Monday 27 June 2011

The times, they are a-changin'

Another day, another weblink:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/25/nyregion/schools-eliminating-librarians-as-budgets-shrink.html
This is another news story based in America - New York this time - but this one shows how library services are being 'withdrawn' so to speak.

It's so sad to think of Librarians and Library Assistants losing their jobs in the school sector due to budget cuts.  I understand that governments have to make savings somewhere, and in many cases I'm sure that they've exhausted other avenues of change first (and I would never want people to have to lose kindergarden classes - pre-school care is so important too!), only to come to the Library.  I can't help than feel that this could cause so much damage in so many different ways:
  1. The obvious: no librarian = no proper library access, therefore detrimental to the school experience
  2. No use of Library in school = for many, probably no real access to learning library skills, as who knows how many of these children would be accessing a public library service?
  3. This one may be a little farfetched  - cutting librarians = devaluing library services as a profession?
The way I see it is this: if you are looking to cut your budget, and you see the Library as somewhere to make a cut, you will lose professional skills.  You may think that this service could be taken over by volunteers.  In my mind, this is tantamount to saying that 'you do not need professional library services'.  Therefore, you're devaluing the hard-earned and valued skills that some poor library professional has spent probably at least 3 years in gaining, as you're saying that 'anyone could do the job'.  (Yes, I know I'm being rather general in scope here, but you get my point).

Volunteers are wonderful, and do a great job in many different areas of society.  We couldn't get along without them!  But to me, this just underlines the basic assumption that I know a lot of us have come up against: don't you just stamp books?  How hard could it be?  Which is why (being all political and serious - not usually me!) I don't agree with a lot of the whole 'Big Society' idea which the government is subscribing to just now.  Volunteers have their much-appreciated place, but please remember that professional people do too: the need for the qualifications is there, or the courses wouldn't have been developed in the first place!

What does everyone else think?  Let me know!  (normal, not too serious service to resume shortly)  :)

4 comments:

  1. Totally agree with everything you have pointed out. I have lost count of the times people have said to me "o' you need a degree to be a Librarian"! Like you I don't agree with a lot of the "Big Society" idea. So where do we, as a profession go from here?

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  2. To be honest, I'm not sure. In a way it's a bit easier for the Public Library system: they can diversify a lot more (and they have done) and become more of a social space. It's finding the balance between social and the more traditional style library that many people enjoy / expect.

    For educational libraries - where could you go? Ultimately, you need to be a study space rather than a social space. That's not to say that we can't welcome groups of friends in - as long as they study at the same time! We're diversifying a lot too, especially along the technologies side.

    As a profession - that's the hard part. I still think that a professional library (and I include public libraries here too as well as academic and specialist) needs professionally qualified staff, as there are some things that only a professional is trained to do. What really needs to happen is to somehow educate the public as to all we really do, and to somehow make them (and politicians!) value this. It's how to do this is the problem...

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  3. Vey thought provoking stuff, and very relevant in the current climate. As jobs are shed and staffing numbers reduced, senior managers are unwilling to foot the bill for library staff, and there is a growing myth that libraries can be staffed by just about anybody, qualified or not.
    This will lead to library users getting less from the library, and they will turn more to Google for all research and non-library sources of inormation. So the library will be used less, which will in turn 'justify' the senior management decision to reduce staffing.
    Very easy to feel depressed by all this, and if anyone can think of ways to fight back, please say! (NOT advocating we turn to violence, BTW :) )

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  4. Librarians are there to improve the educational outcomes of the people who use them directly or indirectly.

    No doubt there are many schools not utilising the library as an educational resource as much as they should, whether that is through accessing high quality targeted information (relevant textbooks, prepaid online databases etc), or instilling a culture of learning through reading. It would be worth comparing how the private and public sectors view their library resources.

    To those that believe the internet has reduced the benefits of librarians must therefore also be of the opinion that the internet has reduced the value of the educational sector as a whole, at least the part that is targeted at those past the age at which they can use google.

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