Report: House of Commons Library Virtual Tour 4th April 2024

The tour of the House of Commons Library took place on 4^th April at lunchtime and was conducted by Amina Gual with thanks to Valerie Bearne for organising.

The library looks over the Thames and is based in an interesting part of Parliament on the Principal floor which is a prime spot. There has been a royal palace on the site since the 11^th Century. The current House of Commons Library was completed 1852 in the 19^th Century on the site of the old palace of Westminster which was burnt down in 1834. It is 170 years old but there was always a royal palace on the site.

Parliament didn’t always have a library, the library originated from early 19^th century with the first librarian Benjamin Spiller. The library was originally in St Stephens’s Hall and following the fire a design a competition was run for a new palace of Westminster. Charles Barry won the bid and was the successful architect. The Interior of the library is very gothic with the fabric of the building laid out to how the architect and designer, Augustus Pugin, envisaged.

Starting with the Reference Room there are some interesting artefacts including bolt clippers used to cut chains off from suffragettes who attached themselves to the buildings. This is part of the Women in Parliament display in the room.

Looking back to 100 years at photos, the Commons library is not dissimilar from today’s library. The library is classed as a heritage site meaning much of the fabric and fittings cannot be changed. All furniture tables and chairs are in keeping with the original design with the ceiling demonstrating intricacies of design in addition to the chandeliers and carpets.

The Reference Room was not part of the original library in 1852. There are now an additional three rooms. Space is at a premium nowadays in Parliament. The Reference Room is a small reference library with usual things one would expect to find including photocopiers, workspace and books. Old bound volumes of minutes of Parliament predating digital copies exist. Originally at the time of the British Empire this room was a Map room with a large globe in the centre. Maps at this time were incredibly important. Some members come in and work at the tables but primarily staff. The room hosts occasional functions. The display of Women’s history is not originally part of the library.

There are galleries which were added in the 19^th century to the original design and more galleries were added in the 1950s.

The Oriel Room derived its name from the Oriel window which is a large bay window in the room, quite grand and suspended mid-way. The window overlooks the Thames and House of Commons terrace. This room is a main section room for the Commons Library and is staffed between team of 10-12 answering personal enquiries. The majority of the work is undertaken online and deals with enquiries from Members of Parliament, their staff and house staff by e-mail, occasionally by telephone. Other teams are based in the Outbuildings near St James’ park. There are 8 Specialist teams – specialist researchers on policy matters, stats etc.

Some of the main work undertaken is to prepare briefing papers to look at topics prior to debate – E.g., Post Office Horizon System Bill. The documents provide a background and look at the bill to inform the debate. These are impartial and are produced before bills or any piece of major legislation goes into the Commons.

The briefings are not just focussed on Parliament but world affairs such as Ukraine, Gaza etc. These are available to the public and are hosted on the main site which is a one stop shop for all library research.

The library offers a loan service with over 100,000 books in its collection though not all are on site. The collection is a specialist collection and has few fictional works.

Their budget is set by the House and the details are quite complicated and form part of the administrative vote (supply estimates) published as House of Commons papers.  Funding is from the “public purse”, so they are accountable for money spent.

The team are Generalists with a good amount of knowledge, however specific knowledge can be provided by the 8 specialist groups which include international affairs and defence, social policy (education, housing), Science and environment, economic and policy section. The team administer and triage their enquiries. If specialist input is required this is then allocated to a particular specialist for the relevant group. Priority is given to enquiries relating to business of the house and debates of the chamber. The team can receive 30,000+ enquiries per year however there is a lot of other work which happens behind the scenes which isn’t captured.  

An image of the House of Commons Library

Library teams produce regular mail outs of briefings for the week, of any member of staff or house staff can subscribe to. These mailouts detail what is published for the week.  For a back bench debate the team will proactively approach the relevant individuals. The team works closely with the devolved libraries and help answer enquires where possible and have a good relationships with other European Parliaments.

They have a library management system where material is loaned for people to borrow books with a generous loan period, if it’s not renewed and following a process of several stages of overdue notices and if the book is not returned the borrower will replace it although this does not happen very often.

There are other rooms within the library which are used.  ‘A’ Room has lots of books and provides IT for members of parliament some of whom have favourite spots.  In this room there are special green leather chairs which were originally used by the Speaker and Sergeant at arms when the Commons Chamber was temporarily relocated during the second world war.  There is also a ritual old fashioned safe which is still used by the team today.

There is still quite a demand for newspapers and magazines and the team still take in a selection of hard copy daily newspapers both regional and major. There are many online subscriptions free of charge to see these.  Hard copy holdings have been reduced with digital services replacing these, saving costs.

The lovely fixtures and fittings (including the shelving and furniture) are set in gothic 19^th century with a controlled environment and hasn’t changed.  Present are a lovely original metal stationery racks which are silver plated, heavy and are nothing like what exists today. The fireplace which is a very visible part of the room is no longer used.  It was interesting to learn about the House of Commons Journals which document minutes of the proceedings in the Chamber which are still used to this very day.

An original set of early House of Commons Journals is held by the Parliamentary Archives. The current set in the Library are re-prints of the early original volumes.  The originals were rescued from the fire and the collection includes volumes dating back to 1547.  One entry of note was 4^th January 1642 recording the time when Charles I entered Parliament with henchmen and was in conflict with Parliament confronting Speaker Lenthall.  These journals literally documented minutes of the day’s events and are recorded in a very matter of fact way.

The House of Commons Library is not a Parliamentary archive, however there is a Parliamentary archive team based in the House of Lords who are the official archivists for both Houses. This team is due to be amalgamated with the National Archives in 2024 so their function will move to them.

‘C’ Room is a little quieter than the other rooms and does not provide any IT, however from this room there are some spectacular views of Lambeth Palace and County Hall across the Thames.

‘C’ Room is quite special has engraved panels at the top with dates from 1377 representing the names of all the speakers of the House of Commons dating to the present Speaker Lindsay Hoyle. The names were engraved mid 20^th century.

Times the library open tend to be from the very beginning when the House is sitting at 9am to rise of the house (sitting period) and can vary each day. There is a separate night team who covers from 18:00 to closure.

Library staff are subject to general security vetting as are all parliamentary employees.

‘D’ Room is a quiet room not originally part of the House of Commons Library and was the original Speaker’s private library / apartment. This was gifted to House of Commons library in 1966. There is a panel designed to screen the library from what was the Speaker’s accommodation. The room contains many volumes of parliamentary papers and Busts, of which one is of Erskine May, a clerk who became a senior clerk whose name represents the Parliamentary Bible explaining conventions and presence of parliament.

A second Bust is present of Spencer Perceval an early 19^th Century Prime minister who was assassinated in parliament on 11^th May 1812 by John Bellingham, an individual who had a grievance against the government for his treatment a few years ago previously when he had been imprisoned in Russia for a trading debt.

In the room there was a phone from 1920 which works a little like a telephone intercom and used to communicate between Speaker’s private library and Speaker’s private apartments and different rooms.

There are no particular rules, however the statement of services which states what they can do, ethos and also limitations on services. They won’t undertake translation work and do not support members’ private interests.  All the work is to support members in their parliamentary duty.

Overall a very enjoyable tour of the library which overlooks some fantastic views and it is amazing to see the fixtures, furniture and look of the room remaining in place to preserve a key part of history from that period of time with the library still in operation today.

Virtual Visit to the House of Commons Library on 4th April 2024

By Kelly Blake

Virtual Visit to the House of Commons Library on 4^th April 2024

by Kelly Blake

I was one of approximately 20 library professionals who were lucky enough to go on a virtual visit to the House of Commons Library on 4th April 2024.   This was the first virtual tour that they had undertaken, and it was a thoroughly interesting and a very enjoyable to spend a lunch-break.

The tour began with a view from the library window to help show us exactly where within the Palace of Westminster the library sits.  It’s a great view over the Terrace and across the Thames.  The library was completed in 1852 on the principal (first) floor.  Inside the library, we started in the Reference Room (originally called the Map Room) where a small exhibition was on display for Women’s History Month, which included the bolt cutters used to cut chains off suffragettes during their campaigning.  This was not something I was expecting to see in the House of Commons Library!

The library of 100 years would not have look too dissimilar to what we were viewing today.  The Palace of Westminster is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, so not very much at all can be changed in the fabric and furniture of the library.  It is all in keeping with the original design, with wood panelling and elaborate carpets throughout. In 1852 the library had three rooms designated to it called A, B and C.  The Reference Room was an addition given to the library, along with the Oriel Room and latterly D Room.  The function of the Reference Room changed as large physical maps were no longer used and it became the Reference Room with a small reference library which is mostly used by library staff. 

We were then shown the Oriel Room and the window for which it was named.  It is the main reception for the library and very close to the chamber in the House of Commons.  We were told more about how the library worked, being staffed by a small team of 12-14 people who answer enquiries from MPs and their staff.  In addition, almost 200 people working in the Research and Information team who are mostly based elsewhere and included eight Subject Specialist teams.  The House of Commons Library is free to use and aside from dealing with enquiries and research they also write impartial briefings to help inform debates e.g. on the Post Office/Horizon scandal.  These briefings are also available to members of the public.  The Librarian confirmed that the library has a traditional book loans service too, although the collection is a specialist one which has very little fiction.  They run an Inter-Library Loan service too, so there was a lot of familiarity in some of the functions of this specialist library.

At this point there was a pause to ask some questions.  Firstly, there was a question about who sets the library budget and whether it is it enough, to which the librarian replied that it was part of the Administration Budget set by the House of Commons and whilst they have to operate within the budget, there have not been any staff cuts and the service has been able to grow.  The next question was about the length of time given to an enquiry before it was passed to a member of the research and information team.  There was no hard and fast rule on this.  It will be triaged and if it needs specialist information, will be allocated to someone in that team.  They employ fair-use policy for enquiries and have deadlines in which to respond to enquiries.  Incredibly, there can be over 30,000 logged enquiries a year!  Another interesting question was whether the House of Commons Library worked with libraries from the devolved parliaments. The library does work quite closely answering questions from them and vice versa and they all take part in an annual two-day conference too.

We then moved into the A Room which is generally shared in use between library staff and MPs.  Members’ Staff and House Staff can use the library too, but they have more limited access than MPs.  Looking a little out of place in this historic setting, this room had some PCs available.  In contrast, there were also two green leather chairs which were used by the Speaker of the House and the Sergeant at Arms in the Second World War; and the original safe for the library hidden in one of the cupboards, which is still used today but difficult to open.  In this room were hard-copy newspapers, which were still much in demand, including regional titles.  They also have a news aggregator and lots of online subscriptions, as digital services have replaced physical versions in many other ways e.g. law reports, which used to be a large part of the library collection.  At this point we were shown a smaller detail of the library – some intricately designed, silver-plated stationery racks which were part of the original library design.  Other examples of these can be seen in the photo below:

A view of the library

The B Room was next on the tour, which featured some of the book collection with lots of desk space to work at.  There were also the original green leather armchairs, which are apparently not at all comfortable!  We saw the House of Commons Journals, which are the bound minutes of proceedings in the chamber.  The original set is in the Parliamentary Archives, but the reprinted volumes were no less impressive.  The librarian was able to point out some historic events in a couple of volumes – the 1642 record of Charles I entering the House of Commons with his supporters, and the 1605 attempt to burn down the Houses of Parliament by Guy Fawkes and his co-conspirators.

We moved on further through the library to the C Room, where there were engraved panels listing all the names and dates of the Speakers of the House from the 1300s onwards.  Interestingly there was only room left for one more name on the panels and that it hadn’t yet been decided how or where it would continue after that.  Then the librarian took some more questions, the first of which was about the renovations and how it would affect the library.  The librarian said that this was all a little while off for the library as the plans need to be voted on in the new parliament.  There was then a question about the hours for which the library is staffed, which we were told is from 9am until the “rise of the House” which on Mondays is at 10.30-11pm!  Another was whether library staff needed to have background checks, we were assured that library staff were subject to the same checks as all Parliamentary Staff. 

Lastly, we moved on briefly to the D Room which was originally part of the Speaker’s private apartments, but was gifted to the library in 1966.  The nature of its location and original designation means that this room has a hidden corridor running to the Speaker’s Apartments behind a row of bookcases (this can be seen on the left in the photo below).  This room fittingly features a bust of Erskine May and well as one of Spencer Perceval, who was assassinated in the Palace of Westminster.  The librarian took further questions at this point; however, I had to get back to work and unfortunately missed the answers to those.  It was a very interesting tour that had me talking about it to others for days afterwards, so many thanks to the librarian for her time and I would encourage others to visit the library if the opportunity arises.

A view of the library

Your Library Service: Plymouth Proprietary Library

By Darren Bevin

Outside the Plymouth Proprietary Library

Q1: Introduce your service! What’s the main aim of the service, and what sort of users does your service cater to?

My name is Darren Bevin and for the last two years have been the Library Manager of the Plymouth Proprietary Library, an old institution that has survived at various locations. The building we are now in used to be a church hall. It is a subscription library and for an annual fee members can borrow from a wide variety of books and get discounted rates on a range of talks and activities. The library does not currently cater for children and many of the users are locals who like to get involved in what we do.

Q2: What has been a profound/memorable moment in your library? (it can be funny, something that made you change your practice, a learning moment, something poignant, anything!)

We were a venue for a vampire movie filmed by a local company. Fortunately, the actors were just using the library to conduct research on vampires rather than fighting evil! 

Q3: What has been your most successful library service offer or resource to date?

The monthly coffee mornings (with homemade cakes) are always popular and a chance for members to meet up and exchange books. I try and tie them in with an event such as a book launch or a book/plant sale. Our fortnightly talks can also occasionally reach full capacity (there is seating for thirty-five).

Q4: What top tip, or piece of advice, can you offer to aspiring library and information professionals?

Don’t give up if it is something you really want to pursue. When I began (a long time ago) I wrote to over a hundred academic libraries which eventually got me a graduate trainee position at a Latin American library in London.

Q5: What top tip can you offer to experienced library and information professionals?

If time allows, consider getting involved in library related activities outside of the workplace. I used to be on the committee of the Independent Libraries Association and I am currently preparing a talk for their AGM in Penzance in May. I am also Chair of CILIP South West and busy organising our AGM and Professional Development Day at Exeter Central Library in April. To coincide with all this, I am in the process of going for my Fellowship with CILIP. I find all this does support my paid work (which admittedly is part-time).

Knowledge and Libraries: a story of FEDIP membership

Knowledge, Libraries, and Technologies

Knowledge Services and Libraries are adapting to new technologies, experimenting with data analysis, generative AI, and new social media platforms.

Historically, and presently, libraries have enabled equal access to technologies, from providing the public with access to computers and the internet, to showcasing 3D printer technologies and virtual/augmented reality!

Library, knowledge and information professionals are pioneers and users of technology.

Last year, I got a chance to be a member of FEDIP for free, courtesy of CILIP! I work in the NHS as a Knowledge Specialist. With a keen interest in innovative technologies, I was pretty excited to learn new things.

What is FEDIP?

FEDIP: Federation for Informatics Professionals in Health and Social Care (pronounced FED-eye-P) is a body comprised of folks interest in health and care informatics, in its many forms.

It fosters spaces for people with similar interests to network, supporting their learning and professional development.

It has a lot of excellent resources in the FEDIP Hub; e-learning courses, videos and plenty to read!

There’s also member registration, a bit like chartership, and the FEDIP Standard, which makes for interesting reading.

Something else I found interesting was their job description database, highlighting loads of different jobs descriptions!

E-Learning and CPD

I did a quick online course on using R, a statistical computing language. It was very friendly for complete beginners, and it was fun to try out different things! Probably better to try that out on a non-work PC, as the course requires you to download a bit of software.

The forums are good to read too! I haven’t been active on them, partly due to shyness, and partly due to being super busy, but it’s certainly ‘on my list’ of things to do in the future.

There’s also handy monthly newsletters, which notifies people of upcoming webinars, and other useful information.

And speaking of webinars…

FEDIP’s fabulous webinars

There are frequent webinars looking at advances in technology and innovation in healthcare, which I have found truly fascinating. I find that they don’t require too much technology know-how; a lot of the content is often very user-friendly.

A few webinars I attended were:

• ‘Embedding a Culture of CPD in Digital, Data and Technology Teams’
• ‘Gearing up for AI’

It was great to hear perspectives from across the health and care sector nationally, with many facing similar challenges around workloads, AI literacy needs, information needs around upskilling the workforce, and assessing the impact of new technologies.

The future

I’m doing a PGCert and feel that there’s a lot I have yet to cover in FEDIP, but I want to try out member registration after finishing up my course! I will be continuing my membership in FEDIP, as I think it’s really worthwhile and although I haven’t been able to immerse myself as much as I had originally planned this year, I hope to do so more in the future!

Librarians are adapting to meet the challenges of new technologies, like they always have done in the past.

I look forward to continuing my FEDIP membership, and learning more as time goes on!

CILIP Conference 2023 report by Marlène Rak, Subject Support Librarian, UWE Bristol.

Following my application to receive a bursary from CILIP South West Members Network, I had the immense pleasure to attend the CILIP Conference 2023 in Birmingham last July. This was such a lovely way to end an otherwise busy academic year and I knew, from looking at the conference programme, that some tough decisions would have to be made as to what talks to attend, with some events running concurrently.

Photography by Marlène Rak

Opening the Conference, John Trevor-Allen, CILIP’s President, reminded us about how much our association has achieved over the past 125 years, uniting practitioners across sectors as well as internationally by bringing representatives from all domains. This was an opportunity for us all, he told us, to make and renew contacts and look to the future together, learn from each other and inform the services that we offer to society at large. Bringing and sharing ideas and initiatives that we can then cascade on to colleagues has the potential to touch millions of lives. Sparking inspiration in others to help moving our profession is what information professionals do. “Wherever the next 125 years take us, it starts right here […], it starts right now, and it starts with you”, enthused Trevor-Allen.

Rebecka Isaksson, who used to find knowledge management very boring before eventually embracing it (according to her own words and as a result of her passion for communities of practice), delivered the first keynote on driving value through AI-powered Knowledge Management. Her excitement for generative AI was palpable in the room, and her eagerness and energy set the tone for the remainder of the day. It was lovely to hear her comment on how, despite her background in business and management, she felt she had found her tribe amongst this bunch of friendly information professionals.

Throughout the two-day event, many enthusiastic speakers shared their ideas, dilemmas and solutions on key issues currently affecting our professions. Their vision for what is yet to come was always being offered with eagerness and joy and, and sometimes apprehension too, but never with indifference. As the conference progressed, some of the themes being discussed kept coming back to the fore more regularly than others; themes such as the impact of artificial intelligence on our lives and profession, the transforming and transformative nature of leadership, knowledge management, engagement and humanity. It seems that for most of us, generative AI displays a real challenge, and not just for academic librarians for whom the ramifications on their delivery of study skills are immediate. But we do have to bear in mind that AI represents more opportunities than risks, despite a lot of people having a very emotional response to it; therefore, a fear of it.

Photography by Marlène Rak

There is a lot of hype going on around AI now and it is crucial to remember that we live in a very polarised world where the truth generally lies somewhere in between. We need to accept that artificial intelligence, as scary as it may appear to some, and human intelligence aren’t in competition, and better results can be generated when they are both being used together. “ChatGPT is NOT cheating, it’s working smart” reassured us Rebecka Isaksson. Despite those technological advancements, however, we do need to remember that many people are at a great risk of being left behind. It is crucial, more than ever, that we are able to build a digitally ready workforce. This applies to the overall workforce, not only information specialists. Our future will look very different from today, with lots of opportunities and implications that we neither understand nor know about just yet.

On the theme of leadership, it is important to highlight that being a leader doesn’t equate to being in a managerial position. Anyone, regardless of their job title or length of service, should be able to influence others. Leadership is about having a vision and inspiring. Sadly, though, opportunities for the young generations coming through our doors are scarce, regardless of how much skills, passion and energy newer professionals may have. The lack of diversity in our profession is a challenge; the Victorian structure of power has been dismantled but this hasn’t quite gone far enough. Another consideration to be made is that people working in libraries are often risk-averse; our culture is very different from, say, the more reactive culture that has been adopted in other industries such as IT. Which brings us to the thought-provoking keynote from Masud Khokhar on day 2 of the conference.

A cultural and functional shift ought to be enabled for changes that we aspire to become a reality. “Change is external, transition is internal” pointed out Khokhar. His talk on redesigning leadership for continuous innovation embodied a spectacular dive into the human mind and how the later shapes the way we select and process information. Ultimately, leadership is a human story, not a technology-driven phenomenon. Being authentic, genuine and helpful is certainly something a lot of those who spoke at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole valued above all. So was being consistent, and building rapport with people – which really was at the heart of this life-affirming symposium. Later that day, we were reminded by Sathnam Sanghera, who was splendidly led by Kate Robinson’s considerate chairing, that literacy helps escape the poverty trap. Now a celebrated British journalist and best-selling author, Sanghera, the son of an illiterate dad and a mum who doesn’t speak English, did not own a single book un􀆟l the age of 10. Lamen􀆟ng the lack of funding for public libraries and the general apathy towards some of the truly shocking statistics on the percentage of children in the UK not owing a single book due to poverty (18%, or close to 1 in 8 children, according to the findings from a 2019 survey conducted by the National Literacy Trust on over 56,000 children aged 9 to 18 across the UK), Sanghera joked that “maybe we need a footballer in the room”.

And perhaps this very last point was the one that tied us all together: the irrefutable truth that, as justly put across by Nick Poole in his welcome note on the morning of that same day, “We love libraries not just for what they are, but what they represent: an opportunity for everyone”. And to end on this note which, I am sure, will ring true for many, I would like to comment on what a privilege it was to attend the Conference, hear so many thought-provoking reflections, and rejoice in the fact that libraries are indeed the backbone of humanity. Thank you CILIP South West Members Network for having given me the great pleasure to partake in such an illuminating, joyful and ultimately, unforgettable occasion.

On the topic of Fellowship, by Donna Gundry

Donna Gundry, author

I joined what was then called Plymouth College of Art and Design in 2009 as the assistant manager, in a job share role. Spending the first two years working full time and simultaneously completing my Post Graduate via distance learning in Information and Library Studies, moving to the position of Library manager. In 2012 the institution changed its name to Plymouth College of Art and the following year having moved line managers I completed my CILIP chartership. In 2013 with the completion of my chartership, the institution was awarded Taught degree Awarding powers (2019) and I had changed line management twice during this time as well as become the Head of Library Services. With each new line manager, though the role has fundamentally stayed the same, the lens at which my role has been looked at, has altered and shifted. This has coincided with the institution developing and strengthening its position within Higher Education. Having been a mentor with CILIP, then a PRSO, I realised in speaking to other librarians, that I had accrued a mass of experience and expertise that would support my application for Fellowship. Having started the process in 2017, I was able to submit my application in 2019, just prior to Covid Lockdowns. During this time, I received the support from the Senior Leadership Team in completing my portfolio. Hopefully this conveys the changes within the institution, and my role and has been a backdrop for me wanting to complete my fellowship. All which I feel reflects the changes within Higher education as a sector, as the institution has grown as has my skill set.

There were several reasons why I wished to undertake my fellowship, notwithstanding the changes to the institution and role.  Also working in education, means that every year you are seeing students grow and learn, pushing themselves to succeed, and part of me wanted to have that same experience and with that receive acknowledgment for my achievements. Alongside this, I wanted to challenge myself, to see if I could achieve my fellowship. From my work as PRSO I knew that there was a significant step up between chartership and fellowship, in particular addressing the wider context in which the profession sits.

On the whole, the experience was very rewarding and enjoyable, being given time to reflect on projects and my experiences. In my everyday role, there might not be the time to do this. Having completed my chartership, I knew that I needed to be strict with my timings, from the outset I set myself a personal target of having to submit in under two years, so the process was reflective of a moment in time and didn’t spill into several academic years. Though at times it did feel like hard work, especially when I was short of time, during particular pinch points in the year. Having created a strong template for my chartership, I knew from the start I wanted to replicate that through my fellowship, providing structure to the portfolio and enabling me to link the PKSB, with my reflection and CILIPs criteria.

I feel, my CILIP Fellowship provides myself with a greater standing with both the library and academic communities, as for alongside academics it provides me with a compatible professional recognition. My CILIP fellowship also compliments my HEA Senior Fellowship, which I completed in 2022.

I am not sure if having my CILIP fellowship has automatically provided me with more professional opportunities or it has made me seek out more opportunities. Either way, completing my Fellowship has put me in a stronger position, professionally speaking. This has been reflected in being the PRSO for CILIP SW as well as the chair of SWRLS. I am definitely an advocate for the profession and supporting others to achieve their professional goals and potential.

My tips for anyone considering fellowship would be:

If you have the experience then I would do it – it’s rare to find time to reflect on yourself and completing your fellowship is an excellent way to work out a future direction and drive.

Find a mentor, though this is not essential, having a professional friend as a sounding board, proof reader and jargon buster can be highly useful. This can support your confidence and make it less isolating.

Completing your fellowship gives you time to strengthen your role in areas that you might not previously have the opportunity to. Though using the PKSB, this might invigour new projects or working methods. It provides an opportunity to show your knowledge and skills within a specialist area.

During a competitive job market, this might provide the edge over another person, landing that dream job. If not changing jobs, it shows your employer that you have the determination to achieve your goals.

Also likely to have yourself feel more motivated and empowered within your career, pushing boundaries with your role.

Dartington Library – Ditching Dewey

Introduction

I took the role of Librarian and Learning Resources Coordinator at Dartington Hall Trust because not only was it an ambition of mine to one day work for Schumacher College, which is based at Dartington, but it was also a chance to work with an interesting and unique collection which was raw and develop it.  I have three areas of work that are concerning me which I will outline here:

• Digitising the library catalogue;
• Classification of the collections; and,
• Dartington archive.

Digitising the library catalogue

I already knew that the library only had a card catalogue.  As I was appointed as the first professional librarian since 2010 when the Dartington College of Arts was merged with Falmouth University I should not have been that surprised.  Since 2010, volunteers and admin staff have been keeping the remaining library functioning.

I am therefore seeking the best Library Management System (LMS) for the library and have visited other libraries to find out which one would work best and offer good value for money.  My previous work experience at Bicton College, Cornwall College and Exeter College was primarily with ISOxford Heritage LMS.  However, I wanted to explore other options for this library.  So far, I have also considered AccessIT and Koha both of which have advantages and disadvantages. 

Classification of the collections

The library had developed its very own Classification System. A library assistant, who had worked in the Schumacher library in the early 2000s had devised the system when the library was a much smaller collection.  Since 2011, a volunteer librarian at Dartington developed the system into the one I see today that the collections were broadly arranged around the curriculum areas and if you look at the subject areas there were 8 categories not unlike the standard classification systems followed by other libraries. Many of the Post-Graduate courses taught at Dartington are cross-discipline and so using broad categories has led to a fractured collection as sections have grown with items in the environment section in many topics being housed together e.g., agriculture, horticulture and food were all under the same section arranged alphabetically by author surname.

Schumacher College Classification System
Devised by Gideon Kossoff
E	Environment
HH	Holistic Health
L	Learning and Education
N	New Economics
P	Psychology
R	Religion
S	Science
W	Wider Literature

Example of Environment subdivision

E	Environment subdivisions
	EA – Growing – Agriculture, Horticulture and Food Science – includes food politics, soil, human nutrition, food preserving, pests and diseases, permaculture, gardening, farming, GM
	EB – Local and British Landscape – includes field guides and walking guides
	EC – Practical Conservation – Wildlife management, environmental restoration, pollution, non-urban design, landscape design, forestry social capital, population issues, agricultural biotech, water conservation
	ED – Eco-design – includes craft building, design, heritage and tourism
	EG – Global Transition – includes transition town movement, future projections, disaster scenarios, post-peak oil, environmental movements, sustainability, occupy, climate change, social ecology, oceans
	EE – Energy – includes renewable energy
	EM – Meteorology and Geology
	EU – Urbanisation – includes housing, architecture, ecovillages and communities, cities and planning, land ownership, the commons, smallholdings, working together

Example of Science subdivision

S	Science subdivisions
	SB – Biology includes evolution, brain science, genetics, animal studies, genetic engineering, botany, socio-biology, artificial intelligence
	SG – General Science – includes classical physics and chemistry, history of science and technology, philosophy of science, cosmology.
	SM – Mathematics
	SP – Radical Science – includes phenomenology of science, Bortoft, Goethe, Sheldrake, Peat, Quantum Physics, Intuitive knowing in science
	SS – Ecology and Living Systems – includes Gaia, fractals, biomimicry, Lovelock, Capra, Goodwin, complex living systems

Difficulties are now arising with the Wider Literature category which was expanding rapidly. In part, this is due to the expansion of the Higher Education course offer from Ecology and Sustainability into Arts and Performance.

As part of the digitisation process of the library I also needed to rationalise the arrangement of the collection.  I’m very familiar with Dewey Decimal Classification System (DDC) and was therefore keen to use this tried and tested system even though there are some shortfalls as with any Classification system.  So, I started to explore some of the alternatives to Dewey to see if I could find a compromise that would suit the specialist Dartington Library.  The collection has a good emphasis on the environment and sustainability as well as indigenous subjects and a diverse faith collection.

I happened to be on holiday in York and whilst visiting the National Railway Museum I could not resist visiting the library.  I was very interested in their Classification System – Modified Ottley, which is a specialist railway system to deal with the large number of items in particular areas of study.

I then started to research other classification systems and began to also look at the advantages and disadvantages of the Dewey system.

I had, up to that point, thought that DDC was a reasonable one but what I hadn’t known was much about Melvil Dewey himself.  Some websites such as the OCLC somewhat gloss over the history – which is somewhat interesting in itself – describing his legacy as ‘complex’(OCLC, 2023). When I explored the topic further, what I found was a revelation to me.  Melvil Dewey had an interesting history, and he was eventually ostracized by the American Library Association despite being its founder member due to his objectionable views and actions (Ford,2018).  He was found to be a racist, antisemite and was found to have sexually harassed many women when he was in a position of power.  This revelation turned everything I had thought about the DDC on its head and raised serious questions.  Other libraries had taken the lead and many school and youth libraries had started to reclassify and were questioning the system (Joseph, 2021). Could I even use the DDC system for Dartington Library?  I realised then that there was a reason why some areas of the system were arranged the way they are – for example the religion section allows most of the 200s to concentrate on Christianity and only the 290s for other faiths (Gooding-Call, 2021). OCLC have obviously worked hard to modify DDC to meet the need of new subjects but how much has been done to decolonise and erase the harm done by Melvil Dewey? Have you had discussions in your library about Dewey and how have you overcome the dilemma.  What would your advice be to me?

I felt like I needed to distance Dartington from this legacy.  But what were the alternatives?

I found some interesting articles on the Mayonnaise Classification system as adopted by the Brautigan library (Woodcock,2022) where the system literally used mayonnaise jars to separate categories on the shelves. I needed to consider other non-sauce-based systems. Joking aside, this system was created for a specialist library where the Library of Congress System was not working beneficially for users.

The other well used and recognised systems used throughout the world were the Library of Congress Classification System (LCC) which is used by many academic universities in the UK including Oxford University. The Universal Decimal Classification System (UDC) which although stemmed from the DDC system there were some interesting ways that expanded that system which I liked, and which distanced itself from Dewey enough that it could be a possibility.   Described as the “world’s foremost multilingual classification scheme for all fields of knowledge and a sophisticated indexing and retrieval tool” by the UDC (2023). It has a hierarchical arrangement and combines numerals and common punctuation marks.  It certainly looks to be fairer for religious systems with numbers 21/29 used.

21        Prehistoric and primitive religions

22        Religions originating in the Far East

23        Religions originating in Indian Sub-continent.  Hindu religion.

24        Buddhis

25        Religions of antiquity.

26        Judaism

27        Christianity

28        Islam

29        Modern spiritual movements

The UDC is used extensively in India which interested me as Dartington has links with India.  It has seen a decline in usage in recent years mostly because it is a little more complex alongside a decline in professional staff in academic libraries has meant that the libraries have lapsed into more use of DDC than the UDC (Slavik, 2008).

I would be interested to hear from you especially if you use the UDC system in your library or perhaps another system.

Dartington Archive

I have also inherited oversight of a large archive for the Dartington Trust housed at SW Heritage in Exeter.  It was only after I had started in the role that I realised that Dartington had a large archive and a great deal of interest from researchers seeking to use the archive. I’m learning a lot about archives and at this point in my career it is so refreshing to find that information work can lead us to new adventures and interest. I was also naively looking to see if a Library Management System (LMS) could be used for both the library catalogue and for the archive catalogue currently using CALM records system. It seems that this is not possible due to the different way in which the records are collected and accessed.  Archive records are collated in a ‘family tree’ hierarchical arrangement to make looking for associated records easier. I’m very grateful for the support and encouragement from other professionals and volunteers such as Kevin Mount at Dartington, Irene Andrews and Cade Simpson at SW Heritage and Carole Green at Falmouth University Archives.  Dartington also has some archives at Falmouth University following the merger of the Dartington College of Arts with Falmouth University in 2010.

Conclusion

The scale of the task ahead is both challenging and exciting.

After working in Further Education settings for nearly 30 years I took the plunge and moved to Dartington Hall Trust in April 2023.  It has been a refreshing change to find out about the archives and history of Dartington as well as support for the Higher Education students studying at Schumacher College and Dartington School of Arts. I am so grateful to those volunteers and staff members as we have such an interesting and specialist collection in the library now which is down to the Dartington community.  My job is to improve the system so that students and staff can more easily find materials in the library.  Although a online library catalogue would inevitably improve searchability I also want the collection to be rational and relevant for users browsing the shelves which is why the classification order is an important element for me.  It is the arrangement on the shelves that can lead to discoveries with research with a largely print-based collection which is also unique.

I hope that soon I will be able to arrange a SW CILIP members visit to Dartington and have therefore whetted your appetite with a few photos of the Estate and the libraries and I’m sure that we will be able to have some interesting discussions about Classification Systems.

Simonetta Taylor

Librarian and Learning Resource Coordinator

Dartington Hall Trust, Totnes, Devon

Simonetta.taylor@schumachercollege.org.uk

References

Ford, A. (2018, June 1). Bringing Harassment Out of the History Books: Addressing the troubling aspects of Melvil Dewey’s legacy. American Libraries. Retrieved July 1, 2023, from https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2018/06/01/melvil-dewey-bringing-harassment-out-of-the-history-books/

Gooding-Call, A. (2021, September 21). Racism in the Dewey Decimal System. Book Riot. Retrieved July 1, 2023, from https://bookriot.com/racism-in-the-dewey-decimal-system/

Joseph, C. (2021, August 18). Move Over, Melvil! Momentum Grows to Eliminate Bias and Racism in the 145-year-old Dewey Decimal System. School Library Journal. Retrieved July 1, 2023, from https://www.slj.com/story/move-over-melvil-momentum-grows-to-eliminate-bias-and-racism-in-the-145-year-old-dewey-decimal-system

OCLC. (2023). How one library pioneer profoundly influenced modern librarianship. OCLC Dewey Services. Retrieved July 1, 2023, from https://www.oclc.org/en/dewey/resources/biography.html

Slavic, A. (2008) “Use of the universal decimal classification: A world-wide survey,” Journal of Documentation, 64(2), pp. 211–228. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1108/00220410810858029.

UDC. (2023) About Universal Decimal Classification (UDC): What is UDC? UDC Consortium. Retrieved July 1, 2023, from https://www.proquest.com/docview/217979311

Woodcock, C. (2022, February 2). We Need to Radically Rethink the Library of Congress Classification. Literary Hub. Retrieved July 1, 2023, from https://lithub.com/we-need-to-radically-rethink-the-library-of-congress-classification/

A conversation with Marlène, Subject Support Librarian

A conversation with Marlène, Subject Support Librarian

Q1: Introduce yourself! What’s your current role and/or responsibilities in the Library and Information Professional world? 

My name is Marlène Rak, I am a Subject Support Librarian at the University of the West of England (UWE). My role includes delivering embedded study skills sessions to students within the College of Health, Science and Society, facilitating academic skills workshops across faculties and supporting staff and students with their enquiries – whether online via email and Ask a Librarian or face-to-face in the library. I am also a Committee Member for CILIP’s Library and Information Research Group (LIRG) and volunteer as their Events Officer.

Q2: What has been a profound/memorable moment in your career?  

A memorable moment in my career, to date, was standing in front of a class of 120 nursing students for a one-hour-long overview of UWE’s library services – barely two weeks into my first term of teaching. I was absolutely terrified beforehand, and equally surprised as the session unfolded, to discover that not a single one of them tried fleeing the lecture hall before the end of the session. Talk about baptism by fire!

Q3: What has been your favourite role or responsibility to date?  

My role is quite varied and my schedule can look very different from one day to another. I certainly enjoy each and every facet of working as a librarian in higher education; be it meeting online with a programme leader to discuss next academic year’s library input, preparing for a one-to-one appointment with a student needing help with their literature search for an upcoming assignment, clarifying a reference via chat or exploring a module leader’s request to facilitate access to new materials for the following term. Aside from my more regular responsibilities, I have recently embarked on a 12-month research project with librarians and researchers from LIRG. I am having a fantastic time learning bucketloads from my more experienced peers in the group and feel extremely grateful for the opportunity, whilst hoping my contributions are assisting them in progressing this wonderful project too.

Q4: What top tip, or piece of advice, can you offer to aspiring library and information professionals? 

My top tip to aspiring library and information professionals is to keep trying and embrace any opportunity as a good opportunity. Getting this first role was neither an easy nor a straightforward task to accomplish but there was plenty help available along the way. CILIP were wonderful in guiding me and sharing their nuggets of wisdom at times when I had thought the possible to have become impossible. So, if you aren’t currently working within information or library services, pick up your phone and talk to them. And if you already have access to professionals in your chosen field, go and talk to those guys instead, again and again. There are loads of folks out there who are keen to support you in your journey. 

Q5: What top tip can you offer to experienced library and information professionals? 

This question is a tricky one. As a new information professional who is still very much learning the ropes, I am certainly not in a position to advocate for the more experienced ones. However, I would like to ask them to please remember that incredible sense of satisfaction they experienced when first starting out, particularly on days where the mundane can drag even the most enthusiastic ones of us down. Keep this feeling of excitement alive, stay open-minded to new ways of being and doing, keep innovating. 

‘The Calm Before the Storm’; an empty lecture theatre, taken by Marlène Rak.

Language Models and Libraries

By Hannah Wood

There’s been plenty of buzz since the release of ChatGPT, Bing AI and other artificially intelligent tools. People are using them in all sorts of different ways. From making emails to (naughtily) drafting academic essays, language models are making headlines! 

In this piece we’ll take a look at what they are, what they can do for library, information and knowledge professionals, and what to look out for.  

What are language models? 

Language models are applications that can respond to queries in a ‘human’ way. They are often described as a narrow form of artificial intelligence. Narrow, because they require human prompts and input in order to perform tasks. They use statistical models (among other things) to predict the next word in a sequence. 

They are ‘trained’ to understand and use human language. This is achieved by processing huge volumes of textual information, from e-books to articles to social media posts. 

ChatGPT, a popular language model, was trained in this way. The GPT stands for ‘Generative Pre-trained Transformer’ which means that it has processed lots of information to understand and respond to user queries. 

What can they do?  

Depends on the tool! Most can provide summaries to complex topics, organise information in new and interesting ways, and converse on practically any topic.  

Some can also search the internet and provide links to useful websites, generate poetry, and even text adventures! They can summarise the latest news and offer suggestions for areas to search. Some language models even have image generation applications as part of their package, meaning people can generate images according to their specifications. There is controversy around this however, concerning copyright debates and artistic talent. 

They can be handy for drafting quick emails, creating meal plans, and assisting with tasks such as searching, writing up library strategy and policy, and helping with creating targeted copywriting for library marketing materials. 

Some researchers have credited chatbots in their research papers. This is now frowned upon, and many publishers no longer allow this, due to concerns about authorship and accountability. 

What should we look out for? 

As with any technology, there are things to look out for. Some language models hallucinate, which means they make things up and present them as facts. There are different reasons for this, such as the tool drawing from confused or incorrect data, or because the language model has identified a ‘gap’ in the data and randomly generated content to compensate. 

It is key to double-check sources of information, and this is more important now than it ever was before. Sometimes it’s not always clear where these tools get their information from, which undermines their credibility. 

A conversation with Jo, NHS Knowledge Specialist

Q1: Introduce yourself! What’s your current role and/or responsibilities in the Library and Information Professional world?  

Hello! I’m Jo, and I work at Health Education England as a Knowledge Specialist (best job title ever) in the Knowledge Management team.  

Q2: What has been a profound/memorable moment in your career?  

I very much tripped and fell into the library and information profession: my first “career” – in translation – nearly ended me, and once I’d made my escape I naively thought I’d see if I could get a nice, relaxing job in a library while I decided what to do with my life. At the time I didn’t fully appreciate how lucky I was to actually get a job in a library, particularly as I clearly had no idea what it would actually involve and definitely said, “I really like books!” in the interview (honestly, I can’t believe they hired me). However, I don’t think I could have chosen a better line of work to trip and fall into. I spent a “challenging” academic year as an assistant in a secondary school library, followed by a 12-month stint in a corporate information service, before eventually landing in the NHS in 2015, and it’s been joyous. 

Q3: What has been your favourite role or responsibility to date?  

 Once I realised what literature searches were, I decided I wanted a job that was all literature searches, all the time. I don’t know if such a job exists, but my current role comes pretty close. I flipping LOVE hunting for evidence – bonus points if it’s in an area I know nothing about, so I can learn something new in the process. Yes, I am an awful nerd. I also really love working in the NHS, and the fact that the work I do supports healthcare professionals and has an impact on patient care is extremely cool. 

Q4: What top tip, or piece of advice, can you offer to aspiring library and information professionals? 

Imposter syndrome will convince you that you’re not qualified to do things you’re absolutely capable of; please ignore it as much as you can. I applied for my current job even though I felt like I wasn’t experienced enough, and I could not have been any more surprised when I got it. I’ve now been here for three years, and so far I haven’t broken anything.  

Q5: What top tip can you offer to experienced library and information professionals? 

Probably something similar re imposter syndrome, because as far as I can tell it doesn’t go away (ugh). You have so many skills and so much to offer! Please don’t allow anyone in your organisation (or in life generally, actually) to be dismissive of what you do.