A uniformly bad idea

Ah me. Please remember this is an unofficial blog with a disclaimer about it only representing personal opinions.

Today I heard the union was meeting to decide how to deal with an employer adamant that staff in the library will wear a uniform. This has only been going on for a couple of years now, with the battle covering the ground of yes/no, who pays for it (staff/employer), and "if yes, then what colour" and other issues.

My own take is that I can't wear synthetic materials - if 'they' buy it for me.

I have no objection to identifying myself as 'someone who works here' - I already wear a lanyard with Staff on it.

The resistance has proved surprising, although bear in mind that 80% of library staff are women, who perhaps resist the idea of shapeless sweat shirts, in colours/styles they don't like, slightly more than men do.

And all the official librarians, with their degrees and all, dress professionally anyway.

We unqualified (although experienced)

library assistants have a loose dress code, but mostly we prefer to appear approachable (to go along with the new ethos (also imposed by management styles) of informality, a library where no-one will shush you.

Spot the contradiction?

Personally, I'd happily wear a uniform with a (pretty cool, after Dan Brown's "Angels and Demons") ambigram on it, but they only make them for women, which might perhaps tell you something about the library service - as a job for a man...maybe?

If you'd like to support your local library service, or even end up working as a volunteer, running your local library for no pay, you might like to check out the stuff available at CafePress - which includes everything from T-Shirts and mugs to badges and bags.

Non-animal circus books for children

The coming year's Summer Reading Challenge has the theme of 'circus', or rather 'Circus Stars.'

Personally I think that's a rather lazy connection with The Olympics, as in fact the Olympics Committees routinely reject circus-style performances as Olympic events (but that's a distraction). Ahem.

Lions and Tigers and Bears, oh my!

What bothers me more is that most children's books about circus still focus on what is now a rather stereotyped and out of date image of circus - using the clichés of lion-tamers and red-nosed clowns, ring-masters and elephants - as though writers and publishers had not actually been to a circus recently!

It's not just animal rights activists who have campaigned to remove exotic, tropical animals from the performing arena...the public's taste seems to have changed. Since David Attenborough began to show us animals in their natural habitat over 40 years ago, the need for travelling zoos and menageries has diminished - and that was the original connection with circuses.

People like Humane Society International probably campaign because of the relationship to animal cruelty; some Animal Rights activists obviously campaign for complete animal freedom (whether they are treated cruelly or not) which would also get rid of farms, not just laboratories and circuses; within the circus community there continues discussion about the difference between horse and dog acts (we watch the Royal Horse Show, and One Man and His Dog, etc) and the use of exotic animals.

So I don't want to get into the bitter arguments about whether animals should ever be confined (do we get rid of animal sanctuaries as well?), or whether zoos and circuses contribute to animal breeding programmes, etc - e.g. rants like The Real Anti-Circus Agenda, or any of that.

I am more interested in the trends in public entertainment, and audience sensibilities, and it does appear that less people enjoy seeing performing animals, generally - not just vegans, Buddhists and other sensitive souls. Likewise, a certain number of circuses with animals still find an audience...

And if, in children's publishing, books have now appeared about Gay Parenting (say) or Adopted Children and other challenges to stereotypes, like books dealing with issues that concern children, against racism and bullying for instance, isn't there a niche for a book or two about modern circus and the desire to leave animals out of it?

I withdraw the happy new year greeting - maybe this will make you angry

Look at this from False Economies

You might want to subscribe to Public Library News to track all the planned closures of libraries...

Look out for a day of action in February (article in The Guardian)

Massive library cuts may even prove illegal (The Guardian 30 Nov 2010)

(sigh)

Off to bed now...

Happy New Year!

Anyone who had visited this site may have noticed the drop away in regular posts.

There were a variety of reasons, not least my involvement in writing a book as part of the NaNoWriMo challenge, as well as beginning to compile research for the history of a local arts company, and my own autobiography.

But these are of little relevance to a library blog.

Another contributing factor was that I heard that the library had finally decided to set up an official blog, so I thought that this strictly unofficial blog had served its purpose (it was originally set up as an example of a Library 2.0 function, after attending an inspiring talk).

There has been a long delay in setting up a MySpace account for the Music Dept (issues range from the legal requirement to be bilingual - Welsh/English - to the need for regular monitoring if feedback and user input is allowed on a service which 'represents the Council'). I am glad to say that the library service has finally established a Facebook Page (well, two actually, one for each language), but Twitter is still blocked from use by public or staff in libraries.

We stagger into the 21st Century - with already a decade gone...and I find myself on the point of retirement, so perhaps I should just hand the whole thing over to the younger folk...

A Point of View

A Point of View - Reading for Free

(listen on iPlayer)

Joan Bakewell reflects on the irreplaceable value of reading at a time when the squeeze on government spending is putting public libraries at risk.

Pawn shop Britain

I have to say I have never heard a weaker or vaguer slogan than the Big Society, but even the Tories are now exceeding my expectations of them.

A think tank suggests selling off local assets (like libraries) to the local community. Well, duh, excuse me for not following, but libraries already belong to the local community, and get paid for by local people, through their councils.

Selling such assets off presumably means that rich people (who don't use public transport, or libraries, or swimming pools, etc) won't have to contribute to them any more through local taxes.

They pitch it as 'poor people having a stake in society' by presumably owning shares in a library.

Most strange.

Rather than tackle the deep divisions in society, or the appalling gap in wealth distribution, they want to further dismantle what few services the poor can still access, while not rebalancing the wealth gap.

The lowest 10% "have negative net wealth" - what weasel words! You mean they are not just poor, but in debt, surely? So how will they benefit by buying a library or a hospital? They'll have to borrow more to buy it, just like the over-priced housing, and then supposedly 'keep the profit' from running such a service. My mind reels at the nonsense of this.

Press Association article

Local Gov co uk article

I have to quote some of this for its jaw-dropping, bare-faced inanity:

ResPublica warned: ‘Meaningful assets and market entry have become the preserve of the rich.’

It highlighted that currently the poorest households in the UK have no stake in society.

The report said: ‘In fact, the bottom 10% of society has a negative net wealth. This disparity is even starker in terms of financial wealth, with the bottom half of households in Britain owning 1%, whilst the top 20% accounts for 84%.’

But the group argued this would not be solved by keeping the status quo in public services: ‘The welfare state was designed for a demographic pyramid which no longer exists and has built a culture of passive dependence which Beveridge never imagined and would have abhorred.’

The report added: ‘Public assets can and, wherever desirable, should become community assets, owned mutually or by individual shareholders or stakeholders in association with communities.

‘We have an unprecedented opportunity to lay the foundations for a truly popular and meaningful “Big Society” by simultaneously capitalising civil society and spreading ownership.

‘More importantly, we have an opportunity to achieve a bottom-up prosperity that builds resilient and independent communities capable of providing individuals with sustainable exits from poverty and entrances into wealth and well-being.

Social Exclusion

Welsh Libraries and Web 2.0

Welsh Libraries and Web 2.0: a survey of access and views in 2010

This fascinating report from the MLA includes several thought-provoking differences between Higher Education, Further Education and Public libraries; bizarre practices (blocking staff from access to sites that the public can use - which almost ensures that staff do not learn how they work, and then cannot assist public with use of those tools); odd resistance to allowing people to use available options; curious paranoia, etc.IMHO.

Anyway - this remains an unofficial blog for at least one other reason (apart from expressing contentious ideas) - that it does not appear bi-lingually. Cardiff Libraries seem to be an exception in that they manage to run their Facebook Pages in two versions.

Some excerpts to tease you into reading the full document here (Welsh version available here):

1. Executive Summary (excerpt)

This report into access to and use of various Web 2.0 applications in libraries in Wales has found some commonalities across the library sectors, as well as differences. Staff in many library institutions are prevented from accessing interactive websites such as blogs, and users (students and the public) may also be blocked from accessing them as well, for various reasons. University libraries appear to be the exception to both these instances and are able to experiment with and use these technologies more freely.

2.3 Definition
It is helpful at this point to include our interpretation of Web 2.0. Although it is a commonly used term it is not always explained. Web 2.0 represents the ‘second version’ of the Internet. The ‘first version’ featured static pages that provided information. The Internet then evolved to become interactive, featuring two-way communication and platforms that allow content to be easily created and uploaded. For many people, they will be using Web 2.0 tools every day e.g. Facebook or Twitter. These are social networking examples. There are thousands of examples and usages for Web 2.0 and this report focuses on the main ones that are currently used by libraries, or are popular with users.

4.1 Is access to Web 2.0 technologies blocked in Welsh libraries?
Librarians were asked if access was blocked to:
• Social networking sites e.g. Facebook, MySpace
• Blogs and/or twitter
• Multimedia file sharing sites e.g. YouTube, Flickr
• RSS feed aggregators e.g. Netvibes, Pageflakes
• Tagging and social bookmarking sites e.g. Delicious, Digg
• Instant messaging sites e.g. meebo
• Collaboration sites e.g. wikis

ebooks: Libraries at the Tipping Point

If Libraries are Screwed, so are the Rest of Us - a blog entry at Digital Book World about ebooks: Libraries at the Tipping Point a virtual conference which included presentations from Ray Kurzweil and Kevin Kelly, for instance…

Archive viewing of the content is available for $19.95.

Slow clap for li-berry

Slow clap for li-berry

Library is stirring more trouble

From the blog: Everything I Like Causes Cancer