Facet Publishing have announced the release of Visual Literacy for Libraries: A practical, standards-based guide.

The importance of images and visual media in today’s culture is changing what it means to be literate in the 21st century. Digital technologies have made it possible for almost anyone to create and share visual media. Yet the pervasiveness of images and visual media does not necessarily mean that individuals are able to critically view, use, and produce visual content. 

This book provides you with the tools, strategies, and confidence to apply visual literacy in a library context. You will learn ways to develop students’ visual literacy and how to use visual materials to make your own teaching more engaging. 

Ideal for the busy librarian who needs ideas, activities, and teaching strategies that are ready to implement, this book:

• shows how to challenge students to delve into finding images, using images in the research process, interpreting and analysing images, creating visual communications, and using visual content ethically
• provides ready-to-use learning activities for engaging critically with visual materials
• offers tools and techniques for increasing one’s own visual literacy confidence
• gives strategies for integrating, engaging with and advocating for visual literacy in libraries.

With this book’s guidance, you can help students master visual literacy, a key competency in today’s media-saturated world, while also enlivening your teaching with visual materials.

Visual Literacy for Libraries will be essential reading for librarians, information professionals and managers in all sectors, students of library and information science, school and higher education teachers and researchers.

-ends

Press and review copies contact:

James Williams, Marketing Manager, Facet Publishing

Tel: +44 (0)20 7255 0597
Email: james.williams@facetpublishing.co.uk

Notes:
Visual Literacy for Libraries: A practical, standards-based guide | April 2016 | 208pp | Paperback; 9781783301447; £54.95

About the authors:

Nicole E Brown is the Multidisciplinary Instruction Librarian at New York University, where she teaches research workshops to a variety of user groups and works to expand and strengthen the teaching role of librarians.

Kaila Bussert is the Foundational Experiences Librarian at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo where she leads a foundational information literacy program.

Denise Hattwig is Curator of Digital Collections at the University of Washington Bothell Library, where she collaborates with faculty and students on digital scholarship projects, facilitates digital collection and repository development, and teaches archiving and interdisciplinary image use. 

Ann Medaille is the Assessment Librarian at the University of Nevada in Reno where she coordinates library assessment efforts, teaches information literacy and research skills, and serves as the library liaison for education, art, anthropology, theatre, and dance.

The book is published by Facet Publishing and is available from Bookpoint Ltd | Tel: +44 (0)1235 827702 | Fax: +44 (0)1235 827703 | Email: facet@bookpoint.co.uk | Web: www.facetpublishing.co.uk. | Mailing Address: Mail Order Dept, 39 Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4TD. It is available in North America from the American Library Association.

The Lib Tech Meet Up will be an informal chance to share good practice in tech. Participants are asked to do a mini or micro presentation (7 or 3 min) on a web tool or technology they have used and implemented in their service successfully. This is an excellent opportunity to polish your presentation skills, network and share your experience with other librarians.

CILIP London Member Network evening meetings are open to all with a professional interest in the topic. Please note: due to the format of this event presenters get priority- limited spaces are available for non-presenters.

This event will be of particular value to anyone registered for CILIP Chartership and can contribute towards CPD requirements. The event is free, but booking is essential. If you have problems with the booking form or need to cancel your attendance please contact us on cilipinlondon@gmail.com as space is limited.

The Seminar on the History of Libraries invites you to spend a summer evening exploring some of London’s early eighteenth century libraries.

This new walk will follow in the footsteps of bookseller and antiquary John Bagford, whose An account of several libraries in and about London, for the satisfaction of the curious, both natives and foreigners was published in 1708.  John Bagford was at the centre of London’s book trade, selling collections and helping form new ones. In the process he created a unique record of the libraries that operated in the city he loved.

Alice Ford-Smith (Bernard Quaritch Ltd) will guide you through the streets and alleyways of John Bagford’s London, introducing this book history pioneer and the libraries he knew so well.

The walk will commence from the courtyard of Stationers' Hall at 5.30 pm and finish approximately 90 minutes later near Barbican and St Paul’s underground stations. Please be ready for occasional steps, and no breaks. Stationers’ Hall is located in Ave Maria Lane, London EC4M 7DD, opposite the front of St Paul’s Cathedral.

Numbers are limited to 25 people, and pre-booking is essential. Tickets, which are non-refundable, are £10 each. This event is open to all, so early booking is recommended. To book, please register through the following link: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/london-1708-a-walk-into-library-history-tickets-25348269356.

Businesses today cannot be successful without having access to information, so why can’t they see the need for information experts, asks Jinfo’s Robin Neidorf, as she tells Rob Mackinlay that the information profession may be dealing with a whole generation of commercial decision-makers with skewed ideas about the value of information.

You might not expect an adviser to corporate IM professionals to say there’s an opportunity to learn with and from public and academic professional librarians. But Robin Neidorf, Director of Research at industry analyst company Jinfo (formerly FreePint) says that commercial information professionals coping with corporate decision-makers need to understand where and how their stakeholders were taught to value information years before they ever had a job.

‘Workers aren’t just created in their 20s,’ she said. ‘They come to that period in their lives with a whole lot of experience. I think that most of the professional organisations that touch this industry struggle with the same questions: how do we make decision-makers and policy-makers understand the importance of knowledge and research? It is one of the big disconnects. Why can’t businesses see how important this is? If you can’t be a successful business today without having access to the information, why can’t you see the need for information experts?’ 

What is Jinfo?

Jinfo should have a pretty good view of these issues. Founded in 1997 under the moniker FreePint, it has deep ties to several sectors (and some government agencies in Europe, the UK and US) and these ties are based on granular technical knowledge that has to be useful to its clients in each sector. Robin said: ‘Our focus is on supporting the people who are responsible for strategy, managing internal and purchased information and making it as visible and valuable as possible in their organisations. 

‘The three main areas we cover are information sources, information technology and information value, and our clients are the professionals who are responsible for managing that expertise in their organisations. We look at what sources they want to use and where they come from, how to make sure people know how to use them and find out how people do use them. 

The question then is how do you measure the value, based on a range of variables including hard costs, soft costs, and the time involved, among others.’ 

Cultural disconnect

But alongside these strategic questions, there is a more basic need to close up the disconnects between the prevailing consumer culture of information and the practical realities inside a corporate setting. 

One of the ways this disconnect is created is through the fact that internet-based information services are perceived as ‘free’. Another is that users have become accustomed to thinking they can do all information work themselves. 

Robin said:

‘Google is doing a great job of educating users to use them, but we always have to keep in mind that Google is not a corporate tool; it’s a for-profit company that carefully designs its user experience to meet its business goals. Furthermore, most people have no idea how much expertise, research and money go into creating valuable information, making it available and making it usable. I know one large company that has six members of staff in its information centre who each spend two hours a day on compiling news for internal newsletters. And you know what? Most of the recipients think it’s an automated service. They think it’s just like setting up an alert with Google. We have to close the gap between that perception and the reality.’

Chicken and egg

Within commercial organisations themselves, as well as public libraries and academia, there is negative spiral. Robin said:

‘Part of the challenge is that IM is so under ­resourced. It makes the problem very chicken and egg. Professionals are too busy to think strategically. We know our customers don’t have time to think about the big picture things that can be turned into practical values. They don’t have time to scan the industry and decide what the biggest issues are.’ 

Even if they could, she believes that the fundamental solution lies beyond any individual professional. This certainly doesn’t mean that professionals are helpless, it means that services that bring them together to share knowledge are vital.

IM profession

The profession is changing: ‘Issues have multiplied. As a researcher, I couldn’t have picked a better industry to look at,’ says Robin. ‘The pace of change is not slowing down at all. It is very exciting but it can be stressful, there’s way more to research than you can possibly cover and there’s always something interesting coming up.’

Referring to the pressures and problems coming from outside business, she said that professional bodies and organisations lobbying on behalf of professionals have an important role. It is not something that Jinfo gets involved in but Robin said that the ­industry has ‘to use every arrow in the ­quiver to address policy makers’. She says the profession needs to invest in its external relations, adding: ‘We need to do as good a job and put as much into IM as a for-profit company should. You have to see it in that scale.’

Despite the constantly changing issues IM professionals face, Robin pointed out some relatively consistent theme changes: ‘It’s still seen as a very transactional role by some but it needs to move into a consultative expert role.’ This means moving away from a relationship focused on the short-term ­delivery of information and goals that a client has defined themselves. In a consultative relationship, the deal is more complex, long-term and collaborative.

Similarly Robin said that information professionals should not necessarily measure their value by what parts of the business they ‘own’. She said: ­

‘Intranet might come ­under IT or the communications department. The key isn’t for information services to own the intranet but to collaborate well and to be consultative so their knowledge doesn’t get lost in the ­effort to create a successful intranet.’ She said that, at the moment, it is common to hear information professionals complain that ‘by the time they find out about something it’s already a done deal’. She said: ‘The trick is to embed awareness of their role as information ­experts into other parts of the business, so that they’re brought in earlier in the process.’

Towards a national discovery service

A well-attended ­Resource Discovery Tools conference was held in Coventry last September, which scoped out the existing landscape of discovery services, and an audit is taking place of the tools which are being used across the NHS in England. We are aware that if the procurement of a national discovery service is to be actively explored (in addition to our existing link resolver) new funding will be required – a key issue in the challenging financial environment with which the NHS is faced. 

IM vs IT  

As an example, Robin said:

‘There’s such a porous boundary between content and technology. But we think that one of the biggest challenges facing business today is the need to align IT and IM, there’s an enormous barrier between these two parts of the ­organisation. There’s an essential difference in orientation. IT is all about locking down the information, making sure risk is minimised. IM is all about disseminating ­information. So they are going at it from very different directions. We have documented where that relationship is successful. It can take many different forms. Where IM reports into IT, sometimes that’s successful; sometimes it’s dreadful. So we have to go deeper than the surface – what are the characteristics that make this configuration successful?’ Other problems arise when businesses have outsourced IT: ‘In these cases the question is how do you build this relationship to push projects forward?’

No single best practice

The changing face of the IM profession hasn’t changed the perennial question: how to value work and communicate this value. On its website, Jinfo says that there are no best practices when it comes to assessing the value of IM and reporting it back to decision makers and budget setters. And this is not likely to change. Robin said:

‘It is going to depend on what your goals are. For some organisations the goal will be increased revenue, for others it will be increasing efficiency. Often for our ­pharma customers, the goal is innovation or ­research volume. Your organisation’s goal is going to define what your value will look like. Being maximally efficient is not going to be compatible with being the cheapest.’

These kinds of questions are addressed in Jinfo’s research and in its Communities of Practice (CoP) sessions, where IM professionals from a range of companies come together for facilitated discussion on research-based topics. 

Asked if staff from competitive companies are comfortable in these sessions, she said:

‘Some sectors or businesses within sectors are less comfortable sharing experience with the competition in the form of IM professionals in their sectors. Some people are more relaxed about sharing than others, there’s always a boundary and you have to watch that and enforce a strong culture of confidentiality.’

Research and collaboration

Jinfo has a quarterly cycle for its research, a recent focus, which has been a consistent theme through different variations for several years, was ‘News, and ­other ­Commodities’. Robin said:

‘A really common conversation that we get is about senior ­decision-makers asking “why do we pay thousands on a news database when I get more than I can handle on my smartphone?” Helping them to understand that the news has to be integrated into systems so that it’s efficient and available to the people that need it – that’s a challenging discussion to have for which you will need the right strategy and the right values proposition and the right metrics.’

However, the battles are not all internal. Neither is research the only route to understanding. One longstanding problem is a standoff with the companies that sell information who can appear to be in direct opposition to IM professionals.

Robin said:

‘A tension we feel in many organisations is that vendors are trying to get directly into the workflow of the users. We spend a lot of time talking to vendors and vendors are as confused as everyone else is at the moment about what’s the best way to move this forward. They’re also really struggling with what they should be focusing on, especially with businesses cutting their budgets. To help all parts of the business better understand each other’s perspective, we occasionally host CoPs that bring buyers and sellers together.’ 

Author: Rob Mackinlay (robmackinlay@hotmail.com) is a freelance reporter, and was formerly Senior Reporter at CILIP Update.

Update Magazine

This article was originally published in CILIP Update Magazine, April 2016.

There are lots of ways for CILIP members to access the full range of articles published in Update, including

• A monthly print version of the magazine
• A digital version of each new publication
• The full archive of previous editions
• Downloading the Update app on Android or Apple.

Non-CILIP members can subscribe to the digital version of the magazine or join CILIP to get access to the full range of benefits.

Read Update Magazine

Co-published by Facet Publishing, ALA and CLA, RDA Essentials is the new concise guide to cataloguing with RDA (Resource Description and Access) and is essential reading for those seeking a simplified path to creating basic RDA records.

Useful as a quick reference source, author Thomas Brenndorfer describes the key RDA concepts and vocabulary and distils RDA instructions, matching them to cataloguing practice in easy-to-follow language. The guide is fully up-to-date with the latest revisions to RDA, making it an excellent introduction whilst also serving as a bridge to more complex cataloguing.

RDA Essentials is an ideal resource for:

• small libraries that require standard cataloguing
• LIS students who need an introduction to cataloguing
• professionals seeking a ready reference source to RDA
• experienced cataloguers needing a quick summary of RDA practice.

A handy access point for solo and part-time cataloguers, Brenndorfer’s guide also supports training and classroom use in any size institution. It will be useful reading for cataloguers and metadata specialists, systems librarians, user services managers, electronic resources librarians, and digital library project managers and students on cataloguing, information management and digital library courses.

-ends

Press and review copies contact:

James Williams, Marketing Manager, Facet Publishing
Tel: +44 (0)20 7255 0597
Email: james.williams@facetpublishing.co.uk

Notes:

RDA Essentials | April 2016 | 256pp | Paperback; 9781783300563; £69.95

Thomas Brenndorfer began his career in cataloguing at the National Library of Canada in 1990. While working at the Guelph Public Library in 1997 he learned about FRBR, which had been presented at a conference on the future of AACR2 in nearby Toronto. He followed the development of FRBR to its full incorporation into a draft of RDA ten years later in 2007. Having seen the importance of FRBR for the future of catalogs he began giving presentations introducing FRBR and RDA concepts to cataloguers (and others eager to learn) at conferences hosted by the Ontario Library Association and Canadian Library Association.

The book is published by Facet Publishing and is available from Bookpoint Ltd | Tel: +44 (0)1235 827702 | Fax: +44 (0)1235 827703 | Email: facet@bookpoint.co.uk | Web: www.facetpublishing.co.uk. | Mailing Address: Mail Order Dept, 39 Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4TD. It is available in North America from the American Library Association.

Claire Sewell, Research Skills Coordinator at Cambridge University Library is preparing to attend the IFLA World Library and Information Congress in Columbus, Ohio this August, as CILIP’s 2016 IFLA Grant recipient.

A Chartered librarian working in the Office of Scholarly Communication at Cambridge University Library, Claire’s role is helping to develop an education programme for library staff and users at one of the world's top research libraries. She will share her experience and reflections in a series of blog posts and live tweeting of sessions from Columbus and formally via a conference report and presentations to the UK profession after the event.

Claire said:

“I'm especially interested in the sessions which focus on professional development for librarians. My role has responsibility for training Cambridge library staff and there are many of them with different needs so I want to see what colleagues around the world are doing in terms of staff development. I'm also interested in attending sessions which look at scholarly communication issues.”

The award was open to practitioners participating in CILIP’s Leadership Programme, a new programme providing leadership development to mid-career library and information professionals.  The successful grant application is designed to complement the learning outcomes with an opportunity to look at leadership from a global perspective.  

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Press contact

Cat Cooper, Campaigns and Communications Manager, CILIP
Tel: 020 7255 0653
Mobile: 078 674 55070
Email: cat.cooper@cilip.org.uk

Notes to editors

About Claire Sewell
A regular blogger and active member of CILIP and the wider information profession, Claire Sewell is Candidate Support Officer for CILIP East Members' Network, helping those at all levels working towards CILIP qualifications and serves as Social Media Manager on the CILIP Cataloguing and Indexing Group Committee. She is on the Editorial Board of the New Review of Academic Librarianship. Professional interests include social media in libraries, library metadata, library advocacy and improving scholarly communications.  Find Claire online at www.librarianintraining.com and on twitter @ces43
 

About CILIP
CILIP: the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals is the leading professional body for librarians, information specialists and knowledge managers. CILIP’s vision is a fair and economically prosperous society underpinned by literacy, access to information and the transfer of knowledge. CILIP is a registered charity, no. 313014. www.cilip.org.uk
 

About the IFLA Congress
The international flagship professional and trade event for the library and information services sector, the IFLA World Library and Information Congress sets the international agenda for the profession and brings together over 3,500 participants from more than 120 countries.

Event description:
ARLG NW are pleased to announce our summer event, “Social media: Can you tell if it’s working yet?”

So your service has started dabbling in social media, or you’ve been working on it for a while. But do you know if it’s working? Is it worth the time and effort you’re putting in? And do you know what your goals are? What’s the point of your social media presence? This afternoon event will address all these questions and more. This event is suitable for people at all stages of planning for their social media presence.

The programme and booking form for our AGM and Members Day in London on June 16th can be found at http://www.cilip.org.uk/uk-ein...

The day takes place at No. 11 Cavendish Square, London W1G 0AN and starts at 10:30. There is a small charge for those who are not members of UKeiG, but members can attend free. 

• Both members and non-members are asked to book a place at http://www.cilip.org.uk/uk-ein...

Looking at new trends and challenges emerging in the world of e-information and how we, as information professionals, can ensure that we keep our services at the leading edge, our speakers from the information industry present insights from their own perspectives.  Our Future Cafe, introduced by Sue Silcocks and John Wickenden, will give delegates the opportunity to discuss some of the key challenges facing information professionals in the workplace. 

Speakers include CILIP CEO, Nick Poole, speaking on the future of the profession, David Milward of Linguamatics on search and text mining, and Lin Lin of EBSCO on the search experience. After the short AGM the afternoon will be taken up by our Future Cafe and some time for networking, with drinks sponsored by Manzama.

The 38th Annual General Meeting of UKeiG, the UK eInformation Group, will be held in the No. 11 Cavendish Square, London W1G 0AN on Thursday 16th June 2016

Motions for the Annual General Meeting must be sent in writing via post or email to:

John Wickenden, UKeiG Honorary Secretary, 13 Fernhill Close, Blackwater, Camberley, Surrey, GU17 9HD
Tel: 07724 746 093
e-mail: secretary.ukeig@cilip.org.uk

Motions must be signed by two members* or subscribing members* of the Group. Motions must reach the Honorary Secretary by Tuesday, 31st May 2016.

*The term 'member' refers to members of CILIP who are members of UKeiG. 'Subscribing member' refers to members of UKeiG who are not members of CILIP.

The published Call for Motions can be found at: http://www.cilip.org.uk/uk-ein... (members will need to sign in to access)

John Wickenden
UKeiG Honorary Secretary
13 Fernhill Close
Blackwater
Camberley
Surrey, GU17 9HD

e-mail: secretary.ukeig@cilip.org.uk
Tel: 07724 746 093

The Feminist Library is a large collection of Women's Liberation Movement literature based in London. They have been supporting research, activist and community projects since 1975.

In 2015 The Feminist Library celebrates 40 years of archiving and activism. Totally volunteer run, they have created and looked after one of the most important collections of feminist material in all of the UK, and provided an inspiring learning and social space for thousands of people.

The visit will cover the Feminist Library's history and current situation, a tour of the Library, a look at its specially designed classification system and viewing some of their material.

The maximum number of attendees is 12.

Are you looking to prove the value of your library service?

Do stakeholders understand the importance of what you do?

Have you ever used the CILIP Impact Toolkit?

If you answered "No" to any of the above, then Demonstrating Your Impact is the event for you.

CILIP East of England Members Network welcome Jo Cornish (Development Officer, CILIP), who will provide an overview of the CILIP Impact Toolkit and facilitate a practical workshop on stakeholder analysis.

To avoid disappointment book by 25 May.

Following a successful scoping project between HRI Digital and Carillion to explore the future of local public libraries and library management systems (a project funded by a University of Sheffield Collaborative R&D Award), Carillion has commissioned HRI Digital to develop Phase 1 of a new type of library management system that aims to overcome the deficiencies of existing systems in the library automation software sector. The press release notes that the "ambition is to develop a library management system that is familiar to us, in the sense that it looks and behaves like the rest of our digital universe."

The chief characteristics of Oxeye will be:

• Extensible database, so that new types of information, services and apps can be developed without the need to re-configure the existing database or bolt on additional components.
• A service-oriented architecture. Services are created as standalone but visually similar apps, built around the needs (workflow) of the user (customer or staff). A library might then choose to bundle apps into a single site (e.g. for desktop PC delivery) or as a workspace containing distinct apps (e.g. for mobile/tablet delivery).
• A web-based, system-agnostic architecture. In other words, the system can be used on any desktop, mobile and handheld device. The user only needs access to the internet via a web browser. Each app will be responsive to the device on which it is being used.
• Customers and staff see the same interface. Only the user’s status will determine what they can and cannot see.
• The interface will look clean and modern.

The full press release can be found at: http://hridigital.shef.ac.uk/o....

In this webinar for CILIP members, Elly O'Brien will discuss the concept of professional confidence and 'imposter syndrome'. She will reflect on how useful the concept of 'imposter syndrome' is, why we feel this way and what the consequences of low professional confidence are for individuals and our profession as a whole. The presentation will wrap up with some ideas of how we can individually and collectively work to increase our professional confidence, before opening up to extended discussion.

Date: Tuesday, 28 June 2016 from 19:30 to 20:30 (BST) 

(NB - this event is now fully booked. Please register anyway to join the waiting list.)
 

Who can attend?

This event is limited to individual CILIP members only. You will require your membership number to register for this event. 

Where is it held?

This webinar will be held online using CILIP's WebEx account. Details on how to log in will be sent to the registered email address the week before the event.
 

About the presenter

Elly is an Information Specialist and Research Analyst at Bazian, part of the Economist Intelligence Unit. She is passionate about professional development, having been a Candidate Support Officer and now a CILIP mentor, as well as contributing to numerous committees and groups. Through involvement with CILIP and the Radical Librarians Collective, Elly has become particularly interested in how we collectively address issues affecting the whole profession.
 

Professional Knowledge and Skills Base

This webinar supports the following areas of the PKSB:

9.1 Leadership skills 
9.4 Demonstrating value
9.5 Partnership development

Wider Library, Information and Knowledge Sector context

After the event

The webinar will be recorded, and the recording will be made available on the CILIP VLE for CILIP members after the event. By registering for this event you are agreeing to this.

Data Protection

The information you provide on the registration form will be used by CILIP to send you joining instructions for the webinar and email you reminders for this event. For further information please see the CILIP Privacy Statement.
 

Join the CILIP Yorkshire & Humberside Member Network for a tour of York Minster Library.

The Minster Library is the largest cathedral library in the UK, holding the historic printed collections of The Chapter of York, as well as modern reference and lending collections.

The Old Palace was built around 1230 by Archbishop Walter Gray as a private chapel, but later fell out of use and was restored in 1810 to accommodate the 6,000-volume Library. A major extension was completed in 1998, including a new reading room, a special collections room, an archive strong room, and a conservation studio.

The Library now contains more than 120,000 books, tracts and pamphlets, most of which are searchable via the University of York's YorSearch catalogue.

Cost
Free to all.

Booking
Please book tickets via Eventbrite by Friday 17th June. Places are limited, as the Minster Library cannot accommodate a large party. If the visit is sold out, please register on the waiting list, and you will be emailed if a space becomes available.

Directions
The Library is located in the Old Palace, in Dean's Park on the north side of York Minster. The Minster is 15-20 minutes' walk from York train station.

There is no parking at the Minster, and though there are some pay-and-display car parks nearby, these may be quite busy. Anybody driving is advised to use one of the Park & Rides.

Accessibility
Some parts of the planned tour are not wheelchair-accessible. If you have any accessibility concerns, please contact us before the visit.

CPD
For those doing professional registration, this visit will support the following PKSB areas:
6.4 Access to collections
6.7 Preservation
7.6 Collection promotion
Wider Library, Information and Knowledge Sector context

How odd/ Of God/ To choose/ The Jews
W.N.Ewer ‘How Odd’

Oh, the Protestants hate the Catholics,
and the Catholics hate the Protestants,
and the Hindus hate the Muslims
and everybody hates the Jews.
Tom Lehrer ‘National Brotherhood Week’ (song)

I could, of course, have chosen from a multitude of the world’s irrational enmities. But prejudice against Jews is at once deeply ingrained, of long-standing and particularly perverse. Jewish history, since Abraham made his covenant with God in 1921BC, and particularly from the Diaspora, has across the globe been punctuated by pogroms, riots, accusations of killing children, banishments and, most recently, the Holocaust. But I don’t want to dwell on the wider history; not because it is not hugely significant, but rather in that it is already well known, a given. More interesting is the record in Britain, where I suspect that we generally have a certain smugness of mostly having been above such things. 
 

Nothing could be further from the truth. I am indebted to the writing of the late John Cannon, former Emeritus Professor of Modern History at the University of Newcastle on Tyne, for an overview of our past malevolence towards Jewish immigrants. In The Oxford Companion to British History (1997) he notices that Jewish immigration, on any scale, came only after the Norman Conquest. He points out that because Christians were not allowed to practice usury, Jews quickly established themselves as financiers and money-lenders. But as such they were both ruthlessly exploited by monarchs and hated by the native population. During the crusades, there were attacks on Jews in London, and in 1190 some 150 Jews were slaughtered in York [many committed suicide]. As the number of Jews increased, they were confined to Jewries, and from 1218 “were obliged to wear badges, steadily increased in size.” Persecution continued during the rest of the 13th century: in 1278 hundreds of Jews were hanged, followed by an edict for their wholesale expulsion from the kingdom. This ban persisted until the Commonwealth, when to his credit Cromwell ignored the measure and began to allow Jews back; but despite an elevation of the status of some prominent individuals, hatred persisted. Jews were denied naturalization, and Catholic emancipation in 1829 left them as the only religious group still experiencing severe restrictions. Thereafter, although progress was unmistakeable and not to be denied, “the obstacles facing Jews remained substantial, but they were personal and social rather than legal”.

Similar animosity, of course, was common in other parts of Europe, finding perhaps its most explicit literary expression in Germany with the publication of Richard Wagner’s Das Judenthum in der Musik in 1850. Despite the fact that a revised version of 1869 appeared in an English translation (by William Ashton Ellis) in 1894, I suspect that this polemic is little known today outside a limited circle of musicologists and historians. 

In an explanatory note, Wagner represented himself as suffering under a yoke “of the ruling Jew-society in its crushing-out of all free movement, of all true human evolution, among its kith and kin”. In the essay proper, he certainly did not hold back. I must warn readers that even the brief extracts I have selected are grossly offensive. I repeat parts of this reprehensible text only to expose the virulent roots of his anti-Semitic prejudice. Wagner speaks of “the be-Jewing of modern art”, and saw his target as founded upon what had been called “Hebraic art-taste”. He felt impelled to explain an unconscious feeling that “proclaims itself among the people as a rooted dislike of the Jewish nature”. And although addressing this dislike primarily in relation to art, not to politics or religion, he felt it inescapable that “with all our speaking and writing in favour of the Jews’ emancipation, we always felt instinctively repelled by any actual, operative contact with them”. It was then necessary “to explain to ourselves the involuntary repellence possessed for us by the nature and personality of the Jews”. Their first objectionable trait was an attachment to money: “the Jew in truth is already more than emancipated: he rules, and will rule, so long as Money remains the power before which all our doings and our dealings lose their force”. This objection was strengthened by a dislike of a distinctive physiognomy: “The Jew – who as everyone knows, has a God all to himself – in ordinary life strikes us primarily by his outward appearance, which, no matter to what European nationality we belong, has something disagreeably foreign to that nationality: instinctively we wish to have nothing in common with a man who looks like that”.

Wagner gave even greater weight to “the effect the Jew produces on us through his speech”. “In particular,” he argued, “does the purely physical aspect of the Jewish mode of speech repel us”. This was especially pronounced in song – “the vividest and most indisputable expression of the personal emotional-being”, in which “the peculiarity of the Jewish nature attains for us its climax of distastefulness”.

I will spare the reader Wagner’s nuanced distinction between “the commoner class of Jew” and “the cultured son of Jewry”. Nor is this the place for his extreme views on Jewish music. Suffice it to say that he found: “Our whole European art and civilisation…have remained to the Jew a foreign tongue”. 
Predictably, the 1850 essay received a blisteringly hostile reception, a reaction addressed (for those who care) in the second edition. But as Wagner’s music came to be revered, so a legend, amounting to worship and enshrined in the Bayreuth Festival, was established – and an anti-Semitic theme perpetuated. Until, that is, one descendant broke ranks. Gottfried Wagner, the composer’s great-grandson, came to doubt the traditional narrative, turned renegade and told a different story. His impassioned and controversial autobiography, He who does not howl with the wolf: the Wagner legacy (tr. Della Couling), was published in 1998.  

Gottfried takes us beyond Judaism in Music, asserting that this was “by no means the end…but the beginning of Wagner’s anti-Semitism in the sense of a politico-cultural concept”. The same ideas [in relation to Meyerbeer] were repeated in his essay of 1851, Oper und drama, and reiterated through later prose writings. The last of these, Erkenne dich selbst (Know yourself, 1881), is available on the internet. In its penultimate paragraph, it features a remarkable passage. The text is pretentious, but the intention clear: “So let us save and tend and brace our best of forces, to bear a noble cordial to the sleeper when he wakes, as of himself he must at last. But only when the fiend, who keeps those ravers in the mania of their party-strife, no more can find a where or when to lurk among us, will there also be no longer – any Jews.” 

It would be extravagant to link Wagner directly to the gas chambers, but Gottfried has no compunction in saying that his great-grandfather “formulated ideas that today read like a horrifying anticipation of Hitler’s Final Solution, invoking a Germany free of Jews.”  Wagner’s perverted philosophy was deep-rooted, the academic foundation of more than a century of prejudice and hatred; the beginning, Gottfried argues, of a direct line, through Gobineau and the English-born Houston Stewart Chamberlain, and embodied in the Bayreuth Festival, to Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. We all know where such thinking led.

I should say a little more about H.S.Chamberlain. Although born in Southsea, the son of a British rear admiral, he came through various influences to extol all things Teutonic, marrying Wagner’s step-daughter Eva in 1908, and gaining German citizenship during the first world war. He unreservedly espoused the doctrine of Aryan supremacy, proclaiming his distorted racial ideas in a two-volume book Die Grundlagen des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts (The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century, 1899). This study was to prove one of the most baleful influences in shaping Nazi ideology. It is interesting that Theodore Roosevelt, writing in 1913, recognised it for what is was, noteworthy for brilliancy and suggestiveness, but also for “startling inaccuracies and lack of judgment”. It is instructive here to quote Roosevelt directly:

“Mr. Chamberlain’s thesis is that the nineteenth century, and therefore the twentieth and all future centuries, depend for everything in them worth mentioning and preserving upon the Teutonic branch of the Aryan race. He holds that there is no such thing as a general progress of mankind, that progress is only for those whom he calls the Teutons, and that when they mix with or are intruded upon by alien and, as he regards them, lower races, the result is fatal…but Mr. Chamberlain himself is quite as fantastic an extremist as any of those whom he derides, and an extremist whose doctrines are based upon foolish hatred is even more unlovely than an extremist whose doctrines are based upon foolish benevolence. Mr. Chamberlain’s hatreds cover a wide gamut. They include Jews, Darwinists, the Roman Catholic Church, the people of southern Europe, Peruvians, Semites, and an odd variety of literary men and historians.”

A pity that the direction of these thoughts was not better heeded. But I hope I am not being dewy-eyed in sensing that at least in Britain we have turned away from anti-Semitism – now the territory of only a few unhinged extremists. As the excellent Aish website notices, the complaints traditionally employed against Judiasm have come to be recognised as excuses rather than causes. I would go further. I regard them as fallacious. It is nonsense to suggest that there are endemic grounds to despise the entire Jewish people: such charges, as Chekhov put it, are “wholesale, resting on worn-out commonplaces”. Like everybody else, some Jews are odd, some strait-laced; some benevolent, some selfish; some religious, some not; some bold, some withdrawn; some orthodox (one so much so, we are told, as to encase himself in a plastic bag when flying over cemeteries), some apostate. A surprising number have been great violinists, but relatively few in relation to the whole of Jewry. And, yes, some have great financial aptitude, a talent for making money, perhaps genetically based, but not all. If, over time, there have been some common characteristics, such as an unusual capacity for hard work, there is no longer any basis for thinking that Jews are all tarred with the same brush. In fact it has been argued that, for historical reasons, Jews have little in common with each other. In this construct the idea of an unlikable collective nationality and a nasty homogeneity are popular myths. Shylock and Fagin are fictional stereotypes. We cannot in principle defend the castigating of a community so diverse.

As Maurice Glassman implies in ‘Feedback’ there has also been a modern retreat – though not necessarily a conscious one – from god-based racial/religious orthodoxies, along with a gradual shift away from insularity and endogamic tendencies. As different tribal shibboleths merge into the common social milieu, so any propensity for enmity recedes. While we may continue to deplore such excesses as the bonus culture and inordinate rewards, I don’t think they can any longer seen as peculiarly Hebraic. Greed has become secular. While we must distinguish between racial/religious discrimination and legitimate criticism of Israel’s political policies, and uphold the right to free speech, it is time to salute diversity, and look for the continued demise of prejudice.

Do you work in a Further Education College Library?

Would you value an opportunity to find out more about measuring your impact, digital literacy, providing a service to both FE and HE students, and the chance to network with colleagues working in the same environment helpful?

Then you’ll find the Cilip ARLG East Midlands ‘Focus on Further Education Libraries’ particularly helpful. The event is aimed particularly at professionals working at all levels in FE although individuals from other library sectors are also welcome to attend.

Date & time:  Tuesday 14th June 2016 between 9.30 a.m. and 3.30 p.m.
Venue:           Loughborough College, Radmoor Road, Loughborough       Leicestershire LE11 3BT

The cost of the day is just £30 for CILIP/ARLG members, and £35 for non-members.

(All prices include VAT.)

The deadline for bookings is Tuesday, 7th June 2016. So please book now to avoid disappointment.

How can I make a booking?

Please e-mail Sharon Reid at s.d.reid@lboro.ac.uk. or tel. 01509-222403 with your name, job title, details of your employer, your CILIP membership no. (if applicable).

Please send details of the address for invoicing and details of any special dietary or access requirements by Tuesday  7th June, 2016.

Please note that if you cancel your booking within three working days of the event, or book and are unable to attend on the day, and are unable to send a substitute in your place, you will be charged the full price.

Address for invoicing: ARLG East Midlands, c/o Katie Fraser George Green Library, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD. Telephone 0115 95 13247, E-mail katie.fraser@nottingham.ac.uk

The following e-mail from John Tait may be of interest to our members - it is quoted in full. 

The UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council is conducting an information gathering exercise which may have major implications for future EPSRC funding of especially academic research in the UK.

The IRSG has obtained agreement that the British Computer Society will make a submission which will include a component specifically focused on IR as part of information systems.

We are asking UK academics, in particular, to contribute to this exercise by filling in the attached form where appropriate. (The form is available in other formats on the website).

The evidence the EPSRC is looking for is existing published material, but NOT individual research papers. They are especially looking for publications which focus on horizon scanning, or are in the form of meta-analysis or other high level and systematic reviews.  Opinion material, especially individual opinions, cannot be submitted.

The evidence which is being looked for demonstrates a research area has international standing, can contribute to disruptive or transformative research, in which the UK has unique capabilities, that the area can contribute to the health of other disciplines, can enable new industries and is world leading. The EPSRC also wants information about people, both in leadership positions and at an earlier stage, and infrastructure.

Please submit completed forms to me John Tait, Chair of BCS IRSG, john@johntait.net by Close of Business Friday 20 May 2016. My apologies for the short notice, but this has been driven by a combination of BCS and EPSRC deadlines, and the difficulty of defining how to respond. I am happy to help to redraft forms into the appropriate format and to give advice on suitable submissions.

Further information may be found at: https://www.epsrc.ac.uk/newsevents/news/bcevidencecall/

The call is not restricted solely to UK Academic Researchers, although they are the primary potential beneficiaries and we would be pleased to hear from people and organisations in industry, other research labs. etc. whether in the UK or not, and non-UK universities if they can contribute suitable material.

I would like to thank Iadh Ounis and Craig McDonald of Glasgow University for bringing this to the attention of the group and Andrew  MacFarlane of City University for agreeing to help collate the responses.

John Tait
john@johntait.net

Chair of BCS IRSG

The Library & Information History Group is seeking a new Events Coordinator. The role holder is responsible for organizing events such as library visits, seminars and our popular walking tours (currently two per year), and for managing and administering bookings. Most events are free, apart from the walking tours. Ideally we would like events organized around the country; while the walks currently only take place in London we would like to be able to offer them in other parts of the country. The Events Coordinator liaises closely with the Publicity Officer and Wed Editor to advertise events and coordinate our social media accounts.

This is an excellent opportunity for anyone with an interest in library and information history to enhance their personal and professional development by getting involved with an active Special Interest Group. It would suit a well-organised individual who likes to engage with Twitter and other social media. The role holder must be a member of the LIHG, or willing to join.

The successful candidate will be required to attend committee meetings wherever possible. We currently have two 'face-to-face' meetings and two online meetings. Travel costs will be reimbursed. The role holder spends approximately four hours a month on the role. We would like to fill the post by Monday 30 May.

If you are interested in applying for the role, or simply want more information about it, please contact Renae Satterley, Chair, at: r.satterley@middletemple.org.uk.

The event will cover everything candidates need to know to compile and submit their portfolios under the current regulations, with practical hints and tips for portfolio building, an overview of the regulations, and opportunity for networking and peer support from fellow candidates.

Dr Mark Towsey will give a free public gallery talk on 'Liverpool Libraries in the 18th and 19th centuries' to introduce the currrent exhibition, 'Knowledge is Power', at the Victoria Gallery & Museum, Liverpool. 

The exhibition runs until 18th June 2016.

Dr Mark Towsey, editor-in-chief of the international peer-reviewed journal Library & Information History, is standing down at the end of the current volume, following four successful years in the role. The Library & Information History Group (LIHG) is therefore looking to appoint a new editor this summer to work alongside our existing North American editor and editorial board, with active research interests in one or both of the journal’s main interests – the history of information and library history.

Library & Information History (formerly Library History) was established in 1967 under the aegis of the Library History Group of the Library Association, which merged with the Institute of Information Scientists to form the Chartered Institute of Library & Information Professionals. It is the only British periodical devoted to the burgeoning field of information history, and the leading scholarly journal internationally devoted to the history of libraries, librarianship and library culture. Library & Information History is a fully-refereed, quarterly journal publishing articles of a high academic standard from international authors on all subjects and all periods relating to the history of libraries and librarianship and to the history of information, in its broadest sense.

The new editor will take over at an exceptionally exciting moment in the journal’s history. 2017 constitutes the journal’s 50th anniversary, while the new editor will have the opportunity to shape relations with our new publishers Taylor & Francis. Much of the copy for 2017 is already in hand or in advanced stages of development, guaranteeing a smooth transition.

Applications (to include a one-page expression of interest outlining your research interests, qualifications, and ambitions for the role, as well as a one-page CV) should be submitted by email to Renae Satterley (r.satterley@middletemple.org.uk), Chair of the Library & Information History Group, by 30 June 2016. Informal queries can be directed to current editor Mark Towsey (towsey@liverpool.ac.uk). The appointment will be considered and approved by a specially convened meeting of the Library & Information History Group Committee, and the successful candidate will be officially co-opted onto the LIHG committee at the next AGM in November 2016. For more information on how the committee works please see the website: http://www.cilip.org.uk/library-information-history-group/committee.

The journal’s website is at: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ylbh20#.VzBRyHq2WSc.

Dr Mark Towsey, editor-in-chief of the international peer-reviewed journal Library & Information History, is standing down at the end of the current volume, following four successful years in the role. The Library & Information History Group (LIHG) is therefore looking to appoint a new editor this summer to work alongside our existing North American editor and editorial board, with active research interests in one or both of the journal’s main interests – the history of information and library history.

Library & Information History (formerly Library History) was established in 1967 under the aegis of the Library History Group of the Library Association, which merged with the Institute of Information Scientists to form the Chartered Institute of Library & Information Professionals. It is the only British periodical devoted to the burgeoning field of information history, and the leading scholarly journal internationally devoted to the history of libraries, librarianship and library culture. Library & Information History is a fully-refereed, quarterly journal publishing articles of a high academic standard from international authors on all subjects and all periods relating to the history of libraries and librarianship and to the history of information, in its broadest sense.

The new editor will take over at an exceptionally exciting moment in the journal’s history. 2017 constitutes the journal’s 50th anniversary, while the new editor will have the opportunity to shape relations with our new publishers Taylor & Francis. Much of the copy for 2017 is already in hand or in advanced stages of development, guaranteeing a smooth transition.

Applications (to include a one-page expression of interest outlining your research interests, qualifications, and ambitions for the role, as well as a one-page CV) should be submitted by email to Renae Satterley (r.satterley@middletemple.org.uk), Chair of the Library & Information History Group, by 30 June 2016. Informal queries can be directed to current editor Mark Towsey (towsey@liverpool.ac.uk). The appointment will be considered and approved by a specially convened meeting of the Library & Information History Group Committee, and the successful candidate will be officially co-opted onto the LIHG committee at the next AGM in November 2016. For more information on how the committee works please see the website: http://www.cilip.org.uk/library-information-history-group/committee.

The journal’s website is at: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ylbh20#.VzBRyHq2WSc.

PATMG Tour of the Dana Research Centre and Library, Science Museum, 165 Queen’s Gate, London SW7 5HD. www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/library