<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><HTML><BODY BGCOLOR="#ffffff"><FONT BACK="#ffffff" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" SIZE=3 PTSIZE=12 FAMILY="SERIF" FACE="Times New Roman" LANG="0">Dear colleagues,<BR>
<BR>
A sad and sordid thing is happening at the School of Oriental and African Studies<BR>
(SOAS), which prides itself as the UK's premier institution in this field.<BR>
<BR>
In a nutshell, SOAS has summarily sacked its specialist librarians for Korean, <BR>
Japanese and Chinese. It intends to replace them with less qualified staff.<BR>
All this appears to have been done in a most underhand fashion.<BR>
<BR>
I'm surprised that this scandal has not been more widely publicized.<BR>
As far as I know, no one has previously posted to this List about it.<BR>
<BR>
Nor do I know of a single full up-to-date narrative, which would be useful<BR>
- a campaign website, perhaps? Despite the ongoing protests, I detect<BR>
some reticence. (It is even suggested that SOAS emails may be monitored!)<BR>
<BR>
The short items from the <I>Times Higher Education Supplement</I> etc, below,<BR>
give some idea of the issues. Frank Shulman kindly forwarded much <BR>
correspondence to the BAKS list, which those who have access to that<BR>
can read. I append some of it herewith<BR>
<BR>
Anyone who wishes to comment might care to contact either or both of:<BR>
* the Director of SOAS, Professor Colin Bundy (cb3@soas.ac.uk)<BR>
* the Librarian, Anne Poulson (ap45@soas.ac.uk).<BR>
<BR>
The latest position as of today (Monday October 3) follows immediately.<BR>
As we used to say, <I>a luta continua</I>.<BR>
<BR>
Aidan FC<BR>
<BR>
</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" BACK="#ffffff" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" SIZE=2 PTSIZE=10 FAMILY="SERIF" FACE="Times New Roman" LANG="0">AIDAN FOSTER-CARTER<BR>
Honorary Senior Research Fellow in Sociology & Modern Korea, Leeds University <BR>
Home address: 17 Birklands Road, Shipley, West Yorkshire, BD18 3BY, UK <BR>
tel: +44(0) 1274 588586 (alt) +44(0) 1264 737634 mobile: +44(0) 7970 741307 <BR>
fax: +44(0) 1274 773663 ISDN: +44(0) 1274 589280<BR>
Email: afostercarter@aol.com (alt) afostercarter@yahoo.com website: www.aidanfc.net<BR>
[Please use @aol; but if any problems, please try @yahoo too - and let me know, so I can chide AOL]<BR>
</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" BACK="#ffffff" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" SIZE=3 PTSIZE=12 FAMILY="SERIF" FACE="Times New Roman" LANG="0"><BR>
__________________________<BR>
<BR>
<B>Current situation, Monday 3 October</B><BR>
<BR>
The library crisis deepens: staff joined a protest on the steps of SOAS at 1pm on Friday <BR>
(250 signatories, though presumably not all staff), and then returned at 5pm when the <BR>
two staff declared redundant were required to leave the building for the last time <BR>
(they are not being allowed to work out their statutory notice). Until that day, SOAS <BR>
management was refusing to pay their pension contributions during the 3 months statutory notice; <BR>
that changed. Today at 1pm, staff will assemble to accompany the two staff back to their offices -- <BR>
if allowed, and at 5pm the Director is due to give his address to all staff... <BR>
<BR>
At the moment, the two staff issued redundancy letters but subsequently found to have pre-1988 <BR>
contracts giving them effective tenure, remain in post. One of these is the Music librarian, <BR>
whereas those who were forced to leave on Friday were the China/Japan/Korea librarians.</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" BACK="#ffffff" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" SIZE=3 PTSIZE=11 FAMILY="SERIF" FACE="Times New Roman" LANG="0"><BR>
</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" BACK="#ffffff" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" SIZE=3 PTSIZE=12 FAMILY="SERIF" FACE="Times New Roman" LANG="0"><BR>
_________________<BR>
<BR>
<B>Press items: 3 (2 letters) from <I>THES</I>, 1 news item in the <I>Telegraph</B></I><BR>
<BR>
</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" BACK="#ffffff" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" SIZE=6 PTSIZE=20 FAMILY="SERIF" FACE="Times New Roman" LANG="0">Short-sighted Soas</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" BACK="#ffffff" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" SIZE=3 PTSIZE=12 FAMILY="SERIF" FACE="Times New Roman" LANG="0"><BR>
<BR>
Michael Loewe THES<BR>
Published: 23 September 2005<BR>
<BR>
The situation that has developed at the School of Oriental and African Studies regarding East Asian studies is grave (Letters, August 26). According to reliable information, two senior specialist librarians with responsibilities for Chinese and Japanese studies and with years of experience have been made redundant. They are to be replaced by staff who may have had no experience in co-operating with other librarians of East Asian collections or negotiating with Chinese and Japanese publishers and booksellers, but who are equipped with what is described as a working knowledge (whatever that means) of the language that is concerned. <BR>
<BR>
Academic staff were not consulted about these decisions and 19 people, including the heads of departments of Chinese, Japanese and Korean studies at the school and others who direct research in those subjects, have tendered their resignation from all non-contractual obligations as a result. <BR>
<BR>
The replacement of the experienced staff at the library is counter to the school's claim to be a centre of excellence in Asian studies and to the need for deep bibliographical knowledge and years of experience with which to maintain the collections and to serve scholars on an international level. The director of Soas will need to explain this change. <BR>
<BR>
The situation also raises the question of whether Soas is taking the first steps towards following Durham University, which closed its department of East Asian studies last year. <BR>
<BR>
Michael Loewe <BR>
Foreign honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Cambridge University <BR>
<BR>
_________________<BR>
<BR>
Today's news THES<BR>
Published: 06 September 2005<BR>
<BR>
</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" BACK="#ffffff" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" SIZE=6 PTSIZE=20 FAMILY="SERIF" FACE="Times New Roman" LANG="0">Soas resumes talks over library cuts <BR>
</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" BACK="#ffffff" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" SIZE=3 PTSIZE=12 FAMILY="SERIF" FACE="Times New Roman" LANG="0"><BR>
Negotiations over the future of one of the UK's leading specialist libraries will resume tomorrow, amid protests from academic staff. The School of Oriental and African Studies is seeking to make two specialist librarians redundant - a move lecturers fear will damage research into Japan, China and Korea. Fourteen academics have resigned posts at the school, though not their jobs, in protest. The school, part of the University of London, boasts "one of the world's most important academic libraries for the study of Africa, Asia and the Middle East, which attracts scholars from all over the world to conduct research". <BR>
The Guardian <BR>
<BR>
_____________<BR>
<BR>
</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" BACK="#ffffff" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" SIZE=6 PTSIZE=20 FAMILY="SERIF" FACE="Times New Roman" LANG="0">Soas's Far-East failing</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" BACK="#ffffff" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" SIZE=3 PTSIZE=12 FAMILY="SERIF" FACE="Times New Roman" LANG="0"><BR>
<BR>
Robert Bickers<BR>
Published: 26 August 2005<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
The decision by the School of Oriental and African Studies this week to sack its senior specialist subject librarians for China and Japan represents a degrading of a resource built up over many years. <BR>
<BR>
The justification given is that the work of these specialists can be done by junior regional experts in consultation with a senior non-expert as is common in other libraries. <BR>
<BR>
At a time when the Higher Education Funding Council for England is recommending significant investment in Chinese and Japanese studies to build national capacity, and when Nottingham, Manchester and Bristol universities have all invested in developing Chinese studies, the degrading of Soas's capacity makes no sense. It reflects badly on its long-held and richly deserved reputation in these areas and will damage its ability to maintain that excellence. <BR>
<BR>
Robert Bickers<BR>
Bristol University <BR>
<BR>
_________________<BR>
<BR>
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/08/24/ndons24.xml<BR>
<BR>
</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" BACK="#ffffff" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" SIZE=6 PTSIZE=20 FAMILY="SERIF" FACE="Times New Roman" LANG="0">Dons resign over library cuts</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" BACK="#ffffff" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" SIZE=3 PTSIZE=12 FAMILY="SERIF" FACE="Times New Roman" LANG="0"><BR>
By Liz Lightfoot, Education Correspondent <BR>
(Filed: 24/08/2005)<BR>
<BR>
Senior lecturers at a leading university have resigned from key posts in protest at what they claim is a downgrading of language studies.<BR>
<BR>
They say that the reputation of Japanese, Korean and Chinese studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies is being put at risk by a decision to sack four senior librarians who speak the languages and help to tend the university's collection of books and documents.<BR>
<BR>
Last year the University of Durham closed its department of East Asian studies and there are fears that the minority tongues are being downgraded at other universities, despite their importance to international trade and relations.<BR>
<BR>
The school's lecturers resigned on Monday after discovering that redundancy notices had been issued to the librarians during the summer holidays.<BR>
<BR>
"They plan to replace the senior librarians with junior clerks and it was all done in secrecy," said Timon Screech, a reader in the history of Japanese art and one of five lecturers involved in the protest. "The library is one of SOAS's jewels and they want to kick out people who understand the busy publishing worlds of Japan and China and have built up a library which can compete with those of the best universities in the world, such as Harvard."<BR>
<BR>
John Breen, the head of the university's department of Japan and Korea, who has also resigned, said academics rely on the librarians to know which books to buy across a range of subjects.<BR>
<BR>
The five lecturers will continue to teach undergraduate students but have tendered their resignation from posts they hold running centres for research and exchanges and are refusing to help the university to recruit fee-paying overseas postgraduate students.<BR>
<BR>
___________________<BR>
<BR>
<B>Forwarded by Frank Shulman (selected)</B><BR>
<BR>
<BR>
Subj: Fwd: [eastlib] FW: Compulsory Redundancy Alert <fwd> SOAS <BR>
Date: 06/09/2005 13:46:54 GMT Standard Time <BR>
From: fshulman@UMD.EDU <BR>
To: BAKS@JISCMAIL.AC.UK <BR>
Sent from the Internet (Details) <BR>
<BR>
Dear Members of the BAKS,<BR>
<BR>
Eastlib-the listserve of the Council on East Asian Libraries (CEAL) in the United States and Canada-has posted more than a dozen e-mails since August 12th regarding the drastic restructuring of the professional library staff at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) of the University of London. Because this includes the position of a professional librarian for Korean Studies, there is little question that it will have an impact on Korean Studies in the United Kingdom as well as overseas. While some members of BAKS should already be aware of the so-called "SOAS affair", other members-particularly individuals who have been away on vacation-may not have yet been apprised of the situation. I have been urged to share the postings on Eastlib from Ms. Fujiko Kobayashi (Japan/Korea Librarian, SOAS) and Mr. David Helliwell (Department of Oriental Books, Bodleian Library, Oxford) with the members of the BAKS. The first one appears immediately below. Most of the other e-mails will follow in chronological order. Of particular note is the letter that appears as an attachment in Mr. Helliwell's communication of August 31st. The latest e-mail, from Ms. Kobayashi, is dated September 5th.<BR>
<BR>
Best wishes,<BR>
Frank Joseph Shulman<BR>
Bibliographer, Editor and Consultant for Reference Publications in Asian Studies<BR>
9225 Limestone Place<BR>
College Park, Maryland 20740-3943 U.S.A.<BR>
E-mail: fshulman@umd.edu<BR>
<BR>
____________<BR>
<BR>
September 6, 2005 <BR>
<BR>
Dear colleagues,<BR>
I am forwarding some news to you which is only a few hours old, and which is of the highest importance.<BR>
It seems that the decision has been taken that SOAS, which despite budget cuts in recent years is still one of Europe's major East Asian collections, can be run without professional subject specialists in our fields.<BR>
I am awaiting news from the Librarian of SOAS as to how this is to be achieved, but at first sight it seems to represent the apotheosis of managerism, which is sweeping through Higher Educational establishments in the UK like the Black Death.<BR>
Please support our colleagues at SOAS by asking (to start with) the two figures mentioned in the final paragraph of the forwarded message for further details of what is proposed.<BR>
(For the information of our Continental and Transatlantic colleagues, the AUT is the "Association of University Teachers", our professional union.)<BR>
With all good wishes in these dark days,<BR>
David.<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
--- Begin Forwarded Message ---<BR>
Date: Fri, 12 Aug 2005 10:32:07 +0100<BR>
From: Sue Small <ss8@soas.ac.uk><BR>
Subject: FW: Compulsory Redundancy Alert<BR>
Sender: owner-ul-chinalibrarygroup@durham.ac.uk<BR>
To: 'CLG' <UL-CHINALIBRARYGROUP@durham.ac.uk><BR>
<BR>
Reply-To: Sue Small <ss8@soas.ac.uk><BR>
Message-ID: <BR>
<200508120932.j7C9WHlf027555@mailrelay3.dur.ac.uk><BR>
<BR>
Dear All,<BR>
Under the leadership of Anne Poulson, whose father John McIIwain and mother had trained many specialists for academic libraries, SOAS is now targeting the specialist librarians (China, Japan/Korea, Semitics & Judaic & Art) with compulsory redundancy. <BR>
Best wishes, Sue<BR>
<BR>
-----Original Message-----<BR>
From: Graham Dyer [mailto:grahamdyer@BTINTERNET.COM] <BR>
Sent: 10 August 2005 11:25<BR>
To: AUT-L@MRELAY3.SOAS.AC.UK<BR>
Subject: Compulsory Redundancy Alert<BR>
<BR>
Dear Colleagues<BR>
<BR>
SOAS management is up to its old tricks again, announcing compulsory redundancies at SOAS during the summer period when they think no-one's looking. Only this time it's for real. Library management is targeting four specialist librarians with compulsory redundancy to cover up its own inadequacies.<BR>
<BR>
This attack on your colleagues comes on the brink of a job evaluation pilot project in the Library. Instead of waiting for the outcome of that exercise, Library management has decided to preempt it by unilaterally pronouncing these four posts redundant. I have already written to Stephen Chan, Chair of the Job Evaluation Steering Committee to notify him of SOAS AUT's withdrawal from any further discussion of the pilot project while our members face compulsory redundancy.<BR>
<BR>
No prior consultation has taken place with the recognised trades unions regarding redundancies arising from any restructuring plans in the Library. Such consultation is enshrined in SOAS restructuring policies and procedures. Indeed, SOAS AUT were informed last September by the Librarian Anne Poulson and last year's Human Resources Director Rorie Howie that there was no threat to these four AR2/AR3 specialist librarian posts.<BR>
<BR>
Such cavalier duplicity and disregard of agreed procedures must be answered robustly. The AUT nationally is already closely involved with Assistant General Secretary Matt Waddup joining SOAS AUT Executive in combatting this hostile management.<BR>
<BR>
SOAS management has refused to withdraw the threats of compulsory redundancy and to return to full consultation with the unions. The Librarian seems to be of the opinion that our specialist library, an important national resource, can be run as no more than a supermarket shelving operation. I would hope that members can see that, in an institution such as SOAS, specialist librarianship is an essential component of the academic team.<BR>
<BR>
In trying to pare costs and dumb down the Library, management has claimed that the ending of special factor funding warrants the redundancies. This move is rather premature, however, given that HEFCE special funding is assured until 2008, and the fact that staff costs have been fully budgeted for. If Library and School management have failed to safeguard special funding for the Library, it is their heads that should roll, not our specialist librarians.<BR>
<BR>
SOAS AUT will be pursuing a number of different legal and negotiating strategies on this matter to save our members' jobs. We will be building towards an Extraordinary General Meeting, sometime in September when most of you will be back, to consider taking some form of industrial action that this type of behaviour on the part of management requires.<BR>
<BR>
As a matter of urgency, please make your views known to the Librarian, Anne Poulson (ap45@soas.ac.uk) and the Director, Colin Bundy (cb3@soas.ac.uk). It is essential that Departments and Faculties bring pressure to bear to safeguard our specialist academic team.<BR>
<BR>
Graham Dyer<BR>
SOAS AUT President<BR>
<BR>
--- End Forwarded Message ---<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
David Helliwell<BR>
Department of Oriental Books<BR>
Bodleian Library<BR>
Oxford<BR>
OX1 3BG<BR>
<BR>
Tel: +44 1865 277032<BR>
Fax: +44 1865 277182<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
Dear Colleagues,<BR>
<BR>
Sue Small (China Librarian) and I (Japan/Korea Librarian) received a notification of redundancy on Monday August 15.<BR>
<BR>
As a result of a deluge of strong protests from SOAS academics as well as various people/organizations from around the world, the Director had to send out a message. I have pasted his message at the end of my note for your information.<BR>
<BR>
Basically, he has failed in explaining the reasons for our redundancy. In financial matters, he has not convinced people in this institution. The Director talks of SOAS spending about "70 per cent of its library budget on staff." For 2004-05, the budgeted percentage was only 59 %. Even for next year, 2005-06, the budgeted percentage is 63% of total cost, nowhere near 70%. This is not high for a specialist library. In fact, for next academic year, 2005-06, the Librarian, Anne Poulson, is budgeting for a substantial, above inflation, increase in AR (academic related) staff salaries, according to figures supplied by the Finance Department.<BR>
<BR>
In the discussion of the need for the specialist librarians, Colin Bundy has shown contradictory views over specialists. In fact, China and Japan/Korea have lost the senior positions, but the SOAS Library still keeps the same AR positions of South East Asia & South Asia, Africa, and Middle East. He says there is no intention to of doing away with specialist librarians. Then why are we being sacked? He says that each faculty team will have a fully professional staff. In what why are we not professional? He talks of supplementing faculty teams with "subject experts when required."; from where and at what cost?<BR>
<BR>
Sue and I have worked with researchers and students for years. We see the need for expertise. In fact, the Librarian, Anne Poulson, claims that she has done an assessment of our posts, but she has not consulted us or provided us with a copy of this assessment. We were never consulted about our role and duties before the redundancy was announced. The Librarian appears not to value specialist knowledge. The Librarian once said to one of our academics that she had been responsible for a science library, but she knew nothing about science. She also seems to be of the opinion that the SOAS Library can be run as no more than a supermarket shelving operation.<BR>
<BR>
The SOAS Director & Principal, Prof. Colin Bundy, has made clear his sense of value on research in his message. Please send him your views on his statement before the Librarian heads for her 3 week holiday.<BR>
<BR>
Sue and I have been guilty of no misconduct, but our request to work our three month's notice has been rejected by the Librarian as she feels "it would be disruptive and extremely unpleasant". We have been asked to return our office keys by Friday August 26 and leave the School, but this battle over the specialist librarian positions is to continue.....!<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
Fujiko Kobayashi<BR>
<BR>
Prof. Colin Bundy (Director&Principal): cb3@soas.ac.uk<BR>
Sue Small: ss8@soas.ac.uk<BR>
Fujiko Kobayashi: fk2@soas.ac.uk<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
From: Hannah Lemon [mailto:h.lemon@SOAS.AC.UK]<BR>
Sent: 2005?8?16? 14:10<BR>
To: STAFF-L@MRELAY3.SOAS.AC.UK<BR>
Subject: Message from the Director: SOAS Library<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
Dear Colleagues, <BR>
<BR>
Library restructuring<BR>
<BR>
I wish to respond to a number of expressions of concern about proposals affecting the library, and to comments that these have been undertaken in haste and that they compromise the library's scholarly role. Neither of these assertions is true.<BR>
<BR>
Proposals for the Library. It is always difficult to bring forward measures that involve individuals as well as general policy. Often individual rights and justified sensitivities make it inappropriate to have a public consultation. Moreover, in June, SOAS management readily agreed to a request from the individuals concerned and the AUT that there should be full confidentiality in the present case. <BR>
<BR>
Unfortunately, although we have scrupulously respected this agreement, it has been breached by one of the other parties. Therefore it is right that I explain the general proposals and respond to expressions of concern. I stress that any changes concerning individuals remain confidential and that the private consultation process has not been completed. Moreover, nothing in these changes should be taken as indicating that the School does not appreciate the skills and services of its senior specialist librarians over many years. It had been hoped to make any changes, so far as individuals were concerned, in confidence, with dignity and sensitivity, and on terms that were as generous as possible.<BR>
<BR>
There is no question but that SOAS needs subject and language specialists for its library. The question is how to provide them. The SOAS library has had a flat staffing structure with a few senior librarians who are specialists in some of the regions and subjects covered. It has also paid for expertise on a temporary basis.<BR>
<BR>
The arrangement served SOAS well, on the whole; but the link between seniority and specialisation is hard to sustain in present conditions. An alternative arrangement, being followed in comparable libraries, is to have a more usual staffing structure while retaining full access to specialist expertise at less senior levels and through consultancy. Over many years the SOAS library has been considering moving towards the latter system, and the discussions have become more urgent in recent years.<BR>
<BR>
There are several reasons, including:<BR>
<BR>
(1) Changes in the range of teaching, especially the huge expansion of law and social sciences.<BR>
<BR>
(2) Developments in electronic and other library services, such as growing demand for expertise in reader services, on-line resources, electronic repositories, library systems, copyright, and skills-training.<BR>
<BR>
(3) The introduction of faculty librarians in 2002.<BR>
<BR>
(4) Growing staff costs and their impact on resources for supporting the collection - SOAS currently has staffing costs that are comparatively high within the UK higher education system, and spends about 70 per cent of its library budget on staff. (Extra external funding for the library is currently under threat.)<BR>
<BR>
(5) Changing career patterns in librarianship, and the difficulty of recruiting library professionals to senior but specialist posts (evidenced in 2003 in the failure to recruit a South Asia librarian).<BR>
<BR>
The South Asia case provided an unintentional pilot for the proposed restructuring. Under that two-tier arrangement -- a senior faculty librarian plus a less senior regional specialist -- it has been possible to maintain and arguably improve a specialist and professional library service for South Asia. The present proposal would extend this pattern to other areas, as has already happened for Law and Social Sciences. Each senior librarian (as in the South Asia case) would also have some general responsibilities appropriate for senior staff.<BR>
<BR>
Undertaken in haste? Potential changes to the library structure have been under consideration since December 2003. These were the subject of ongoing discussions at management level, culminating in a fully-considered proposal presented to Executive Board in April 2005. It was endorsed with the full participation and agreement of the Deans, representing the academic departments. The strategy was also approved by Governing Body. Thus the process has been long, and as wide and open as possible given that identifiable individuals were affected.<BR>
<BR>
The scholarly role. The concerns expressed about the substantive proposal are based on two false assumptions: that SOAS has ever had senior specialist librarians to cover the entire range of its subjects and languages, and that there is any intention of doing away with specialist librarians in future. Rather, the proposal builds on present arrangements. Each faculty team will have a fully professional staff, including specialists, supplemented (as always in the past) by further language or subject experts when required. <BR>
<BR>
The system will reflect changes in librarianship and in SOAS's needs. It does not undermine the role of our specialist library, but rather reinforces it by restoring the balance between spending on staffing and on the collection, and by creating an efficient structure for the management of the library as a whole.<BR>
<BR>
Further information will be provided once the discussions with individuals have been concluded.<BR>
<BR>
Yours sincerely,<BR>
<BR>
Colin Bundy<BR>
<BR>
Director & Principal<BR>
<BR>
_______________________<BR>
<BR>
23 aug 05<BR>
<BR>
> From: Timon Screech [mailto:Ts8@soas.ac.uk]<BR>
> <BR>
> dear friend of soas,<BR>
> it is with great regret i advise you that all office holders in Japanese and Korean studies at<BR>
Soas have tendered their resignations from their school posts today. the chairs of the jrc and the Korea centre, also the head of the J&K dept, and the heads of the the J&K setions, those present, and<BR>
> those who would have taken over these posts for the coming session. in the jrc those affected are<BR>
> john breen, lucia dolce, steve dodd and myself; in korea, they are jaehoon yeon and anders<BR>
karlsson.<BR>
> our move is in protest at the preremptory redundancy forced on the J&K librarian, without any<BR>
> discussion with academic staff, and down-grading of the Japan librarianship, and the abolition of<BR>
> the Korea one. we feel that soas library cannot continue as a centre of research on these terms.<BR>
we<BR>
> do not demand a continuation of the status quo, but we have asked the director to rescind the<BR>
> redundancy and meet us as soon as possible to discuss the matter. if he fails to do this, the<BR>
expect<BR>
> to resign in the next few weeks. all soas academic staff that we have been able to contact have<BR>
> agreed not to step into our shoes, should we have to vacate them. the intention is to provoke a<BR>
> crisis in J&K studies at soas as the only way of getting our collective voice heard we are very<BR>
> grateful to those who have written letters of support. those who have not done so might like to<BR>
make<BR>
> their views know to the director of soas, professor colin bundy (cb3@soas.ac.uk) and the<BR>
librarian,<BR>
> mrs anne poulson (ap45@soas.ac.uk). please feel free to circulate this email.<BR>
> timon screech<BR>
> chair, jrc (for the while anyway...)<BR>
> <BR>
<BR>
_________________________<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" BACK="#ffffff" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" SIZE=2 PTSIZE=10 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" FACE="Arial" LANG="0">Dear All,<BR>
<BR>
Sue Small (China Librarian) and I (Japan/Korea Librarian) expect the result of our appeals in a few<BR>
days. I found out the Librarian, Anne Poulson's real restructuring plan one day before my hearing.<BR>
It should not have happened.<BR>
<BR>
The proposed replacement for the Japan/Korea posts is for Japan/Politics. I attach the job<BR>
description for your reference. An essential requirement is "Working knowledge of Japanese language"<BR>
and one of the duties is "To evaluate and select materials, under the Faculty Librarian's<BR>
direction," - this is the Faculty Librarian for Law and Social Sciences. S/he does not know about<BR>
Japan/Japanese, but s/he would have responsibility for it, resulting in the deterioration of the<BR>
SOAS Japanese collection. To make matters worse, the proposal includes the abolition of<BR>
responsibility for Korean materials.<BR>
<BR>
A "Working knowledge of Japanese language" is not enough for the SOAS library. In my job interview<BR>
10 years ago, the Dept. was heavily involved in selection. I even took oral and written Japanese<BR>
tests. However, the school made me redundant without saying anything to the Dept. Moreover, the<BR>
school approved the replacement position without consulting the Dept.<BR>
<BR>
In the current structure of the Library there is no post covering a region and a subject together<BR>
such as the proposed replacement position, Japan and Politics. I wonder why only politics is needed<BR>
while other subjects, such as economics or development studies do not have a post holder.<BR>
<BR>
The current Japan/Korea Librarian's duty is responsible for the two collections which include<BR>
western language resources. Selecting materials in western languages/Japanese/Korean materials;<BR>
Cataloguing them with assistants for western and Korean languages; Providing reference services and<BR>
skill training workshops; Updating webpages; and General enquiry desk counter duty. This is a pretty<BR>
much one trained librarian's job. How can the new post maintain the quality of collections?<BR>
<BR>
The proposed restructuring creates an unequal anatomy in the number of staff and the level of<BR>
expertise. Africa, South East Asia, South Asia and Near & Middle East are served by an AR (academic<BR>
related staff) with a CRA (clerical staff) respectively, while Japan/Korea would have no AR, but<BR>
just a CRA for Japan and Politics, none for Korea! China would have no AR, but a CRA. This gives<BR>
the impression that East Asian Studies at SOAS are less important than African studies, or South<BR>
East Asian studies and so on. This is absolute nonsense! All area studies are equally valued here.<BR>
Is this the beginning of the end of area studies?<BR>
<BR>
We are fighting against unfair dismissal and the Departments are supporting us. We are not asking<BR>
for confidentiality over our redundancy. Please ask us anything.<BR>
<BR>
We still need your help. Please repeat sending your protest to the Chair of the appeals panel,<BR>
Professor Stephen Chan, (sc5@soas.ac.uk), the Director, Professor. Colin Bundy (cb3@soas.ac.uk),<BR>
Anne Poulson (ap45@soas.ac.uk). Also, please copy to the AUT President, Dr. Graham Dyer<BR>
(grahamdyer@btinternet.com)<BR>
<BR>
Thank you for your continuous support.<BR>
<BR>
Fujiko Kobayashi<BR>
<BR>
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