Sunday, October 15, 2006
On libraries, technology and politics

I'm not sure why but yesterday was this blog's best day ever as measured by unique visitors - 2570. I'm equally unsure (and slightly worried) as to why http://www.used-aircraftsales.com/ should be the top referrer.

More movement on the issues around the dissemination of scientific research using the web and its impact on researchers, funding bodies, libraries and publishers. The Research Information Network in the UK has published a very full report on the operations and costs of scholarly publishing. The idea was to take some of the heat out of the open-access debate and replace it with some light and informed debate. I've been invited to chair a workshop on November 14 in London and everyone is welcome. There are many sides to this discussion but at least this report has been prepared properly, thoughtfully and impartially. Not least because the Chair of the overseeing panel is an old acquaintance from the days when I was a medical commissioning editor and signed him up to co-author the Oxford Textbook of Clinical Pharmacology.

And more on public libraries. The Libraries Minister, David Lammy, has dismissed those trying to focus libraries on books (as opposed to community centres or worse) as:

Those that want to turn the clock back to some highly-selective and rose-tinted vision of libraries from their own childhoods are out of luck.  I’m with them as far as putting the written word at the heart of the library service.  And I’m with them on the campaign to keep the book stock fresh and relevant.  But there’s more to this than nostalgia.

His solution is to commission a White Paper on Communities, presumably supported by many very wise (and expensive) consultants. Fortunately the importance of libraries and books has been recognised by politicians outside the junta and pressure is building for the implementation of genuine management improvements, genuine investment and genuine recognition of the centrality of the printed word in a modern society. More on this at the excellent Good Library blog.

Incidentally, I must confess that I was rather worried when I spotted Mr Lammy at the Man Booker Prize dinner last week. It might have confirmed his prejudice that the book trade was populated by white, penguin-suited, public-school-educated middle-class (or worse) men entirely cut off from the real multicultural Britain. Thank goodness then that the prize was won by an American-domiciled Indian woman.

#    |  Comments [3]  | 
10/15/2006 9:28:47 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
Richard:

Public libraries: I think the White Paper to which you refer has already been produced by Ruth Kelly's department and the theme of it (according to David Lammy) is that local councils should genuinely become more responsive to the particular needs of local people. This is, like everything the current Government does, reasonable on the lips of bright graduates in senior civil service positions.

However, they have never learned that placed in the grubby hands of the incredibly well paid local government brotherhood, the whole project will be twisted to the advantage of those who hold local power.

Nothing in our structure of government is less democratic than local (council) government. It is actually operated, not by councillors, but by an enormous cadre of officials, who tell councillors what to do and only answer to themselves. Their loyalty is to their brotherhood and their object is their large salary and pension and a department to surround them. They have no interest in being more responsive to the needs of their local people, that is the last thing on earth that concerns them (in fact the very idea makes them grey with anger)-- but they do seek, constantly, ways to get more money from central government for themselves. They are hidden from the press, which is London- centric and carry an immunity from interrogation under the two banners "central govt should not interfere with local govt" and "politicians should not interfere with honourable public officials and civil servants" (both of which are complete rot).

So it is fairly easy to predict that Ruth Kelly's well intentioned White Paper will end up merely as an opportunity for local government officials to obtain more funds for their own departments.

Its likely effect on the public library service is absolutely nul. That David Lammy used it as the central theme of his speech last week only shows what clods we have for Ministers. As we know the better expression of the problem of libraries and what needs to be done about them came from Mark Field, who is Lammy's shadow minister in the House of Commons. That is printed in full on www.goodlibraryguide.com/blog/

Thanks for the plug! tim
Tim Coates
10/15/2006 5:36:18 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
Mr Lammy seen attending Man Booker award ceremony...hmmph

What a great opportunity was missed by judge's chair Hermione Lee : rather than spouting on about the alleged failure of Waterstone's to promote the short-list titles, she might have gained more applause by noting the failure of most provincial libraries to purchase many titles from the longlist. It would have only taken a competent researcher a short time to come up with accurate figures.

If the (privileged) bookworld really gives a shit about the state of the public library service then every opportunity must be taken to remind Mr Lammy that his baby is sick.
Clive Keeble
10/15/2006 5:53:21 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
I'm doing my best.
richard charkin