Fit a rare efterneen

Es efterneen, I maun hae gaun throuw tae Aiberdeen. E day wis e "Meet the President" we e North East Branch. A pucklie o ye will hae jaloost thit a cos it wis Aiberdeen n e North-East branch thit I'm claikin awa in e Doric. Es for e rest o ye, ye'll aa hae thocht thit I jist hiv haen an affa mishanter we ma keyboard n the wirdies maun be comin oot in a richt sotter.

That, dear readers, is what we call Doric and that's the way many of us born and brought up in the North-East were fortunate enough to speak at home or in the playground and some of us still do, of which more anon.

What that opening paragraph says is this afternoon I was meeting the North-East Branch at Aberdeen Central Library. As I noted the other day, it was full of friends, many of whom were former students. I spoke about the role of President, some of the things I've been up to and some of the things that I've found really inspiring during the visits that I've been making. We then had a really lively discussion about some of the current issues for our sector. Michael Charlton asked what I thought about the use of volunteers in libraries. A really interesting issue. My answer? Well, they can have a role to play and many libraries use them effectively as, for example, mentors in basic IT training or in local studies projects but they are not and they can not be a substititute for real staff. Apart from anything else who will manage the volunteers and, for example, sort out the problems when a volunteer simply decides they have something better?

We also discussed the co-location of services and, that familiar subject of other agencies being keen to work with us because our brand is so trusted and valued. There was also some discussion about continuing professional development and the mix of skills and personal attributes that the successful librarian or information professional needs. A good, lively debate and the future of our profession is very much in safe hands judging by the people who gave up their Saturday afternoon to come and meet the president. Unfortunately, the President has had a rotten cold all week and was still croaking, coughing and sniffing today.

One of the most distinctive features of life in the North-East of Scotland is Doric, that wonderful, lyrical form of Lowland Scots that is spoken up here in various forms. For many unfamiliar with it, the dialect, vocabulary and accent can often seem inpenetrable. For those of us brought up with it, the Doric is a cherished part of our cultural inheritance. But, my word, how it has declined since I was a child and I often hear local students going about the campus who just speak what I would describe as a sort of non-descript "standard" Scottish. I was fortunate to be brought up in a household that encouraged its use without that ever prejudicing the importance of speaking correct English (spikkin proper).

There are, however, many great champions of the Doric not least people like the incomparable Sheena Blackhall and Norman Harper whose columns regularly capture the distinctive essence of the north-east. And, my own favour piece of Doric literature? Well, I think you have to go a long way to beat the poetry of Charles Murray (1864-1941) and, in particular, The Whistle.

85 procent av svenskarna anser att bibliotek är viktiga för att samhället ska fungera

Kanske några läsare av bloggen vet att jag älskar Sverige. Faktiskt älskar jag också Danmark och Norge. Du gamla, Du fria, Du fjällhöga nord. Du tysta, Du glädjerika sköna! Min kärlek är äldre än Wallander, Brottet, Borgen eller Bron. Fantastic men dessa är. Tack BBC4.

We have always had good links with our colleagues in the various library schools in Scandinavia, particularly at the Royal School of Librarianship in Copenhagen and the Library School at Borås in Sweden. We always have a good number of friends from Sweden come to our i3 conference here in Aberdeen. As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, I admire Scandinavian library design but it is wider than that if I’m honest. I like the whole Nordic approach to libraries. One thing I really like is the link between the library research that goes on in places like Borås and the wider profession.

The title of this blog is taken from research done in 2007 by Lars Höglund, professor of library science at Borås, which looked at shape of modern library services. The translation is that 85 percent of Swedes believe that libraries are important for society to function. That is a really bewilderingly significant statistic. I wonder if this would be replicated here in Scotland.

 

Some other really important statistics emerge from the Swedish Library Association’s Fakta om bibliotek 2011 and I’ve taken the liberty of translating some of the headlines:

• 93 procent av svenskarna tycker att bibliotek är viktiga för barns läsutveckling. 76 procent tycker att biblioteken är i takt med den moderna människans behov.
• 93 percent of Swedes think that libraries are important for children's literacy development. 76 percent think that libraries are in line with the needs of modern people.
• Biblioteken är den samhällsinstitution som flest svenskar har förtroende för. 70 procent har mycket eller ganska stort förtroende för biblioteken och endast 4 procent ganska eller mycket litet förtroende.
• Libraries are the social institution that most Swedes trust. 70 percent have very great or fairly great confidence in libraries, and only 4 percent fairly or very little trust.
• Den yngre åldersgruppen 16–29 år är den som främst använder biblioteket för studier/arbete och som frågar personal om hjälp. Att delta på kulturella evenemang är mest frekvent i den äldre åldersgruppen 65–85 år.
• The 16-29 year olds are the main users the library for study / work and they make most use of staff through enquiry mechanisms. Participation in cultural events is most frequent in 65-85 age group.
• År 2010 gjordes över 16 miljoner nedladdningar av artiklar ur elektroniska tidskrifter. Det är dubbelt så många som fyra år tidigare. E-boksnedladdningarna har fördubblats på tre år.
• In 2010 there were over 16 million downloads of articles from electronic journals. This was twice as many as four years previously. E-book downloads have doubled in three years.

 

Some really revealing attitundal and societal statistics there with, arguably, the results on the “big issues” like the role of the library in society or the extent to which libraries are trusted being particularly significant. Similar pictures emerge elsewhere in the Nordic countries. Grampian Information has achieved a real coup for its annual conference this year; one of the keynote speakers will be Jens Thorhauge (recently retired as Director General of the Danish Agency for Libraries and Media) and who is certainly the most knowledgeable man on libraries in Denmark. So this interesting Nordic perspective will be coming to Aberdeen on 8th November.