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Library chief slams 'fearful' thinking

24.04.08 Benedicte Page

Museums, Libraries and Archives head of library policy John Dolan has criticised "fearful and restrictive thinking" in local authorities, and has called for libraries to move quickly to improve their digital offer.

Speaking on the first day of the Library and Information Show in Birmingham, Dolan urged libraries to "grasp the big agendas", arguing that they have a central role to play in the key challenges for Britain outlined by the Cabinet Office in its 2008 strategy document.

"There is a coming together of national policy and library potential," he said. Specifically, in a Britain where 30% of the workforce does not have a Level Two qualification (GCSE), Dolan said there was an opportunity for libraries to help in the delivery of online learning to those who did not go into higher education, as part of a national learning agenda.

But libraries need to "speed up the pace of change", he said. He criticised local authorities for being "inconsistent", with "fearful and restrictive thinking locked inside IT offices", and added: "We are digital people, we communicate globally digitally - we cannot ignore that when people come into a library."

Dolan also pointed to a "huge deficit in training and development" offered to the library workforce. The subject of the skills needed for the changing library workforce was also addressed at a one-day conference, The Future of Public Libraries, held at the Show for the first time this year.

Benedicte Page libraries MLA Home Roy Clare John Dolan

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By Perkins

This is the dirty pot calling the kettle black and filthy.

25 Apr 08 09:01

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By Nora

When will somone realise that the performance indicators that have been applied to libraries over the past decades has contributed to the inability of those libraries to respond to the challenges of the digital age? libraries are not bookshops yet they seem to have to perform as if they were. A falling book fund also means a shortage of funds for electronic reference materials that could more usefully be acquired by public libraries to extend their services beyond the confines of their respective buildings. Why isn't there a national scheme to make available basic reference directories that have electronic counterparts these days? Why can't people outside academia not get access to the electronic journals service that universities access? Public libraries have become so poor it is a wonder anyone even considers them as a potential help to them.

29 Apr 08 16:21

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