Tom Roper's Weblog

Salisbury, Chepstow, York and Gowran Park

Salisbury 140: Dylan Thomas
Salisbury 210: Hunter Street
Chepstow 225: Darrias
Gowran Park 330: Strong Project
York 345: Cyclical

Lebrecht.live on libraries

This isn’t an attempt to record the whole discussion, only those parts referring to libraries. And I shall paraphrase like anything. By way of background, Norman Lebrecht (NL) introduced the discussion by saying that the aim was to discuss how soi-disant anti-elitism was damaging universities, libraries and the arts. He though it was chiefly an Anglo-American problem; the French, Germans or Russians had no such movement. He introduced the panel, Michael Bogdanov (MB), the theatre director, John Eatwell (JE), President of Queens’ Cambridge, chairman of the British Library Board and board member of the Royal Opera House, Deborah Jacobs (DJ), City Librarian of Seattle (blessed with both a superb Rem Koolhaas building and a Libraries for All programme), Frank Furedi (FF), sociologist from Kent University (in my time there the leader of the Revolutionary Communist Tendency, but that was a long time ago), the philosopher A. C. Grayling (ACG) and the theatre director and newly appointed Director of the South Bank Jude Kelly (JK). I use initials hereafter to identify the contributors.

Librarything

I fear librarything is going to be my downfall. There are lots of things wrong with it, things that make the cataloguer in me shudder, but its also tremendously interesting. When will the British Library be a source (the Library of Congress already is)

Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe

430 Longchamp: Hurricane Run

Newmarket and Longchamp

Cambridgeshire day!
220 Longchamp: Ifraaj
240 Newmarket: Race for the Stars
315 Newmarket: Maid's Causeway
355 Newmarket: St Petersburg

World Summit on the Information Society

I went a week ago to Brighton's Jubilee library for a briefing meeting organised by CILIP's Career Development Group on the World Summit on the Information Society addressed by Debby Shorley and Jill Martin, CILIP's President and Director of Knowledge & Information respectively. IFLA made an impact at the Geneva round of WSIS and hopes to influence the second phase of WSIS, which culminates in the Tunis summit in November 2005. The British government has shuffled responsibility for WSIS between the Department of Trade and Industry and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
The key points Debby and Jill made were:
• that British librarians should inform themselves about WSIS using the materials on CIIP's site
• and submit success stories to IFLA's database. I stumbled upon another library success site, Library success: a best practices wiki. It might be helpful if some sort of relationship could be established between the two.
Debby and Jill were realistic about the probable results of WSIS. The best we can hope for is that the final statements will mention libraries. But that in itself is an achievement, and on the way there, a number of politicians and dips may have gained a better understanding of the potential of libraries. As Debby pointed out, libraries are everywhere and offer a ready-made way of implementing the fine words of summit resolutions.
Internet governance, which looks as if it will be the major issue at the summit, is currently being debated at the preparatory meeting, or PrepCon, which takes place in Geneva until the end of the month (see InfoWorld's report).
From a health librarian's point of view, it seems to me we had a lot to contribute, not least because one of the priorities for WSIS is  "to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases"; and knowledge is, I'm told, the enemy of disease .
Both Debby and Jill deplored the debasement of the English language that international meetings indulge in. Jill offered a particulary fine example involving ramps on the information highway. I shall scour the WSIS site for it.

Open Access: the Salvador Declaration

T. Scott Plutchak reports on the Salvador Declaration on Open Access: The Developing World Perspective, passed at the closing session of ICML.
Full text here.

Libraries on lebrecht.live

Yesterday evening's lebrecht.live on Radio 3 was on the theme why is elitism a sin?
This is a slightly provisional account, as I was roasting a leg of pork while listening. I'm going to listen again, and post something more considered.
Libraries came up from time to time, with Tower Hamlets attracting some criticism for renaming their libraries Ideas Stores and closing the Whitechapel library (partly from Michael Bogdanov whose father had been librarian there).
But the case for the modern library, giving its readers the best of print and new media resources, was eloquently made by Deborah L Jacobs, City Librarian at Seattle Public Library. She was excellent (though could they not have found a British librarian; sad if the programme makers thought they couldn't, sadder still if they looked and couldn't find one). John Eatwell, Chair of the British Library Board. also spoke, though, as Frank Furedi pointed out, the British Library is atypical. Frank Furedi cited the difficulty of borrowing sheet music, a fair point. When I started in public libraries, the branch where I worked held the borough's vocal score sets, and I would be sent into back rooms in search of Stainer's Crucifixion or Elgar's Dream of Gerontius: how many libraries still have such a collection?

Queen Elizabeth II Stakes Day

Newmarket 200: Miss Providence
Market Rasen 210: Football Crazy
Newmarket 305: Alexandrova
Market Rasen 315: Ladalko
Newmarket 420: Rakti
The most beautiful time of the racing year, autumn combines the climax of the flat season with the stirrings of the jumps. The trees start to look pretty too.

Free DNB

One of the things I will miss dreadfully, if I have to leave is access to the online version of the Dictionary of National Biography, which is disgracefully amusing and addictive, in spite of the inaccuracies that have been pointed out.
But I am pleased to see that. to mark their first birthday, they're offering three days free access.