7 Recruitment and staffing
112. We applaud the many committed and talented people
currently in the service who have dealt with ever-increasing demands
on them with professionalism and vigour and who continue to transform
library services locally. The public library service is a trusted
and popular service. A large contributor to the esteem in which
the public holds the service is its staff.
113. However, recruitment of graduates from professional
librarianship courses into the public library service is at a
low level as students are increasingly joining other professions
and information services in the private sector.[134]
As Dr McKee of CILIP said in evidence: "there is a greying
of the profession."[135]
The public library service may not be able to compete with the
salaries of private practice but it has a great deal to offer
in terms of job satisfaction. The service is at the heart of informal
and lifelong learning and it is on the frontline of providing
the public with access to knowledge.
114. The public library service also needs individuals
with a wide range of skills: knowledge management; IT; leadership;
public relations and customer service expertise; managers; business-minded
people; those qualified in marketing and finance; web management
and many more.
115. We recognise
and support the profession's moves to train and qualify people
from within[136] but
we strongly believe the profession must not be complacent. It
needs to market itself more effectively and to cast its net more
widely among potential recruits.
116. The Audit Commission highlighted a lack of leadership
and advocacy skills in the senior echelons of the profession.[137]
This has negative impacts on local councils' capacity to appreciate
the contribution and value of libraries, the funding they are
prepared to invest, the quality of service they provide and the
ability of the service to advocate itself across other departments
and externally to a wider audience.
117. The library
profession must recognise its shortcomings in this area of leadership
and advocacy and plan both to train its staff internally and to
recruit people with appropriate experience from outside the profession.
Library leaders of the future need skills, crucially including
management skills, beyond those that come with a professional
librarianship qualification.
134 Ev 30 Back
135
Ev 37, Q 48 Back
136
Ev 30 Back
137
Ev 46, Q 36 Back
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