I hope he rots in hell.....

I was infotmed today that Dean Grainger has pleaded guilty. He will be sentenced tomorrow. He has put my family through hell and what he did to my brother was sickening. He should be not on the streets like other thugs and scumbags that ruin peoples lives. Grainger was going to pleaded diminished responsibility, but changed his plea. I won't see the scumbags face as I don't go until wednesday night. I hope his sentence is long.

My Brothers trial

On monday the 30.03.09 the murder of my brother begins. I don't go down until the Wednesday, thankfully missing what my brother endured. I pray the 'person' who did this stays inside a very long time,

Cilip blog disregards legitimate arguments......Again

Having read and posted about the Observer article on sunday, it was great to see the Cilip blog discuss it. Whoops, I mean disregard it. The article entitled Stop talking to each other, start talking to the media, or expect more bad headlines again disregards what librarians are saying about how we should enhance our profession (nothing unusual there then).
I am astonished at what Elspeth Hyams says of the article. Actually she says nothing of the article and its core content. Her opening gambit is this:-

Frustrating headlines like 'Time to go into battle to save our world of books' in the Observer newspaper or '‘MLA and DCMS “increasingly anti-book” on the Bookseller’s blog are a consequence of librarians talking to each other – but not to the national media.

Does she mention Cooke discussing the loss of service at the Wirral ? Or the utter vapidness of the Idea Store? The Library Minister idea on making libraries the '3d facebook' with noise to accompany it?
Nope, none of these are mentioned at all.

She does point out her problems with not being able to get a book from Haringey libraries even though they thought they had it. But the irony of her statement was as follows:-

Middle class people are passionate about libraries. But unless they are pensioners (preferably, white female ones) or middle aged, they don’t use libraries much, say most public librarians in my circle.

She's discussing Haringey and feel they are like this? Well, I think that maybe due to her live here or here and not here or here as these where very diverse in age and race (I worked there before you retort).

Elspeth also forgets Cooke's arguments 'Expenditure on books in our libraries is below 8% of the total public library funds, and in inner London that figure is just 5.7% (across the country, councils spend just 1.6% of their funding on children's books; several councils, Hackney and Doncaster among them, spend less than 1%). ' Her response to this is the laudable conclusion that:-

I’m one of the chattering classes myself, so the moral of this story? Think ahead! Friends of libraries like me will comment when the service doesn’t meet our expectations. So don’t ignore your well-heeled media-savvy champions (let alone journalists). And insist on training for staff!

Training? Pray, who should we go to for training? Oh, Cilip perhaps? I mean thats WHO YOU WORK FOR.

You seem to feel that there is no quality staff in libraries, but at Marcus Garvey and North Library I was inspired by great managers and staff, who gave a great service. Ironically too, none of them belonged to Cilip, so perhaps its not just libraries that need to be better at promoting themselves, perhaps it should be Cilip. But then when do they listen ?

A must read for Public libraries in the UK

Rachel Cooke has a great article in the Observer. Described as :-

One of the glories of our cultural heritage, Britain's libraries face an uncertain future. Many are threatened with closure, others seem more interested in yoga and coffee. Rachel Cooke argues we should fight to keep reading at the heart of our culture.

Worth checking.

Hi ho.....its off to work we go.....best uk library work websites

With the economic downturn in the uk, and those looking for jobs there seems little data on library job related websites that I know of. Therefore I thought i'd give my ratings and view on library related websites. First off, these are my opinions and that only.
1. Sue Hill. Based in London and Birmingham, I also thing they are a very good agency. Sue Hill did get me a job at Senate House, but this is not the only reason I thing they are good. They have a good search engine, they have a blog and provide a very good team of people to assist in getting a job. They'll look over your CV and give good advice. They also provide events like Credit Crunch lunches.
2. TFPL has a very corporate feel about its website. Its unfortunately not the easiest to navigate (unlike Sue Hill). Like Sue Hill he does have options on roles, but unlike them it does not allow to choose area's.
The website does have a blog, which is regularly updated, and it does give its temps courses to go to. Like Sue Hill, very good company.
3. Lisjobnet is part of Cilip, and is updated every two weeks. Again, another site thats easy to use and area based search. It does really have much of a social media like the two above. Again, very friendly company.
4. Aslib. The company says of itself 'Aslib is renowned as the world's leading corporate information management organisation.' It has an area search for jobs. Like the other three it also provides training courses. But no blog or social presence.
5. For Academic libraries there is Jobs. Again, it has a general search engine but not a pull down menu for areas. Regularly updated. No blogs or social media, but a useful site.
6. Weekes Gray is a northern based agency. Spoken to them and very nice. No social media on the site or a pull down menu for area search though.
7. Glen Recruitment is a london based job agency. Can search via amounts paid and not via area. No social media to speak of.
8. Jobs for information pros, is a search engines that adds major companies results (it uses Sue Hill, Glen Recruitment, Weekes Gray, and Tfpl amongst others). Has a good search engines, looks via different roles, area's and pay. Pretty good, but again no blog or social media.
9. Infomatch is again part of Cilip. Not the greatest search engine, and looks via temporary or permanent roles. I've been to there offices and very friendly. No social media.
10. Lisjobtemps is another Cilip based agency. Very new to the block and not really opened yet.
11. Reed is a good general search for library jobs.

Anyhow, anybody want to add anything it would be much appreciated.

I read it in The Guardian.....

Found via Library & Information Update blog about an article in the Guardian which discusses what academic librarians really do at work.
What I did hate about the article was the line:-
'Indeed "information management", as the field is also known, has become increasingly important - much more important, in all likelihood, than you thought. And the reason, of course, is technology.'

Many Congratulations to Brian Matthews

For those who don't know Brian Matthews, he has an interesting blog called Ubiquitous Librarian. He has been working at Georgia Tech libraries, and his blog is always a really interesting read. Yesterday on his blog he announced he has a new job as Assistant University Librarian for Outreach and Academic Services at the University of California, Santa Barbara . Many congrats.

Upcoming events at the RSA

Next week i'm off to an RSA event entitled 'The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind'. The event is headed by James Boyle discussing his new book The Public Domain. The tickets are free and Bill Thompson is also there. Coolio.