John Vincent & Anne Harding
Our first library programming was at CILIP (the UK version of the American Library Association, or ALA) with John Vincent and Anne Harding. I must say I was extremely excited to meet and listen to John Vincent, having read a few articles he’d written; and I was not disappointed with his talk. He was incredibly engaging, and brought to light some points that we perhaps don’t think about as much as we should as librarians.
The discussion we had about the different types of “new arrivals” within the UK was very informative. It was interesting to se how the UK talks about and defines new peoples in their country. One of the largest differences between the US and the UK seems to be the amount of migrants that are moving into the UK because of the European Union. John Vincent talked about how this is the largest group of migrants, with a large portion recently coming from Poland, Lithuania and Slovakia. They come to the UK expecting to get better jobs and living area. There are also refugees, asylum-seekers, unaccompanied asylum-seeker children, family reunion, overseas students and “irregular migrants (illegal aliens).” These “new arrivals” have needs very different to that of the community they join. This makes it a challenge sometimes for libraries, as they need to continually make sure they know whom their patrons are, and what they need. For communities who have many new arrivals coming in, the library will not only need to make sure that they have items in their patrons’ languages, but they also need to have information to help them be able to move around in society and become informed citizens.
Anne Harding’s portion of the talk was also very impressive. I enjoyed the teenagers’ responses and explanations of their reasons for using and participating in library programming. The teenagers are involved in decisions the library makes in the young adult department, which gives them a sense of pride in their library and the feeling that it is their own library. This seems to be one of the best ways to engage youth, as they appreciate being treated like adults and having a say in how their programming should be run. This seems to be a new trend in young adult departments, and it was good to see that the UK has some similar ideas for youth and some interesting new ones.
(St. Paul's Cathedral, London UK)
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Barking Learning Center & the Idea Store
During the daylong conference at the Barking Learning Center Conference, there were many differences and similarities brought to light between libraries in the United States and those in the United Kingdom and other areas. Some of the main differences seemed to be the extent which libraries within the UK collaborated with governmental and other groups versus the independent nature of libraries in the US, that anyone can be a librarian as the UK does not have accreditation standards like the US does, and how extremely different the way funding of libraries is in the UK.
The Barking Learning Center houses not only the library, but also some of the governmental offices. This creates a flow of patrons that are not necessarily coming there for library purposes, but may end up frequenting and using the library because of other reasons. This is an intriguing concept as they said their library definitely sees more patrons than they would without having other offices in the library.
During one of the breakaway session, I learned more about how librarians in the UK more often then not, don’t have a masters in library and information science. This is because CILIP doesn’t have an accreditation process like that of ALA. In fact, some of the librarians in our group had degrees or great experience marketing and retail. The library found this to be a boon for them as these employees not only brought new ideas, but also different skill sets that have been able to help the library change to be more what their communities want. This is a novel concept for the US, where librarians have to have a MLIS in order to hold a librarian position. I can see where the UK way can bring some improvements to he table, however, we also discussed how most librarians no longer have a masters degree, which could later be a detriment to libraries. I could see how perhaps a creating a percentage of positions in a library available to those without MLIS could bring in some new ideas and yet continue to provide the level of service that patrons expect to find within the library.
The Idea Store was really interesting, and I was very excited to go see it! It was an interesting conglomeration of a bookstore and library in one. It was also centrally located next to a large grocery store, banks, and other shops. This seems to be what communities want nowadays as they perceive better value in a “one-stop-shop” scenario. It think the idea store is heading in the right direction, however, I felt their call number system was strange, as they seemed to use only the first three letters of author name for everything within a modified BISAC type of system. I’m not sure how well it would work for a larger library with greater numbers of materials. However, a modified system of BISAC with a call number system within may work better. I also had a hard time understanding why they continued to have their young adult materials with their children’s. This seems to be a large faux pas within libraries, as young adults would rather be associated with adults rather than children. I think there is a lot of potential for libraries in this format in the future though!
(Jackson Pollock at the Tate Modern Museum, London UK)
(Oxford, UK)
(Hebrew & Greek and Geometry & Arithmetic Library, Oxford, UK)
(Elvis was on the tube!)
(Card catalogue at the Edinburgh Library, Scotland UK)
(Cyberman welcoming you into the Edinburgh Library, Scotland UK)
The York Minster Library was incredible! It was really interesting to see the display for the King James Bible, and to be able to touch and look at the copy they had out for everyone to look through, a 400 year old Bible. The architecture, even though it didn’t date back as far as the beginnings of the library, was beautiful and still held history within it. However, the most exciting part of the tour was by far being able to see the incunabula that the York Minster had collected over the years. The Nuremburg Chronicle by Hartmann Schedel was amazing to look at, with the impressive details done during the printing process. They also had some interesting Victorian era printed hymns and bible passages. They were two books, with a combined back binding, making them open on opposite sides with their binding being in an S shape. I had never seen anything like that, and it was interesting that these were probably used to show wealth and prestige. The York Minster Library was also open to the public for research, which I thought was pretty amazing for a library of items with such rarity, as well as being open to York University students. This library is an amazing resource, and has a wonderful history. Our guide of the library was very knowledgeable and friendly, an awesome representative of librarianship. He was enthusiastic and fun, and brought a lot of knowledge and fun to books, learning and libraries. I wish that we could have had more time to see some of the other items they had in their collection, or perhaps look at their regular collection that was on the main floor to see what else they had available for their patrons.
(Old books at the York Minster Library, York UK)
(Back room where the incunabula are kept and staircase to the upper stacks, York Minster Library UK)
(Upper stacks in the York Minster Library UK)
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Oxford & the Bodleian Library
Oxford was amazing, but I would NEVER go there again on a Saturday during the height of the holiday season! It was completely crowded, and really hard to get a feeling of what Oxford would be like normally. However, it was beautiful, and you could feel the history in the air. The Divinity School was very interesting, and had a wonderful presence (also, part of Harry Potter was filmed here, and you can never go wrong with that! J)
I was a little unimpressed with the Bodleian Library since we only had a half an hour tour, and it was only Duke Humfrey, the younger brother of King Henry V, priceless collection of more than 281 manuscripts, including several important classical texts. I was really hoping that we would get a little more information and tour of the library. This is not to say that it wasn’t beautiful and interesting, but it was just less than I think I had expected. It was really exciting to see the old-fashioned style of bookshelves, with the chains and the desks built in front of the shelves for reading purposes. I had never seen shelves like that except in photographs. I will say the sheer number of antique books and other items was impressive as well. One of the interesting parts of the Bodleian Library was also the ceiling, and how the carvings on the ceiling were made at two different times, and the older ones were of much better quality than the newer ones.
The tour guide for the Bodleian Library was VERY knowledgeable, and she brought the library to life, which was one of the best parts of the tour, as we didn’t even get to see any specific materials within the library. She was enthusiastic, and tried to answer all of our questions as best as she possibly could. If we had been in Oxford longer, I would have tried to see more of the library, and tried to find someone else with knowledge of the library and school in general.
(Info on Harry Potter filming at the Divinity School and more! Oxford UK)
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Leeds and Studio 12
I have to say, I think that the Leeds Public Library and Studio 12 was one of my favorite libraries we’ve visited in the UK. Not only does it have a large presence with Studio 12 working to help young community members gain skills in the arts to further their employability, but they also have incredible programming working with the general population to aid in job searches, support small businesses, and aid community members who have autism and other memory problems.
I was seriously impressed with the libraries outreach and collaboration with other professionals, especially in the case of “Across the Board: Boardmaker in Leeds Library and Information Service.” I have never heard of a library that has purchased the Boardmaker software and taught their patrons how to use it to help enable their children with autism or asperger’s, and later for patrons with memory problems. It was incredible to hear about the many people they were able to serve with this technology and that the library was able to partner with counselors and other trained professionals and bring them to the library once a month for in depth help for their patrons!
Studio 12 was also a really interesting library achievement. It is the only library or city in England that provides open access to media facilities yearlong. The entire facility is funded by grants, fundraising and commercial funds; none of it comes from the library budget. Studio 12 is available for sixteen to thirty year old patrons, including at-risk youth and PhD graduates. The main goal of the studio is to provide the necessary media skills for employment or continuing on in schooling to their patrons. This is a place where a portfolio may be created, working on filming something for a business in the community, or gaining credits towards their level two or three for schooling. The projects they showed us that the community and Studio 12 had produced were varied and incredibly interesting, including, DVD’s of life as a traveler; a book of the Studio 12 users and their interests; recordings of theatre productions that were given in town, along with many more items.
I think the way the Leeds library has integrated itself into their community is something that the US needs to start doing more of. We need to start weaving ourselves into the entire community in order to make sure the library is seen as a necessary function of the community. This will not only benefit our patrons, but also benefit the libraries and their funding.
(I love the fact that someone randomly had this "Save Our Libraries" sign in their window)
______________________________________________________________________Edinburgh Public Library
The Edinburgh Public Library was one of the most interesting for me because it seemed very normal from the outside, but the things that the library has been doing and how they integrated themselves into their community was astounding to me. The Edinburgh library not only seems to be and integral part of their community, but is also thriving in a time when there are massive budget cuts for libraries throughout the UK. They have two webpages full of information for their patrons on what is going on in the library, access to their catalogue, and how to use all of their newly acquired electronic materials. The Edinburgh library seems to be an interesting mix of antiquity and modernity with old bookshelves, and a historic building, but recently with a computer center, and self-checkout machines.
Something they also brought up that I had never thought about before is that fact that their supplier of audio books and e-books, Overdrive, does not have many books with British accents, or in the British English instead of American English. Their patrons do not want to listen to books spoken with an American accent.
The library also uses social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter to reach out to their patrons, as well as a newsletter.
The reasons they stated as to why their libraries are thriving is because Edinburgh has a large population of highly educated people who value the library for research and fun. They are willing to put effort and money into their libraries in order to make sure they are around for them and their children.
It was really interesting to be in Edinburgh during the Fringe Festival as well. The sheer amount of music, theatre and arts was astounding and quite impressive! There was even a theatre production of all of Greek mythology in an hour! It was really fun to be there during this time and to experience all that was going on then.
(Stacks at the Edinburgh Library as well as the new checkout machines, Scotland UK)
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The York Minster Library
The York Minster Library was incredible! It was really interesting to see the display for the King James Bible, and to be able to touch and look at the copy they had out for everyone to look through, a 400 year old Bible. The architecture, even though it didn’t date back as far as the beginnings of the library, was beautiful and still held history within it. However, the most exciting part of the tour was by far being able to see the incunabula that the York Minster had collected over the years. The Nuremburg Chronicle by Hartmann Schedel was amazing to look at, with the impressive details done during the printing process. They also had some interesting Victorian era printed hymns and bible passages. They were two books, with a combined back binding, making them open on opposite sides with their binding being in an S shape. I had never seen anything like that, and it was interesting that these were probably used to show wealth and prestige. The York Minster Library was also open to the public for research, which I thought was pretty amazing for a library of items with such rarity, as well as being open to York University students. This library is an amazing resource, and has a wonderful history. Our guide of the library was very knowledgeable and friendly, an awesome representative of librarianship. He was enthusiastic and fun, and brought a lot of knowledge and fun to books, learning and libraries. I wish that we could have had more time to see some of the other items they had in their collection, or perhaps look at their regular collection that was on the main floor to see what else they had available for their patrons.
