Scottish Libraries, Column 2

I suppose there’s only one way to begin a President’s column this month. As the Earl of Seafield said when he signed the Treaty of Union in 1706, “Now there’s ane end of ane old sang”. So goodbye SLA, hello CILIPS. It feels like changing a pair of comfortable slippers for new dress shoes that need broken in. So for the moment we’ll just hirple along getting used to it. So a second Presidential column beckons – or perhaps a first CILIPS one – just far enough after the deadline to bring worry marks to the editorial brow.. One of the nice things about writing last month’s column was the fact that it brought back into touch a couple of former colleagues with whom contact had been lost. Inevitably this leads to another bout of reminiscing about the good old days and how the world has gone to the dogs.

The first part of the year is always busy at the day job as we go through the annual ritual of mutual self-mortification known as the budget round. This year everyone from the Principal to the Deans of Faculty agree that the Library needs more money, but it will be a few more weeks before we know how much hard cash that actually translates into. The same is true for the Centre for Digital Library Research, where I also have a role and whose status and future depends on how well the Funding Council funds research. Fortunately the news is good and the Centre should continue to grow and expand, not least working with SLAINTE developing information portals.

This month I attended the first IT Literacy conference, held in Glasgow, but with delegates from all over the world. This produced some excellent cross-disciplinary thinking and debate between librarians, computer staff and educationalists. I’ve reached that stage in the life of conference man where I’ve lost touch with real research but can still do the after dinner speech. This was a little more traumatic than usual as I was road-testing an effort to be used after three conference dinners in the next six months. You have been warned. The dinner was held at the new (to me) venue of the Piping Centre in Cowcaddens with an excellent Scottish menu and a healthily satisfied set of diners poured out into a wet Glasgow night afterwards.

I also accepted an invitation from the Welsh Library Association to join them for their annual conference at Llandrindod Wells. A small town not dissimilar to Peebles and a nice Best Western Hotel, but curiously painted a particularly virulent shade of green. The usual hotel shop was full of tasteless souvenirs oddly including Scottish golfing tees and obscure golfing instruments. However there was also a pair of Wally Dugs which I coveted, a curious affliction. Fortunately a late night in the bar discussing the library world kept me from the shop the next morning and my wallet remained safe. The conference was an excellent showcase for what is going on in Wales, much enlivened by a welcome speech from the local Council Leader who noted with no sense of irony or of the ridiculous that he used a library over the border in England because the service in his own area was so inconvenient. Although keenly aware of having an Assembly rather than a Parliament, the Welsh clearly revel in the freedom devolution has brought. Comparisons were interesting rather than odious; there was a strong Irish presence leading to further interesting contrasts; there was a strong message about cross-sectoral collaboration led here by the Welsh Arts Council and about the role of the Library as a performance space and the largest cultural market. All in all an excellent conference with lots of food for thought on the potential for Celtic collaboration.

The other business in the month came with the sudden hospitalisation of Ross Shimmon, Secretary-General of IFLA and formerly of the Library Association. This caused some pandemonium. Fortunately Ross is now out of hospital and doing well although he will be out of commission until June. The Executive Committee is then left with much to do working with the staff to keep the momentum going towards Glasgow IFLA. The Governing Board met in March and had a presentation from the Glasgow Organising Committee. The Board was clearly excited by the programme and the planning and even managed a round of applause when the conference bag was “unveiled”. Better still was the news that the Scottish Executive is to fund almost 100 places at IFLA for Scottish librarians. No details yet on how these will be disbursed it it does mean that the Tartan Army should be there in strength telling the tale of how we do it good in Scotland.

In amongst all of this activity an idle Sunday afternoon walk round Glasgow Necropolis accidentally revealed the headstone of one William Miller a citizen of the parish in the 1820’s. To add to the ever lengthening list of Scottish inventions, the stone reveals (at least to me) that WWW was invented in Scotland. Yes Miller wrote the first W3 code almost two centuries ago. Step forward the author of Wee Willie Winkie.

d.law@strath.ac.uk