Speak Up for Libraries Conference #SUFLConf

A national Speak Up for Libraries (SUFL) Conference is being held in London on Saturday 10th November, 2012 at CILIP, running from 10am to 4.30pm.

This builds on the success of last year's conference, which was run by The Library Campaign and Voices for the Library, and on the success of the Speak up for Libraries lobby of Parliament in March.

Philip Ardagh and Bali Rai, both award winning authors and active, outspoken supporters of the save libraries campaign movement, will be guest speakers at the conference. There will also be an address by the President of CILIP,  Phil Bradley, who gave an inspirational speech recently, which I followed via twitter.

Award-winning author, Alan Gibbons, who is also part of the SUFL coalition as well as founder of Campaign for the Book, will be giving a round up of the state of the nation on libraries as well as directing proceedings during the day, as he did brilliantly at the libraries lobby in March.

UNISON will be there to explore what the future of libraries might be and the relevant legislation surround it. Public Interest Lawyers have offered their time to deliver a session on legal cases and how the law now stands - just one the workshops on offer.

The WI are using their expertise in campaigning to deliver a workshop on harnessing local support. Public librarian Ian Anstice will run a session exploring the thorny issue of volunteers in relation to the library service; a workshop which proved very popular last year and sparked much debate and discussion.

Deputy Leader of Norwich City Council, Cllr Alan Waters, has kindly offered his time to share his knowledge and facilitate a session on influencing the decision makers. The passionate, outspoken library campaigner, Alan Wylie, will be delivering a thought provoking session with fellow presenter, Hannah Bailey from UNISON on different service models, and exploring whether privatisation is a forgone conclusion.

Full details of how to book can be found at http://www.speakupforlibraries.org/conference.asp

The rest of the Voices for the Library team have worked hard to pull this event together and will be there to support and facilitate on the day, along with The Library Campaign. It's unfortunate that fellow founding member and library campaigner, Mar Dixon, will not be able to make the conference but will be willing us all on.

The conference was a brilliant experience last year but is bound to be even more inspiring this year with such a diverse group involved in planning and delivering the event.

Don't leave it too long to book as places are limited, and will be offered on a first come first served basis. The  registration fee of only £20 includes lunch and refreshments and a choice of workshops. Full details, a booking form and a flyer can be downloaded from the link above and you are welcome to contact me with any queries, or to book if you have difficulty downloading the forms.

Philip Pullman, guest speaker at last year's conference

Let's not play librarians

Squatters have occupied and reopened the empty Friern Barnet library. Quite what is happening though is still unclear from the media coverage but the comments of those interviewed and filmed lead me to have concerns about the message being delivered.

It is sad that in our desire to save libraries we have seen communities, though reluctant, pushed to run their library, endeavouring to keep doors open and the service ticking over, in the hope that a professional service will be reinstated sometime in the future. This often comes with huge responsibilities to fundraise to meet on-going costs and the thorny issue of sufficient volunteers to man them. Many see this as unsustainable, also giving the council permission to lay the blame on the community, should the arrangement fail. The next year or so will be very telling on this front.

Of greater concern are those jumping in eagerly to run libraries, openly expressing the view that they can do a better job than professional librarians and experienced trained staff. This, I really cannot understand.



The problem I see with Friern Barnet though is that the local campaigners have fought long and hard to save their library. I understood that they had consistently refused to negotiate on running it themselves or accepting to use other premises as an alternative, yet the squatters have begun discussions with Barnet Council to do just this.

It concerns me too that there may be no real commitment to seeing the project through. One of the squatters is quoted, 

“I've learnt many skills over the years as a squatter – roofing, fixing electrics, unblocking toilets; now I can add community librarian to my CV."

Is that really the point?

It also begs the question how might things have been different had he instead gained entry to a disused hospital building or school?

A resident on the video is also filmed  saying, when asked how she is feeling being a volunteer librarian, 

“It feels good”

I'm sure it does feel good to be able to do something proactive after the months and months of frustration, protest and petitions failed to get Barnet Council to keep the library open. But this appears to have been a spur of the moment decision – an unplanned takeover of the space via an open window.  How much thought went into the running and manning of this library? What also isn’t clear is what the volunteer librarians see as their role, what commitment they are willing to make and what skills, other than a pair of willing hands, do they bring to the role?

Before anyone screams that I am anti volunteer, I've spent years of my life volunteering but I have never undertaken anything that undermined some else’s employment or profession.

Volunteering is undoubtedly of huge benefit in many areas, including libraries, but anyone who has worked with volunteers will know what a difficult issue it can be. Volunteers often have their own ideas and agendas that they feel they have a right to pursue as they are offering their time for free. The usual constraints of employment do not apply, and if a volunteer does not like the way things are going, feels undervalued or finds something better comes up, they often lack staying power to see ‘the job’ through.

Has any real consideration gone into this reopened library, how it might work or is this the act of opportunists, gathering support from well-meaning residents to validate their occupation?

And the thing that really makes my heart sink is seeing that date stamp being wielded.  Do those assisting in this exercise really think there is nothing to running a library; that professional qualifications, expertise and experience matter so little; that libraries are merely about stamping a book or two and straightening a few shelves?

I may be wrong, and I am happy to be corrected if I am, but I think what we might be witnessing here are squatters, occupying a building under the pretence of running a library for the community and, in so doing, undoing the valiant work of those who have campaigned long and hard for a professional service to be reinstated. In so doing, they may also be dividing a united community.

Let’s not play librarians without seriously exploring all the consequences.

#Croydon Gets Funky! #youcouldnotmakeitup

It would be funny if it were not so serious and so terribly disheartening.

I wrote about my concerns regarding MyVoice in Croydon, which is not being adequately advertised to the youth, resulting in poor take up, in my previous post . The Croydon MyVoice youth have been dis-empowered by Croydon Council who have denied them the right to set up an official twitter and facebook account, like so many other local authorities have done, to empower their youth and to promote their library service.

My Voice should be promoted to the youth in Croydon, not just because Croydon receives funding to deliver it but because it is such a brilliant scheme. MyVoice  is a Reading Agency project aimed at 11 - 19 year olds.  It offers youth new skills and experiences, helps to build confidence, improves communication skills, teaches how to manage a project, allows youth to offer up their own thoughts and ideas, to negotiate, to make decisions, manage a budget and so much more. It is aimed at getting youth into libraries and empowering them to lead and take decisions.  That is, where it works well, but not in Croydon.

I thought it was bad enough that Croydon were putting barriers in the way of advertising MyVoice and that they would not promote the work of Teens4Libraries, who are youth involved in the project, trying to advertise what is going on, but being ignored by the council twitter accounts....BUT IT GETS WORSE... 

An invitation to the first planning meeting is detailed here by the youth involved and another post gives further details of what was discussed by the few who attended and forward plans. Croydon Radio Arts Programme host, Janet Smith, picked up on it too, as a result of Teens4Libraries, and read from their blog, discussing it with author Diane Messidoro. You can read the post here, which includes an audioboo of the programme.

The Council will not promote this blog, or retweet their tweets or information, promoting Croydon libraries. Instead the council accounts @yourcroydon and most ironic of all @CROYdemocracy tweet misleading information, and all the while knowing that work has gone on, behind the scenes, again without the input of youth involved in the project. After meeting on 7th August the following has silently appeared...

Yes folks...it really does say funky!

I'd love to be a fly on the wall when the adults (who I shall call the grown ups), empowering youth in Croydon try to convince the youth involved that they came up with the idea that they are designing a funky (yes FUNKY!) programme of events. The name of the event was still undecided, according to the youth involved, yet seems to be set in stone now by the grown ups.  

I'd also like to see how they explain away the twitter account set up without any input from the youth. And yes, you guessed it. It is also called @CroydonWordFest, even before the grown ups have convinced the youth they chose it!

And it will be a laugh to see how the grown ups convince the youth involved that they had some hand in setting up the Eventbrite booking system, already advertised without their knowledge, on facebook .

So we have a Facebook page and a Twitter account set up, not only without youth involvement but without even informing the youth involved and those naughty grown ups have also started to take bookings. To add insult to injury the grown ups have use cringe-worthy terms like funky. It seems the programme is now advertised too so what real input can the youth have?

And who or what is Journeys, I hear you ask, as I did.

Well they made their debut appearance on Twitter as @CroydonJourneys on 23rd August, just a day after the silent placing of Croydon Word Fest on Facebook and on Twitter. This twitter account seems to be a replacement for @JourneysCroydon which last tweeted in May, but the new account has a lovely added twist...check out the bio for the account.

Loving the grocer's apostrophe Croydon!

And if you follow the link you'll find that this links to the Croydon Young People's Services website; a council run site for the benefit of Croydon youth, which failed to advertise the first planning meeting on the7th, which realised only 4 youth, but posted quickly after to advertise the meeting this Saturday, 8th September

The team behind it including the Head of Croydon Youth Services who, you'll see if you read my last post, claimed to still be trying to track down information on the MyVoice project in Croydon Libraries after I raised it in a public meeting on 19th July, some SEVEN weeks ago. It really beggars belief.

But there is more...

The @CroydonJourneys account has not tweeted about the MyVoice Word Fest event advertised on their site but some of their posts have been retweeted by @CROYdemocracy and @yourcroydon council accounts so all are aware of each other yet still ignoring the youth. Nice!

But at least the council is being a little more proactive about advertising the event, unfortunately though, with little clue how to do this.  Just how many 11 - 19 year olds would think to look on the  Do It volunteering site (with credit given to Volunteer Centre Croydon)?

 And, no, it really is an afternoon event from 2.30pm, unless there is something else the grown ups aren't telling the youth involved!

So, where from here?

We owe it to our youth to promote this event, to get them involved. Spread the news and help to empower youth as this project intended, despite the grown ups within Croydon Council who apparently have no faith in the capabilities and potential of our youth and no clue how to promote things on social media. The funding is provided so make use of it.  It is a brilliant project and the library staff are keen to make it a success, as are the youth involved.

So please:

• Spread the word
• Follow Teens4Libraries blog and twitter accounts (and @SaveCroydonLibs if you wish, who try to promote anything to do with Croydon libraries)
• Get your 11 to 19 year olds involved

We owe it to our youth not to give up and accept this shambles.

And don't forget the events will be funky, so well worth the effort.....  White fringed ankle-length cowboy boots, disco moves and 100% synthetic fibre jumpsuits optional.....  We'll leave that for the grown ups, shall we?

Let’s promote MyVoice in Croydon!

Just what do youth have to do to be heard and valued in Croydon?

As a parent, an educator and library campaigner I am beyond frustration at the on-going situation in Croydon. I’m raising this publicly in the hope this will help to resolve the issue, to the benefit of Croydon youth and our libraries.

The history to the situation is detailed on the Save Croydon Libraries blog and on Inside Croydon for anyone unfamiliar with the erosion of Croydon library service, but suffice to say we found ourselves having to look further afield when the usual activities available to my teens dwindled. I found out about the MyVoice project on The Reading Agency website, quite by chance, and not via the Croydon Council website or any official promotion. With no information forthcoming from any Croydon source I scoured, I contacted The Reading Agency to find out more, and how to get involved.

It really was unbelievable to learn that MyVoice, aimed at 11-19 year olds, was running in Croydon Libraries, and had been for some time, yet it was not being advertised.

The sessions run on a monthly basis at Ashburton Library.  My daughters and their friend went along to find out more and get involved. We were disheartened to see how few attended, but given the lack of publicity it was not a really a surprise.

Not long after joining, the group got involved in the planning of the MyVoice celebration, which was a great event, with a performance given by LoveLife6958 run by Chris Syrus, a real highlight of the event but, like the monthly sessions, relatively poorly attended as not widely advertised. 

  
What possible motive could there be to skimp on advertising when Croydon had so many avenues via its many websites, network of libraries, own Your Croydon magazine, billboards and its Twitter account to let the public know and get teens involved?

Some of the group were even given the opportunity as part of the MyVoice project to be trained in using social media by attending an excellent day in London, facilitated by Sound Delivery, to explore how Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and Audioboo worked and how they could be employed to promote libraries and youth engagement.  But, unlike other local authorities, Croydon would not allow the Croydon MyVoice youth who attended to share this training in a session with other Croydon MyVoicers, or to set up a Croydon MyVoice facebook or Twitter account to use their skills.

Word Fest Planning in Croydon!

The latest planned event is a Word Fest, again poorly advertised, that is, until Teens4Libraries, who are involved in the project, asked that the council twitter account @YourCroydon help spread information by giving a retweet.  Not a lot to ask, was it? 

The council account @YourCroydon and then @CROYDemocracy started promoting particular activities as part of the event, which may not seem a problem, but the whole point of the project is to engage youth in the decision making process, empowering them. Does it not seem more than a little strange that, given the information by the youth involved, the council accounts would continue to tweet about just three areas of focus?  Again, what possible motive could there be for this and why not re-tweet or link to the fuller information provided by the youth involved?

In the last few days the council website has finally added details about the MyVoice project and the Word Fest event, I suspect in response to this request from the Teens4Libraries bloggers that the council retweet the information that had been put on the Teens4Libraries blog.

The work of Teens4Libraries has received more attention of late, with local Croydon Radio Arts programme host, Janet Smith, offering to publicise the project and reading information from the blog on several of her programmes, and their follower list on twitter is growing, week on week.

I’ll leave it to you to decide which is more informative and inviting: We have this from the council

and this from Teens4Libraries

  
The tweets sent by the council narrow the activities down to just three, not yet agreed with the youth. The poster advertising this event was again produced without the input of the MyVoice youth but by an adult or adults within the council.  It was meant as a starting point to engage youth.

Can YOU help support this excellent project in Croydon by promoting it, and give the youth involved and the library staff putting so much time and effort into it, the support they deserve?

In a public meeting of the Croydon Communities Consortium I raised the concern that this valuable project was not being effectively promoted in Croydon and the head of youth services gave his assurance to look into it.  To date, six weeks on, he has been unable to gain the information for himself to come back to me on this.  If senior council officers are left in the dark, no wonder the public are unaware!

The information on the Teens4Libraries is the correct, agreed information discussed at the first planning meeting, and anyone is able to post to the blog.

Teens4libraries, in the absence of an official facebook or twitter account,  are trying to promote the MyVoice events and particularly the Word Fest planning event to get more 11- 19 year olds involved to make a difference.

The MyVoice Project is a positive project, aimed at engaging youth in libraries and should be promoted, even if no funding was being taken for running it but to take funding for a project but fail to advertise it, or to disempower the youth involved by taking decision making out of their hands is a travesty in my book.

The library staff running this project are keen to make it a success, as are the youth involved.  Let’s get the proper promotion of this project that it deserves.

Please make comments and suggestions on the Teens4Libraries blog but above all spread the word to ensure that the information gets to those who would benefit from this great project - the youth of Croydon! 

All 11-19 year olds welcome.

Heart of Darkness - A user perspective

Having read Alan Wylie's account of his visit to Hounslow  libraries, which you can read here:  http://dontprivatiselibraries.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/heart-of-darkness-trip-to-hounslow.html we thought a user perspective might be useful.  With this aim a fellow library supporter/campaigner and I visited Hounslow Library in the Treaty Centre.

My first impression was that it was quite inviting. Perhaps in comparison to most Croydon libraries it was, as our libraries have been left to deteriorate over many years - the fabric of many of the Croydon library buildings is in need of repair, let alone the décor. In comparison the environment was very clean and streamlined.

Once inside there was no real buzz or interest in the library. As you so rightly point out, we were struck by the lack of events and the heavy focus on notices encouraging volunteering.

It was pleasing to see a simple display promoting Story Lab, the children's  Summer Reading Challenge though. Unfortunately this was not followed through in the children's section, where the displays were bright, eye-catching but without any sense of real child involvement and lacking any promotion of events for children.  Given that we visited only days after the launch of Summer Reading Challenge I would have expected a real splash on this but nothing caught our eye.

I hate to break it to you too Alan but you saw Hounslow Library after the refurbishment, not before.  That tired, outdated 1970s décor you refer to is the result of the refit, including that carpet! It was carried out in April apparently. Users say the refit makes the library much more spacious, although I understand that the large designated study area was lost in the refurbishment and a notice makes clear that you may not use the Local Archives area for general study purposes. This has impacted on students who use the library who no longer have a quiet place to study, without interruption.

The service desk pods were a striking but bizarre feature: aseptic colour coordination. Of four pods only three were manned, each accommodating and staffed by a single member of staff. Staff had to dash back and forth and between pods to tend to library users needs or to liaise with a colleague. Queues formed while staff endeavoured to cater to the needs of library users. Staff were very efficient but had no time to engage with any library users whilst we were there, other than to meet immediate needs and queries. I should imagine it is really stressful!

The self-service machines were a sad feature in my opinion; library users each dealing with their own borrowing and returns, with no facility as far as we could see to borrow books from a person at a desk. How sad to see the parents of a small child borrow a pile of picture books from a machine with no librarian to engage with the family or the child, to offer encouragement, offer suggestions or pass on information about an event. It was similarly sad to see adults drift in, browse, borrow and leave without engaging with anyone.

The shelves were extremely neatly presented, with some face on display of books. For a central library the selection was quite sparse though and there were strange book stocks noted, such as a large selection of Chinese texts - surely this does not reflect the demographics of the area served.

The inclusion of a children's walled off castle-themed area was an attractive addition to the children's area of the library. I could imagine story-telling and events going on without interruption here.

My questions after visiting are:

• How and why do staff work in isolation? There was a security guard on duty in the library but staff worked in isolation, leaving them open to abuse. Staff cannot also liaise over simple queries or refer an enquiry on to a colleague easily.

• Are staff instructed to man the 'pod' desks only? Staff seemed to man the pods rather than engage with users, even in the children's section.  Sadly, I admit, they had little time to do anything else but this.  I question whether three staff members are enough for a central library.

• The overriding question we came away with though is what interest John Laings has in running library services and how is it possible for John Laings or any other provider to run a library service for profit? Where is the money made in running a library service and where does the money for a refit come from, if running a library service for profit?

The big question is... Are councils, such as Hounslow, Wandsworth and Croydon, so inept and incompetent at running basic services efficiently, such as libraries, that private companies are chomping at the bit to snap them up, for profit?

As always, I have the greatest admiration for library staff who work under such pressure.  Is this really what Hounslow Library was like before the intervention of John Laings?  And the real question - has John Laings' management actually added value to the service or just added to the profit of John Laings, to the detriment of the Hounslow community?

Is a Barwell-Blyton the next Gove Bible?

 Justin Tomlinson MP, chair of APPG on Libraries, promotes The Summer Reading Challenge yet Gavin Barwell, the MP who chairs the APPG on literacy doesn't, but feels it is his right to tell professional librarians, teachers and parents how ill-equipped they are to choose appropriate texts to engage boys, and to promote reading to improve boys' literacy.

Does Mr. Barwell wish the public to believe that:

• Parents are unqualified to support their own children's reading, even when experienced themselves and supported by extended families, librarians and teachers, unless, of course you are of the same sex as the child.
• Qualified librarians and experienced library staff are nothing more than silly cotton wool-headed bods who knock around libraries over years, stamping a book or two for good measure and know absolutely nothing about books, authors, genres, trends and the like.
• Those teachers who, like librarians, studied all those years for those worthless degrees and followed these up with year upon year of useless experience of  working with the whole gamut of ability ranges and specific needs of a diverse group of children, could not possibly know. Particularly lacking are female teachers it seems, as texts suitable for boys are beyond their comprehension. 

The great self-taught educationalist Mr. Barwell must be so exasperated. What this motley lot fail to see is that they need not worry; one MP has ALL the answers. So Mr. Barwell's view is based on sound research, facts and reasoning? No. It's based on the MP's own experience of reading Roald Dahl, Enid Blyton and Tolkien's, The Hobbit, as a child (did he really?).   

 No need to engage with parents or librarians, teachers and experienced library and school staff. Mr. Barwell knows best!

Shall the next token government initiative be a Barwell-Blyton to accompany a Gove Bible in every school?

What do parents, librarians and teachers know anyway?  Many might recommend reading award winning authors and poets relevant to today, such as,

Janet and Alan Ahlberg 

Philip Ardagh 

Malorie Blackman 

Quentin Blake 

Tony Bradman 

John Boyne
Raymond Briggs 

Anthony Browne
John Burningham
Steve Cole
Eoin Colfer
Andrew Cope
Anne Fine 

Michael Foreman 

Neil Gaiman
Alan Gibbons 

Charlie Higson

Anthony Horowitz 

Eva Ibbotson
Dick King_Smith 

Jeff Kinney 

Andy McNab 

Spike Milligan 

Michael Morpurgo 

Robert Muchamore 

Patrick Ness
Michelle Paver 

Dav Pilkey 

Philip Pullman
Michael Rosen 

Tony Ross 

JK Rowling 

Louis Sachar

Francesca Simon
Justin Somper
Jeremy Strong 

Sue Townsend 

David Walliams 

Ian Whybrow 

Benjamin Zephaniah

But, really, what do we know?

The panacea is a Barwell-Blyton.... 
and, perhaps, lashings of ginger beer all round!

Another blow for LSSI in California

Stop the privatization of Public Libraries: Simi Valley to weigh letting county run library fo...: http://www.vcstar.com/news/2012/may/11/simi-council-urged-to-reject-proposals-to-run/ "The Simi Valley City Manager's Office is recommen...