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Exactly. All pretty grim stuff however I do think we need to take a moment to look at internal rather than external causes for our decline. The fact is that Librarianship has been on a steady course of deprofessionalisation which I would say has done far more damage to libraries and librarianship than budget cuts could ever do.
Craig Alexander Moore
Digital Archivist
The National Archives
+44 (0) 20 8392 5330, ext. 2593
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
-----Original Message-----
From: Library and Information Professionals [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ian Johnson
Sent: 12 June 2009 11:16
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Job cuts at King's
Wouldn't it be more useful to do some real soul searching about why we have failed to spread an appreciation of the impact of our work in the so-called 'Information Society' instead of just getting hot under the collar when confronted by evidence of our own failure such as this?
Ian M. Johnson
Professor, Department of Information Management Aberdeen Business School The Robert Gordon University
________________________________
From: Library and Information Professionals on behalf of Chris Armstrong
Sent: Fri 12/06/2009 10:54
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: FW: Job cuts at King's
I was sufficiently incensed by this to re-post it to a second list - apologies if you've already read it.
Chris
______________________________
Chris Armstrong
Information Automation Limited
t. (+44) 1974 251302
s. chrisatial (Skype, pre-arranged)
e. [log in to unmask]
w. www.i-a-l.co.uk
b: http://i-a-l.blogspot.com/
____________________________________________
Registered address: Penbryn, Bronant, Aberystwyth SY23 4TJ Registered in England Number: 2110002
-----Original Message-----
From: A general Library and Information Science list for news and discussion. [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Kevin Shelley
Sent: 11 June 2009 16:15
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Job cuts at King's
Press release:
Cuts at King's College London
King's College London is proposing to make all 30 current roles of the Information Resources team part of ISS (Information Services & Systems) redundant and make staff re-apply for their own jobs. 15 staff will likely loose their job over the next 3 years, and those left face applying for downgraded roles. This was announced in mid-April after a six-month workflow review, including a short 2 week snapshot survey involving external consultants.
Its
stated aim was "to deliver the services customers are asking for, identify future needs and be flexible in responding to demands for new services."
Management deny that cost-cutting is at the heart of the proposal.
Chief Information Officer and College Librarian, Karen Stanton stated :
''I
would like to make it clear that the proposed changes are in no way related to the current financial situation or, indeed, the Principal's announcement
regarding budget cuts and possible job losses.'' However, the announcement of the redundancy proposals occurred less than three weeks after the College Principal, Professor Rick Trainor, informed all College staff that King's is facing a £14 million deficit, whilst holding £185 million in cash reserves.
This is further
highlighted by the recent article in the Times Higher Education Supplement of the 28th May 'Dissent over staff issues at King's'.
The staff are naturally shocked, many of which have served with King's for a long time. Especially as they were initially given a proposal consultation period of only 30 days and to come up with a counter proposal when other King's departments in a similar position were given 90 days.
So
Unions (Unison, Unite, UCU) stepped in and were able to win a 90 day extension. The whole college community is appalled at how badly staff have been treated, reverting to such draconian methods that have proven to be
divisive and demoralising to colleagues who foresee both their own skillsets being diminished in the remaining posts and an impoverishment of ISS customer experience arising particularly from the outsourcing of metadata creation.
To us as Library and Information Professionals the biggest threat to our professional qualified status is yet more being eroded and unrecognised by the issue of downgrading and deskilling staff within the proposal. There is also a proposal to outsource cataloguing which in our view will destroy the quality of the collection we have at King's.
Staff and students with the backing of the Unions are mounting a No Cuts @ King's campaign involving a petition to college management to stop cuts, and get more government funding. We urging everyone to help support the campaign of No Cuts @ King's and sign the online petition at
http://www.petitiononline.com/openRT09
We will keep you informed of developments.
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