[Upd-discuss] UK: Create people orientated library (Culture Media Committee), By Shiraz Durrani
Zapopan Martin Muela-Meza
zapopanmuela@yahoo.com
Sat, 20 Nov 2004 11:10:54 -0800 (PST)
This may be of interest.
shiraz
_____
Submission to Culture, Media and Sport Committee
Session 2003-04. 26 October 2004
New Inquiry: Public Libraries
By Shiraz Durrani
Create a people-orientated public library service
The Government's policy on public libraries needs
to be
informed by the
following factors:
Globalisation and effects on libraries
The key issue is to decide what the social role
of public
libraries is.
They should not take the social, economic and
political
situation they find
themselves in as "given", but actively seek to
understand
why and how we
arrived at this situation - and also ensure the
public
understand it too. It
is their role to dig deeper into "facts" that are
given to
them by their
social environment.
British libraries are in danger of using a
commercial
version of a "global
library" much like McDonald restaurant outlets
which serve
the same product
in every part of the world. While this approach
may be a
useful one in
ensuring a standard level of service, and a
useful model
for maximising
profits for the McDonald chain, it is disastrous
for
libraries if they want
to root themselves in their local communities. It
is
essential that a new
model of needs-based library service is developed
at policy
level and
implemented.
For this to happen there is an urgent need for
setting up a
"public library
innovations & development" think tank with
Government
support. Further
details of this proposal can be submitted to the
Committee
in oral evidence
if considered appropriate.
Other important changes that need to be
considered include
the rules
developed at the World Trade Organisation,
especially in
the context of
TRIPS (trade-related aspects of intellectual
property
rights). IFLA has
expressed its concerns over TRIPS in a number of
areas such
as "not for
profit libraries", intellectual property and
cultural
diversity. Specific
threats from these are mentioned by IFLA.[1]
These threats to public libraries need to be
considered by
the Committee
which needs to give a clear direction in ensuring
that
public libraries
remain public in theory and practice and do not
become a
tool in the hands
of a global corporate world for making profits.
Faced with a situation where libraries are blind
walking
into extinction, it
is important that public libraries stand up for a
new role
of libraries in
society. In the world ruled by corporate
globalisation, it
is too easy to
drift along with the tide of "neutral"
librarianship and do
nothing to make
libraries play a central role in liberating
people, their
cultures, and
their economies from the privatised future that
globalisation has planned
for them.
A new approach in terms of vision and practice of
public
librarianship is
urgently needed. Real democracy and transparency
need to
flourishes if
public libraries are to be at the heart of social
life.
The Committee needs
to give leadership in bringing about these
necessary
changes.
Democracy deficit in libraries
The myth of a "neutral" public library service
needs to be
exploded. There
is no way that libraries and librarians are or
can be
neutral in the social
struggles of their societies. Every decision
they make -
how much to spend
on books, which books to buy, what staff to
appoint, how to
manage the
service - is a reflection of their class position
and their
world outlook,
however much they deny this. The power they have
been
given in running
their libraries is supposed to be used to meet
the needs of
ALL local
people. But there is a basic lack of democracy
in the
world of libraries,
which has created "dictator library managers".
What librarians do - and don't do - is not merely
an
academic question. It
affects our understanding of our natural and
social
environment, which,
taken in its totality, affects our world outlook,
affects
what we think and
what we do. It influences the minds of the young
generation and becomes the
prevailing outlook of the adult world of
tomorrow.
Manipulation of information, whether conscious or
unconscious, is an
important matter, not only in local life, but in
international relations as
well. Librarians can become tools in the hands
of those
seeking to
manipulate whole populations to think along their
lines -
or stand firm to
support the democratic rights of the people
manipulated.
There is no third
way here.
Thus there is an urgent need to create a new type
of
people-oriented,
democratic libraries and librarians who are
directly
answerable to the
communities they serve.
Libraries and society in Britain
There is usually a time gap between the emergence
of a new
social reality
and that reality being accepted in people's
consciousness.
In the case of
Britain, changes after the Second World War
resulted in the
loss of the
economic power of Britain, a fact reflected in
the loss of
the British
Empire. However, at a larger social level, the
British
society has not
fully absorbed this fundamental loss of economic
and thus
political power.
Lessons and reality of history are shut out from
social
consciousness by
denying the reality of a new world where Britain
is no
longer the superpower
ruling the world, where China is flexing its
muscles to
become the most
powerful nation in the world.
In a society that has sought to shut out the
reality of a
new globalised
world, it is not surprising that its libraries
have shut
themselves in a
dream world of presumed superiority and
"professional"
might. The fact that
the library world has not come to grips with
changes in
British society is a
reflection of the British society as a whole not
coming to
grips its new
reality.
The Committee needs to give urgent attention to
having a
reality check of
what the current social role of public libraries
is and
what it ought to be.
A greater awareness of the real international and
national
forces at play in
modern society needs to inform public library
policy and
practice.
Creating a people-orientated library service
There is thus an urgent need to develop a library
service
that helps to
create a new consciousness among people about
their real
role in society and
also about the position of their country in the
context of
the wider world.
Only on such wider awareness can a
people-orientated
library service be
built.
If there is going to be a true people-orientated
library
service, it is
necessary that there is a clear understanding of
social
forces within which
a particular library service operates. Libraries
and
librarians face a
number of challenges today. The first need is
for all
librarians to
investigate their society and communities. Mao's
recommendation at a
political level - "no investigation, no right to
speak" -
is equally valid
in the information field. It is important to
understand
working people's
lives and struggles, be one of them, and then
seek ways of
creating a
relevant library service.
In all societies with class divisions and class
struggles,
library services
tend to be a service for elite by elite,
providing a
service to the
dominating classes and their allies only. In
situations
like these, the
process of liberating the library service for
those
previously excluded is
the key role of library workers and
professionals.
The challenge is to develop a service that is
open to all
irrespective of
class, race, gender, ability, age, sexual
orientation,
political beliefs,
etc. The service needs to be an inclusive one
which
reaches out to all who
are currently excluded. Yet this task is not
easy and
needs careful thought
and planning.
As is the case in all social movements, there are
no
specific guide books on
how to create a liberated, "open" library
service. It is
only the actual
practice of learning from people that will
provide a
solution that is
relevant to our particular social situation and
will help
us build libraries
without walls.
But just learning from people is not enough. The
next, and
perhaps the more
difficult, step is to turn our ideas into action.
This is
best done by
empowering the excluded so that is they who
decide how our
library resources
should be used and how our energies are spent.
People
themselves will then
be the best judges of our success or failure. It
is in
putting these ideas
into practice that a people-orientated, "open to
all"
service can be built.
Libraries can be at the centre of this vastly
changing
world. Effective
leadership in the information field can make
libraries
places where
different social, political and economic forces
in conflict
can deposit
their various views, experiences, knowledge and
world
outlooks and help
create a society at peace with itself. By
ensuring that
these contradictory
forces have an equal chance to be acquired,
stored, heard
and understood,
librarians and libraries can create a new social
role for
themselves. They
will then have played a meaningful social role in
creating
more just and
"equal" societies.
Abdul Kalam, the President of India, has
pinpointed the
root cause of social
and political conflicts in the world today:
. [the] world over, poverty, illiteracy and
un-employment
are driving
forward the forces of anger and violence. But,
societies,
which includes
you and me, have to address themselves to the
root causes
of such phenomena
which are poverty, illiteracy and unemployment.
[2]
Librarians everywhere have a role to play in
eliminating
the root causes of
poverty, illiteracy, unemployment and inequality.
It is no
longer
acceptable for libraries and librarians to refuse
to take
this social
responsibility seriously. The choice is simple:
if the
information
profession does not take its social
responsibility
seriously, it will no
longer have a social role. People will then
develop
alternative models of
information and knowledge communication which do
meet their
needs. There
will then be no libraries as we know them today.
The Committee has an important role in ensuring
that public
libraries emerge
from the deep social sleep into which they have
sunk -
generally isolated
from the people and communities they are expected
to serve.
There is a
further danger of decision makers and managers
living in a
dream world where
regular assurances are given by interested
parties that all
is well and that
libraries are at the centre of social life. The
Committee
needs to give a
clear guidance about the future role of public
libraries
and help create a
totally new mindset needed if we are to save the
library
for a new
generation.
Shiraz Durrani
19 November 2004
_____
[1] The IFLA Position on The World Trade
Organization
(2001). Available at:
http://www.ifla.org/III/clm/p1/wto-ifla.htm#3.
[2] Kalam, Abdul (2004): "Dynamics of
terrorism and
violence". Philosophy
and social action. Vol. 30 (2) April-June, 2004.
=====
Vorwärts!
Zapopan Martín Muela Meza
PhD student Information Studies
Department of Information Studies
University of Sheffield, United Kingdom
http://www.shef.ac.uk/is/research/phd.html
http://www.geocities.com/zapopanmuela/index.html
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