Libraries enriching society - plenty of that at East Branch

Last night I attended a meeting of East Branch at the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh. I really enjoy these "Meet the President" events. Again it was lovely to meet friends old and new and, yes, of course there was a good number of former RGIT/RGU graduates in the audience and it was lovely to catch up with them. Thank you so much to everyone at East Branch for making me feel so welcome.

I spoke a little bit about my own background and how honoured I am to be the CILIPS President for 2012 and also spoke about the theme of Enriching Society and how it is so important that we talk ourselves out of time of difficulties rather than talk ourselves into more It is so important that we are positive and upbeat about our profession and about the role, value and impact that libraries have on communities and individuals.

I mentioned some of the visits that I have made of recent months, in particular the trip of North Ayrshire which I have blogged about previously. I mentioned some of the really inspiring things I've seen and people I've met and how each of these visits demonstrates, very visibly, the role that libraries play in communities and how valued they are by the public. I also mentioned how libraries (in every sector) were doing lifelong learning and social inclusion long before these terms were consciously applied by those formulating the policy agenda. In fact, both of these concepts are actually fundamental to what we have always done.

To illustrate this, I mentioned John Miller who has researched extensively the Lithuanian community in Scotland and continues to do so although well into eighties (and I'm sure he won't mind me saying that). Mr Miller has directed his own investigations, become an adept researcher and writer and has used libraries fantastically to pursue his interests. He is for me one of the best examples of a lifelong learner, highly motivated, passionate and dedicated to his subject. He is also a wonderful ambassador of his library service and, indeed, a great advocate for everything it does.

As you will imagine, East Branch members had lots of other inspiring examples of things that we've done and people whose lives have been transformed by libraries or librarians. We spoke a lot in the discussion afterwards about how much of a hindrance that the stereotype of librarians is. We also discussed the other fundamental truth of our profession that although a love of books and reading is really, really important, our profession is all about people and that being people person is a key to success as a librarian.

I really enjoyed last night so thank you East Branch once again.

Sometimes, dear readers, your President has moments when he thinks "what have I really done to be worthy of being the CILIPS President" and the old adage "those who can, do and those who can't teach" floods into my mind. In such moments, I'm also reminded of a story about the 2nd Duke of Wellington, the son of the hero of Waterloo. He remarked days after the death of his father: "Imagine people's reaction when they announce "The Duke of Wellington" and only I walk in".

These thoughts are particularly the case when I hear of the excellent things going on in so many different parts of our profession and the enthusiasm with which library and information professionals approach their work. "I love my job" was a phrase I heard several times at East Branch last night and that's just so cool.

Local Studies agent provocateur

Yesterday, I had the great pleasure of speaking at the LocScot Local History Day School which was held in the A.K. Bell Library in Perth. Many of you know that I have a great interest in all things local studies so this was an event that I was really looking forward to and it didn't disappoint in any way.


The turn-out was very good and there was evident relish and enthusiasm for the role that our local studies collections play both in library terms but also in terms of wider Scottish society. I was thrilled when Eleanor McKay asked to me to speak at this event and also asked me to be thought provoking. I think I may have ended up putting the emphasis on the provoking but, I suppose, one of the roles of an academic is to ask the difficult questions and, whenever possible, to suggest possible solutions.

I adopted a quite self-critical approach, looking at our local studies collections individually and the sector as a whole and focussed in on some of the key areas that I think we need to address. These included issues such as losing users to the online providers, online presence and visibility, digital content and also the preoccupation with physical access to physical collections.

Local studies have a long and illustrious history going right back to the Public Library Acts in the 1850s and specific mention of them being made by WHK Wright at the inaugural meeting of the Library Association. Local studies users are the original lifelong learners, self-improvers who undertake intricate and complex, often multi-disciplinary, investigations and demonstrate real enthusiasm for their work.

However, our online presence in the local studies field could be better I'm afraid to say and I was pointing out some key examples such as the number of clicks it takes to get from Scotland's People to a local studies site. I also touched on the fact that lots of our websites speak about the "wealth of information" that our collections have but don't really give a good flavour of that wealth in an online environment. Brand local studies or, as I think, brand local history is also very important and I gave some suggestions on how this might be tackled. I quoted a piece of research done here at RGU, in which one family historian said "I wouldn't have thought of using the public library" and highlighted that we can't expect users to come to us and that we underestimate our users at our peril.

I did enjoy provoking discussion and debate and there was certainly a great buzz during the brainstorming sessions. I was also keen to get the group to think about the alliances and partnerships that could be created and mused about getting displays from events such as Local History Week out into shopping centres and supermarkets and working with companies and organisations through their Corporate Social Responsibility schemes.

So, lots of ideas, lots of debate and lots of discussion about the future of local studies collections which are, in my opinion, our other national library.

The colour LILAC

Yesterday evening I had the great pleasure of attending the LILAC dinner at the Old Fruitmarket in the Merchant City in Glasgow. It was a fantastic evening and was a chance to catch up with a number of old friends such as Anne Kail from Credo Reference, Sheila Corrall from the iSchool at Sheffield University as well as a number of our former students. The dinner, like the conference itself, had a really positive, up-beat buzz and, having been following the Twitter feeds ahead of the dinner, it was clear that lots of creative and innovative idea-sharing was going on. Well done to Debbi and all the organizing committee and thank you for the invitation to represent CILIP.


My part in proceedings was to say a few words of welcome, ahead of the dinner, wearing the Presidential chain which provoked much comment, most of it more flattering than the comment of a friend earlier this week who, having seen a photograph of me wearing it, remarked that I looked like the Provost of a now-defunct county and added, rather pointedly, "like Banffshire". Alan Reid Esquire would have been as mortified as I was ;o)

Information Literacy is, of course, one of the areas where libraries and librarians make an enormous contribution to wider society and I could not agree more strongly with LILAC’s own definition of information literacy which highlights it as the cornerstone to learning and an essential skill in the digital age and in the era of lifelong learning. As we all know information literacy is not, just about “finding stuff”; it is increasingly being seen as a key skill for the modern workforce and a skill which consequently has economic, social, cultural and political impact. LILAC's themes emphasise this wider impact of information literacy on society, particularly those looking at IL and the digital future and, of course, IL and employability and both of these topics close to my heart as an academic.

I opened my little speech with anecdote that I've alway rather liked and not being a person overly worried about repeating myself, I'll end with it again now. As I was driving down for the dinner, I was reflecting that is seemed odd to be leaving Aberdeen at lunch-time for a dinner engagement and I was reminded of the story about the late Norman St John Stevas, the flamboyant minister in Mrs Thatcher’s first government. He got up to leave a cabinet meeting early and Mrs Thatcher turned on him, enquiring “Norman, where do you think you are going?” He replied that he had to leave early as he was going to a particular dinner that evening. The Iron Lady said “Yes, I’m going to that dinner too but I have two further meetings after this”. St John Stevas replied “yes Margaret dear but I take much longer to dress than you do”.

I must say, though, everyone had spent a long time dressing for last night's dinner. Thank you LILAC. It was great.