Wednesday, January 5, 2011

I want to get you in my tent

Thus sang Viv Stanshall of the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah band all those years ago. The hoarier members of CoatesWatch were reminded of this when we saw an event, an Executive Briefing no less,  in Sheffield entitled Library campaigns. Are we all inside the tent?. Sadly it seems to be a reference to the euphemistic metaphor much used by the CIA about foreign right-wing dictators backed by the USA, covertly or overtly. Anyone who questioned the wisdom of supporting fascist low-life would be replied to either thus, 'better to have him inside the tent pissing out, than outside the tent pissing in', or 'he may be a fascist son-of-a-bitch, but he's our fascist son-of-a-bitch'. Tim appears on the bill. We would not dream of suggesting that he could ever be an embarassing ally, or insanitary in any sense.

The pricing is odd as well. The ordinary public get in gratis, but practicing [sic] librarians have to pay £30. This reminds us of those louche night-clubs that offer free admission for girls, though we hope SINTO do not have the same motives. It's a long way off, but the Yorkshire chapter of CoatesWatch have the date in our diaries. Some of the rest of the team may well find this vaut le voyage, as the Michelin guides say.

3 comments:

  1. Thanks for the publicity! You may like to note that for your £30 you get not only Tim but also Alan Gibbons, Annie Mauger and Lauren Smith so it will be a serious discussion of the issues that Coates Watch likes to mock. You are very welcome to attend but NB my reference to the CILIP Code of Professional Practice section 3C. In other words it's only for grown ups.
    Re the pricing. We need to generate some income to cover the cost of staging this event otherwise SINTO ceases to exist and that would be a shame. If you can get your employer to pay or regard it as a CPD cost then your money is welcome but I don't expect library campaigners to pay for the privilage.
    And what do you mean Yorkshire is a long way off? No its not, it's right here!

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  2. Our pleasure! We're unclear though, how a non-member of CILIP such as Tim can be bound by the Code of Professional Practice

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  3. Sleeps tonight, the sidewinderJanuary 27, 2011 at 10:05 PM

    He should be bound by rules of common decency and respect, and there are many public servants who question whether these rules are upheld on the Good Library Blog and wonder whether until they are should he being indulged by librarians, especially public librarians, in light of the fact that, according to this post, the blog's author has "little or no respect for"

    http://foclibrary.wordpress.com/2010/11/12/extraordinary-meeting-called/#comment-16

    I wonder how this fits with CILIP's code of Professional Practice?

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