HIOW forthcoming event

The Chief Executive of the Museums and Libraries Association, Chris Batt, is giving a talk on October 11th on whether we need libraries. If you are interested in going, please use the link above for further details and to post a booking request.

For a summary about his impact with the MLA, please click for the press release about Chris Batt.

CILIP evidence to Hampshire Libraries review

The title of this post contains a link to the CILIP evidence to the review of Hampshire public libraries.

Apologies for being too quiet; this is far from the case in Hampshire libraries. I have a small collection of local media articles over past weeks which stem from the Council leader saying criticism of their restructure is unjust, to a senior member of the Library management team question the intellect of their borrowers whilst signing the protest survey. Mr Ezra also seems to creating another storm by querying whether public libraries should stock fiction, this has been covered in the Bookseller.

So for the moment I shall sign off, but there will be more to come. It's never a dull moment in library land.

Library 2.0 in Southampton

Following Karen Blakeman's presentation in Febrary, some colleagues and I have been looking at ways to use 2.0 ideas in our library in Southampton. We've also put out a call to other members of staff to join in the discussion and I'd like to open the invitation to other library people in the Southampton area. If you're in the area and would like to meet up, maybe for an after work pub discussion please post a comment or drop me an email at sarah.washford@southampton.gov.uk
Sarah

SE Branch AGM at Woking - part 2

I had a very enjoyable evening at Woking Library last week, an opportunity to talk to librarians from other sectors, have a nose around a different library and hear Ian Snowley speak about his presidential themes. This was certainly worth the train trip to Woking! Althought the focus of the evening was the speaker there was also a discussion of the imminent changes to CILIP and possible impact on branch and sub-branch membership. I think just attending the AGM demonstrated how important branches are to CILIP. I've already mentioned meeting people from other sectors and seeing other libraries but we also heard about the activities of some of the other sub-branches and I recommend having a look at some of the other sub-branch pages and thinking about what you'd like to see in our area. Ian Snowley spoke about the changes and also about his 5 Presidential Themes outlined here in his inaugration speech. Under Governance he spoke about the Framework of Qualifications review and the way in which CILIP engages with IT. Activism was about how members need to be active in their organisation, he suggested that we consider moving away from traditional meetings and offer more flexibility in how people get involved such as specific task groups and better use of IT. We also need to show our colleagues the professional benefits to be gained by being involved in CILIP. Professionalism includes promoting the value of skills and qualifications and ensuring that training does not suffer due to financial constraits in our organisations. He also mentioned that we need to recognise and promote the ACLIP qualification as a route to chartership. Advocacy is a theme of great importance locally at the moment and Ian highlighted this as a role not just for CILIP but also for local branches who can engage with their local media and offer a voice on local library issues. I think the HIOW branch are already becoming active in this area! Finally he turned to Professional Mobility and the transfer of skills between sectors. Having the opportunity to meet a variety of library staff at the AGM I wonder if this is something we could promote more at a local level as the more opportunity we have to share experiences with one another I think the less scary the idea of moving between sectors becomes. I had a very interesting and thought provoking evening, certainly not just 'another AGM'! Sarah

SE Branch AGM at Woking

Next Tuesday is the SE Branch AGM at Woking Library. In addition to meeting up with colleagues from around the South East there is also the opportunity to hear CILIP President, Ian Snowley, speak on 'Creating our Professional Future'. It's been advertised quite widely but how about some blog posts or comments about who's going and our thoughts afterwards? Or, if you can't make it, is there anything you'd like someone to raise on your behalf? Questions you would like to ask our CILIP President? I'll be there(train permitting!), anyone else??
Sarah

Oh dear, what a shame

In the last few months we have highlighted issues of professional concern by management restructure in Hampshire, but during the same period something more shameful has been noted. Two instances have been noted of people claiming to be current Chartered Librarians on lapsed membership of CILIP/Library Association. This is a serious breach of the rules and has the potential to damage our professional image by such false claims. As soon as membership of CILIP lapses, so does your entry on the Register of Chartered Members and the right to bear the post nominal letters. In both cases the post nominal letters were wrong, and a quick check with CILIP membership confirmed suspicions. I have no hesitation in reporting such people and I urge the library community to be vigilant for suspicious claims.

Does HIOW meet the expectations of our new CILIP President?

In the April edition of Update, there is a fascinating article from your new CILIP President, Ian Snowley, entitled "Encouraging member activism". Prompted by this, and Edward Dudley's column headed "activists arise" I am blogging the thought of how HIOW has made an impact on the region and do we, through the Committee and members, achieve the Presidential aim.

Mr Snowley is very much in favour of activists from the membership and HIOW is a good example with a strong Committee, supportive membership encouraged through a varied programme of events, and challenging bad journalism on librarianship in the region. Verbal and written feedback has confirmed that we are doing things for our members well and good communication is keeping the Committee fed with ideas. I have always cheekily thought of an advertising strapline for HIOW which is "local CILIP in action" and that's what sub Branches should be about. I have created an email service to promote communication in the region and given an opportunity to engage in web 2.0 with this blog

The other main comment in his article was about professionalism in it's broadest context; not status but pride in our qualifications and skills at all levels of library and information work. It is a shame that the management of Hampshire Libraries do not share this view and regardless of mounting criticism from employees and, importantly, the public, continue to demote and demoralise librarianship to new depths. From the letters to the local papers there would seem to be sufficient support to pass a motion of no confidence in the library management, if this was possible. HIOW has only been able to offer verbal support to colleagues under pressure but at least one local paper know that the Sub Branch has a strong view on their negative reporting on our profession and its skills. HIOW has been active in providing support networks for the Framework of Qualifications through informal email contact groups for Certification, Chartership, and Fellowship, which also include revalidation. We are also compiling a list of mentors in our region, something which has not been easy to identify from the CILIP web pages.

On the back of this Mr Snowley says that you should have fun in what you are doing. I am not sure as to whether my warped humour on librarianship is what is expect by our President. At the 2007 AGM we commented that Web 3.0 will follow Web 2.0, but soon after I found someone had adopted a picture from Star Trek's Jean-Luc Picard as Librarian 3.0 to deal with the emerging technologies efficiently. My favourite site is Warrior Librarian from Australia, from whom I have purchased the book and tshirts etc but a recent entry of cringeworthy note is a website with the blogga song; oh dear. Next year, I celebrate thirty years in the library profession having started in my primary school and continued in paid and voluntary positions. I love this career and all the challenges it brings, but having fun is just as vital as the qualifications and activism.

So viewers, or bloggas, comment on this blog or better still, get a Google account and contribute; this site is for you, the members of HIOW to use. HIOW works because of the members; we are a young Sub Branch but are very active and we will support the qualifications and skills through CPD and other events, therefore fulfilling the qualities required by our current President.

AGM - Web 2.0 by Kara Jones

I really enjoyed Wednesday's AGM - both sessions were really informative and I think the afternoon was a great example of why local CILIP groups are so important. For anyone who missed it or wants a reminder I thought a link to Kara Jones' powerpoint presentation would be useful. Here it is on Slideshare - Hants and IOW CILIP 05/07 and it's also a good opportunity to see what Slideshare does. Looks a little like YouTube with Powerpoint..

Sarah

Join the blog

After a very successful AGM we hope HIoW members and non-members alike join in with the blogging to share ideas, news, interesting things picked up from training events and conferences and to discuss current topics etc

Glad the muffins went down well

Spread the word.....

conference - All change - Adapt and Thrive in a digital age

Went to the London Museums Librarians and Archivists Group conference at the end of April and Brian Kelly (a colleague of Kara's) was speaking on Web 2.0 - and I certainly came away full of enthusiasm for changing the way we do things at work - now it is a question of persuasion. Another fantastic site was a co-operative partnership of UK university libraries for accessing first editions of manuscripts held by their libraries. www.britaininprint.net - the best bit is the Shakespeare online section which has scans of the first editions, a transcription and an actor reading the text- in addition there are academic essays on different aspects of the text/plays and something less highbrow for those who want to explore in a less academc way.

Excellent day - all round - and held in the British Museum's BP lecture theatre - hadn't been to the BM for years and was well impressed with the great court.

Live from the AGM

Welcome to the HIOW AGM with hands on blogging...

Kara Jones has been exploring the potential uses of Web 2.0 especially for information literacy. Given lots of ideas for my organisations website which is technosaurus.

Practical sessions covered e-books (thanks to Ian from Uni of Portsmouth) and this blog and our JISCmail area led by Nigel.

The AGM is really well attended - with quite a few new faces "AGM Freshers"

Thanks to Ian and James at the University for the facilities and muffins

Hampshire libraries

Nice to see that blog comments are arriving from viewers; alright, it may only be one, but it's a start. Sorry to be absent for a while, Easter vacation, and OFSTED inspection on the 30th April is my excuse, along with Scouts and a dose of the unfortunates. Anyway back to libraries and the Hampshire situation continues; one member of staff from Hampshire is due to change to West Sussex soon, while the protests continue. A recent one is featured in this article from the Hampshire Chronicle recently circulated amongst the HIOW Committee. At the bottom of the article is petition from John Sadden of Hampshire Libraries who has been fronting the campaign.

Internet Resources Newsletter

I have listed the HIOW blog in the April edition of the Internet Resources Newsletter following a request on a bloggers JISCmail post. There is a lot of interesting information here for librarians from it's links to a wide range of resources, software, and other blogs.

Techhie update

I have updated the settings for this blog to allow comments to be added; however these will all be subject to moderation by the administration team.

For those without a Google account, there are options under other to leave your name, or to post anonymous.

Hampshire libraries in the media

The HIOW letter to The News has been published in the edition of 22nd March in it's entirety (I have found another similar letter from a history group in Basingstoke appalled at the lost of professional staff). However, this morning, I have received a message from El Presidente who has fired off an email to a local FM radio presenter who infuriated her with a jibe at the current strike action in Hampshire public libraries. I have also created another RSS feed on MyYahoo page for news items on the strike action which seems well supported yesterday and today; I hope the strength of feeling shown causes a rethink. I note that the powers to be in the Council apologise for the disruption caused, but perhaps they should have thought of that when they proposed to downgrade professional standards and service.

Libraries in local press

A while ago the local paper for Portsmouth, The News, ran a negative article on the decline of librarianship due to increasing use of the web and the restructure of Hampshire County (I hope their strike today and tomorrow in opposition to these plans sparks a rethink). Such a wonderful piece of journalism could not be left unanswered and the collective thoughts of the HIOW Committee have now been sent to the Editor, the text of which is below.

"Dear Sir,

Your Monday investigation (12^th March) as to whether the species of librarian is becoming endangered due to the web, highlights a narrow and incorrect viewpoint of the library profession. In Hampshire and the Isle of Wight there are over 500 members of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP), in a wide spectrum of organisations. To focus your article and arguments on the public-sector issues currently alive in the County does not fully represent or do justice to the depth and breadth of skills and experience utilised by librarians in education, business, museums, health, government, and defence as well as those colleagues currently under fire and torment.

The profession of librarian is far from endangered, and is currently enjoying the challenges of electronic media; the format of information may be changing, but professionally qualified staff are still required to educate their users in information literacy. This is another role a librarian fulfils, the teaching of information literacy to those who do not understand the nature of data gained from websites and other sources. The librarian is trained to guide, inform and empower their respective community of users in the positive and negative aspects of information found on a daily basis. To use library and information sources successfully is a life skill which our non-endangered profession is able to deliver.

It is a sad fact that libraries are always a soft target for budget balancing quests by local authorities, and currently Hampshire is sharing this unfortunate burden with many other Councils in the United Kingdom. The web is no replacement for the printed word and the skills with which the library staff provides a professional community service.

Yours faithfully,

Nigel Sturt

Communications Officer

Hampshire and Isle of Wight Sub Branch (CILIP South East)"

Last trip for a while

Wednesday 21st March saw me once again on the platform of Fareham station heading out for the Berkshire College of Agriculture (BCA) @ Maidenhead. The purpose of this trip was to attend the LRC forum hosted by Andy Kirk of the JISC RSC SE, and featured presentations on evalued tool kit for electronic information services, the new build experience at BCA and other developments. One presenter was not able to attend due to technical difficulties with their search engine so sent furry goats (their logo) as an apology. Another useful feature is the round robin of learning centre updates from attending Colleges and I ended up giving a 10-15 minute presentation about my new role, and demonstration of the Virtual Library being created in Moodle. I managed to slip in a quick comment about putting into practice some of the training from the previous week's meeting of JISC RSC SE Heritage user group meeting by showing reading lists from the online catalogue placed in academic courses on the VLE.

Ho hum, staff updates finished for a while, now it's time to write reports, claim for expenses and see where I can get to next.

Wiki is now official

A recent headline from CILIP announced wiki has become the latest batch of words to be added to the Oxford English Dictionary.

In quoting from the online version of the Independent ©

Wiki is defined as: "A type of web page designed so that its content can be edited by anyone who accesses it, using a simplified mark-up language."

Pity someone recently had the thought of turning the OED into a Wiki style product according to another headline; it's not even 1st April yet. Nothing gave me more pleasure than deleting that gem.

It's never quiet in the library and information world

Reading thru headlines of bloggers jailed, bloggers freed, Google and YouTube facing copyright action big time, DVD format wars, satellite broadcasting tensions, the national and internation situation for library and information services is continually changing. Even locally, readers will know of changes taking place in many local authorities, and CILIP are aware of more across the country. The biggest issue is that facing Hampshire County with what seems to draconian measures to balance its budget against the perceived information service needs in public libraries; UNISON has now received and approved a mandate for strike action on Thursday 22nd and Friday 23rd March, with a protest awaiting Police approval in Winchester on the first day. This situation has been reported frequently in the Hampshire press, and even Dr McKee has had a letter published in the Hampshire Chronicle championing the issue of quality service needs qualified staff. However, The News in Portsmouth, 12th March 2007, led with a very negative doom laden article that the growth of the web is one of the key reasons for the start of the end of the librarian as a career option. What utter rubbish; the growth of electronic services is challenging the library profession, but qualified staff are still need teach their respective communities how to use and interpret the mass of information with which they are faced on a regular basis. The HIOW Committee met last week and added this article for discussion and a letter will be issued shortly to The News telling them what a positive and progressive career librarianship is, whether it be with books or electronic media. The final text of the letter will be posted here in library land.

New HIOW URL

CILIP's website has had a new template posted which has altered the existing URL to that given in the title link, http://www.cilip.org.uk/branches/byregion/southeast/sub/hampshire.html, so emails have been posted to advise of the change. More updates to follow as I am still trying to remember recent events and whether they are blogworthy (is this a new web 2.0 word?)

Busy

Wow, Hamphire Librarian has been really busy. We should have taken sarnies to the meeting considering his long update. What a star.

Have been too busy with new staff training and refreshing my poultice walloping skills to have called in before - that and trying to pin my boss to come down and talk to me......

The HIoW AGM is now set for 16th May and electronic info is the key with a practical session on this blog and our Jiscmail facility to help those like me who are not totally au fait with the practicialities of it all. Not surprising when you know the IT I have here is so old, creaky and working on more-or-less obsolete hard and software (NT4) that it drives me nuts. Another reason to pin down my boss cos we have to have a softly softly approach as currently the IT is supplied courtesy of the MoD and my plan is for us to deal with it in future.

So well, back to the dino-world.

Day trip to London, part the two

The CILIP web training took up the morning, and was really really useful. From Ridgemount Street I then had to move out to Twickenham for a meeting of the South East, Eastern, and London Heritage Users Group, hosted by JISC RSC SE & London. This was again a wonderful afternoon with many contributions from myself during discussions on the Heritage library software. I learnt of several useful contacts for use in Heritage developments and how to publish reading lists in Moodle. Again I met a colleague from the Oxford training on the 6th March, such is the small world of library systems. Two hours of updates and discussion on Heritage, a tour of the College library (one has to be nosey), and then it was back to Waterloo and home to Fareham, reached after 1900 hours; a long day, but one of the most productive I have had for a long long while.

Day trip to London, part the one

Staff development doesn't happen often to me, but when it does, it comes like buses, in groups. Wednesday 14th March saw me on Fareham station in time for the 0619 train to London for a meeting with the web team at CILIP, especially, Patricia McHugo, @ 0900hrs. After a quick breakfast in MacDonalds, I was ready to receive the wonderful training which lasted about 2½ hours. Patricia took me through the web editors forum on CILIP communities, demonstrated the blog space from the same service, and we went to town on the content management server used to power CILIP and the Sub Branch of HIOW. A big thank you to Patricia from myself and the Committee of HIOW for the time given; I hope we can do justice to the web facilities allowed to us. After the Committee meeting this evening, I now have a seven point action plan for my communications role, some of which relate to the website and ideas for additional pages as we expand our services under the possible banner of "HIOW - local CILIP in action" (my idea, I forgot to mention this in my report, well it was long enough). I also found out that CILIP advisors also check this blog as one saw it mentioned in the presentation from Karen Blakeman. Hampshire seems to have a reputation that proceeds them, one of action.

Day trip to Oxford

Tuesday 6th March saw me in Oxford all day at the home of Heritage Library Management software, receiving specialist training on the many areas of the management menu. My new job since January has been a systems librarian in all but name, but makes my last few years of managing and developing our library software officially part of my duties. I am currently blessed with a tame server engineer in IT who is glad of the support I give, and allows generous access to the two servers so I can tweak and play, sorry, develop our system. Very good lunch provided at the pub down the road, beats in house catering and makes things simpler for the company to manage. Training would have been better over two days as there is so much in the management module to cover, the few hours would not have suited the novice user; fortunately I have eight years experience to compensate, and I still learnt some new things, but mostly had confirmation what I had been doing was good. It was also good to meet some people I have been corresponding with on the Heritage mail service, Marvin.

Update

It's been a long time since we last met; been busy with the fact that I am currently covering two jobs at work with the usual competing pressures, etc. So while I am waiting to download my 300 plus junk mails and a handful of useful ones, plus 10MB of updates from Norton, and goodness knows what from Microsoft (hope it's not the whopping 230Mb .net update we've had fun with at work), I though I would bore you with my fast moving last few day in a few blog entries. Earlier this evening HIOW had another Committee meeting and our thoughts are with the two members from Hampshire County reapplying for their jobs in the restructure - good luck Jane and Helena and best wishes. At the meeting an article from The News, 12th March 2007, was tabled for discussion and response - more in another post shortly.

Where are the library bloggers?

This is where the library bloggers can be found - a new list on JISC mail, and with over 200 subscribers already since launch a short while ago. I am waiting to join and see what is happening; judging by the archive of mail the list is very busy comparing tips, tricks and favourite software for web 2.0 and other techno things.

Google whoops

It has been reported in the Times, Independent, Guardian, etc., on Valentines day this year, that Google has lost a copyright case brought by Belgian newspapers for publishing on the web without their consent. Google will appeal, but how many bloggers out there have set Atom feeds for news alerts? The same Belgian group is also pursuing Yahoo too. Google thinks this unfair and plans to appeal.

If you click the title of this post it should be hyperlinked to the Times.

p.s. I have added another RSS feed to the site from the useful site http://www.out-law.com/ on the subject of copyright.

New library is a real thriller

© Portsmouth Today People - Video: New library is a real thriller

With so many problems reported in the local media regarding problems at library authorities in Hampshire, Southampton and Portsmouth, it is good to report on libraries being opened, or extended, rather than closed. This report is of the major multi million pound extension to the Frewen Library of the University of Portsmouth. Frewen Library will be hosting the AGM of the Sub Branch in May so there will be an opportunity to have a look at the new work. PD James's comment that a library should be at the heart of any university echoes an old war cry from my library college days which was "no library should be an island". Libraries should be at the heart of any community and not at the front of cuts to balance budgets.

Closure Could Have Major Impact Says Libraries Boss (from Daily Echo)

© Closure Could Have Major Impact Says Libraries Boss (from Daily Echo)

Local article concerning the public library service in Southampton

swashford's first post

Hello library land!

Firstly thanks to Hampshirelibrarian for letting me join the libraryland team! I've been blogging for a little while, trying to come to grips with all this strange new "2.0" technology like RSS and wikis. For anyone starting out down the same road I can recommend the following three sites:

Phil Bradley's I want to site is a great starting place and his 3 blogs, Phil Bradley's Weblog, I want to and Frivolityare all worth putting in that RSS aggregator that you will soon be so addicted to. Phil writes the Internet Q&A column in Update every month. (Warning, Frivolity can be seriously funny and may not be suitable for reading in quiet areas where snorting with laughter is frowned upon!)

For those who missed Karen Blakeman's talk at Basingstoke Library she has posted the handouts on her Presentations page. Have a look at References and Further Resources for links to some really useful explanations and articles as well as recommendations for sites to get you started. Karen's blog is also one to add to that RSS list especially if you're interested in search engines and business information.

Finally Brian Kelly's UK Web Focus blog and his Blog Experiments page chart his discoveries and experiments on the web. Thanks to Brian I've discovered Meebo Me boxes and Sitemeter counters and been inspired by his posts on those hard to find UK Blogging Librarians.

Hope this post fits in with the idea of library land! See you again soon...

33 Reasons Librarians are Still Extremely Important - DegreeTutor.com

© 33 Reasons Librarians are Still Extremely Important - DegreeTutor.com

Found this via one of CILIP'S newsletters; plenty of thoughts from this American site, especially useful as the library profession considers advocacy, image and value added benefits from qualified staff.

Hampshire library land has been blogged

Hampshire library land has been connected by RSS thru to Karen Blakeman (hallo), and another member of the HIOW community who was at Basingstoke, Info Junkie (Sarah Washford), who will be in receipt of an invite to join this blog. With Committee approval I can open the comment function to all viewers as this blog space is restricted to invited people only for security as I am still experimenting until the next meeting before announcing it to the HIOW community. With such a wide space of geography to cover, web 2.0 technology is very good at shrinking distance into your computer monitor and getting collaborative communication between members.

Watch out the boss is here

Am still something of technosaur and some of the techno bits go over my head but I think this is an excellent move forward for HIoW.

New search engine

A new search engine was brought to my attention yesterday which is a visual meta search engine. Using the power of Adobe Flash software, it brings your searches to life using mapping techniques developed by KartOO Technologies. If you wish to revert to a linear text interface, there is an HTML option switch on the search engine's home page. It certainly should prove interesting to see students engaging with it's colour and graphics as there is a trend for flashy interactive learning objectives in education circles. Have a go and see what you think; it was certainly interesting to test our Sub Branch initials, HIOW, and see who else is using them, such as the local NHS in Hampshire.

Which Internet browser?

Internet browsers are changing and Internet Explorer has, for me, started to catch up with my new favourite of Firefox, with the release from Microsoft of version 7 (I do like my tabbed browsing, now with added RSS, delicious). However, websites have yet to be tuned to some of these new browsers and currently on different computers I am using a mix of Internet Explorer 6 or 7, and Firefox 2.0.0.1. Whilst browsing seems to be no trouble in any of those platforms, websites or virtual learning environments I edit with content management systems only to seem to work properly with Microsoft and not Firefox; very curious.

Firefox 5.7MB
Internet Explorer 14.8 MB

Technology aside though, the best Internet browser is actually the Librarian. As my sister in America found for me, there is a commercially available t-shirt which has printed the slogan

Librarian. The Original Search Engine

Experiment with a browser and see what works for you.

RSS and blog technology

Though RSS and blog stuff has been around for a while, it only seems that take up of these wonderful facilities has become more pronounced. Perhaps it may be more to do with new versions of Internet browsers, email programs and the like which can co-ordinate all information in one screen for the first time.

I have been using computers since the heady days of my O-level and the Sinclair Spectrum in 1982 and am always learning. Since taking on the Communications Officer role I am now moving into new territory. Since the email fiasco at work before Christmas, I have created a new Internet mail account with Yahoo and became the HampshireLibrarian. Yahoo Mail allows for RSS feeds to be included in the mail box environment and I have expanded this to include a MyYahoo page which features snapshots of my mail, RSS feeds, and other tools such as my share portfolio. Only this afternoon I created a new blog and will be fine tuning the layout and content as I learn this new software; creating the blog was quick and easy.

Welcome to library land for Hampshire and Isle of Wight

Inspired by Karen Blakeman's presentation on RSS blogs and wikis at Basingstoke on the 2nd February, as Communicatons Officer for the Sub Branch, I could not ignore the call to make a group for the library and information workers of our territory. With an email circulation list of over a hundred CILIP members, a blog is the next step, and hopefully there will be an RSS feed which will spread the word.

I can not imagine that this blog will be exciting initially but that responsibility will be shared with the participants of HIOW to develop along with me. So here goes and I declare this blog open.