Fleetingly street, permanently captured

Fleeting symbols of what we are...

Just recently I’ve gotten quite into taking photos of random things I see on the streets. When I say random things I mean stickers, graffiti (not tags though…they do nothing for me)…anything a bit ‘different’. I’ve even created a set on Flickr to collect all these images together. Whilst I love taking pictures of interesting buildings, there’s something fascinating about the fleeting nature of these street adornments. A building, by and large, will last for at least a couple of generations. These small contributions to our urban environment barely last a month (depending on how stringent your council is of course!). And yet, in some ways, they tell us more about the time in which we live than any building.

As a ‘wannabe librarian’, I think such street ephemera ought to be recorded and preserved. Even if some people view them as a blight on our public spaces. The fact is, they are a reflection of our society and deserve a place alongside the more ‘acceptable’ representations of the world in which we live.

What do libraries mean to you?

Last week I asked a question on both Facebook and Twitter:

What three words would you use to describe what libraries mean to you?

I had been thinking for a long time that the number of followers for both the Voices for the Library Facebook Page and Twitter account would mean that gathering their thoughts on what libraries are about might be an interesting exercise and, hopefully, draw a wide range of response.  So it turned out to be with over 50 people contributing in excess of 150 words.  The product of this process was an interesting (well, I think so anyway) word cloud:

What do libraries mean to you?

Before going any further, it may be worth pointing out something about the contributions themselves.  The question was asked, as I said, on both Facebook and Twitter.  Whereas it is fair to say that responses on Facebook would have come solely from people who have signed up to ‘like’ the Voices for the Library page (meaning they are possibly more likely to be library workers or library supporters), Twitter was an altogether different proposition.  As Twitter is ‘open’, more people were exposed to the question and consequently, this potentially led to a more varied response from a greater range of people (beyond the usual librarian/library user responses).  In short, basically this wasn’t just a collection of responses from librarians or library workers, it was far broader than that, which is why some of the responses are interesting.

Note, for example, that although several words imply a relationship with books (‘reading’ and ‘literacy’ for example), ‘books’ itself is barely noticeable (it is just under the ‘c’ of ‘community’).  Compare that with words such as ‘knowledge’, ‘community’, ‘freedom’ and ‘information’, all of which feature prominently (word clouds size the words according to the frequency with which they are used – small for rarely used words, large for commonly used words) .  So what does this tell us about how people view libraries in this admittedly limited experiment?  It seems that the most important aspects of the service are the provision of information and the access to knowledge, in all its forms.  So whilst books are important, does it not also suggest that anything that is considered ‘information’ or that imparts ‘knowledge’ should be considered central to the library service?  It would appear so.

It is also interesting to note that the ‘community’ aspect is considered vital.  For many people, community spaces have rapidly diminished.  There are few places left for groups of people to come together and create that sense of community.  Some might argue that that is no longer important as technology has plugged the gap, but I would argue that communities still need that social space.  Who knows, maybe this lack of communal space has helped to exacerbate the individualistic nature of modern society.  He says writing on his blog.

There does appear to be a paradox at play here though.  Whilst it is easier than ever to build connections with people in distance lands, connections closer to home appear more distant than ever.  Although the growth of the Internet has broadened our horizons, has it also blurred the foreground?  That said, are the recent events in the Middle East proof that this is not the case?  Do the uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya indicate that communal bonds have been strengthened to such an extent that they can tear down (or at least attempt to) repressive regimes that attempted to keep communities from uniting?

Well, this was supposed to be a post about the word cloud created from a simple question about libraries.  That little diversion was not supposed to happen.  Ah well.

The other thing I found interesting from collecting this data (and interesting in a fairly minor way), was the difference in responses from people on Facebook and Twitter.  Whereas there was limited interaction from the ‘followers’ on Facebook, there was a continuous flow from Twitter.  It rather suggested to me that Facebook users are a little more passive than Twitter users who prefer to engage and discuss rather than simply observe.  But then I guess that reflects the type of person attracted to Twitter, it is not exactly well suited to observation and passive engagement – which is perhaps why many people who try out Twitter for the first time find it hard to get into.

Anyway, getting back to the central driver behind this post (the word cloud remember?!), I’d be interested to hear what thoughts others have as to why words such as ‘community’, ‘knowledge’, ‘information’ and ‘freedom’ took precedence.  Why are these more common responses than ‘books’?  What do this mean for libraries?

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?