My presentation on the topic "Documentality as inscribed acts; ontology, technology and practice of professional codes of ethics in librarianship" is now uploaded on youtube.
The recordning was made for the Annual Meeting of the Document Academy, held in Tromsö, Norway 19-22 june 2013, due to the fact that I could not attend the conference in person.
The project on the documentality of librarianship ethics is in process now, and I will get back, not least here on NDL, with comments and reflections related to it further on.
The presentation itself start about 50 seconds into the clip. Enjoy:
During the last five years the National Library of Sweden (KB) has
been running a project to prepare the Swedish library sector for the use of
Dewey Decimal Classification, DDC. Now the final report of this project has arrived,
and it is an interesting read.
The overall aim of the ”Swedish Dewey Project” was to develop the
tools to make it possible for libraries in Sweden to introduce DDC. The
decision to actually do has, however, been left to each library.As of today, some 30 libraries has left the
Swedish SAB-system and introduced DDC in their classification practice and/or
shelving. Almost all of them are research libraries, only two public libraries
have yet taken the step.
The reasons for the proposed transformation of Swedish classification
practice has been threefold: the international character of bibliographic
practice, rationalisation – to reduce double classification in parallel systems,
and increased quality in classification practice. The argumentation is simple,
but relevant: most of the literature in research libraries are already classified
in DDC when bought; the DDC is the the most widely spread classification system
in the world, today used in more than 135 countries and translated into some 30
languages; it is well kept and frequently updated.
The change to DDC is singularly the most significant change in Swedish
library life during the last century, at least if we look at collection
manangement and the organization of stock. We know from experience that such
changes are not easy to accomplish, nor is it easy to make everyone happy. When
KB decided in 2008 to change into DDC, there was a lot of uncertainty regarding
the aim and consequences of this decision. The public libraries in particular,
felt left in a situation that they neither had asked for, nor knew how to
handle – the need for DDC was expressed exclusively from primarily large
research libraries. Reading the now published report has really nothing to add
to this uncertainty – are the public libraries expected to use DDC or not?
However, that is not a question to be answered in this report.
The project can be said to
have focussed on two primary targets – (1) translation into a Swedish version
of DDC, and the development of system requirements for it to work in a Swedish
environment, and (2) education of librarians. On both these issues, the project
seems to have been rather successful. The problems described concerning
translation and conversion of codes appear quite forseeable, and the
educational efforts have been constructed in a dialogue with both the library
sector and representatives from the Library and Information Science educational
departments. One practical detail which should not be undersestimated is the
translation of the textbook Dewey Decimal Classification: Principles and
Application by Lois Mai Chan and Joan S. Mitchell – this book is now being
used in the basic training in classification i Swedish LIS educations,
preparing new librarians in DDC from the very start of their professional life.
One thing that is worth
noting in the felt shortcomings of the project is how they mostly seem to come
from lack of resourses and short sighted planning horizons from the National
Library. Parts of the project simply seem to have been carried through in spite
of, and not because of, the National Library Management. For that, huge credit
must be given to Magdalena Svanberg and her colleagues who have lead the
project through to its end with admirable dedication, determination and skill.
Now that the final report of
the Swdish Dewey Project is ready, we can see that it also triggers questions.
What now? Will KB strategically uphold the development of the Swedish DDC? Will
further initiatives be taken to argue for the benefits of DDC to an evidently reluctant
public library sector? Are there any such benefits?
The final report of the Swedish Dewey Project is here, (in Swedish).
The picture below is a snapshot taken as I was given the opportunity to
welcome Magdalena Svanberg to the LIS department at Linnaeus University in
march 2011 for a lecture and discussion, as part of the educational programme
of the Swedish Dewey Project - an occasion much appreciated by our students.
Summer is over us and with it, a short relief from the
burdens of administration. Some call it vacation. Others use this period to
think and write. This is also a good time to reflect on the conditions under
which we work in the humanities and at the universities at large.
The faculty where I work, the Arts and Humanities Faculty at
Linnaeus University is a good one - nice, creative people who produce much and
good research. But, in the eyes of the university management and in the eyes of
national research policy makers, it is a rather bad faculty. It does not attract
enough ”external funding” for them to be happy. For that, the factulty will be
fiscally punished in the upcoming budget. The fact that the lack of ”external
funding” does not seem to affect the research outcome in any negative manner (quite
possibly the opposite) goes without recognition.
Research today is formulated as a form of competetion, where
the singular most critical success factor is the attraction of ”external
funding”. For the humanities this is absolutely devastating. Forcing humanistic
scholars to engage in the quest for money from research councils that spread
their graces over less than 10 % of the submitted applications is nothing short
of a waste of time. Besides, every active scholar knows that the only thing
that counts in the long run is the quality of the published research - the
results, in whatever environment they will find their place. The system today
fosters another priority; that of expected research. It is more important to submit
suggestions for research than to actually go through with them. Although that
might not be the intent of our present political decision makers, it is for
sure the outcome, since most applications will gain no interest what so ever by
the research councils.
Today there is a discussion in Sweden about the role of the
humanities. It is a kind of ”debate” which occurs every now and then. This time
around the main question is not only the usual attempt to show an intrinsic
value of the humanities to society (we’re ”good”), but also how we can adapt
humanistic research to the present system of research finance – how to make the
humanities attract more ”external funding”. No one asks the question ”why
should we?”.
Research is not a competative endeavor – especially not that
of humanistic and cultural studies. The obvious alternative to the present
system is to directly provide the universities with the funding needed by their
active scholars. The ones populating the diverse and fluid structures of
disciplines within these fields - doctoral students, lecturers and professors -
are the ones who should decide what research to persue. The present system
forcing us to constantly scribble down applications for ”external funding” is of
course highly political and a direct enemy of the slow, creative process that
is the mother of all humanistic scholarship. Achieving scientific results takes
time, and the constrains of tight time limits and evaluation demands is not beneficial
for neither process nor results.
Some say that this is an idealistic way of reasoning. I
don’t think it is. By saying that it is, one is admitting the necessity of the
present system, that ”this is the way it is”. That is a highly unintellectual
stand. I (still) believe that society is shaped not by economic standards, but
by the will of its citizens.The power over
politicians of administratrators and financiers is strong though, and by
admitting them to set the rules, cultural studies and humanities research are
bound to lose. We see their triumph all around us. We live today, at least in
Sweden, in a society which is filled with people who despite their good (often university)
educations are cultural ignorants. Hundreds of thousands well equipped and
capable of doing their task in the production apparatus, but unable to relate
it to an overall reason or to associate with the depth of human experience
accessible to us through religions, literature, ethics, art, philosophy, drama
and music. These people are easy to manipulate, something which of course has
been noted by several thinkers during the last century, such as Karl Marx,
Sigmund Freud, Elias Canetti and Zygmunt Bauman. Fostering citizens like that
may be economically productive, but in the end it is socially devastating. Thus, it is not
the humanities that is the problem. It is the politicians turned technocrats,
treating research like industrial excercise, treating culture as a burden –
they are the problem.
So, in the firm belief that society always is the result of our collective intentions, I
propose a shift of focus. No more should we ask what humanities can do for this society,
but what this society of ours can do for the humanities. If so, we have a
starting point. It is, basically, a matter of integrity.
Alas – summer: in a spirit of love and strength I leave you
this time with Alfred Schnittke’s brilliant paraphrase (K)ein Sommernachtstraum.
By the way, on this particular recording, made by Malmö Symphony Orchestra in the mid 1980's, my father plays bass trombone:
A 30 minute excerpt of my inaugural lecture as professor in Library and Information Science has been discovered and uploaded on Youtube. The full lecture was just over two hours long, and the part now found is from around the middle of it.
The lecture was given in may 2010 at Linnaeus University in Växjö, the day before the formal inaugural ceremony.
The clip is in Swedish.
