NEWS
FOI reveals NE
Libraries’ decline FREEDOM of Information requests by North East newspaper The Journal show that more than half the region’s 169 libraries moved to reduced hours between 2013 and 2018 while 42 closed and 23 were taken on by volunteers or third party operators. They also showed that spending on librar- ies has fallen 16 per cent and spending on books and other stock dropped by 41 per cent over the period. Laura Swaffield, chair of charity The
Library Campaign, said: “This is an impres- sive piece of research” adding “many coun- cillors have no idea how much they hurt people when they slash library services.”
200bn Weibo posts
for digital archive THE National Library of China (NLC) is collaborating with Chinese IT company Sina to archive over 200 billion posts published on the Twitter-style social media site Weibo. The archive will also include more than 210 million news articles, over 1.3 billion pieces of multimedia information and over eight billion interactions with new content posted on Sina and Weibo will also be stored in the base. Rao Quan, director of the national library, said the project aims to chronicle the evo- lution of civilisation in the internet era for the “long term development of information security and digitisation of the country”
New Chief Exec for Devon and Torbay
DEVON and Torbay’s Libraries Unlimited has named Alex Kittow as its new Chief Executive, taking over from Ciara Eastell. Alex, who is currently Chief Executive of Bristol-based charity Southmead Develop- ment Trust, takes up the position from 1 June. He said: “I am aware of the challenges faced by library services up and down the country, but Libraries Unlimited has clearly achieved a huge amount in three years and I’m looking forward to driving the organisa- tion forward both to create a more finan- cially sustainable future for libraries whilst continuing to deliver the huge variety of vital services to local communities.”
14 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL
“Amazing” CKG opportunities
A NUMBER of opportunities to become a judge for the Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals will be advertised this summer. If it’s something you would like to do, keep a look out for the announce- ment and find out more about what’s involved by reading our interview with current judge Zoey Dixon, community hub library manager for Lambeth Libraries. Zoey began her library career as a 16-year-old Saturday assistant in Lam- beth and has spent almost 20 years in the profession, including time studying for her degree and library and infor- mation studies MA. During her career she has been heavily involved with chil- dren’s libraries. This is her first year as a CKG judge and she says she was inspired to apply because “my initial thoughts were ‘I love reading and talking about children’s literature and pictures books, and I’ve always enjoyed shadowing the prize, I could definitely do that!’ “Of course, I also thought what a bril- liant opportunity to develop my career and interest in children’s books as I felt my professional development had stag- nated a bit. I was also aware of the issues around the lack of diversity, and the con- troversy that had taken place and thought that my background and lived experience would be of benefit to the award.” After being selected as a judge in Sep- tember 2018, Zoey and other new judges were given the opportunity to take part in a full day of training, helping them to better understand the judging criteria and their roles within the awards. This year saw a total of 254 books nominated – the most that the awards have ever had – and that means a significant commit- ment from judges. Zoey said: “Once the nominations finish we wait for the list of books that we’re going to be judging. Publishers will send you copies of the nominations, and your home will begin to pile up with a lot of books (clear space for them). “I tried to be very disciplined with my reading, creating as much reading time as possible every day. This meant that I stopped cycling to work in order to read
Zoey Dixon
on the bus, gave up playing netball and tried to balance my work and reading time (much harder than I thought). I choose to handwrite my notes, using a separate notebook for each award as I found it eas- ier to scribble things down as I was going. “When it comes to the longlisting and shortlisting days, it’s a very intense expe- rience but I loved having the opportunity to discuss children’s books, the insight from your fellow judges is invaluable, and can open your mind to a different inter- pretation and reading of the book and its meaning. You will learn so much.” Despite the workload, Zoey urges anyone who is interested to take the plunge and apply, saying: “This is an amazing opportunity and you will definitely find it one of the most rewarding experiences in your career. You will meet the most brilliant and dedicated people who share your passion for children’s books, who you will learn from and forge great friendships with. “My advice would be to start pre-reading
now! Seek out hidden gems from smaller, indie publishers which otherwise might not be nominated, especially if they pub- lish diverse and inclusive titles. Famil- iarise yourself with the judging criteria which can be found on the CKG website. Say goodbye to your friends and family (I joke) but realistically this does take up a large amount of your time so be prepared for that. It will be worth it, I promise.”
l Eight vacancies will be advertised this summer for librarians based in North West, Yorkshire & Humber, West Mid- lands, London, North East, South East, South West and Eastern CILIP regions.
This year’s Medals Shortlists have been released and full details of the 16 titles can be found in Pen&inc. (pp. 8-11), our free diversity in children’s publishing supplement included with this issue of Infor- mation Professional.
April-May 2019
News
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