Society of Authors on Philip Pullman's speech at the Library Campaign conference

http://www.societyofauthors.org/soa-news/philip-pullman-speaks-out-library-campaign-conference

Saturday's conference on the blogs

We're picking up a lot of blog posts from delegates. The prize for comprehensiveness must go to Ian Anstice on his Public Libraries News site, who has shared twelve  pages of verbatim notes, as well as a summary post. It's also well worth reading Lauren Smith, who blogs at Walk You Home, Voices for the Library's post, Information Overload, whose subtitle, From Local to National, sums up the spirit of the conference very well and the Friends of Gloucestershire Libraries blog

If you know of other blog or media coverage of the conference, please let us know by e-mail, Twitter or in the comments.

 

 

 

Conference coverage

The most comprehensive account of Saturday's conference was on Public Libraries News: http://www.publiclibrariesnews.com/2011/10/library-campaign-conference-latest.html

Other press accounts:

Guardian: Philip Pullman declares war against 'stupidity' of library closures

Bookseller: Pullman calls library fight "war against stupidity"

Alan Gibbons addresses the Library Campaign conference

Privatisation workshop resources

Here are the resources Alan Wylie of  Stop the privatisation of UK Public Libraries prepared for the privatisation workshop at today's conference.


Privatisation and public library services

Privatisation

Croydon and Wandsworth

Travel to ULU

There's engineering work on the underground this weekend. Details are at http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/livetravelnews/realtime/track.aspx?offset=weekend. Chief closures are the Circle and Victoria lines. For delegates arriving at Kings Cross, St Pancras and Euston, ULU is a short walk. How to get to ULU

Workshop details

We can now announce details of workshop leaders for the workshops on Saturday.

Social media: Gary Green (Voices for the Library) and Stephanie Taylor (Critical Eye Communications)

Privatisation: Alan Wylie (dontprivatiselibraries.blogspot.com) (Update: Alan is prevented by family illness from leading this workshop. His place will be taken by Tom Roper of Voices for the Library)

Volunteers: Ian Anstice (Public Libraries News)

Constructing arguments against council decisions - and putting them forward: Abby Barker (Rosehill Readers)

Press liaison: Jo Anderson (Friends of Gloucestershire Libraries) and Lauren Smith (Save Doncaster Libraries)

Legal challenges: Jo Anderson and Demelza Jones (Friends of Gloucestershire Libraries)

Local government finance: Pete Challis, Unison

Leaders to be announced on the day:

Getting groups together and coming up with strategies

Putting on events and protests

Promotion of campaigns

Registration is still open at  http://andrewtlc.blogspot.com/2011/09/online-registration-form.html or by email

 

After the Brent judgement, what next?

Today Mr Justice Ouseley ruled in favour of Brent council. This is a blow, but the thousands of people involved in campaigning for libraries will not give up just because the law is an ass. But how? The place to debate these issues is at the first national forum for library campaigners since the coalition seized power, the conference on 22nd October. Details here: http://andrewtlc.blogspot.com/2011/09/online-registration-form.html

Library Campaign on Twitter and Facebook

As we prepare for the conference, now less than a month away, we'll be using social media extensively. If you use Twitter, follow us: Follow @LibraryCampaign. On Facebook we can be found at http://www.facebook.com/LibraryCampaign

The hashtag for the conference is #libcampconf.

If you're interested in using social media as a campaigning tool, make sure you go to the workshop at the conference led by Gary Green of Voices for the Library.

Online registration form

Workshops on 22 October

We plan workshops on 22 October on the following themes:

• Privatisation and outsourcing
• Looking at the figures
• Volunteers
• Using social media
• Working with the media
• Mounting a legal challenge
• Constructing arguments
• Organising events

Not all may run, depending on level of interest.

The conference hashtag will be #libcampconf