Career Development Group UK National Conference 2007: Engaging Communities

KEIR HOPWOOD

On 30th April, the Career Develpoment Group held their annual conference at the Jubilee Library in Brighton. This was my first National Conference with the Career Development Group, as I am a graduate library trainee with a little over a year’s experience in library and information work. My immediate impression from the speakers, and indeed from mingling with fellow attendees, was of a profession capable of an astounding variety of creative responses to a common concern: truly engaging the communities we serve in our work, to make it more relevant, efficient and accessible.

Each of the speakers came across very much at ease to describe their experience honestly, in their own (sometimes quite individual!) style, and, even though no-one omitted to mention at least one of the well-publicised Modern Librarians’ Bugbears, with a refreshing optimism.

Cath Morgan launched us straight into the challenges she faces as the head of Information Services at Sussex University. These included balancing the two first priorities of universities (teaching and research), providing and promoting e-resources and appropriate training to a shifting community of over 10,000 students plus 850 staff, and promoting quality, ethical use of information. To compensate for the lack of subject librarians, her key strategy is to build and keep good relationships with specific academics and students, who act as contact points allowing a constant flow of subject expertise and budgeting priorities, as well as user feedback and involvement. Given the ratio of librarians to staff, there is a struggle to stay current, but the rewards are great.

Helen Carpenter of Welcome to Your Library, and Toni Davis of Hillingdon Libraries, continued the theme of building rapport. Presenting their report in the form of a dialogue to demonstrate that it is an essential part of their initiative, they explained how Hillingdon’s libraries have built partnerships with refugee support groups and refugee communities themselves to enable integration into local communities and access to public services. From simplifying joining procedures and procuring materials in relevant languages, to the logical conclusion of involvement - employing some refugees as library assistants – this was an inspiring presentation.

Individuals and communities using Web 2.0 are an ever-growing proportion of actual or potential library users. Brian Kelly, UKOLN’s Web Focus delivered a passionate exhortation to engage proactively with them, giving us a comprehensive overview of Web 2.0’s grassroots ethos, its benefits for LI professionals, and plenty of useful links and references to follow up. To drive home the point, even his PowerPoint slides are interactive and public domain. He concluded with a robust defence of Web 2.0 against the gripes of both library and IT “fundamentalists”.

Zoinul Abidin, the manager of Whitechapel’s Idea Store, introduced himself clearly as a leader rather than “a professor who talks on libraries”, but in his charismatic style, he gave real-life examples of Prof. S. R. Ranganathan’s famous Five Laws of Library Science, starting with “books are for use” and never looking back. His primary goal for the Idea Stores is to “widen participation in library, learning and information sevices”, and in pursuit of this goal, he recommended an approach which puts local people’s priorities for the service, and innovative outreach above risk-minimising attitudes. Alongside bedrock services like ‘Net access, lifelong learning and homework clubs, he described his trademark “eyebrow raisers” such as in-store bouncy castles and Web design classes.

Sue Wilkinson, HMP Birmingham’s library manager, painted a touching picture of the prison community, highlighting the needs of women, young, mentally ill prisoners, prison officers and those returning to mainstream society. She shared some straightforward techniques for promoting the strenuous but rewarding prison library service: informal personal contacts between library staff and users, publicity stressing the prisoners’ ownership of the service, and provision of “street” fiction combining a high moral tone with gritty subjects.

Ian Dodds, Library Development Manager for Bromley Libraries, described an approach to engaging young people in public library services that aims to build on existing frameworks of best practise (e.g. from UNICEF, the National Youth Agency, and Roger Hart, a prolific researcher in children’s involvement) while remaining humbly realistic about the need to start small and avoid coming across as trying too hard. In fact, he explained, some of the most successful schemes (like “book bars” combing café culture with peer-recommended books) have been suggested by young people themselves and implemented in cooperation with library staff; ultimately the young people become “part of the staff” and run the service more or less autonomously for their peers.

Attending and reflecting on this conference has certainly made me reconsider my image of the library and information profession. Before starting my graduate traineeship, I had worked for short periods in various library sectors, and felt I had a broad perspective, but meeting the professionals who spoke in Brighton helped me realise that the challenges and rewards – also the sheer effort and perseverance involved! – are far greater than I imagined. It also made me hopeful for the future development of a thinly stretched profession, as long as we are able to share and assimilate new approaches and experience across sectors.

Keir Hopwood
Graduate library trainee, DCLG