Students & more on NOS

I have just changed the settings for this blog which means that anyone should be able to send in a comment without registering.

Today I gave a presentation about SINTO to students at the Department of Information Studies, University of Sheffield. Hello to any of you who followed up my invitation to look at the SINTO blog and wiki.

As students you are very welcome to read my postings and to comment on any of the issues I raise. And if you want to start of a new topic let me know.

Students sometimes feel that they are remote from the "real" world of working librarians and this site might give you a better understanding of the practical issues we face. On the other hand students sometimes fear that when they leave library school with fresh ideas and enthusiasm these will be resisted by the established professionals. In return, librarians sometimes accuse library schools of sending them new professional who are not prepared for the realities of working in libraries. Do you have any views on this?

To follow up my last postings - I have received an e-mail from LLUK about two focus groups to discuss national Occupational Standards for our sector. These are in London on the 15th & 21st March. The e-mail is addressed to those responsible for the strategic direction and development of your libraries, archives or information services workforce? This does raise the question of who has this strategic responsibility. In many libraries training and development is delegated to a senior member of staff but do they have a strategic role? If the Head of Service has delegated responsibility will they be aware of these developments? And in many organisations overall strategic responsibility for workforce development will lie outside the library - but do these people know enough about the needs of the LAIS workforce? Who in your organisation will attend these meetings? And if the answer is "no one, we are all to busy" what will that mean for the future of workforce development? Will we as a profession just wait for the standards to come out and then complain that they are not what we want?