New Library - New Measures: A Social Audit of Public Libraries

Abstract

Bob Usherwood, Professor of Librarianship at Sheffield University's Department of Information Studies,is widely experienced in the practice and teaching of librarianship and information studies. Before joining the Department at Sheffield he was Chief Librarian in the London Borough of Lambeth. He started his career with Devon County Libraries and has also worked for the London Boroughs of Havering and Sutton, and the Polytechnic of North London. Over the years he has presented papers to many conferences and courses in the UK and abroad. His international work has taken him to various parts of the world, including Singapore, India, Jamaica, Kenya, Ethiopia, Poland, Canada, Russian Federation, Scandinavia, Swaziland and Hungary. He served on LISC's predecessor, LACE (the Library Advisory Council for England), the Library Association Council and many professional working parties and committees. He was Chair of the Library Association's Working Party on Ethics that led to the LA adopting a Code of Professional Conduct in 1983. He was presented with an Honorary Fellowship of the Library Association in 1992 and made a Fellow of the Institute of Information Scientists in 1993. He was President of the Library Association in 1998. He obtained his Doctorate as a result of undertaking research into the role of elected members in the operation of public library services. His other research interests include the social impact of library services, public policy issues, interpersonal skills for LIS workers, the role of total quality management in public libraries and public library expenditure in the private sector. He is also responsible for the Centre for the Public Library in the Information Society (CEPLIS), at Sheffield University's Department of Information Studies. Mr Usherwood may be contacted at the Department of Information Studies, Sheffield University, Western Bank, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK (fax: +(44- 114) 2780300; e-mail: r.usherwood@sheffield.ac.uk). Rebecca Linley received her first degree in politics from Newcastle University. After this she worked for several years in the civil service, most recently in the R&D Directorate of the Department of Health. She completed her MA at Sheffield University in 1996, and since then has worked on two British Library Research and Innovation Centre (BLRIC) projects- the social audit project at Sheffield (October 1996 until January 1998), and from February 1998 until the present at Leeds Metropolitan University on "Education and Training for Information Work in the Voluntary Sector", with four other co-workers. Ms Linley can be contacted at the School of Information Management, Leeds Metropolitan University, the Grange, Beckett Park, Leeds LS6 3QS, UK (e-mail: r.linley@lmu.ac.uk).