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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