Making the case for libraries – SCL seminar part 6 (final part!)
Continued from http://breakingtheshell.blog.com/3096717/, part 1 at http://breakingtheshell.blog.com/3093874/
The final session was led by Roy Clare of the MLA and Professor Mike Thorne, Chair of the Advisory Council on Libraries (a sort of library kitchen cabinet for the minister – a ‘counter cabinet’?).
They are highly focused on bidding for money from the Treasury, identifying the way with oil prices going up and the economy going down, libraries can illustrate their strategically important role… how libraries can reduce crime, reduce community fragmentation, and support small businesses…
Participants were set a range of visioning exercises, putting them in different roles and identifying the future of libraries.
Some of the results of the group activities were:
Challenge: Imagine you’re the Chief Exec – top three strategic priorities, how can culture and information integrate and contribute to priorities, perceptions, barriers holding back library service, changes that Chief Librarians should be leading, and what support library sector bodies should give.
Thoughts:
Priorities are: Economy, health, education, Performance, economy, developing member capacity:
- Can contribute to partnerships
- Chief Exec wouldn’t think of libraries, so won’t see the impact
- Poor buildings in wrong location
- Staff in comfort zones with low aspirations
- Need advocacy and new models of delivering
- CILIP – wrote off
- Lifelong Learning – only consult?
- SCL – only source of leadership
- MLA – produce the research and demonstrate value
- ACL – what does it do?
- DCMS – Renaissance for Libraries
- British Library – professional lead
Challenge: Image you’re the head of a commercial PR agency – what are the top three selling points for public libraries, how to communicate, key barriers, manage weakest points, promote and market careers.
Thoughts:
Make a difference, improve quality of life and reach a mass audience
Offer people, space and resources to make this happen
Challenge: Imagine you’re a government minister with responsibility for libraries. What would you strengthen, what do nationally, what locally, what are the barriers, how should customer services be developed, and how do you see potential for libraries and the Olympics?
Thoughts:
Press the key government buttons in a clear way – understand them better
National – focused branding, ring-fenced funding, stronger national offers including digital
Local – much better community understanding
Modernisation
Challenge: What would priorities be for digital services, what are the barriers, what technologies will be introduced in next five and ten years, how would Chief Librarians innovate?
Thoughts:
- Achieve buy-in
- National infrastructure
- National portal, national catalogue
- Supplier license problems
- Workplace skills
Challenge: Imagine you’re the Chief Librarian of good LA – describe excellent library service, aspects, private sector partnerships, who controls library spend, competencies, partnerships, relationships within council and with partners.
Thoughts:
Partnership – don’t rule anything out. Deliver more to learning, skills, health community agendas than library museums and archives agendas.
Simple, confident, crisp advocacy messages.
Golden thread of leadership right through the service from top to bottom.
There were some ever-so-slightly negative comments about CILIP (!), and some points about ‘what is the Advisory Council on Libraries, anyway’, and ‘what does the MLA do now?’ (although also a focus on their declared aim of finding the evidence to prove library multiple impacts.
All in all, a good session, not too navel-gazing nor too divorced from reality. There’s hope for the library world yet! And we hope to be a part of it…
