Inter-library loans

Document delivery no longer forms a major part of the activities of SINTO but this long standing service is still a valuable service for many of our member libraries and their users. The ILL Scheme is managed by the SINTO ILL group. Every year Gilly Pearce of SINTO analyses the statistics of usage and produces a report.

In 2007-8 13 libraries received an average of 38.5 books each through the SINTO ILL scheme last year. These 501 books were supplied by 8 libraries. In addition, 601 photocopies were supplied from 3 libraries.

These figures represent a large decline from the 1950s when SINTO members would interchange around 2,500 items per year. The development of national and regional document delivery services and the decline in the number of small business and technical libraries was the reason for this. Over the past few years there has been a slight decline in the volume of ILL traffic between SINTO members as users increasingly access information electronically for themselves over the Internet. However the service is still valued by our members. As Gilly says in her report "Despite all the well known pressures on the Scheme, it would seem that there is still potential for it to be of benefit to the local area."

SINTO will continue to provide a local ILL Scheme for as long as our members find it of value.

Fines

There has been a debate going on about charging fines for overdue books (mainly for public libraries) on the lis-pub-libs mailing list and the letter pages of Update. The main issues are does charging fines for returning books late put people off from using libraries and does it create the wrong image for libraries? Others argue that you need a incentive to get people to return books and that libraries depend on the income raised.

SINTO publishes the annual survey Fines & Charges in Public Libraries in England & Wales, and the following figures may be of interest.

Fines for overdue adult books appear to be universal with no authority reporting that they do not charge for overdue books. Fines range from 7p to 25p per day. The median is 14p and the mode is 15p. (Some authorities charge per week and the lowest rate is 30p per week). Maximum total fines charged range from £2 to £20 (Median and mode £5) with a single outlier of 75p, but many authorities have not provided a maximum charge figure. The authorities with the lowest daily charge are St Helens, Methyr Tydfil and Hartlepool, while Rhondda Cynon Taff and Vale of Glamorgan charge 30p per week. The highest charges are levied by Westminster City and Lambeth. All authorities have exemptions or reductions for various.

I think that we shouldn't represent these charges as "fines" for breaking the library rules but rather as the fee for borrowing books which we generously waive if the book is returned within a set period. This is a much better marketing ploy but of course it contadicts the basic principle of a free library service - even if we are not making any actual change in what we charge.

The figures also show that we don't have a national library service. The amount you could be asked to pay for an overdue item could vary by 2000% depending on where you live - a post-code lottery!

Libraries and social engagement

A recent article in FUMSI - Secret Leeds: Share Your Secrets, Share Your City
by James Hill, Senior Arts Project Officer, Leeds City Council and Duncan Scobie, Marketing Executive, Marketing Leeds - looks at a community website developed as part of the Celebrate Leeds 2007 festival, the 800th anniversary of the signing of the town's first charter in 1207. The website is a public discussion forum, ‘a site dedicated to investigating quirky, unusual or mysterious aspects of the built environment of the city of Leeds, both past and present'. There is no editorial content, just contributions from members of the public. An example is given of a thread on the forum about locating two stone skulls which used to be on the wall of a pub in the city centre. A group gathered together at the Central Library and read articles from old Leeds newspapers that proved the skulls had been there in the 1960s, but had been moved, when that area of the city centre began to fall into disrepair. Eventually the skulls were found and will be displayed when the area is regenerated.

The authors make the point that Secret Leeds has become "an excellent example of how participatory, socially engaged practice via the internet can play a strong role in regeneration and community cohesion... Not only has the website allowed people to find others who share what they might previously have thought to be a very narrow interest (across the world as well as across the city), but it has also been the catalyst for the kind of ‘meaningful interaction' and ‘engagement with heritage' that are seen as being central drivers in the promotion of community cohesion".

Most authorities want to develop community engagement in this way. The Sheffield City Cultural Services Plan for example has the mission statement "More people, more culturally active, more often". Libraries have to be able to show that they are contributing to these plans so we might expect that they would show a great interest in and engagement with local community forums on the web. Most areas do have some sort of local internet forum. In South Yorkshire we have the Sheffield Forum; Rotherham, the Unofficial Website; Donny Online and Barnsley Links. In addition social network sites such as Facebook often have groups for towns and cities along the lines of "Rotherham might be shite, but it's still home!" (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2311209949 but you have to be a member of Facebook).

I'm sure that most libraries would be able to direct users towards these sites if they were asked but the evidence from library websites I have looked at does not suggest that there is any special engagement by libraries with these sites. Although most libraries have sections on their websites for web links to local community groups I could not find any direct links from the four South Yorkshire libraries, or from Leeds Libraries, to their relevant community forum websites. I suggest that libraries should not just be signposting these sites but should be actively involved with them by providing information in response to queries raised on the forums. By doing this libraries would not only be promoting their services but would be demonstrating their role in community engagement.

Doncaster and CILIP

In his comment on my last post, Mark Clowes makes a point about the involvement of CILIP at the Doncaster demonstration - but this does need to be considered in more depth. The idea that "CILIP" is a powerful but remote body which should have intervened directly in the Doncaster demonstration and sorted things out for local library staff and the public is misleading. CILIP is not "them" it is "us". Professional librarians in Doncaster should be drawing on the resources and support of their professional organisation in this campaign and not just complain that "they" have not done anything.
Some questions for professional librarians in Doncaster:
1. Have you informed CILIP HQ what is happening in Doncaster? At the very least someone should have contacted the Update editorial team with a news report. Then there are members of the CILIP staff dealing with policy and advocacy who can help.

2. Have you started a dialogue with CILIP Council members? They are the governing body of CILIP rather than roving trouble-shooters available to sort out our problems, but they do want to be involved. As Judy Broady-Preston, Leader of CILIP Council said "We are YOUR representatives and rely on YOUR feedback and YOUR views as to what you think are important issues to make sure that the new Council truly represents ALL of you".

3. Have you used the resources on the CILIP website to support the campaign? I admit that they are not very well signposted but by applying your information skills you can find the CLIP statement "Local people deserve a professional service"; "CILIP Policy Statement on Libraries & Learning" and "Intellectual freedom". The Conway report is very relevant and the associated CILIP press release is another useful resource. Finally on CILIP Communities there is a useful thread on "Saving Libraries" under Advocacy.

4. Are you working with the CILIP Branch? Again, this is not a case of "Why hasn't the CILIP branch sorted out all our problems?" The Branch is a community within which you can work and which may be able to offer support.

5. Have you asked yourself what it really is that you want CILIP to do? What is the role of CILIP as a professional body? Is waving a banner at a demonstration really the best thing for CILIP to do?

So to answer Mark's question "Where were CILIP?" They should have been there in the shape of individual CILIP members taking an active role. We are not victims!

Doncaster demonstation

Alan Gibbons' continues to report on the fight for Doncater Libraries in his blog. As well as reporting on the demonstation held on Saturday he has other contributions. Helena Pielichaty has contributed an amusing Doncaster Playlet showing what happens when you rely on a supermarket to supply information. Lynne Coppendale writes a response to Mayor Winter and there is an article from the THES about school libraries from Tara Brabazon.

Any comments on this campaign would be welcome.

Can you play the saxophone? I don't know, I've never tried.

A few months ago the report Information behaviour of the researcher of the future looked at the information skills of young people - the so called Google generation. A recent report looks at these skills in an older generation. Mind the Skills Gap: Information-handling Training for Researchers was commissioned by the Research Information Network (RIN). It points out that the last decade has brought fundamental change in how researchers discover and gain access to information resources relevant to their research. Many researchers have become highly-skilled in exploiting the opportunities that new technologies and services provide but others lack the understanding and skills to make full use of the new technologies; and a widespread view – at least among library and information specialists – is that even those researchers who regard themselves as competent often show alarming deficits in their skills. Training of academic staff is therefore very important and many HE libraries are offering this, but the report points out that this is hampered by a lack of co-ordination and strategic management of information training provision, both at UK and at institutional levels. Most HEIs in practice adopt a piecemeal approach to information skills and competencies. The role that institutions expect libraries and their staff to play in research training is particularly unclear, as are the strategies and expectations about libraries’ roles in the support of research more generally. Most HEI central training teams seem to share the view that developing information skills for researchers is a matter largely of training in information seeking. A small but noteworthy group of HEIs are moving towards a more integrated approach covering not only information seeking, but other areas such as management of research information, critical appraisal of research findings, and even report writing. In terms of delivery, they involve joint planning (by central training teams, independent trainers, faculty staff, other specialists such as ICT and library staff); joint design and preparation of e-learning materials; and joint assessment of outcomes.

This raises challenges for library staff. The role of subject and liaison librarians has changed significantly in recent years, and some lack the confidence to provide intensive support to researchers. Libraries need to ensure that they have the capability and capacity to offer high quality training for researchers, including knowledge and understanding of the research process. Such moves would in many cases require “a step-change in provision and skills enhancement for library staff”, and perhaps redeployment of library staff into research settings rather than the library building. It is interesting to note that some librarians, had to point out that that “enhancing of staff skills runs counter to the recent tendency towards de-skilling of staff”.

The failure of HEIs to recognise the importance of information skills and the contribution of librarians to this is mirrored by the comments I reported in my last post about Doncaster Public Libraries “What is the point in buying new books? Tescos sell them cheaply and everything you need to know is on the Internet.” There is a level of ignorance so profound that you don't know you are ignorant. Until you learn something about the skills needed to play a saxophone then you don't know that you can't do it. Researchers may not know enough about information skills to know what they lack. Senior managers of Universities or Local Authorities may not know enough about libraries and information to realise how much there is to understand. And whose fault is this? Librarians need to sell the benefits of information and information skills and we have ourselves to blame if we fail to do this.

Doncaster Libraries

After the screening of The Hollywood Librarian I was approached by someone about the situation in Doncaster Libraries. I have been receiving quite a lot of feedback about recent developments with the reorganisation of Doncaster Libraries and deep concern that the council is proposing cuts to the library service.

Corporate Director of Customer Services ,Stuart Hall, was reported as saying “What is the point in buying new books? Tescos sell them cheaply and everything you need to know is on the Internet.”

Further information on the public campaign to save Doncaster Libraries can be found in The Star.

The latest news is that there will be a public demonstration in Doncaster on Saturday 12th July to "Save our Libraries"