Cruising for a bruising…….

Voices made it into The Observer last week. Pling!

Well, it has been quite a hectic few days.  First of all, The Guardian‘s local Leeds edition published an article (thanks to @walkyouhome‘s press release) referring back to a recent statement on Leeds’ libraries that I had been doing some work on for Voices for the Library.  This statement came about after sending in a Freedom of Information request to Leeds city council requesting library usage statistics for the past five years (including visits, issues and computer bookings).  What I was interested in was trends in usage and where exactly these libraries were situated.  Trends because I wondered if although some libraries had poor usage, were they seeing an increase (perhaps due to the economic situation).  It turns out that in many of the performance indicators mentioned above, they were seeing increased usage.  Ten libraries in particular saw growth in library visits.  Some of these libraries were also in areas of high unemployment (@ggnewed dug those out).  It was quite interesting to see, particularly as these libraries are also in an area of the country that has some of the lowest Internet connectivity in the country.  Anyway, you can read more about it on the Voices website.

Then came Catherine Bennett’s excellent article in The Guardian about the destruction of libraries and how this reflects on a civilised society.  This story was all the more fantastic for having mentioned Voices for the Library (thanks to @walkyouhome and @jo_bo_anderson).  Of course the comments below were filled with their normal garbage (“you can find anything you need on the Internet” type rubbish).  And coming on the back of the article referred to below, it was clear that there is still a battle to be waged.  Which is where my title comes in……..

One thing that seems fairly obvious to me, from all of these articles, is that librarians and library staff need to fight.  They need to fight as if their lives depend on it (certainly, in mnay cases, their jobs do).  When articles are published that challenge our line of work and its value to society, they should be challenged on it.  They should be engaged with, debated with and persuaded to see the other side of the debate.  It’s no good now to just stand on the sidelines and grumble about some ill-informed comments that are being made about a subject that we are all experts in.  And it really isn’t hard to disprove some of the myths that are out there.  A quick look at the article referred to in my previous post will show you quite how flawed these arguments are.  These are not arguments based on facts, they are based on beliefs, beliefs that are highly individualistic (in the worst possible way) and not reflective of the needs of society as a whole.  We understand these needs, they do not.  We need to remind them at every opportunity what we do, from ebooks to children’s services and from local studies to supporting the public in accessing the Internet.  We need to remind them that library usage is growing.  We need to remind them that although they have an Internet connection, 9 million people do not.  On blogs and other forums these 9 million people do not have a voice.  We should be their voice.

Of course this is not easy.  One has to develop a thick skin when facing the onslaught that comes with the territory.  But who cares about being insulted by a stranger?  We should be prepared to defend our users and our service in the face of petty name calling.  And what is the alternative?  Sitting on the sidelines watching the debate run away from us?  Watching helplessly as the ill-informed assault an institution that benefits everyone in society?  These are not options.  That is the road to ruin.  And at this point I would just like to point out that yes, I am aware that I am starting to sound like Russell Crowe in Gladiator.  Sorry about that.

For this to work however, it needs everyone in the profession to get involved and be prepared to argue and debate.  Strength in numbers can make a very real difference.  This means academic librarians, public librarians, school librarians, systems officers, shambrarians, whatever name you like to give yourself, everyone needs to stand up and challenge these outdated notions of what a library is.  For me, this is part of how we can win back the narrative.  Sure we can get our articles published and make use of as many forums as possible, we can only truly be successful, however, if we challenge the beliefs that are unfortunately so prevalent.  So my message? Get a thick skin, get arguing and, if need be, go cruising for a bruising.  You never know, you might find you are one of those strange people who get a kick out of it………What do you say?

The Media and the Public Library Narrative

So that’s that then. The narrative has been set – libraries are in decline. Never mind that the argument has been framed around a deeply flawed survey that in no way reflects actual library usage. Never mind that loans were actually up last year. Never mind the evidence that library use is changing. It’s just a blessed relief that there were so many voices out there prepared to speak up for the service and underline their importance to society. Not only the wonderful Phil Bradley and brilliantly passionate Lauren Smith, but also a range of people young and old who rely on their local library service to deliver services that meet their needs. Indeed it was a pleasure to hear many older users accepting that there is a place for computers in libraries and that the library service has to adapt. If only the narrative of ‘libraries in decline’ more accurately reflected the views of the communities that are so passionate about their service.

One of the critical factors behind this narrative is the belief that libraries are about books on shelves, nothing else. Not housebound borrowers, not information access, not online services, not local studies materials….in short only a small proportion of the service is worthy of discussion. That this has been led by campaigners who fail to even question the report, makes this even more depressing. No wonder pubs and supermarkets are suggested as alternatives…if it’s just about issuing book stock why bother with expertise in other areas? Clearly that is a waste of resources that can be ploughed into more book stock. More book stock in a commercial environment, subject to the whims and, dare I say, censorship policies stock selection of corporations. It could make a grown man weep.

The question is, what to do next. Those who follow me on Twitter know that I am quite keen on setting up a blog that can act as a rival (if you want to call it that) to the Good Library Blog – something that can share positive experiences of libraries, campaigns across the UK, examples of the things libraries do aside from book provision all the stuff that is missing from the debate as framed by the usual suspects. Ideally it would be a place where librarians, library staff, users and advocates can blog about the great things libraries do and highlight threats to the service (such as closures etc). This is a lot for one person to take on though, so I’d really appreciate ideas, suggestions, blog titles, hosting options, design ideas and volunteers to help set up and administer. Maybe I’ve not thought this through and I won’t have the time to commit as much as I’d like, but it’s got to be worth a try right? I’d really appreciate any thoughts/suggestions on this below. It would be great to take this forward and challenge the so-called ‘decline’ that is currently being propagated.

Getting Back on the Horse

Studying has been a little tricky of late (and blogging for that matter) due to a number of factors however, I am really determined now to up the pace and get back on course.  My progress wasn’t helped by my desktop packing up and deciding it had had enough.  This put a real crimp on my studies especially as I hadn’t backed up my data for a little while (a cardinal sin I know).  Although we have a laptop, this is not ideal as typing for long periods can be very uncomfortable (I have actually had to invest in some wrist supports for my newly repaired desktop as I have been feeling a little pain in my wrists – hopefully it will fade….).  However, the lack of a desktop did highlight one utility I had hitherto overlooked – cloud computing.  I will certainly look into using Google Docs a lot more often in the future (as well as instigating a cast iron back-up routine using my external hard drive), and I would certainly recommend it anyone that hasn’t used it (although I have some reservations).

Anyway, as well as increasing the pace on my studies, I will be aiming to blog a little more often than I have been recently.  Scrub that, I will be blogging more regularly.  There is certainly plenty of interestto discuss at the moment. Conservative policy towards libraries, the recent comments by James Murdoch about BBC and what his intentions mean for the information society not to mention the recent price reduction of the Sony Reader and Sony’s announcement of new models.  With all that to mull over, I should have plenty to blog about!

Is Murdoch Heralding The End of Free News?

With Rupert Murdoch’s announcement that News Corp will start charging for content on the internet, there has been much talk about what the implications are in a society that is used to accessing such content for free.  Whilst it is only News Corp at the moment who are looking at this, it will almost certainly lead to other newspaper groups considering their options.  Will others follow suite?  Or will Murdoch’s media empire be the sole crusader against free news?  As a library student, I will be hoping that it is the latter rather than the former (although I also don’t think it makes much business sense either – it won’t increase revenue as long as other groups keep content free).

One of many problems associated with this move is  the impact it will have on public libraries.  For years now, public libraries have been able to access news content on the internet from reliable sources free of charge.  Suddenly, that looks like it could be threatened by this move.  How will public libraries be able to afford to subscribe to a range of newspapers should others follow suit?  Certainly it seems unlikely that they would be able to subscribe to every national newspaper.  But cost isn’t the only concern.

Although the idea is to charge for news content, ensuring that only subscribers can access it, in practice this will be very difficult to manage.  In an era when anyone can publish information for all to see, what is to stop a subscriber from copying chunks of news content and publishing it on a blog?  Very little.  Sure, it risks breaching copyright, but as we saw with the distribution of music files it still happened.  Once these extracts are published on blogs they will be distributed far and wide making it virtually impossible to prosecute everyone involved in its distribution.  And therein lies the other problem for libraries: the temptation to rely on blogs for news content.  It would be very tempting to rely on a freely accessible blog rather than worrying about having to pay for content – quite possible leading to inaccurate information being disseminated.  Good news for bloggers who want to make a name for themselves, bad news for those who require access to accurate information. (Although that doesn’t mean that I have a problem with allsuch content.  There are some excellent blogs out there and I also see the value of resources such as Wikipedia, it just means more care needs to be taken.)

It will be interesting to see if anyone else does follow suit or whether this is a massive error by a newspaper owner who has never really got to grips with the internet.  Personally, for the sake of access to information, I hope that the majority of newspapers continue to carry freely accessible content.

Web 2.0 Technologies and the Media

As a long-time blogger, I have been a great believer in the positive impact they can have on the news narrative.  I have always believed that they can be a force for good, drawing people’s attention to the stories that the mainstream media overlooks. The growth of the blogging community could (finally) ensure that the stories that are normally ignored by the mainstream media would finally get the exposure they deserve.  They also had the potential to create stories in a new and exciting way.  In my opinion, blogs had great promise as providing a distinct news narrative from the mainstream media.  At least, that was my opinion, until the events of the past couple of weeks.

The revelations concerning the proposed establishment of a website designed to smear opposition politicians grabbed a great many of the headlines recently.  What made this story unique was that a well known blogger (Paul Staines, otherwise known as ‘Guido Fawkes’) was key to these revelations getting into the public domain.  Cue much excitement in the media about blogs coming of age and actually dictating the news agenda.  But was this such a great revelation?  Was there actually any real difference between these revelations and countless other similar such revelations in the tabloid press over the past twenty years?  Not really.  The blog at the centre of the revelations has hardly caused a revolution in terms of the style of reporting.  It has merely repeated tactics that have been used by the tabloid press for sometime.  The fact that it was on a blog rather than in the print media was the only thing particularly unique about the story. The real story over the past few weeks has been much more interesting than that.

When Ian Tomlinson died during the G20 protests, there was initially very little coverage of the incident in the mainstream press.  When it was mentioned, it was usually framed to imply that protesters had been the main cause of his subsequent death.  The central accusation that they had thrown bottles at members of the emergency services who were trying to resuscitate him. The story was sidelined by most of the media and little or no attempt was made to investigate the incident any further.  The version of events that was presented to the media was taken to be fair and accurate representation of events on that day, and there appeared no need to investigate the story further.  This was pretty much reflective of how the mainstream media have operated in recent years.  Investigative journalism is time consuming and, therefore, expensive.  In these times of increased competition, costs need to be kept low to ensure that the organisation is competitive.  Consequently, investigative journalism is a rare feature of the modern media (although obviously it still happens from time to time).  This is not a good thing for democracy as a whole.  As one professor in journalism has put it:

Investigative journalism matters because of its many contributions to democratic governance. Its role can be understood in keeping with the Fourth Estate model of the press. According to this model, the press should make government accountable by publishing information about matters of public interest even if such information reveals abuses or crimes perpetrated by those in authority. From this perspective, investigative reporting is one of the most important contributions that the press makes to democracy. It is linked to the logic of checks and balances in democratic systems. It provides a valuable mechanism for monitoring the performance of democratic institutions as they are most broadly defined to include governmental bodies, civic organizations and publicly held corporations.

The decline in investigative journalism means a decline in quality information ‘about matters of public interest’ – a concern for anybody working in the information sector.

Despite the failure of the mainstream media in investigating the incident in question, the story did still develop over the following weeks. However, this was not due to traditional investigative journalism techniques. Whereas the media had failed to fully investigate the death of Mr Tomlinson, the public and modern technology stepped in. Shortly after the initial reports had emerged, a witness had approached The Guardian with filmed footage of what appeared to be an assault on Mr Tomlinson by a police officer shortly before he died. Needless to say, this caused a media storm and suddenly questions were being asked when before a blind eye was turned. Over subsequent days, more evidence began to emerge about what really happened during the G20 protests. Photos such as this one were posted on Flickr. Video footage emerged on YouTube that also suggested that the police were less than even-handed in their dealings with protesters. Suddenly, the media agenda was being led by developments on web 2.0 technologies. Ordinary citizens armed with cameras were able to do what journalists had failed to achieve. This was radically different to anything that had happened before. This was providing a new, distinctive narrative separate from that pursued by the mainstream media. Whereas ‘Guido Fawkes’ was essentially repeating the tactics of many a red-top over the years, this was something new and different and highlighted the potential that sites such as FlickR and YouTube in disseminating information.

The funny thing is that, over the past few years, blogs and the mainstream media have become ever closer. The media mimic some aspects of blogs in order to maintain an audience (see the number of articles that now have comment threads) and blogs (such as Guido Fawkes) have mimicked typical tabloid tactics. In the near future, you will barely be able to distinguish between the high-profile blogs and the mainstream media, such will be the similarities between the two. The consequence of this (particularly in terms of decreasing funds in the mainstream press) is a distinct decline in the standard of information in the public domain. This would, in turn, lead to an ill-informed electorate without the information required to exercise their democratic rights. It could just be that web 2.0 technologies will become an even more important informational tool than was first thought.

Twitter Gets You Noticed

I only joined Twitter back in December, but I have been very impressed with the impact it has had in terms of my blog.  My blog posts are automatically sent to Twitter via TwitterFeed so that followers know when I have written a new post.  Since joining Twitter and setting up this feed, views on this blog have steadily increased way beyond the kind of figures I used to get pre-Twitter, as the following demonstrates:

Total views (the red mark indicates when I joined Twitter)

It just goes to show, if you want to get your blog noticed, get on Twitter and start feeding your blog through your account – it’ll get you noticed!

Organising RSS Feeds

For a long time I was not particularly bothered about organising RSS feeds, or even the feeds themselves for that matter.  In my ignorance I could barely see the point for them.  Not really sure why, probably just a case of not really spending much time looking into why they might be useful.  However, I have recently ‘seen the light’ and started checking RSS feeds regularly through the use of a feed reader.  And it has certainly made a difference in terms of how I read blogs.

I guess before I go any further, I ought to explain exactly what an RSS feed is.  The following definition is taken from Wikipedia:

RSS (abbreviation for Really Simple Syndication) is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format….they benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place. RSS feeds can be read using software called an “RSS reader”, “feed reader”, or “aggregator”, which can be web-based, desktop-based, mobile device or any computerized Internet-connected device.

Essentially they help keep the reader up-to-date with the latest posts from their favourite websites.  Most websites have an RSS link on them, usually indicated by a little orange button similar to the one in my sidebar.

Before I started using a feed reader, it was very much a case of browsing through all the regular blogs I read and trying to find posts that were of particular interest.  This could be a rather arduous process as there would be many blogs that I would regularly read (most of the ones on my blogroll for a start).  As my blogroll continued to grow,  so did the amount of posts I would plough through and the amount of time that I wasted.  It was at this point that I decided to look into RSS readers to see if they could help manage this process.

After looking at several readers, I decided to plump for Google Reader.  This decision was mainly based on a post by Joeyanne on weeding RSS feeds on Google Reader.  I liked the way that Google analysed trends and provided statistics on what blogs you had read in order to weed out unnecessary feeds.  This seemed particularly useful as I could then identify which blogs were actually most of interest to me and which were not.  It is easy to make assumptions on which blogs you think are most worthwhile before discovering that you hardly ever read them at all.

After finally signing up to Google to enable access to their Reader (and thus gain yet another email address!), I have to wonder what took me so long to do so.  Now, instead of hunting through loads of blogs for valuable posts (and inevitably missing posts that would be useful due to time constraints), I can simply scan through my reader and see in an instant which blog posts I am particularly interested in.  Given the lack of time I have with my studies at the moment, the ability to condense the amount of time spent scanning blogs is a real bonus!

This facility has been further enhanced by the addition of a feed reader to my iPhone.  There are a number of different feed applications available on the iPhone and, after reading a number of reviews, I decided to go for the aptly named ‘Feeds’.  The advantage of this is that it syncs directly with your Google Reader account therefore allowing you to check your feeds on the go.  This, again, saves time as I can simply scan through the feeds on my tea break at work and quickly identify posts that may be of interest.   No more having to rely on logging onto a computer and accessing Google Reader, now I can do it at the touch of a button.  And, as it does sync with your Google account, any posts that you do read are reflected in the trend statistics for your subscriptions.  Furthermore, the time it takes to sync is ridiculously quick.  It really is a matter of seconds before ‘Feeds’ updates and displays how many unread posts are on each of your subscribed feeds.

So is a feed reader worth bothering with?  Most definitely.  It has made it far easier for me to manage the blogs I read and enabled me to go straight to the blog posts that I find most interesting without having to plough through dozens of posts on dozens of websites.  I just wish I had come round to the idea earlier!

“What’s That Coming Over The Hill….”

What’s that they say about best laid plans?  Something about them not quite working out if my memory serves me right.  After just over a year of hard slog on my studies, suddenly my whole life is on the verge of changing forever and I am suddenly confronted with the notion that my studies are going to become a heck of a lot more, er, ‘problematic’.  I (well, that should really be ‘we’) have recently discovered that my wife is pregnant and is due to give birth in April next year.  Despite the impression you may have received from the opening few lines, we are both ecstatic about the future addition to our household.  We had both decided that, after a couple of years of travelling around and enjoying a lack of serious responsibility (well, if you discount the mortgage anyway), now was the time to start a family.  Whether we are ready for it yet or not is an entirely separate matter (is anyone really ready?).

Of course, working in the ‘information industry’ I have already picked up several books from work (public libraries – they really are ‘da bomb’).  It’s amazing how much information is out there, well for the female of the species anyway.  For the men……not so much.  I hunted and hunted and most of the books I found were on the blokey end of the spectrum (note to self – an opportunity to finally write that book??).  The kind where the man sees his partner’s ‘bump’ as a handy place to rest his pint.  Not for me.  Thankfully I picked up a rather interesting title that avoids all the blokey cliches, whilst also providing a definitively male perspective on proceedings.   Should you or your wife fall pregnant, I would certainly recommend it as a valuable guide.

I also picked up a valuable book that strips out all of the marketing spiel about the things you ‘must have’ for your future addition.  The Which? Guide to Baby and Toddler Essentials advises you on what you really need and identifies the unnecessary tat that parents are told they must have (usually by the people that make them funnily enough).  Although we are not intending to purchase any ‘essentials’ just yet, it will certainly assist us in the minefield that is ‘Mothercare’.

Anyway, aside from the sudden ‘oh lordy, responsibility’ reaction, I have been slowly realising the massive impact that this will have on my studies.  Gone will be the peaceful evenings reading journal articles about ‘user-interface frameworks’ and ‘folksonomies’ (although peaceful is probably stretching it a little).  In their place evenings spent cleaning bottoms and dealing with various bodily fluids.  Things are definitely going to get more difficult.

But it is not just the sudden impact on the studying, it is the social aspect of it.  The course itself has enabled me to relive my undergraduate days via the annual study school.  Ostensibly it was an opportunity to attend lectures and air any grievances with the course.  In reality it was just an excuse to experience the pubs in Aberystwyth and ‘blow the cobwebs away’.  As a result of these study days I have met a number of people that I would consider to be good friends (whether they would think so is a different matter…) who have also helped to keep me motivated at times when I thought I was out of my depth or losing my marbles (meanwhile, they were losing the will to live with my continual calls for help).  Interestingly, my two closest friends on the course are also in various stages of fatherhood.  One has recently become a father and the other is also due to become a dad shortly before I am.  There must have been something in the water at Aber.  Helpfully, the new dad has also set up a blog on his experiences during the pregnancy and fatherhood in general so I should get a good idea of the impact this happy event will have on my attempts to study.

Sadly, I will be unable to attend the study school set for April 2009 so it looks like I will no longer experience lectures whilst suffering an epic hangover.  Shame really as I think I will probably need it.  Yep, life is certainly going to change.  Although I will, of course, still find time to write a blog I’m sure.  As for the studying, I guess I’ll just have to be focused, dedicated, determined……oh bugger.

Stuck in the Dark Ages

It would appear that someone at The Independent is firmly stuck in the past.  A fellow member of staff brought my attention to an article in today’s Indie, and managed to irritate me beyond belief.  The article follows statements by Andy Burnham regarding the future of libraries.  The article is awash with dismay over the move to allow library users to eat, drink and, heaven forbid, actually talk.  Interestingly, they talk about the ‘silence rule’– a concept that is completely alien to either myself or just about any other person I have encountered who works in a public library.  There is also criticism of the fact that libraries have computers, principally because, apparently, nearly everyone has a PC with internet connection (although little comment is made about whether people can actually use this resource effectively).  There was even an odd little statement like this:

“The clientele is bound to consist mostly of “regulars”, if the library is open only two days a week between 10am and 4pm.”

I will be amazed if there were any town centre libraries that were only open between 10-4pm.  The norm, certainly in my authority, is 9-6pm and even, in some cases, 9-8pm.  And ‘two days a week’???  Where is this mythical library???  Perhaps someone at the Indie ought to visit one.

As well as the ill-informed nonsense from the ‘journalist’, there are the usual ignorant comments posted on the website.  Seriously, I am beginning to doubt whether this idea of putting comments under articles is actually a good idea.  It seems to be nothing more than an excuse to post the first thing that pops into their head.  If these people have their way, the public library would be nothing more than a physical manifestation of all that was bad about the 1950s.  Time moves on, society changes, customers needs change.  Libraries must, therefore, change.  It is essential for their survival.

Now, I am not saying that Burnham is spot-on with all he says about the future of libraries, and I am not saying that his critics have it all wrong.  However, one thing is for certain, things need to move forward.  There should not be enforced silence (we don’t and it certainly isn’t noisy, despite what the critics might assume), there should be an attempt to make the library a cool place to hang out (being able to buy a coffee and flick through the paper would be a very positive move), there should be computers with internet access (isn’t the internet the primary information source, and aren’t libraries the primary conduit for information retrieval?) and, above all, the library should be open and welcoming to everyone, regardless of who they are.  Elitism will kill the library service.  Eradicating the old-fashioned perception of libraries might just save it.