Have you ever worked in catering? I have and can assure you that it does
not consist in providing a few tables for people to eat food they
themselves have provided.
I am trying to move with the times whilst maintaining a traditional
library service. If my users want to spend their lunch break trying to
keep up to date, then I'm happy to provide the environment to enable
them to do so. I also like to provide a quiet area, away from work, for
them, a neutral zone, you might say.
However, I acknowledge that each library is different with a different
clientele with different needs. As librarians (and yes, my library is
called a library & I am the Library Services Manager) catering to the
needs of our client base (users and potential users) is part of our duty
and we should use our professional judgement when making decisions of
this kind.
I'm not sure that a 'son et lumiere' experience with strobe lighting is
what I would perceive as the next step. I think that may not be
particularly conducive to studying and my daily work. I also acknowledge
that what works in one place may not work in another.
All I can say is that in our particular situation with wooden & stone
floors (no carpets) allowing people to eat and drink has proved a
successful strategy to attract users. It may not be so for your
situation but don't reject something out of hand just because you
weren't trained for it & didn't expect to do it when you did your
training.
When I went to university there were only 2 photocopiers in the
university for student use. The library catalogues were all on
microfilm. The first photocopiers I used had moving platens, rolls of
photosensitive paper and liquid ink toner. We had no computers. However,
I have adapted to new ways of working. I didn't train as a teacher but
now spend quite a lot of my time training others. To survive, we must
adapt and, maybe, adopt roles we did not envisage years ago.
Core values - as a librarian I see my role as that of an information
provider. Therefore the core function of the library is not to provide a
learning environment but to provide information and an environment for
the access of this information. Information for learning is only one
aspect of a library. There's also information for leisure, for
enjoyment, to satisy curiosity, etc. In my library the materials I
provide are exclusively non-fiction but I might include some fiction
were I to find an item that I felt was particularly useful. At present
my collection is predominantly paper based but, in the future, this
might change.
If my users prefer to access their reading materials electronically,
then it is my duty to acknowledge this, investigate it and make a
judgement on whether I can or should provide the materials in this way.
That's my role as a professionally qualified Library Services Manager.
That's why I don't think that there's a "line in the stand over which we
will not cross". We should be constantly re-evaluating our services and
adapting them to the needs of our client base or we will very soon
become redundant as we fail to keep up with the evolving
needs/preferences of our users.
That's all for now, folks.
Tricia Rey
Library Services Manager
Queen Victoria Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
East Grinstead
Tel: 01342 414266
Mailto:[log in to unmask]
-----Original Message-----
From: UK medical/ health care library community / information workers
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Roger Farbey
Sent: 24 June 2011 13:13
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Library as telephone booth
"When selecting a profession, I decided that I didn't have the correct
range of skills for a catering manager. I pay full respect to those who
have chosen such a tough and challenging profession, but it wasn't my
career choice." Thank you Colin, absolutely! I could extrapolate from
that and say that I didn't do media studies in order to be
professionally qualified to provide a son et lumiere experience which
includes pa system and strobe lighting for our "readers". That surely is
the next logical step isn't it? If we submit to societal changes whereby
every new multimedia gadget and the requirement for maybe a fast food
burger bar within the library becomes the norm, then the library (as I
know it) is dead. I realise society does change and this is an
inevitable fact of life but do we have to therefore redefine our core
values? With downloading books, newspapers and journals onto Kindles and
iPads why do we even need libraries? The core function of a library -
any library - is surely to provide a learning environment, not just
studying, but thinking too.
This thread really isn't about the use of mobiles in libraries. It's
about libraries and librarians and their respective futures. If I can
digress slightly, I have now officially redesignated our "Information
Centre" as a Library. Yes we did (and still do) multimedia but I wanted
to retain the very essence of the library by restoring its ancient
title. Library has a very specific meaning despite the word being
partially appropriated by our IT foes (they have now commandeered the
term Information for themselves). This is not about being a luddite or
being technophobic (which we certainly are not), it just about a line in
the stand over which we will not cross. Otherwise, yes, we might as well
re-skill now and get our catering and music and dance licenses sorted
out. CILIP whilst flapping about like a rabbit caught in the headlights
might do well to consider and reconsider the "L" word in its title.
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