Andy,
I would not wish to argue that "Libraries change lives" has no value, but
the end, however desirable it may be, is not always justified by the means
used to reach it. In this case, professional independence, which I place
very highly in my list of priorities, is being undermined. But, never mind,
because this undermining comes with funding, acting like a carrot to a
donkey.
Funding in the public sector should come with no political strings
attached, either from the local authority or the national government. If a
chief librarian cannnot set his or her own agenda for the development of
library services (and spend that funding accordingly) then a crucial battle
has already been lost. The profession loses whatever "standing" it once
had. I am not the only one who says there is a crisis in leadership in this
profession. Cilip's "Update" publishes on this subject quite often.
If librarians feel that they have to cajole people into using libraries it
signals that there has already been a failure higher up the chain of
command and to cajole (is that too strong a word?) is to infringe on the
right of any individual to make his or her own choices. I am proud to say
that in running my service (a specialist subject service) I never had to
cajole anyone into using it, but up the chain of command there were people
making policies which seemed custom-designed to discourage people from
using it (for the purposes of generating income). I feel that it's
pointless to argue further. For a more eloquent explanation see Mike
Towsey's letter to "Update". Nov. 2004. I stand by it.
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