Month: June 2009

It is exactly a year since I posted my first blog on 10 June 2008. Since then there have been enormous changes, financially and politically worldwide, and big changes for me and the Library. None of which could have been anticipated last June.

In starting this blog I hoped to publicise the National Library and its services easily and quickly, and encourage people to ask questions, request information and let me know of new documents, papers, websites , conferences etc. Since then there have been 4226 visits , now averaging about 100 per week and 99 postings – this is the hundredth – on a variety of topics. Not too bad for a blog in such a specialised field, and a ‘library’ to boot!

There have been a number of enquiries ( some in the past three months) all answered satisfactorily, and some interesting encouraging comments both on the blog and emailed privately.

What has changed?

The most important change for me personally has been my redundancy. The decision of the Foundation for Conductive Education to make the post of Librarian redundant three months ago ( yes, it is three months now!) which led to me leaving, resulted in a large number of emails and phone calls from old students, professionals, parents and conductors. They made me realise how important it was for people to know the Library and its services were there, even if they did not use them very often.

I always understood that the Library was not just for current users, not just there for students and clients at NICE, but was there as a foundation, a source of knowledge for the future, when Conductive Education would become of more interest academically worldwide. I still think that to achieve this it needs a professional to run it and increase its prestige internationally as well as that of the Foundation. I am sure that those who are manning the fort at the moment are doing the best they can, but their valuable time would be better spent doing what they know best, Conductive Education.

What next?

Well, I hope to continue disseminating information with news items, conference details, newsletters, more Conductive Education Classics, and items of relevance to those with interest in Conductive Education. Also I have registered to become part of Twitter. More of this later. I will do other things too and am looking at a couple of options.

As to the current meltdown in the financial and political world, all I can do is hope that Conductive Education and its supporters can survive and adapt to the new circumstances. For this people will need to work hard, be prepared for radical change, prepared to fight their corner and be prepared to stand up for the profession, verbally and in print.

In the meantime, please keep reading this and please, please, let me know what you think, send me your enquiries and be in touch. While its good to know that people are reading my postings, it will be even better to have more contact with you all.

Here’s to the next twelve months, and thanks for being there with me – Cheers!