CILIP is the UK professional organization for library (and other information) workers. I was interested to read the passage below in a recent submission it made to a parliamentary group looking at public libraries in England. It is referring to MLA, the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, a government sponsored body which exists to promote good practice in those domains.
It could be argued that the establishment […] yoked public libraries into an arbitrary relationship with museums and galleries which is proving counterproductive in terms of the other relationships which public libraries in England need to establish at national level – with learning, with health, with communities, with public libraries in other parts of the UK, with the other parts of the library and information sector. [All-Party Parliamentary Group on Libraries, Literacy and Information Management: Inquiry into the Governance and Leadership of the Public Library Service in England The Submission of Evidence by the Chartered Institute of Library & Information Professionals PDF]
The weak opening qualification – “it could be argued” – aside, this is an interesting, and unusually emphatic, position for a library organization to take.
Incidentally, I wonder does the lack of reference to archives here signify anything.
