GSO

The 1964 Public Library Standards in 2012

2012-01-22T15:12:00.000-08:00

For the history of and rational for (purpose of) the public libraries (and the meaning as used at the time of the formulation of the Act of comprehensive & efficient) see these two reports:

The Structure of the Public Library Service in England and Wales. Report of the Committee appointed by the Minister of Education in September 1957, etc. [Chairman, Sir Sydney Roberts.], and

Standards of public library service in England and Wales, Ministry of Education, 1962

For an understanding of the role of the Standards (the latter report above) in the Act, see the following page from Hansard, namely paragraph 517:

PUBLIC LIBRARIES AND MUSEUMS BILL (Second Reading)

The Act itself can be found on the main Government website for publishing UK legislation (legislation.gov.uk):

Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964

The Standards were subject to a number of changes in more recent decades before being, and I am afraid I have no more than a tweet on Twitter as evidence to this, finally "dropped" in 2007, namely John Dolan former Head of Policy at the then MLA @johnrdolan tweeting on the 17 Oct 2011:

@libraryweb PLSS dropped in 2007 - ordered by Comms&LG Dep to "reduce burdens on LAs" Taking Part survey, CIPFA stats etc but no standards

A citation is needed here but if I remember correctly UNISON in approx. 2009 secured from the then Labour government an assurance that the Government still considered the 1964 Standards to be the basis of standards for provision of library service.

However the current (as of 2012) Conservative government seems to have taken the dropping of the Standards literally, asserting that local authorities do not have an obligation to provide a minimum service, but only to provide a service based on what they consider the need of a community to be (e.g., as is evident from the written answer given to Annette Brooke MP by the minister for culture Ed Vaizey in response to a question 16 January 2012).

The question I personally myself have here and my argument being that the 1964 public library Standards could only have been removed from the Act through an amendment to the Act, the MLA did not have the terms of reference to remove the Standards.

Should not the MLA have advised the Department for Communities and Local Government in 2007 that it would require an amendment to the 1964 Act to remove the Standards from the Act (thereby making it possible to, e.g., change the Act from an act that aimed to ensure a minimum quality of library service across the country to one based on ascertaining local community need). To be more specific as to what I mean here the terms comprehensive and efficient imply a literature collection that is not selective, and a service that is not inefficient (in terms of utility) to make use of (here the Act is paying regard to the belief that if the service required more time resources etc. to make use of than the end value of the actual literature sought, then people would not use the libraries - the standards in 1964, e.g., recommending that no one should have to at least in the first instance walk for more than approx. 20 minutes to their local library to obtain the book they desired).

Essentially, and taken as an exercise in English comprehension, to remove the Standards from the Act, the minister for culture surely has only the options of removing or rewording section 7(1) of the Act, thereby effectively removing the text "comprehensive and efficient library service" from the Act (i.e., the adjectives describing the characteristics and qualities of the service to be implemented). Any adjustment to the Standards otherwise by the minister for culture only being possible providing the changes made complied with "the substance" (borrowing vocabulary from Francis Bennion, 'voices for the library' August 19th, 2011) of the Act.

I do not think it possible to argue that removing the Standards has not changed the substance of the Act. The whole purpose of the Act was to render a library service that was prior to 1964 optional and throughout the country of greatly varying quality to one that was mandatory guaranteeing a minimum quality of service for all. The policy of the current Government seems to be to reverse legislation to pre-1964 days and towards a library service that is again optional for local authorities. Removing the Standards is manifestly changing the substance of the Act.

A question remains as to how far current library provision has strayed from the Standards, and also the legality of changes made to the Standards by the MLA in the years prior to being dropped I think should be looked at. From what I can gather myself if library campaigners should decide the situation warranted it and were to take the issue further then a complaint to the Parliamentary Ombudsman on grounds of constitutional & administrative legislation (statutory interpretation; issues of the rule of law) being the next step.

[Updated: 23 Jan 2011]

Notes on a literature search with WorldCat

2012-01-08T11:46:00.000-08:00

SUMMARY
INTRODUCTION
USING WORLDCAT
AN EXAMPLE

SUMMARY

While the Dewey Decimal Classification scheme is not (at least in full) freely available on the Web, the Library of Congress[1] have made Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) data openly available to third parties[2], and further more WorldCat[3] (probably the current largest open bibliography of books available) is catalogued with a scheme adapted from (and maintaining upward compatibility with) LCSH.

[1] http://www.loc.gov/aba/
[2] http://id.loc.gov/
[3] http://www.worldcat.org/

INTRODUCTION

OCLC products include, as well as WorldCat, the Dewey Decimal Classification and the first (correct me if I am wrong here) cloud based library management system (Webscale). The role of WorldCat.org itself is to provide an open web portal to cooperatively-maintained OCLC databases of bibliographic metadata[1], contributors to which include (as of Jan 2012) 39 national libraries[2] (the British Library being amongst these).

[1] http://www.oclc.org/worldcat/about/default.htm
[2] http://www.oclc.org/uk/en/worldcat/catalog/national/default.htm

USING WORLDCAT

As well as the usual OPAC style search interface[1][2] WorldCat bibliographic entries are classified using a classification scheme derived from Library of Congress subject headings known as FAST[3]. FAST subject headings are in fact a lot more detailed than LCSH, and the added extra detail of FAST can often provide an exact subject heading whereas the same result set using LCSH would require a keyword search within a more generic subject heading.

[1] http://www.worldcat.org/advancedsearch
[2] http://www.oclc.org/support/help/worldcatorg/ApplicationHelp.htm
[3] http://www.oclc.org/research/activities/fast/default.htm

If the Library of Congress Classification (LCC)[1] itself is of interest ZVON.org[2] have made the main classes available[3] (facilitating browsing and searching).

[1] http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/lcco/
[2] http://zvon.org/lib/
[3] http://zvon.org/lib/lcc/index.html

Both FAST subject headings and LCSH themselves can be searched for a keyword through a number of portals including searchFAST[1], the FAST authorities themselves[2] (a more powerful search than searchFAST - a manual is available[3]), and ZVON.org's LCSH search page[4] (this latter page probably being the easiest starting point for a search of subject headings, a further search of FAST headings following if needed or out of interest otherwise).

[1] http://fast.oclc.org/searchfast/
[2] http://fast.oclc.org/
[3] http://fast.oclc.org/FASTManual/FastDatabaseManual.html
[4] http://zvon.org/lib/lcsh/index.html

Once an appropriate subject heading has been found, using WorldCat's advanced search[1], books classified with the subject can be retrieved. The same search can also be carried out with the keyword search box and term prefixes[2].

[1] http://www.worldcat.org/advancedsearch
[2] http://www.oclc.org/support/documentation/worldcatlocal/expert_examples_WorldCat_Local.htm

AN EXAMPLE

Exploring the subject of security (intended in a building etc. security sense), a ZVON.org LCSH search returned 555 total subject headings, while searchFAST and the FAST authorities (topical keyword searches) returned 844 and 628 headings respectively.

FAST results are not particularly easy to browse, however using keywords from a relevant Library of Congress subject heading and it is possible to narrow results further.

Taking the FAST subject heading for the subject of security measures in public buildings - 'Public buildings--Security measures' - and using the WorldCat keyword search box (prefixing the subject with 'su:' and appending a full stop, i.e., 'su:Public buildings--Security measures.'), a bibliography of 208 books was returned. A full compliment of sort options and search operators are available to narrow results further. It is even possible to create a private or public list (max. 500 items) from the results (requires a free account).

My own personal preference is to look up the Open Library page for any books of interest, generally providing links to a greater selection of purchase options and more social reading websites than the WorldCat page.

[Updated: 19.59 23 Jan 2012]

An attempt to dejargon management and organisation planning

2011-10-16T05:41:00.000-07:00

(The following I wrote towards the end of giving newly qualified managers usually suffering from the by no means uncommon symptoms of post course information overload the confidence to apply for full blown management positions.)

Mullins suggests, when describing 'the essential nature of management' (p. 373), the main management activities as being:

• Clarification of objectives
• Planning
• Organisation
• Directing
• Controlling

To attempt to dejargon this a manager needs in the first instance and before s/he can begin to plan to make sure s/he knows what the goals are (as Lucey describes this on p. 139, 'establish/ revise objectives'; essentially though more or less the same process as a baby building a tower out of toy bricks, accept it is not a toy brick tower that the manager is building). The next step then being to take a look at the situation, which includes both on the ground internal to the organisation (e.g., operation activity), but also keeping one eye on anything external to the organisation that might be relevant to the manager's operation (this essentially being a SWOT, sometimes also called a situation analysis or appraisal, At what point should a quick appraisal of the situation, either mentally or by sketching out an 'Ivy Lee' type list, turn into a formal SWOT?). There may be some options that are brought to light, but otherwise some sort of plan (i.e., strategy, or as Edward de Bono phrases this on p. 157, 'steps') should follow -- at which point the manager will have done their planning! (e.g., Monday morning for the week ahead). A manager's role (though sometimes delegated) also includes the organisation and organising of anything that needs to be organised to the point of being up and running, and once up and running directing as necessary to keep things running smoothly, sorting any problems out as they arise, keeping the operation on the rails.

The Anthony Triangle (ref. Bib.) diagrams three levels of management activity which can be useful to a manager in more understanding of the nature of their own job (to employees also in terms of understanding the nature of their organisation!): Corporate Planning (strategic), at which level the manager's (typically, e.g., a chief executive's - appointed by the direction level of the organisation) objectives and goals (called 'strategic' at this level) following from the vision for the organisation as currently understood in its society context (formulated by the direction level of the organisation); Tactical management will typically be at service unit level (e.g., libraries, archives) and concerned with overall strategy for the unit; Operations managers manage throughout the remainder of the organisation (with an overall operations strategy implicit if not otherwise - ref. Schroeder p. 32). I would suggest also that in this age of cognitive surplus 'the reason why' is not, contrary to the popular saying, not for the remaining (and larger proportion of the workforce), technical (i.e., operation activity) staff, but very much of concern to them, especially for library staff given their job often involves decision making, but also if creative talent is to be employed ('inside-out' strategy formulation, as Earl, p. 70 phrases this) staff will be more able to focus their creative energy on what is actually needed with an awareness of the values of the organisation.

Adding detail to the somewhat rigid wire frame model of the Anthony Triangle and giving us a model that perhaps (and increasingly in the age we live in) more truely reflects what actually goes on within organisations is the 'multiple methodology' (three pronged) approach to strategy put forward by Earl (ref. Ch. 4): "Top down" planning, values at the role in society and purpose of the organisataion and service unit levels; "Bottom up" - planning from the ground up: operations activity itself, audits, stock control, etc.; also though "Inside out" strategy formulation, planning recognising that the staff of the organisation themselves will be the most knowledgeable person within the organisation on the subject of their own particular role, encouraging staff to identify opportunities/ risks etc. - strategy formulated in this way becoming more important to the organistaion when technologies and techniques are evolving at a rapid rate.

Reading Mullins again (p. 303) planning can be divided into:

i) planning for the organisation as a whole and the role and purpose of the organisation in society (Mullins calls this 'The Community Level', a responsibility of the direction level of the organisation, if I were to give a citation here it would be Johnson & Scholes); and

ii) planning for implementation (which is the responsibility of the management of the organisation through the management activities outlined above - a manager ((e.g., CEO)) or management team otherwise typically being appointed in the first instance by the direction level of the organisation).

The following quote from some recent writing of my own illustrates questions that might be asked when creating a vision for the organisation as a whole and from which strategic level management draw strategic goals and formulate organisation startegy:

i) How has the value of the nation’s literary ecosystem to the nation changed 1850 through to present?

ii) What is the value to the nation of the public libraries in the modern age?

iii) If a mission statement states what value an organisation creates that provides for the needs/ values/ goals/ expectations of stakeholders, venture a mission statement.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ROBERT ANTHONY, "Planning and Control Systems: A Framework for Analysis" (1965), I believe it is in this publication that Anthony defined his hierarchy of management activity.
EDWARD DE BONO, "Tactics - The Art and Science of Success", HarperCollinsPublishers (1993).
MICHAEL J. EARL, "Management Strategies for Information Technology", Prentice Hall (1989).
GERRY JOHNSON and KEVIN SCHOLES, "Exploring Corporate Strategy (3rd edition)", Prentice Hall International (UK) Ltd (1993).
TERRY LUCEY, "Management Information Systems", DP Publications Ltd (1995).
LAURIE J. MULLINS, "Management and Organisational Behaviour", Pitman Publishing (1993).
ROGER G. SCHROEDER, "Operations Management", McGraw-Hill, Inc. (1993).

Misc. notes on the management of our public libraries:

1) a) On the subject of a division that I have noticed between librarianship and what is often perceived as managerialism, personally I would hope anyone who shows interest and talent as a manager would be encouraged, whether a management background or librarianship, and given the opportunity to train in the necessary complimentary field. I would ask the question if not encouraging diverse talents and strengths and a broader range of skills within the organisation equates to an organisation more able to cope in the turbulent times we live. b) Towards bridging another type of division perhaps, I was asked once which was my favourite community library, to which I replied they were all as lovable as each other (duly rendering me 'a creep' from what I can gather ;) Community libraries can be quite competitive at times - if the role of the community library is to raise the culture of the community that the library serves, then hopefully staff can move between libraries and duly take an interest in the community that the library serves.

2) I mentioned our nation's literary ecosystem above - our national HQ seems to be the National Association for Literature Development (NALD), ref. the section titled 'Who are our members?' - though this list does not include readers!, nor the international dimension, which includes nowadays the Internet; there are at least half a dozen major social reading sites/ ebook websites/ book sites otherwise (e.g., Fantastic Fiction), etc. - all I think have to be considered partners in a nation's literacy nowadays). (By taking an institutions of society perspective we can put the nation's cultural sector itself into context.)

3) On the subject of the value of libraries (not an easy subject to grasp in this day and age). I think understanding on this subject has in the first instance to refer back to the value of symbolic communication to humanity and the literacy/ literacies and cultural activities within a civilisation that follow (knowledge - "the result of the inevitable interaction between man and the universe"; cultural activities, 'cultivating' culture, the ideas and activities of a community/ people, through the preservation and presentation of that culture). To ground things I think a library is of value in every context of our lives (though having said that of more relevance in some contexts than others - as Edward de Bono puts this in To Lo Po So Go, the importance of each thinking hat will vary in different situations, in one situation the action plan may be the most salient, but in some situations, ‘Lo’, or the white hat, and information and facts may be more important, etc.). As to what particular books and literature is of value to a library’s community and the individuals within that community, I was impressed when Shropshire put on the web a detailed breakdown using census data (which is as detailed as the questions the form asks) of the profiles of the communities that their libraries served (the portal to the site unfortunately no longer exists). (At which point things move towards the level of understanding the "community information ecosystem" - some work on which I note is developing in the States in the context of the new information technologies of our age.) As to the value of the libraries within our literary ecosystem, I tend to think of the reading that would be missing from our culture if the libraries were not there (not insignificant by any means, think of the value in terms of pounds and pence of all the library books read by one city in one year if people had to buy their own books!).

4) A note on Reader Development. I haven't had the opportunity to complete a course on this as yet, however since everyone else currently is I took the opportunity to read around the subject; past and origins, books published, the Opening the Book website, meaning of terminology used (e.g., 'reader centred', 'creative reading'), etc. There isn't a clear cut definition I don't think, however if I were to abstract and summarize, when a book leaves the sanctuary of the author's pen the book then begins a second life and genesis but this time on its own and in the wild: the book may flourish, or succumb to a hostile natural environment and whither if not die out completely. Reader development is about helping a book flourish, putting a book to work to the maximum in the society in which we live. Reader development I think is about getting the full value from our literature and raising the level of our culture as a consequence. I'm not sure how Rachel Van Riel would reflect on this! I think it is though at least fairly sound to say that most Reader Development activities are towards this end. (Note this perspective very much owes its origins to quotes by at least one or possibly two authors talking about writing - the quotes I'm afraid very regrettably I no longer have a note of.) To conclude, "...A good book is the purest essence of a human soul ... The good of a book is not the facts that can be got out of it, but the kind of resonance that it awakens in our own minds." (quoted from Carlyle, Panizzi, and the Public Library Ideal, A.S. Popowich, 2007.) Is it not the "resonance" referred to in this quote, though not the reason why Thomas Carlyle actually made the point, but never the less very much the aim of Reader Development?

5) On the relationship between education and libraries. Librarians I note differentiate between the knowledge a person possesses (knowledge being that which a person actually knows themselves, without reference to any further sources) and the 'information' (wisdom, etc!) that is to be found in books. Education is a process which we put ourselves through to become knowledgeable and skilled in a field and with formal accreditation being awarded by way of recognition of that achievement. The libraries' central role however is a cultural role ("The destruction of a culture's library is the destruction of its collective memory...", 'Bibliocausts' through the ages, Globe and Mail Update Feb. 25, 2009). Which is not to say by any means that a library should disregard the value of the cultural record charged with.

6) Public library legislation. Ref. post The 1964 Public Library Standards in 2012.

Misc. notes on management and organisation planning:

1) If in doubt as to whether a role is management or technical ('operation activity'), management spend more time determining the nature of the work to be done and subsequently 'getting work done through the efforts of other people' rather than carrying out discrete tasks themselves (Mullins, p. 375).

2) Is management an art or a science? I think it is true to say that arts are generally analysed by science until the science is known, the rub though seems to be that there are already centuaries of science behind management and probably constituting quite a reasonable applied science, application though if evident is rare.

Misc. notes on methodology:

1) There are many other models/ methodologies/ approaches/ paradigms/ philosophies etc. to those I have applied above, each drawing out different characteristics and with their complimentary strengths, the trick though I think is to ask what a particular model/ paradigm etc. is able to offer in terms of understanding a particular situation in question.

2) Credit to the People's Network online reference service (@AskALibrarianUK) for finding the Anthony Triangle citation.

[Updated: 22.Jan 2012]

Libraries and Town Synergy ('Slow Retail' and Slow Cooking)

2011-07-14T05:40:00.001-07:00

I thought I would blog this (as opposed to just an email) as it is a good example of how a library can help revitalise a town centre. (In the notes I also give some introductory material to management (and personal!) problem solving which may be of interest to people new to the subject.)

A local councillor has called for creativity to revitalise a local shopping precinct. I have no experience of retail at all, however do have some management training, of which problem solving is a skill[1], and I've also just listened to quite an interesting radio article[2] in which the concept of 'slow shopping' (a la slow cooking! which is actually quite a 'deep' juxtaposition), was discussed.

It's not a very self-explanatory term itself, and the programme was not particularly clear either even by the end of the article, the context was one though of asking how retail centres can entice people back from the Internet and into their shops. As an example that might illustrate an aspect of 'slow retail' perhaps, a town in the same region as myself, Chester, a Roman fort town, take a trip into the city, visit the museum and various historical exhibits around the city, walk along the river, hire a rowing boat, plenty of places to eat and drink and (by no means of least importance) of varying cultural leanings, a theatre, etc. This is a city with a historical leaning, it's really a question I think otherwise though of natural assets (exploring, _valuing_, retail, the town, the people, etc.).

So my thoughts anyway are along the lines of 'slow retail', and our town centre. There was at one point talk of a tramline running from the shopping centre to a local riverside tourist attraction. This was never fulfilled, however at one point a quite novel electric bus was put in place for people to make the journey from town centre to the riverside and a historical quarter, but this seems to have gone by the wayside at this point as well. But these were all good strategies, or at least in a 'slow cooking' sense! (though I'm not sure shoppers would like to think of themselves as being slow cooked, and indeed it is they who are doing the 'cooking', the town adding ingredients to the menu that they have created for themselves).

Also though the town's library has a history that goes back to 1856, was the first public library in an 'unincorporated borough' (I'm not exactly sure what this means, it would be interesting to find out!); the present building dates back to 1934 and was opened by King George V (historically and culturally significant). So why not run the electric bus to the library as well! (Not every town has as interesting a library as our own, however a library is a destination for many reasons, if a building is historically significant that is an added bonus.) If cultural information could be provided as well (tape recordings, apps for teens''phones, etc)... etc. A library being of value in every context of our lives (to varying degrees of salience, but usually of some value), is actually quite flexible as to what extrinsic value it has, so perhaps some stakeholder analysis would be useful at this point.

Where else could an electric bus run to while on the subject? There are are a number of tourist attractions. For some reason the electric bus that was in place only had the one destination if I remember correctly - it could possibly even add a personal touch, another attribute of slow retail, by taking people on demand to destinations (I'm sure technologically this would be possible nowadays).

A note and thought for library staff, the term 'multi-dimensional' space was used in the radio programme. This was in the context of the concept of slow retail (a shop should be multidimensional), however a library is very much a multidimensional space. It would be interesting to list these dimensions!

A multidimensional space though also as an attribute of slow retail I think leads to thoughts of synergy and the town centre and how the different functions the town centre can (and could) have for people can work together to create something more than the individual parts themselves. Considering also as well the 'slow cooking' analogy, given the technology context, the changing value of our retail and commerce (i.e., its role in our lives) bringing the focus back to ourselves and the people dimension (I'm not particularly a philosopher, but presumably people will be cooking something up :)

What are known as 'Big Bang' projects (e.g., getting the space shuttle off the launchpad first time and safetly; big bang projects have to work first time without error) take a great deal of planning, we don't though always plan to that level (not all projects are of this nature). However if a map of the terrain can be drawn then (ceteris paribus!) arrival at any destination should a journey be embarked upon (and 'up' is the salient syllable in this word) is more assured. A 'map' also gives local planners and ultimately the councillors a basis from which to make expectations of those using public funds, ensuring the funds are not wasted and used to their best. So I think it is of value for concepts such as 'slow retail' to be explored, and maybe even a journey embarked upon with the results carefully assessed.

Good luck to my home town anyway, my interests are elsewhere at the moment unfortunately (needs lower down the scale), however I shall rest assured be tuning into the next episode of this particular story! The bottom line I think is, and my message to the local councillors, think of culture, as well as profit! You could even perhaps bring in some urban culture experts?

Notes:

[1] This footnote is actually a small article in itself! A friend recently embarked upon a NVQ III level management qualification, the first assignment for which developed the skills of problem solving, and which caused me to look back on the subject. This subject is analygous with decision making, and since problem solving and decision making is a part of the everyday lives of everybody ("any situation that invites resolution", Wikipedia), a subject of popular psychology, and further abstracts out to the subjects of thinking (this is what it takes to solve a problem or make a decision!) and perception (a synonym for thinking; both subjects psychology again). There are to say the least quite a number of books on the subject of problem solving! It was a long time since I had looked at these books, still in mind though was very much was the TEC framework found in one of Edward de Bono's books, a very simple model of the thinking process (this is what problem solving and decision making essentially requires!) which he gives a symbolic representation along the lines of the following:

o < >

- the 'o' symbol representing the goal of the thinking (e.g., the tower a baby might build out of toy bricks) -- this is the 'T' in 'TEC', referring to target;

- the '<' symbol refers to an 'expand and explore' phase of thinking;

- while '>' means 'contract and conclude'.

I also remember John Adair's "offices of the mind", which I think quite nicely summarises what this grey (white actually) matter between ears has the ability to do:

analysing (breaking down into parts; the '<' phase, expand and explore),

synthesizing (creating or forming something new out of the parts using imagination; the '<' phase again), and

valuing (the '>' phase, contracting and concluding; I use the sense of the word value here not only in a 'formula' sense of value, but also taking into account that a person's values may not always be so calculated, we do things, e.g., for other reasons than logic, an intuitive judgement, the rituals and routines of our culture, the policy of a company saving decisions from having to be reformulated, etc.).

It was John Adair who wrote also:

"... For decision making rests upon two pillars:

- establishing the truth

- knowing what to do"

(My emphasis.) There is usually I note at least one chapter in a book on decision making devoted to the subject of truth and integrity - this cannot be over emphasised. My thoughts however then turned to Edward de Bono again, who curiously enough has a chapter in a book titled exactly "Knowing What to Do". He outlines what he calls "three basic know-all processes" (we are talking again about how that which is between our ears works):

"instinct" (genetically programmed, a baby knows how to feed, but we also know instinctively what makes us happy, what adds joy to our lives - and in theory at least (genetically speaking) there is a relationship between these activities and the success of our species (the former activities resulting in the latter essentially, ref. the science of happiness, etc.);

"learning" (through trial and error and practise; your own knowledge of a particular context, situation, set of circumstances, etc. gained through experience; this may also though be second hand learning); and

"understanding", this I think it is fair to say de Bono refers to as the ability that our brains have to apply abstract ideas to concrete situations: "a very powerful process" (e.g., a student may typically ask: "what does this model/ theory/ paradigm/ methodology/ approach (metaphor, analogy, story!) etc. tell us about... (whatever the student is being asked to write about)).

My friend in doing her assignment also reminded me of the methodologies and techniques managers use for decision making, and in particular the object/ objective matrix I happened upon in a book on IT strategy and software development, which, in (very) simple terms, means put the list of (physical!) 'objects' that you are contemplating putting resources into into rows down the left hand edge of the table (green hat thinking here, options and possibilities), and across the top create table columns for your objectives (e.g., the role of the library in society, the role your library serves for your particular community, an operational target otherwise, etc.; personally wise you could list as objectives the type of things that make you happy and that add joy to your life perhaps (e.g., ref. the science of happiness again, personality is a factor here but that is another story! you have to trust your values I think, serendipity has a role, but otherwise your values are more or less all you have to work from :) You can give in the matrix a weighting to how much a particular 'object' contributes to a particular objective or goal. A few footnotes to the above rather long paragraph; my own thinking is very much born of the 1980s and 90s, I'm not particularly up to date with more recent trends; the above is based on theories of mind, there are though quite a few more thoeries of mind other than Edward de Bono's and John Adair's, and some quite lateral, but also very interesting. (Bibliography: "de Bono's Thinking Course", Edward de Bono (1982); "The Art and Science of Success - Tactics", Edward de Bono (1985); "Effective Decision Making", John Adair (1985); "Practical Thinking", Edward de Bono (1971))

[2] Radio 4, You and Yours, 14 July 2011 12 PM, "What can the high street learn from the Slow Food movement? Could slow retail tempt us back into the shops?" http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b012fs6k

The Institutions of Society

2011-05-17T17:46:00.000-07:00

I'm looking for a book I once read!

A footnote, I mentioned 'the institutions of society' (upthread post), citing off the top of my head, "health and social service, the economy and commerce, government, education, ... cultural heritage", I'd also add to that in retrospect law and order (perhaps the army would fall within this). Essentially, related roles and institutions (a sort of systems theory model of society). I was citing here from a very hazy memory of a diagram in a sociology book that I glanced at sometime in the 90s (though I think it was probably around at least the late 70s). The introduction consisted of the diagram of these institutions (maybe eight or ten or so of, just boxes on a page essentially with a few icons to illustrate), and the table of contents a chapter on each institution. If anyone has any clue as to which book I was looking at I'd really like to look back at it :)

(Cross posting from lis-pub-libs.) A functional perspective on society, institutions being groups of related roles (in terms of the purpose of the role). I'm not sure where religion would be placed, maybe somewhere in the vicinity of cultural heritage (where libraries are to be found).

23 June 2010

While on the subject of society, a feature on the Today programme (21 June 2011, 08:23) mentioning the postwar Attlee government and their belief that if the country was to have a future a just society was essential, fundamental tenets of which included health, education and access to justice. It's interesting that up until 1948 the main welfare provision was the centuries old Poor Law system.

The joy in your life...

2011-04-18T15:13:00.000-07:00

"Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence" Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, book I (1095a)¹

If the role we have in the scheme of things is for a long and enjoyable life², if we then add as much happiness^3,4 as we can to the lives of others, ourselves, our children, then ...

¹An interesting insight into this quote (all is not what it seems) penned by an expert on all things ancient Greek and who identifies herself as only Maria can be found here.
²Reasoned in a kind of roundabout way here... http://bit.ly/douglasadams42
³An insight into what makes us happy from a scientific viewpoint, and of the evolutionary value of happiness, On happiness...
⁴Ref. also Aristotelianism.

Understanding Planning and Corporate Strategy

2011-03-10T09:38:00.000-08:00

I wrote this for a nephew earlier today, but as a concise summary of the process of planning (text book technique anyway):

To put a SWOT in context, a quick off the cuff lecture on corporate startegy (oops, 'strategy'). Or at least the basic introductory stuff anyway.

At the top level is the role of the organisation in society, this is the purpose of the org. (the org. has a reason for being and a 'role'). Next follows [policy and] their goals in achieving this purpose (a similar process really to no more than a baby stacking toy bricks up on top of each other to make a tower, accept it is not a tower that is being made). What follows is then a situation analysis, and this is also known as the SWOT analysis, strengths and weaknesses (the organisation internally), opportunities and threats (the org. externally, I prefer risks and opportunities here myself). SWOT is a bit complex, it's enough usually I think just to say/think OK what's the situation here, and the plan follows by asking what is an appropriate response. The options have to be considered, some judgement applied. The plan then follows. Edward de Bono sums strategy up in one word as 'steps' - there is more to it though, I like 'response'.

[A quick edit: for any library staff reading this, "The strategic planning process" is to be found in Chapter 23 of Librarianship: An Introduction, Chowdhury, Burton, McMenemy, Poulter (2007). For a more in-depth treatment of the topic Exploring Corporate Strategy: Text and Cases, Johnson, Scholes (1993; there is probably a more up-to-date edition of this, however this is the copy I have).]

[Further quick edit, I'd probably also add on reflection that preliminary to the purpose of the organisation is an assessment of the organisation in society (and increasingly nowadays the wider World; this is the 'assessment' stage of planning) -- the past, present and future - e.g., technological, social, nowadays environment, and political factors etc. (e.g., PEST, being one framework for broadening thinking on this subject). Stakeholder expectations also (their aims and goals). From this picture a vision for the future of the organisation can follow.]

[Edit: A timely quote, posted today (25/03/11) by @LoveRomantic: "The choices you make today, shape and form the future you live tomorrow." Via @GurteenQuotes (9/4/11) "Plan for the future because that's where you are going to spend the rest of your life." Mark Twain.]

[Edit: An anecdote to encourage readers to perhaps take a look at the Humanities. A tweet was posted on Twitter confessing to a particular habit, and asking if they were normal. The consensus of opinion was that as long as you were in good company it didn't particularly matter whether you were normal or not :o) However my own tuppence ha'penny worth was to ask "for what particular proclivity of the human condition" did the habit serve. 'The Human condition' does indeed have a lot to answer for.]

[Epilogue. I wrote this this afternoon (10.4.11) following a conversation with a colleague though largely following from being asked the question (another colleague, but with a different library authority) what a stakeholder was. While I'm using terminology here of my own (I've not seen anyone else use this terminology in this context), I've no doubt this is by no means a road travelled alone:

Key I think is understanding the values of stakeholders (anyone who finds some value of any kind in what the organisation does). After all if the organisation doesn't do anything for the people who value it there is not a lot of point in it being there (also it's [understanding the values of stakeholders] the basis of evaluation [of impact] and quality processes). From this understanding of stakeholder values and given the Society context a vision for the organisation in the society context can follow.

(This I would guess is essentially the assessment stage of planning.)]

[Edit, 19 May 2011: From an email sent today:

As to what I mean by values, values in a formula is not a completely correct analogy as people base decisions and make judgements that aren't always based on a 'sum' (e.g., an intuitive feeling, the norms and rituals and routines of our culture [or a community], the policy of an organisation, feelings! after all at the end of the day everything reduces more or less down to the joy in your life and a feeling of happiness and life's menu - if you want to know what 'your' values are you could quite reasonably ask what would add some joy and happiness to your own life).

Rather than the formula definition, I think the definition of values as being along the lines of a definition that I read in a medium sized dictionary some years ago, "something of worth", is probably more accurate.]

MONEY and POWER!!!

2010-09-22T06:19:00.000-07:00

The topic recently surfaced:

Money and power (the latter usually towards the ends of the former) are highly compulsive motivators. It’s all too easy to forget (and we often do for some odd reason) about the values of anything else, the value of being highly skilled, the value of a well chosen leader, etc.

At the end of your life (and you do only have the one life!), do you want your life to have been a rat race, or what should have been on life’s menu otherwise [instead]? Subscribe to a dog-eat-dog world as Jimmy Reid describes it as being so easy to do, but then remember that this is a world in which you will spend your life defending yourself from bigger prey. We have the capability to do much better than that.

(Comment to a post quoting from a 1970’s speech by the trade unionist Jimmy Reid.)

I'm not saying I entirely subscribe to the above view (even though I wrote it!), I'd like to see a lot more analysis. However even without this analysis power and greed are without doubt at the root of a potential big difference to our lives.

...the classification agenda for the C21

2010-09-19T07:35:00.001-07:00

The following was a comment (from myself) to a blog post by a Waterstone's manager titled The number's up:

A very quick comment here, the purpose of a description is usefulness (Edward De Bono), each classification brings out different qualities or facets [i.e., a description in its own right], and each facet with its own technologies, so let people use the classification that is useful to them!

There is no reason now why the DDC and LCSH [or BIC!] should not all be on the Web for everyone to use, with the quite simple proposition to the library user that i) here are all the books in the World and with the current classification work that Humanity has got round to, ii) here are the out of print books that have been scanned and placed on the Web (and the text from which can be searched), iii) here are the ones you can get from your local library system/authority, and iv) here is how you get the rest (and of these latter two groups links to searchable scanned excerpts :)

There is no reason why the public should not now have access to all the classification schemes available, the formal librarian classifications, BIC, even Amazon -- I'm sure the business models could be worked out as well. In this information age I'm sure the public would also be interested in the information literacy and theory surrounding the issues of keyword search and classification.

I'd add to that there is a lot of work to be done as well I think by librarians with the semantic web.

Glossary:
BIC - Book Industry Communication.

[Edit 20/09/2010] More on this subject here, including on the issue of keyword search v. classification.

Public Sector Cuts and Libraries and Public Input into Library Planning

2010-09-10T05:53:00.000-07:00

A very quickly keyed in post on this.

North Swindon MP Justin Tomlinson has recently called for the cuts to be made from management rather than frontline services.

My argument in this post is that because our society is going through so much change at the moment (technology not least of all) we still need a layer of management to reassess the position of the libraries given all of this change and to present the public with the options for the libraries for the future. This should I think be an ongoing assessment, too much is missed by one-off reports (i.e., a learning process), and it should as well have representation from the public, communicating the public's experience of using the libraries and the expectations for the libraries of library communities.

Seth Godin, Clay Shirky, and the Big Society

2010-09-10T05:34:00.000-07:00

Again not a lot of time to organise and analyse all that has been going on on this subject in libraries (the Government is expecting libraries to take a big part in this), however some of the current context in the comments from myself to this post:

Blogging is growing up: why be merely commentators when we can be activists?

Seth has actually posted another article on this subject, The future of the library, the original article being here, and the book in which Clay Shirky coins the term ‘cognitive surplus’.

19 May 2011

The Agenda for the Semantic Web

2010-09-10T05:30:00.000-07:00

I haven't time at the moment to synthesise this lot out into a well presented argument, but some of this agenda can be found in the comments from myself in the following blog post:

Blogging is growing up: why be merely commentators when we can be activists?

On Our Current Understanding of the Value of the Public Library

2010-09-07T01:45:00.000-07:00

A recent comment to a post by Tim Coates:

The title of this comment: "So I guess my message is that libraries have a purpose and a point. But I, for damn sure, could not begin to tell you what that should be. I just work here." http://lisnews.org/what_point_public_library

When I came into libraries 5 years ago as a library assistant, working all over Liverpool Libraries, at break times, and on public transport to the various libraries I worked in (usually a different library every day), I quite naturally read through all the books the library had (and a few more) on the subject of libraries. The history of the libraries, the why, what, how, of the libraries, the values of the libraries (the instruction book on how to use the libraries).

I found, and I think this is fair comment, that our understanding of libraries is fragmented into the individual perceptions of the various steakholders, librarians themselves, users, political rational, unions, etc. We do normally understand values in terms of a context, and the breadth of the value of the library and contexts of the library are as broad as the books in them! At the end of the day I think the person who understands libraries will also understand culture.

Bob McKee in the recent BBC radio programme 'What's the Point of ...: Series 3: The Public Library.' http://bbc.in/d73LfS reminds us that a library service should be implemented with an ideology, there should be some theory. So what are the main library ideologies, theories? Historically, current thinking.

At this point in the [150 year] history of the public library, librarians I think need to next consolidate an understanding from the somewhat fragmented nature of what we currently know of the libraries. It's a big subject, but would solve the problem highlighted in the quote opening this comment. It would also help staff to do their jobs more effectively, and should also have the knock on effect of raising the culture of our society (no mean achievement).

Tim Coates is calling for "local councillors and ... representation of the public" on the Future Libraries programme. The lack of transparency in these higher levels of management is possibly causing problems at an even higher level of management - namely the public level ;) So TC's proposal might help here.

The value of a library to house owners and a town...

2010-09-03T17:07:00.002-07:00

"Libraries have traditionally been a symbol of permanence. A town with its own library could feel confident that its citizens had a reason to stick around and help the town grow, that a source of knowledge was there, that the library added value to the town." What is the point of the public library?

Kudos to @garygre for reading this and passing it on.

It would seem reasonable to expect that a library (esp. one with maybe a strong reputation) would make an area more attractive to housebuyers, raising the value of houses in the area.

A town as a whole with a strong library authority could then benefit as well.

Good reasons to raise the expectations of a town's councillors and the inhabitants of its libraries!

The libraries I think could do with an audit of expectations, to check they are not selling themselves short, but also so that the population are not 'sold' short ;) (That's actually quite a serious point.)

Possibly why people like their libraries so much... [or 'the freedom to roam over our world, and to be what we can be']

2010-08-25T16:36:00.000-07:00

The following is quote from a recent post on LIS-PUB-LIBS:

"What makes people intelligent is their ability to learn and reason—in short, to adapt and thrive within their environment."

Quoted from:

The internet is changing the way you think: The Difference Engine: Rewiring the brain

I guess it is probably instinctive to feel a relationship between 'intelligence' and 'thriving', and the library is a major ability for a person in this respect. If a community loses their library then [it follows] they will be a poorer community for it. (I don't understand why a lot more communities do not organise themselves to make sure their library is delivering a top notch service -- and that the Government doesn't cut all the funding for the libraries as well.)

I'd add also that if we look at the science of happiness (ref. this post On happiness...), people really enjoy a good story (and arguably according to the science of happiness a genetic trait resulting from those of our ancestors that enjoyed a good story reproducing more successfully).

"People wish also in the main, to give their fellows and themselves the opportunity for self-improvement ... human sympathy, ... the universal desire for an increase of human happiness by an increase of knowledge of conditions of human happiness" (Library Daylight - Tracings of Modern Librarianship, 1874-1922, Edited Rory Litwin)

So more reasons why people 'love' their libraries! If Life is a Menu, then for £18 (or so) a year out of a person's taxes libraries are certainly a good value addition [ref. also the edit below, the freedom 'to roam over our world, [and] to be what we can be'].

(By way of a footnote, I note the title of the article quoted at the top of this post inlcudes the words 'The Difference Engine' (referring I think to our brains![Edit: 14/10/10 - http://bbc.in/9QtC0o]). Edward De Bono I think it is fair to say tells us that the human brain is a self-organising memory surface with the underlying engine essentially being one of 'self-interest'. It is though John Adair who points out that we choose what to do next on the basis of what will make the most 'difference'. Now I think 'a difference engine' more accurately describes the process of our thoughts than 'self-interest', because as a label it more readily includes the type of thing that adds to our feelings of happiness as talked about in Rory Litwin's book quoted above.)

(As a second footnote! I note the Economist article quoted from above mentions peoples': "ability to learn and reason", which hammers home for me (and I know this is obvious but I am putting it on the agend) the importance of mental health (and our NHS -- I do wish they would knuckle down, drop the baggage of the past 200 years, and seriously do something about improving the aggregate mental health of this country - I think a fair comment).)

[Edit: 1.40 am]

A thought also, we live in a culture that puts freedom at its core (Democracy follows). The libraries and everything they do make us freer, to roam over our world, to be what we can be. And we believe this to be an essential trait for survival. (That's my reasoning anyway ;)

"A Library Offer to the Public"

2010-08-25T16:15:00.000-07:00

I was emailed at 7.38 am this morning asking if I would like to appear on a Radio 5 Live 'phone in asking the question "Do we still need libraries?". I didn't open the email until evening :| However I emailed the producer and the following is (edited a touch) that email:

I'm sorry I missed this, I am not someone who would particularly want the pressure of public speaking, but I do strongly feel that not only i) do we need libraries, but also ii) we need much much better libraries. They were state of the art at the turn of the C20, but haven't really updated since, and libraries could do so much more for their communities in the information age that we live in (they are still essentailly living in an Edwardian era).

I can't say that I understand the value of libraries fully myself, and that I don't think is surprising given the breadth of the terms of reference of the libraries. My own studies (5 years of) lend toward concluding we have a lot of individual perceptions on the value of libraries, from librarians themselves, from library users, from steakholders such as governments and the unions remind us of the abuse that people have been subject to by those with wealth (some of whom have in the past contended the libraries were making the working classes more difficult to manage). It is for the next generation of librarians to now consolidate those perceptions and what we now know and to understand the libraries more fully than they ever have been understood in their past 150 year history. Armed with that knowledge, the libraries can then apply all the new information technologies that we now have to the libraries' ends (until all the possibilities have been exhausted).

Intuitively - from my own understanding of the libraries gained from working as a library assistant for the past 5 years and from the work I have done on Library Web over the past 3 years - given a combination of new technologies and the role that libraries have traditionally played in society, the libraries probably have as much potential at this point in time as was felt when public libraries were first legislated for 150 years ago. The task for librarians and the libraries, to my own mind, at this point in time, is to consolidate their understanding of themselves and new technologies, and to present the proof of this potential to the public and Government.

I'm trying to think of an analogy (a soundbite preferably), for a time when there is the greatest need but the least resources available (sod's law!). Their is the possibility at this point in time for the reasons given above that the libraries could have a great deal of potential for society - the libraries could do so much more for their communities in the information age that we live in. We need much much better libraries. But we are plugging the funding for them. With the decimation of the upper layers as well, the MLA going, the laying off of the upper layers of management in councils, I'm not sure who is going to pick up the agenda either.

I'm sorry I did not catch the opportunity,

...

"We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations." Charles R. Swindoll

The subject of "A Library Offer to the Public" by the way is to be found in the recent DCMS Modernisation review of public libraries.

Libraries and volunteers (and organisation structure)

2010-08-25T15:43:00.000-07:00

@walkyouhome tweets:

"Ok, I'm with @ijclark. We need to get together and bash something together about why public libs need qualified, professional staff."

I recently wrote in a blog post comment:

"Something I’ve noticed recently though with all the library cuts going on (25%+ here in the UK across the board), administrators are seeing libraries as nothing more than a warehouse for books that can be dealt out by volunteers. I think there is an element of librarians having brought this upon themselves through traditionally being bookworms and Dewey heads, and not seeing themselves as having a critical role for their community (society, etc.)."

I think there is a synergy between professional and volunteer staff in the library and that we haven't yet reached it.

There is an argument that says libraries should flatten their organisation structures out, so that frontline staff are more highly trained, expected maybe to take on some professional responsibility (almost managerial perhaps) as well being more highly skilled - our library communities deserve this.

So yes to volunteers, but also yes to a more highly skilled and responsible (in a management sense) frontline library staff.

[Edit: 26/8/10]

I've actually commented on this subject to a post in the past, the blogger however pulled (deleted) the post. I asked the question, do you pay a One-Stop-Shop Manager more or less than a Library Manager, and argued while a One-Stop-Shop manager has procedures to follow, a Library Manager is responsible for every single member of the community the library serves. An experienced, proactive library manager, as highly qualified as possible (maybe with some level of strategic management qualification) has the potential to make a great deal of difference to a community.

[Edit: 1/9/10]

Libraries: Open books
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/aug/31/libraries-coalition-volunteers

Library Volunteers
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/magazine/29FOB-ethicist-t.html?_r=1&ref=magazine

I did also hear one argument on the ground in the library, against volunteers, people were being manipulated to get them to work for nothing. A second point made prior to this and in the Central library was that you don't see those with wealth volunteering (on aggregate at least).

The Yin and Yang of Culture

2010-08-08T05:31:00.000-07:00

Two quotes from recent articles:

"the history, mythology, music, art and ideas that previous generations have bequeathed to us ... a society that treats our cultural heritage as a resource for exploitation. Instead of producing new works of genuine art that replenish our mental environment" Ecology of the Mind

"In today's world, a country's culture and economy are inseparable. A government must pay more attention to culture and originality if it wants to improve the quality of economic development." Mr Cai, formerly the head of China's information office

If a library raises the culture of a community (and consequently the needs of the community are increasingly met), then I think it is important for a library to understand cultural processes. I wish I did. Who are the libraries' partners in Culture? Could they not work together on this aspect of the Nation's culture that is common between them?

"the universal desire for an increase of human happiness ... an increase of knowledge of conditions of human happiness"

TV and Books - a few pluses and minuses

2010-06-25T07:07:00.000-07:00

A very quick post with a few recent thoughts.

1) It popped into mind that a person can develop a higher level of intelligence on a subject with books than the TV (obvious really, but it's not exactly at the forefront of our minds when we read or watch TV ;) However it would be a mistake to project a lesser value onto TV I think (what exactly is the value of TV, I haven't seen any TV programs on that recently! - or maybe it is the library that should be the expert on this ;) It's easy to assume that what's salient in a person's life is the high level of skill to be found in books, thereby projecting yourself onto them (personality I think comes into this). Nevertheless libraries could maybe go to a few more pains to point out the value of books to people, along with the info literacy skills to be found at the library nowadays (or if not today then at least in the future :)

2) A reader commented to me that having watched the BBC dramatisation of Small World (Andrea Levy) that it brought the book to life.

3) A reader(!) asked for historical seafaring films, I researched this for him and found that because they were so expensive to make only a few had essentially ever been made. I pointed out though that there were a great many more authors and books on the subject.

'Life is a Menu'

2010-05-25T16:09:00.000-07:00

'Life is a Menu'!![1] So if life is a menu, what then do we put on that menu. It's a confused world we live in, do we put all the abuse that people go through in society on that menu? Do the soldiers who have to kill want to put that on the menu? While we have as peoples achieved a great deal for our lives ('The Time that is Thine'[2]), we by no means yet have more than part.

'A savage start? Maybe, but this is just the very beginning'[3] Monkeys, taught some words (which they can be if I remember correctly) have much better problem solving ability than those without words. Which I guess is one of the main differences between animals and ourselves, we give words (labels) to the 'dark wood'[4] around us (an 'exploration of the syntax' of the world we live in), and we can problem solve much more effectively for it.

Now our brains, as Edward de Bono puts it, a 'self-organising memory surface', are blank at birth. So the armory of words with which we have at birth to problem solve the world are those of our parents, community and culture. We grow up in a box with the words of our sub/culture with which to create our lives. A pot pourri of ideas from hunter/gatherer societies and times of scarcity and plenty through tribalism and feudalism / capitalism and the market economy etc., and we can't think of anything else to do but the same. 'Historical reasons' have a great deal to answer for ;)

There is however no reason to settle with what we have wound up with for historical reasons. Cultures and subcultures--civilisations through to communities through to individuals--need to be able to think outside of the box, exploring further the syntax of our world and our lives, building on our intelligence and problem solving ability. Individuals, communities, countries, need to focus on a shared understanding of our 'real' values, and while surviving the turbulent waters of our time, bring both 'real values' and understanding of ourselves together (a 'new' culture).

In the modern information world we live in we have much more opportunity than ever do this.

[1] http://amzn.to/bjJJe9
[2] http://bit.ly/cToOTz
[3] http://bit.ly/alFtD4
[4] http://amzn.to/bqE2Fh

For a bigger picture of the front cover of Roux' book... http://bit.ly/9GZh3d :)

[Edited 25 June 2010 14.55]

As an after thought, it's almost as though the human mind is like a computer in that it will only run the programs that are installed on it (with the operating system set to autorun the program which will make the most difference!).

This is complicated by the fact that we are born with some default code, breast feeding is ususally cited, but certain things make us happy ('the hunt', stories!, and lots more things we have genetically evolved to enjoy), we also empathically feel someone elses pain (the exact same nerves as the injured person - though I've read that research shows people with racist beliefs do not feel this), and so on.

So what have we got? A physical and mental evolution originating in an animal world culminating in a brain that is like a computer but with a miscellany of programs burnt into the hardware and programs added by culture, and a prognosis that things on the whole do tend to get better with time.

One day, when we understand ourselves!

Miscellanious notes:

Altruism 'in-built' in humans
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4766490.stm

What are you optimistic about?
edited by John Brockman
Simon & Schuster, 2007.
"Summary: Covering topics as diverse as the decline of violence, the path to enlightenment and mankind's enduring ability to solve problems, this collection is guaranteed to make you look on the bright side."

"It belongs to the imperfection of everything human that man can only attain his desire by passing through its opposite." Soren Kierkegaard
(My emphasis, quoted via http://twitter.com/annakfaber/status/16966671439, I think this blog post should be retitled 'The Imperfection of Everything Human'.)

New acronym, WCAT :)

2010-01-27T16:29:00.000-08:00

I'm blogging this to stake my claim here :)

Sitting on the bus going into work at about 12.30pm this afternoon, the thought popped into mind:

Web Culture Analysis Tools (WCAT)

Now that is essentially what Library Web is, a site that analyses the culture of public libraries on the web.

Have googled it (in quotes) and there are no results returned.

Dewey analysed what was effectively 'book culture', could not the libraries anaylise 'web culture' in a similar way?

Current library reviews...

2010-01-15T14:32:00.000-08:00

This blog post is a reply I have just penned in response to the following blog post of Tim Coates':

Just about libraries
http://www.goodlibraryguide.com/blog/archives/2010/01/just_about_libr.html

It more or less sums up my thinking (or at least some of it) at the moment:

I think most people who go to the library are only there for something to read (apart from the People's Network). Some are maybe there to explore a bit. (It's almost a psychological contract that if we are to be citizens then the knowledge of what we are citizens is a given.) I'm sure people who don't even go to the library value the library as well. A colleague at Christmas reminded me that in all the commercialism of Xmas we lose the meaning of Christmas, but that meaning is to be found and given a full treatment at the library (not in the shops or on the TV). And at this point we're on to the value of libraries :)

I think it is fair to say that at this point in the history of libraries, while the value of libraries is multifarious (very broad ranging), our understanding is somewhat fragmented, consisting of a whole host of individual perceptions to be found in books, reports, inquiries, speeches, and nowadays 'grey' literature as well (the unpublished thoughts of people placed on the web on discussion boards, blogs, etc.). I say this from my own experience as a library assistant, reading the books my library authority has on libraries (027.4), and reading the web whilst running Library Web (click on name above).

At this point in the history of the libraries I think we need to bring all this thinking together into an (trust a bunch of school teachers to come up with this) "intellectual justification" for libraries, the rational for libraries (a 'library proof'). We need this now because libraries are losing their relevance with society (purse holders, the public). We need to tell people what that relevance is. It's about time the public (and friends groups) were given a detailed analysis of the role and purpose of the libraries in society. At this point in the evolution of the libraries I think we are about ready to do that. Secondly our society has undergone a great deal of changes since the beginning of its 160 year history. Yet they are still essentially doing things as they did at the beginning of their history (Dewey, fiction/genera, leaflets/posters, etc.). Library managers need to first know the ends and the aims of the libraries inorder to be able to then apply themselves creatively to bringing the libraries back into relevance with society.

Three examples of how I think the libraries could be applying themselves more creatively in this day and age, one practical, 2 others a bit more far fetched but examples of what might be possible. I was asked for ESOL resources earlier in the week by a patron whose first language was not English. I found books and websites. It would have been very convenient to have a website for the particular community library I was in to post those resources, links to the webpages, links to the library catalogue and the books. Not every library has a large overseas community (I would estimate 50-75% of this library's users are non-english speakers). But this library's community was, and a website for that library itself that could be updated by the library's staff would enable the library to tailor the library service to the community. Some more farfetched examples but which I think the libraries could/should be working towards. Bringing books to the gaming machines of teens (Xbox, Playstation, etc.). Libraries would have to offer e-books over the Internet, and reader software would have to be developed. A second idea is to use Facebook, what if library staff were to take on the role of 'Library Friend' for Facebook users, who would be able to add a member of staff from their local library onto their Facebook page as a friend. There to engage in dialogue, answer questions, maybe even offer timely advice on information. It would take software to manage, but surely the gains for community libraries would be tremendous.

One last point while I'm here, it's almost a criminal waste of public funds that libraries are not using wikis for internal administration! Modernity I think really is a serious issue for the libraries at the moment.

Thanks for reading, just my two pence ha'penny worth, with the UNISON and DCMS reviews coming up :)

Update 16/1/10 - a reply from Tim Coates which grounds things a bit:

...rather than spend time justifying the importance of libraries, it would be better to make them important. You should start from the assumption that the public have sufficient common sense and would use and value libraries if they were good. The reason they don't use them is because they are unlikely to have the books they want, are not open when it is convenient to use them and are in poor buildings. If you and your profession would put those things right, you would find (I know for certain) a dramatic increase in use.

People don't want another report or even a marketing campaign, they want an improvement programme and you are the guys who are paid to produce it.

And a reply from myself:

Poor buildings are a big turn off, and "the books they want" are so important. Although a lot of authorities are running trials of libraries of downloadable e-books on the Internet, these are only trials. So opening times are still important for people to be able to pick up their books. So yes I do agree with you entirely, and your reply has highlighted priorities and what is basically important.

I do still think that a community library should have its own website that the staff create and update (maybe even a blog and twitter feed as well), and that library authorities should by now be using wiki software instead of paper based system/procedure manuals. But if we don't have the opening times and the books then there's not a lot of point in all this in the first place I guess.

I do tend to go off into the realms of philosophical debate at times, and there is a great deal of this on the Internet at the moment, being where I tend to spend a fair amount of my time doing Library Web!

Libraries and technology this year...

2010-01-07T12:15:00.000-08:00

"Technology lets us use our time, energy, and skills in new ways, which are inevitably called 'modernity' ... and modernity is inevitably chastised for being stupider then The Good Old Days"

Quoted from Have Tech, Will Walk into Walls.

See Review of the Year 2009 and Trends Watch—Part 2, Digital Trends for 2010.

Some Shakespeare

2009-11-07T13:43:00.000-08:00

O, wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world
That has such people in't!

William Shakespeare
The Tempest
Act 5, Scene 1

On the subject of democracy...

2009-10-30T14:27:00.000-07:00

“The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.” – Plato

Nonprofit Tech 2.0

On happiness...

2009-10-04T13:26:00.001-07:00

"In primeval times, when evolution was laying down our inborn qualities..." We were hunter gatherers for a million or so years, it was only 10,000 years ago we started to settle into agricultural communities. We are essentially still the hunter gatherers that we evolved as. (From The Nature of Happiness¹ by Desmond Morris.)

"The fear programme [feeling fear, an inborn quality, which we evolved as hunter gatherers] is designed to get us away from things that are likely to harm us. If we had to make an analogous claim about the purpose of the happiness system [feeling happy, another evolved inborn quality], we would be most likely to say that it is there to keep us moving towards things that are likely to be good for us in some appropriate biological sense--mating, good food, pleasant environment--and away from things that are bad for us." (Happiness: The Science behind your smile by Daniel Nettle.)

So! When we feel happy we know we are getting our values right?

¹A table of contents for this book can be found on the publisher's website, however subsections to be found in the third chapter (titled 'The Classification of Happiness') include The Achiever, The Winner, The Helper, The Relative, Genetic Happiness, The Hedonist, The Intellectual, The Dancer (literally), The Masochist, The Risk Taker, The Hysteric, The Meditator, The Believer, The Sufferer, The Drug Taker, The Daydreamer, The Laugher, The Fortunate.

25 June 2011

An interesting article on the BBC today, Happy orangutans live longer in zoos:

"the difference between an orangutan being rated as very happy, compared to very unhappy, equated to 11 additional years of life-expectancy"

The Dream of Democracy

2009-04-09T11:43:00.000-07:00

"The whole dream of democracy is to raise the proletarian to the level of stupidity attained by the bourgeois." Gustave Flaubert

There is a serious side to that though, and that is if we are going to have a democracy with the people making decisions, the people should be as highly educated as possible. The libraries make that possible, with their scope for people to learn unconditionally.

What exactly is the 'dream of democracy', and where do the libraries fit in?

Stories

2008-11-30T09:38:00.000-08:00

I like this quote:

"Storytelling is at the very root of what makes us uniquely human ... It is how we share our experiences, learn from our past, and imagine our future" Saving the Story at MIT

It seems to hit the head on the nail with what libraries are about.

Brave new library world cancelled

2008-10-25T10:19:00.000-07:00

It looks like the brave new library world outlined by Andrew Burnham (see previous post) has been cancelled; 10 Downing Street read the bad press following and told the DCMS to rethink... ref. Discouraging from The Good Library Blog (aka Tim Coates).

Public Library Authorities conference

2008-10-11T12:15:00.000-07:00

We have just had the Public Library Authorities conference here in the UK, during which the Culture Secretary made a speech (the fallout from which can be seen e.g. here). There is a lot being said in the public library world at the moment and the trick I think is to pick out the good ideas. Tim Coates has some good ideas, but so do the library reformers in the profession.

I think at the moment we are in a period where the libraries in the first instance became less salient than they once were as books became cheaper and more sources of information were to be had, with the libraries then very much finding themselves competing for the leisure time of patrons. So as issues and visits over the past 10 years take a dive, it is perhaps a good point to carry out an audit and say what
could we be doing better, or what should we do differently, given the changes that are upon us. How should we respond?

One approach is to say that we should make the libraries welcoming to all sectors of the community, allowing computer gaming, screening football matches, and so on. Also the idea of making the library the hub of a community with a cafe, allowing mobile 'phones and food, and even turning the IT suite into an Internet cafe (a noisy library is a joyful library). But as Caroline Moss-Gibbons reminds us, libraries are also places where many different communities have to get on
together: "It is important that there are no artificial barriers restricting use, although inevitably, as requirements will differ between various groups, trade-offs and compromises will be necessary."[1]
[1] http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/letters/article4798653.ece

Tim Coates' approach to say let's take for e.g. the gardening section of 180 books, let's also look at a list of the top best sellers of gardening books, and fill that gardening section with 4 each of the 6 top best sellers, and 156 of the remaining best sellers. The result is a selection second only to that in the best stocked bookshop! He also has other ideas about how libraries should be run that largely
mimic how bookshops are managed (a 50% reduction in the overheads incurred by non-front line staff being one).

That about I think sums it up!

What is possible in libraries today

2008-09-07T09:39:00.000-07:00

Have posted over on lis-pub-libs, illustrating what technology currently does, and could do, for us nowerdays:

The Holy Grail has a bug :|
Re: The Holy Grail has a bug :|

The subject is the public and subject indexes.

More on the purpose of libraries

2008-07-30T11:55:00.000-07:00

"People wish also in the main, to give their fellows and themselves the opportunity for self-improvement. This wish is the vital fact at the bottom of the free, compulsorily supported public library. It is on these vital facts that we should keep our eyes and our thoughts, not on the feature of compulsion. Work then, for the extension of the public library from the starting-point of human sympathy, from the universal desire for an increase of human happiness by an increase of knowledge of conditions of human happiness"

From Library Daylight - Tracings of Modern Librarianship, 1874-1922, Edited Rory Litwin.

Three more quotes in this post.

I'd be tempted to temper also these somewhat 'classical' ideas on library purpose with those in Miss Gratia Alta Countryman's article: 'The Library as Social Centre'.

Purpose of libraries

2008-06-18T14:30:00.000-07:00

"Libraries will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no libraries." - Ann Herbert

From a Progressive Librarians Guild mailing list post.

I guess what this says is that we still need libraries even when we have money.

42

2008-05-26T13:58:00.000-07:00

On the topic of life, the Universe, and anything else that might be going on. It was global Towel Day yesterday... USA Today, kojv.net.

So what does 42 mean. I have a theory.

Deep thought made a mistake, he in fact meant:

for, too

But you know the way computers are with numbers. Deep Thought quite simply got it mixed up.

So what does for, too mean. It means that there is a purpose in life (for being a synonym for purpose). Our purpose is as the flowers in the meadow, a long and enjoyable life :)

17 May 2011

On the subject of the metaphor of the flowers in the meadow...

"As for man, his days are as grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth" Psalm 103:15

I also seem to remember reading an article describing how Douglas Adams talked about writing but finding himself looking out of the window at the flowers in the garden.

On the subject of the 'joy in' and 'enjoying' our lives; using the Linnaean taxonomy (I tend to think of 'taxonomy' as relating back to the study of existence) of the natural world: in terms of relationship to the environment around, mineral is 'passive' by nature (though by no means 'inactive' in itself) while vegetable (plant life - a natural regenerative system amongst the permutations of the fundamental laws of chemical reactions?) I think we can say is on the whole only proactive in a 'reactive' capacity to its environment (flourishing where the environment is right), 'animal' life though with the addition of psychobiological capacities is very much proactive by nature...

en-, prefix ... ‘to bring or to come into a certain condition or state, to invest with a certain quality’ (OED)

For an insight into what might bring some joy into our lives from a scientific viewpoint (the evolutionary value of happiness): On happiness..., and with more of the philosophy angle: The joy in your life....

I owe by the way, this gem of wisdom, very much to my Grandmother, who sort to pass on some joy into my own life.

19 May 2011

I haven't mentioned LIFE'S MENU!

If the why of things is "chemistry, a dance with time into infinity" (quoting a poem I wrote some years ago, and which curiously enough was published; I'll put it online when I get chance).

If the what is the joy in our lives and 'happiness' ("you were made for happiness. It is your right", href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15893">The Lighted Way, E. Phillips Oppenheim; ref. the link on the subject of the science of happiness above).

Then the how is Life's Menu: The Ingredients, The Menu. [Edit: 11-08-2011 - 'Where it is Mine' (the title of another poem of my own, as yet not published); considering life's menu is probably an opportune moment to look at our own culture and the things that we enjoy (and that are perhaps not so enjoyable as well) - 'where it is mine'; whether we work with people, 'things', or ideas, I'm sure we all can lay claim to enabling people to enjoy their lives some more and bringing some extra happiness into the world.]

14 Nov 2011

Writing again (slightly modified from the original) on much the same subjects as the above:

"As a final note. It is for ourselves that there is a need for a security enhanced desktop, the resources could otherwise be put towards natural risks that we have no control over (the only real risks we have, the rest we create for ourselves) and enhancing our lives otherwise (adding some enjoyment to our lives). If the 'Why' of ourselves is 'chemistry, a dance with time into infinity' (a natural regenerative system amongst the permutations of the fundamental laws of chemical reactions [chemistry]? [with addition of psychobiological capacities, above that of the biological capacities of vegetable matter, likewise above that of matter itself] the physicists I think are looking into the nature and why of matter itself!), If the 'What' of ourselves is happiness, the joy in our lives (if you are not sure here can I suggest looking at the science ((and philosophy)) of happiness, it's still a young science so it takes some rummaging around, but the answer is t/here I think - certain things add joy and happiness to our lives, and for good reason as well - we have genetically evolved this way: a feeling of fear ensures our survival in the face of hazards, however the feeling of happiness guides our behaviour in more general contexts towards those activities which have ensured the success of our species over the past millenia and up to the present day ((so if our role and purpose in the scheme of things is happiness, no more, no less, as simple as that, please do not take away from the joy in our lives!))), As to the 'How' of ourselves, the ingredients are t/here (all around us), Life's Menu is up to us; I completed a poem recently, titled 'Mountains in the Mist' (this was what I was looking at at the time), it has only one line: 'One day, when we understand ourselves, ' - it is up to you to say, following the trailing comma, what life will be like one day when we understand the things about ourselves that we currently do not. So sleep well, dream of good and great things, and use Clay Shirky's cognitive surplus to add some joy and happiness to Life's Menu and the lives of people, they - and you - do only have one."

The above is very much the Western paradigm, and also a scientific paradigm - which note does not always get things exactly right first time, a process of testing a theory, and sometimes that testing can go on way past the point where the theory has actually proven useful.

Revision

2008-05-24T10:29:00.000-07:00

One of my more humorous comments this week...

Doing revision takes about the same mental effort as watching a Sesame Street show.

(Am I suggesting an eight year old could do the job? ;)

The Parallel Information Universe

2008-05-11T12:32:00.000-07:00

An interesting concept from a Library Journal article and titled by the same name, 'The Parallel Information Universe' (i.e., as created by Web 2.0).

A few concepts that underpin this idea I think.

"Their values [books] lies in enabling men to do, think, feel and understand better than they could if they depended solely on their individual experience and that of those with whom they were in immediate contact."

Quoting Lionel R McColvin (broken), and though talking about books, is the same not true of social media today.

"For the nearly two hundred thousand years of human presence on Earth, our lives have been bounded by how far we could throw our voices."

From a Stephen's Lighthouse post. For many years the printed word was the furthest a human voice could be thrown. Is not all very much changing nowerdays though with social media?

Modes of thought

2008-05-10T14:07:00.000-07:00

"the values of an economically constructed consumer society that cares more about being entertained (being put in a state of trance) than it does about the pleasures of being able to rationally reflect on its world — a requisite of democracy"

From Barbarians at the Gates of the Public Library....

This omits the values of fiction in understanding the world we live, in reinforcing our values, and so on, but does none the less highlight the different modes of thought.

Books!

2008-05-10T13:21:00.000-07:00

"the estimated 50 million to 100 million books in the world"

From Google Wants to Scan all the Books in the World.

I have a T shirt that says 'Guess what I'm reading?' More chance of winning the lottery I think ;)

[Update, 6.8.10]

Google’s Estimates Approx. 146 Million Books (Printed and Bound); 129,864,880 Minus Serials
http://www.resourceshelf.com/2010/08/05/googles-estimates-approx-146-million-books-printed-and-bound-129864880-minus-serials/

The true purpose of the libraries?

2008-05-01T11:44:00.000-07:00

"We read because we love ideas. We love sharing people's thoughts and dreams. We love to be inspired."

From The Avid Reader, April 2008

I like that quote. Seems it would apply equally to all the social networking that is going on.

I wonder if that's the true purpose of the libraries?

The whys of social media

2008-04-17T06:49:00.000-07:00

More on the whys of social media.

I like the title of this blog post:

Unlocking information with social intelligence

A quote from Info Junkie also:

"We want people to tag, comment and make notes on the images, just like any other Flickr photo, which will benefit not only the community but also the collections themselves. For instance, many photos are missing key caption information such as where the photo was taken and who is pictured. If such information is collected via Flickr members, it can potentially enhance the quality of the bibliographic records for the images."

Second Life

2008-03-24T15:16:00.001-07:00

A thought on Second Life, as to exactly what it is. It seems to me the Second Life is a combination of Internet Messenger and the next generation in Internet chat rooms and group message boards. IM isn't usually considered a part of the new social media, however the friends list and groups/communities aspect certainly would be. Second Life I think also adds an additional dimension, in that the Web is like reading books, while Second Life is more akin to the perspective of walking around the library. This isn't a social media feature in itself, but is certainly an instrumental value in the aims of social media.

Social Media

2008-03-24T12:14:00.000-07:00

"A good way to think about social media is that all of this is actually just about being human beings. Sharing ideas, cooperating and collaborating to create art, thinking and commerce, vigorous debate and discourse, finding people who might be good friends, allies and lovers – it‟s what our species has built several civilisations on. That's why it is spreading so quickly, not because it's great shiny, whizzy new technology, but because it lets us be ourselves – only more so.

And it is in the 'more so' that the power of this revolution lies. People can find information, inspiration, like-minded people, communities and collaborators faster than ever before. New ideas, services, business models and technologies emerge and evolve at dizzying speed in social media."

6 basic forms of social media ('online media', abstracted out):

Social networks
Blogs
Wikis
Podcasts
Content communities
Microblogging

(Second Life is also mentioned)

From What is social media? An e-book from iCrossing.

So the task then is to see how we can use the social media available to us given the purposes we can put social media to.

One other quote I think worthy of mention:

"new technologies that have made the marginal cost of long distance communication essentially free"

From The Reason They Log On: The Evolution of Communication.

Vision

2008-03-24T11:56:00.000-07:00

"Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world." Joel A. Barker

More Quotations on Vision.

Interests!

2008-03-24T11:47:00.000-07:00

"The affairs of life embrace a multitute of interests, and he who reasons in any one of them, without consulting the rest, is a visionary unsuited to control the business of the world." James Fenimore Cooper