Sunday 18 March 2007

Another thought from Valerie Johnson's book on childrens' librarianship. She quotes John Levett: "The fate of all libraries in Australia in inexorably linked to the success or failure of the public library and this is bound up with the education and performance of its managers and senior professional staff." (Johnson, p.134) John was writing about the education of public librarians, and it is a debatable statement, but interesting.

Public librarians, at the risk of starting yet another theme on this blog, is this true?

1 comment:

Tania said...

This is interesting Derek. As a public librarian, I would have to say that I can't see the fate of ALL libraries being tightly linked to whether public libraries succeed or not.

I would say that success or failure is definitely linked to manager/senior staff performanace, but that is mostly localised at the library they are based at. It could have a slight flow on - if one library failed I am sure other managers would look at the reasons why, to make sure they don't repeat the reason for the initial failure. Likewise, they would (or definitely should) seek to emulate any successes that occur.

What do others think?