to (some would say forced on) ACE. There were almost no volunteer libraries back then, just a handful in Buckinghamshire, and now there are hundreds. Some things have increased and then come back down again – library trusts went up and did very well in York, Devon and Suffolk until, for apparently narrow political reasons, Suffolk went back in-house. Leisure-run library services increased and then fell back dramatically for various reasons, mainly financial, with the prominent exception of the GLL/Better organisation. “But things are complicated. I think there was a lot of experimentation in 2010 into different models and some have not been shown not to work and are coming back in-house. Others have more staying power. To me, it’s fascinating to see how resilient volunteer-run libraries have been despite all the pressures against them. I wasn’t expecting only a handful to go under, I was expecting hundreds.
“I slowly got to understand how everything worked over years until now I’m at a level of knowledge where quite senior people quietly ask me how things work. I found the process of discovery quite fun to be honest, like a jigsaw coming together. And if I did make a mistake then people were very kind and quietly pointed it out to me. Library folk are such nice people.” For more on his sector thoughts, read his farewell editorial (
https://tinyurl.com/ianfarewell) on PLN and blog on Libraries Connected (
https://tinyurl.com/LCfarewell).
Career and CILIP
Ian’s first job was in a bank, but after taking “the bold/stupid decision to resign, I took time to evaluate what I enjoyed —doing: working with people, reading books, using computers and helping the community. That narrowed it down to —libraries so that’s what I did and have never looked back.”
His current role at Cheshire West and Chester Council has several different strands, he says “but mainly includes purchasing children’s and young people books, being lead for the Summer Reading Challenge, organising events, promoting the library service in the community.” He is also a long-standing member of CILIP, becoming a chartered librarian under the old Library Association before CILIP existed. He was made an honorary fellow a few years ago and is also a BEM (for services to public libraries), and jokes that “I have more letters after my name if I choose to use them than actually in my name, which amuses me.”
Despite his love of the profession he sees
a depressing trend: “The role of an actual qualified professional librarian seems less and less important each day. After all, a lot of what I learnt about to get my masters degree was how to get answers from a paper source. And there are fewer services that require professional qualifi- cations, with many heads of services not being qualified.”
He has also watched the sector budgets being battered for 15 years and there are few signs this is going to change: “The huge challenge is financial. We’re being expected to do the same job for half the cost of 2010. That’s ridiculous and leads to loss of quality and reduction in usage. There’s also been huge technological change. Now, my daughters get all the answers they need, from their wristwatches. So there’s a perfect storm of financial, technological and sociological change, which we are caught up in the middle of.”
But he said: “What’s also amazing is the enthusiasm of new recruits to the library service. We have apprentices who are very keen to stay on… and, you know what? We are still here. And we will be for the foreseeable future and that’s amazing.” IP
‘‘ 22 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL DIGITAL
I slowly got to understand how everything worked over years until now I’m at a level of knowledge where quite senior people quietly ask me how things work.
Winter 2025
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