View from the Hill

From 2 to 4:33

Using silence can be a powerful tool in speech. It is not just about being quiet. Silence communicates so much more and yet we seem to eschew it in our busy, noisy lives. 

As a presenter, I find silence to be an aid for engagement with my audience and a moment in which to breathe. Occasionally I may even say something thought provoking, in which case a period of silence is essential for thinking and forming opinions, digesting information, preparing for what comes next.

As a musician, to me one of the most memorable use of silence which is making my spine tingle even now thinking about it is in the climax of Barber's Adagio for Strings - the music reaches its peak and then there is a silence which is so powerful it makes me hold my breath so as not to disturb the moment. (In this YouTube clip it's around 7m11s.) John Cage famously used silence in his work 4'33 which embraces ambient noise and during which you become very aware of your surroundings. I could talk and talk (and write and write) about silence in music and also film. But I won't today.

Today we stood in silence for 2 minutes in commemoration of Armistice Day - in remembrance and respect.

And I found that I need many more minutes for contemplation.

- Suzanne

The Hidden Library

I attended the Charles Holden Lecture at Senate House Library last night where Professor Ian Christie spoke about film-making in libraries. In the beautiful art deco surroundings of the Chancellors' Hall, Professor Christie took us on a tour of the library as a film set. It was an interesting evening and in some ways, a different take on the same subject as The Hollywood Librarian, though in real time and from a film & media historian.

Whilst I didn't agree with Professor Christie that all libraries are "historic" and "dead" places which are only transformed into part of the contemporary society through exciting happenings in film - see Ghostbusters and Blackmail - I did rather like the notion that libraries are "repositories for past lives and efforts". Am I the only one who turns this into a slightly romantic idea? There are numerous examples of libraries on the big and small screens which feature in relationships and romance, one that springs to mind straight away is the touching scene in Breakfast at Tiffany's where Holly and Paul visit the New York Public Library together. Professor Christie spoke about the library as the place to search for the esoteric, using the film Se7en as his example (at which point I try not to think of the ending...).

The lecture started and finished with the subject of the film Agora,about the life and death of the Greek scholar Hypatia of Alexandria - and about the Library of Alexandria. I've put Agora onto my Lovefilm list (priority: high, so I can review it for you). My lasting feeling after the lecture was that of the library as a place of power.

Christie spoke about the Hidden Library, that users can find the top layer of information but librarians can unlock the gate to that which is hidden, that they hold the key to the esoteric, the powerful information that we can't quite see. Surely a useful argument in light of the spending review...

  

- Suzanne

"An original idea. That can't be too hard. The library must be full of them."

Last night I had the great fortune to see Stephen Fry at London's Royal Festival Hall (RFH) where he read passages from his new autobiography, The Fry Chronicles. He also delighted the packed house with anecdotes about his Hogwarts-like schooldays and his first meetings with Emma Thompson and Hugh Laurie - at which point he gave us a charmingly accurate impersonation of Hugh saying "Hullo". Cue audience laughter. Fry's passion for all technologies advanced and networks social is legendary (for he is surely The King of Twitter?) and so I read today with great interest that The Fry Chronicles is to be released not only in hard copy but also as an iPhone App.

The final moments of last night's event at the RFH moved on to more serious matters with Fry talking about himself and the more lonely part of his childhood at boarding school. He spoke of feeling miserable and that he was unlike anyone else. Where did he seek solace? Where did he find others like him (and start his love affair with all things Oscar Wilde) and find acceptance? The Library.

- Suzanne

A Celebratory Mood

A Friday, it’s early… it must be another Sue Hill Recruitment networking breakfast. On a glorious summer's morning with clear blue skies and the dome of St. Paul's within view, a group of information professionals shared breakfast and some insights into what is keeping them awake at night!  Asking each person, in three words only, to highlight issues facing them is extremely insightful. For example:-

·         procrastination - marketing - working smart

·         fragmentation - mis-alignment - potential

·         expertise - illiteracy ( re information) - efficiency

Themes bubbling to the surface prompted some naval gazing as we pondered on what are we?  what do we do? and what next?  This topic of conversation is one that could have been heard in each of the most recent decades along with ‘are we represented appropriately?’, where is the career track? are we really business managers? Trying to get a handle on what the future holds in a changing landscape is like trying to stop the rain from falling.  It struck me as I listened to the conversation that we have many creative and innovative colleagues who can see ahead but we also have many who have their heads buried in the sand.  Within the last few days we have seen creativity in advertising the plight of libraries as cuts loom.  Check out the Ghostbuster film that raises the issue of imminent cuts to the NY public library service. Now hot on their heels is another short film from the staff of the University of Washington's Information School. Who thought cataloguing could be linked to Lady Gaga? Come on UK - we need some creativity and innovation!!

The breakfast moved into a celebratory phase as we toasted Sue Hill’s birthday. Sue talked about how lucky she has been in working within a profession that welcomed her with open arms.  She shared some great anecdotal stories of how things have changed, and some have not, using one of her favourite quotes -

‘For time and the world do not stand still. Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future'. (John Fitzgerald Kennedy)

The rallying call is to look forward, keep on changing, use our collective creativity to get on the wider political agenda to influence how we educate and inform through the organisation, dissemination and management of information.

- Sue Edgar