That's the spirit.
This is what we need to hear and need to relay to everyone. Lets get out and
do it and Steven says.
There is nothing that touches us really is there!
If you have it flaunt it, but to all, and all media!!
f
Frances Hendrix
Martin House Farm, Hilltop Lane, Whittle le Woods, Chorley, Lancs PR6 7QR,
UK
tel: 01257 274 833. fax: 01257 266 488
email: [log in to unmask]
----- Original Message -----
From: "Steven Heywood A" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, August 26, 2010 2:05 PM
Subject: Re: Hands off our libraries!
I'm sorry, I don't think that this is a particularly helpful or useful
diversion. While I share David's distaste for referring to members of
the public as consumers and having to talk about the services we provide
in business-speak I'm afraid that this has been the operating reality
for those of us working in the public sector this past thirty years.
Getting into a snit about it and the disposition of angels on a public
list does not progress our cause at a difficult time.
We are an elective service operating in a consumer society. Unlike many
other public services people don't have to use us. We have to persuade
them to come and use us and we would be stupid not to use established
marketing and business methods to do that. Once we get people through
the doors the game changes and we can - and do every day - freely
deliver a rich tapestry of high-value services by human beings for human
beings. Even the meanest, least-well-managed library (wherever that be*)
is provided life-changing services for somebody.
Even the meanest.
We are astonishingly awful at telling the world, his dog and his cat
that we do this. Individually and collectively we need to change that
and pronto. I'll put my money where my mouth is: we're red-hot at
providing library services for young children - books, audio, stories,
songs, rhymes, poetry, social activities and more. We provide a good
range of stock and services for visually-impaired people. You'd be
surprised at how good our lending library book stock is. I don't know
how our branch library staff get the energy to deliver the number and
range of events and activities that they do in the average week, let
alone throughout the year. And our service to housebound library members
is pretty damned good. Overall, we're human, we could do better but we
punch above our weight.
Come on, everybody: this is no time to hide your light behind a bushel!
Even those of you who usually keep quiet on the list, please, tell the
list what you and yours are doing well, the world needs to know. And we
need to remind ourselves.
Just my two penn'orth as usual.
Steven
*Let's not go looking for it, let's imagine it's on a skerry off St
Kilda or something.
Steven Heywood
Rochdale Library Service
Wheatsheaf Library
Baillie Street
Rochdale OL 16 1JZ
http://www.rochdale.gov.uk/libraries
http://libraries.rochdale.gov.uk
-----Original Message-----
From: lis-pub-libs: UK Public Libraries
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of David McMenemy
Sent: 26 August 2010 12:57
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Hands off our libraries!
You're deliberately misrepresenting what I said. Of course you don't
refer to library users as "citizens engaging in accessing a collective
service paid for by taxation" - don't be absurd. That is, however, what
they are. They're not consumers.
Congratulations on your issue figures, I'm actually a great admirer of
the work you're doing in West Dunbartonshire. Your new website is
excellent.
But your lack of will in researching the words you use to refer to the
people who use your service, does you a disservice. Bob Usherwood has
an excellent book on from 1996 called "Rediscovering Public Library
Management" it if you care to pick it up. These are actually
fundamental issues, that have directly led to service dumbing down.
-----Original Message-----
From: lis-pub-libs: UK Public Libraries
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Richard Aird
Sent: 26 August 2010 12:48
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Hands off our libraries!
I don't equate the two, but would be happy to use either depending on
the preference of the people we're serving. Either way, relating to our
public in plain English on their level is important, and the language
you suggested just isn't suitable.
I'm afraid I don't have time to research the origins of the words as we
have services to manage and provide. On that note, our 'plain English'
approach has done us no harm - statistics are virtually all on the up:
Visits up 4.75% over 12 months
Request up 125% over 24 months
Issues up 9.15% over 24 months
Active borrowers up 6.4% over 12 months
I would imagine treating our customers as "citizens engaging in
accessing a collective service paid for by taxation" would have
alienated quite a few, and our stats would drop accordingly.
Regards,
Richard.
-----Original Message-----
From: David McMenemy [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 26 August 2010 12:32
To: Richard Aird; [log in to unmask]
Subject: RE: Hands off our libraries!
It's not plain English, do the research as to its origins and adoption
over the past 30 years.
And if you equate customer and member as the same thing, you clearly
can't or don't want to see the issue.
-----Original Message-----
From: Richard Aird [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 26 August 2010 12:29
To: 'David McMenemy'; [log in to unmask]
Subject: RE: Hands off our libraries!
David,
Ask any library member visiting their local library how they should be
referred to or considered as, and I'm absolutely certain that not one
would reply "a citizen engaging in accessing a collective service paid
for by taxation" - I think the overwhelming majority would reply
"customer" or "member".
This isn't management speak, political vision or a professional issue -
it's plain English.
Too often, managers, politicians and academics prescribe what language
to use, when we should be using the language of our customers.
Customers who can of course choose to take their custom elsewhere -
Amazon, LoveFilm, Asda, etc.
Regards,
Richard.
-----Original Message-----
From: lis-pub-libs: UK Public Libraries
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of David McMenemy
Sent: 26 August 2010 12:24
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Hands off our libraries!
With respect to you, Linda, this kind of language is all part of the
problem. Offers? Competition? Business models? Customers? 30 years
of this newspeak has almost killed any semblance of a public service
ethos.
Public libraries are services provided to citizens by public servants on
behalf of local authorities. The people who use them are NOT customers,
they are citizens engaging in accessing a collective service paid for by
taxation. For too long public librarians have adopted the language of
the private sector for political expediency, and look where it's got us?
If there's to be a future for public libraries it should be based on a
professional vision, not a political one. For too long the language of
managerialism has polluted the discourse, and it's delivered a service
that has dumbed down to the extent that its whole future is now under
question. It's time the profession got its courage back and remembered
what it actually stands for.
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