SIBMAS International Conference: Glasgow 2008

SIBMAS, the international association of libraries and museums of the performing arts, will this year hold their biennial conference in Glasgow. The conference will take place at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama from Mon 22- Fri 26 Sept.

The conference was first held in Zagreb in 1954 and has visited locations across Europe and beyond in the intervening years. This is only the second time the event has taken place in the UK (the first was London in 1998 ) and it’s great to see Scotland hosting such a high-profile international conference.

This year’s event will focus on the role of library, museum and archive professionals in addressing the challenges of documenting live performance. The key themes of the conference raise some interesting concerns for librarians working with performing arts materials.

In documenting the performing arts, librarians are required to deal with a constantly evolving product rather than static artefacts. This means that they must develop new approaches to recording and preserving performance.

It’s interesting to note that some of the issues covered in the SIBMAS programme have relevance beyond the performing arts sector. As new technologies have made it easier to create and publish multimedia materials, librarians in all sectors are addressing the challenges associated with preserving the intangible aspects of our digital culture.

In recognition of this common ground, one strand of the SIBMAS programme will look at innovative approaches in other disciplines. Libraries in other sectors may also benefit from learning more about initiatives in the performing arts sector.

More video games in libraries

In our previous post on this topic we noted that video games were already well established in American public libraries. The American Library Association (ALA) is now seeking to develop this further through a $1 million study into the impact of gaming on literacy skills.

As part of the Gaming for Learning project, which was announced during the ALA Conference, the ALA will build a model for library gaming that can be deployed nationally. The Librarians’ Guide to Gaming will be developed in collaboration with leading gaming experts in order to create a comprehensive online literacy and gaming toolbox. It will then be tested in selected libraries before being rolled out across the US.

Commenting on the project, ALA President Loriene Roy said: “Gaming is a magnet that attracts library users of all types and, beyond its entertainment value, has proven to be a powerful tool for literacy and learning.”

We look forward to the publication of the Librarians’ Guide to Gaming to see what lessons it holds for Scottish libraries.

Libraries and IT departments

In a recent blog post, educationalist John Connell raised the issue of what he described as the “IT head-lock” in Scottish local authorities. Referring to the education sector’s difficulties with IT departments, John notes “…the almost complete professional and attitudinal disconnect in most Scottish local authorities between those who manage the corporate IT networks and those who want to deliver a 21st century ICT experience to learners and teachers.”

Since the CILIPS and SLIC Web 2.0 experimentation commenced, the Information Team has been concerned about the disparity of access to the constituent services across library and information services. Anecdotal evidence suggests that this problem largely affects those on local authority networks, working within public and school libraries.

However, we’d like to get a more accurate view of the situation across sectors. Can you relate to the above comment about the relationship with your IT department? Are there services within the CILIPS/SLIC Web 2.0 package that you can’t access at work?**

We’re already aware of some exceptions within public libraries – East Lothian Libraries have a flickr account and East Renfrewshire Libraries (log-in required to access link) are on Facebook. Are there any others out there? We’d be particularly interested to hear about how libraries and librarians across sectors have managed to work with IT departments to resolve access issues.

**We appreciate that some CILIPS and SLIC members may not be able to access this post and are currently considering alternative methods of consulting our membership on this issue.

Doctor Who and libraries

Since the CILIPS screening of the Hollywood Librarian, we’ve been somewhat preoccupied with the portrayal of libraries and librarians in TV and film. The most recent two-part instalment of Doctor Who, Silence in the Library and Forest of the Dead (Series 4, Episodes 8 and 9), were therefore an absolute treat.

The Doctor and current assistant Donna Noble respond to a call for help and end up on a 51^st Century planet known as The Library which, despite being planet-sized, is recognisably such and replete with books. In fact, the Doctor reassures us that the durable format that is the book is still going strong in 20 centuries time, seeing off competition from holovids, direct brain downloads and fiction mists! And, at the centre of the planet, maintaining order is the index computer, the highly evolved library management system!

However, The Library is devoid of patrons. Any concerns that this was a reference to the declining use of libraries or, worse, a representation of the death of libraries, are quickly dispelled as the Doctor sets about solving the mystery.

Along the way there are many references to the power of libraries and books, from feeding the imagination of the little girl at the centre of the mystery to preserving culture and history via physical records. In fact, this latter function is realised literally when the dependable library triumphs in “saving” (in binary form) the planet’s inhabitants from cannibalistic parasites. (Never mind that the parasite’s presence there was a result of their natural habitat being cut down to make the books!)

There have also been minor ripples of excitement for librarian types in previous episodes. In The Doctor’s Daughter (Series 4, Episode 6) Donna harnesses her knowledge of the Dewey Decimal System, which she claims to have mastered in “two days flat” while working as a library assistant in Hounslow Library, to crack a numerical code and end a war. One wonders, however, if she could really have been referring to all four volumes (3,983 pages) of Edition 22 of the Dewey Decimal Classification and Relative Index published by OCLC!

In the following episode (The Unicorn and the Wasp, Series 4, Episode 7), the Doctor reveals the future of digital publishing, telling Donna that Agatha Christie’s books are still read in future millennia. Previous literary appearances have included Charles Dickens (with ghosts, at Christmas of course) and William Shakespeare (stalked by three ugly crones).

Although libraries, literature and books are well represented, the same cannot be said for cataloguers. The Judoon, the rhinoceros-headed villains of Smith and Jones (Series 3, Episode 1), fancied themselves as a Galactic police force but were mainly occupied with the business of cataloguing people, roaming the galaxy with their methodical mantra and scanners at the ready for, ultimately, nefarious purposes!

CILIPS Annual Conference 2008

The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland (CILIPS) held their Centenary Conference in Peebles last week (3-5 June 2008). This year’s Conference also included sessions on health information services and talking to readers about books, which took place on Wed 4 Jun. The Branch and Group Day element, where branches and special interest groups of CILIP contribute to the programme, was also expanded to include guest speakers from Estonia and Finland.

To celebrate 100 years of a professional body for librarians in Scotland, CILIPS has digitised a number of images from the news archives of the Scottish Library Association (SLA), CILIPS’ predecessor. The images are available on flickr, offering an interesting historical insight into libraries and librarianship in Scotland through the years. All images have been described according to the information available but we’d love to see this supplemented with more details or personal reflections. Please visit the SLA Archive on the Scottish Libraries flickr pages to view the images and add your comments.

The images also appeared as a film show during Alan Hasson’s presidential address at Branch and Group Day on Thurs 5 Jun. A shorter version of this film will soon be available on SLAINTE.

CILIP Framework of Qualifications and Accreditation Review

Last year CILIP Council commissioned a review of its Framework of Qualifications and Accreditation (FoQA). This was to look at procedures and processes, with particular focus put on administration of the FoQA. This review resulted in a report containing 19 recommendations.

A steering Group was created in December 2007 to oversee the consideration of the report’s recommendations. It will be producing a final report for CILIP Council in September 2008, with any operational changes being properly phased in from January 2009.

One of the recommendations made in the FoQA report is that ‘the current Revalidation award should be replaced by a lighter-touch, more collaborative approach to continuous professional development, which is nonetheless mandatory. The emphasis should be on personal development, quality learning outcomes, improving skills and competences and maintaining standards of practice.’

What do you think about the current Revalidation scheme? Should Revalidation become compulsory? Is there enough value put on Revalidation, and indeed continued professional development awards in general, within the work place? Please share your views.

Tag chaos

As part of the SLIC/CILIPS Web 2.0 experimentation, the Information Team has been looking at the process of tagging in social networking sites. When we first approached tagging, we thought that our cataloguing skills would be useful but quickly realised this was not entirely the case. The lack of consistency and control in the world of tags left us reeling!

Undeterred, we started to experiment with different approaches and came to the conclusion that some tagging guidelines would be helpful, at an organisational level at least. After much deliberation and procrastination, we’ve now battered out a final draft and would welcome any feedback or suggestions.

The process of compiling guidelines has left us with many questions and few definite answers. How should librarians approach tagging? Can guidelines work at a community, if not global, level? Should user-generated tags be incorporated into catalogue records? On a practical level, how should tags be constructed? Should we favor US spellings, ditch capital letters and insert underscores? Let us know what you think.

Video games in libraries

Edinburgh City libraries recently launched the Libraries4U project which aims to encourage more young people to use their libraries. As part of the project, three Edinburgh libraries have been refurbished to include new teenage zones. The libraries at Craigmillar, Kirkliston and Moredun also offer access to popular gaming consoles and host games clubs and competitions for young people.

The use of games consoles has become widespread in the US where, according to the LA Times, a study by Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies found that a quarter of US libraries held video game events in 2007. As part of the US National Library Week 2008, Friday 18 April was declared National Gaming @ your library Day.

Many American librarians - and the American Library Association (ALA) - support the use of video games in libraries, claiming that it makes libraries seem more relevant to young people and promotes the use of other resources ( i.e. books). This is supported by another Syracuse University study which, as quoted in the LA Times, found that three quarters of library gamers returned for other services.

Are video games just another new format that public libraries should stock and promote, like CDs and DVDs in the past? Let us know your views or experience of gaming in libraries.

The Hollywood Librarian

The Scottish premiere of the US documentary The Hollywood Librarian: A look at librarians through film took place in Glasgow last night (Tues 6 May). The screening was arranged by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland (CILIPS) and the Career Development Group (Scottish Division), a special interest group of CILIP. The Scottish library and information community showed enthusiasm for the film and the cinema at Gilmorehill G12 was filled to capacity on the night.

The film was written and directed by library consultant Ann M. Seidl and focuses on the portrayal of librarians in US movies, with interviews with real-life librarians providing balance to Hollywood stereotypes. The film-makers have incorporated librarians from different sectors to illustrate the diversity of the profession.

In making the film, Ann M. Seidl hoped to raise the public’s awareness of the challenges and realities of modern librarianship. However, the SLIC information team had mixed feelings about whether or not this outcome had been achieved. Did the diversity and scope of librarian’s roles shine through or was the film too focused on the Salinas case study? Were the negative Hollywood stereotypes challenged or perpetuated by the librarian interviews? Let us know your views on the film.