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Tim Coates has written a post suggesting that the distinction between professional and non-professional librarians should be abandoned, something I am whole-heartedly in favour of. He argues this from a public-library standpoint and with two main observations:
- That the librarians the public see are often not the professional ones although they are the ones the public, superficially at least, judge the profession on.
- In a situation where budgets are to be cut, to be a professional makes one more likely to be targetted by councillors, who also don’t understand the distinction between professional and non-professional, aiming to get rid of staff.
I’m not too au fait with the public library situation. However, the following paragraphs I think are valid anyway to librarianship as a whole:
I think it would remove an obstacle that prevents modernising the library service if the “profession” would stop making this distinction in every possible sense. Library services should stop referring to jobs which ones which only a “librarian” can do. There should be no more demarcation.
This doesn’t mean a lack of respect for the qualification or experience that trained librarians have; on the contrary. It means that experience can be as usefully obtained in doing the work and can be as valuable to the public when it is. It means that jobs and tasks should be given to the person most able to carry them out, and not on the basis of a paper qualfication.
(My emphasis). I made a similar point, though from a different angle, in a comment on the CILIP president-elect’s weblog:
A library qualification is a sine qua non for many jobs whereas chartership is not (at least in the academic sector where I work). As someone who has sat on interview panels, I would also value a candidate’s proven skills rather than whether they are chartered or not. For similar reasons I only value qualifications as far as they confer the relevant skills on an individual. For instance, neither qualification nor chartership can say whether a librarian can catalogue or not; we have to test candidates at interview for this.
I’ve seen a number of librarians arbitrarily and needlessly halted or delayed in their careers by the need to acquire the necessary bit of paper. On the other hand, I’ve seen enough to know that the bit of paper is by no means a guarantee of any skills or aptitude. The distinction between professional and non-professional (as opposed to qualified and non-qualified) also goes some way to create a degree of elitism within those who work in libraries: “proper” and “non-proper” librarians. They are all librarians in my opinion.
CILIP, the organisation that brought you £20 Amazon vouchers for members who recruit new members, and an exclusive car buying service with Nexus Cars now says:
Renew your CILIP membership by 14 February and you could win 1 of 10 free memberships for 2008.
I understand this kind of marketing approach for baked beans or magazines but it doesn’t quite seem right for membership of professional bodies. I can’t wait to see what they come up with next.
The CILIP RSS feed threw up a training session from UKeiG which, untypically for the CILIP RSS feed, amused me. It said:
Don’t know your RSS from your elbow? Haven’t a clue where to hang the blogroll?
That’s the stuff. It was however sad to see one of their reasons compelling people to come as:
Awareness of them [RSS, blogs, and wikis] amongst users will increase as Microsoft incorporates RSS and blogging into Office 2007, Outlook and IE 7 so don’t get left behind.
Do we all have to wait for Microsoft to integrate everything before we jump in? Isn’t half the point of all this that the platform shouldn’t matter?. Never mind.
Exciting news from CILIP:
An exclusive car buying service has been secured from Nexus Cars as the latest addition to Special Deals for CILIP Members, the package of affinity benefits that provide extra value for CILIP membership.
Nexus Cars can deliver the lowest cost cars for CILIP members via a free service. Prices delivered are guaranteed to be the lowest – with the backing of a 110% price guarantee. Full details are available on a special website set up for CILIP members at www.nexuscars.co.uk/cilip.
Sign me up then.
Following a continued attack by Tim Coates on the management and policies surrounding public libraries in the UK , Chris Armstrong criticises CILIP for failing to wade in. He makes a few points:
- That
CILIP should respond in a reasoned and robust way to the charges made. The response should be published widely and be highly visible. (my emphasis)
- That
CILIP – which rightly makes much of its advocacy role – should advise the Minister, the MLA, and government in general on an appropriate policy to rescue public libraries.
This is the reason that CILIP members pay their subscriptions – to hear their professional body speak on their behalf. (my emphasis)
I am no expert on the actual situation of public library administration, management, or finance, so I will omit commenting on that, but what interests me here is the lack of leadership, and public advocacy by CILIP itself. The last point indeed highlights one of the reasons why I don’t pay a CILIP membership subscription, something I (and Librarywebbie) have pointed out before. Ian Snowley, president elect of CILIP, said when I raised this on his weblog, I do agree that CILIP must do all it can to make an impact in the wider media on libray issues, and plans are in hand to improve its media presence. Here’s one chance.
The above quotations from Chris Armstrong are only a selection from what he says. Do read the full arcticle.
In lieu of a proper post, I would like to point you in the direction of a post on Ian Snowley’s weblog from April about the Value of CILIP on which we had a short exchange of comments. Ian Snowley went to a meeting with other CILIP councillors at which Bob McKee suggested an exercise to assess the value of CILIP membership:
Bob started by asking us to list the five main benefits that members receive from CILIP:
- Qualifications
- Publications (Update & Gazette)
- Networks
- Community (Jobs Market/Info & Advice/Advocacy)
- Discounted Products (Courses and Facet Books)
And then asked us to put a value on them, on a monthly basis – taking into account what we spend on other ‘comparable’ activities.
I disagreed with his conclusions: The main reason I have never been a member of CILIP is that I don’t think it is worth the money. I could quote the whole post, but probably best to read it there.
CILIP (via Edith Speller) have come up with a shortlist of ‘membership messages’, the idea being that:
If someone asks you “why join CILIP?” can you give a simple, compelling answer?
Well, apparently now you can, and since I have been asking this question for a while now, I was most intrigued to know what these compelling reasons are. You will have to look at the website via the link above to see what the items on the shortlist actually are, as this organisation for information professionals has provided the list as an image without any alternative text, so I can’t cut and paste some examples. Thank goodness my visual impairment only extends as far as short-sightedness.
However, they are all of the following ilk:
CILIP: progressing your career, advancing your knowledge
Presumably this knowledge doesn’t include web standards. In all seriousness, what use is a phrase like that to someone who wants to know why they should join CILIP? Maybe they should stick to paying people to join.
Tom Roper links to a couple of interesting online debates concerning CILIP and its purpose, particular one on Freepint.
I’m playing with weblog setup, in particular tags, so if this post keeps reappearing and changing I apologise.
The Times reports some research that has been done…
…which suggests that being a librarian induces more stress than working for the emergency services, driving a 125mph express, or teaching a class of ill-behaved children.
I offer no comment except to say that it seems that CILIP have their work cut out.
CILIP are offering £20 Amazon vouchers to those who recruit new members. It doesn’t strike me as the best of reasons to join:
ME: Why should I join?
CILIP MEMBER: I get 20 quid
I appreciate they have to market themselves, but they should surely stand on their own merits without this kind of gimmick. I also like the way the CILIP marketing manager attempts to argue herself out of a job:
“All our research shows that existing CILIP members are by far the best recruiters,” says CILIP’s Marketing Manager Louisa Myatt.
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