CILIP Big Day 2012 – Speaker four - Digital Access for All, Ann Rossiter from SCONUL

Digital Access for All strand – talk two, Ann Rossiter, Executive Director, SCONUL

Talk entitled - Reasons to be cheerful… in three parts

She started by talking about Ian Dury and a solar powered park bench in London with earphones through which you could hear various of his musical tracks.

She then talked about three exciting initiatives underway

Part 1) Digital Public Library of America – this was a project that started in the 1990s, hugely ambitious, mission to make all cultural and scientific heritage of America accessible free of charge on the internet.  Driven by public and academic libraries, open to everyone, build stage starting next year. It has six workstreams, from the printed record to sound. Content being taken from existing public domain plus mass digitisation of other works. Would provide a central gateway to all existing resources. Shows what can be done with digital access.

Part 2) Professor Ian Hargreaves report on intellectual property and copyright reform – report about stopping copyright being a barrier, quietly transformative, adopted by government. Allows for digital copyright exchange, liberation of orphan works, mining text and data, new uses for copyright.

Part 3) Dame Janet Finch’s report on Accessiblity, Sustainability, Excellence. About opening up peer review of academic journals and access to research findings, controversial report, but Research Council says it won’t fund any project not available to everyone within six months, so it’s having an impact on opening up delivery mechanisms and access.

She argued the UK needs to develop a National Digital Library for the UK, models in place which are interesting to look at such as SHEDL in Scotland in the academic library community, work happening with OCLC…  If we don’t do this then others will do it to us, in our interest to own and shape it for our own ends.

She said what everything she had talked about had in common was to illustrate a fundamental change, a transformation of power. Knowledge and information had moved from needing gatekeepers to being an open door – this changed our role to collating, providing access, guiding – we have more ownership now, all the players in the debate need to work together on how best we utilise it.

CILIP Big Day 2012 – Speaker three - Digital Access for All, SCL Projects and involvements

Digital Access for All was in two strands.

Digital Access for All – talk one, Mark Taylor, Society of Chief Librarians

Mark briefly outlined four current initiatives that SCL is involved in or has an interest in.

The SCL Digital Promise –

This is a national offer to citizens issued in January 2012, it details what expects local authorities to offer and what SCL wants to see, and impact of in terms public libraries providing digital access for all

Digital Services Survey –

This had been sent out by SCL and 65% of local authorities had responded, the Survey was seen as the baseline of tracking actual delivery and progress against the SCL Digital Promise offer. It will probably thus be an annual survey.  Results are currently in draft with further work to be done on them. Various statistics given. For example, 93% had some free internet access, 72% had WiFi, investment in hardware and software seemed to be holding up, 78% specifically trained customers, 81% provided training on digital information literacy.

Public Libraries Information Offer with ACE (Arts Council England) –

This looks at the role of the library service in the shift to digital being default provision mode of government information.  It’s about helping people to access content and navigate it and not be left behind.  There are 9 pilots to do with official national and local information in specific subject areas. The evaluation of the first phase is on the SCL website. Shows libraries support helps as a trusted delivery mechanism.  He used the Council Connect service of Brighton & Hove Libraries to illustrate how libraries can help people to access council services online, successful initiative, lot of folk helped hadn’t used online or website before.

Race Online 2012 –

Aim to get every citizen online. Driven by the costs and efficiency agenda, migrating content to digital only, need to engage people and help them improve their digital skills to access and use. SCL a partner in Race Online, undertook to help 500k people online, actually helped 2.5 million.  Participating in Race Online meant that everyone started counting things that happened before but didn’t transfer into statistics, libraries were a trusted resource that people knew and were local to them.  He gave various case studies of individuals that had been helped and it had improved their lives.

CILIP Big Day 2012 – Speaker two – Leading in the Big Society

Penny Wilkinson, CEO Northern Rock Foundation

Penny noted she used to work for MLA NE until her present job and her career had been in the cultural sector.

She started discussing the Big Society. She noted no one seems precisely agreed or sure what it means. This was illustrated by giving two quotes. The  first one from the Cabinet Office website which said it was about helping people to come together to improve their own lives and empowering localism at decision-making level. The second one from the Archbishop of Canterbury which said it was aspirational waffle and abdicating responsibility. However what everyone does agree on is that it is bringing about huge changes.

She then went on to give some background to the North East as a locality and also to its cultural sector.  The NE was in need of a modern economy, there had been a lot of changes in the region with the decline of traditional industries and modernisation programmes, but not everyone had benefited from them. There was lots of statistics to back this up e.g. unemployment is almost at 11%, 24% of children and young people are classified as living in poverty.

The Northern Rock Foundation had been set up in 1997, it funded projects for the disadvantaged, the vulnerable, victims. It will give out nine million this year. Penny talked us through types of projects e.g. credit unions, and other work of the Foundation e.g. providing grants, training support, agenda influencing.

She talked about her own career and how it had started very differently but assisted her to get her present role. Her cultural sector career skills had been transferred to charity sector.  She noted she’d been a Saturday shelver in her own local public library back in the 70s, but had become a museum curator by profession, gradually moved into jobs that involved front end service delivery and overall management. In order  to get a strategic role with a bigger impact she had moved to a strategy role in what became NEMLAC and then became MLA NE responsible not only for museums, but also libraries and archives regionally. Whole new areas to her.  Having to learn new areas was very good preparation for later changing sectors and proving she could do that successfully.  She also noted that MLA NE had illustrated that a lot of issues, concerns, agendas were shared ones, things like inclusion and engagement. So it was useful in the cultural sector to work together on common concerns and focus on them and what could be achieved together, rather than focus on differences between jobs.

When NLA NE was closed down she was made redundant. The Foundation role came up, she wasn’t a grantmaker and she didn’t know the voluntary sector. However she could prove she had worked at regional strategic level, knew the NE, the key people and organsations, and had led her own organisation through difficult times. She knew how to work across sectors, she knew she could learn another sector because she’d done it before.

She noted that learning a new sector took time, there was a huge and varied charity sector in the NE, obvious players and not so obvious ones. The voluntary sector was going through a lot of changes, professional management and governance was needed, a lot of focus was going on attempts to accurately measure intangibles from well-being to self-esteem as success indicators. There has been huge changes in policy.

She noted that a charity can be doing all the right things but still have far less income in the current environment.  The pressure is to be more and more efficient when the people delivering are already very tired.

She asked how that can be managed. She suggested clarity of purpose and focus on outcomes and the bigger picture. She discussed the need to be flexible, to find new ways of achieving things, to talk to others, take and manage risks, be positive about the organisation. 

Just doing the above in itself is not enough however. The current environment is the new normal, funding will not switch back on.

Therefore partnership working is required within and outwith sectors.  This already happens, but it needs to go to a whole new level. She talked about the usefulness of participating in mixed sector action learning sets, collaboration to find commonalities and deliver shared outcomes. There is a need for leadership that is collaborative and facilitative, not just charismatic solos, though there are still a lot of those about in the charity sector.  Skills were also needed in tenacity, conflict management, patience, fostering relationships.  Silo thinking and silo working was a key problem, had to work with other organisations.

She noted in her career she had changed jobs, regions, sectors, roles, but what was important to her was to have the impact that made a difference.

In her own current organisation it was five years on since the initial financial crisis in Northern Rock (their funder), in the aftermath the staff had been reduced by half, projects cancelled. Her job when she came in had been to steady the organisation and build trust within it, to then make changes, move forward, look to outcomes, be positive.

She saw her own professional journey and experience as a window in to the Big Society, it is actually everyone, we all need to think what difference we might make that we would be proud of.

CILIP Big Day 2012 – Speaker one – Welcome and Introductions

Ged Bell, Deputy Cabinet Minister for Culture & Leisure, Newcastle City Council

Ged noted he was a local resident himself, the importance of culture, his pride in the contribution of the Newcastle public library service to the North East and beyond.

He reeled off a series of very impressive statistics for the service overall and for the Newcastle City Library in alone, including that there were 18 public libraries which had over 2.3 million visitors in 2011/12. He noted that Newcastle City Library delivered a first class professional service to Newcastle and beyond.

He said he wanted to prompt and promote debate so he was going to talk about the volunteers issue and debate. He stated the need was to protect quality front end service delivery in a climate of having a lot less money than previously to do so. In the next three years 90 million in cuts would hit. Newcastle had avoided crisis and maintained a flourishing library service. But no job substitution campaign were not helpful. He saw it as being a lot more complicated than that, a service consisting of staff and volunteers working together in service delivery.

He gave us personal examples as to why he believed in volunteering. He noted he was a full-time professional firefighter also a councilor and worked with firefighters of all kinds of employment status including volunteers. He had no problems working alongside, he trusted in the professionalism of all.

He noted the contribution of delivering the Olympics of volunteers and how successful and appreciated that had been giving personal benefits to the volunteers also.

Therefore he thought volunteering needs discussed and looked at.

He thought the idea of a volunteer being job replacement was a very purist position, yes a volunteer takes a job, but what it’s about is a professional service delivery where volunteers are supported and they get benefits out of it as well.

Contrary to the media portrayal he said local authorities are not happy to see library services run down. However we shouldn’t expect to see community libraries becoming a norm. Community libraries take time, lots of expertise and capacity, need a building etc. They are possible in some communities, but are no quick fix replacement. Newcastle is supportive of libraries, but it needs to follow a co-production model to protect key public services, staff and volunteers working together.

The Sisyphean Task or Editing Well-Respected Standard Works of Wide Scope

Last week I went to an interesting talk by Hector MacQueen, organised by W. Green, on the Sisyphean task of editing the new edition of Gloag & Henderson’s Introduction to the Law of Scotland. 

This is one of the long-standing standard texts of Scots law covering a whole multitude of different subjects, well-thumbed by practitioners, and a respected text oft-cited in legal argument.

Change and Tradition

The 13^th edition later this year will mark a departure on earlier editions being available both in hardcopy and electronically as an add-on to Westlaw.

Gloag & Henderson was originally intended as a book for students back in 1927 when it was first published with two authors teaching law at different universities. 2012 will see the 13^th edition published and it now has fifteen separate authors involved in the work with responsibility for different aspects e.g. specific subject chapter. The book covers private and commercial law topics, the original coverage of criminal law in addition having been discontinued some editions back. Nevertheless, it remains a very large task that must be continually repeated to prepare each new edition and up-date all subjects and their treatment as well as to cater for new concerns such as easy-to-use electronic versions.

The Editorial Need

Because of the number of authors there is need for editing to deal with inconsistencies, omissions, replication etc across the work that would not be obvious to individual authors and to pull the work together as a cohesive whole.

Editorial Decision-Making

There is usually around 5 years between editions being published. This means that it will bring the reader up-to-date with what they need to know for any specific subject covered to a certain point in time. The reader then only has to check the intervening period for any substantial changes. The work will usually attempt to state the law as it currently is at publication. However sometimes for major in-coming legislation which will take effect very quickly after publication it may choose to treat it as though the legislation is already in force and state this (e.g. as it did with the 2006 Companies Act in the previous edition). The work will also point out places where the law is in flux with developments expected to clarify and talk about what they may be, and point out when there are opposing lines of development on certain issues and what kinds of resolution may come to be.

There was discussion of Gloag & Henderson and as ‘sacred text’ and the best method of up-dating and choices that needed made re. Parts of the text can be rewritten completely between editions if necessary. In that light MacQueen has authored and reworked  contract section due to important changes in Land Registration (Scotland)  Act 2012 re electronic documents and issues surrounding these that make changes to the Requirements of Writing Act (Scotland) 1995 and due to developments re the Hoffman approach to contract interpretation).  Generally the text will reflect developments and debates that are current. The current policy on up-dating is to include new cases from appellate level only, to note where cases mentioned could be subject to appeal, to mention where there is law reform proposals for the near future, to assume that new cases will cover all substantive previous ones within their discussion and therefore all cases don’t need listed, and to check legislation referred to to ensure it is still current.

Coherent Structure

It was noted Gloag & Henderson were not originally much bothered themselves about the structure of the work. However there is an attempt to ensure coherence in which main types of subjects are introduced and dealt with e.g. Legal System, then Obligations, then Property.

Purpose of the Work

The goal is a work that is up-to-date to on publication and will remain helpful for a reasonable period thereafter until the next edition is required.

Thoughts

It’s always interesting going to book launches or talks on texts and getting a different perspective on them. The final text that arrives is the version with all the decisions taken and the ends tidied up.  A discussion of the process though is illuminating on what might have been, why x approach is taken over y, what changes have been made, how and why the whole thing was undertaken in the first place and how many moons ago! A Preface is more likely to discuss what did happen, not what didn’t or might have. A talk that ranges across the history of a work and different approaches to it over time and why is more interesting however. Editorial decisions shape works in ways that may not be stated anywhere in the text, so it’s always good to have an insight into what is to be expected and why.

Placement Students and the Holy Grail

This morning I’m thinking about Placement Students for some reason. All the varieties and types and diversity (and occasionally vagaries!), of it.

Level

I tend to deal with three types of placement student in the main – those on secondary school placements, law students as part of organised e.g. summer student programmes, librarianship students that I take annually from a local university. 

Add to that there can also be more ad hoc one-off arrangements that come about more through personal networks than institutions e.g. taking a student as a favour to a colleague elsewhere.

So folk come from quite different routes for very different purposes.

Experience

Some folk will have no or little knowledge of a law firm environment or what it does. Others will have a lot (perhaps they worked somewhere similar before in another role, perhaps it’s related to their degree course). Reasons folk end up in a law firm on work experience can differ vastly. Often the link is the an interest or knowledge of the subject-matter, but just as often, especially at lower level, the link is there is someone within the firm they know and could ask, or it might be a quasi-automatic part of a tie-up programme with a specific institution.

Duration

Students may come into a firm for anything from as little as a day, to a concentrated period of 4 – 6 weeks. It could be a week. It could be a semi-regular occurrence over a longer period of time. Again, it differs a lot.  Law students are most likely to be around during academic holidays, a secondary school placement will tend to be a week.

Course / Programme Requirements

There may or may not be a whole list of requirements for the types of experience the student is expected to get over their placement and how this will be regulated or, perhaps, assessed. Generally speaking there is often a wish that they gain a varied experience across different parts of the firm, and there will need to be someone in overall charge of them, and they will need to be supervised. As usual, it kind of depends what they’re going to be doing and for how long how much will need put in place. 

There may be a feedback element on performance at the end, and there may be certain things they’re required to do during placement if it’s a fairly long one e.g. a project to be completed which will be assessed as part of their course requirements.

Placement Provider Requirements

From the viewpoint of the placement provider there will be various issues re induction and supervision and putting together a programme for the student (if they’re moving between departments for instance). There will be various compliance, or perhaps confidentiality, aspects too depending what they’re going to be doing. But in a way the main thing is that the placement provider both wants to help because they see it as in the sector’s overall interest (and may see it as an opportunity to try out potential new employees as well), but they also need to ensure that all normal work still gets done. The longer a student is in situ in one place the more useful they become as their knowledge of subjects and processes increases, they become useful help.  Whereas right at the start the amount of time explaining things and settling folk in can inhibit workrate and result in a sensation of feeling somewhat hoarse. But a good placement student over a fair chunk of time means with the added assistance you got things done that you want done but otherwise know you simply don’t have the capacity to achieve. This is the Holy Grail!

Library Requirements

Generally speaking it’s always nice to have someone who is interested.  Knowledge can be learned, just takes a while, but interest is what makes someone want to be there and what makes you want to encourage them.  If you have someone who is obviously bored out of their wits then it can be a long placement for everyone concerned. If students have previous knowledge then that’s great, there will be less talking yourself hoarse on basic contexts the first couple of days for instance, but it’s not at all essential.

Tasks

As usual, depends how long you have someone for, what their level of knowledge is in what subject.  If it’s three hours then basically all you can do is try and find something that will catch their attention and interest them (take them with you somewhere interesting externally they wouldn’t get to normally court or library wise if you can spare the time or need to go anyway, or give them something to read that will amuse or interest them if you can’t), there is no point in much else. If it’s a long period there is often a wish to get them doing quite discrete specific things that they can do by themselves from start to finish in the time.  Usually there are things that would be useful but are never important or urgent enough that they’re going to get staff time to do it. To those will get added helping catching up on any existing backlogs and doing day-to-day stuff.

Gaining a wider appreciation

Around activities can be explained all the what, why, how that underlies the activities themselves. It’s also nice to get students out and about occasionally seeing how other places do and approach things and talking through wider issues regarding the sector and what the current issues are.

Job Hunting

With library placement students who are in situ for a while one of the benefits of placements is, of course, the ability to get sectoral work experience (if they don’t already have any, many will, but of different types). They’re also a source of reference/s, can be access to a wide network of new contacts within a specific sector, and to details of jobs that come up.  So another measure of a successful placement in a way is whether within a few months the student has a full-time job, whether within law or the wider sector. That’s always something to smile about!

Wider Profession

I have ex Placement Students in all kinds of different jobs and places these days. Within the profession it encompasses law, commercial, academic, health, public libraries... 

Some I bump into occasionally in shops or the street or will hear about through others. Others I’ve stayed in contact with ever since or mentored for Chartership subsequently.

What Goes Right and What Goes Wrong

As I say, at best you achieve things you know you simply couldn’t get done otherwise. Someone who is interested and enthusiastic who’s probably going to remain in the profession. Which is wonderful.

At worst you have someone who simply doesn’t want to be there because they’ve figured out it’s really not for them, they haven’t got the interest for it, will never do anything similar again. Which is still a really valuable thing to learn, but if it’s Week One there could be a long way to go.

What Helps

Initial Meeting. I try and get my librarianship placement students to come in and see me before their placement officially starts. So they get a look at me, and me them, we can discuss sorts of things they’ll be doing, figure out what needs worked round schedule-wise (e.g. other work commitments, childcare commitments, exam dates, holiday dates), so they see the office and are not going to be walking in totally cold to a new environment at 9am on a Monday morning.

Split time between offices and supervisors. Because we have two offices fairly close to each other I also try and split Placement Students time-wise between offices in recent years. Means we’re not on top of each other all the time, they also get part of the week in the other office with my Assistant Librarian. 

Slightly flexible schedule. This just caters for the facts of life. Some days could just be too full for Placement Student into mix to be boon rather than yet more things to juggle. Some days require you to be somewhere else all day so not around in the office. Things can just ‘come up’ that need dealt with. So initial schedules are set re what office when and then get communally finessed a bit in practice around what is convenient and practical.

Musings on selective memory…

I was watching a lot of tennis at the weekend.

General applicability of advice re what works in tennis?

One of the things one of the commentators said interested me about selective memory.

He was basically saying selective memory could be very useful for sportspeople as a way to focus on the good things they’d done rather than the bad times.

Listening idly to various commentators doing pre-match scrutiny there was also a lot about the need to focus on ‘now’ point by point, think process not outcomes or consequences, stay relaxed and zone out inessentials etc. etc.

Listening to all of this it occurred to me bits of it would appear in many management training contexts. It also got me wondering more generally about how memory impacts on us and if selective memory would actually help people achieve things more generally though.

Types of memory

For instance. I have a fairly bad memory for some things. It rarely pinpoint what was 2002 as opposed to 2003 for example. It forgets  the details of holidays and outings.  Actually, it’s almost capable of forgetting entire holidays depending how far back. I know people who have just about total recall and can pinpoint anything in time very exactly. This is somewhere between an amazing magic trick and rather irritating - because it’s not me alas.

I also know people who have what I would call ‘zoned’ memories of different depth and capacity.  They’re incredibly good at retaining anything relating to subjects that actually interest them, but a lot fuzzier on other things that they pay less concentration on. That information often goes in one ear and come out the other. Because it doesn't interest them, they see no need for it.

I also know folk whose memories are very much in the 'now' and recent past.  Folk who don't much tend to spend time rethinking  or remembering the more distant past. They just prefer to get on with now and look ahead.

So what would a selective memory be? It sounds kind of attractive.  Bit like a sieve you can control and tweak? Keep the good, park and semi-forget the bad.

Purpose of memory

The good memories that stand out probably propel us on faster and further on a chosen direction. Which is excellent if what you require is focus and belief and drive.

The bad that stand out though are probably the ones we learn, adapt, and change from more. They might keep us back in some ways, but they’re also the ones if we forgot why we’d discovered that ‘x’ wasn’t such  a good idea we’d probably just repeat time and again.

The good, bad, and indifferent, hopefully balance each other out.

So on the whole I'm content with the memory I’ve got.

I suspect overall that memories that stand out from the general background, for good or ill, are useful, even if sometimes they help to keep us back and at other times to propel us forward. ‘Selective memory’ sounds more attractive than it’d be in practice methinks (though in tennis practice perhaps it indeed works superbly!).