Lauren Smith

Having thought about this for a few days, I reckon we have the customer service pretty much sorted and are coming up with some really good ways to make the most of stock, including building networks to share the stuff we do invest in.

Where we’re really let down is by the buildings and the years of restriction on local authority spending that means so many libraries fall short of the kinds of lovely places we’d like them to be.

So I think the library of the future is mainly a place where much better attention is paid to surroundings and facilities. Full thoughts here – get in touch if it would help to have anything clarified:

http://ljhutchins.tumblr.com/post/23487305802/libfesto-my-vision-for-public-libraries

It was also illuminatingly hard to try to ‘think outside the box’ on this one without hearing the ‘inner critic’ goin: “But how will you PAY for that?” Turning off that voice was perhaps one of the biggest challenges of the exercise.

Can I suggest a small ongoing body (providing joined up thinking; at the moment the stream of often political oriented reports are somewhat disjoint in nature), assessing the current state of the libraries, acting as a focus point for our understanding of the libraries in our society (carrying out the necessary analysis here – liaising with all stakeholders — the public, professionals – teachers, law and order, etc. — as well as academics and researchers), advising the public on the value of libraries to our society at the moment (or at least our current understanding as it stands).

If this body could carry out an ombudsman type of role also I think it would be popular with the public (if any public body deserves this it is libraries – along with any other mechanisms that might help improve the service). An ombudsman would help allay concerns that planners do not have a picture of the libraries on the ground as people are experiencing them.

As mentioned above (previous post) I think this should at this point in time be a permanent body because of the rate of change our society is currently experiencing (economic, technological, social, etc.), but also because library science (a technological factor) is progressing quite rapidly as well (the potential for libraries is changing as librarians apply new technologies; social research on libraries and thinking is progressing at quite a fast pace also with the renewed interest in libraries of our age).

I actually posited the above a number of years ago (on Tim Coates’ blog). Since then the thought surfaced that this was actually the vision of the 1964 Act anyway. Maybe there should be a focus on the quality of the strategic body that has been put in place by statute, and the quality of the planning they carry out – they shouldn’t by any means in a democracy be above criticism. [Is this a role of the select committee (assessing the competence of planning bodies)? Maybe a lot more feedback needs to go to the select committee from the public until the AC itself is able to handle the issues?]

I wonder if chief librarians are now so removed from the deprived communities that need libraries most that they are unsure of their own position. The social valuse of libraries to otherwise socially excluded individuals is enormous, and for the rest of us its a fantastic resource and also comfort to know that its there should we ever join the excluded.

In their defence though its a bit like being told that in order to save one child you must shoot the other… I’m glad I’m not a senior librarian who has to push through cuts that will harm the most vulnerable most of all!

I support Nicholas’ comment 100% – there’s lots of great ideas posted here but I think his is the most coherent and best expressed.

I would just add ‘community memory’ to his list; collecting local knowledge and information, print, digital, web or otherwise, and ordering it/promoting it/disseminating it for today’s and the future’s community to enjoy.

Any assessment of the situation at the ‘community’ level and of the value of public libraries to society at this point in time needs at the moment, because society is changing at a fast pace, to be done on an ongoing and frequent basis.

Include:

- An evaluation of our current understanding of the value of public libraries.

- The current schools of thought on the future of the public libraries (Conservative’s – they are not value for money, Seth Godin, etc.).

Things may settle down again in a few decades and into a more mature state, but at the moment library planning needs to reflect the fast pace of change in the society around us.

Well…  65% of the 30.57% of Doncaster people who voted in the May 3rd elections have chosen to continue with the Mayoral System.  Whether this be a re-election of the current incumbent or another person it still means power in the hands of one person and as few as 2 people in a Cabinet.  Our arguments against the system and the disastrous actions of the Mayor in terms of Doncaster’s Libraries are well documented in previous posts…

Sadly it seems our fears are to be proven correct.  We have learnt that of the 25 original volunteers in Rossington Library, only 10 remain, a mere 3 months after re-opening as a ‘Community-run’ Library.  Reasons are unknown but perhaps the vounteers realised the magnitude and responsibilities required of them, and recognised this to be the remit of paid, trained, experienced and qualified Council employees.  We have not been informed of the situations within any other library and can only hope this is not replicated.  Not only are we left with a 2-tier system but our original suspicions, as we warned many, many months ago, are being realised with the stealthy closing and/or reducing of service in those Libraries the Cabinet and Mayor deemed unnecessary.  How they believe Doncaster can now fulfill its statutory requirement regarding provision of a comprehensive and efficient library service to those who live, work and are educated in the widely located boroughs of Doncaster is unfathomable.

We may be quiet, but we have not stopped. There is still time to donate and force the Mayor to reverse this travesty.  Please help us to match the Legal Aid funding granted to our campaign regarding a Judicial Review, which continues making its course.  Donations are welcomed in different ways, you could simply pass cash to a member of the campaign who will ensure it gets to our Treasurer John Sheppard. You could log in to your own paypal account and send funds directly to our campaign using the email address johnshep50@talktalk.net or you could contact John directly to request an address to where you could send a cheque (payable to ‘Save Our Libraries’), either by email or telephone on 07951382703.  Please, Please, PLEASE support us by sharing this information as widely as possible.

Save Doncaster Libraries has been hearing worrying reports of people not receiving their polling cards, and even worse being turned away from polling stations when they arrive to exercise their right to vote, for the most tenuous of reasons.  Who knows how this will affect the results?  We urge anyone who has been treated so shabbily by the Council to contact us (email details are on the right) so we can compile a document to submit.  We cannot allow the Council to disable Doncaster Residents right to have their say in how they are run – and in such an important local election.

Save Doncaster Libraries campaigners have voted.  We have done our bit to try and rid the Council of its current dictatorial leadership model.  We cannot EVER enable one person to have such power as Mr Davies has, and risk the well-being of Doncaster resting on the whims if one such inept person.  Davies has systematically ignored petitions, protests, Overview and Scrutiny Committee call-ins, an amendment placed that would have minimised the damage… and has now forced campaigners along the route of a judicial review.  Has he been made aware, by his equally incompetent Cabinet, of the severe loss in the High Court of Surrey County Councils attempt to destroy their library service in a very similar manner (also reported by BBC News - ‘Surrey Library Volunteer decision ruled unlawful by High Court’)?  Is he so blithely unempathetic and uncaring that in these times of severe hardship and the leading of Doncaster Council employees into poverty through cuts to terms and conditions or redundancy (they could always volunteer to work their old roles, this seems to be the Mayoral and Cabinet thinking, how nice for someone on a Mayoral wage cut only so he could keep his teaching pension that was awarded before the current cuts to that provision are enforced!), that he is willing to spend more Council money in Court defending the indefensible?  It seems he is.

We can only hope that the Voters of Doncaster (those who were able) have shown their contempt for the man and the leadership model at yesterday’s polls.

If one was to only read Doncaster’s local paper ‘The Free Press’, one would believe the population of Doncaster is all for the destruction of the Library Service.  Indeed it seems every week there are grinning volunteers gleefully extolling the new virtues of their ‘just opened’ community library, detailing ‘new initiatives’ and ‘exciting opportunities’ whilst the newly departed and now unemployed staff must look on with a sadness at the wilful ignorance of the myriad efforts they made when in post, and how much more they would have done had they not been handcuffed by a Council that looked in the opposite direction as they took away staff, resources, training and support.  Congratulations Mayor Davies you have achieved the 2-tier service and denigration of communities you so desired.

The volunteer groups are still all asking for supporters.  To read the forementioned local paper one would believe all Libraries have these groups set up.  This is not true, I have learned that my local branch, Wheatley, is to shut on Saturday.  Whether it will re-open who knows.  The Council website is, as usual, woefully out of date but it may be worth a look at its Find your Local Library pages. 

We can only hope the valiant volunteers manage to keep the buildings open as long as it takes for the Council to realise the devastating destruction forced through by the Mayor and his Cabinet, and reverse the decision.  There will always be a place for volunteers and ‘Friends of’ groups in a Library service.  Libraries have always been community resources.  But they should not be left to the communities to manage, fund, resource, account for and be legally responsible for.  Save Doncaster Libraries does not condemn the volunteer groups, we are sad that they are forced into being by an uncaring and dismissive Doncaster Leadership.

If the Mayor can ignore petitions, protests, advice, professional guidance, reports, plans, legal decisions from like services elsewhere and the wishes of the population, and railroad through plans in such a way, to the library service, what else is he willing to do?  Save Doncaster Libraries is fighting not only to save this vital service, but to ensure the Mayor obeys statutory obligations, legal consultation requirements and listens to the people.  To this end we are committing to a Judicial Review process, but, WE NEED YOUR HELP!  We must match legal aid funding.  Please give anything you can.  Donations are welcomed in different ways, you could simply pass cash to a member of the campaign who will ensure it gets to our Treasurer John Sheppard. You could log in to your own paypal account and send funds directly to our campaign using the email address johnshep50@talktalk.net or you could contact John directly to request an address to where you could send a cheque (payable to ‘Save Our Libraries’), either by email or telephone on 07951382703.

And remember, at the local elections on May 3rd YOU can tell the Mayor and his Cabinet exactly what you think of him, by voting out this dictatorial and undemocratic system of governance.

If there was any lingering doubt regarding the Mayor’s contempt for Doncaster’s Public Library Service and his determination to destroy it, these articles surely rid that once and for all. 

Mayor defends decision to veto £380,000 libraries investment

Mayor of Doncaster refuses to reopen libraries

Mr Davies clearly has no understanding of the concept of volunteer – this is a role that supports and enhances a service, not one that should take on all the responsibilities and pressures that belong to a paid service.  £380,000 would have ensured a paid member of staff in situ in ALL 14 threatened branches, supporting the volunteers and providing a professional service to users.  The paid member of staff would be able to go the extra mile that volunteers, with the best will, would be unable to do so, and would be an invaluable link to the library service as a whole.  This small amount of money would have enabled the communities of Denaby and Carcroft to have back their libraries, and for the other 12 threatened libraries to remain open and viable.  As it stands Doncaster will lose far more than it gains and the Mayor will simply gloat that those communities, who are not of an infrastructure to support volunteer-maintained libraries, just did not want them.

Save Doncaster Libraries continues to fight on.  For 2 years now we have attempted to make the man see sense.  We are now having to take legal action.  Help us to match the Legal Aid funding granted to our campaign regarding a Judicial Review, which continues making its course.  Donations are welcomed in different ways, you could simply pass cash to a member of the campaign who will ensure it gets to our Treasurer John Sheppard. You could log in to your own paypal account and send funds directly to our campaign using the email address johnshep50@talktalk.net or you could contact John directly to request an address to where you could send a cheque (payable to ‘Save Our Libraries’), either by email or telephone on 07951382703.

The news on BBC Radio Sheffield this morning has revealed that Mayor Davies has refused the proposed amendment to his budget which would fund the re-opening of Denaby and Carcroft libraries, and would also fund a paid member of staff in both those libraries and the remaining 12 being thrown to vounteers to run.  The news. and short soundbite from the Mayor. was heard by this campaigner at just after 8am during Toby Foster’s breakfast show.  During a short statement Mr Davies revealed that he believed he was the one with the power to set the budget, not the Councillors, and he did not want to amend the budget to allow for this change.  The amount in question was minimal in the extreme and indeed was reported as only one part of a 6-part amendment totalling £610,000. In short, the Mayor has revealed he is unable to maintain any flexibility whatsoever in his plans, is deaf to the pleas, protests and reasoned arguments of protestors, ignorant to costed and forward-thinking plans of others and fixated only on his original scheme to destroy Doncaster’s Libraries.  Doncaster Councillors have betrayed the service by approving this budget.  Make no mistake, this is an ideological attack on the Library service of Doncaster, one in a borough of high levels of unemployment, high adult illiteracy, over 23% of 16-25 year-olds being NEETs and nearly 40% having no independent online information access themselves.

If you wish to ask the Mayor yourself about this travesty, he is allowing members of the public 20 minutes prior to Cabinet meetings during which to do so.  Doug Wright, of SDL, has taken advantage of this opportunity, and was surprised to be the only member of the public to do so.  Do not be shy, the Mayor states

“ ”I am always happy to answer questions from any member of the public and am committed to being open and honest with people.

“Whenever I’m out and about I get stopped and asked questions so I thought it would be good to offer people a regular slot to come and talk to me.”

And if you remain unhappy, we can only recommend you let the Mayor and his Cabinet know so in the Mayoral Referendum poll of May 3rd.  To have your say on May 3rd, you must make sure you are registered to vote. For further information on the Referendum or voting, please call Doncaster Council’s Elections team on 01302 734649 or email elections@doncaster.gov.uk.  To check you are on the Electoral Register, you can (ironically) go to Central Library, Waterdale, Doncaster or to the Electoral Services Unit also in Waterdale, Doncaster. Alternatively you can call the Electoral Services Unit direct on telephone number (01302) 734658/734685 or email the elections people on the forementioned address. 

DON’T LET THIS HAPPEN!!!!  HELP US FIGHT THE PROPOSALS ALL THE WAY!!!  Help us to match the Legal Aid funding granted to our campaign regarding a Judicial Review, which continues making its course.  Donations are welcomed in different ways, you could simply pass cash to a member of the campaign who will ensure it gets to our Treasurer John Sheppard. You could log in to your own paypal account and send funds directly to our campaign using the email address johnshep50@talktalk.net or you could contact John directly to request an address to where you could send a cheque (payable to ‘Save Our Libraries’), either by email or telephone on 07951382703.

As we have said previously, we are making all manner of effort to match the Legal Aid funding granted to our campaign regarding a Judicial Review, which continues making its course.  Donations are welcomed in different ways, you could simply pass cash to a member of the campaign who will ensure it gets to our Treasurer John Sheppard. You could log in to your own paypal account and send funds directly to our campaign using the email address johnshep50@talktalk.net or you could contact John directly to request an address to where you could send a cheque (payable to ‘Save Our Libraries’), either by email or telephone on 07951382703.

Information has been passed to us, regarding the efforts of one Parish Council in Doncaster who are attempting to ensure their local library does not close, despite the best efforts of the Council to make this so.

Whilst taking issue that members of public may have no interest in the library (we have talked before regarding marketing, making relevant, historic insufficient funding etc etc) the points of interest are the issues surrounding a premises which is rented, not owned (a problem Sprotborough Council have also encountered) – premises for a library are not a guarantee therefore how can a voluntary group take over what is not available? Edenthorpe are also realistic in their estimation regarding number of volunteers needed.  As they state Bawtry have over 70, this is close to sufficient it seems, Edenthorpe has thus far a generous estimate of one quarter of this, another threatened branch (Wheatley) has had merely 5 people come forward.  No doubt the Mayor will see this as proof of a community not wanting its library, in fact it is proof of what we at SDL have been saying all along – the majority of communities within Doncaster do not have the infrastructure to enable a library staffed by volunteers.  We regret that Edenthorpe Parish Council has had to resort to such measures and despair at its acceptance that such change as that being foisted upon its library is a necessity, but SDL wholeheartedly sympathises with their plight and the situation into which they, and 13 other branches have been forced.

Finally – a reminder of why we keep this fight going.

Please help us and donate anything you are able to.  Thank you.

Efforts to match the Legal Aid funding awarded to our brave resident heading our fight for justice through the Courts, have begun. A hardy group of campaigners stood outside Doncasters’ fantastic Markets to inform and enable people to drop cash in buckets.  We are also commencing targeted requesting, and facebook/twitter campaigning. We need to raise a significant amount in a very short time.

Donations are welcomed in different ways, you could simply pass cash to a member of the campaign who will ensure it gets to our Treasurer John Sheppard. You could log in to your own paypal account and send funds directly to our campaign using the email address johnshep50@talktalk.net or you could contact John directly to request an address to where you could send a cheque (payable to ‘Save Our Libraries’), either by email or telephone on 07951382703.

Please help.  We would hate this effort, (to ensure the Mayor and his Cabinet do right by the libraries, and are reminded of their statutory duties regarding ALL public services when wishing to make changes), to fail.

Save Doncaster Libraries is finally able to reveal the results of some weeks of negotiation, discussion and research, to reveal that we will be fully supporting LEGAL ACTION against Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council regarding the actions they have undertaken against their public library service.

SDL has never said the public library service was perfect, we acknowledged improvements and changes were necessary.  However we dispute this meant wholesale closure of Denaby and Carcroft and vehemently decry the change to Community Libraries of 12 others, whereby communities were forced to volunteer or lose them (closure by stealth).  Moreover we believe the council have been detrimental in their statutory duties to properly consult throughout the 18 months of the process so far and remain disgusted that, at no point, have alternatives even been considered despite being proposed by ourselves and the Labour Group (we remain, however, apolitical).  For many months we have been warning the Mayor and his Cabinet that they were leaving themselves wide open to Legal Action, but they chose, at all stages, to ignore us.

The Legal Action has now been started.  Public Interest Lawyers, on behalf of a local resident, are calling for a Judicial Review to stop any further unnecessary closures.

To support this Doncaster resident Save Doncaster Libraries are urgently asking for financial support to fund the case.

The Claimant is being partly funded by the Legal Services Commission.  However, because the case can benefit a large number of people, the Legal Services Commission is requiring that a portion of the legal costs is provided by the community.  The view taken by the Legal Services Commission is that part of the claim ought to be funded by the large number of people that it can benefit.  SDL needs your help to raise that money.

Any donation, no matter how small, can be managed by contacting SDL treasurer John Sheppard, email address johnshep50@talktalk.net; telephone 07951382703, or by contacting the blog author (see contact link above) for discussion of your preferred method. Please note that if donating by cheque it should be made out to ‘Save Our Libraries’.

SDL will be examining all potential funding avenues, in order that we can make a success of this action, and ensure the Council look after their library service, and indeed do not attempt to destroy any other service in such a manner again.  The Council need to be called to account, to address their responsibilities and act appropriately.  SDL is delighted to support the local resident in the fight to ensure residents are heard and that the Cabinet and Council realise they cannot simply dictate and ride roughshod over the wishes of the 15000 (and more) Doncaster residents who signed the Save Our Libraries petition.

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.

Last week I attended the last of three workshops in the LIS DREaM series, in Edinburgh (I’ve also reported on workshops one and two). The sessions were all informative, and some were of particular interest as potential research methods for my PhD.

Repertory Grids

I found the session on repertory grids particularly useful. The repertory grid (RG) is an interviewing technique that enables the researcher to elicit “both the conceptual content embodied in an individual’s mental model and the relationships which exist among these concepts” (Latta and Swigger, 1992). This is something I’m going to investigate further because a lot of the reading I’ve been doing around political behaviour and how people conceptualise politics highlight the issue that politics is a very personal topic. In addition, people’s attitudes and behaviours are not always rational or directly influenced by knowledge, and are often influenced by heuristics or rules of thumb.

I want to talk to teenagers about their attitudes towards politics and participation, and what political issues they think are important to them, rather than assuming that I know what matters to young people. In order to do that properly, and talk about issues that are actually relevant, I need to be able to identify and define those topics. The use of repertory grids as a scoping tool prior to in-depth interviews seems like a good way of doing this. Dr. Turner pointed out that using a method like this with cards and scraps of paper is a very unthreatening way of getting a lot of information out of people, and I think this will be a benefit when talking about such a personal and potentially emotionally-charged issue.

I can also use my findings to identify any possible trends and groupings of concepts when the data from the grids is turned into chart form. Dr. Turner recommended Repgrid for this, but there’s also an open source alternative. OpenRepGrid – this is an add-on to R, which is free statistical computing software. I’d never heard of R until a Researcher’s Digest session in my department a few weeks ago, and I’ve never used statistical software before, so at some point in the future I’m going to have to acquaint myself with it. I imagine bucket-loads of coffee will be required.

This week I’m reading about the use of RGs in Information Science, including the following journal articles:

• Birdi, B. (2011). ‘Investigating fiction reader characteristics using personal construct theory’. Aslib Proceedings, 63 (2/3), pp.275-294.
• Crudge, S.E. & Johnson, F.C. (2004). ‘Using the information seeker to elicit construct models for search engine evaluation’. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 55 (9), pp.794-806. 
• Latta, G.F. & Swigger, K. (1992). ‘Validation of the Repertory Grid for Use in Modeling Knowledge’. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 43 (2), p.115.
• Madigan, D. et al. (1995). ‘Repertory hypergrids for large-scale hypermedia linking’. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 43, pp.465-481.
• McKnight, C. (2000). ‘The personal construction of information space’. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 51 (8), pp.730-733.
• Mengshoel, O.J. (1995). ‘A reformulation technique and tool for knowledge interchange during knowledge acquisition’. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 43, pp.177-212.
• Oppenheim, C., Stenson, J. & Wilson, R.M.S. (2003). ‘Studies on Information as an Asset II: Repertory Grid’. Journal of Information Science, 29 (5), pp.419-432.
• Potthoff, J.K. et al. (2000). ‘An Evaluation of Patron Perceptions of Library Space Using the Role Repertory Grid Procedure’. College and Research Libraries, 61 (3), pp.191-203.
• Rugg, G. & McGeorge, P. (2005). ‘The sorting techniques: a tutorial paper on card sorts, picture sorts and item sorts’. Expert Systems, 22 (3), pp.94-107.
• Whyte, G., Bytheway, A. & Edwards, C. (1997). ‘Understanding user perceptions of information systems success’. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 6 (1), pp.35-68.

Discussions about research and practice

Much as the sessions were all interesting introductions to different research methods, I found that the conversations snuck in between talks were also of great value (and wish we’d had time for more). Along with the final session of the day – impact snakes and ladders – I found that some issues I have about the ‘state of the profession’ and current goings on are shared with others. For the final session we were split into groups and asked to answer some questions, then join with another group to share our responses, which roughly lined up with one another. My group, full-time PhD researchers, was paired with the group of public library workers.

The questions we were asked to answer were these:

1. To what extent do you consider that it is a PhD student’s responsibility to ensure that their PhD study has impact?
2. What strategies have members of your group developed to ensure that your PhD project is having/has impact?
3. Are there any particular difficulties with ensuring that your project has impact when you are a PhD student?

And the public librarians were asked these:

LIS researchers would like to complete projects to support librarians in delivering their services.
a) What do researchers need to do to make this happen?
b) Are there any particular difficulties for public librarians in accessing and using LIS research? How could these be addressed?

We were asked to discuss issues of relationships between research and practice and come up with recommendations about how to improve communication and getting research into practice etc. The usual suggestions came up, including ‘continuous discourse’, ‘networking events’ and ‘communicating with each other’. This is all well and good, and I appreciate the value of events such as the LIS DREaM Project and the work that goes into them, but I think the issues we have go far deeper than putting researchers and a few interested practitioners in a room with each other. No amount of that will solve the underlying systemic issues that exist within higher levels of the profession, and stem from a lack of appreciation of the values and principles of public libraries and the point of academic research.

This isn’t something new and is an ongoing problem. A number of our ‘solutions’, ironically, were things that used to exist. And quite frankly, it’s a crime that they don’t any more. Public Library Journal, for example, was the only UK journal that published the kind of research that’s actually useful and potentially implementable by practitioners. And without consultation or notice, CILIP killed it.

We suggested publishing research that promoted improvement and innovation in library services, and demonstrated the value of libraries to society. If only there was some kind of government department that ‘got’ that kind of thing. It could maybe include related services…museums, and archives, perhaps. We could call it the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council. What’s that, we had one? Oh, the coalition government got rid of it? Bummer.

A number of us also felt quite strongly that although high-quality research is being conducted in academic departments across the UK, its impact is severely limited if those in control within library services find it inconvenient to listen and respond to the results in a meaningful way. This is if researchers can even get access to library services to research within in the first place, which for various reasons can be incredibly difficult.

Thanks to Hazel and everyone involved in the workshop for another useful and thought-provoking day.

I’m going to be speaking at the SHARP Conference in Dublin at the end of June, with Professor Claire Squires and my supervisor David McMenemy. In fact, we’re lucky enough (?) to be the very first session on the very first day of the conference. The programme is available here.

Our bit is about this:

The Fight for Libraries: 21st Century Advocacy, Austerity and Alliance

• David McMenemy (University of Strathclyde) Losing the library faith? The public library ethos in an era of austerity
• Lauren Smith (University of Strathclyde) Advocating for libraries in an era of cuts
• Claire Squires (University of Stirling) Uneasy Alliances: Libraries and the UK Book Trade in the 21st Century

I’m really excited to be presenting for the first time as a PhD researcher (although what I’ll be talking about isn’t within the remit of my research and is based on my experiences and what I’ve learnt over the last couple of years as an activist/advocate/interested party) and it looks like a really varied programme with an audience who might not usually be exposed to library and information science research and goings on, which is always a good thing. I’m a bit disappointed that I’ll be missing Alistair Black’s session, which will be happening at the same time as mine, but I’m looking forward to the rest of my time there.

Here’s a bit of blurb about the conference:

The 20th Annual SHARP Conference
The Battle for Books
26-29 June 2012
Trinity College Dublin, Ireland

“In a city like Dublin, which has been home to Swift, Wilde and Joyce one
naturally thinks of ‘The Battle for Books’ in terms of censorship,
constraint and restraint. This major international conference will address
these topics but will also consider the concept of ‘the battle for books’ as
broadly as possible.

More than 180 papers will be presented at the conference. Keynote speakers
include Professor Ann Blair (Harvard), Professor Germaine Warkentin (Toronto),
Professor Nicholas Cronk (Oxford), Professor Claire Connolly (Cardiff),
Professor James Raven (Essex), and Sir Peter Stothard, editor of the TLS.

This conference will bring the leading practitioners in the field of ‘book
history’ from around the world to Dublin, a city which has recently been
designed as a UNESCO City of Literature.

If you are interested in books, and the cultural, social and economic
conditions in which books are produced and consumed, you should not miss this
conference.”

I’ve not posted in a while so I thought I’d share the presentation I gave yesterday to some members of my department here at Strathclyde now that I’m a couple of weeks away from the three month mark. It’s an introduction to my PhD topic (which has taken a bit of a different direction to the one my proposal was supposed to be going down, but that seems to be fairly standard procedure) and gives a brief outline to the problems, research questions and theories I’m considering. I’m by no means an expert in political or critical theory, so it’s all new, but I managed to justify how it’s relevant to information science in a fairly convincing way I think!

I’m going to be submitting a position paper to the AHRC Justice Symposium that’s being held at the University of Stirling on Saturday 28th April. I think it’s a really good opportunity for Computer and Information Science researchers to make contact and share ideas with researchers in  other disciplines, as well as being good practice for presenting in an academic environment, so I thought I’d share the details in case there are other Strathclyde or Stirling students who’d like to get involved.

Any Strathclyde/Stirling students wishing to participate in the event should email  graeme.t.brown@strath.ac.uk by no later than Friday 30th March for a booking form, and ensure that they provide a brief outline of the intended topic and content of the position paper to be presented.

Students and staff from Strathclyde will be able to take advantage of free transport from campus to the symposium and lunch and refreshments will be provided on the day, again free of charge.

The purpose of the event is to bring together researchers and students from Strathclyde and Stirling in intellectual debate and discussion, and to mark the establishment of the Consortium agreement that now exists between our universities.  As you may know, the Consortium has attracted significant financial support in the form of studentships from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).

There will be two main elements to the symposium. In the morning, staff and students will gather to hear a keynote address from Chris Mullin, the author, journalist and former MP who served as a minister in three departments of British government and was chairman of the Home Affairs select committee. Chris Mullin’s books include three highly acclaimed volumes of diaries, “A View from the Foothills”, “Decline and Fall”, and “A Walk-On Part”, along with the novel “A Very British Coup”, which was made into an award-winning television series. His “Error of Judgement – the truth about the Birmingham Bombings” led to the correction of one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in British legal history, and was made into a drama documentary by Granada Television.

After lunch, delegates will be able to attend round-table discussions on the theme of Justice as it relates to their specific subject area, be that History, Literature, Creative Writing, Publishing Studies, Journalism, or Archives and Information Sciences.

The CIS strand of the BGP Consortium Symposium invites staff and students from Strathclyde and Stirling universities, who are working in CIS related areas, to present position papers of no more than 10 minutes on a CIS specific topic that is closely related to the overarching symposium theme of justice. Due to time constraints the number of presentations will be limited to four.

The structure of the CIS specific event is designed to break down into two broad sections. The first section will consist of the position paper presentations. This will be followed by a discussion session that relates the specific topics covered within each of the presentations to broader issues within the justice theme that are relevant to the CIS discipline.

The justice theme of the BGP Consortium symposium is particularly relevant to the CIS discipline and can be approached from multiple perspectives.  It is not the intention here to produce an exhaustive or exclusive list of topics that participants may discuss, but a range of potential topics are offered below that that may or may not be taken up by participants.

Social Justice

• The public financing of public libraries and information services; the nature and consequences of privatisation of public libraries and information services and the consequences of specific treaties such as GATS.
• The extent, nature and consequences of neoliberal and neoconservative policies on publicly funded information services.
• Information poverty and the digital divide(s). This could be related to other broad concepts such as equity of access and information literacy or more specific areas such as the way individuals access healthcare information or political knowledge to engage with democratic processes (or the role information providers play in providing this information).

Censorship and bias

• An examination of the way information was/is provided under totalitarian regimes: can social media undermine certain aspects of state sponsored censorship?
• What are the implications of search engines censoring results and in the case of Google, closing certain AdSense accounts?
• The extent and effects of self-censorship: what were the effects (actual or potential) of Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1998, which stated that local authorities “shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality”, on library collection policies.
• What are the effects of internet filtering software on the ability of public library users to search for information online?

Citizen Involvement

• What impact is the ‘guerrilla librarian’ movement on social justice having and can the profession learn from it?
• What role did social media and citizen journalism play in the Arab Spring uprisings?
• Does unmediated content delivery on the internet constitute a fairer platform for discussion or are the traditional publishing avenues still necessary to ensure provenance and reliability?

Legislation and Privacy

• Does Freedom of Information legislation make public bodies more accountable and improve social justice?
• In what way has legislation such as the PATRIOT Act in the United States had an impact upon data mining and data protection?

Just a bit of a plug for Leeds Playlist, which I’m really enjoying taking part in – my first playlist (on the assigned theme of ‘colour’) went up this afternoon and I’ve been getting my ears around the other ones up there. It’s serving as a great introduction to things I’ve not listened to before and a nice reminder of things I’d forgotten about! My current fave is @fearfulpenguin’s colours one because she introduced me to Metric and she loves The Hot Puppies. Winner!

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

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.