A few years ago I remember reading an article in Local Studies Librarian and by the end of it I was fuming. The author said that local studies librarians, archivists and museum professionals will morph into one profession. I began writing a furious reply, saying that we had a completely different skills and we looked at “heritage” in completely different ways. Later, deciding that Local Studies Librarian was a serious scholarly place and not somewhere to vent my spleen, I put my pen away.
Four years ago I became a LSG blogger and I started writing a blog post called “Is there a future for Local Studies Librarianship”. It was rather depressing. It started….
Things are getting a bit depressing. According to that “What is the point of…. Public libraries” Radio 4 programme, there are 14% less professional librarians in public libraries than there were a few years ago. I used to hear the refrain, “you’re okay, they’ll never get rid of local studies” but things are not going that way, at least in the South East. Buckinghamshire’s last Local Studies Librarian retired last year, only half of Berkshire’s Unitary Authorities have someone who is referred to as a “Local Studies Librarian” and everybody knows what is going on in Hampshire. With 25% of local government spending being shaved off in the next 5 years, we “ain’t seen nothing yet”.
The Local Studies Librarian contributor a few years before did see Local Studies Librarianship posts beginning to be transferred to archive and local studies units, but as job cuts came, it seemed to me that Local Studies posts were hardest hit. As with much of public librarianship, professional posts were often replaced with lower paid para-professional.
My 2000 blog post was to finish:
I do not know what the future of our part of the profession holds, or even what we can do to influence it. I have a sneaking suspicion that I will not be a “Local Studies Librarian” for too many more years. Please can someone tell me I am wrong.
A year later my Local Studies post was deleted. Mine was not the only local studies post to be deleted around that time.
It is not just local studies staff that are being given the chop. As branches are being refurbished, town collections are being “streamlined” and material being sent to county archive/local studies units. There is one case where the archive only wants a small amount of the collection and it is proposed that the rest of the collection would be sent to reserve stock – how can you access OS maps from reserve stock, let alone have someone around to show you the right map and how it works?
I believe local studies professionals make a difference. Archivists and Museum guys do an amazing job, but our training, experience and outlook make us stronger in certain fields. I started to make a list, but last year I saw some notes from a LSG North East meeting, and, to be frank, theirs is much better. Here it is:
Strengths of Local Studies librarians
- We look at our collections, identify gaps and acquire, or even create, sources to fill them. This isn’t part of an archivist’s remit though they might make efforts to collect material created by other organisations to fill gaps.
- We preserve ephemera and grey literature, often discarded from archive collections.
- Our tradition is the user’s right to access to our collection, the archival tradition is that preservation is paramount and access is a privilege. Having people who come from both traditions helps maintain a balance.
- Our focus is the information, not the document.
- Secondary sources are important – anybody studying local history needs to know what others have already written before they start using the primary sources held in record offices.
- Our collections are valuable as the historical record and in monetary terms – what will happen to them without professional custodianship? Will their cash value make them vulnerable to being sold off?
- How will collections develop without professional input? They need collection policies, active book selection using local knowledge, complicated acquisition procedures. It can’t be left to library suppliers.
- We come from a library tradition with its emphasis on outreach, promotional events, social inclusion etc.
- Many record offices, especially in counties, use libraries to make archives more accessible throughout a large geographical area.
- [missed anything? Please add a comment at the end of this blog].
So, what are we going to do about it? Here are some options….
- Shout about how great we are. We make a difference to individuals, groups and our communities:
- We do celebrate through the McCulla “local studies librarian of the year award” and the Alan Ball “best publication” award.
- Use this blog to record our great project.
- Write a submission for the Sieghart Commission (we’ve only got a week!)
- Are librarians, archivist and museum guys going to become one profession? There are a number of Heritage Officer posts, especially in smaller authorities and engagement, enquiry and volunteer management roles are increasingly interchangeable within larger units. Should LSG be talking to ARA & the MA?
- Team-up with other librarians so we can shout louder. Should we be talking more to librarians in “historic libraries”? Whether many know it or not, they have a lot in common with local studies librarians – some do as at the last LSG Committee Meeting there were librarians employed by the National Archives, the National Maritime Museum and the RUSI Library of Military History. Should Local Studies Group become Heritage Collections Group.
- Continue to tell our political and senior officers how we are addressing their priorities such as social cohesion, the digital citizenship etc.
- [missed anything? Please add a comment at the end of this blog].
So what shall we do – all I do know for certain is that we do need to do something.
CILIP Local Studies Group 
Potentially the future of local Studies Librarianship should be positive. History still seems to be popular on TV, and there is plenty of interest around. Tony points out many of the benefits of a local studies librarian and what they can do for people, and local studies links into many of the key agenda – localism, volunteers, over 60s, children & young people, sense of place. Many of the big national commemorations, such as WWI centenary, can also be enhanced by local studies support. I was speaking to someone in another authority who was saying that almost all their library service’s volunteers wanted to help with local studies tasks, showing that it is an area of libraries which generates a lot of enthusiasm.
One threat is from within the librarian world. Increasingly specialists seem to disappear. Colleagues can fail to see the contribution local studies can make to service priorities and how it can help by being the hook that attracts people. Where service managers are unfamiliar with local studies there can be a tendency to assume it is for a minority of older more academic people or family historians, whereas our day schools and newsletter show we can be innovative and wider ranging when given the chance. I’ve also come across a number of smaller libraries which used to work with local studies librarians for family history/Ancestry classes to decide they can do it themselves as they feel all they have to do is type a name into the web, with a feeling that anyone can do it, although there’s far more to it that that.
Another threat is from wider colleagues, and lack of knowledge as to what they do. Although local studies librarians can make a great contribution to joint heritage projects they can be poor relations. When services combine the first post to go is often the librarian, with the suggestion that as everything is catalogued they don’t need them. In the Archive world it appears that The National Archives and the ARA place high value on number of qualified archivists when inspecting, in a way that no one priorities qualified librarians, placing them at a disadvantage.
Whilst most of us reading this blog will value local studies librarianship and see its importance, it is sadly part of the national problem of budget slashing, and as with many aspects of our profession a lot of the great work done over the past 10, 20, 50, 100 years is in danger of being undone. Who will continue to build the collections many have worked to hard to create? It is often hard to argue, as we see that all parts of the service are being heavily reduced so it is rarely personal. However hopefully we can explain to people the benefits of local studies collections and librarians.
I came across your blog when Googling in despair to see what is going on elsewhere in local studies when it has been so downgraded in my own county of Devon. I am not a qualified librarian and am not a member of CILIP but was appointed as a history graduate, local historian and teacher to the local studies librarian post in North Devon in 2001, working alongside Record Office colleagues and a private library trust in a local studies centre. Ian Maxted was then the County Local Studies Librarian, leading a group of staff at the Westcountry Studies Library in Exeter. My line manager, the then Reference Librarian, used to say to me “Your job is the most secure as local studies is a statutory provision” – how hollow those words seem now.
A few restructures later, and more to come, details this week. There is no longer a County Local Studies Librarian and of all the local studies staff in Exeter only one has been transferred to the Record Office/Devon Heritage Services, soon to be part of the new South West Heritage Trust. He is paid at the lowest grade with his local studies expertise unrewarded and the responsibility for the stock, but not the day to day management, transferred to a Record Office colleague. In North Devon we wait to see what will happen as our two archives staff have been told they will not transfer to the Trust in September and the library service are due to announce their plans for their “future shape”.
I agree with all that you have said above, we know we are in a growth area of family and local history, which ironically is contrary to the traditional role of lending libraries, but, as was the case with the growth in demand and need for public computer use, library managements seem determined to ignore it.
All we can do to counter the “it’s all online/going to be digitised” claims, particularly in these times of cuts when one council service is being put against another, is to evidence what we do, the need for specialist help, the benefits to the local economy of heritage tourism etc. What is saved by cutting our services is not going to pay for keeping day centres and care homes open. In our case we are talking less than four full time equivalents in staff time, and is actually a cost effective and truly efficient use of that time in both managing and maintaining collections and giving help and guidance on their best use.
Tony makes some good points in the value of Local Studies Librarianship, and it is something we need to keep promoting, and explaining the value of having a local studies librarian. Like lots of jobs many of our colleagues may be unaware of what a particular role does, let alone outside. In the past this may not have mattered (I’ve heard tales from the past of local studies librarians being left alone and spending their time doing their own research and writing books), but in the current climate what we do needs to be very evident. The list Tony gives covers a lot of the main benefits of a local studies librarian. There are a couple of others which
Being part of the wider library provide wider benefits, being part of a network with lots of service points around the county/district/town, compared to other heritage organisation who might just have one location. For a number of projects we have linked into neighbourhood libraries effectively and worked closely with local staff. Another benefit is that often librarians have started off with other specialisms within libraries, and may well be doing other jobs too, which although a problem for capacity can also bring opportunities. I began by being a children’s librarian for 3 years by accident (no one mentioned this part of the job until I arrived on day one…) which has benefited me in what I went on to do with Local Studies, and I am sure other people have benefited from their wider library experience.
Developing links with other relevant libraries would seem a good idea. With family and local history we regularly need to direct people on, and if we can work closely together to highlight each others resources that can only benefit our customers.
Each specialism has it’s own strengths. With local studies it is often that the focus is on the information rather than where it is from (although there is a place for that for other reasons). Archives collect what is within their collection policy, quite rightly, as do museums, but there remains important sources which don’t fall within those categories, such as newspapers and some photos or maps, but we know from experience that these are important sources for telling the story of the area. Working closely with Archaeology recently has opened my eyes to their resources, some unique, such as the Historic Environment Record, whilst other overlap, with maps and photos, and the customers benefit from having a wider experience and wider range of sources. We need each specialism, and need to explain which each is important alongside the others.