to be disappointed in the council, who have failed the people of Doncaster in their shambolic approach to changes to the library service. The Mayor has flatly refused to listen to solutions offered by the Labour group and has failed to investigate alternative methods of keeping libraries open. Instead, he has jumped at the massively problematic volunteer method.

See here for details about why volunteer-run libraries are not the solution.

We await the outcomes of the judicial reviews for Brent (expected tomorrow), Somerset and Gloucestershire (expected in the next couple of weeks) – they will inform future library policy, and if the Judges make it clear that the processes and policies employed by these councils were flawed and should be scrapped, Doncaster should take heed. The whole process has been a mess and has systematically failed to consider the needs and views of Doncaster residents.

The council has proven itself incapable of effective consultation and unable to meet the needs of its citizens. Mayor Davies has demonstrated total ignorance ever since the library cuts proposals began. These decisions are a disgrace to our town, undermine any supposed Mayoral priorities to improve standards of education and living, and yet again make a mockery of Doncaster and its undemocratic, dysfunctional council.

Mostly a day of study and preparing for National Libraries Day tomorrow!

• Went to Buchanan Street station with two CILIP/CILIPS members to have some photos taken for the Subway’s intranet and publicity, and to collect my ‘shoogle‘ bag to take round on the Glasgow Subway Librarithon tomorrow. Many thanks to Anabel for doing all the organising, I’m really excited about it!

• Tweeted a bunch of #NLD12 and #savelibraries related stuff, and tackled my email mountain (by tackled, I mean ‘put red To Do labels on things and deleted whatever I could’…)
• Found that some of the stuff I was reading for study was probably worth sharing so tumbled it as I went along.
• Listened to this EP by Golau Glau (who are amazing) which they made specially for National Libraries Day.
• Instructed Ian on how to update the Voices for the Library website.
• Gazed in wonder at his handiwork!
• Got an answer from the library about the EBSCO problem - OmniFile Full Text Select from Wilson isn’t and won’t be until next week. There’s a way round it though, hurrah!

I also spent a few hours with my finger splint off, which is quite a big thing for me because I ruptured a tendon six and a bit weeks ago and I didn’t know if it had healed properly. It looks like it should be fine, albeit a bit less straight than the rest of my fingers, and it’ll take a while for it to get moving again, but I’m really glad it doesn’t look like I’ll need surgery.

Dragon and Fionn spent a good hour or so outside, too – and came home – which is great because we’ve only been here for three weeks, and before we moved Fionn hadn’t been outside since he was rescued as a tiny kitten by daveyp and librarygirlknit.

I wish I’d taken my camera to work with me today because I met a fox, a magpie and a crow at the top of the steps down to the train station. Aw well. Imagine a scene a bit like this:

The main events of today were:

• Being interviewed by a lecturer from a library and information studies department in Japan about my involvement in library campaigning and advocacy as part of Save Doncaster Libraries, Voices for the Library and CILIP.
• Giggling all the way through my lunch break whilst looking at The 25 Most Awkward Cat  Sleeping Positions.
• A meeting with my supervisor to see how I’m getting on – basically, it’s okay that I’m not really sure what approach I want to take and I have a better idea than I think about the area that I want to research. And, it’s okay to keep on reading!
• Compiling a big reading list for the next couple of weeks.
• Struggling to make EBSCOHost work. What’s going on, guys?
• Publicising the fact that I’ve set up a Google Calendar for my CILIP Vice President activities (I’ve only added the lobby for libraries at Westminster so far, but there are things I’m doing that don’t have a set date yet).
• Promising Colm that I’d put the report from last year’s Fallacy of Footfall Workshop online. Here it is!
• Having a wander round town – I’m trying to learn my way around bit by bit (I’ve only lived here for three weeks and have been in Amsterdam, Doncaster and Leeds for some of that!) – so I managed to get lost, but I did also manage to find a rucksack that my laptop will fit in, so I’m counting that adventure as a win.
• Learning how to use a waiter’s friend with the help of youtube videos and diagrams from my housemate.
• Watching Channel 4 News just to watch the report about National Libraries Day.
• Planning when my friends from Leeds can come up and visit me in Glasgow – yay!

Bit of a photoblog today…

Pictures (top left to bottom right): my whiteboard diagram of Giroux’s ideas about transformative libraries and radical democracy; my desk; my lunch (Scotch Broth); my dinner (red lentil, mushroom and roast pepper bake); Fionn; Ranganathan’s Five Laws of Library Science and Gorman’s Eight Central Values of Librarianship on the whiteboard; the view of Glasgow from my office in Livingstone Tower; Dragon.

Fionn woke me up at five o’clock when he put his claw through my lip. Thanks Fionn. That meant I slept through my alarm when I nodded back off, so I got off to a bit of a late start. Headed into the office, did some reading, responded to emails and tweets and things, some more reading, then scribbling all over a whiteboard when I got really excited about finding a critical theory that seems to have really good potential for applying to my research area, lunch, then spent the afternoon in a really interesting training session about how government policy-making processes work and how academics might be able to influence policy with their research and evidence. I was supposed to be doing some more reading this evening, but I’ve struggled to find some articles (I think EBSCO’s playing up), and cooking and playing with cats was far more appealing than faffing about with databases.

Today was a horribly early start to get from London back up to Glasgow, but the four and a half hour train journey meant I got to finish off Cory Doctorow’s brilliant Little Brother, which I read in print, but you can download under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike license from here.

I presented at the BOBCATSSS Conference in Amsterdam last week (blog post forthcoming!), and a lot of privacy and data security issues were raised in other sessions there that caught my interest, so I’m really glad I read this because it’s a good (and genuinely riveting) introduction to some really important themes that I don’t know half enough about.

The rest of it looked mostly like this, just in my bedroom rather than the library:

I’m trying to find a hook for my research topic, but the more I read, the more lost I get. I’m hoping to tie something down a bit more over the next couple of weeks. My supervisor recommended this book because he thinks it might be a good idea for me to ground my research in a critical theory (here’s a link to the introduction in Google Books for the interested…). My reading for the rest of the week is going to include Giddens, Giroux, Gramsci, Habermas and Mouffe. And then I think my brain might melt.

Note: This is Day One of my Library Day in the Life (#libday8) activities – I’m unlikely to blog the rest in such detail, but we’ll see!

On 30th January I attended the second workshop in a series of three in the LIS DREaM Project (my blog post about the first is here).

The format was similar to the first, with a combination of presentations about different innovative and unusual research methods people might want to explore, short delegate presentations about their own research projects, and a research ‘practicality’ – this time, about research and policy (which is particularly relevant to the aims of my own research!)

Again, I don’t want to duplicate content that will be provided on the LIS Research site itself, so I’ll just cover the sessions and information that I found the most useful and pertinent to my own work, which now that I’m three weeks back into being a student, I feel far more able to absorb and apply in a meaningful way than I did back in October.

I think first it’s important to mention what is quite possibly the greatest librarian t-shirt I’ve ever seen. Nice work Michael.

Anyway. Onto Conference Report Proper…

The first thing that really struck a chord with me was the minute-long presentation given by research student Ella Taylor-Smith as part of the Unconference Half Hour. Her topic is e-participation. She’s conducting case studies using ethnography and discourse analysis and applying resource mobilisation theory to develop hypotheses about social movements,  which she’ll then use to build technology pilots to test the ideas she’s developed, to see if they’re pointing in the right direction. (Phew, that’s a lot of concepts I’d never come across before…I hope I made them make sense…!)

Ella and I had a chat during lunch and she was kind enough to tweet me some recommended reading afterwards:

• Klandermans, B. and Staggenborg, S. eds., 2002. Methods of Social Movement Research. University of Minnesota Press.
• Flyvbjer, B. (2006). ‘Five Misunderstandings About Case-Study Research‘. Qualitative Inquiry, 12 (2), 219-45.

I gave a short presentation about my research topic too:

You can watch the video of the session below:

Another session I found really interesting and potentially relevant to my research topic was Professor Mike Thelwall’s Introduction to Webometrics. It covered a few different techniques and he explained how they could be applied to LIS, including using altmetrics instead of/as well as traditional citation index searching, for a number of reasons, including the fact that results can be up to two years more up to date. Initially I didn’t quite understand why this kind of search would be useful, and tweeted that I wondered if it was a more in-depth equivalent of googling yourself, but Professor Hazel Hall explained that this it’s a way of discovering how much impact your work is having, which is important if you’re under pressure to demonstrate your impact for funding or promotion, for example.

Mike also talked about the uses of sentiment analysis and how computational linguistics can be used to explore aspects of online communication. This was really interesting and far more complex than I can do justice, so I’d recommend having a look at the presentation and exploring it for yourself if you’re interested! I think I’ll dig a bit deeper into it in case my methodology does involve analysing online political discussion, but one problem with the method that Mike raised was that exchanges and discussions of a political nature can be problematic to effectively analyse because computers aren’t great at picking up on sarcasm!

The final session of the day was Professor Nick Moore’s presentation Making the Bullets for Others to Fire, which looked at how research can inform policy. He gave a really thorough account of his experiences within the Policy Studies Institute, and great advice about how to understand information policy, not getting too positive too early on, responding to comments and criticism, and planning what you want your research to achieve from the start. It was reassuring to find that the way Nick presented his Information Policy Matrix and described how information is socially important (to understand policies, how to vote and participate) fit in with the way my reading is taking me at the moment. I need to go away and explore the potential ‘gap in the matrix’ in the ‘information and society’ / ‘legislative and regulatory’ box.

Nick raised some really important issues for planning research, including the importance of seeking to inform future policy rather than looking back at policies of the past, and being aware of political agendas in research projects that have been set up by other people/organisations. He also provided a perfect, but difficult to achieve, sign of success:

Express your research aim in one, clear, unambiguous sentence.

Challenge accepted! I might be some time…

The general lessons were these:

• Critical comment is really important and researchers mustn’t be afraid to do it. There’s no point doing the work if you don’t express your views and provide critical comment. This can be a scary prospect, but in Britain we’re lucky because we have a big enough mass to enable critical comment to be heard. We’re not as huge as the US, for example, so aren’t invisible. We’re also big enough, however, to not damage our entire career by being openly critical in our research findings and publicising them.
• Interest and passion are essential, especially if you want to inform policy. You have to be able to keep going, because it’s not a short term thing and takes time! You need the motivation to keep powering on.
• You need to be able to try to work out what is the next big issue and what will be important in 2, 5, 10 years time. Consider what small issues haven’t yet been addressed.
• However, it’s important that you don’t get too far ahead of the curve and find that nobody’s ready to look at the work you’re doing.
• It’s important to consider role of universities – you need to be in a department that has a reputation and is geared up to informing policy if you want to do that yourself.
• You need to be able to retain your independence in order to be listened to.

• Focus and specialise - pick your area of specialism and become a real expert
• Carry others with you – make use of professional and academic networks
• Pick your allies and find ways of working with them
• Don’t look too far ahead – elected politicians seldom look beyond the next election

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!)

Any other favourites? Leave a comment!

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!

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…)!

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…

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

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:

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

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.

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.

Alan Gibbons’ address to the campaign conference

Some of this post will apply to different sectors, but the majority will probably focus on public libraries because that’s where my experience of the issue of volunteering lies.

My stance on volunteering in any sector is roughly this:

+ Volunteering can be of benefit to you if you can’t (for whatever reason) get a paid job for the experience. Short placements in different sectors and departments can give you a really valuable insight into different aspects of work you might want to do in the future. Longer placements can help you demonstrate that you’re dedicated to something and help you develop skills over a longer period.

- Volunteering has the potential to be massively detrimental to the library and information profession if organisations use it to save money on paid, qualified and trained staff.

+ Volunteering can help make services better, through added bonus enthusiastic people around who want to help make things better.

- Volunteering can make things a million times worse if volunteers aren’t trained properly. If they give the wrong information or provide a poor service, it reflects on the service provider  and has the potential to result in a decline in standards and users etc.

+ Volunteering can help services improve by providing a source of community engagement – people who use the service from a ‘lay’ perspective and have insight into community need can influence how the service is run. This can be a - too though, if some voices are heard more loudly than others.

- Volunteering to do a job that is technical/requires training and skills is essentially saying that either you don’t think it really does require those skills and therefore undermines the idea of professional standards, or that you’re willing to develop the required skills and will do whatever it takes to enhance your CV without payment, which ultimately shoots everyone in the foot because fewer and fewer paid posts will be available if there’s an army of desperate volunteers, so what’s the point in volunteering to enhance your CV in the first place?

CILIP’s take on volunteering is this:

“CILIP acknowledges the contribution that volunteers make to libraries, enriching the services they provide and helping to sustain their viability.

In order to optimise the value of that contribution it should form part of a professionally managed public library service that has at its core sufficient paid staff to ensure the direction, development and quality of the service provided.

Volunteers are not ‘free’ and need proper management, training and development. In many cases a volunteers’ co-ordinator should be appointed to ensure appropriate management and recognition of the value of volunteers”.

The ALA says something similar:

“Volunteers can be a valuable resource for a library. But like any resource, good management is key. As shown by the Independent Sector survey, volunteer time has value. Some quick tips gleaned from the resources provided below:

• clarify status with regard to such things as compensation for work-related injuries, insurance coverage when operating a library vehicle and related benefits
• establish procedures for reimbursing any work related expenses
• be sure not to supplant or displace established staff positions
• develop a recognition program
• have regular training for their work”

So, in theory, I’m not against volunteering, because it isn’t necessarily harmful. However, the political use of volunteers to dismantle services that the current government doesn’t believe that the services are valuable or should be publicly funded in the first place, when thousands of people are being made redundant (or taken off disability allowances etc.) and need paid employment to survive, makes me spit. Councils’ desperate use of volunteers to prop up services now that the government is taking a ton of money away from them makes me weep, especially when library users are made to feel like it’s the only option they have to keep their libraries open. The need for a clear, national set of standards about the use of volunteers in public libraries (and what we should expect from the public library service in general) is desperate.

My recommendation, if you’re considering volunteering in order to get experience, would be to check out the background situation first. Has there been a massive budget cut? Are people being made redundant? Is the role to keep the service going, or is it just to supplement an already successful service? Is there a clear volunteering strategy? Does the institution/organisation have a proper set of guidelines, training and support for volunteers? Do you think it’ll be detrimental to the profession in the long-term? I guess you can only try the best you can to volunteer in good conscience. This page on Public Libraries News is a very comprehensive source of information and analysis of the key issues.

My conscience wouldn’t allow me to volunteer in a library-related post at all, but I’m fortunate to have been able to get paid jobs to develop my skills and experience so it’s not been a situation I’ve had to weigh up and to an extent I think it’s a personal issue as well as a professional one. My volunteering efforts go towards initiatives like Green Streets, which as well as being a brilliant cause (and the source most of the contents of my wardrobe and kitchen cupboards…) has contributed to skills like time management, working in a team, managing volunteers, organising chaos into something a bit less chaotic (or at least categorised into the right piles!), and working with vulnerable people. There are lots of roles within organisations like this, so as well as the warm happy glow from knowing you’re definitely contributing to a good cause, there are some real opportunities to develop, both career-wise and otherwise. The skills you develop might not be library-related in the technical sense, but there are lots of skills that you need no matter what service you’re working in, and the more technical aspects are things you should receive training (and payment) for if you’re expected to do them.

This one’s a bit of a funny one for me because I’ve just been/am about to experience major change – going from working full-time in a university admin department and campaigning locally and nationally in my spare time, to studying for a PhD full-time and being the Vice President and then President of CILIP. The application processes are out of the way – I applied for a PhD place and funding months and months ago (I wrote about the process if anyone wants some insight!) and went through the manifesto-writing and application process for the VP&P role a couple of months ago (which you can read about here!), but there’s still a lot to be had from this Thing because I think an end-of-year reassessment can only be a good thing.

Part 1: Identifying your strengths; capitalising on your interests

Thing 21 recommends “[Making] sure that you keep up-to-date with yourself, and if you are unhappy in your current situation, acknowledge what has changed and take action.” I know I’m capable of doing this (as do people who’ve got a more personal insight into my life at the moment), and it’s a strength I have that I didn’t know about. I guess you never do until you’re in a situation where you need it.

As far as making a list of my own activities and interests goes…here goes! I don’t think any will be too surprising, but I think the value each of them weighs might be slightly different to what I might have expected.

Stuff I Like! 1920s-30s literature, Georgian poetry, Green stuff, activism, adventures, advocacy, beachcombing, bits of the Marvel Universe, cooking, cycling, democratic engagement, digital literacy, exploring, finding information, forests, helping people find stuff out, learning, looking after cats, magic realism, most things Whedon, music, online comics, papercutting, politics, public libraries (shock!), reading, rescuing Penguin paperbacks from charity shops, researching, screen printing, social media, social policy, standing up for things that matter, talking with people who share similar interests/goals (and different ones!), tea-drinking practices, the connections between literacy and freedoms, the relationships between nature and society, thrifting, transliteracy, travelling, typography, walking, wild birds, zombie films/tv shows.

The main thing I’ve noticed by doing this is realise what I’ve let slip and haven’t done nearly half enough of over the last year or so. Things that make me happy and keep me sane I’ve neglected a bit because of being so busy with other things. And there are things I’m interested in but haven’t done yet. I can pursue these interests and activities in my personal life to keep me on an even keel and help me lead my work life healthily, I think.

There are lots of interests in there that do play a significant role in my personal and work life, and some that I was interested in so I’ve made it my job to go and find out about. I’m really excited about it. The skills I need to do these things are skills like public speaking, constructing arguments about why things are important, using evidence to justify this, being able to articulate…stuff, writing articles for different audiences, being able to put people (journalists and the public) in touch with the information they want/need, planning, time management, the usual.

Part 2: Applying for a job

I don’t plan to be on applying for a job in the near future, but I do need to build up an accessible record of activities, experiences and skills because it’s increasingly important to keep track of this kind of thing. I do have lists of interviews, presentations and publications, which I update fairly regularly. I’ve recently set up an Academia account and have started to play about with Google Scholar Citations (though I’m finding it quite tricky) in preparation for PhD writing. I try to keep my CV up to date when I know I’m likely to need to send it to places – this isn’t just for jobs, but for bursaries and applications for other things, and if you’re considering Chartership – so it is very handy to be able to quickly send it off without too much effort updating it. I’ve been thinking about writing a CV for public consumption, like what Katie Fraser has, for example, but I’ve not thought through the pros/cons of this and what it might be useful for. I could put it on my LinkedIn profile too, but as I’ve mentioned before, I’m still not sure how LinkedIn could be of use to me.

Part 3: Interviews

I found the advice for this part of the Thing pretty spot on. I’ve recently been on the other side of the interview table and had the unfortunate experience of interviewing some truly dreadful applicants. Here’s some advice that I hope nobody needs to pay attention to!

• Dress smart. It depends on the job you’re going for as to how smart, but seriously, if you turn up in trainers, dirty casual trousers and your shirt’s not buttoned up and tucked in, you’re not giving the impression that you actually give a stuff about the job you’ve applied for.
• Make eye contact. Not in a creepy way, but it really doesn’t look good if you stare at the desk/your shoes/out the window or have your head buried behind your hands. (Yep, had all of those!)
• Be enthusiastic. Not overbearingly so if you can help it, but I had a lot more fun interviewing the really chirpy person than the person who was pretty much sighing his way through every response, and again, it gives the impression that you actually care.
• Don’t apologise for what you consider to be a lack of experience. Big up what you do know and what you have done. There’s a reason you’ve got as far as the interview process, and if you really weren’t experienced enough for the role, you’d have been dismissed as unsuitable already.
• Let the interviewer finish the question before you start answering it! This should be a no-brainer, but wow, that was off-putting. It might be because of nerves, but it gave me the impression that he didn’t have enough respect/interest in me, the role and the questions to even bother listening. At one point the colleague I was on the panel with almost stopped the interview and asked the guy to calm down, because he was answering the questions so wrongly, whereas if he’d have just let me finish I would have given him some indication as to how I wanted him to answer the question.
• Don’t bring your own drink into the interview. Or at least don’t slurp it!
• Don’t be afraid of (a little bit of) silence. Take the time to think of an answer if you don’t know where you’re going to go with a response.
• Think of a couple of questions to ask at the end of the interview, ones that are better than “how much is the pay?” and “when can I start?” This site makes some good points, even though it’s clearly not directly relevant to the LIS profession. Really though it’s about demonstrating that you’re engaged and proactive.

This is a great post about interviewing for a job in an academic library (in the US) by Jenica Rogers, which, like the rest of her blog, is absolutely spot on.

I did this Thing for Thing 10 (oops), and, as I mentioned at the time, it’s a pretty standard route. So all I can do for this one is try to give some (not very sage) advice to people at earlier stages in their career than me…

• Be confident about what you know but don’t pretend to know when you don’t.
• Don’t be afraid to ask questions. People won’t think you’re stupid (or if they do they won’t tell you…!) and it’s better to find things out for definite than wonder if you know or not.
• Make the most of as many opportunities as you can. Be open to the possibility of opportunities and be able to spot them.
• Keep track of the things you’re doing – conferences you attend etc.
• Keep an up to date CV.
• Make the most of professional networks.
• If you don’t ask, you won’t get. Apply for stuff! Ask if you can get involved.
• Don’t not apply for stuff because of fear of failure.
• Stop fearing failure. It won’t get you anywhere.
• Join a Union.
• Join CILIP and/or another professional body.
• When at all possible, don’t do it if you don’t love it.

It’s reflection time…

I’ve had a re-read of my blog posts so far and it seems to be that the Things I put the most effort into are the wordy ones, the ones that require reflection and a certain kind of work, rather than the technical ones that require practice and fiddling. I think this is partly to do with the fact that my paid (un-library-related) job doesn’t require me to use the tools that some of the Things have covered, whereas my voluntary (library-related) work is helped by having a think about the wider themes and issues-based things. It’s helpful to be able to take a step back and work out a sense of perspective and try to see where things fit in with what.

It’s also to do with which is my stronger point – which ties into why I do the work I do – but realising this has also helped to give me a kick up the bum with trying out and adopting useful resources and tools. I’m more aware of them now and am far more likely to use them when it’s a relevant time to (reference management software when I start my PhD, for example). I do now make use of Google Calendar, although with three working calendars/diaries on the go I do need to make more of an effort to just pick one and stick with it, or make it really clear to myself which one I use for which area of my life (work, PhD, Voices for the Library/CILIP-related, personal etc). This will probably be a lot easier come January when things are far less blurred and I’m not in weird cross-over land.

Here’s a late-night plan in weak-analogy-form – I’m going to use December to have a good look at the hats I have, work out when to wear them, how to wear ‘em with style and grace, and think about what I need to wear them with so I’m appropriately prepared for all seasons.

I spent a long time dithering over these Things because I didn’t want to not do them, and wanted to do them properly, and then never did them at all which I feel is getting in the way of me doing any other ones. So, I’m going to be really naughty and not do them. I think I can kind of justify it because:

• I’ve had a play around with Prezi a few times and do like it, but I think I’d always be using it in a very deliberate way rather than as a tool that would help me better communicate my message.
• Slideshare I use whenever I have a presentation to give, both to share the presentation and as an emergency backup in case my USB stick doesn’t work or something!
• The other things aren’t ones that would be useful in my line of work right now, and if I need to learn about them I will definitely use the guides from CPD23 as a starting point.

I’m very sorry CPD23, please forgive me!

This Thing’s been postponed, but um, I don’t like doing things out of sequence…so in order to fill this temporary gap, here’s an emergency blog kitten!

Seeing as I wrote the post for this Thing, I reckon my work’s mostly done It’d be really helpful to have some feedback about it and for as many people as possible to really put some effort into it please!

Some posts about it that I’ve really enjoyed reading so far and would thoroughly recommend are those by:

• Laura (Palely Loitering)
• Annie (The Hobbit Hole)
• Ed (The Cat’s Eye)
• Michelle (LibMichelle)
• JoLibrariAnne

It’s a relief to see that some people have really got the point of what I was saying in the Thing and I do hope that positive things come out of it. If I have anything to add to what I’ve already said it’s the following points:

• It doesn’t take much to do your bit;
• Doing your bit could be one or several of a whole bunch of things;
• You’d better believe that all sectors of the profession are under threat, before it’s too late to do anything about it;
• You’d better believe it’s your professional duty to do something about it.

This is Part Three of Three. In Part One of this Thing I focused on attending, Part Two was about speaking and Part Three is organising.

I don’t have a lot of experience of organising events. I’ve done some behind the scenes work with planning and co-ordinating seminars, some internal advertising and facilitating (mic-running, handing out delegate bags, that kind of thing). When I worked for SINTO I did a bit of work helping to organise training days for library staff working in different sectors, such as disaster management (in case of flooding and fire), and legal resources for academic and public librarians. I ought to take the opportunity to plug a couple of events that SINTO are running in November and December that tie in with Thing 16‘s advocacy topic; Gaining support and influence: an introduction to advocacy for libraries and Measuring and communicating impact: advanced advocacy.

Some general thoughts I’ve picked up along the way are:

• There needs to be a clear idea about who the event is geared towards and what they ought to be able to get out of attending;
• The marketing of the event needs to be put in the places that those people are likely to see it;
• It needs to be affordable for the people you want to attend;
• There needs to be lots of prior notice about when the event is and any opportunities there might be for bursaries etc.

They’re all pretty obvious I guess!

On my Conference Wishlist are:

• Library Camp (attending)
• Edge 2012 (attending)
• Public Library Association Conference 2012 in Philadelphia (oh please, oh pleeeease)
• IFLA World Library and Information Congress 2012 in Helsinki (fingers crossed)
• ALA Annual Conference (some day!)

In Part One of this Thing I focused on attending. In Part Two I’m focusing on speaking.

I’ve been given the opportunity to speak at a few events (listed at the bottom here) – as you can see, there’s a real combination of public speaking at protests and campaign events like Read-Ins, panel discussions for the Office for National Statistics and Voice of the Listener and Viewer, AGMs, and guest lectures and workshops at universities. I’m by no means an expert and have a lot of learning to do, but I enjoy sharing what I’m doing, and can genuinely say it’s because I care about what I’m doing and think it’s something valuable. Hopefully others can learn from my experiences, use what I say as a starting point and do something themselves to contribute to protecting and promoting the library and information profession.

When I start my PhD I hope to present at conferences and discuss my research, because again, I’ll be researching something I genuinely care about and think has an important role to play in the future of public libraries and the democratic system. I’ve already written a paper proposal for the January 2012 BOBCATSSS conference in Amsterdam (deadline is 1st October so there’s still time for others to submit!) and hope the panel find my proposal interesting and relevant enough to accept it! I’ve also applied to speak at things like the CILIP Career Development Group New Professionals Conference (what a gobful!) and although my application was unsuccessful, I was happy that Voices for the Library were given the opportunity to share our activism experience and skills in a workshop at the event, which I think was ultimately a more effective format for the content. If the knowledge you have to share is interesting and relevant enough, I think there are often opportunities for you to get it out there another way. Which leads me to the metaphor of the door:

Ned wrote a great post about presenting opportunities at library events and how to get them, so I won’t repeat what he said, but will echo one of his key points: If you get your name out there by responding to calls for papers, even if you’re not successful, people will be aware that you’re keen to present and have something to talk about. They may then recommend you to someone else or keep you in mind for another time.

Once you’ve spoken at a couple of things and not completely screwed up, word seems to get out that you might be suitable for other events. All of the speaking gigs I’ve done so far have been as a result of someone asking me if I’d do it, rather than the other way round. I guess that’s saved me the effort of applying, but it does mean I have to work out exactly what they want and what their event is about, and how my ‘area’ fits into that. The plus side of that, though, is that it’s helped me build interdisciplinary links that I probably wouldn’t have done otherwise, through people I’ve met at events and chatting to them afterwards about the relevance of the library and information profession to the different sectors we can be found it, and to wider society. It’s amazing what opportunities can crop up from talking to people – loads of people are interested in libraries, it turns out! For example, although I had to turn down the opportunity in the end because I just didn’t have the time to do all the background research for it, I was asked if I’d present a paper about the politics of library stock management for a Politics and International Studies conference on insurgency, development, and world order in the 21st century!

Presentation

I’ve recently adopted a standard kind of format for the presentations I give where slides are required. I try to avoid words where at all possible and just use images on slides as a memory aid for me, something to stick in the audience’s mind and keep them entertained! When I do use words I roughly stick by the advice in this post, though rules are there to be broken etc. I didn’t know there was a way to embed fonts in Powerpoint so I’ll most definitely be using that from now on! Previously I’ve converted Powerpoints into pdf and then uploaded them to Slideshare to try and get round the potential problem, or just stuck to a font I know is fairly universal. Boring fonts no more!

Attending

I can only second what Katie wrote about the whys of attending events. Deepening your knowledge of a specific area, becoming aware of areas and issues you never knew existed, meeting people who care about the things you’re interested in and know more about the things you want to know more about – it’s all really valuable if you genuinely want to do more in the area that the event is covering. However…I’d strongly recommend against attending something just because you feel like you ought to and not because you care. For a start, you’re not going to get anything out of it, so it’s a waste of your own time and/or money. Second, if an event’s booked up you’re taking the space of someone who might actually get something out of attending. Third, you’re totally going to bum everyone out if you can’t be enthusiastic about your time there. I say this because I’m aware that some people think that attending conferences and events is supposedly really important but they don’t quite get why, so go along anyway. In a slight contradiction of what I’ve just said – that’s ok, as long as you go with a sense of curiosity and an open mind, talk to people, learn stuff – and actually do something with what you’ve learned and the conversations you’ve had. I say this as the attendee of a fair amount of conferences and the recipient of a fair number of bursaries – I try to deserve the opportunities I’m given and really don’t like it when I know someone’s applied for and been granted funding to go to something, and done bugger all with that opportunity that others (me!) would give their right arm for. I’m fully aware that this sounds resentful and mean, but seriously, it ain’t on, you know? Yes, getting a conference bursary means you can put it on your cv and that you can probably write a good begging letter – but that’s not the point of the events or the spirit in which the awards are…awarded.

Money-wise…

It goes without saying that attending conferences can be a costly business. I’m pretty much perpetually skint. But I’ve never let that stop me! As I say, I’m fortunate enough to have been given free places at a fair few events. Actually…I’m not sure I’ve ever paid to go to anything. Jammy. Here are some handy hints I’ve picked up along the way:

• Look for any bursaries available that are advertised by the conference organisers. For example, BIALL offer bursaries to library school students for the BIALL Annual Conference.
• If you can’t find a way of getting funding directly from the conference organisers, you might be able to get funding indirectly. Have a look on the CILIP website and see if there are any funding opportunities from special interest groups. For example, the Health Libraries Group offered bursaries for Umbrella 2011. Regional groups might have something on offer, too.
• If you’ve exhausted these options, it’s not necessarily game over. If there’s no mention of bursary opportunities, you could ask the organiser if they’d consider starting one. I did this for the Edge conference and bagsied myself a free place that way. Nothing’s ever truly free, of course – but the cost of writing a blog post summarising the event, or submitting an article to a professional magazine isn’t expensive – and then the event has benefited you twofold, with something else to put on your cv or mention in job applications.
• Failing that, beg a sponsor! Write them an email explaining why you want to go, why you’re so interested and what they’ll get out of sponsoring you to go. It’s good publicity for them when you write one of those aforementioned summaries or articles and thank them for their kindness. Or perhaps you could spend some time working on their stall – it gives you a different insight into things, you meet different people and they get the benefit of the occasional loo break and some time to see the events themselves or have a meeting with potential clients etc.
• Or, ask the organisers if you can help out. I did this for the New Professionals Conference last year with some other MA students, which helped the organisers and gave us the opportunity to attend something valuable that we otherwise might not have been able to.
• If at first you don’t succeed… there are a couple of international conferences that I’m absolutely desperate to go to, and have applied for a couple of times. I’m not giving in! I know of a few people who’ve been successful on their second or third attempt – and if you’re committed enough to apply year after year, surely that’s a sign that you deserve the place, eh?
• Find the free events! They do exist and even though they don’t come with a hefty price-tag, they can be just as valuable. Things like Members’ Days and AGMs are worth attending, for more reasons than just the interesting content, too.

Making the most

Again, what Katie said. Talk to people! I’ve never found it difficult to talk to strangers so I was at an advantage when I started attending conferences, and now it’s rare that there’s absolutely nobody I know at an event that I go to so it’s not an issue…we’re an incestuous bunch, us library and info peeps.

I’d definitely recommend writing about your experiences, either on a personal blog or asking if a professional magazine/journal would like a submission. I have to admit, I do find reading huge long blog posts about events quite dull, but understand they can be a valuable exercise for the person who’s attended, and some people do like to read about things in great detail. My approach tends to be thematic – as Katie recommended, taking in the big picture of the sessions attended and the theme of the overall event, and applying it. You won’t remember every little detail of the event afterwards, but if you’ve thought about and applied the themes, more will stick with you, which is ultimately what it’s about. You need to be able to say “yes, this is why going to this thing was valuable to me”. Similarly with contributing to discussions and asking speakers questions – actively engaging with the event rather than being a passive recipient helps you get a lot more out of it and makes it far more enjoyable for those contributing to and organising it.