Libraries in a cold climate

Are you a library and information professional, or do you call on the professional expertise of library and information professionals to help you in your work or when studying? Do you believe that library andinformation professionals should be allowed to develop their professional expertise to support information in whatever formats it is found in? Like a blog? Or a wiki? Or through tweets on Twitter? Or via a Facebook group? Or on YouTube or Flickr?

It seems like a no-brainer. If it's information you're after, head to the library. Libraries have embraced computers, online databases,e-books and e-journals as they arrived on the information scene. In the early days of the internet going mainstream, many people first accessed the WWW through their library - a college or university library, a public library, a library in the work place. If it's you wanted information, you went to the library. Asked a librarian. They'd been there, done that and could give you the top ten hot tips for getting information out of new sources.

But not any longer. The social networking or Web 2.0 tools andt echnologies are blocked to many librarians. In many public libraries,social networking sites are blocked as a matter of policy at network level for all staff who use the local authority network. And that includes library and information professionals.

In many companies, employees are blocked as a matter of policy from using social networking sites in case they 'abuse' the privilege and waste time at work. And that includes library and information professionals.

In many schools and colleges, social networking sites are blocked as a matter of policy to protect the students from using them on the premises. But the ban includes library and information staff.

Many government organisations ban access to social networking sitesfor all staff for unclear reasons, perhaps for security or to prevent time wasting, as a matter of policy. And that includes library andinformation professionals.

Although I could make a good case for not censoring access to online tools that are not illegal or age inappropriate, that is not my issue here. My issue is with information professionals not having access tothe new channels that information is travelling along. Channels that some of their library users are already using outside work, school, or the facilities provided by the public library. Channels that many of their library users should be aware of, as they are carrying information that is important to their work, study or interests.Channels that some of their library users will be receiving poor-quality information through, because they don't understand the provenance of the sources they are accessing.

In some UK public libraries, things are so bad that on one side ofthe counter, library users can freely access social networking sites via PCs linked up to the People's Network, but on the other side of the counter, library staff are blocked on their own PCs from accessing those same sites. The customer side of the counter - free access. The professionals' side of the counter - no access. This is the situationin many of the UK public libraries today: one counter, two cultures. Is this really the best way serving users of public library services? Of any library services?

I've been working professionally with Web 2.0/social networking forover 3 years now. I devise and run a series of seminars for library and information professionals on using these tools and technologies in their work. I love bringing new tools into the workplace, love giving people the confidence to experiment, love being part of a day where people get to 'play' professionally and use their creativity.

And social networking tools are designed to be quick to learn, easy to use, great for talking to people, and either free or very, very cheap. I work with librarians across all sectors, and I knew as soon as I started using these tools myself that they would be great for librarians. Great as new ways of accessing information and great as tools to use to share information with library users and with each other.

I was shocked when I learnt that course attendees, all professionals,struggled with access to the tools and sites we used after the first seminar way back in 2006. I find it unbelievable that this is still the case for so many colleagues three years on. It is, in my opinion, de-professionalising the library and information profession.

I have tried my best to help individuals to put together a casefor access to social networking tools and technologies. But I am writing of my frustration here in the hope that I can continue the conversation with other library professionals and perhaps with the people who block their access. I am optimistic that if we can talk about the barriers in different sectors and different organisations we can start to understand them. And then, hopefully, we can start to take them down and move all libraries into the twenty-first century.