Rara Avis

On 29 March 2007, after 33 years, Avis Furness Librarian with the UK Office of the European Parliament retires. Here she recalls a mixture of historic events and personal highlights and talks about the very many changes her working life has seen in relation to developments in new technology and how they have altered our information needs and expectations.

An exciting beginning - life in the fast lane

It is rare to go for a job interview and end up on TV and in the newspapers. Rarer still for your existing boss to find out that you were not actually sick that day as you claimed but were having an interview for another job by seeing you on "Newsnight". Back in 1973, over 700 hopefuls had answered an advert in one of those free magazines which are still handed out today outside tube stations and applied for a life-changing job at the European Parliament which promised travel and excitement. Invited to "just turn up" at a hotel near Gt Portland Street in Central London, they were soon queuing around the block and journalists and cameramen were swift to follow the commotion. 30 jobs were on offer of which ten were for immediate take-up and 20 for a reserve list. Avis was Number 27. Her boss saw the funny side. Some months passed and hearing nothing, Avis read in the press that a UK Office of the Parliament was to be set up in London. She phoned to be told that hers was indeed one of the dossiers under consideration. She was called for interview and got the job. She started work on January 14 1974 in an Office of three people. There was no switchboard just one phone passed around amongst the three.

This particular style and size of advertisement was a novel approach for the Parliament. Few people had answered previous more traditional style ads in the Times and elsewhere. It was aimed at reaching a different and wider audience.

Early days

The Office was established in Kensington Palace Gardens in a building shared with the European Commission Representation. It had been the residence of the EC Representative to the UK before the UK joined the European Community in 1973. Before that, it had belonged to the film director Alexander Korda. "Shabby but rather nice with a lovely atmosphere". They worked in a few rooms on the top floor and later also took over a mews cottage in the back garden. The Parliament and Commission joined forces for the 1975 Referendum in their first really large-scale information campaign. Then as now there was criticism over the boundary between "information and propaganda".

The Office grew when extra staff were taken on for the 1979 EP elections and an elections task force was set up. The low turnout (33%) was an immense shock and disappointment. This at a time when voting in UK General elections was consistently high and before today's more disaffected attitudes. There was a good deal of press coverage but nothing particularly helpful. One of the things which Avis feels has not changed at all in 30 years is that so much of the press still uses the same disparaging tone of voice, taking the easy option, with headlines seemingly written by someone who has not read the article. In 1980 a move was made to the present Office at 2 Queen Anne's Gate, SW1 - reputedly a former residence of Lady Hamilton complete with her ghost.

The UK Office did not have a library in Kensington Palace Gardens - just a collection of reports. The Office took on a new member of staff who had been the chauffeur for the European Commission and he found an unexpected talent in organising documentation. Some of his indexes are still used today. With the move to Queen Anne's Gate the building of a library was started. A trained librarian formerly with the House of Commons Library began to put things together in a more structured way. Avis was working as visits co-ordinator at this time travelling out to Strasbourg each month to help with the various programmes for groups from the UK. In 1987, however, Avis moved into library work so coming full circle to what she had always wanted to do but which her A level grades had not originally allowed. After a year the Librarian left to have a baby and Avis took charge.

Ways of working

Avis: In those days work was much more physical: unpacking large amounts of documents, sorting, indexing and filing. The Single European Act was passed in 1987. Parliament was doing second readings and this upped the requests for documents. People also wanted a lot of things explaining by phone or in person. It was difficult for people to get information. There was no internet. We know now what is going on minute by minute by just turning to the screen. Then we had to know the right people - who were in charge of which issue, liaise daily with people in Brussels who worked on the "Briefing" and the "Week". We needed to know in a way which is not necessary now. We had to know what was going on through actually talking to people. We had to know every report on the agenda and actually read them. We were much more closely focussed as we never knew what we were going to be asked. Everything anyone wanted had to be photocopied and sent to them by post. There was no other source for them to go to. In the early 1990s there was an immense amount of paperwork and lots of phone calls. The Office was swamped and took on regular student help in the library.

With the successive elections in 1989, 94, 99 and 2004 things got busier as the Office became more involved in trying to get the voter turnout up and put information out to a wider range of audience: both specialist groups and the general public.

Technology changes everything

Avis: It is not just the availability of information but the way that availability changes people's attitudes to information.

In the early days of the library almost everything came and went by post. We also had a telex machine and a couple of fax machines. We had one computer terminal in the library which was connected by a coupling device to an ordinary telephone. The dial-up took about 5 minutes to connect. You never knew when you were going to lose the signal and if you did you probably would not get it back for some hours. We had two main data base sources: CELEX and EPOQUE. EPOQUE now discontinued but has left a gap for people seeking older documents. CELEX became EUR-LEX.

It is easy to forget how much more difficult searching was in those days pre Google. There was no mouse in those days. You had to know the command languages and these commands were not in any way intuitive. You either knew the commands or you did not.

When we were searching for answers to queries we would pile up the enquiries and then lock ourselves away not to be disturbed with the dial up contraption. It determined the pattern of our days. Eventually PCs and then the internet proper arrived. The EUROPARL website came along bit by bit.

Greater openness

Avis: Suddenly what had been difficult to get hold of was immediately available on-line.

The major effect for the EU institutions was that previously when you wanted a document you would have to find out who was responsible for that issue and then persuade them to print it and post it to you and others who might want it. The person with the information therefore had to consider budget implications and time resources for printing and postage and staff implications for doing the printing and postage. It was so much easier in many ways to put the document on the internet and make it accessible to all. Of course this means that the EUROPA website has had to be reorganised on various occasions as it now carries so much information. The easier it became to make the information available, the more open the European Institutions have become. This also brought about a gradual change in people and their attitudes to openness.

It also became clear that people who were putting the information on-line did not always understand the needs of the people they were providing the information for. There was a gap. We sometimes had to ask them to make changes to the way that the information was provided and presented, which they were always happy to do.

Defending archives

Avis: The other idea which also grew up was that everything was on line so if it was not online no one wanted it. That was the point we all started to have to defend archives. In libraries all across the UK people were standing defensively in front of their archives saying you will not take these away! Others said but it is all on-line now we don't need paper copies. But it was not and is still not all on-line. It is like thinking all the news there is, is the news that is in the newspapers. I had to be not too blinkered or stubborn. I was doubtful at first about the stability of some of the systems being used. But they have turned out to be fine. I tried not to get stuck in a paper rut but to make others understand archives do matter and not to get rid of everything wholesale.

Because of a faster turnover of staff these days in nearly all organisations and companies taken with the loss of archives, I find there is a loss of institutional memory in many organisations. I often have enquiries about pieces of legislation which are being amended and questions about what happened in the debates first time round, particularly in relation to nuance of language.

I have made radical changes in archiving. I have stopped filing everything on shelves. I have made what I hope it a reasoned judgment on what to keep. For example the EU Budget is worth keeping in paper form even though it is wholly on line. It is just easier to read in paper form. I am sorting out and making notes for my successor - what is where and why. It is a very personal choice in some ways, based on my experience of what matters and what people want to know. It is in a way being a curator more than just a librarian. I hope it will be the basis for my successor to make an informed decision about what to keep.

Who wants the information?

Avis: With the evolution of technology the nature of enquiries and who is getting in touch has changed. The sort of specialists (academics, other librarians, consultants and lobbyists, MEPs) who used to be my mainstay know what they are doing and know where to find what they need on the internet. Only when they cannot find it or get stuck am I called in: a more troubleshooting role. The biggest enquiry increase has come from the general public. Frequently from people who have read something in the press or someone has told them something and they want to know whether it is true. They could have misunderstood or misread something and this means I often have incomplete information on which to work. It can be detective work piecing various clues together. The other increase has been in the number of people ringing up to be rude and offensive and antagonistic. They can sometimes be difficult to deal with. We always try to be polite. We receive a lot of queries which are not really related to the EP but we try to point people in the right direction. There is nothing as satisfying as when you can help someone and do it quickly and people are grateful.

Global Connectedness

Avis: I have been trying to track down as many of the people I have worked with over the past 33 years, in particular the person who originally recruited me. New technology has allowed me to find people so much more easily. I could not find her at first by googling but remembered her daughter had an unusual name and I knew which school she had gone to so looked her up on friends reunited. I found where she now worked though she was on maternity leave. Her secretary emailed her and a message was passed on to her mother who received the message and replied from her laptop whilst she was sitting in Singapore airport waiting to fly home from holiday. I think this perfectly captures the changes in so many ways!

What could be done differently or better in the future?

Avis: The way in which we provide information in the Parliament has hugely improved. But we need still to make it clearer and easier to understand for the non-insider. Remove abbreviations and jargon, do not make assumptions about what people know. Clarity and connections. Mirror how the brain works. Who sees the word "Oeil" on the europarl website and thinks won't bother with that - what is it? It is a fabulous resource full of up-to-the-minute legislative documents and fact sheets and a simple explanation of what it is would encourage more people to use it. The people providing the information on-line need to put themselves in the position of the people using or searching for the information either by taking a leap of imagination or talking to people and asking users for feedback.

Initial expectations - fulfilled or not?

Avis: When I answered the advert I wanted to work abroad. I had an idea I would like Luxembourg. Once I was working in the London Office I realised the benefits of being in a small office. You have to do a bit of everything and you learn. Had I gone to Luxembourg I would have gone into the typing pool. Our head of office wanted to involve everyone in everything and had little sense of hierarchy. Within a few weeks I found myself talking to a journalist or arranging an event or visit. I had done none of those things before. It was terrifying at first but interesting to feel part of something new with a sense of things happening and things going to change. The UK had never had a Referendum before 1975 and never had another UK wide referendum since. No one knew how to do it. It was a roller coaster - clichéd but true. In the last few days before the referendum we really believed it was going to be a no vote. We all got a bit maudlin and then the results came in and suddenly there was a party. We were completely amazed. The 1979 EP elections were another piece of history: the first pan EU elections for a truly European Parliament. I remember having to go to a meeting with the IBA on TV advertising and having to become overnight an expert on electoral broadcasting law. So I never did up and go to Luxembourg or anywhere else and never regretted it.