penaccess A newsletter from the West Midlands Branch of CILIP A supplement to CILIP Update April 2008 Vol.51 No.2 ISSN 0048-1904
Invest, transform and make a difference… In the July 2007 issue of Open Access, I started to share some thoughts about the way public library spaces are being transformed across the West Midlands (including the scale of investment through Local Government capital sources, PFIs and the Big Lottery).The more you think about all this, the more incomprehensible it is that public libraries are perceived as being in crisis, when so much money is being spent to refresh and improve them. And that’s in as tight a financial situation for the whole public sector as we have seen since the mid 1990s. So why isn’t this great tale of success being listened to? Are we just very bad storytellers? Is there something about public libraries that just turns influential people and the media off (even, it seems, when we are doing really well)? I have come to the conclusion that our main problem is that we don’t properly connect up things in our own minds. Then, because our thought processes are muddled, we can’t make our case convincingly to those we need to influence and advocate to.This isn’t rocket science…invest and as a consequence you expect (demand even) that things change…transform the product and you expect there to be an improvement made for the customer. This is a very simple virtuous circle – invest, transform and make a difference, and then start investing again. If the evidence that the transformed product is making a difference to people, and there is, then the whole process will keep going. Success will indeed breed success.This is actually how it works!
So if we have invested in better public library buildings (and this has certainly been the case recently in our region), then we should be able to articulate how the service and its delivery have been transformed and the impact this makes on people’s lives. If we can’t, then the call for more investment will go largely unheeded. For all these reasons, a small group of us nominated by the Society of Chief Librarians West Midlands and MLA West Midlands have started work on a “transforming library spaces” advocacy initiative. It’s an attempt to raise our game at the regional level, to push out from just having an impact one authority at a time, to telling a story about 14 library services. Stage one is to clarify and strengthen the reasons why we are doing this, developing a project plan and securing the buy-in of the sponsoring bodies.That is the working group’s initial task. By the time you read this, a costed proposal should have been delivered to SCL West Midlands/MLA West Midlands setting out exactly how it could possibly be done. Imagine in 5 years time that every single public library building in the region has been significantly modernised or rebuilt, that overall visits are up by 25%, that public libraries figure in all the high-level planning of each local authority (because of the outcomes they are achieving in communities), and therefore creating more and better jobs for the library workforce. Is that possible? The interesting thing is that such things have been achieved at single libraries or even across a group of service points.We just need to take the imaginative leap to
a quality offer everywhere so you can say to anyone, “go into your local library anywhere in the West Midlands and you’ll get a good service in an attractive building and it will make a difference for you and your family or friends”. Of course, a small working group can’t do all this so we’ll be thinking of ways of involving others. Perhaps you would like to help us? Maybe you have got one of the stories about this transformation or you can share the evidence from the library where you work? Any input I receive by email will get shared around. It will be really helpful knowing what you think about the ways in which public libraries are changing. Geoff Warren is Deputy CEO and Libraries Domain Lead at MLA West Midlands. geoff.warren@mlawestmidlands.org.uk [The others on the working group are James Anthony (Herefordshire), Simon Rice (Coventry), Dawn Winter (Sandwell) and Carl Franklin (MLA West Midlands].
In this issue... Editorial ................................................................2 Enhancing the student experience..............................................2 In Focus: Bruce Madge ...................................................3 East of Suez ..............................................3-4 Representing the profession....4
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Hello and welcome to your new look Open Access I thought I should begin this, my first issue as Editor, by offering my apologies for the change in design mid volume! That aside, I hope you approve of the new format. Due to the print deadline being quite tight, a full round up of our Members’ Day (5 March) will follow in the next issue. However, for those of you who missed the event or who just can’t wait, we have articles from two of our speakers. Open Access, distributed to all members of the branch (and available on the web site), is an excellent means of communication. Many people tell us that of all the publications they receive, Open Access is the one they read first (or certainly read cover to cover –
not just because it is shorter I hasten to add)! This newsletter enables us all to share news and celebrate achievements within our own region, and for this reason I am looking forward to serving as Editor. On behalf of the committee, I would like to thank Sylvia Jenkins for all her hard work and dedication over the last ten years, and for producing a newsletter that has been a pleasure to read and now to edit. Finally, as always, any news items, articles or ideas will be gratefully received. David Viner dviner@solihull.gov.uk
Enhancing the student experience The Mary Seacole Library at the Edgbaston Campus of Birmingham City University, was officially opened in June 2006 and forms part of a multi-million pound development for the Faculty of Health.The library, named after the pioneering nurse and heroine of the Crimean War, occupies the whole of the ground floor of the new Seacole Building. Associated Architects, who designed the new building, worked very closely with the Faculty Librarian on all aspects of the library’s final design, from incorporating the suggestion of using glass walls to separate the group study area from the silent study area, to the layout and choice of counters for the Lending Services and Enquiry Services areas. The Library features two large glassroofed atria separated by oak panelled ceilings. It houses approximately 100,000 books and 650 electronic and print journals. Staffed by a team of 8 librarians and 16 library assistants, it is one of the largest specialist health libraries in the country.The library, which provides more than 200 study spaces, is specifically designed to be a relaxed and welcoming environment where students can meet and study in comfort. In keeping with this philosophy, the library has leather sofas and armchairs; a large informal seating area; flexible group study areas with
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wall-mounted LCD screens and individual study rooms.The study desks were manufactured in Sweden to a design by one of the architects and feature motion-activated desk lights. The new library has its own state of the art teaching room that seats 50, where a comprehensive programme of library skills sessions for all students is now run. In addition, a rolling programme of updating sessions on the use of electronic resources is offered not just to the Faculty’s academic staff, but also to the NHS mentors and assessors of BCU health students working in Birmingham and the Black Country. In 2005 the Faculty of Health was awarded a Centre of Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) and the new library has benefited from this funding in several ways: 70 laptops for use in the library A wireless network An RFID self-issue system An Enquiry Services Librarian, to establish an electronic enquiry service aimed at supporting placement and distance learners, and to strengthen existing links with NHS Trust partners In addition to the public areas in the library, there is a large office that accommodates 10 library staff, a kitchen, an archive room, an IT
workroom, and plenty of staff work space behind both the Lending and Enquiry Services counters. On the first floor of the Seacole building, above the library, there is another very large assistants’ office that comfortably accommodates 14 staff, plus 5 smaller offices, a kitchen and a stack. Finally, the Mary Seacole Library was the first university library in the UK to have a LiveReader.This is a fusion of CCTV and computer technology, which enables a printed or handwritten document to be digitally captured so that the image can be manipulated to change the font size, background colour etc., the LiveReader then reads the text aloud. This is proving to be of immense value to dyslexic students, as well as those with a visual impairment or simply as a means of students proofreading their assignments. The new library, with its improved availability of learning technology, design and organisation of flexible learning spaces, plays an important role in enhancing the student experience. Jane Richards is Faculty Librarian at The Mary Seacole Library, Birmingham City University jane.richards@bcu.ac.uk
In Focus: Bruce Madge One of the effects of my becoming President of CILIP, and I am sure this is true of all Presidents, is a reflection on how I managed to get this exalted position in my chosen profession. My career in libraries and information work stretches back over 30 years of working in medical and health libraries. I started out as a Library Assistant at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) where, due to pure nepotism, I had worked part time in my school holidays mainly moving books up from the basement and then back down to the basement in the next holiday. I am not sure I wanted to be a librarian at that point but was keen on a career in the arts although, on reflection, I was never going to be the next big thing in sculpture. I moved from the LSHTM to a one man band post as Librarian at the National Poisons Unit, a post that always garners interest! I stayed with the NHS in my next post at Bromley Hospital NHS Trust, where I got more involved with computers. One of the highlights of my time there was to procure, set up and manage the computer network for the Postgraduate Centre which ultimately led to my being head-hunted for my next post at the British Medical Association (BMA). This was a new post of Information officer in Medical Informatics and was a
new area of interest for the BMA so I also of concern to a wider international became very involved in going out and audience. As a measure of which, I meeting the movers and shakers in the would like to see more international area. It remains an interest to this day honorary FCLIPs in my year in office. and in 2004 I got my FCLIP for the My second theme is related to how we work I had done in the area. It also led respond to technology and the need to to me becoming a founder member of constantly reinvent ourselves. I am the UK Council for Health Informatics pleased that we are talking to the Professions (UKCHIP), a body seeking British Computer Society and hope to to regulate the informatics profession in progress this during 2008. health. After the BMA, I went to be Head of Healthcare Information at the My third theme is around marketing British Library, where I was in charge of not just our libraries but ourselves and the team that worked with the our skills.We need to concentrate on National Library of the L as Librarian or Medicine in Washington DC even the IP as in So where does one go to produce the Medline bibliography.This was the from working at the information professional.We need start of my interest in the National Library? to promote this idea international scene which and do this through has subsequently led to me being more good media coverage, I think my involved with both IFLA and MLA, predecessor has done particularly well which is the American Medical Library in this area but I want to keep getting Association. more positive coverage in the press about our profession. So where does one go from working at the National Library? I moved back into Of course I will, in my own small way, the NHS in a slightly different role as be challenging the stereotype of Assistant Director of Patient and Public librarians through my work with the Involvement at the National Patient first international open access rock Safety Agency and from there back to band “The Bearded Pigs”. the Library of the British Medical This will be an interesting year for Association – a very cyclical career. My CILIP as it is the first of our new current role as Director of Marketing Governance system and I am hoping for the London Upright MRI Centre is that all will go smoothly and any different again, although I am finding my wrinkles will be ironed out as quickly as library skills are incredibly handy. possible. As you might guess my themes this Bruce Madge is CILIP President 2008 year revolve around my previous and Director of Marketing at The career. I am pleased that CILIP are London Upright MRI Centre. currently reviewing their international activities.We now exist in a global village where many of our concerns are
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Malta Interlude Once again your intrepid Hon. International Relations Officer endures the appalling food and casual cabin service of Air Malta to visit and encourage our friends and colleagues overseas. I slipped over to Malta for a week in January to ‘press the flesh’ for the Branch and ‘stiffen the sinews’. In between the tourist bits, I managed to visit Laurence Zerafa at his splendid
new Library of the Malta College of Arts, Sciences and Technology (MCAST). I last saw it in 2006 as a nearly finished building. It has turned out to be a well used Library with lots of potential. However, an ambitious new project to centralise all MCAST’s teaching onto the one site at Paolo means that Laurence has had to buckle down and start planning a new Library some four times the size of the present
one. So lots of work for hard pressed Laurence lies ahead. On the Thursday evening I gave a well received Lecture to the MaLIA members at the University of Malta.The subject was ‘Professional Ethics and Discipline’, an area of some interest in the profession at the moment. After
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Continued from page 3 ‘singing for my supper’ I was taken out by MaLIA Council for a very pleasant meal at a good Maltese restaurant. I visited briefly the National Library in Valletta and met the National Librarian, Philip Borg. Some much needed restoration work is in progress on this 18th Century historical building.
It was pleasant to meet old friends in the Malta library community and they reiterated how keen they were to receive any librarian visitors, who would like a break from the incessant partying and give a short talk on their own libraries back in the UK.This sort of exposure to new ideas in professional practice is really helpful for Maltese librarians - and Maltese hospitality is
warm and plentiful! Contact me (doc_mike@btinternet.com) or Robert Mizzi, Chair of MaLIA (robmiz@maltanet.net) if you feel you can offer anything to Malta. Mike Freeman is Hon International Relations Officer.
Representing the profession Last year David Viner asked me to accompany him to a careers fair at the University of Warwick, and without a clue as to what it would entail, I think I said something like, “yeah…okay, sounds good!” Little did I know what a valuable and rewarding experience it would be, not only, I hope for the students we spoke to, but for David and myself. The Careers Unlimited Fair at the University of Warwick took place on 29 January and is an event that CILIP WM has attended for a number of years, as a representative for the profession. The event is intended to provide Warwick students with an insight into what they describe as the “hidden jobs market” sectors which are perhaps underrepresented within Warwick’s course programme. The event in previous years had gained high numbers of students so we were hoping for a successful turnout. After a long walk from the Car Park laden down with a weighty stand, boxes of leaflets, bags of enticing Glacier Fruits and bucketfuls of enthusiasm, two intrepid librarians arrived on campus. After a couple of incidents whilst assembling the stand, we were presentable and raring to go in order to inspire some future information professionals! Throughout the day, we spoke to over 40 students, many of whom seemed extremely interested, and who were often quite surprised at what an exciting prospect the information and libraries sector could be as a future career. Our main focus was to promote CILIP’s graduate training opportunities, which offer
Editor: David Viner Solihull Central Library, Solihull. B91 3RG Tel: 0121 704 8534 Fax: 0121 704 6907 Email: dviner@solihull.gov.uk Copy date for next issue: 13 June 2008
undergraduates the chance to gain experience in the information sector, and to earn a competitive salary to boot, after which they would then pursue postgraduate study in the field. It was timely that the University of Warwick’s own library service were advertising a graduate training opportunity, so we could also refer interested students to this. We also provided information on where students currently study postgraduate ILM courses. Unfortunately, a number of students were disappointed to discover that there is now nowhere to study within the West Midlands region. Students asked a number of insightful questions about the type of work involved within each of the different sectors, salary levels, job prospects, where jobs could be found and how their undergraduate study could link in within the profession. We also explained the benefits of joining CILIP, and hopefully, recruited some future members. All in all this was an extremely positive event that felt really worthwhile. David knows how influential it can be, as one student who he had spoken to in a previous year’s event followed his advice and was subsequently successful in being recruited to one of the graduate training opportunities on offer at the time. Hopefully we’ll have the same positive outcome to this year’s event. I felt that we both found it to be a rewarding and rejuvenating experience simply because it gave us a chance to explain what an exciting and diverse profession we work in, something that can sometimes get lost
in amongst the everyday. I hope to be involved in the event again next year, but am slightly worried by the discovery that our esteemed Editor has a Glacier Fruits addiction – maybe an alternative sweet might be in order for next year! Sarah Tongue is Principal Library Assistant with Solihull MBC stongue@solihull.gov.uk
In the next issue... Nicola Thomas attends the regional launch of The National Year of Reading Mike Freeman reports on a tour of the Far East A full round-up of the CILIP WM Members’ Day & AGM
Open Access Publication of the West Midlands Branch of CILIP. Views expressed are not necessarily those of CILIP-WM or of the Editor.
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