Information Scotland The Journal of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland ISSN 1743-5471 Issue contents | Journal contents | About the online edition of the journal December 2005 Volume 3 (6)

President's perspective

A time for reflection

It doesn’t seem like 12 months since I was crafting my first President’s Perspective and pondering the improbability of being able to generate enough meaningful words to fill the space. I leave it to you to decide whether the words have contributed anything to our world.

The past couple of months have seen me travel almost the length of Scotland, listening to members’ concerns, issues and areas of interest. The topic generating most interaction has been the developing, and then on-going, saga of the delays in chartership assessments. Thankfully the ‘lack of customer care’ message seems to have got through and is now being actioned. I have had emails from two members who end their year very much happier than they were six months ago. Their assessments have not yet been completed, 12 months on, but communication has been established and they are now being kept informed of progress. If any member feels that this does not apply to their particular case I would suggest an email to Bob McKee, CILIP Chief Executive. A good start has been made but there is still work to be done to alter members’ perception of CILIP as a ‘slow-to-change’ organisation.

The Framework of Qualifications was also a popular topic for debate and I was pleased to report members’ gratitude that the development and training needs of all staff employed in libraries has been recognised within the framework. The need for wider communication of the available opportunities, particularly amongst paraprofessionals, was widely regarded as essential for both CILIP/CILIPS.

An even more thorny issue, raised on several occasions, was that of how to retain members once chartership had come and gone and career progression has been relegated from the list of daily life’s critical concerns. No earth shattering solutions were proposed other than the cry of “If employers paid the subscription I would be happy to be a member.” Which, to me, seems to completely miss the point of a professional body. I firmly believe in the need for a professional association to provide training, to accredit courses, to publish, to support professional qualifications and provide recruitment services. Marketing the benefits of membership to this particular group might help to change the mindset

I was mightily impressed by a day visit to Perth and Kinross and the A K Bell Library. I found a library service where enthusiasm was boundless; the desire to adapt and change services was all around; where the mix of professions was seamless; where successful projects and initiatives abounded; and where new library buildings were on the stocks. It was one of those days which will remain with me as consolation for the less good days of cuts, financial constraints and gloomy predictions. Well done, Liz, Caroline and the team!

Within my presidential address I talked about the state of continuous change which engulfs local government. I questioned whether we have yet got the structure for Scottish public libraries right. The fact is that our current 32 unitary authorities is an accident of political history with no direct relation whatsoever to the needs of public library users. Peter Hain, Minister for Northern Ireland, has announced a cut in the number of councils from 26 to seven and the number of Education and Library Boards from five to one. The leap of faith and imagination which has resulted in one public library service for Northern Ireland is surely a move which will survive a trip back across the water for serious examination.

Looking around at the dire state of investment in library materials funds over the past 10 years, the loss of £8m from those funds, and the restricted availability of capital to invest in new library buildings and services, it is my view that we urgently need to reassess how we can take public libraries forward in a way which meets the needs of the people of Scotland rather than to continue on our present course which has more to do with the needs and imperatives of local government financial settlements and forthcoming elections. In a world where 60% of the children of Scotland would appear to have been failed by the statutory education system (The Scotsman, 14 November) the case for a robust public library service which addresses the needs of all of the people seems to me to be overwhelming.

We need to address the use of bookstocks across the country to increase depth of stock held nationally whilst maintaining sufficient stocks of popular materials to meet on-publication demand; we need to exploit online resources to their fullest extent whilst continuing to recognise that printed material still has its place; we need to address the issues which arise out of 32 library services cataloguing stock 32 times in 32 slightly different ways; we need to make best possible use of the limited number of stockholding library suppliers before they are forced from the marketplace to be replaced by a system of web-based mailboxes which simply act as a sorting office between libraries and publishers; we need to ensure that worthy Scottish publishers and authors are well represented on the shelves of our libraries; we need to provide services to a standard and of a quality which makes them amongst the very best in the world; standards which can be externally verified, services which users acknowledge as meeting their needs; we need to establish a branded status for libraries and to build a strong brand equity based on values such as ‘trust’, ‘honesty’, ‘neutrality’ and ‘community’. Once the brand is identified we need to sell it through national advertising, on television, on radio and in the new media, on the sides of buses. Only in this way can we get our message across to those users we have lost and to potential users.

If even some of this could be achieved over the next few years I might be left with the notion that the words, after all, have not been entirely wasted!

I have been ably supported throughout the past year by Vice President, Ivor Lloyd. I take this opportunity to wish him well in his own presidential year and to commend Ivor to you as a librarian who, having reached the heights of academia as Vice Principal at the University of Abertay, continues to make a much valued contribution to our profession. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Elaine, Rhona, Cathy and all the staff at Hamilton for their much appreciated assistance and support and to thank you all for the honour bestowed on me to represent you as your President throughout 2005.

Information Scotland Vol. 3 (6) December 2005

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