After 9 fantastic years with Culture & Sport Glasgow I’m moving on to pastures new with West Dunbartonshire Libraries. I have many great memories of Glasgow Libraries and the people I’ve worked with over the years. I can still remember my first day, nervous, eager and little bit unsure of what to expect. I needn’t have worried as the first two women I met were June Murray and Linda Macpherson both fantastic women and great librarians. I learned a lot listening to both of them over the years and it was with great sadness that Linda passed away earlier in the year. June always said to me “you should never, not be busy in the library” and its true there is always something that has to be done.
I walked into the first branch I worked in yesterday and it brought back a lot of nostalgia, the library seemed smaller but warmer, the staff had all changed and a revamp had occurred but I remembered ghosts of conversations past and of customers by now gone. I was idealistic and passionate about my job, over the years I’ve kept the passion but became more realistic about what we can do and achieve in a climate where change is inevitable and budget cuts loom.
It will be sad to leave the service on Friday but I know that I contributed to lots of little smiles from the storytimes and class visits the kids had when I was in the YP team. Introducing new authors to customers when working in community libraries and becoming part of that community, slowly without noticing. Knowing people within the city have better resources and training courses for information technology as part of the Digital Learning Team. I know there are now customers of aren’t afraid of the internet and who have better information retrieval skills. I made people feel at ease and occasionally made them laugh with tales of my dog, the only dog in Scotland who must have over 50 email addresses.To my colleagues I hold the utmost respect as I work with a very determined and passionate bunch of individuals. I’m sure I’ve probably debated (argued) with many of them, had countless laughs with all of them and learned things from each and every one. I’ve came a long way in my nine years from young people’s assistant to my new role as Information Services Librarian with WDC and I give credit to the people I work with for inspiring me to follow my path.
So, I’m lucky to be walking my path the way I want to, I’m sure I’ll meet new challenges and interesting people but that’s the beauty of my progress, the unknown, keeping it fresh and remembering with great affection all that has passed.
I found this little quote by Gail Sheehy:
“If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow we aren’t really living”.
Tuesday 15 December 2009
Wednesday 9 December 2009
CILIPS Equality & Diversity 17th Nov Mitchell Library - afternoon
The afternoon session started with John Kelly from JISC Legal talking about the “Framework for a fairer future: the new legislative landscape”. The equality landscape is changing and with the new equality bill on the horizon we must ensure that as employers and service providers our services are inclusive and that we make certain that best practice is followed. The new duties within the Equality Bill will affect all of us working in or for public/private bodies. The new legislation will ban pay secrecy or ‘gagging clauses’ on pay, reporting on gender pay gaps will be required and public authorities will report to ministers on equality. The influence of public procurement – using our purchasing power to improve equality by encouraging suppliers to promote equalities.
However, could a new government change priorities? John mentioned that this Equality Bill will be the present Labour Govt’s last manifesto pledge to be completed. After the election however will the Bill receive the same attention?
We try as services to be as inclusive as we possibly can when delivering our library services; this has been shown at the event by the amount of initiatives running throughout the country in the area of equality and diversity. However to my mind there are invisible minority groups that I feel we still don’t fully cater for in public libraries or where we don’t realise we are still not fulfilling our role as equality providers.
The second presentation of the afternoon was from Margaret McKay from JISC RSC Scotland SW, who Introduced Access Apps. Margaret discussed our role in libraries and how we hold a critical role in accessibility, she introduced Access Apps which can be used by people who have specific difficulties with reading and writing and may have sensory or physical problems, these apps give individuals the freedom to use any PC within a library and not one set aside specifically for those who need support. The ability to have this information on a pen drive increases the freedom and flexibility.
The final session of the afternoon was from Clair Scott and Claire Elliot fromEast Renfrewshire Libraries and Renfrewshire Association Mental Health, they discussed Positive Mental Health & books on prescription. They talked on the joint venture between the two, the libraries initial funding of 10k from the Health Board to fund 42 titles covering areas such as, stress, anxiety and low mood, they were given recommendations for tittles by local health professionals, the selection of books has been a success within East Renfrewshire and they have worked with the RAMH to ensure that the section is maintained and have encouraged partnership working between library and RAMH. The collection is geared more toward the adult learning however in the future they are hoping to include more titles for a younger audience.
The day ended with closing remarks from Margaret Forrest, Margaret focused on the good demonstrations of partnership working throughout the day and remarked that no library was an island and that we had to work with other agencies to keep libraries moving forward.
I’m glad I had the opportunity to attend the event and listen to the work that has and is being done continually by Scottish Libraries on the issues of equality. I found the stories from Edinburgh inspirational. Having the ability to use Access Apps will help so many individuals have more confidence when using public libraries. The influence that partnership working has had in East Renfrewshire, would the project been so successful without the work done by both the libraries and RAMH. Like Margaret Forrest, I have areas of equality that I feel are underrepresented by libraries at times, the customers that we tend to overlook or feel that we represent using other avenues. The day was full of good practice and ideas however for the future we should look at the equality groups that aren’t so PC, where we need to think outside our comfort zones without prejudice or ignorance to their needs. In Scotland this year alone I am only aware of one authority covering LGBT month however many more covered black history month, is this equality?
However I’m not trying to take anything away from what was an interesting day held at the Mitchell Library in Glagsow and it was also good to catch up with an old friend from the past.
However, could a new government change priorities? John mentioned that this Equality Bill will be the present Labour Govt’s last manifesto pledge to be completed. After the election however will the Bill receive the same attention?
We try as services to be as inclusive as we possibly can when delivering our library services; this has been shown at the event by the amount of initiatives running throughout the country in the area of equality and diversity. However to my mind there are invisible minority groups that I feel we still don’t fully cater for in public libraries or where we don’t realise we are still not fulfilling our role as equality providers.
The second presentation of the afternoon was from Margaret McKay from JISC RSC Scotland SW, who Introduced Access Apps. Margaret discussed our role in libraries and how we hold a critical role in accessibility, she introduced Access Apps which can be used by people who have specific difficulties with reading and writing and may have sensory or physical problems, these apps give individuals the freedom to use any PC within a library and not one set aside specifically for those who need support. The ability to have this information on a pen drive increases the freedom and flexibility.
The final session of the afternoon was from Clair Scott and Claire Elliot fromEast Renfrewshire Libraries and Renfrewshire Association Mental Health, they discussed Positive Mental Health & books on prescription. They talked on the joint venture between the two, the libraries initial funding of 10k from the Health Board to fund 42 titles covering areas such as, stress, anxiety and low mood, they were given recommendations for tittles by local health professionals, the selection of books has been a success within East Renfrewshire and they have worked with the RAMH to ensure that the section is maintained and have encouraged partnership working between library and RAMH. The collection is geared more toward the adult learning however in the future they are hoping to include more titles for a younger audience.
The day ended with closing remarks from Margaret Forrest, Margaret focused on the good demonstrations of partnership working throughout the day and remarked that no library was an island and that we had to work with other agencies to keep libraries moving forward.
I’m glad I had the opportunity to attend the event and listen to the work that has and is being done continually by Scottish Libraries on the issues of equality. I found the stories from Edinburgh inspirational. Having the ability to use Access Apps will help so many individuals have more confidence when using public libraries. The influence that partnership working has had in East Renfrewshire, would the project been so successful without the work done by both the libraries and RAMH. Like Margaret Forrest, I have areas of equality that I feel are underrepresented by libraries at times, the customers that we tend to overlook or feel that we represent using other avenues. The day was full of good practice and ideas however for the future we should look at the equality groups that aren’t so PC, where we need to think outside our comfort zones without prejudice or ignorance to their needs. In Scotland this year alone I am only aware of one authority covering LGBT month however many more covered black history month, is this equality?
However I’m not trying to take anything away from what was an interesting day held at the Mitchell Library in Glagsow and it was also good to catch up with an old friend from the past.
Wednesday 18 November 2009
CILIPS Equality & Diversity 17th Nov Mitchell Library - morning
Yesterday was CILIPS Equality and Diversity Course – promoting good practice in library work, held at the Mitchell Library in Glasgow.
The morning session began with Ayub Khan and Marion Huckle talking about the CILIP Encompass Project this is a positive action scheme to encourage more people from ethnic minority groups into the profession, at present only 2% of members are from a black or ethnic background. The course is a graduate training scheme and their aim is to train 50 librarians over a five year period. The scheme would work by converting an existing post into a trainee post over a three year period, they are however aware of financial constraints on all sectors in the coming economic climate and that it may not be possible to convert posts. The traineeship would have benefits such as tax advantages, recruitment costs and support from Path National. The main points to come from the question session were whether this could then be expanded to include people with disabilities and other minority groups. The overall cost of the traineeship, academic expenses to salary for the trainee were discussed. The traineeship seems an excellent opportunity but is it seen as a viable career by many ethnic parents as one member noted many parents wish their children to study law or medicine not librarianship. A fantastic opportunity to join a great profession however lets hope that during the interviews it is truly people wanting a career in librarianship who achieve the trainee posts and it’s not seen as just a job opportunity by young graduates.
Next on the programme Paul McCloskey from Edinburgh City Libraries talked about what makes good inclusive practice? Paul discussed the initiatives that Edinburgh have in place to increase inclusiveness in Edinburgh libraries. Children can join straight away when visiting the library without proof (however a letter is sent to parents if they want to opt out), the Capital Collections a community digital program that empowers the local community to participate in their local heritage. The services they provide to care homes in the city, where they take trolleys into the homes and allow people to browse the books, Paul mentioned that the homes have some of the highest level of book requests in the city. For ethnic communities they have 14 separate collections within the city and have recently done work with the local Polish community and others supported through the PLQIM.
Having worked in young peoples services, I was impressed by the work Edinburgh have done with children and teenagers by seeing them as a minority group, the work they have done in particular at Sighthill Library has reduced the levels of anti-social behaviour. The reading champions initiative for kids in care, working in partnership with Barnardos , Action for Children and Edinburgh Book Festival where the books have been seen to help build emotional literacy.
The message from Paul was not only about inclusive practice but about working in partnership with other organisations to achieve realistic aims and create a more inclusive library service. To not only support the library user but our own staff to ensure that we can help the communities around us.
The last speaker of the morning was Professor Andrea Nolan from the University of Glasgow talking about Internationalisation in the education sector. The emphasis being on creating culturally diverse learning communities, promoting students who are more culturally aware and how by having a system of internationalisation local communities surrounding the higher education facilities will benefit by integrating into the local community. The need to increase educational partnerships as new competitors emerge into the higher education market creating newer places for students to study out with universities in the UK. To create partnerships where students to have the chance to not only study abroad but become more globally aware. I’m afraid I had to leave near the end of Professor Nolan’s talk as my car park meter was running low and I didn’t want a ticket.
The lunch break also consisted of an optional tour round the RUVI Resource Unit for the Visually Impaired at the Mitchell library with both sessions being booked full.
I'll add the afternoon session later in the week
All of the presentations for the morning should be available soon on the Scottish Librares Slideshare page.
The morning session began with Ayub Khan and Marion Huckle talking about the CILIP Encompass Project this is a positive action scheme to encourage more people from ethnic minority groups into the profession, at present only 2% of members are from a black or ethnic background. The course is a graduate training scheme and their aim is to train 50 librarians over a five year period. The scheme would work by converting an existing post into a trainee post over a three year period, they are however aware of financial constraints on all sectors in the coming economic climate and that it may not be possible to convert posts. The traineeship would have benefits such as tax advantages, recruitment costs and support from Path National. The main points to come from the question session were whether this could then be expanded to include people with disabilities and other minority groups. The overall cost of the traineeship, academic expenses to salary for the trainee were discussed. The traineeship seems an excellent opportunity but is it seen as a viable career by many ethnic parents as one member noted many parents wish their children to study law or medicine not librarianship. A fantastic opportunity to join a great profession however lets hope that during the interviews it is truly people wanting a career in librarianship who achieve the trainee posts and it’s not seen as just a job opportunity by young graduates.
Next on the programme Paul McCloskey from Edinburgh City Libraries talked about what makes good inclusive practice? Paul discussed the initiatives that Edinburgh have in place to increase inclusiveness in Edinburgh libraries. Children can join straight away when visiting the library without proof (however a letter is sent to parents if they want to opt out), the Capital Collections a community digital program that empowers the local community to participate in their local heritage. The services they provide to care homes in the city, where they take trolleys into the homes and allow people to browse the books, Paul mentioned that the homes have some of the highest level of book requests in the city. For ethnic communities they have 14 separate collections within the city and have recently done work with the local Polish community and others supported through the PLQIM.
Having worked in young peoples services, I was impressed by the work Edinburgh have done with children and teenagers by seeing them as a minority group, the work they have done in particular at Sighthill Library has reduced the levels of anti-social behaviour. The reading champions initiative for kids in care, working in partnership with Barnardos , Action for Children and Edinburgh Book Festival where the books have been seen to help build emotional literacy.
The message from Paul was not only about inclusive practice but about working in partnership with other organisations to achieve realistic aims and create a more inclusive library service. To not only support the library user but our own staff to ensure that we can help the communities around us.
The last speaker of the morning was Professor Andrea Nolan from the University of Glasgow talking about Internationalisation in the education sector. The emphasis being on creating culturally diverse learning communities, promoting students who are more culturally aware and how by having a system of internationalisation local communities surrounding the higher education facilities will benefit by integrating into the local community. The need to increase educational partnerships as new competitors emerge into the higher education market creating newer places for students to study out with universities in the UK. To create partnerships where students to have the chance to not only study abroad but become more globally aware. I’m afraid I had to leave near the end of Professor Nolan’s talk as my car park meter was running low and I didn’t want a ticket.
The lunch break also consisted of an optional tour round the RUVI Resource Unit for the Visually Impaired at the Mitchell library with both sessions being booked full.
I'll add the afternoon session later in the week
All of the presentations for the morning should be available soon on the Scottish Librares Slideshare page.
Saturday 7 November 2009
e-readers
Thanks to scotlibraries on Twitter, I read the article by Tom Peters on the changing form of reading,that we must listen to what our customers are saying and purchasing around the topic of e-books. Are our customers whether it be in libraries, bookshops or online stores now gravitating more towards e-readers such as the Kindle and the Sony Reader for their reading adventures or are they reading chapters a day on their phones,like reading a daily horoscope?
I work on the front line with my tin hat and billy can every day and as yet I’ve never had a customer ask whether they can access e-books within the libraries. I am asked daily whether our wifi connection is working but never to my knowledge on supply of e-books. Is this due to the age demographic of library users? When predominantly the age of adult library users is above the age of 40 (estimate from a visual perspective not a user survey) and that many of these customers have little or no PC knowledge let alone the ability to use an e-reader, would we then suggest e-readers and downloads.
I have several ways of reading my favourite fiction; I can pick up a book, my iPhone, my palm tungsten T3 or my PC. However the book is the only one I can rely on not to need charged after a couple of hours and the least expensive to replace if I loose it. I’m not against the advent of more ways to increase my reading power or that of customers but what do we do with the problem of file formats? Will I consistently be worried that I have to upgrade my systems? I own a Tungsten T3 which I predominantly use to read online fiction however its not compatible with Vista so I’m lucky to still have xp on one PC at home that I can use to download all my files. I love the fact that I can read it in bed with its little back light and feel like a kid with a torch under the covers,that is until the battery dies. I prefer the size of my T3 to the Kindle or the Sony reader but I don’t want to upgrade just yet.
What about cost, is it seen as a luxury item to purchase,a big kids toy? If someone done the math would it be cheaper over a year to buy the reader then buy your fiction online or do bookshops still offer enough discounts to make buying the print edition cheaper? How would you parcel an e-book under the tree? Ultimately the cheapest option is always use your library card it costs nothing (well minimal charges). For libraries would we supply the e-books or the reader and could you borrow it as you do a CD or DVD?
Mark Twain once said that a classic was a book that people praised but didn’t read, Peters mentions that we live in a society where we skim rather than read due to technology such as phones and computers, so without the printed book would all reading material become classic as we would learn to skim and praise rather than fully appreciate the content.
I work surrounded by both books and technology every day and I see the benefits of both and as technology grows libraries need to grow, not only in how we share information sources but how we ultimately share books. I use both but even within my workplace very few people use e-readers, I could probably count them on one hand.
I work on the front line with my tin hat and billy can every day and as yet I’ve never had a customer ask whether they can access e-books within the libraries. I am asked daily whether our wifi connection is working but never to my knowledge on supply of e-books. Is this due to the age demographic of library users? When predominantly the age of adult library users is above the age of 40 (estimate from a visual perspective not a user survey) and that many of these customers have little or no PC knowledge let alone the ability to use an e-reader, would we then suggest e-readers and downloads.
I have several ways of reading my favourite fiction; I can pick up a book, my iPhone, my palm tungsten T3 or my PC. However the book is the only one I can rely on not to need charged after a couple of hours and the least expensive to replace if I loose it. I’m not against the advent of more ways to increase my reading power or that of customers but what do we do with the problem of file formats? Will I consistently be worried that I have to upgrade my systems? I own a Tungsten T3 which I predominantly use to read online fiction however its not compatible with Vista so I’m lucky to still have xp on one PC at home that I can use to download all my files. I love the fact that I can read it in bed with its little back light and feel like a kid with a torch under the covers,that is until the battery dies. I prefer the size of my T3 to the Kindle or the Sony reader but I don’t want to upgrade just yet.
What about cost, is it seen as a luxury item to purchase,a big kids toy? If someone done the math would it be cheaper over a year to buy the reader then buy your fiction online or do bookshops still offer enough discounts to make buying the print edition cheaper? How would you parcel an e-book under the tree? Ultimately the cheapest option is always use your library card it costs nothing (well minimal charges). For libraries would we supply the e-books or the reader and could you borrow it as you do a CD or DVD?
Mark Twain once said that a classic was a book that people praised but didn’t read, Peters mentions that we live in a society where we skim rather than read due to technology such as phones and computers, so without the printed book would all reading material become classic as we would learn to skim and praise rather than fully appreciate the content.
I work surrounded by both books and technology every day and I see the benefits of both and as technology grows libraries need to grow, not only in how we share information sources but how we ultimately share books. I use both but even within my workplace very few people use e-readers, I could probably count them on one hand.
Friday 6 November 2009
Geek Love
Geek-love, I was asked why I decided on geeklove-sam, the answer is two fold, I read a book at university many years ago and the story and the characters have stayed with me ever since, Geek Love by Katherine Dunn. From Arturo the aqua boy to the Siamese twins and the albino dwarf they make up an unforgettable family all thanks to Mrs Binewski taking a wide assortment of drugs and pesticides during her pregnancies. This book is about love in differing forms, it’s funny and at times disgusting, and it’s the adult version of the Cirque Du Freak with a true assortment of geeks and freaks (oh minus the vampires!)
The flip side of coin is geeklove-sam came about from the words Geek – express an interest in and Love – deep affection for and in my case that’s for libraries and especially public libraries and the Sam that’s easy, my name.
The flip side of coin is geeklove-sam came about from the words Geek – express an interest in and Love – deep affection for and in my case that’s for libraries and especially public libraries and the Sam that’s easy, my name.
Thursday 5 November 2009
Library Funk
Sitting in the library and all I can here are little rants of "F***" from the guy two seats away, it makes you wonder just what he's upset about, has he just checked his bank account and noticed he has no cash? Has his girlfriend just dumped him by twitter? Has he forgotten a password? I'll never know....but he will as he leaves head down. At least he's a visitor this evening most of the local community are outside waiting on the fireworks to begin.
I received certificates today for my last E-citizen group on completion of the final exam.I'm especially proud of the learners as many of them have not sat a formal education exam/test (let alone online) since leaving school. My other great joy today was watching William (95) and James (90) complete the basic PC class in their local library and now have the ability to search online and email whenever and whoever the feel like. The best comment was William mentioning that he wished he had bought his laptop a few years earlier! Learning for all.
I received certificates today for my last E-citizen group on completion of the final exam.I'm especially proud of the learners as many of them have not sat a formal education exam/test (let alone online) since leaving school. My other great joy today was watching William (95) and James (90) complete the basic PC class in their local library and now have the ability to search online and email whenever and whoever the feel like. The best comment was William mentioning that he wished he had bought his laptop a few years earlier! Learning for all.
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