As to the legal situation, a lot depends on how this issue of the Bourdillon report and the associated circular plays out, but the former does give guidelines on numbers of qualified staff, and does make special mention that staff are to be paid commensurate with their qualifications — in my own opinion in the age we live in of advancing library science and technology there is only really a rational for raising the numbers of qualified staff in our libraries, if not to 100%! This though should not be done without detailing expectations for the public’s investment – a lack of which in the past I would argue has maybe not done the profession a lot of good.

It would also be arguable as to whether a library that has no qualified librarians is efficient for the user to use (if they have to go trundling off to the nearest library with a skilled librarian to find the literature they seek) – how comprehensive woould the collection be of a library for the public who cannot get to a more distant library.

The community library librarian manager should (I’ve said this before!) be paid more than a One-Stop-Shop manager, on account of the library manager needs to be considerably more skilled at planning and strategy development. Almost a strategic level of planning ability is required – I’m not suggesting literally that library managers should be capable and experienced directors, but skill wise there is probably little difference apart from context [a community library could probably always actually benefit from having its own team of directors – but for most a manager has to suffice]. If someone finds themselves with the time to volunteer they could do worse than to spend their time ensuring they have the most highly experienced _and_ qualified library manager running their local library that they can possibly get! Expectations need to be made of their local library also (in return for the investment), and volunteers (along with councillors) can have a role in this. A library has the potential to make a concrete difference to a community – and a skilled manager with a proven proactive and creative track record is needed if this potential is to be realised. A One-Stop-Shop I think can be managed by a less experienced and perhaps not so talented manager, a community library manager is a much more high value role.

We are also in an age of the knowledge economy – much more information is being produced than ever – the librarians very much have a role in putting that information and literature to work – but it will take dynamic and proactive librarians to bring the libraries into this information age:

“…the wealth and potential of nations is derived from productive knowledge. To maximize collective knowledge, a nation needs to connect its individual citizens, each of whom can benefit the whole. The more complex and interconnected a nation, the greater its economic productivity and potential.”
Global Economics Gets a Facelift With The Atlas of Economic Complexity

Do librarian managers now have to perhaps not only see themselves as within literature and education contexts, but perhaps also very much an economic context?

Is it time to ask if the model of skilled librarians working with unskilled library assistants carrying out routine tasks that Dewey created and that has set the tone for 150 years, is this now out of date? Should newly qualified librarians serve their time while they build up their training and skill and many years of experience before moving into managerial roles leading communities and the libraries into the future — increasingly is there in fact a role remaining for the unskilled paraprofessional from the days of book stamping and shelf work – a community can use all the knowledge and information skills it can get in the age we live in, not to mention expectations in this information age of a much higher level of skill in the field of the literary arts – this takes skilled staff.

Should, in conclusion, in fact the librarian profession not be looking to move more in the direction of, e.g., the profession of that of law, becoming more highly skilled, a higher value profession, than merely the ‘entertainment’ role in our lives that libraries have played such a large part in in the past. Are the politicians really sure that people want to see their libraries move in the direction of volunteers and church halls – which is surely the same as saying that as the digital age moves in, libraries have reached the end of their useful lives, and are being wound down in the process?

I would say, can we have better libraries, not closed libraries.

(cont. below)

A library authority is surely required to pay for the whole cost of providing the statutory library service (not just part of it). This applies however the service is delivered (directly by the library authority or by another organisation on its behalf). Just as a library authority can’t remove its overall responsibility to provide a library service it can’t remove its responsibility to fund it either.

For a non-statutory library – the library authority isn’t legally required to provide any support – financial or otherwise.