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.

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.

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.

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.