Abstract
Is anyone interested in the current state of British librarianship and information work? Seemingly not, as far as British mainstream publishers are concerned. Abandoned by the professional association’s own publisher (Library Association Publishing, now Facet) in the 1990s, the five-yearly serial British Librarianship and Information Work (hence BLIW, now edited by John Bowman) has now been cast adrift by Ashgate, claiming that ‘sales were too few to justify continuation’ (p. xi). However, undeterred, Bowman has bravely chosen to self-publish the latest edition of BLIW utilising the services of Lulu Enterprises, an American self-publishing company based in North Carolina (see www.lulu.com), from whom the book is available. He has been supported in his endeavours by gratis contributions from around 30 specialist authors. Even before considering the merits or otherwise of the book, I have no hesitation in wishing his venture every success. Not only is a periodic review of the library and information work in Britain indispensable, as Bowman argues ‘to future historians’ (p. xi), but it ought be essential reading for policymakers, practitioners, academics, students – indeed anyone claiming to be a (self) critical professional and aiming to make informed decisions about their work and career.
Like previous editions of BLIW 1 this one, covering the years 2006–2010, mainly consists of c.20 chapters which focus on the core institutional divisions of library and information services (hence LIS) – national, public, academic and various forms of specialised provision. These are followed by a series of contributions on cross-sectoral themes such as research; buildings; information literacy; cataloguing, classification; and indexing. Coverage is not quite as comprehensive as in previous editions. As the editor himself notes, it is disappointing that topics such as education and training, archives and preservation failed to materialise from prospective authors. More worryingly, it seems that chapters on CILIP (the UK professional association), scientific and technical information services and business and commercial information were never commissioned. Counterbalancing this, however, a particular strength of this BLIW is its detailed coverage of specialist provision in the cultural sector: independent libraries, special collections, rare books, art, music and map collections. As we shall see, this emphasis arguably considerably influences the overall impression of British LIS that emerges from the pages of this volume.
Each chapter aims to provide, first, a succinct (c.7500 words) survey of the main developments, issues and debates in its chosen area, together with, second, an entry point to supporting literature and information sources via notes and references. Almost all of the chapters succeed in the second of these objectives: indeed the book as a whole could be usefully utilised as a critical bibliography/current awareness list (one chapter, Margaret Coutts’s exhaustively researched ‘University libraries’ has no fewer than 172 references). Most chapters also meet the first objective and provide authoritative, well researched, well balanced and readable analyses of their subject matter. Some, such as Coutts’s aforementioned contribution; Stella Thebridge’s ‘Services to children and young people’; Richard Wilson’s ‘News libraries’; Martin Flynn’s ‘Art libraries’; and Karen Latimer’s ‘Library buildings’ nevertheless deserve a special mention. They stand out both because of the depth and range of their analysis and because their comments and conclusions say much about the condition of contemporary British librarianship and information work as a whole.
Inevitably, there are some disappointments. Both of the chapters on public libraries tend to bog themselves down in the detail of official reports, guidelines and recommendations without really offering a convincing analysis of overall trends – Thebridge’s chapter on children and young people, it seems to me, gets to the heart of the dilemma facing public sector provision much more clearly. The chapter on ‘Research’ is similarly rather inward looking and preoccupied with the bureaucratic minutiae of LIS research – the paraphernalia of funding regimes, research assessment exercises and impact factors – but it says little about the actual content of research or its value to and impact upon the profession. Some other chapters are rather brief and/or fragmented. Those on ‘Colleges of further education’ and ‘Information literacy’ really need to be read in conjunction with the respective authors’ contributions to previous BLIWs, for they are in effect updates only. The chapter on ‘Official publications’ has no fewer than nine authors (some kind of record?) and, although containing useful facts, reads like a report designed by committee.
One other potential critique of BLIW might stress its heterogeneity: unlike many other edited collections this one lacks a stated unifying theme, and many readers will, I suspect, treat it like a journal or encyclopaedia, reading only the chapters relating to their own specialist interest. Such an approach, entirely legitimate as it is, would, however, miss a great deal. For, despite its diverse range, the majority of contributors to BLIW do in fact address an overarching issue: the informatization of library and information work and the coming together (or otherwise) of the traditional library and the technoculture of the digital age. Between them, nearly all of the contributors to BLIW describe a series of processes, strategies, trajectories and outcomes relating to the ensuing technological, organizational and cultural change. Some chapters describe stand-offs, where libraries and librarians insist on the uniqueness of documents, print and reading (see ‘Rare books …’; ‘Independent libraries’; ‘Services to children and young people’). At the other extreme, tales are told of ‘assimilation’, where libraries are dissolved, librarians redesignated as ‘knowledge managers’ and, as in the case of The Association of UK Media Librarians, funeral wakes are held to mark occupational demise (p. 270; see also chapters on ‘Government libraries’ and ‘Health and medical libraries’). Between these extremes, most contributors predictably portray a profession struggling to exploit the digital in ways which will maximize the utility and popularity of their institution. Some, like the large national libraries, appear to have the resource base and financial and organizational muscle to make such a strategy succeed. Many others, however, as Martin Flynn observes, risk ‘being overshadowed, if not overtaken, by new alternative and potentially competing services … and need a fundamentally transformative approach’(p. 220).
In the majority of cases illustrated in BLIW, this transformation is at best a work in progress. Informatization is revealed as an untidy and uneven phenomenon, and it is not over yet. As Margaret Coutts astutely observes, the period 2006–2010 is by and large only a staging-post in the ‘transition to digital predominance over print … a fundamental change that could not yet be affirmed … [and may] still require many years to come to fruition’ (p. 74). Let us hope, in the meantime, that BLIW survives in order to record, analyse and critically assess how things turn out. For it is, as John Bowman claims in his publicity for this volume, ‘History now’. In its mission to chart the transformation – even perhaps the eventual demise – of British librarianship and information work, BLIW is indeed an important resource: it holds up a mirror to the LIS community in Britain. Whatever its shortcomings, it is therefore surely deserving of a greater level of professional recognition, funding and organizational support than the current volume appears to have received.