Tom Roper's Weblog

CILIP's AGM: no confidence in Ed Vaizey

CILIP's AGM took place in the splendid and insanely popular new Library of Birmingham. I was privileged to enjoy a tour after the meeting, conducted by John Kirriemuir, who has been using the library intensively since its opening. There are some photographs on Flickr. The meeting itself was no less remarkable. Most importantly, we passed a motion of no confidence in Ed Vaizey, the junior government minister who has presided over the past three years of public library closure and never lifted a finger to help them. The motion was ably and movingly proposed by Jo Richardson, and I had the honour to second., it. It was passed by a handsome majority, 669 members for, 200 against and 103 abstentions. A proposal to change CILIP's name to ILPUK was emphatically squashed, only supported by 356, while 644 opposed it, 22 abstaining. The name change should never have been put before us; the no confidence motion should have come sooner. But now we have them. This will be a turning point for CILIP. Now we can reverse the decline in membership, now a shameful 13,690, and build a professional association worthy of the challenges of the day. With that in mind, I intend to stand for election to Council. No Council member dared speak to defend the name change at the AGM. We need a change of attitude of mind on Council. Who'll join me in transforming it?

Poetry in the Crypt this Thursday

Once a year, every September, the Muses leave Mount Helicon and come to Seaford for a seaside holiday, and to honour Seaford Live with their presence.
For Calliope, Erato, Euterpe and Polyhymnia, the highlight of the whole event is the Poetry at the Crypt evening, which this year falls on Thursday 12 September, starting at 7.30 p.m. in the Crypt Gallery.
We're fortunate to share the space this year with an art exhbition by the Last Minute Artists.

This year's readers are:

• Martin Myers, making his Crypt debut. Martin's latest collection, Some Circular Walks in Sussex, is published by Pighog, and described as 'surreal and disturbing collisions of the urban and the rural'.
• Peter Martin, a Crypt regular, this year will include readings from his new collection, Kindred Spaces: Poetry of the Sussex Downs and Coast, available at the Post Office and the Tourist Information Centre
• Ralph Taylor, reading from his late wife Pam Hughes's work, including her last collection, Shadows on the Downs

Also reading are:

• Rachel Playforth, an ex-Seafordian who lives in Lewes; in between poems she works as a librarian and open access coordinator in a social sciences research institute, also editor, reviewer, blogger (at the Toast in the Machine) and parent. Rachel has been involved with and published by the Frogmore Press since 2004, including in last year's Languages of Colour and Poems from the Old Hill.
• Felicity Pople, a stalwart of the Seaford poetry scene.

Other readers are welcome and there will be an open mic sessions as part of the evening. If you would like to read, contact me [email protected] or 01323 873564.

Admission: donation, which includes a glass of wine. Proceeds go to this year's Seaford Live charity, Chestnut Tree House

The Crypt Gallery is at 23 Church Street, Seaford, BN25 1HE , just down the road from St Leonard’s Church. The building is less than three minutes walk from Seaford Railway Station and about five minutes walk from the sea front. Find it on Google Maps

Blacking out the racing results

Phil Bradley has made some cogent points recently on local authorities which block pay-day loan websites, and the implications for public libraries and on David Cameron's promise to rid the world of pornography through the magic of image fiters.

Today I was in my public library branch. Having five minutes to kill, and since there was a spare computer, I wanted to check the race cards for this afternoon's horse-racing, in particular the Irish Championship Stakes meeting at Leopardstown. I logged on, launched a browser, typed in http://www.racingpost.com, which, for non-racing enthusiasts, is the website of Britain's only racing daily newspaper, after the demise of the Sporting Life. The site was blocked.

When I was a librarian 'prentice, old hands would tell me of the bad old days when library staff would black out the racing pages of the daily newspapers on display in the reading room, for fear that the working classes might be tempted from paths of virtue. I never knew it happen in my time, though I'd wager that few public libraries ever stocked the Racing Post, or the far superior Sporting Life. I wonder if they also block sites covering football or cricket or motor-racing. I doubt it. I expect they associate horse-racing with gambling, and believe they have a mission to save the people of the county from immoral behaviour, though they stock books on the subject.

I've made a complaint.