Report on Equally Good for All?

Meet the Presidents of the LA & CDG

The day began on a practical footing with Mandy Hicken, Chair of the LA Equal Opportunities Sub Committee and Branch Councillor for East Midlands, talking, not about the politics of social inclusion, but exploring the strategies and attitudes to providing socially inclusive services. Mandy gave examples of some of the resources and training being used in different authorities around the country to meet the needs of minority groups in the community, pointing out the wide geographical discrimination. She also noted that Library Schools' training in this area is patchy,

After coffee, Jonathan Douglas, LA Professional Adviser for Youth and School Libraries, demonstrated in his inimitable entertaining way how Reader Development is an aid to Social Inclusion. I found his exploration of what "social inclusion" actually means very interesting, getting behind the 'buzzword bingo' that often goes on. Reader Development promotes proactive inclusion through partnership work (e.g. libraries' role in delivering Sure Start), literacy and basic skills support (e.g. NYR/libraries & the wider framework of the National Literacy Strategy), neighbourhood renewal (e.g. emotional literacy & behaviour management) and through targeting (e.g. specific collections). Libraries have moved from an "inclusive diversity" approach i.e. the passive attitude that anyone can come into the library, to a proactive approach. Inclusion is more than access.

A personal view of the future direction for libraries was given by Anne Partridge, President of the Career Development Group of the LA and Systems Librarian at Cranfield University. The difficulty in predicting the future was entertainingly illustrated by putting the question, "Will libraries exist in the future?" into Ask Jeeves which gave some of the all too familiar responses e.g. "please help me clarify your question"! This underpinned an important point - that technology is nowhere near replacing human intuition. Indeed, the recurrent theme of Anne's talk seemed to be that the future survival of libraries and our profession depends on our ability to adapt and co-operate. She quoted Roy Tennant's 8 traits that a successful individual would need: the capacity to learn constantly and quickly; flexibility; an innate scepticism; a propensity to take risks; an abiding public service perspective; an appreciation of what others bring to the effort and an ability to work with them effectively; skill at enabling and fostering change; the capacity and desire to work independently. In relation to social inclusion, Anne showed how to fulfil their changing role librarians will need a high degree of sensitivity to potential effects of such variables as gender, age and social background on their clients' interaction with information sources.

After lunch, Bernard Naylor, President of the Library Association, outlined how he sees libraries as key to a learning society, challenging a perception of libraries as cultural/leisure spheres only. There is an element of non-inclusiveness in tertiary education. Libraries are a contrast to our education system which is rejective because of its exam system etc.

There was then a particularly proud moment for me as Registration Liaison Officer when the three new Associates, Andrew Barker, Paul Drumm and Gillian Cornwell (Kenneth Dick was unable to attend) received their Charters from Bernard.

The final talk was given by Terry Turner, Director of Cultural Service for Norfolk County Council. Terry gave us an insight into the work of the LA Policy Advisory group on Social Inclusion and how the profession is responding to the Social Inclusion agenda. He left us with some interesting food for thought e.g. he pointed out that there is no correlation between the highly marked Best Value reviews and local authorities work on Social Inclusion.

Julie-Ann Roszkowski
RLO Eastern Division

(Spring 2002 Easterner)