The following document was a comment to an article published on the web:

Libraries must evolve or become works of fiction

Charlotte Rose
New Local Government Network (NLGN)
February 15th, 2011
http://j.mp/g1QBI4
The comment was however judged to be too long to publish, and so I
have resubmitted a comment in the form of a synopsis which includes a
link to the full reply (uploaded here).
In essence my argument is that the current round of cuts in library
services (UK, 2011) has revealed mismanagement by the librarians in
charge of the service in that 1) they are not strategically managing
the service in the context of today's technologies (the service is
being held back in a Web 1.0 era with a Victorian service model), and
2) librarians have failed to communicate the value of the public
libraries to the public; we have had 150 years of public libraries in
the UK, there is considerable literature, although no by means currently
fully researched, but a sufficient body of knowledge to be able to
communicate to the public the invaluable worth of the libraries;
furthermore this is one of the most exciting times for the libraries
in its history (the society context), and librarians have failed to
communicate this to the public also. I also (thirdly) suggest that
the community libraries are being mismanaged in that tactically i)
Reader Development, and ii) deskilling the front line were mistakes,
that Reader Development should have been placed within the context of
the strategic management of the community library (a highly skilled
task).
~~~
I've said myself in a comment to a blog post recently that I am not
sure how much longer public libraries can continue without change and
as a tradition alone - but a volunteer run library would be the final
nail in the coffin for this very same reason - a volunteer run library
I think would continue on the Victorian model, it would take a
professional librarian library manager to know what changes the
library needed to make to change with the changing society around. If
anyone in a community wanted to do something useful it could maybe be
to make sure they had such a librarian running their library, not to
run it themselves. The Big Society is about getting corruption out of
authority and responsibility (about the only reason accept perhaps to
contribute significant expertise to the public good anyone would
otherwise have the time to do anything voluntarily), running a service
yourself towards this end is a bit drastic.
The danger with shared facilities is that professional staff will also
be watered down, the library losing its worth (instead of gaining
worth), accelerating the end of the public libraries. A library
without professional staff is going to go the same way as volunteer
libraries for the same reason given above.
The model seems to be emerging that the libraries are seen as no more
than a public repository/ warehouse for (paper) books, that will in
the future be replaced by the Internet and ebooks ... and currently in
the process of winding down at a stage where volunteers and customer
service staff can manage what demand there is remaining for books and
the library.
The reason why librarians have failed the public is that librarians
have not brought the libraries into the modern age; a technological
powerhouse, evolving internally (progressing its knowledge of library
management), with a mission of the literary arts and the knowledge of
our culture. Either librarians have not done this, or they are being
very slow about it. They have failed to give the purse holders (the
public) a credible vision for the future, other than the Victorian
image of the past.
Anyway, from a library assistant (with a modicum of supervisory
management training) perspective, a few basic expectations (very much
off the top of my head, and only skimming the surface really) given
the context:

On the frontline...
...Putting staff in the central/community libraries on the end of a
Skype etc. connection
...Public facing staff with public facebook pages etc. (this would
enable staff to offer a service that does not end at the person
leaving the counter); a personal librarian/ library assistant
...Library apps for facebook, Android/ iPhone etc. (library resources
could be made much more useful to people with these)
...A for example (typically rotating) bibliotherapy display/
collection should include 'the web' in with this resource - to not to
in this day and age (we have had the web for 20 years now), is to say
to the public that the library's terms-of-reference are paper books
only, the web is entirely your own concern is this the correct
response in the age we live in?
...I noted a course recently on the Internet (run on the Internet, by
way of a comment I attended a course in Second Life that had a global
attendance recently): 'Advanced use of personal knowledge tools'
http://j.mp/gz1GvL - I expect our libraries to run these courses for
the public
...I would have expected the subject of autodidacticism to be very
much on the surface in this day and age (Seth Godin, we need
libraries: "who will push everyone from kids to seniors to get very
aggressive in finding and using information and in connecting with and
leading others" http://j.mp/hQvkfZ - people do not nowadays spend
their free time in the pub and digging the allotment)
...digital literacy has gone way beyond Web 1.0, libraries have yet to
move into the 2.0 era
...Author visits, etc. opened up as webinars and recorded (I'm sure
the details of this can be worked out)
...Library Management Systems employing opensource software and/or
opened up to the public otherwise, and the public encouraged to
participate in what are becoming known as 'mashup' events (creating
programs)
...Web 2.0 has brought a new body of literature, fundamental
assumptions about copyright are now in ruins, we have new models of
learning (e.g., "Harnessing collective intelligence",
http://cultr.me/fqPPcN), etc.; as our experts in the field we expect
our librarians to assess these changes and inform the public of that
assessment
...A rethink of strategy for the Peoples' Network, which would include
technology "at the service of books" (Yann Martel), but also Web 2.0
('Literacy 2.0')
Management of community libraries (per se)...
...Public libraries have made a past mistake in choosing reader
development over strategic community library management, the mission
is reader development (as @gluejar recently phrased this: 'I think
many libraries are confused about their "brand". Should be "reading"
not "books".'), but it should have been done from an angle of the
strategic management of the community library (efficiency is doing
things in the most economic way, but effectiveness is doing the right
things - a step I think that has been missing, and an emphasis on the
strategic management of the community library would put this key step
back in)
...A flattening of the organization (a more skilled frontline staff) -
in past decades the library has become increasingly bureaucratic
(frontline library managers should be trained at a strategic manager
level, being in a position to make a great deal of difference to a
community, and paid accordingly, i.e., more than One Stop Shop
manager's operational skills)
From the inside out...
...Libraries need to assess information on the web, the preferred
media of the community a library serves, and where their collections
overlap with the web, and adjust its collection accordingly,
strategically managing finance accordingly
...Should libraries start to bring out-of-copyright and free ebooks
onto its servers, and how does this impact on the collection (ebook
readers would need to be provided to access this collection)
...How can technologies be used internally (in organization and
management terms); it's almost managerial gross misconduct that in
some library authorities staff cannot access social networking (or
even the Internet Archive) on staff computers (Web 2.0 has added a
great deal to our culture and literature how can a library assistant
introduce the public to that culture if they cannot access the
websites themselves)
From the top down...
...I'm getting the nagging feeling that there is maybe somewhere
between 10%-30+% of the community using technology which the libraries
are still not using, and this number will only increase - are
libraries starting to fall behind?
...A visible technology management strategy (there is a quite
considerable resource of knowledge on this subject); chief librarians
should have been able to give the PM an immediate answer to his
question in this exchange in the House http://j.mp/h7ecok my own
answer was along the lines of strategies for the peoples' network,
discovery software, ebooks, LIS research (technology,wise), LMS
software, etc.
...Positioning the DDC, LCSH, even BIC subject headings, on the
computers in front of the public, the tremendous resource of WorldCat
as well; the current business model for these products is still in the
Victorian era, but it is librarians and library management whom it
falls on to sort this out
...ebooks have the potential to lift society up to a new level,
however publishers are currently not allowing libraries to use ebooks;
the business model needs sorting out, and it is again librarians who
have this task
...The libraries need to at this point be engaged in a great deal of
R&D, with research identified as a need, both in applying new
technologies (until all potential usefulness has been exhausted), but
also in the strategic management of the community library
...The libraries need to at this point be engaged in a great deal of
R&D, with research identified as a need, both in applying new
technologies (until all potential usefulness has been exhausted), but
also in the strategic management of the community library
...Libraries should at this point I think be talking about the
Knowledge Society ("A society that creates, shares and uses knowledge
for the prosperity and well-being of its people.")
...Research on what has been learned from the past 150 years of the
public library to understand the value of the public libraries in this
day and age (this is the current level of understanding on this
subject I think, it is now needed); the library is of value in every
context in our lives, we need to understand this more
...Maybe a small strategic team advising the public on the value of
the libraries to society - a group that would include and be in direct
contact with both academics in the field but also with a direct line
to the public assessing their expectations and experiences on the
ground
The future...
...Web 3.0, bringing some organization to this mass of tangled
hyperlinks that is Web 1.0 and Web 2.0, hypothetical and very much
experimental at this stage, but it is the librarians I am expecting to
do this
...I would hope that the libraries could say to the traditional and
older library users that their library will continue to serve their
needs as best it can, but that also there is an exciting future for
the libraries for the younger generation - these youngsters are going
to be able to use their libraries in new and exciting ways that their
parents never could
...When a person walks into a local library that they have quite
possibly walked to they have a cross section of Western culture laid
out before them and a selection of the best writing we have (also
research shows that information transfers a lot more quickly than in
electronic form paper form) - librarians will be held to count if we
lose this in the electronic age, how do they propose to maintain the
standards we are used to here
...The public need to be reassured that while a library's community
values are still for paper books ebooks will not replace them (e.g.,
for cost reasons)
...Libraries in the context of crime in society ('recorded and
unreported', as well as Police statistics); libraries could/need to
make some inroads into this (the subject of non-readers)
...The idea of 'reader's block' seems a promising and useful direction
to pursue, instead of pretending this does not exist, do something
useful for the community!

In a nutshell, I wouldn't be the first person to say that the current

age is one of the most exciting times for librarianship (Dave Lankes
http://j.mp/f3U2V6 ), but what have we got:
"The greatest danger to our future is apathy." (Jane Goodall)
Librarians have an issue to answer to in letting the libraries decline
while we live in an age of the Knowledge Society. If I can as a
library assistant see that this is one of the most exciting ages and
times for the libraries - what on earth are the chief librarians and
qualified librarians doing? (A question that if conspiracy theories
are not to start sprouting it might be just as well to answer - e.g.,
it has been reported recently that it is chief librarians closing
libraries, not councilors (Tim Coates))
The London Evening Standard reports:
Our libraries are outdated but they can still survive
http://j.mp/hOuz9F
I think that is about it, but it is currently looking as though they
will be taken back to the times of the 1960s and prior to the 1964
libraries Act. No thanks to our qualified librarians communicating to
the public how exciting an era for libraries the current times are,
and the potential value to the public of their libraries in the age we
live in.
~~~