Yes I believe it’s possible
The Summer Reading Challenge is a prime
example. A common framework is available for everyone to use as required at
local level. Small variations in the offer locally don’t matter if
the overall message and concept is consistent and we shout about it loudly and
all together.
Public libraries are already absolutely
brilliant at providing customised support to individuals. In fact they
are so good at it that it impedes the ability to relay a simple national
message. Yet a simple message is what’s needed to convey the role and value
of the service to everyone else.
It should be possible to capitalize on library
strengths by emphasizing reading and supported access to information and
imaginative writing in our increasingly complex and information overloaded
world. Literacy + free information + inspiration is a strong rationale
and is completely consistent with a personalized service at local level.
Liz Dubber
From: lis-pub-libs: UK
Public Libraries [mailto:
Sent: 09 June 2010 12:42
To:
Subject: Re: "a simple
message that encapsulates the complexity and value of the universal library
offering to society"
Some very good points there, Gareth.
One thing I find interesting in the whole "What's a
library service for?" debate is the suggestion that we need to
provide a national public library service, but at the same time cater
for local communities, even down to the needs of the individual. How do we
build a library service that is standardised throughout the country, but
also provides the individual with what they want, especially as individuals
often want different things from us? Is it possible?
Technical
Librarian
Virtual Content Team
Tel. 01306-881499
Fax. 01306-743240
Website: www.surreycc.gov.uk/libraries
An outstanding council making
Forward thinking - responsive and reliable - working with others - value for
money
-----Forwarded
by Gary Green/COM/SCC on 09/06/2010 12:29PM -----
To:
From:
Sent by: "lis-pub-libs: UK Public Libraries" <
Date: 09/06/2010 12:59AM
Subject: "a simple message that encapsulates the complexity and value of
the universal library offering to society"
"...where librarians went wrong is simple. We
have failed to agree a simple message that encapsulates the complexity and
value of the universal library offering to society. Lacking that
simplicity of concept, we have failed to promote what we do."
Elspeth Hyams
KPMG proposes to reward success - but who is paying for failure?
http://tinyurl.com/358xb45
An issue worthy of LIS-PUB-LIBS.
I don't think the libraries have failed, I think there is maybe an imperative
nowadays that there hasn't been so much in the past - inexpensive books, the
Internet, both undermine the traditional role of the library (books and
advisory). Relevance in a modern age is not the same as it was 20 years
ago. For popular libraries, they could still be of even more value to
their patrons moving into the modern age. Libraries losing their readers
need to as a matter of urgency reconsider the context. Either way the
role of libraries has changed. From a situation where reading was only
ever to be found in libraries and bookshops and bookclubs and the newsagent, we
now have a very different situation. To compound matters the question is
now being asked do we still need libraries [are library staff avoiding this, if
they are they are not doing themselves any favours]. Libraries were once
a simple concept, but not nowadays, so some thinking is needed.
Open any book on the subject of books and reading and literature and the values
will pour out. Which doesn't help our our quest for a 'simplicity of
concept'. I'm sure it could be done though. It would take a bit of
work, and it would be a large work, but the ideas we have on the value of the
library I'm sure could be synthesized out into a simpler message and concept.
Anyway, to venture fourth my own version of a "a simple message that
encapsulates the complexity and value of the universal library offering to
society", originally a comment to another of Elspeth's posts, http://tinyurl.com/2ufbzvp-
largely off the top of my head, only really a theory, but might start the ball
rolling:
"Just my own thoughts on this, but the Libraries should be aiming for the
support of the public by saying that they have set themselves the task of
advising the public on the very best that the libraries can offer them,
explaining to the public and politicians that the libraries are currently at a
crossroads in shedding the skin of the past, the historical baggage that is now
not relevant, with the potential to raise the culture of our communities by
orders of maginitude through the new technologies now available to us, but also
as the libraries' understanding of itself both as an organisation and as an
institution of society continues to advance. If the government makes its
vision clear the libraries must then be prepared to define the exact outcomes
it will provide and the details (and I mean detail) of how these outcomes will
be attained (a mission statement). I think both the public and
politicians sense the inate power of the libraries, and the libraries should in
return assure the public the '"best people in their fields" from
inside and outside government' are leading the libraries.
I believe this is possible. The libraries and culture, the ideas and
activities of a people, are a key component in the engine of a civilisation,
raising ourselves up that ladder on which and as we get higher peoples' needs
are increasingly met. Bob McKee points out that any changes in society
start at the level of the individual, and libraries work very much at the level
of the community and individual. Tim Coates points out that a key to the
success of a library is stocking the books the community wants -- so libraries
then say to people and in a very personal way, what knowledge, information,
stories!, do you value and want. These are the values and the needs
of the communiy and the individuals in that community. In this way a
library raises the culture of a community. I think it is also intrinsic
that the public will expect the senior library managers to be their experts on
the ground in the value of the libraries.
The following is an article not a million miles away from the subject in the
news yesterday:
New York Public Library Director Paul LeClerc Testifies at NY City Hall Re:
NYPL Budget Cuts
http://www.resourceshelf.com/2010/06/04/new-york-public-library-director-paul-leclerc-testifies-at-ny-city-hall-re-nypl-budget-cuts/"
Library Web
http://libraryweb.info
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