What can I say?

Previous postings on this blog have been very factual, informative (I hope) and professional. This one is different. It is the hardest one I have ever written as I want to be personal and respond to events of the past few days.

Being made redundant has led to an emotional roller-coaster for me as I have bounced from sorrow to anger to regret, and had sleepless nights. But it has been made easier to bear by the very large number of emails and phone calls I have received from family, friends and colleagues of the Conductive Education world. It has been overwhelming to read such kind and flattering things, I had no idea that what I have done has been so appreciated. I had no idea that the Library was considered to be so important by others, and not just to me and those at the Foundation for Conductive Education who use it in house.

No-one is indispensable, as any politician will tell you, and neither am I. But the Library is. I hope it will be maintained, developed, and most of all, used in the future. It needs someone to take it forward now and my experience and knowledge of Conductive Education will have to be built up by another. Rony Schenker says that it is not time to say goodbye now. Due to current circumstances, however, it is time to say goodbye to an era, to this stage in the Library’s history and my contribution to it. Worldwide financial difficulties have led to hard decisions, but I think this was the wrong one.

Words cannot convey how much the good opinions voiced openly by my colleagues and students and library users mean to me, how much they have sweetened the pill and I would like to say thank you, thank you , thank you so very much to all those who have come out in support of the Library and its services.

I am sure that the Library will not die, just mark time for a while until something can be done to make it fully operational again.

I hope to stay in touch with the Conductive Education world and am happy for anyone to contact me. Contact details will be posted shortly.