I was very taken with the short opinion piece by Michael Clarke (Director
of the London Libraries Development Agency) "Coming home" in the latest
issue of Update [October 2005 vol 4 (10)] and wanted to encourage others to
read it and (maybe) start a (positive) deabte.
Clarke writes engagingly and honestly on his reactions on returning to the
world of libraries at LLDA after 5 years working in Arts administration.
I find his view that as a sector we don't engage with each other (and
outsiders) enough very telling. It is clear to me that often when
librarians get together it is to talk about problems and rather than
opportunities.
Clarke's other key observation is that individuals, and organisations in
the 'Arts' are much more visible to the media, in part at least due to
their ability to articulate a limited number of "core values and messages".
Again I recognise that this is something that libraries just aren't good
enough at, and feel that we need to work harder to firstly identify and
agree these key messages, and then to make them known to the media - a much
more effective activity than hand wringing over recent more media coverage.
So I feel that this is a useful wake-up call, from one who knows us and is
willing to take on the challenge of promoting libraries better.
What do you think?
There is a slightly longer version of this comment on my blog at
http://snowley.typepad.com/
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