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grmRetired Members Group
Post-Lib
No.86 September 2018
RMG Committee 2018Chair: Sian King [email protected]
Secretary: Alison [email protected]
Treasurer: Joan [email protected]
Post-Lib Editor: Christiana [email protected]
Web Editor: Alan [email protected]
Visits Coordinator: Charmaine [email protected]
Local visits coordinator: Ian Orton
For general enquiries about the RetiredMembers Group please [email protected]
For changes in membership circumstancescontact [email protected]
ContentsChair’s noteSian King 2
Editor’s introductionChristiana Ikeogu 3
CILIP PresidentAyub Khan 4
Life after retirementMark Lunt 6
The Internet and usPhil Bradley 7
Tour of the Royal Society LibraryCharmaine Bourton 9
Events and announcements 11-12
As you know, from Post-Lib 85, Pauline Blagden, who took over as Chair in the summer of 2017, has now stepped down. Many thanks to Pauline for her very hard work during that year, in which, among other things, she produced the Annual Report, the Business Plan for 2018 and recruited several new members to the Committee, including me! Thus in April this year, we were Chair-less, with no volunteer immediately in sight, so I have agreed to act as interim Chair for a year. There is a great deal of new procedure, IT and other regulations to get to grips with, and in this I have ongoing support from the current committee members as well as from Paul Caton, of CILIP, who attends our meetings and puts us right on the many aspects of being a CILIP SIG, as well as providing relevant IT training.
It is still early days for me in this role, but we are hearing a number of new ideas about what RMG can do for its members and are keen to hear more! On the downside, there is less income (as a CILIP group); this means we cannot afford to produce Post-Lib in paper form three times a year, so have decided to published two electronic issues and one paper issue for 2018. We would be interested and grateful to receive your feedback on this new approach, which at least keeps us within budget.
Our highest priority at present is to recruit more committee members, so we would be glad to hear from any of our 549 members who might like, perhaps, to attend just one committee meeting to see what happens, and how they might be able to contribute. So do email me at [email protected] if you are interested, or if you have any other comments on how we take RMG forward into 2019.
It is also my sad duty to inform you that Peter Davies, serving and founder committee member of the RMG passed away suddenly last week. We will pay tribute to his life and work in a full obituary to follow in the next edition of the journal. PL
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ContributeIf you would like to contribute toRMG Post-Lib contact the editor [email protected]
A note from the newRMG ChairSian King
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I wish to thank everyone who made it possible for us to publish issue 85 earlier this year and the same appreciation is held for the contributors to the present, 86th edition.
It is delightful to see how quickly Sian King came to our rescue and chaired the last committee meeting, AGM and even opted to serve for a whole year. On behalf of members of RMG, I offer Sian our congrat-ulations and best wishes. I also feel that it is in order to ask everyone to give maximum support to Sian. Please see Sian’s article on her role as the acting chair.
I have taken on board the agreed decision made during the AGM, to publish the next two issues of Post-Lib electronically. I think we should all work hard in making our priority of recruiting more members very effective. More members will create opportunity for raising our profile and for greater recognition of our relevance in CILIP and beyond.
I am excited by the value our able president, Ayub Khan has placed on the power of RMG in the organisation – as he puts it our ‘valuable collective expertise’. I gather from his statement that we have a great deal more to contribute in the ongoing
Welcome to the 86thedition of CILIP (RMG)
Post-LibChristiana Ikeogu
debate about the survival of library and information profession. We have a great legacy to uphold and instil in the minds of modern practitioners. I echo Ayub’s state-ment that Internet may be bad in some ways, but it is still a marvellous place with untold benefits.
You will be thrilled by Mark Lunt’s boldness in sharing the various experiences and the joy of volunteering for a good cause. Thank you Mark for answering to my call, to share what makes our lives interesting and relevant to our communities. Like Mark, I enjoy meeting people from various cultures and backgrounds as it makes me understand and appreciate the uniqueness of our human forms. St Paul’s Cathedral is a unique building and my experience of a guided tour of it will remain with me for a long time. As Mark said, many of you are obviously doing exciting things. Please share it and enrich other members’ lives.
I have always been inspired by Phil Bradley’s contributions in our professional publica-tions and his talks on the ever changing modern technological developments in theinformation world. It is therefore gratifying that he has been able to bring refreshing thoughts on handling fake news. His article would dispel some of the myths as well as
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‘Keep up the good work’– Encouragement from CILIP President
help us to avoid most common pitfalls in fake news. We know how difficult it is to keep up with new breakthroughs in modern technol-ogy. I would therefore suggest we share our problems through this forum so that we can seek help from professionals like Phil rather than suffering in silence.
Once again I would like to thank Charmaine Bourton for reporting on local visits in the London area. Tours are some of the ways to enrich our lives after retirement and with the Freedom Pass, one has less worry about the cost of travelling. I invite other areas to work with colleagues in order to enjoy the things most of us could not do while in employment. Please remember that some historic sites have provisions for people with health challenges. It is therefore necessary to explore all areas for the sake of inclusiveness.
Don’t forget to check the section on Events and Announcements.
Future publicationsIf you find a book interesting, please share the story with us. Can you go back in time and
reflect on the 9-5 working years? Your article could help to jog another member’s memory and spark off an interesting tale. What I amtrying to say here is that every article isrelevant for spicing up Post-Lib. PL
Next Issue:Contributions for next issue should besent to the editor by Monday, 29th October.
Please submit articles through the following email address – [email protected].
Alternatively, please post typed documents in double-spacing and single sides. Please send postal copy to Christiana Ikeogu,130 Elphinstone Road, London E17 5EX.
The editor is available for telephonediscussion on 07957 726215.
Please note that articles presented inPost-Lib are not necessarily opinions ofthe RMG Committee or the editor.
ONE of the less obvious effects of the global recession, on libraries, was the loss of so much knowledge and experience. I know, from my own library authority in Warwickshire, that many senior colleagues opted for early retire-ment – taking their skills with them and leaving the service a bit ‘experience-lite’.
CILIP’s Retired Members Group (RMG) offers ex-librarians a way to continue to contribute – and gives the profession access to their valuable collective expertise. This is not about former colleagues saying they have ‘seen it all before’ – although many of them undoubtedly have – it’s about contributing their extensive
Ayub Khan MBECILIP President
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knowledge and many years of experience to the ongoing debate about what libraries should be, and do in the modern age.
Although the spending slashes of recent years have been severe, budget cuts are nothing new. Libraries are good at finding ways to get things done despite adversity – or austerity – and retired librarians know how to do it. So my message to the RMG, as CILIP President, is: keep up the good work because we need your input. We need a mix of people on our committees, including both current and former practitioners – who may have a little more time to give.
I attended the RMG’s AGM last year when I spoke about CILIP’s change programme. I was impressed by members’ enthusiasm and commit-ment. As the elder statesmen of the profes-sion, you are the role models I looked up to as I began my career, and who shaped my thinking and practice in the profession. CILIP is unusual – and very fortunate – in having so many former practitioners who still want to be actively involved, demonstrating a lifelong commitment to the organisation.
RMG Committee-member and Post-Lib editor Christiana Ikeogu takes the view that ‘once a librarian, always a librarian’. She also reminded me that older and retired people are big users of library services. That’s another reason why the RMG is important – because it represents not only former librarians, but also a very significant customer group. Our retired colleagues, now experi-encing libraries from the other side of the counter – or self-service terminal – can offer valuable insights into what works, and what doesn’t, for a key group of customers.
Until very recently I was Digital Leader for the Society of Chief Librarians – so I know that older people are generally thought to be less tech-savvy than younger generations. Whilst that may be statistically true, it’s a sweeping generalisation. Many older people embrace technology, which can enhance their lives in
all kinds of ways – from the convenience of paying bills and shopping online to getting creative with the latest gadgets in new library ‘makerspaces’. Perhaps the RMG has a role in making that case more forcefully?
Libraries have always promoted literacy. Nowadays digital literacy is just as important – and libraries have a huge role to play in making sure no-one is digitally disadvantaged in our increasingly online world. We certainly don’t want older people feeling left out, or left behind and the RMG may be able to suggest ways to combat digital exclusion that make sense from their unique perspective as being both ‘retired’ and ‘librarians’.
Personally I’m proud to see how well libraries are reinventing themselves for the digital age – with confidence and creativity. Librarians are essentially ‘do-ers’ and problem solvers who have a lot more contact with the general public than most local government services. Knowing what people want – and what service developments and improvements will work best – becomes almost instinctive over the years. RMG members have those instincts in abundance – and CILIP both needs and values their contribution. PL
RMG Committee at CILIP HQ.
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Life afterretirement
FOR a number of years I was a member of RMG in the 90s and noughties and as the Surrey Organiser. I organised many meetings and events for the RMG, some of them jointly with the then Cilip in Surrey sub-branch of the then former Library Association London and Home Counties Branch/Cilip South East Branch. They included visits to such diverse venues as the library of the Civil Aviation Authority at Gatwick, the morning after the 9/11 attacks in America, The Royal Military School of Music at Kneller Hall in Twickenham, and the Surrey Police Headquarters in Guildford. I wrote many articles for Post-Lib.
As I was undertaking more voluntary work for both our professional and other bodies, I went into self-imposed exile from the RMG. Circumstances changed in both these and my personal spheres and I was delighted when the RMG became a SIG within CILIP recently and happily re-joined it this year and was pleased to receive Post-Lib. As part of my current activities I have been arranging quarterly lunches for a group of former Chairs and members of the LA London and Home Coun-ties Branch, most of whom are RMG members. We meet near CILIP HQ and enjoy fellowship and conversation. I have indicated in the past
that this is one sort of activity Local Organisers could be doing; it requires little effort.
I invited your Editor Christie to join us at our most recent lunch and I note that she is inviting contributions to Post-Lib on how we are keeping ourselves active. In the early years of Post-Lib, the editors called for similar articles and I contributed one such article describing a diverse range of activities I had undertaken since retirement. So I thought I would describe a couple of things I am currently doing. I work as a volunteer certified Cathedral Guide at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. There are separate Teams for each day of the week – I work Mondays. Selection for these posts involved an interview, references and a check against the Criminal Records Bureau. Training included weekly lectures for five months, on the job training weekly, a satisfactory probation period of six months, a written examination (75 questions to be answered in 90 minutes), and a practical examination of 90 minutes. The exams are carried out and qualifications awarded by the Institute for Tourist Guiding. Successful candidates get a certificate, and a scarlet sash and gold and red badge which we wear on duty. I was pleased to be successful in 2008. Guides lead tours throughout the
Mark Lunt,Kingston upon Thames
Isabella Plantation, Richmond Park.Photo by David Iliff CC-BY-SA 3.0
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Cathedral, provide directions and information and answer questions. We are front of house welcoming staff and the work involves meeting visitors from all over the world. We are subject to the same disciplinary, safeguarding and anti-terrorism procedures as the paid staff. We love our work and do get the occasional perk such as attendance at special services attended by the Royal Family.
My other main activity is as a volunteer worker with the Friends of Richmond Park, the largest of the eight London Royal Parks, with 630 deer. Both my late wife Pat and I attended a course to build up knowledge of all the aspects of the Park in 2007 and we were the first founder, volunteer staffers to man the Park’s new Visitor Centre, when it opened for the first time to the public on Good Friday 2007. (Pat and I were awarded 10 year certif-icates and badges last year). This is staffed by 64 Friends who share the duties throughout the year. It is open every day except Christmas
Day and is the only Visitor Centre in any of the Royal Parks and is being held up as an example to the other Royal Parks. We answer questions, provide information and sell pub-lications by the Friends, the Royal Parks and other publishers. 55,000 visits a year are made by visitors from all over the world and a handsome profit is made which is ploughed back into the Park for ponds, trees, wildlife and enhancements to the life of the Park. Recently, £34,000 was granted to the Park by the Friends for these purposes. Sir David Attenborough has always supported the Friends and the Park in many ways and with himself as presenter helped the Friends to produce a DVD of the Park which has assisted the work. Plans have been prepared for a new larger Heritage Pavilion to incorporate a bigger Visitor Centre.
I am sure that I am not unique in these tasks and that there are RMG members out there busily engaged in various activities. PL
WHEN I first started using the internet back in the early 1990s I remember it as an exciting time, full of hope for the brand new ‘informa-tion superhighway’. We were all going to be able to share information freely backwards and forwards, leading to the dawn of a new information age in which everyone’s lives were going to be made better. Now of course we constantly read how bad the internet is, full of fake news, criminal activity, pornography and all the ills of the world. In reality of course neither of those views is correct; there is a
The internetand us– an expert view
lot wrong with the internet, but it’s also still a marvellous place with untold benefits. In this article I’m going to look at some of the ‘bad’ elements of the internet, will attempt to dispel some myths and put others into perspective.
There is considerable concern over the way in which some organisations and websites track you on the internet to see what you’re doing, where you’re going and what you’re searching on so that they can build up profiles of you.
Phil Bradley
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This is perfectly true and it does happen. However, if you own a store loyalty card such as Nectar, the company knows far more about you than any internet organisation ever will! The argument in favour of this tracking is that the organisation will be able to focus advertising more closely on your own interests, display-ing appropriate material rather than random adverts, or in the case of Google, provide more accurate search results. If this is a concern, and I understand why it would be, there are plenty of solutions. First of all, don’t use Google at all – not the search engine, the Chrome browser or the Gmail email application. There are plenty of engines such as DuckDuckGo which don’t track you, browsers such as Tor which hide your details from the sites that you visit, and systems such as Zoho Mail which don’t scan your emails for advertising purposes.
Viruses are also another worrying issue, and scarcely a week goes by without the media telling us some horrible new virus is about to cause havoc. Fortunately this is a really simple problem to solve – install virus protection software. There are plenty of free packages which do a reasonable job such as AGV Antivirus, but for complete peace of mind it is really worth
spending the twenty pounds or so to install software that keeps itself up to date and protects your machine from virtually all potential dangers.
The latest buzzword in the media is of course ‘fake news’ and it’s perfectly true that there’s a lot of it out there. Google and Facebook do their best to block it, but it’s like bailing out a sinking rowing boat with a spoon. Luckily however, this is where our skills as information professionals come into play, since we under-stand authority checking, validation, currency of data and so on. We are in a perfect position to fight fake news in our Facebook streams and emails – indeed I would go so far as to say that it’s a professional necessity to do this, and keep others informed!
People get concerned about the unpleasant material available online such as the pornography and other illegal content. This has always been a concern, and it does get bigger every year. I’d like to say that if you don’t look for it you’ll never find it, but anyone who has done what they think of as an innocent search only to see material that takes them aback will know that’s not the case. However, lots of search engines do have a ‘safe search’
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function available and this will catch virtually all of the material that you don’t want to see. Simply turn it on and you should be fine.
Spam and hoax emails will be something that you’ll encounter, and sooner rather than later. Most email packages are pretty good at weeding out the spam, so you should never get to see it. However, some will always get through, so let me make one thing quite clear. You will never, ever, receive a million pounds from someone you don’t know, you won’t win a lottery that you didn’t enter, and you hav-en’t got a refund from something you haven’t bought. If it’s too good to be true, it’s a hoax trying to get money out of you. Simply delete the email and get on with your life. If it’s that important, the person will contact you again. If you think you’ve got an email from your bank or credit card company telling you to log in, never click on the link in the email, it may well be false. Type the web address into your browser yourself and go to your bank web-site yourself, and if you are in any doubt, ring
your bank directly. Never give out any details about yourself or your accounts to anyone unless you are certain you know who they are, and even then, double check!
While all these problems do exist, you need not be troubled by any of them if you simply take sensible precautions and use a certain amount of cynicism and double checking. Don’t be put off using the internet, because quite simply it’s becoming a necessity in life nowadays, and you can discover so many good things, meet new people, and easily communicate with friends and family far away. It will certainly never be the paradise we might once have hoped for, it’s still a marvellous and enjoyable place to spend time, and it’s never too late to start! Dare I say that you should ask in your local public library for details on basic courses to introduce you? I guarantee it’s worth it! PL
Phil Bradley ([email protected]) isan Internet Consultant, Trainer,Web Designer and Author.
THE first thing we saw was a CARD catalogue! What a joy and delight! Rupert told us that they will keep the catalogue, and emphasised this when we asked for reassurance but they are not adding to it! He has a team of five staff and the library is open to the public Mon-day-Friday 10-5. It is a lending library but only items published after 1950 may be borrowed.
The Royal Society was founded on 28.11.1660. It has been in numerous locations. It started in Gresham College, then moved to Crane Street Court (off Fleet Street), Somerset House, then Burlington House, and to Carlton House Terrace in 1967. The Royal Society is reputed
Tour of the Royal Society Library6 - 9 Carlton House Terrace London on22nd May 2018 with Librarian Rupert Baker
Charmaine Bourton Grand entrance. Photo via Wikimedia Commons
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to be the oldest scientific society in the world. Carlton House Terrace was previously the German Embassy.
Rupert showed us some antiquarian items and in particular a manuscript ‘scrapbook’ from the 1600s with many anatomical diagrams of fish. In the same book there was a drawing of the city walls of York which had been damaged during the civil war. He explained that books were mainly published by subscription, but in some cases they made too many and the books never paid for themselves! There is now an annual antiquarian budget of £10,000.
Rupert then showed us a collection of Euclid’s works dated 1575 which were in Italian. It was donated by the Duke of Norfolk. Next was the Royal Society’s Journal, Philosophical Transactions, which is thought to be the world’s first scientific journal. The earliest manuscript we were shown was a mathematical tract from the 13th century.
Samuel Pepys was one of the first Presidents of The Royal Society, while Joseph Banks was the longest serving President having been the botanist on Captain Cook’s first expedition. Isaac Newton was President from 1703 to 1727. There were 100 Fellows during Newton’s time and there are 1600 now. During Newton’s Presidency they met weekly. Next we saw some rather heated correspondence from 1930
The Wolfson Suite, Royal Society. Photo © The Royal Society
Past Presidents. Photo © The Royal Society
between James Jeans and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle about spiritualism.
They are in the process of digitising items for the Cambridge Digital Library. We then went to the archives where they have 4 km of shelving – however space is still a problem so their focus is on history of science material.
Finally, to our amusement, they have some “Horrible Science” books from the shortlists of the children’s science book prize, administered by the society!
We would like to thank Rupert for his time and trouble in giving us such an interesting talk and tour. PL
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l EVENTS! l ANNOUNCEMENTS ! l BYGONES!
Christmas Lunchee
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4 December 2018
Malcolm Brown Room, Burleigh Court,Loughborough University
For further details, please contactCatherine Pinion
Telephone 0114 230 5714E-mail: [email protected]
Retired Members Group
Annual Lunch2019
This ever popular event will take place on Tuesday 9th April at The CivilService Club, Old Scotland Yard, London SW1A 2HJ.
For further details, please contact Ian Orton
Telephone: 01729 825944
E-mail:[email protected]
NOTICE
MY MEMBERSHIPPlease pay attention to the efforts CILIP is making for us to stay safe online. The General Data Protection Regulation is for everyone everywhere in the UK.
Connecting with CILIP to update your contact details ensures that RMG keeps you informed of the activities of the group. Moreover, email subscription cuts the cost of posting the Post-Lib, therefore giving us the opportunity to focus on other important areas of the SIG. Check out Phil Bradley’s advice on how to avoid the pitfalls of using the internet and/or get in touch with CILIP if unsure of the way the system uses your data.
l EVENTS! l ANNOUNCEMENTS! l BYGONES!
FORTHCOMING GROUP TOURS AND LIBRARY VISITS
Visit to The SpikeThe Paupers’ prison Guildford Union casual ward tour
When: 25th October 2018 at 2:30 pm
Where: The Spike Heritage Centre, Warren Road, Guildford, Surrey GU1 3JHRMG has also arranged a tour of theAbbot’s Hospital at 11:00 am.
Cost: £5.00 with tea/coffee, biscuits are additional cost of £1.00 per person.
Visit to the Library of ThingsUpper Norwood
When: Friday, 15th March 2019 10:30 to 12:00 noon
Where: Upper Norwood Library Hub, 39-41 Westow Hill, London SE19 1TJ
A library where you can borrow “things”such as a lawnmower, violin camping gearand learn how to use them!
Cost: £12.50 each based on 20 people.
To book a place on an RMG visit please contact: Charmaine [email protected] l Tel: 020 8395 9209
