Today I read the news that libraries in my hometown of Peterborough will have their hours cut in order to make savings to the council budget. Following Ange Fitzpatrick’s lead I thought I’d write about my own public library experience.

My story begins in Werrington Library which is sadly one of those affected by the cuts in Peterborough. When I think back I can paint a pretty life-like picture of the library in my mind. We’d arrive and lock up our bikes under the overhanging brick entrance. I always thought the main entrance to the building was rather sinister, no matter what the weather it was cold and dark, but once inside there was a homely smell of tea and biscuits coming from the community centre on the left. We would turn right though into the library itself, through the metal swing gate. From there it was just a short hop and a skip up the steps to the children’s area where Captain Pugwash, Asterix and TinTin were awaiting me.

When we were small my sister and I would go to story time (Michelle Obama was not one of the readers in Werrington) and as we got older we took part in the summer reading scheme. I was a slow reader and so never managed to fill up my sheet, my sister however ate books and I’m sure my parents valued the savings they made by taking her to the library rather than a bookshop for her fix.

By my teenage years I had caught up with my sister in the reading stakes. I’d progressed from the Hardy Boys to Point Horror and from there to Sara Paretsky’s V.I. Warshawski series. As soon as I was done with one, there was another in the series to read. This is where the library really came into its own for me, there’s not enough money in the world, or space on my bookshelves for my crime fiction habit.

Now, although I’m a long way from those days in Werrington, I’m still using my local public library in the same way. I very rarely buy books any more. I prefer to borrow from the library because it’s more opportunistic; you take your chances on what will be on the shelves when you go in. Sometimes though if I’m really keen to read something I’ll place a reservation and I don’t begrudge the 85p I have to pay if it means I don’t have to go to the central branch to pick it up.

Image by  The U.S. Army. Licenced under

This week I have been doing my bit for the #savelibraries campaign. I’ve been watching it from afar for some time without getting involved but this week I have finally been able to add my contribution.

First up was an article for the Guardian Careers – Beyond books: what it means to be a 21st century librarian. I have been working on this with Katie Birkwood for the past 6 months. The idea to write an article about what it really means to be a librarian came from the comments on my Library Day in the Life Round 5 blog post. We wrote a pitch and sent it to Radio 4 and Guardian Careers. Then we waited. And waited. Finally I was contacted by the co-ordinator of the Behind the Job Title series and the rest as they say is history. At the current count this article has been shared 156 times on Twitter and 458 on Facebook. I call that a success and everyone’s favourite wikiman and father of #echolib calls it “a proper bonafide Echo Chamber escape”

  by  Phil Bradley 

Next was an article for the Open Rights Group Zine – Everybody loves surfing. For this, I was approached (via a comment on this blog) by the zine’s editor Iman Qureshi. The idea was for an article on how and why technology is valuable to libraries and library users. I refined this and started to think about how technology is changing the role of libraries. Given that the article was to be part a book themed week on the zine in support of the Bookseller’s Fight for Libraries campaign I used public libraries as my focus.

If you want to get involved and help to save our libraries a good place to start would be to attend a read-in at your local library this Saturday, 5th February. For more information about campaigns in your area visit the Voices for the Library website.

I became aware of the JISC Libraries of the Future campaign in April when the issue was discussed at a conference in Oxford. In the past week JISC have published a brochure and this video on the topic.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjoJd_uN-7M&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&feature=player_embedded&fs=1]

I enjoyed watching this video keeping an eye out for familiar Oxford locations and hearing what Sarah Thomas, the director of the library service I work for, had to say. The key point in her speech for me was that of Google being our partner. I fear too many librarians still see Google as “the enemy” but I think it’s pointless trying to fight against the fact that our users may go to Google to find information before they come to the library. Instead we need to be teaching them how to evaluate the information they find there and how they can access additional content, paid for by their library, through Google Scholar. Just as the library of the future will be different from today so will the role of the librarian.

I’ve not got around to it yet but my next step is to watch the video of the debate held in Oxford in April.

I’ve been back from Dublin and the BBSLG conference for over a week now and have fully digested what I heard. From the first day two quotes have stuck in my mind and I’m going to use them to muse upon the themes of the first two keynotes.

“If the future is uncertain there must be more than one future”
– Anon.

The first keynote was given by the futurist Oliver Freeman who focused on what librarians need to consider when planning for the future. I’m not going to delve in to the details of what he said (when I get the slides up I’ll link to them here) but more my observations on the theme. In contrast to most of the presentations at the conference this dealt with big ideas rather than focusing on specific examples or experiences. I was immediately drawn in to the thought that there is more than one future and when making plans for the future of our library service we must consider that depending on the influencing factors there is more than one possible outcome. What I found difficult however was how to take this away and apply it.

Freeman gave a good example from a project he’s currently working on with public libraries in Australia. Basically, you take two factors, e.g. the value of libraries and the future of the internet, and compare them against each other. By doing so you are presented with four futures which should all be considered possible realities when planning for the future. I found drawing this helped me understand it better.

“What counts cannot always be counted; what can be counted doesn’t always count”
– Albert Einstein

The second keynote was given by Nicholas Janni from Olivier Mythodrama who gave us some leadership lessons as inspired by Shakespeare’s Henry v. The key links to Henry V can be found on their website. For my liking there wasn’t enough focus on the Shakespeare, the main issues facing Henry as a leader were presented but I didn’t really feel that how they were dealt with was considered. Having said that I did enjoy the session and the discussion of positive and negative leadership potentials. This basically puts you in to one of fours categories based on your leadership style: Good King (ordered, logical), Warrior (task focused, inspiring), Medicine Woman (creative, visionary) or Great Mother (nurturing, empathetic).

The point of the quote above is that we too often focus on what can be measured, but whether you’re a good leader is not just about outcomes or what you know, it’s about authenticity and the relationships you build.